Abyss Library - Tomes of Time
Research Points - 30
Age of Heroes, age before age of the Aoenic Empire. Age of the gods on the mortal plane. Legends of this era are insane including mortals of incredible power that haven’t been seen since (except us maybe?)
Dual class knowledge, The Founder is Zul-Kun (mysterious Emperor). Aeonic Empire of Xul-Kun. Created the monastic orders, knights and wizards. Goal is to create a civilised paradise within his empire against the chaos of the mortal plane. Credited with creating of farming and agriculture. Bargained with and drafted dragons, giants and other ancient creatures to learn runic magic, in the dedication of The Golden Lady. Ruled the Empire for 110 years. Before he succumbed to his own magic during an unknown he completely disappeared there were no secondary casters.
He believed rulers should be guided by 7 virtues of rule; wealth, fertility, honest pride, abundance, eager striving, righteous anger and rest.
These virtues got corrupted by the Runelords into the seven sins.
Succubus and Incubus pair did this is an effort to reap souls and crush the empire. They corrupted all five Runelords.
The Runelords challenged and empowered their own runic magic based on the sins around them.
Alara-hai (magical swords given to the short-term champions)
Cities exploded in the air (not the engines).
Runelords:
Primal Magic, greed
Divine Magic, sloth
Occult Magic, gluttony
Arcane Magic, lust and envy
- Psionic is a subsect of arcane.
Martial Magic, pride and wrath.
Zul-Kun:
Worshipped the Golden Lady but was friends with the Weaver prior to her ascension.
Weaver was a slave to the Father of Lies. Ascended via starstone test. Not the defining part of becoming a god merely a portion of it.
Still looks like a 20-year-old man at 110.
Runelords kept his death quiet until they had enough power to secure themselves.
Zul-Kun was the first attempted champion of the Golden Lady. He didn’t fail but disappeared before he completed his stair climb
He was a general in the war. In personality he was an Emperor who didn’t want to rule he stepped up due to his compassion and need. First attempts at ruling were a failure, aimed for democracy and failed. Set aside some of his better ideas for the sake of stability of the time. Hence, the council working under his direct rule.
Bookish, awkward and kind.
Never failed to give someone mercy, or try to. Fully believed in the power of good and the power of people doing good.
Became a philosopher and an inventor. This was the reasons the civilisations thrived. He delegated most of the ruling to the council.
Originally a council of seven on for each virtue.
Culminated in a three day rituals where people disappeared. This would bring equality across the universe, took three years.
Zul-Kun killed two of the seven Council of Tennet for corruption. He did his best to stop corruption in his civilisation only for his disappearance to put a stop to that. Represented himself in a battle of champions (Dual class level 17, mythic level 7) killed both of their champions and then killed them.
Why was he chosen as a champion? Change was very sudden at end of the war. Accredited to him becoming a champion of the Golden Lady. Around his 3rd mythic rank his viewpoint changed and he had a desire to help literally everyone. He tried to do the best he could for everything around him. But not afraid to strike when needed trusting in the Silence judgements over their should to give them a second chance where they ended.
Choosing of Tennet Lords? Chosen for their power and for the fact they had created small minor settlements that last the small test of time. They were creating civilisation to last in different ways. People who wanted to create something everlasting, heaping serve of ambition. Made one of the Lords a dual-class from no magic. (Not possible with our current engine)
Alara-hai:
Share unique facts
All sentient weapons: fly, shift, speak.
Each exemplified the seven virtues
Seven swords in total. 2 for Zul-Kun and one for each Runelord.
Astrid is the sword of Eager Striving
Dragon sword of Honest Pride Jiang-Ha
All seven are still active.
Sword of Fertility, deserts to the south of Dunras.
Sword of Abundance, ruins of Ioclar’s capital
Location under the city. Hei was built onto of an old temple. There may reside a shard of Astrid
Aether Engines:
Base form sucks magic out of everything and transforms it into a non-physical form for use.
Don’t need to use human lives after the first one is built.
Can use the Aether produced by a singular engine to produce more.
Runelords began the human sacrifice because they didn’t have the full range of knowledge that died with Zul-Kun
Technological advancements of the engine is beyond Runelords
Was around before and it is now being done in a different way. These engines do not go against the natural order of the world and the divine. No morality by law.
Aether expands a person's soul.
Aether Engines don’t need to be linked to a certain type of magic. Any engine that we make from the pre-existing engine can be set to any kind of magic or none at all.
Capital engine was completely destroyed. The other engines were in the main cities, no one knows if any other engines survived or where they are located.
10th level rituals/spells for flying cities
Automations and golems
Uniques insight is the combination of tech and aether. Full replacement for electricity. A functional grid can properly transfer this energy. Our cellphones are aether fuelled.
Short Term in Hei? High increase of magic and energy. Including dual class. Increase in technology. Spark industrial revolution. No limit to the amount of sheer power it can output. Main issue is currently the grid. Advancement of living standards.
Specialise into individual engines around the city. Convert specific engines to specific needs (i.e Martial under the military training, etc.)
Material use for grid is gold or aluminium.
Aeonic Empire:
The first civilisation of humanity
Agriculture barely started while flying cities and magic existed at the same time. Low tech and high magic.
Steel and iron had yet to be discovered so still using bronze weaponry
Collapse. Differing sources:
- Dated to 200years, dated 1-2 years beforehand
- Huge amount of planar reachers (higher and lower places)
- Someone from the Empire did this, intentional or not.
- Negligence also took part in the collapse of the empire.
- Cause is still unknown
- Purpose of the society, everyone was so powerful that the gods were worshipped but not necessarily deified. Gods were openly mocked and worship hit the all-time low.
- Runelords tried to discover how to make someone a God, one of the only forms of trade the cities had was in this research, despite each city working against the other. The Gods never interfered with this research. The majority of the gods are not opposed to more gods being created.
- No one got close despite them tackling the research from different vantage points.
Culture:
- Most people live like nobles. Actually, nobles lived with exorbitant amounts of greed
- Magical fabrication all-time high
- Cities would dock at the ground city to refill and restock their various resources. Flying cities would also enslave and extort other cities for resources.
- Technology stalled because they relied heavily on magic
Each city had its own unique culture and ideals:
- Thulmir - excess
- Each city was based around that sin.
No idea of how the power was transferred from Aether Engine (no electrical grid), or how the cities were steered.
The cities were kept in the air courtesy of a ritual performed by Zul-Kun-Kun who personally created each flying city. The majority of the engine's power was used to maintain flight but the Runelords themselves do not know how they were made.
Commoner was about 5th level. Higher mages/upper echelon 8th. Above them 16th. Runelords with 18th by the end of their rule. Most people in this society were not great ritualists with Zul-Kun being the exception having multiple 10th level rituals. The final ritual he was working on was stretching the very limits of what magic was capable of.
Large-scale eugenics programs to increase magical potential.
Children as young as 12 enlisted in armies, rape not punishable, abuse and power dynamics a plenty. Ethics recent invention. Sexism non-existent, racism run rampant.
- Can see the racism in Thulmir, we are exemplars due to being plane-touched. Had we been a different race he may not have been as eager.
Cities were on pre-determined routes. Zul-Kun used to set the leylines for the ships. After he left the solstice would move the leylines and the cities could not move off of their tracks. This led to city collisions (the two cities that collided, occultism and arcane) and Runelords with very little control.
High-level magic military defence? Hard to defend against without equalling them in power. This could be in technology not necessarily with magic power. For example firearms vs wizards. Or you could meet them with an equal level of frontline magic.
Planned cities for the two Runelords that got cut down, their cities were not yet created. They were easily corrupted because their people did not want to learn magic despite having the technical means. They preferred simple lives of farming.
Most notable discovery? Other planets and civilisations and their ability to trade with them. A planet within this solar system is visible as a shining red star. Inhabited by people bright red and forearmed, dual-wield bows, and nomadic.
The Battle Bliss Arena - Abyss Coliseum
Astrid Vision?
Standing in Forrest, there’s a man there, who we love. Gideon is also there in armour with a wand and staff.
Sounds of beating wings above. Green Dragon. The dragon strikes and immediately stabs through the strange man's chest. The Dragon demands they bargain or die.
Axe in Marshall’s place is the Sword of Righteous Anger, currently awaiting a hero. Righteous Anger has been chosen.
