The Way of the Aethir/The Chronicles of the Storm

VERY UNDER CONSTRUCTION

Ye who lay eyes upon this sacred text know that in the year 1020, did the world shake itself to its very foundations. This is why yon tale doth be told.

I gave up my life
To follow another destiny
To find the hidden sun
The source of the spark and the flame
-Octavian Schwarzherzig

In the days of the Early Gathering, the children of Anaria gathered with sword and spear to take what was destined. The shining sapphire serpeant of the sea uncoiled and prepared to strike. Fangs bared, the sea serpeant had its prey before it... But was thwarted by the Black Lion, who preferred to let its prey escape to safety before hunting.

Lion and Serpent could not breach the lair of their prey, and began to hunt the Phoenix who guarded the back way into the quarry's layer. The Phoenix and the Golden Knight fought together... Until the plague struck, crippling Kings and Generals.

Before long lizards began to act curiously, and animals began to follow man and woman alike. Terrible swarms of spiders began to migrate. Whales beached themselves, and fishermen had to work extra hard to haul in their catches...

Then Krostakhan from his Crustaceous Throne commanded his children seize the beaches. Crabs swarmed, driving away all who dared tread upon their sandy domain. Hrömir began to stir, his anger building. Caves began to smell of sulfur, a warning of his great wrath. Soon his home, the great Chaos Volcano began to smoke and sputter, choking all nearby. The earth shook and landslides blocked travel. So great was Hrömir's wrath than Anaria herself could not keep the seas from sharing Hrömir's anger, and the tides became lethal.

Priests panicked and grovelled to Laguz for forgiveness, desperate for redemption. The Alexandrians scorned these false prophets and turned instead to the firey haired Sibyl, whose prophdcies of doom and destruction they embraced with a sense of grim destiny. Sibyl's wails of "Dissolution" from her place in the Chaos Temple could be heard all the way in Perdan City. A chant rose, unbidden from the Alexandrians,

Let the blackening dissolution start
The ether shining, impurified
Let's burn out the vile from the dark

I see the black sun rising
Fall, material God
Opus magnum, seize redemption
My uprising, find the sun and the moon
Absolution, seize redemption

Now, the elements are at peace Come the reddening, gaze upon the sky Seven planets, silver and gold The seven metals aligned Point the way to Eden, To the Golden Apple, Dark destiny, ashen soil Embrace the gift of fruitless toil.

Heed the daughter of Hrömir, Child of Chaos and her wail, Sibyl with hair of flame, Sapphire, Trident and Sail, Embrace dissolution!

Heed the Black Heart under blazing skies, A rain of stone and fire and death, Heed the Black Heart! So sayeth Sibyl Fire Hair!

The gods of the Alexandrian Pantheon vary. Few are actually worshipped, most are merely appeased. It is fitting, given the chaotic and wrathful environment in which the Alexandrians dwell, that the Aethir they know are also chaotic and wrathful.

-Abthalas, the Devourer. Feared by sailors, it is said where thick fog and myst can be found, so can Abthalas, waiting to devour the ships of the unwary.

-Krostakhan, Master of Crabs. His wrath was seen recently all over the East Continent as crabs invaded the shores and attacked any who dared approach their domain.

-Kobrug, the Great Water Lizard. Fear the lizards mortal.

-Anaria, the Queen of the Seas. One of the few aethir worshipped instead of feared. She is the stern, but devoted mother of Alexandria and all who brave the seas.

-Ativ and Nivled, two brothers who are the Lords of Lightning.

-The Faceless Ones, a numberless group of lesser spirits that together act as a vengeful entity akin to an aethir. They are the souls of the drowned, looking to ever add to their ranks.

-Hrömir, the Volcano Lord. A god whose anger is slow to awaken, but cataclysmic when it does.