Godfall

Perhaps the most important event to take place in the history of Nascindor is the Godfall, that fateful day when the wounded Progenitor, holding the Adversary within itself, fell from the heavens.

It plummeted into the Great Forest and scarred the land with the impact. The dying god managed to impart a warning and the means to contain its hateful creation before it perished.

Witnesses

The ancient tribes of men that called the Great Forest home were the first to notice the Progenitor as it breached the atmosphere of Nascindor, its form ablaze like a comet. Several villages were crushed underneath the colossal deity, and even more were evacuated for fear of that same fate. When the dust had settled, the tribes gathered their courage and approached the god, who was barely clinging to life. It was to these ancestors of current humanity that the Progenitor bestowed the Eternal Hymn and instructed them to never stop singing it, lest the Adversary be freed.

Unbeknownst to the tribesmen who were assigned this most vital of missions, there were others who bore witness to the Godfall. In the shadows of the Great Forest, from the mouths of tunnels that lead deep underground, Arachnitha of old were also watching the events unfold. It is perhaps due to this shared experience that humanity and the Arachnitha seem to both understand the gravity of the task that had been given to mankind, and therefore the spider-people are keen to support humanity in any way they can.

The S'aue, for their part, were not yet free from the yoke of their masters at that point in time, though tales of the Godfall are of great interest to their researchers and historians, if only as a fascinating piece of folklore.

Cultural Impact

For humanity, the Godfall is their defining moment. It is the very basis for their beliefs and their identity as a people, as the chosen of a divine entity tasked with safeguarding existence itself from great evil. Due to this, some humans could be described to harbor holier-than-thou attitudes and consider themselves more important than the other species inhabiting Nascindor. Thankfully, this line of thinking is relatively rare, and even the church of Resounding Truth espouses a view of equality and urges its adherents to live in harmony with all peoples.

The Arachnithan approach to the event is much more pragmatic. What they saw was a transaction of necessity, not divine providence. The Progenitor was dying, and the humans were there to receive the knowledge and means to imprison the Adversary. Nothing more, nothing less. What matters to the Arachnitha is that humanity must continue its appointed task or they too will be destroyed. So, if for no other reason, the Arachnitha offer aid to humanity for their own sake.

Aftermath

After the Progenitor expired, its corpse laid in the crater it had created for several centuries, slowly decaying. In time, only its crystallized heart remained, in which the Adversary slumbers restlessly. Despite the diligent efforts of mankind in perpetuating the Eternal Hymn, the terrible hatred of the Adversary eventually grew too great to fully contain.

From the heart, corruption flowed and seeped into the very ground of the Great Forest. An insidious rot began to spread throughout the vast woodland, gradually killing or changing the trees, animals and peoples living there until only horror remained. Thus, the Great Forest was transformed into the Black Forest, which prompted the church of Resounding Truth to take measures in containing the spread of the malediction.

An order of knights, called the Seekers, was founded and they were tasked with monitoring and controlling the borders of the Black Forest, which they continue to do to this day.

Can you imagine it? A god, clad in holy fire, falling from the heavens.

What I would do to have the chance to witness something like that!

–A Pluthemian theologian to a Glarithian colleague

by Midjourney

_{An artist's rendition of the Progenitor in the crater its impact onto Nascindor created}