Lore Articles

Random articles about the lore and history of Arcanist Gear.

1. The Origin of Sol
2. On golems and the Fall of Man

The Origin of Sol

The modern system of Sol has learned a lot from the galactic community and through scientific evidence, yet still their origin is a source of conflict. Originally they believed three supreme beings known as the holy trinity created all existence as they knew it, and that all existence was managed by a pantheon they called the immortals. Each immortal had their own source of worship, and the holy trinity was often alluded to but never truly understood. Now they know better.

Ancient galactic civilizations believe all of Sol and the "humanoids" descend from the abyssals. For the longest time it was thought every race was made by various gods, evidence points to a new theory - Evolution. The abyssals happen to be known as the most adaptive species from the Sol system, to the point that they themselves are radically morphed from one to another. It is also well known the entire plane of the Abyss was created by cosmic entity Alpha One, it happens to coincide with the time other civilizations reported Alpha One as passing through that region of the galaxy. Evidence says that all of Sol, all of the humanoid races, are a byproduct of Alpha One passing nearby millions of years ago.

From the abyssals descend all others, as they grew within their own plane they took on their many distinctive appearences and sub-categories but some escaped the Abyssal plane and went elsewhere. Originally Sol believed celestials and demons were primeval forces, and that abyssals must be a byproduct of something. Evidence has now proved both celestials and demons evolved from the Abyssals upon coming into contact with more stable environments. Only a handful of Abyssals ever went to Finsir but those that did reproduced and eventually all of their descendents were adapting to a higher plane of existence's stability. While not every stage of their evolution is documented, eventually over perhaps a million years they became a consistent race of their own that would go on to be called demons. The same effect applied to the few that traveled to Celeste. On a galactic level these two planes retain only a few basic alterations of typical physics, but within Sol the climates and ecosystems surrounding Thenica's multi-planar rotation produced very distinct species of abyssals none the less. That is how the angels and demons were born.

It wouldn't be for a very long time, but eventually Abyssals would find their way into more planes again, and this just keeps continuing. Each plane developing its unique sub-species of "humanoids" that all descend as direct results of the chaotic Abyssal genetics stabilizing in higher planes. While demons are known to travel to the lower plane of Finsor where things are less stable, by that time the majority of their genetics had already stabilized in Finsir. Though notably new species of demons appear in Finsir that might be categorized as monstrous instead of humanoid. All this is evidence that celestials and angels are the same thing, and demons and devil are also the same thing despite the more medieval world of Thenica's understandings.

Elves and drow obviously share a common ancestor, evidence suggests it was a celestial. This common ancestor had multiple children of something historians refer to as the "celestial elf" which would later go to two different higher planes. One went to the shadow plane and the other traveled to the elemental plane. Once again as a shock to all medeival theorists, the ancestor in the shadow plane would produce what are called moon elves. The lack of light in the shadow plane shaped their pale and often blonde features. Meanwhile the celestial elf's descendents in the elemental plane's skin darkened under harsh sun and near constant exposure to fire would darken them into what is referred to as the elemental elves. The moon elves would travel to Zonaricht and adapt one last time into the common elf of the modern day. Meanwhile elemental elves have a descendent that got lost in the lower plane of The Void somehow. Those that evolved in the void would reappear thousands of years later in Zonaricht as well, having now evolved into what we know as the drow. As for the rest of the elemental elves, its not entirely clear why but over time they became extinct. Archeologists theorize that there was an evolutionary pressure on the elemental plane during that time frame that was endangering them. This is likely why some would be desperate enough to escape to the void plane. As it turns out the ancestors that went to the void were correct, those descendents live on in the drow whereas the others died out.

Dragons, as it turns out, are younger then elves as a species. They, once again, share the old abyssals as ancestors, likely something closer to a reptile then the ones that would go on to produce the celestials and demons. This common ancestor reached the plane of Vermasih where several offshoots would come around. Whoever the common ancestor was is actually linked to thousands upon thousands of other species, this particular abyssal happened to have very malleable genetics and could mate with almost any other organism that required eggs to be fertilized with sperm. Evidence points to inter-breeding with the existing non-sentient species of the plane. The resulting offspring kept the abyssal's intelligence and developed a body more akin to the giant reptilian creatures of Vermasih. This ancestor would eventually find its way into the elemental plane and after a few evolutionary generations the colored dragons of the modern day finally came to exist, still retaining the peculiar virility of their ancestor and thus the ability to create dragonborn that come from their mating with humanoids. And yes the noble modern dragons and dragonborn that were alive to hear that discovery were shocked to discover they descend from beastiality with dinosaurs.

This same ancestor is linked to gnolls as well, but a very different line of descendence leads to them. Though there was one similarity to the historic line of the dragons, gnolls definitely came after hyenas. There actually remain many species on Thenica who can breed with others that are not of the same species as them, they just tend not to out of habit. The ancestor of dragons and gnolls is known for its special virility that produced so many different species across Thenica. Dragons, gnolls, lycans, minotaurs, aranea, and orcs all come from this same common link.

The abyssal ancestor that would produce humans is also the root of dwarves, gnomes, halflings, giants, and oddly enough illithids. Illithids are obviously a bit further away in the ancestral line. All these humanoids share another common link millions of years ago that illithids don't, from there it splits dramatically into the different sizes of humanoids based on the environment they were on. It is known that all of these sub species developed on Zonaricht, and even though halfings and gnomes have gone extinct in the last few thousand years their evolutionary significance remains a point of study. Notably all those from this line vary wildly in size but not in their other features, anatomy is almost identical in all cases just the size and proportions change. Again, except for the illithid, who got into the underdark and went all over the place.

Much of this history and evolutionary study is only recently becoming fully understood, and society in Sol is in an awkward phase because of it. Abyssals have always been treated a bit second class, but now have been proven as the root of all other intelligent species in Sol. Dragons have always been revered, and are now known as not only descendents of abyssals but also some rather frowned upon acts. The common person's viewpoint hasn't changed much, but some abyssal supremacy gangs have started up on some planets for example. Also the insult "lizard fucker" has come about in regards to dragons and dragonborn with a lot more literal emphasis.

On Golems and the fall of man's empire

When the Era of rising first began there were three major racial nationalities. The kingdoms of man, elf, and dwarf. The war against the overlord monsters of the time was started by human kingdoms which were the most populous, organized, and wide of the three major races. They were able to recruit the aid of elves, dwarves, and many many other humanoids that were given the promise of citizenship in the new world if they helped with the war effort, all were united under the King Laderas the Great at the beginning.

Even after the war, mankind remained in majority control among the three major races but one seemingly minor invention plays a key role in the decline of their empire and the rise of the elven one. The golem is a creature made of various materials and animated with arcane enchantments to perform simple tasks. They are not sentient and a little clumsy but they are very useful for performing low skill tasks as they do not tire or complain.

After the war had settled, the king thought carefully how to divide up his lands to best satisfy everyone. He had millions of new immigrants of many different races now and much of the lands in his immediate area were already owned by the appointed lords. Eventually he managed to make deals to expand his territory and appointed new lords from within noble families to take over the lands and manage it for him as well as educating chieftain type figures from the new races and giving them land in the newly expanded territories. This all worked out fairly well and all deals were kept and as a side affect many of the new races lived only on the borders of the kingdom and didn't have to mingle with the humans too often which kept them satisfied.

The elves had more powerful and inventive arcanists in their society and even easier access to golems, though the elven council went a different route. Accepting their share of the burden to take on these new races as immigrants for fighting in the war they opted to instead move all of these immigrants directly into the biggest elven cities and left golems to the work of farming. Massively expanding farmland around cities to be maintained by the council's golems and though space was tight they were adamant to make it work.

By not giving the newer races their own lands to work and farm as the humans did they prevented orcs, trolls, gnolls, and more from being able to remain independent. Since the council had a near-monopoly on food production everyone within their kingdom needed to play their part in the society to survive. This meant there was a lot more manpower then there were jobs for the time being, and then the elves offered to accept the new races in need of work to join the military. They were able to subvert the tribal violence of these races in favor of disciplined training, regimented sparring, and even sports which allowed for a smoother mix into their culture.

The reason for this was more out of necessity then kindness. Elves are fragile and do not reproduce quickly, but these new immigrants were quite sturdy and reproduced much faster. By forcing these races to become dependent on the elven society for food and then pressuring them into an easy life in the military, it wasn't long before the elves had a new army composed of all these other races that had few other alternatives but to serve the elven rulers. This is the turning point in international politics, as this trend continued the elven kingdom grew more powerful and more influential then the humans since they could increase their population much quicker now.

While there were periods of famine during the initial phases of this, the council instead took food from their own people and kept their new immigrants fed because the urban elves were already so dependent on elven society that a few missed meals wouldn't be enough reason for them to actually leave, just complain for awhile. After long enough, the sprawling elven cities were colossal for their day and the tightly integrated society left them with enough variety to fix any problem.

In conclusion, the human king was a smart ruler but he lacked scope. He would only live sixty years and so he only focused on fixing the immediate problem of keeping the races segregated to maintain happiness of his nobles and people. The elven council instead had centuries to look forward to and realized the advantage of closely indoctrinating the new races into their culture so that within a generation or two they would know nothing but elven rule and would serve loyally.

The remnants of the human empire can be seen to this day on the western continent, while it has been absorbed by the young empire of Alnae it remains a series of cities separated by racial ghettos and a huge density of humans in its central areas. However, as times progressed the elves have expanded so much that the once-human nation was forced to accept assimilation to participate in interplanetary exploration.

Humans used the golem to increase their profits for themselves, and otherwise left the new races to their own devices. Elves used it to monopolize the available labor positions and force their new immigrants into serving the elven military which allowed them to harshly discipline and indoctrinate them as a part of "training". Historians may argue about the ethics of the elven method, but in the end the elven empire of Alnae reigns across the planets and the human kingdom is just a small state within it.

 

The Rise of Thali

In 1930 A.R. an alien race from the fringes of the galaxy found its way into the Sol System. This alien species was a massive hive mind that could control, mutate, and consume all organic life it came across. Devouring plants, animals, people, and whatever else it could find digestible to increase its ever growing swarm. The swarm colony itself was once named Hallen, which was the closest anyone could get to pronouncing its alien name that it used at the time.

The first to respond to this threat would be several Shetou houses who wanted not only the glory of defeating it while it was still growing but to find some way to capture and research it for their own goals. Ultimately they failed and wound up only feeding it even more.

Alnae finally organized its united naval force to try and contain it to specific planets for the time being as they looked for a better long term solution before resorting to just destroying worlds to kill it. Unfortunately the fleets were unable to do so as the hive colony had many ways to reach and travel through space to spread itself and was able to take the fight to their ships in orbit and take control of them.

One of the galactic races from a nearby system saw this happening and sent aid at the request of Valencia Desoir but it took some time to get there. In the time it would take their fleet to travel to Sol, a group of six hundred heroes proclaimed they were going to go fight the hive and see if they could do so. No one expected them to get much done but it wasn't worth the effort to stop a few hundred people from comitting mass suicide.

Among those few hundred was their leader, a human named Indal. He led his warriors into the heart of the hive colony and fought several battles across multiple planets while his six hundred gathered data and tried to figure out how the entity worked or could be stopped. They have not shared to this day what they discovered and it is considered a classified secret so that no other empire can know what they did. In the end only fifty of those brave heroes were left, but they had somehow subdued the entire hive colony to serve Indal loyally.

By the time the galactic assistance arrived, Indal demanded the right to carry out justice as according to the offended nation's laws instead of handing the problem over. The galactic bureaucracy agreed and let him do as he wished, which was to keep the hive species as his own subject. Indal would come to be known as the greatest warrior of all the Sol System. The only magic he uses is his weapons and armor which have standard ethi enchantments on them, other then that he utilized a variety of melee weapons ranging from his iconic axe to his sword or his knife as necessary in the field.

Despite not wielding any magic spells to augment his own combat abilities, he has proven his ability to fight those who do again and again. Defeating Val'hari of shetou, powerful archmages, dragons, and many more. As his deeds became known more and more people became attracted to his growing following, which his adviser Kenin began to turn into a nation. Claiming the planets the hive colony once took over as Indal's territory.

Within that territory people learned to live with the strange organisms which provided free physical labor and their ability to mutate and control organisms to their desire allowed for a highly effective agriculture to feed the population that now swore loyalty to Emperor Indal. In time, people began to join the hive colony by accepting it into their blood stream which would eventually cause them to join the colony. It is inevitable that all who die within Thali do so as their organic matter would be fed to the colony anyways, but many choose to do so while living with the promise of immortality within the colony's infinite consensus. The infected do tend to exhibit behaviors that confirm some degree of individuality is likely retained, making the idea even more popular. Those who choose not to join the colony throughout their young and healthy years will often choose to after being diagnosed with fatal illnesses of age, joining the colony before dying, and some just joined because they wanted to even if they were healthy.

As time passed, Indal himself became a victim of a mortal wound inflicted on him during a battle with a dragon who was annoyed that the human emperor would dare challenge him. Indal's advancing age did not help matters, as a human he had a short lifespan and his body was not used to such stress anymore. After much debate it was eventually decided that Indal should merge with Hallen, the hive colony. They needed him to live on to keep Thali under his rule, even if Kenin did the majority of administration it was Indal the people revered and stuck around for. Even if he should just become a puppet of Hallen it would be for the greater good of his people he had acquired.

To this day, no one knows what happened when he became one with the colony. They say all of the infected across multiple planets exhibited abnormal behavior simultaneously once it happened. Some organisms were described as weeping tears of joy to see their emperor join the infinite presence of the hive, others were described as if they were in great pain and struggling for control. The body of Indal itself was motionless throughout all of this. By the time it started moving again, the hive colony stopped calling itself Hallen, and renamed itself Indal. No one is sure if it is imitating Indal to hold power, if Indal has retained enough individuality and Hallen's loyalty to rule from within the colony, or if Indal completely overtook the colony and became its new master.

Whatever the truth is, Indal still rules over Thali to this day as its immortal emperor. If his body should die then a new one is made in one of the pits of organic ichor that the colony uses to produce its creatures of labor and no changes in his behavior can be discerned. Indal the living has gone into legend as the greatest warrior since the Era of Rising, and as Indal the Immortal we have yet to see how time will remember him.