Secrets of Desylinn: The Elemental Alignments

by John Belliston and Frank Gori

Alignment works a little differently in Desylinn. Here's an introduction:

Alignment

The world of Desylinn is much too new for Law and its opposite Chaos to have codified as other worlds know them. The world does not divide along the same ethical and moral lines but along elemental ones. More than just the fundamental building blocks of creation, the seven elements pulse and surge through all of creation. The effects of the seven elements are most commonly seen in the array of magic that course through the world: from the sorcerer’s vicious fireball, the clerics healing shadow, and the witches’ harmful light. The elements however go much deeper than that, making up each individual’s very being and influencing their personality.

In game terms this means that each Character has two “Soul Elements” one taken from their race and one chosen by their personality. The seven elements, as well as their sub elements and personality descriptors are as follows:

Fire- Ash, Flame, Smoke

Amorous, Destructive, Gluttonous, Passionate, Warm, Wrathful

Wind- Gust, Breeze, Vacuum

Adventurous, Flighty, Hopeful, Manipulative, Needy, Transitive

Water- Ice, Steam, Water

Adaptable, Emotional, Perky, Pliable, Temperate, Volatile

Earth- Metal, Stone, Wood

Balanced, Fortitude, Generous, Stable, Stubborn, Unyielding

Light- Beam, Glare, Corona

Aggressive, Intellectual, Inquisitive, Inspiring, Relentless, Truthful,

Shadow- Rejuvenating, Consuming, Deceptive

Deceptive, Empathetic, Nurturing, Passive, Private, Quiet

Magic- Soul, Arcane, Sympathetic

Creative, Impatient, Madness, Mysticism, Unpredictability, Wisdom

During character creation players may select which of the two racial elements is dominant and which element is the character’s soul element, which can be any element. The soul element cannot be changed once selected, and is the core of the character. Racial elements can be changed with time and focus, which is represented by leveling. How the two alignments interact to help define the character is up to the player, though the soul element tends to be dominant. From the list of both elements pick two personality descriptors from each, which will be the dominant traits you roleplay. Players can change the descriptors anytime they and their GM feel is appropriate.

For example: Jim decides he wants to play a Krishtog Bard. Krishtogs have the racial elements of Wind and Water. Jim feels that Wind aligns more with the adventurous spirit he wants to portray with this character and writes down the two descriptor words he feels most appropriate (Adventurous, Manipulative.) He may now select any soul element he wishes. Jim feels Fire is most appropriate and selects that as his soul element again transcribing two descriptor words for roleplaying focus (Destructive and Passionate.) As Jim sees it his bard takes to the road a lot and doesn't really look at the long term consequences, always trying to live life to the fullest.

While using this system a player cannot change their soul element, they can change their racial element and what descriptors are dominant based on how the player wants to roleplay the character in a scenario and through level progression.

For example: Jim’s Bard is now 5^th level and the campaign is settling in Hub and becoming an urban campaign. Being Adventurous and Destructive has put the Bard in jeopardy often and led to some near death experiences. Jim decides he wants his Kristog to evolve and learn from his mistakes by changing his alignment. He starts by changing the dominant descriptors of his soul element of Fire to Amorous and Warm. Jim also wants to change his racial element from Wind to Water but cannot do so until he levels up! For now he changes the descriptors to Hopeful and Needy feeling they align more closely with where he is going with the character.

Detect evil, detect law, detect good, and detect chaos are replaced by detect soul.  This spell functions like detect evil, except that it detects the auras of a specified element (chosen at time of casting), rather than evil auras, and you are vulnerable to an overwhelming aura if it shares your soul element.

Here is a list of suggested Soul Elements for the Pathfinder Standard Races:

Dwarf: Earth, Light

Elf: Water, Magic

Gnome: Wind, Water

Half-Elf: Shadow, Water

Half-Orc: Fire, Earth

Human: Water, Fire

Secrets of Desylinn: The First War

By John Belliston

First there was Grandmother Chaos. Great and infinite and beyond the capacity of comprehension.

Then, born from Her womb came the Oldest, bearing his Stewpot of Fate and having no Name beyond his title. Then in a wave of light and glory came Ssita, whose love shapes the universe. Then came Ariga, whose joys and sorrows create the seasons. Nhoj burst forth half formed and hungry to claim the name his siblings had uttered. And finally in the loud wake of her brother Daras came, like the gentle whisper of an end; so distracted were her siblings she ended up naming herself.

When Nhoj and Ssita first saw each other they fell into a love so vast no poetry or song could hope to grasp it, so deep its roots formed the foundation the universe. In this time before time, Ssita pulled her gaze from her beloved and looked upon her siblings, and upon the universe beginning to congeal around them. Then she looked upon her mother, and she shuddered.

Grandmother Chaos, as the mortals would come to call her, hungered for creation and destruction. If an entity’s mind were to ever look back upon the budding universe, it would not survive Grandmother’s attention. So Ssita reached into the core of her being and tapped into the limitless love which resided within her. With infinite care and terrible speed she formed her own essence into a magic strong, flexible, and powerful enough to hold back the tides of transformational power. She would act as the font for that energy. Her will and love would take the energy of Chaos and turn into the substance of the universe. She had become the Chaosgate of Creation. For this act her siblings named her Queen.

During this phase, Daras and the Oldest succumbed to their profound attraction to each other. Their coupling was like the glacier and the wildfire, destructive, restrained, cold and yet burning, and from their cosmic crossing came Mar, the God of Light and Law.

Though Ssita’s love and power held back the full force of Grandmother, the Chaosgate itself remained incomplete. Though his love for her could consume him from within, Nhoj refused to take that place. He had no interest in rule. He sought to feed his hunger for secrets and hidden knowledge. Kingship would just waste his time.

However the young and ambitious Mar saw the lack of a king as a profound affront. So, without delay he began to court Ssita. She resisted his advances out of respect for her love of Nhoj, but the needs of the universe outweighed her desire.

So lost in his studies of the forming universe Nhoj knew nothing of the young gods advances. Daras came to him and told him of the foolishness of her brother and of the blind ambition of her son. At this news, Nhoj screamed, a deep and primal howl which vibrates through the dark places for the rest of time. Without logic or strategy the God of Knowledge hurled himself at the God of Law. Claws, teeth, and infinite divine force strengthened past the point of madness by the fierceness of Nhoj’s love.

The younger god was caught unaware. Great chunks were torn from his essence and he stumbled right into his father, The Oldest. His Stewpot spilled over and the Stew of Fate cooled and congealed into the mortal plane. Seeing the fury in Nhoj’s eye’s Mar fled down to the new creation to close his wounds and prepare for the next attack.

Using his spilt blood and the materials of the new plane Mar crafted an army. The Truths of Mar were gleaming creatures of Light, Ice, and Will. They moved forth in a terrible wave. They defined all they touched. They bound the still warm stuff of fate into weapons and servants for Mar. They shaped everything around them into unbreakable and terrible chains. When Nhoj followed after, the Truths jumped up and tried to contain the full might of God of Knowledge. The binds cut into his flesh and tore out great chunks from his form. But there was always much Chaos in Nhoj, and this he used to slide, twist, and warp his very essence to escape.

Nhoj retreated then, surprised and unprepared to face the relentless nature of the Truths. He delved into the dark places, the deep places. There he sought and looked. He delved into this strange new mortal realm. He ran and while he ran he bled. The chunks of his flesh and bone merged with the plane and formed, by accident, the strange maelstroms' bedlam which became his army, The Secrets of Nhoj.

For each thing the Truths defined the Secrets tore apart, or made irrelevant with their own wild creations. Each side fought with terrible force, but Nhoj’s army tried a thousand tactics. They hurled themselves into battle as a distraction for others to sneak on past.

As their armies made slow and terrible war across the face of creation, Mar and Nhoj fought with raw force. Hurling powerful spells, the likes of which would never be seen again, they became so lost in the fight that at times they forgot the reasons for their mighty battle.

After shaping and tearing apart the new plane a thousand times, the tide turned. Mar flinched at the assault and Nhoj’s Secrets sealed away his army in what would become the Blackfire Mountains. Bound by defeat and his own honor, Mar waited for the terms of the new King’s Victory.

Though it was meaningless to Nhoj, he asked Mar to kneel before him and swear fealty for time eternal. For Mar would be bound by his word. He would no more try for the Throne, and Nhoj could have both his study, and his love.

He became the Chaosgate of Void, taking the excesses of order and returning them to Chaos. He would rule by the side of Ssita, and it was their love that held Grandmother at bay.

There are many echoes of the First War left in the world. It is said that Nhoj had his servants craft a great city that served no other point than to witness the submission of the God of Law. Some say that those that fear the dark can still hear the reverberations of that first and terrible scream. And in the deep and forgotten places the Remnants of the First War remain to be unearthed. Magic unlike any other. Things unlike anything after.

Things better left forgotten.

Secrets of Desylinn: Creation of the Humans

by Frank Shaw

In the eons after the First War was fought and lost by Mar, he secluded himself from the other gods, seeking to hide the shame of his loss of the Throne of the Void and the hand of Ssita. While he laid hidden Ariga, who had longed for the young god for some time, went to him with her own loneliness. She nursed him back to health and as she brought him out of his melancholy, their loneliness blossomed into love. 

They were soon betrothed, sealing it with a kiss. Ariga, in her joy, created the Great Southern Forest around the spot where she and Mar’s love first blossomed. She fashioned guardians out of the very trees and tasked them with keeping this spot holy and sacred to the couple. The forest was as vibrant as she was. Still in her youthful form as a young girl she felt no greater joy than when she was with Mar, and the forest blossomed when they spent time in each other’s company.  

Yet for ages uncounted the couple remained betrothed. The forest Ariga had created remained vital and green even as she went from youth into the form of a maiden. As time went on and Ariga waited she grew in wisdom and understanding and passed from a maiden into that of new mother. Childless however, she continued waiting for Mar to formalize their betrothal into marriage. The Great Forest aged too. The trees went from a vibrate green to deep reds and yellows, giving up their fruits and nuts for harvest.

And yet still she waited. 

She waited through the births of Bahu and Tiala. Watching their love bloom and the short passionate courtship they shared. 

She waited through the birth of the dragons, noble creatures that they were. She watched as they divided themselves into factions and beseeched their parents for peace.

She waited through the creation of the dwarves. She watched the dragons accept stewardship over the dwarves. She then watched with wonder when the mortals divided themselves into factions like the great dragons. 

As she waited in the form of a new mother, though she had no child, Mar grew distant. When Ishari was born, a wild passionate young goddess, it was her that Mar went to, seduced away by the goddess of lakes and rivers. Tempted away by the new goddess, Mar went to Ariga and broke off their betrothal. 

Shattered, Ariga wept. Ariga aged. As she aged, the forest below did as well, losing its foliage and leaving the trees bare. Ariga went to the world below to hide her shame, seeking solitude on islands far tothe south of the mainland that Tiala had told her about. It was on the largest island that the sorrowful goddess hid. Hiding her face in her arms and weeping out her sorrow. 

How long Ariga stayed there none can say, for the gods reckon time differently than mortals do. But small lakes of mud had formed from her bitter tears. In desperation to stave off the loneliness that she felt she sculpted small dolls from the mud, all in the form of Mar. These reminders did nothing to quell the pain, and her weeping began once again. 

Small comforting pats upon her cheek moved her from her grief. The little dolls, three in total, had gathered around their weeping mother’s ancient face and were set to comfort her. Willing away the pain they surely felt emanating from her. It was this that woke her from her grief. These imperfect replicas of Mar peered innocently up at her, seeking only to quell her suffering. 

These beings made her smile, even if for but a moment. She gathered up more of the sticky mud and fashioned dolls in her maiden form giving each to the models of Mar that she had already created. She watched them for a time. And for a while they were amazed at the new world around them. Soon however they began to seek respite. Searching across the island and finding nothing to stave their hunger the little dolls came back to Ariga, and pleaded with her. “We hunger, but there is no food, please show us how to find it?”

Ariga was alarmed by this for she had no need of food herself. She reflected for a short time and realized that if the forest bloomed as it had when she had been young they would find an abundance of food. She changed her form, thinking of the joy she had shared once with Mar, and taking some happiness from the small people that she had created. With these thoughts she grew younger, moving from crone to maiden. The islands began to grow green and the plants that had remained dormant sprung with life. 

Ariga showed the people which plants she had made to eat, which plants to use to build shelters with, and what animals could be hunted safely. Their hunger sated the little dolls danced, sang, and coupled with each other joyfully. She watched them have children, grow old with age and wisdom as she had done. And eventually die, grieving the loss of their dead with bitter tears. She then watched their souls gathered by Daras who returned them to the Realm of the Gods. As Ariga watched with wonder at the beauty she had created through her sorrow, she grew youthful again going from maiden to girl, and far to the north the Great Forest blossomed once more. 

She wept again, this times her tears were joyful. She named the people Tama’arig, or Ariga’s children. Before returning to the realm of the gods Ariga gathered up many of the people that she had created, spreading them over all the islands of the south. She promised them that this was their place and they would be protected from the lands far to the north. And so it was until the slithering children of Ssita came.

Secrets of Desylinn: The Five Gifts (the Creation of the Dwarves)

By Dominic Ford

Long ago, when Dragons walked the empty world alone, they began to struggle mightily to find their place in this vast world. With so much to explore and so little to do, the Dragons began to grow restless. As the clans grew and the younger dragons began to mature, they began to squabble with each other. This led to a variety of inter-clan struggles, often resulting in egg stealing and ritualistic dueling. The Elder Dragons watched this with fear and trepidation in their hearts, and knew they had to intervene before one Dragon forgot their divine heritage and killed another. The Elders convened at the First Forge, and discussed the various issues the clans had with each other. After days of petty squabbling, they finally concluded that they needed the assistance of Tiala, the mother of Dragons.

Each Elder brought forth a small token of their clan for their mother, and Tiala rushed quickly to help her children . She listened carefully to their concerns, and then at the end presented them with the First Gift, which became the Lost Gift. This was the Song of Dreaming, the Dragon Horn of Sleep. Simply blowing the horn played a sweet lullaby which sent the listener to a long sleep filled with vivid dreams. The council agreed to only use the horn against the worst offenders, but as time passed their resolve slowly slipped. Finally a young Dragon was sentenced to a long sleep for building a wall a few feet higher than his older neighbor desired. In a fit of rage the young Dragon seized the horn and blew it long and hard, sending the entire council of Elder Dragons into a deep sleep. When they awoke, the horn was gone, lost forever. Thus was the First Gift received, abused, and lost.

The Elder Dragons, again at a loss and now without even the basic punishment of the Horn, turned to their divine father, Bahu. Their gifts woke him from slumber, and he immediately determined that their conflict stemmed from nothing more than boredom. Bahu developed and taught each clan secret methods for creating a strong material, unique to each clan. This formed the Second Gift, which is the forgotten forge lore. This was the True Secret of Fire, purest Dragon Steel. Naturally, the clans were far from content with their own secrets and sought that of the other clans. Each clan engaged different methods, varying from the Iron hiding in forges and Gold seducing Masters to Blue scrying for secrets and Silver torturing those who opposed them. This only served to increase the inter-clan conflict, as each clan had new reasons to be angry with the other clans.

Worried and unsure of what to do next, the Elders once again went to Tiala, seeking her wisdom once again. Tiala was greatly displeased to see her children again, and flew south, across the great plain and beyond the Southern Lands, on the border between the Dragon mountains and the great birthing place, which had become the Dragon Sands. Here she diverted the winds and dried the land, and created a desert valley trapped by high mountain wells. She called for the Elders, and they came, one at a time, to answer their mother. Tiala showed them this new place, the Third Gift, the Dead Lands, and promised the Dragons this would be a place of solitude, where they could think and consider their actions. Each Elder, save the White, waited within the confines of this desolate valley until the flesh rotted from their bones and their power infused the sand, the air, the mountains with powerful and dangerous magic. The White Elders stand today, guardians of this ancient place, torn between their final respite and their sacred protective duty.

Younger Dragons knew they couldn't last long without a council of Elders to watch over them, and each clan set their own criteria for who should sit on the council. The Silver dragons chose based purely on age, the Whites based on number of offspring, the Coppers on crop yields and the Blacks on an election system. Each clan chose a different way, but eventually a new council was convened, but the strife and conflict between clans was stronger than ever. At last, the Dragons turned to Bahu a second time, pleading for something to end the worst crimes - the egg stealing and the constant shedding of blood outside formal duels. Bahu found the worst offender, a Dragon who had stolen at least twenty eggs from each other clan. With this criminal Bahu set the example and began the Rite of Dra-keth, ripping off the dragons front wing bones and cursing the Dragon to amplify pain and hunger, remind her of her crimes and feeding on her intellect. This formed the Fourth Gift, the unmentionable gift, the path to Destruction, the Dra-Keth.

After several years of performing the rite only against those who most deserved it, the young Council grew concerned again. The authorized blood duels were getting more frequent and less lenient, and the Council worried it was only a matter of time before one Dragon killed another outright. Finally they went to the first forge and spent five long months in prayer and meditation, avoiding all food, drink, or carnal vices. Thin and weary, they called upon both Tiala and Bahu for guidance. Their parents arrived to find the young councilors on the brink of starvation, and knew the Dragons needed something to keep them occupied and distracted. Tiala and Bahu exchanged a knowing look, and developed a plan. Tiala formed dozens of small creatures and Bahu breathed them to life. This was the Fifth Gift, meant to be the Great Distraction. This became the Pure Honor, as the Dragons became virtual gods to the Dwarf Children.

The Dwarves, inspired by their parents, began feuding almost immediately. The Dragons, attempting to be as excellent parents as their own, quickly began to intervene. They spoke of patience, of service, of clan loyalty above your own, of family and honor. The Dragons began to follow their own advice, and the danger of murder seemed to lessen gradually as time went on. Still, strife boiled under the surface. Bahu and Tiala knew that someday the Fifth Gift would fail their jealous and difficult children, just as the first four did. Until that time, the Dragons would be occupied with their children.  

Secrets of Desylinn: The Creation of the Gren

By Frank Shaw

In the days before the Seal, while the Brothers waged their war across the lands of Desylinn the Wild Ones – Shala the Wild One of Beauty, Daros the Wild One of Desire, and Kuro the Wild One of Passion- played their games with the mortal races openly without interference from other gods. They roamed far and wide teaching their knowledge to the people of Desylinn and reveling in the strange world that was open to them. One day they travelled far to the North to the seat of Mar’ies who held court with his children the elves in a great palace of ice. Shala, the Wild One of Beauty suggested they present themselves to the stern god, and ask a boon of him. The three gods debated and after a time they decided to ask Mar’ies for a keg of ice wine, made by the elves as a gift to the god from ice lilies which only grew on the Ice God’s continent.

They arrived at Mar’ies’ palace to find a great line of elves waiting for audience, each bearing gifts for the cold god. The elves formed orderly lines and presented themselves to him. He would grant them a boon, showing his pleasure. Send them away to seek out improvement if found lacking. Or freeze them with his breath and shatter their remains if they incurred his wrath. Kuro, who had taken the form of a fat bloated ogre, rushed forward impatiently, knocking elves out of the way as he did. When he arrived at the front of the line he exclaimed “Here We are!” to Mar’ies. The god’s cold disapproving glare froze those who came under it except the Wild Ones. Shala and Daros, who had taken the forms of elves, arrived shortly after Kuro and bowed low to the cold god and greeted him in a manner befitting him.

Mar’ies, with a dreadful scowl, asked them what they wanted. Before Shala or Daros could respond to the cold god, Kuros shouted: “Wine! Strong drinks of course! Women and Men! Music! We shall make merry!”

Mar’ies, angry at the outburst cursed the gods. Kuro jested at him: “Uncle aren’t we equals on this world? Your curses are nothing to us when we’re together” He said gesturing back to Shala and Daros.

Mar’ies rose from his throne piled high with gifts from the elves, and bid them leave in a icy voice. Shala and Daros, not wishing to incur the cold god’s anger any longer, made to withdrawal. But Kuro, who was disappointed with the response to his call for merrymaking, turned to address those elves not frozen by the cold god’s breath: “Children of Mar’ies, do you not have any life in you? Are you all so meek that this frigid god on his throne of ice can forbid you from revelry? Let’s fill his halls with song! Let’s fill his halls with dance! Let’s fill his halls with love making and heat his cold dead heart!”

Kuro picked up a keg of ice lily wine near the throne tucking it beneath his arm. He began to sing an orcish love song in a deep booming voice. Mar’ies, in his great stature, gathered up the Wild One who he towered over. Taking him in hand he flung him, the keg still tucked gently under Kuro’s arm, out of the palace and back to the mainland of Desylinn.

Shala and Daros found Kuro sometime later. The god had drunk more than his fill of the ice lily wine and had passed out in the wild Fertile Lands. Seated atop of their slumbering brother Shala and Daros discussed Mar’ies, and what they had seen while in his lands.

“The elves adore him, yet he does nothing for them.” Shala pondered. She had taken the form of a sinewy Lash-ti-nowish and had to play in a puddle of mud her sleeping brother had awoke for a moment to create.

“This is true. He punishes them without thought and rewards them without care. I could see neither rhyme nor reason for his judgments.” Daros said. He had changed his sex, but still held the form of an elf.

Shala began to make figures from the mud and twigs lying nearby. “We have been in all the lands of this world, welcomed by all. Teaching each peoples the things we know and all have welcomed us, but the elves.” She smiled. “If they will not welcome us then we shall make them. “ Shala studied Daros and begun to fashion a tiny statue from the muck she had absentmindedly been playing in. She created long ears, longer than an elf’s, and sharp ridges to define the brow. The cheek-bones she made angular, and a sharp chin, nearly pointed. She gave the doll a slender frame, and grasped the nearby shadows from a pine tree turning them to thread to bind the doll.

Daros delighted at his sister’s sculpture. Taking the keg of wine out of his sleeping brother’s fists he took a swig and offered some to Shala. He took the doll and examined while Shala drank. “This little man is almost like an elf. Make a few more so he is not lonely.” He then let out a loud tumultuous belch, blowing it at the doll and gifting it with life.

Shala, now drunk off the wine began to make more dolls. She created seven more, all of them female, while Daros breathed life into each with great belches between drinks of wine. Soon eight of the creatures stood around the gods curious and confused, seven women and a single man. Daros noted the discrepancy. Shala laughed and responded “Why should it matter?

It was then Kuro awoke with a great start and a bellowing roar. The children of the three gods huddled in fear around Shala and Daros. He laughed at the little creatures, taking delight in their fear of him. He laughed at his sister’s and brother’s antics in creating them. He laughed in delight and gathered them up still cowering. Running to the northern shore he shouted across the sea to the cold god on his throne. “Mar’ies! Ol’ frozen heart! We’ve made our own elves to play with!” The Ice God peered across the sea with cold angry eyes to see what the God of Passion spoke of. There on the shore Kuro had surrounded his self with the eight little creatures who made an obvious mockery of the elves. The cold god spoke: “May those with seed burn too hot to plant it. Let those in who it would quicken feel their fury.” His curse fell on the lone male amongst the little creatures.

The Wild Ones, laughing at the anger of Mar’ies, gave their children a bit of wine, saving most for the male to cool him of Mar’ies’ curse. Seeing this Mar’ies bid his elves to seek out and destroy all the ice lilies in his land. However a few seeds of the plant were stuck in the cracks of the keg stolen by Kuro, and soon found a place to grow on the cold beaches of the Fertile Lands.

Secrets of Desylinn: The Creation of the Seal and the Brothers' War

by John Belliston

Few things are definitive in the Soup of Fate. Flavors muddle and combine in unexpected ways, but the hatred between Tlal, God of the Angry Heavens, and his brother Daikado, God of the Angry Earth, is one of few certainties. Within Tiala's womb the brothers grew. Their bodies and spirits expanded, as did their rage. When they exited their mother but before they breathed their first breath, the two began to fight and tear at each other.

Daikado came first, rocky skin hanging in thick plates over his fiery flesh beneath. His wide toothless mouth and stunted limbs made him look like a huge, fat toad made of obsidian, burnt stone, and molten rock. Jagged horns jutted from his brow and framed his smooth granite eyes. Tlal slipped out in his brother’s wake, a long slender serpent with sapphire scales and four short limbs ending in terrible claws. A line of ivory horns along his back crackled with electricity and ominous clouds formed and reformed constantly around the length of his body. His long and prickly beard travelled far down his neck, nearly twice the length of his long, toothy mouth.

Their teeth and claws were already buried in the other’s flesh at the moment of their birth. They screamed with such shattering violence it drew Ishari from her new child. Throughout the horror of Mar’ies fratricide and the Ice God’s exile to the mortal plane, they did nothing but stay locked in their bristling, destructive embrace. It took all the Gods an age, as mortals reckon it, to finally pull the brothers apart.

With the help of Tiala’s Lullaby the two young gods calmed enough to separate and were forced to swear temporary truce. One at a time each of the other Gods came to talk sense into the twins. Each deity tried to find the reason for the brothers' rage, but all each brother said was, “When his blood runs dry, his flesh is cold, and his bones are ground to dust, then I will tell you.”

The strain of the song made Tiala’s voice falter, and with its soothing magic cast aside the Brothers flew back into their battle. Claw met tooth. Flame met lighting. Volcano met hurricane. Trickery met brutality. Every weapon was attempted and exploited. At one point or another they dragged each of the other gods into their conflict, until in an annoyed rage, Nhoj, the Apathetic King and the Chaosgate of Void, cast them to the mortal plane.

Their new status as outcasts only escalated their conflict into complete and senseless war. Using raw elemental force and all-consuming hatred they created the Kado and the Lalt. These powerful minions went forth and gathered together armies of mortals in the names of their creators and set them upon each other.

Rivers of mortal blood flowed in tribute to their hatred. Tribes tore themselves apart with their fanatical devotion to the Earthquake and Hurricane. Families were divided and slaughtered by the rampage. Even the Dragons were not immune to the dread charms of the Kado and the Lalt, and they joined the hordes with similar abandon. The Brothers showed no remorse, no mercy, and no concern for anything but the taste of the other’s life’s blood. They only broke apart long enough to order their worshipers into the next bloody conflict. They grew drunk on mortal adoration.

The other gods stood in horror at what the brothers inflicted on the mortal plane. Ssita, Queen of the Gods and the Chaosgate of Creation, called her siblings and children about her. She demanded a solution. They were silent, until the Oldest spoke. With his bare hands he stirred the Stew of Fate, and as the God of Fate, he could see the solution. The Gods would create a barrier against their own interference. It would act as a Seal against the Gods and as a prison for Tlal, Daikado, and Mar’ies.

Focusing more power than they ever had the Gods forged the Seal. Seven elemental temples were created, each in the place where its opposite element was most powerful. They would use the conflict to bestow much more energy than they would on their own. The three prisoners would act as anchors to the mortal plane, holding the Seal in place. Mar’ies would be trapped upon his frozen throne on the north pole, Daikado trapped deep in the center of the planet, and Tlal living within a permanent hurricane on the south pole.

Out of love? Out of interest for their experiment? No mortal mind can say, but they know they are protected. If only from the Gods.