Chapter III: The War for Dominion

In their arrogance, The Great Old Oneswere caught unaware of the onslaught perpetrated by their former divine wardens. It would not take long, however, for the eldritch horrors to marshal their strength and fight to claim their dominance of this world. The battle would last millennia. With each side falling back and then gaining ground. The landscape of this world would be forever changed amidst the war that waged across and below its surface. The world a singular land mass was broken up by terrible quakes into smaller ones that would come to be called continents. The great chasms between these lands would be filled with the water from Naussica’s realm. Volturnus would take his dominance of fire and imbue the world with a molten core that would become the fiery river Infernus, hopefully preventing the cosmic monsters from another reality from seeking sanctuary within. Mountains, rivers, lakes; all would be the resulting aftermath of the battles that raged between god and otherworldly monsters.

The primordial beings began to try and take shelter in caves from the devastating war as well as evade capture from their former overlords. Most did not succeed. The war between god and eldritch being would continue to rage. But the battle turned towards the The misshapen gods favor as they unleashed power unseen before. It has been theorized that the eldritch gods finally decided to pay attention. Asmodeus would discover that when his brother, Volturnus, created the river Infernus; it opened up a doorway to a realm of fire, ice and darkness that contains nine worlds. Asmodeus would call this realm the Nine Hells Hells. Here lived vile creatures whose evil rivaled that of the Nameless Gods he and his kin currently fought.

There Asmodeus learned of a way to end the stalemate between eldritch horror and god. The devils told him of the secret of the soul. A divine being can consume a mortal soul and from it gain strength and power. Take in enough souls and the god could become the most powerful being in all of existence. Asmodeus entreated with the devils to aid him and his allies in exorcising the The Great Old Ones. They agreed and taught Asmodeus how to absorb the souls of mortal beings, in exchange the devils in the Nine Hells made a pact with the god that the souls of all future slain mortals would be sent to Hell rather than wander the Endless Sea.

Asmodeus returned to his father and told him of his visit to the netherworld of Hell and his pact with the devils who dwelled there. Asmodeus suggested to his father that the gods could consume the souls of the dead, pitiful beings from the world below that now wander the Endless Sea. Primus forbade it and admonished his son for consorting with such vile creatures. Asmodeus had no right to promise the essence of these primitive creatures to the denizens of Hell. Primus returned to the others gods as they began to plan for one last counter-attack on the eldritch host.

Asmodeus had decided to ignore his father’s decree. He approached his cousin, Tyrannus who had become filled with the lust for war and blood. Asmodeus had convinced and bargained with Tyrannus to join him in stealing the souls lost in the Endless Sea. And if they did indeed become more powerful than the gods, perhaps using their newfound power they could stage a coup, should they win the war, to become the monarchs of their divine kin, since Primus could not see past his pity for the pathetic beings below

.

The gods, though immortal, were tired and drained of strength. They rallied for one last battle against the Great Old Ones. Asmodeus had returned to his divine kin, now more powerful than the rest of the Divine Host save Primus. The battle was great as eldritch beast fell. Each fallen terror’s blood seeped into the earth and the seas, but their number were still great and they had summoned more power from the strange structures that their primordial slaves spent millennia building. The world shook and threatened to break apart. A giant chasm formed in the earth, its bottomless depths endless became a doorway to the second netherworld; the six hundred and sixty-six layers of the Abyss.

Tyrannus, the god of war rallied beside his cousin, Asmodeus, and together they began to push the remaining nameless gods into the crack in the earth. The other gods joined suit and in one last desperate surge drove the abominations from this world and into the bottomless chasm where the dark ones fell into the Abyss and plummeted down to the realm’s six hundred and sixty-sixth layer, from where it would take them an eternity to climb out.