Reckoning of Temekan

The Reckoning of Temekan was a conflict between the Great House of Temekan and their god-king Ozha-Ban and those mortals who remained loyal to the Heavenly Council. It occurred at the end of the The Mithril Era and the conclusion of hostilities ushered in the 2nd Intermediate Period between the Mithril and the The Palladian Era. The Reckoning also coincided with the self-imposed exile of the goddess Myurdin behind the Astral Gates, effectively removing arcane magic from the world.

The Conflict

Prelude

The Reckoning's origins date to a decade or so before the actual conflict. A young Temekanian aasimar, called Soben in some texts or already known as Ozha-Ban, stumbled upon the hidden workshop of Myurdin, the Sable Witch, while in the Valley of Dusk attending his brother's funeral. Ozha-Ban then began to look over and use the notes of the ascended goddess to his own ends. He shared it with members of his court and with the people of Temekan. After the rest of his family mysteriously died, Ozha-Ban became the sole ruler of Temekan and the country prospered with the help of his advanced magic. Yet soon, Ozha-Ban was unlocking forbidden aspects of the Script, parts known only to the gods of the Heavenly Council, who used them only sparingly and with great reservation. This kind of Old Magic was dark and wholly evil. It involved the siphoning of the life-force of sacrificed victims to imbue the practitioner with unlimited powers. First thousands, then millions of his subjects were slaughtered and in the end, Ozha-Ban had unlocked not only the secret of revivification, but of immortality itself.

Deployment

Yet this power still did not satisfy Ozha-Ban. He sent out his grim, magically-enhanced armies of thralls to the four corners of Holos, bringing back millions of captives. He planned to sacrifice all of them to ascend to godhood, like Myurdin. Such a darkness could not be hidden from the gods for long though, and just before he gave the order, the Heavenly Council appeared to Ozha-Ban and commanded him to stop. Ozha-Ban refused, and his fanatics snuffed out the lives of half the world, believing that they too would be granted eternal life if they did as he commanded.

Battlefield

The retribution of the gods was swift. Telerashi rode down from the heavens on the backs of her thundering chariot and sent storms and blighting winds against the mortal mages. The mortals fought back and many thousands died, even those innocents captured by the Temekanians and brought to the battlefields. Uriah fired blinding arrows upon Ozha-Ban's champions melting them away and turning the ground they walked upon to glass. Lacorré sent great waves from the Lazuli Ocean to drown their armies. Balan and Ezrahil waded through armies undead mortals, turning them to ash and leaving a swath of smouldering mortals in their wake.

Outcome

Yet the work had already been done. Though the Heavenly Council had done what it could to minimize the losses of those innocent mortals caught in the crossfire, many millions died. Many of them died truly believing that the one who had started all of this, Ozha-Ban himself, must really have been a god in order to cause such destruction. And so, with the earth charged with the black magic of death and the dead entering the Realm of Souls with true belief, Ozha-Ban ascended to godhood. And with so many of those mortals now seeing an ascended god whom was one of them, and having been born of the very blood of his followers, he was perhaps the most powerful deity to step upon the Material Plane.

Aftermath

The other gods were horrified by this, yet only one of them foresaw what was to be done—Myurdin, the Sable Witch of Prophecy. Unlike the other deities, the Doom Lich Ozha-Ban fueled his power with the Script, the fated Old Magic that could be wielded by all but the gods. So Myurdin told the other gods to pursue Ozha-Ban deep within the crust of Holos, to the deeper parts of the Underdark above the deepest chamber where Valdra sleeps, to the Doom Caverns. As they did Myurdin sealed herself and all the Old Magic of the world beyond the Astral Gates, stripping Ozha-Ban of much of his power and effectively exiling him to a deep prison home to only ghouls and ghosts. And there he remained, forgotten by all but the wisest of sages and the most devoted of cultists. Until today. With the Sundering Arcana, Ozha-Ban has been able to slowly, carefully regain some of his power. He remains weak, for Myurdin and Milcon see to the guarding of his prison within the Doom Caverns. Yet in begetting the Sundering, the Sable Witch knew that Ozha-Ban would return. Few know how she and the Heavenly Council will prevent his return, but all know that it is only a matter of time before another Reckoning occurs—perhaps at the same moment when the Era of Twilight begins.

Historical Significance

Some claim the gods allowed the Palladian Empire to rise following the Reckoning, and allowed the horrors they inflicted upon the world, to happen. While others point to the many wars and plagues and famines that the Palladian Empire endured and barely survived as evidence that they did not favor the Palladians. This school of thought argues that the Council tried to end their bloody reign, but after the Reckoning, they felt the divine should not directly interfere in the choices of mortals. There is some evidence for this, largely from unsubstantiated Palladian and Heavenly Councilor apologists.

Legacy

The Reckoning of Temekan brought many changes to Holos. For the next millennia, arcane magic tepidly flowed from cracks of power, a trickle where was once a font of energy. The Temekanian Empire was utterly blighted, with much of its territory in the north of Nioa forever warped into a place of death and black magic. Where once was a vast savannah between lakes and rivers, forests and flowering hills; a bleak corrupted landscape of black sand dunes and glass craters. It is no longer home to any sane mortals, but to the twisted dead and spiritual fallout of ten million souls lost to divine wrath. All who live along the current course of the Niru River now know not to journey into the desert of eternal night and many border forts must always be garrisoned and on the look out for abominations that survived the destruct and have returned to consume mortal souls.
The Temekanian people too have been annihilated, their aasimar and elf ancestors forgetting how to read their language or practice their holy customs. A few marked races such as the drow who escaped to the Doom Caverns with their god hold on to such relics, but not know what they are or the history behind them. While the elves went on to survive into the Palladian Era, the aasimar struggled to survive. A few rose to prominence in the Palladian Empire, but even then when the Sundering Arcana occurred, these aasimar were decimated once again. Today, they number under five thousand individuals and are scattered and without an identity to call their own.
With the arcane sealed beyond the Astral Gates, the gods Myurdin and Ozha-Ban became effectively dead, asleep and adrift in the realm between realms, the Ethereal Plane. The lack of arcane magic meant the end of all sorcerers and wizards and arcanists. The Palladian Era that came afterwards was marked by an influx in divine and natural magic users. Cultures with strong magical traditions fell in the wake of those with access to divine conduits, such as the Palladian Empire. These new states saw this golden age as divine favor and used it to exploit and enslave other races who once could defend against external threats through the arcane.

Conflict Type

War

Battlefield Type

Land

Start Date

~1260 B.S.A. (~3210 M.E.)

Ending Date

~1254 B.S.A. (~3216 M.E.)

Conflict Result

Ozha-Ban ascended to godhood; the Temekanian Empire falls; all Arcane Magic is sealed behind the Astral Gates along with Ozha-Ban and Myurdin

Location

Ghostdune Desert

Maps

• 

  Nioa (map)

  A map of the continent of Nioa in 362 SE