Fenwrath History | The Calamity

An excerpt from The Gods: Helpful Overseers or Blatant Liars? written by Byrond Fleetwell

Chapter One: Uriel and the Calamity

Fenwrath has a long history of chaos and war. The entire country is build on the remains of ruined kings and queens, and failed conquests. Random theft, corrupt politicians, the mass genocide of entire races of people, these things have all become almost common place within Fenwrath’s daily life.

Even with all the destruction, life in Fenwrath seems peaceful. Everyone understands each other and knows that despite whatever negativity is happening throughout the country nothing could be as unpleasant as the days of the Calamity.

Near the end of the Second Era of Fenwrath, when Queen Lucinda Goldmane ruled over the lands with an iron fist, was when the world began to change. Unbeknownst to Queen Lucinda, her queendom had a bit of a celestial celebrity residing within. This man was a gifted mage and specialist in chronomancy. Otherwise known as time magic.

Chronomancy by itself is not necessarily dangerous as most tend to stick to self casted spells of haste or slow. What makes the use of time magic dangerous is the ability to create time paradoxes. These paradoxes may best be described points in time that are locked in an infinite loop. A gifted chronomancer would be able to salvage and lock any number of key points in history into one of these loops and utilize them for whatever they wish. Now most knowledgable chronomancers, though few and far between as they are, know that creating paradoxes may result in a variety of cataclysmic events as with most of the upper level magics. This however never seems to stop anyone from that pursuit of knowledge.

Uriel was no different. As one of the more noteworthy seraphim in Celeste’s court, he was privy to a variety of knowledge that she deemed too dangerous for just any of the common rabble among the Upper Planes of Existence. Among this knowledge was that of the Book of Infinite Knowledge. Don’t worry I didn’t pick the name. I would have gone with something along the lines of The Book of Vile Thoughts or The Tome of Destruction and Death, but then again I am biased toward humanity. Unfortunately for us the author of this book did not see all of the uses one could gain from such a tome. Amadeus the Storyteller was a bit naive, among other things. His gift to the world is knowledge. Usually this takes the form of songs, poetry, and grand tales of the heroes of old. Occasionlly though he grants the world with knowledge of spells that until then may have been beyond their capabilities. The Book of Infinite Knowledge was his collection of everything and by that I mean literally everything. Past, present, and future. A reader of this tome would know the outcome of every event to come or gain the knowledge of every spell in existence.

It is understandable that most of you would not know how I, a simple historian, would have the knowledge of the events that I am about to inform you of. I can assure you that I am not insane and no, I was not there. These moments are clearly ingrained in my memory, however. They come just as clearly as the birth of my son, or my first taste of whiskey. I just can’t explain it.

Uriel found the prospect of knowing every spell in existence to be quite tempting. Through less than official means, the Book of Infinite Knowledge made its way into his posession. From there is was as simple as convince Celeste that his abilities would be better suited on the Prime Material Plane helping the mortals. This shift in Uriel’s post gave him the time he needed to study the book and decipher its secrets.

Over the course of several hundred years, Uriel lived among the mortals of Fenwrath. He took small work as a healer in one of the smaller villages in the North. This suited his goals well. Once he obtained the knowledge he needed from the book, he hid it away, keeping it safe from any unsuspecting adventurer that may stumble upon it. This would be one of his first time loops. He decided that a king’s coronation sometime in the First Era should be safe enough. Then he had an idea. He remembered a time when the distant continent of Ebriom had a marvelous summer rainstorm. Uriel had watched this rainstorm from his loft in the Upper Planes. This picture of beauty could not be lost to time, so naturally he created another time loop forever preserving the moments the rain washed over the banks of Ebriom. Oh but beauty, if he were preserving beauty, he could not let Ebriom’s high elven queen fade away. He had desided that her first steps through the city of Arlendale after her father conquered the throne was the perfect moment to preserve. This is how it went.

For nearly 250 years Uriel created pockets of time everywhere, leaving small doorways for him to travel through, to reach each of his favorite moments in the mortal’s histories. He may have continued this as well if not for the few brave adventurers that entered his home without invitation.

These adventurers were ordinary by all accounts. They had just been curious about the local healer, that seems to hold a massive amount of power within him. As they entered his home they found nothing extraordinary. A few books strewn about here or there. A few pieces of still burning firewood gingerly casting a dull orange glow over their faces. The only thing that stood out to them was a locked door leading to what one could only assume was a deep dark basement filled to the brim with secrets. After a bit of fancy lockpicking, they made their way down into this basement only to discover more doors. A seemingly neverending hallway with doors protruding from either side as far as their eyes could see.

As they made their way farther into the hallway a sudden opening of one door closest to the entrance forced them to meld into the shadows of the darkened hallway. A taller gentleman in the, vestments of Celeste, casually left the door closing it behind him. The adventurers recognized Uriel even in the dim light. In his hands he appeared to be carrying jars of some kind as he smiled pleasantly and made his way up the stairs and out of his basement. The adventurers made their way towards where Uriel had exited finding a door labeled RED TREE SAP. Their curiousity still not sated, they manuveured through the doorway.

Once through, the adventurers blinked away the white spots in their eyes from the sudden brightness. They had appeared in a field. One single large tree stood near the center. The bark on this tree was a deep dark crimson, and unlike anything they had ever seen. Beyond that, seperated by swathes of land were two massive armies poised to do battle. Near the red tree were horses, their riders standing closer to the tree. Both of the knights seemed to be locked in a heated debate. As the adventurers approached the knights explained that they were both from great houses and they were going to war over the land that they were standing on. After some crafty negotiation from the adventurers the two men actually decided to join their houses together and share the land. After all one of them pointed out, we are great seperately, imagine how we would be as one house.

What followed is a series of flashes. The adventurers and the armies were gone. The beautiful high elven queen of Ebriom was gone. Those beautiful banks of Ebriom were gone. Everything was replaced with a smattering of obsidian mountains jutting out from the surface of Fenwrath. The sun seemed to be locked in a neverending sunset. The Darkwell Mountains to the North became shrouded in celestial light. Beyond this was the worst of all, it seemed that every noble celestial and every vile creature of the abyss was walking the Prime Material Plane. Both would spend the next few hundred years tormenting the mortal race.

I don’t think Uriel fully understood how he caused the Calamity, he just knew that somehow it was his fault. Upon investigation Celeste would come to the same conclusion. She eventually banished him from her court, sending him to walk among the mortals that he had nearly destroyed for the rest of eternity.

So here I am, documenting the histories that have so long been lost, unsure of how I obtained this knowledge. Perhaps Amadeus the Storyteller gifted me with some of his knowledge. Though I would hope he would not make that same mistake twice.