Because this is so long I've inserted it in a spoiler space. It's about three pages total.
Its an alternate look on a fourth world and its relation to the 6th.
I'd like some help smoothing things out.
[spoiler] Lately I’ve been doing some thinking on the history of shadowrun, the 2nd and 4th ages specifically. I’ve got nothing for the 2nd age, but the 4th shows some promise.
I know Earthdawn was supposed to be cannon and a lot of people probably still use it, but I wanted something a little different this time around.
I found a bit of inspiration in watching my husband play a few games, Diablo 3 specifically.
Having fell in love with some of the back story I proceeded to get my hands on the books that accompanied it. The Book of Cain and The Book of Tyrial. Both are histories and insights into the world and the conflict between heaven, hell and the mortal realms. (I’m also reading Aetherology at the recommendation of another GM for this.)
But a quick run down of the mythology. Once upon a time there was nothing except the void and within that void existed a pearl like egg. Inside this egg esisted a being that represented all things. Good and Evil, order and chaos, etc.
Well over time this being gained sapience and on contemplating its existence split into two parts. One half was all the positive traits and the other was the negative. And so for several millennium they fought, neither side gaining ascendance.
Well they eventually expended almost all of their energy, and dying lunged at each other one final time. Their death throws shattered the egg and created heaven and hell, along with the angels and demons.
The realm where heaven and hell met was pandemonium and here lay the Muguffin of the story, the world stone. An artifiact of such power it could be used to create worlds and even planes of existence.
Both sides wanted it, and wanted to eliminate the other side as well. So the eternal conflict was born, and raged across pandemonium. Over time the tides of battle would shift and one side or another would gain control of the world stone. They used it to create worlds in their own image, but each was somehow incomplete and withered and died.
Well a war like that will begin to crush the spirit of some and so a renegade angel and demon gathered together those who had grown tired to the fighting and stole the world stone. Using it to create and hide a world containing the traits of both sides. There they hid, safe to live and love, and eventually give birth to a race called the nephilim, who had all the power of their parents and the gift of free will. A dangerous combination.
Seeing what they had made divided the renegades. Some feared the nephalim and some embraced them as the future. But the two sides couldn’t coexist and so a civil war erupted. Lilith the mother of the nephilim slew those who followed her lover and sought to control or eliminate the children. In turn she was banished by her lover and the nephilim diminished until they became mortal.
There’s more after this but let’s tackle how we’re going to implement this stuff so far.
The creation of the planes exists so far back in history we don’t need to deal with it, or the vast majority of the war between heaven and hell. We start with the creation of earth and the material plane.
The nephilim were divided into bloodlines depending on their parents traits, and all are related. So yes, a dragon and a human share common blood if you just go back far enough. A fact that it is wise not the mention lest you get eaten by the dragon.
I’d put the civil war and the origin of the nephalim before the current age count. The Diminishing being the 1st as the blood thins and the races settle into their current forms.
Now back to the story. The mage clans ruled alongside kings and guilds. Three being the most common, with the Conjurers being the ones that matter right now. Originally they were limited to the spirits of the dead or elementals and the like, until one rather mediocre mage lost his family in a minor war with another clan. In his rage and grief he reached out and touched something new. And so it came to pass that the demons discovered the material plane. Well the clan managed to keep their new discovery under wraps until they were ready to use it. They originally summoned the demons for knowledge but as the old saying goes power corrupts.
They started a war to concur the other clans and then the entire world. They might have done it too, if they hadn’t turned on each other in the end. Well this brought down the might of the mages and gave rise to the age of superstation and faith. But the demons weren’t done.
They continued their corruption and manipulation until the angels finally had to take notice. The eternal war was waged on earth and other worlds until the birth of a being with the power of the original Nephilim, and he could wake that power in others. (of course it comes to light he had help from Lilith who had managed to end her exile.)
Well he and his followers began taking names and kicking the proverbial crap out of heaven and hell, but the energy they unleashed threatened to rip the world apart. At the last minute he came to his senses and using his power he set things right, and banished the forces of heaven and hell form earth.
Heaven was rattled that something with demon blood could do that, and hell saw a weapon they wanted. Neither side wanted to admit to the existence of angelic blood. In fact humanity slipped by with one vote to spare them from the angels.
It wasn’t an exile that would last, since a civil war in hell banished several major, some say THE MAJOR powers to earth. (Here’s where the games take place.)
With the demons contained and the angels indifferent to the fate of mortals the manna began to ebb again. Cue the 5th world.
The 6th world has several mysteries, like why is manna rising again, where are the demons and angels and what are their plans for humanity.
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