For a hundred generations, the people of Rym build their empire. War was unknown to them, as were so many of the mortal hardships. The loving gods protected their children from all which sought to disrupt the safety of their civilization. However, for all their divine efforts, the people of Rym began to feel the need for independence. Pride began to gnaw at the cornerstones of gratitude, prompting the people to feel a mounting resentment towards their overbearing gods. Yearning to prove that they could take care of themselves, the people began applying their technology towards the synthesis of that which the gods provided. They built devices to influence the weather, perfected the medical sciences, and began to alter their own bodies to eliminate perceived flaws. This was the beginning of the Age of Creators.
As faith dwindled, the gods looked upon their children with concern. It was becoming apparent that the people of Rym had tired of improving their own civilization, and had gone to work on the designs of the gods themselves. Some of the gods were offended, others confused, and so it was decided that they would present themselves upon the mortal plane and discover what it was that was troubling the great empire. What they discovered horrified them. The people of Rym were in the process of trying to create their own race. Without the powers of the gods, they had turned to science and built great machines infused with artificial conscience. It was during this age that the people of Rym began to call themselves the Creators.
For the first time in a hundred generations, the gods felt challenged. Their own children had dared to call themselves the 'Creators'. Some had begun to speak of the gods as 'obsolete'. Religion was becoming a thing of ridicule, an old idea that had no place in the future of the great Creator Empire. Among the gods, loving patience slowly turned to frustration, and frustration turned to anger each time the Creators turned their backs on all that they had given them. It became a cold war, a battle for control as the Creators altered more and more of Rym to fit their own designs. And thus began the Age of Oblivion, and the Collapse.
After decades of rising hostility, the gods made their move. They descended open the mortal plane, demanding that the Creators reinstate their faith and return to their proper place in the order of things. The Creators reacted with scorn and contempt, insisting that the gods had become jealous of their powerful empire. Their machines did everything that the gods had done for them, but served the Creators as inferiors. They had corrected the 'errors' that the gods had made. They had no need for outdated gods. Enraged and most of all hurt, the gods declared war on their children in an attempt to teach them the humility which they had lost. With their ancient powers of magic and creation, the six deities returned to the world that they had created in order to set things right.
A slaughter ensued. The gods, for all their power, could never have understood how brutal their children had become. Armies of heartless killing machines marched to engage them, using weapons of technology that the gods could scarcely understand. From their shining cities, the Creators rained down unimaginable destruction upon the six lords of Rym's creation. They had no concept of honor or ethics, no code of mercy...war was a new and wonderful game to them. Nothing was held back. Of the six, only one escaped destruction at the hands of her children. This was Kij, the goddess of the sun. Crippled and grief-stricken, she fled Rym into the dark gulfs between the stars. As the war with the gods ended, the Creators hailed their victory as the ultimate achievement of their empire. They would not rest on their laurels for long.
So began the Collapse. A period of chaos and decay which rushed in to fill the void the gods had left. All the evils that had been held in check and filtered away by the ancient pantheon were unleashed upon the great empire in a raging maelstrom. The sun did not burn in the sky. Nature went mad, and terrible black storms ravaged the war-torn surface of Rym. For the first time, the Creators knew despair. Within a generation, their empire was reduced to ruin, and the once mighty children of the gods faded from Rym forever.
For three thousand years, the once lush and beautiful world was a nightmarish shadow, a tombstone of ice and rock hurtling through space. For three thousand years no living thing walked the surface of Rym. And then, timid and humbled and very alone, Kij returned to the lifeless grave of her world, bathing it once again in her warm radiance. The storms calmed. The ice began to melt. The young goddess used the weak remnants of her power to rekindle the spark of life on Rym, trying to find the old pattern of nurturing love that had once been her part in the nature of things. Unfortunately for her, something else had come to the ruined world in her long absence, and had already begun to institute an agenda of its own.
It's followers came to Rym from beyond the stars, soulless beings spreading a religion of doom. They opened doorways on Rym, mystical portals that lead to other worlds and other times. In their wake it came, a dark vortex in reality itself. They called it the Eater, a whirlpool in space surrounded by dying stars and bloody nebulae. The Eater was thought to be the end of time, a sentient, devouring void expanding to consume all of reality. It's servants called themselves the Spiral, a legion of lost souls who had been consumed by the Eater's dark power. Along with them came a scattering of refugees from the worlds the Eater had already destroyed, some seeking revenge on its followers, others simply trying to keep ahead of its obliterating expansion. They came to Rym by the thousands, races of all kinds fleeing the Eater and its servants, to build homes and castles, temples and towns. Ruling above them all, the forces of the Spiral spread themselves to the four corners of the frail world and took hold, preparing for the coming of their master. This era marked the beginning of a new era, and a new chapter in the history of Rym.
The first few centuries are an obscurity, a time when Rym had few scholars or antiquarians to take note of important events. The basic aspects of history are known, however. In these early years, colonies were established, most refugees escaping from other worlds destroyed by the Eater. Along with the survivors came the Spiral, twisted beings sent by the Eater to spread its dark power and destroy its enemies. After four centuries, Rym's population has climbed to nearly a million new inhabitants. In an attempt to halt the escape of its victims, the Spiral chooses to close the portals rather than wait for a full compliment of reinforcements. While they number too few to fully enslave the refugee kingdoms, they begin to lay the plans for the full conquest of Rym in preparation for the coming of the Eater.
After more than three thousand years lost in deep space, the most powerful of all the Godslayer Machines returns to Rym. Sent before the Collapse, the great mechanical dragon comes home to find its masters long dead and their empire in ruin. For all of Nigh's power, it cannot form new orders or deal with what has happened, and a system-wide logic fault causes the ancient Machine to crash somewhere on Freilu. For three years, its mechanical howls carry across the arctic wastes, heard as far away as Arthandur. During this time, several expeditions are sent to Freilu in an attempt to find the source of the cries, none of which are heard from again.
Kij herself is said to have brought a book of solid platinum to a scattering of Believers who had taken up arms against the Spiral. It was known as the Tome of Souls, and within its sacred pages were contained the secrets of her own ancient order, the Solinar. With the knowledge acquired from the tome, the Believers forged a new order of Solinar, holy knights trained to fight and destroy the undead. Underestimated from the beginning, the Solinar become the first significant force to challenge the Spiral in recorded history. In ten years, they recruit close to a thousand Believers into their order, and cause tremendous setbacks in the Spiral expansion plan. The agents of the Eater are forced to fall back, regroup, and change tactics.
The Spiral becomes aware of the Tome of Souls, and the power is contains. Perceiving it to be the source of the Solinar's power, they send shapeshifting spies to dwell among the Believers and steal the sacred codex. After two unsuccessful attempts, the book is plundered and taken to the Spiral capital of Nirus in the northern wastes. In spite of the theft, the Solinar remain a powerful adversary and vow to recover the Tome at all costs. Kij continues to support her new followers as best she can. Believing the Solinar to be crippled by the loss of their sacred relic, the Spiral launches an unsuccessful siege against the capital city of Savagnos. Suffering severe loses, the Spiral forces are driven back once more.
From the depths of the earth, the Spiral cult raises a dread army of skeletons to strengthen its presence on Rym. Thousands upon thousands of skeletons are torn from their graves, three decades of desecration lead by the Spiral magus, a demonic lich known as Yogyoth. With their undead legions, the Spiral launches a campaign of expansion from their northern stronghold, spreading southward in a dark fan. In an attempt to hold them back, the Solinar are forced to recruit many untested squires and even serfs. A young knight by the name of Tamanthus is placed in charge of the larger of two Solinar armies. It is through his skillful leadership and courage that the paladins succeed in staving off the relentless waves of the undead invasion. Under his banner, the Solinar force their way northward in an attempt to bring the fight to the Spiral.
A terrible conflict spanning nearly a decade ends in the defeat of the Spiral army and the demon lich, Yogyoth at their stronghold in Freilu. The Tome of Souls is recovered, and the victorious Solinar return to Akrus, establishing a great cathedral in honor of Kij. Sir Tamanthus, whose own sword put an end to Yogyoth himself, is made king, and for a brief time, hope returns to the weary nations of Midland. The city of Savagnos becomes a refuge for the Believers, and a beacon of light in the encroaching darkness. The Tome of Souls is placed at the heart of the cathedral, and once again the teachings of the paladinhood become a source of inspiration to the Believers.
A woman claiming to be a Creator is captured by pirates inhabiting the Tamaran islands. Minutes later, their ships on fire or sinking, the pirates swear loyalty to her. Within six months, she has seized control of the entire eastern coast of Midland and recruited a following of thousands. She becomes known as The Decider, a merciless and brutal queen whose wrath brings destruction of deistic proportions. At first, even the Spiral refuse to challenge her power, and as her influence spreads, an uneasy truce is formed. She forges a new kingdom encompassing the Tamaran islands, a decadent empire of greed and indulgence ruled with an iron fist. In order to support this mindless extravagance, her followers launch bloody raids against each of the mainland kingdoms, capturing wealth, resources, and slaves. The capital, Sin, becomes a haven and paradise for her most valued followers, a place where even the most depraved and tasteless of dreams can be made reality.
King Tamanthus and his entire family are murdered by the Decider in a unified effort with agents of the Spiral. The Tome of Souls is stolen once more and taken to the city of Sin. The death of their leader deals a terrible blow to the Solinar, and in their moment of weakness, the Spiral launches another devastating siege on the city of Savagnos. Trapped on all sides, the Solinar are slaughtered, and their great cathedral is burned to the ground. The few remaining paladins scatter to the four corners of Rym, and over the next two decades, each is in turn hunted down and killed. Greatly weakened, Kij fades back into obscurity, and the outlying kingdoms fall to the Spiral one by one.
To assist the spread of the Wasting, the Spiral constructs three colossal extraplanar conduits. Contained within dark, twisted monoliths, the open conduits bring about a steady pollution, spilling ash into the skies, salt into the oceans, and ooze across the land. The extraplanar floodgates are held open by powerful magic, and are themselves artifacts of tremendous power.
The first conduit, Nirn, contained within the dark citadel of Exalus, is a gateway to the para-elemental plane of ash. Through the thousands of perforations in the surface of the monolith pour unimaginable volumes of soot and smoke, filling the skies for miles around with a perpetual layer of choking clouds. The ash covers the ground in a vast gray desert, killing all life and blotting out the sun.
The second conduit, Crothus, lies beneath the southern oceans among a vast whalebone graveyard and a maze of dead reefs. Into the warm currents pours vast quantities of salt, erupting from the channel at the heart of the monolith. The salt steadily spreads outwards from the conduit in a killing tide, destroying the delicate balance of the marine ecosystems.
The third conduit, Glut, lies at the heart of Slank, the orcish nation. From its massive floodgates spill endless amounts of slime and muck, steadily expanding the swamps into the fertile heartlands of the middle kingdoms. Civilization and wilderness alike have been consumed by the swamp as it spreads outwards around the monolith.
All three monoliths are protected by great magical seals, rendering them impervious to magic and the elements. Thousands of lives, most captured Believers, were sacrificed during their construction. However, like all artifacts, each has a vulnerability. These vulnerabilities form a prophecy of seemingly impossible conditions (explained later). In addition to the seals, each conduit is surrounded by a dark fortress and an army of undead soldiers, Spiral priests, and other horrors.
For over two centuries, Rym dies slowly as its mother star is devoured. The nights grow longer, the winters colder, and the Eater dominates ever more of the night sky. The forces of the Spiral dominate Rym, spreading the dark influence of the Wasting like a plague. Hope fades from all those left alive as they wait for the end. Kij, her followers all but gone, begins to die as well, her light pale and gray. The servants of the Eater grow stronger as their master grows near, awaiting oblivion with mindless zeal.
In Rym's darkest hour, the last of the Believers prepare to meet their destiny. In all the cold, empty hopelessness that has embraced the doomed world, there are those who would yet oppose the unstoppable forces of the Eater. Those with the courage to fight back, even as the shadow of oblivion looms over their heads. Those who would show the Spiral the meaning of heroism. Their time has come...