Griznuq Gaming

D&D Campaigns => Eberron => Kingdom of Safe-Haven => Topic started by: Dray on January 03, 2008, 12:42:05 PM

Title: DOGMA
Post by: Dray on January 03, 2008, 12:42:05 PM
A simple telling of History.

Over a millennia ago, on a fateful day during an eclipse of the sun, the old gods abandoned Eberr. Without warning or explanation they forfeited the world to the Shadow, and the empire of humankind was left unprotected.

The war that immediately followed was swift. The ancestors of the Karh'thul were viscious in their want of genocide, having been prisoners in their dark underworld for so long.

Not thousands, but millions of humans were slaughtered in all the known lands. Kingdoms shattered quickly under the over-powering numbers of demons. And all civilization broke down with humans fleeing to the four corners of the world for safety. They sought refuge in the mountains, the forests and even the underground from which the devil had spawned to escape them.

Many more subsequently died, hunted down like dogs and ripped of their flesh. The time of man was to flicker out like a spent candle as decades past without any hope of redemption.
Title: DOGMA
Post by: Dray on January 03, 2008, 01:00:13 PM
But a flame of hope reignited mankind's promise here in the heartland of SafeHaven. A flame that had waited to gain strength so as not to waver in the wind of war found purchase in this valley, and spread hope like wildfire across the meadows.

For amongst the remaining humans was a living immortal. A man once forgotten, the last soul to be blessed by the departing Gods. For he did not age, he did not succumb to the various diseases chasing the humans almost as ferociously as the Karh'Thul. And because of this, the experience he gathered over the centuries before and after the downfall of civilization was contained within him.

And he had complete control of the sorcery.
Title: DOGMA
Post by: Dray on January 03, 2008, 01:00:55 PM
Through centuries of meditation and a dedication to maintain his own compassionate heart, he was able to control the dark magic of the Karh'Thul, the sorcery so long ago since banned. And used it well he did, against the very beasts that created it and its destructive misery in our world.

Kaine, Our Protector, stepped out of the darkness and claimed the land we stand on as his own. Using both sword and sorcery, he fought for years to hold a spot of land no bigger than the base of the Spire. Alone, he fought day after day the demons and their foul minions that would come into this land, eventually setting up the first barrier against them. Our sacred First Wall.

Using the love within his own heart, he transformed the black magic. Subverting and reversing its power to a Holy Flame of Protection. The very same Holy Flame we use today on the torches of the Outer Rim, were once upon the torches of our First Wall at the heart of this very city.

This is why our soldiers stand vigilant upon the flame of each and every torch, for it is the blessed divine magic gift from Kaine that protects us still. It is this Holy Flame that is our barrier against the anarchy of the outside world. But I digress......

With the creation of the First Wall, Kaine finally found a measurement of peace. For it was a permanent barrier to the darkness and chaos of the outside world. And with confidence, Kaine called to him, all the remaining humans in our world. The few left heard the call, and strong that survived the flight from their hiding refuge to Our-Commons were our first ancestors.

For Kaine, Our Teacher, had to re-educate the down-trodden humans who over the decades had been reduced to almost animals. So with a kind and patient hand, Kaine patiently brought civilization back onto them. Teaching them once again to work the land for food, sew cloth, build homes, nurture livestock and fight not only demons, but the hard land around us in order to survive.
Title: DOGMA
Post by: Dray on January 04, 2008, 12:45:43 PM
But Our Immortal Father was not done, no. This man, the lone survivor of a human empire that existed centuries before our ancestors, had a mission to retake the very world back from the Karh'Thul. It is our mission still, and we are succeeding in that mission for Our Father.

So as the town of Our Commons grew within the First Wall, as man struggled to survive, Kaine created the Council of Five and the Guardians. Men ready and able to commit War upon our enemies. For it was then, so many centuries ago, the Shadow Delve had been established.

Shadow Delve, a decision of birthright by all humankind and Our Father was the hammer of its might. With his teachings and skill in the art of battle we then, as we do now, fight back to reclaim what is ours. Once each season, a section of the boundary (now called the Outer Rim) is designated for reclamation. Our guardians prepare the border with the machines of War, and the Holy Flame is extinguished along the frontline.

And they always come.
Title: DOGMA
Post by: Dray on January 04, 2008, 12:46:44 PM
As if waiting without memory to any and all previous losses, they leap through the opening in the barrier, intent on flooding our land and extinguishing humankind forever.

But unlike our ancestors before Kaine's teachings, we always stand ready. With steel, powder and the strength of the our God we fight them back, farther into their own world of anarchy. And we claim the new land for our own, to cleanse and purify and work. As is our birthright.

But once again, back to our history.

As Safe-Haven, our beloved country, expanded beyond the First Wall, a Spire was designed by one of our earliest Architects. Johan was one of the first great minds of the flock, and the intellect behind the design so impressed Our Father, he humbly allowed the monument to be built.

Decades later, Kaine climbed to the top of the Spire, to the rooms constructed especially for him, and claimed them with tears in his eyes. Eyes that even today watch over all of us from above.
Title: DOGMA
Post by: Dray on January 04, 2008, 12:47:29 PM
Even more later...