The Age of Long Night

Game Master That Other Guy

The Docs

The Setting: Welcome to my world:

Czarn is a land made of several immortal conflicts, stained relationships, intense adversity, and immense beauty. It was crafted out of the dreams, sacrifices, and bodies of several dead 'Yaevre' gods, originally made for the purpose of worship of their progenitor and propelling the advancement of beauty and life. It was made to house the progenies of the 8 Avehr, monsters who would give birth to each kind and species.

The last made Avehr, the Dunamavehr, however, was the monster known to all as MAN. This man was made by the progenitor yaevre Malki Tzadek, created for the fulfillment of his dead wife's Gnosila's dream: to fill all places with the worship of her husband, in every corner and secret place. Her body became the earth of the plane of Czarn, and the Avehr were made to live together harmoniously on Czarn. However, the foolish dissent of both the Dunamavehr and the Yaevre children sent this vision to ash and war.

The Dunamavehr provoked the other 7 Avehr, and their countenance ruptured from order to chaos, and they in turn created chaos wherever they went. The man was then sentenced to slay the other 7 before they destroyed all the planes of existence, and as he did, the 7 Avehr's bodies were divided into living masses of kinds and species, and spread across the whole of Czarn as guardians of the lands they came to live in.

When the Yaevre children learned of their father's willful deaths of their siblings to create the dream of their late mother, and then the favored position of the accursed Dunamavehr inside of this same dream, they revolted. This one man had almost destroyed everything they had worked for, and for the purpose of what? Giving their 'self righteous and sadistic' father even more glory?

They had secretly thirsted for worship for themselves, and laid down an ultimatum upon their father: that they would continue this work if only they could create races after their own kinds, Avehran orders to worship themselves. They are the Gray Elves, the White Elves, the Ennim, the Thriv, the Khime Sebak, the Golems, the Homunculi, the Hudorians, the Orcs, and the Ghelbanfolk. Gnosila's prophecy had come to pass: the children she bore to Malki Tzadek had turned against him, and would soon become destroyers. He let his mutinous children have their wish, but in the form of curse: by their people they would be bound to mortality, and by their territories the gods' power would be bound. By folly, those once immortal were now prone to the possibility of death, and their godlike power was drained from their frames and into the fertile lands.

Furthermore, after all races were made, the Dunamavehr touched the ground, and Malki Tzadek finished the work of creation in the sky: he wrote the words 'Adwar Mael Khama' with red lightnings in the sky, the seal of the curse sent upon his children. This seal had caused all flesh but that of men to be driven to paranoia and xenophobic fear; inciting interracial holy wars all across the plane, with the promise that men would conquer them all.

The Skycurse:

After all the children of rebellion touched the earth, Malki Tzadek wrote the words 'Adwar Mael Khama' in the sky, a red scar of lightning in the sky, which causes all flesh of children of rebellion, guardians, and yaevre, to be inflamed with war and paranoia of mortal fear in their subconscious. Over time, the lightning ink began to spread and mesh, and now instead of words, there is a large smear in the sky, spanning across all the way past the Tilgr Isles, past the Kingdoms of the Khime. There is nowhere on land where you cannot see the Skycurse. Many in the 6th Age know not what it actually is, due to the destruction of esoteric knowledge during the age, but those ageless mortals and learned ones know its meaning. Regardless, all see it and tremble. At times, not really tied to the orbits of the Gorb moons, red lightning and the sounds of a shouting powerful army are heard from it, all across the world. These lightning storms are known to reach all the way to the ground and wreak havoc on all flesh that is not human. The lightning will take forms of different things at times, sometimes an actual army, sometimes Malki Tzadek himself, sometimes unspeakable things. The skycurse is an everlasting reminder of the consequence of mutiny against Malki Tzadek. It is seen at night and at day. Its thickness will wax and wane. It looks like liquid red ink swirling in the sky, sometimes staining the clouds it meets, but it is not moved by the winds. Even though it crosses diagonally against the continents of Czarn, its lightning's reaches are omnipresent.

The Eight Crowns of Malki Tzadek:

From the Eight Living Crowns of the Sovereign Sire the worlds were wrought. They gave birth to the Eight Royal Elements, who were used to craft and form every thing made.

Excerpt from the Scroll of History:
Before all else, there was Malki Tzadek. Apart from him, there was no thing, and he needed no thing, but he was full of Tzah, and desired to give.

So to the no thing he spoke,
"I am the sovereign above Life"
And Life became, knelt before him,and settled upon his head.

Then he spoke,
"I am the sovereign above War"
And War became, bowed before him,and settled upon his head.

Then he spoke,
"I am the sovereign above Progress"
And Progress became, knelt before him, and settled upon his head.

Then he spoke,
"I am the sovereign above Progeny"
And Progeny became, bowed before him, and settled upon his head.

Then he spoke,
"I am the sovereign above Splendor"
And Splendor became, knelt before him, and settled upon his head.

Then he spoke,
"I am the sovereign above Enigma"
And Enigma became, bowed before him, and settled on his head.

Then he spoke,
"I am the sovereign above Understanding"
And Understanding became, knelt before him, and settled upon his head.

Then he spoke,
"I am the sovereign above Death"
And Death became, bowed before him, and settled on his head.

And Malki Tzadek smiled.

"Breathe."
He spoke, and his crowns obeyed.

And so, from the crown of Life, Tzah was conceived by breath.
From the crown of War, Fyr was conceived by breath.
From the crown of Progress, Arz was conceived by breath.
From the crown of Progeny, Ert was conceived by breath.
From the crown of Splendor, Aer was conceived by breath.
From the crown of Enigma, Aeth was conceived by breath.
From the crown of Understanding, Aeq was conceived by breath.
And so, from the crown of Death, Var was conceived by breath.

And Malki Tzadek smiled.

The eight original elements are not elements in and of themselves. These eight original elements are like blocks of marble the statues of the elements are formed from. The eight raw crown elements are the most primal, powerful, and volatile forms of matter. The raw elements which come from the eight crowns are called "Royal Elements", and their refined forms are called "Civil Elements". While you can make spells with civil elements, and their charged forms are dangerous, if you can control a force of royal element you could easily kill a mortal with it simply by tossing it at them.

The civil elements can be passive or charged. Whenever a yaevre commands them or a mortal uses magic, they become charged. In nature civil elements are usually passive, and while they might not mix together, they can coexist for the most part. Royal elements are always charged unless commanded by yaevre or magic to be stayed. Royal elements are very rare in the world, and are commodities for the advanced practices of wysemen. Wysemen can with great effort can rescind civil elements into their royal origins, but it is very risky, time consuming, costly, and dangerous for the alchemist.

When an element is charged, it becomes volatile to several things. It can be used as a weapon against beings whose bodies are wrought from either the same element, or by beings whose bodies are made of the diametrically opposed element. When charged opposing elements touch, they react and create maelstrom. When the charged element comes into contact with a body of the same uncharged element, the uncharged are usually cowed and paralyzed.
When the charged element comes into contact with a body of the opposing uncharged element, the body is cowed and starts to burn, reacting to the element. If the opposing charged element is forced onto the body either by penetrating to the heart of the thing, or through prolonged touch, they are 'embalmed', and their lifeforce is flushed out of their body.

Each Royal element has a Prime Civil Element, which is the closest civil form to the royal element, and is partially charged. These Prime Civil Elements in refined form can harm those whose bodies are formed from either the same element or the opposing element.
This is important because these Prime Civil Elements are the most common form of charged elements on Czarn.

Prime Civil Elements:
Tzah- Brimstone
Fyr- Obsidian
Arz- Silver
Ert- Porphyry
Var- Lodestone
Aeq- Mercury
Aeth- Brightshard
Aer- Gullsalt