History

Religion has suffered through some rough periods recently. (see Creation Mythos)

Recently a new pantheon of gods arose to take stabilized reality but found it too damaged for even their godly powers to fix. There were no mentors to pass on eons of accumulated knowledge painstakingly gathered by previous Pantheons. The chain of knowledge had been broken. Seldion the most knowledgeable of the new gods turned to the titans, creators of reality for help. With the help of the Elemental Primal Lords Ignim and Aurum he set a single Titan, creator of worlds free and attempted to bind her. This titan imprisoned millennial ago when the gods were stronger was named Besmira. Even as one of the weakest titans and even with Seldion having the lords of fire and earth at his side Seldion only held her at bay until she agreed to a set of laws which would bind her. In return for freedom she would help the new pantheon by teaching them the knowledge of the titans. But her lessons were terrible and there new gods learned fear and humility at her hands.

Besmira, titan of the impenetrable deeps, when she rise from her imprisonment stirred a tide of evil and chaos that had lain undisturbed for eons and her darkness fell across the earth. Her first lesson was when she destroyed the elemental lords of fire and earth who had helped Seldion against her. She destroyed Earth outright and drove fire mad causing reality to tremble with the shock of their passing. With the death of the lord of earth Dwarves felt themselves thrust from the earth's bosom and the wisest among them fled their homes. Their connection to the earth was lost and furthermore the earth festered rotting now that its body was dead. She also raised a Beast and made it a god so she could set it on Seldion's trail. If he ever rested he would be devoured.

Back to the earth and those dwarves that remained behind were consumed by the rising darkness and the sickness now growing from the rot. Leaving their mines and smithies behind the Dwarven people took to the sea which still had its elemental lord and Wavefather, one of the new gods, gave the dwarves his protection in return for their watch over his domains. His blessing protects them from the madness which now affects those who delved too deeply into the earth.

The dwarven mines, suddenly cold drove prices for ores to astronomical levels. Civilization needed these materials but the earth now sapped life and will from any foolish enough to seek out its treasures. This is where Besmira granted the first of her blessings and like all of her blessing a mixed blessing it was. Rather than have civilization founder she sent her offspring, the monster races, to take over the mines which according to whom you listen to she poisoned in the first place. She shelters her kin from the affects of the rot by cloaking them in darkness. Her children now ascendant had power and influence they never had before. All nations had to open their doors to them or their supplies of metal were cut off. Some nations made due with their own mines and slave labor but in the end most metal production facilities are now monster controlled.

Despite Besmira's treacherous nature she does hold true to Seldion's pact and the mother of monsters and lord of dark places came to lay down the new law of reality teaching the fledgling pantheon what it meant to be a master of reality. Her children the monster races took to the abandoned deeps restoring mines to working order and restoring trade. Many nations turned a blind eye to the new use of slave labor to excavate precious ores from the depths. Humans, elves, and dwarves slowly took to the new order. There were more things that went bump in the night and more dangers to be wary of but some members of the pantheon shone more brightly to mitigate the darkness her evil brought to the world.