History

The death of the Christian God fractured the land of Awoudan so completely that they adopted a new standardized dating system based off of that year. Dates before the death of God are marked BD (before death) and AD (after death). The present day is 63 AD.

1 BD - Death of God

The Christian God is killed. Aged churches collapse, untouched relics crumble, and deafening silence meets every prayer. No one knows how, most blame the Devil, but all that is certain is that his divinity is gone.

1 AD - Death of the King

When God was slain, a part of the King died too. Half his crown balded, the other half grew sticky and twisted hairs. New sores scoured his flesh daily. He walked with a staggering limp while under the influence of herbs, but could not walk at all without them.

His illness progressed quickly and without an heir he grew anxious of his despairing kingdom warring with itself at his death. He summoned his Ealdormen and courtiers to the great keep of Carabrim to find an heir and establish a peace, but migraines and seizures kept him abed. He died before peace was reached.

2 AD - Rise of the Ring Lord

As the Ealdormen prepared to seize power or defend their own keep from ambitious lords, a northlander stranger arrived on the shores of Carabrim with a small army. In the early dawn, they seized the castle without bloodshed.

She declared herself Freygr of the Seven Rings. For the two smaller fingers of her right hand and the smallest of her left were severed and scarred over, and upon every other finger laid a ring of master craftsmanship.

She sent missives to the Ealdormen to acknowledge her as one of their own. They returned to Carabrim, along with their knights and men-at-arms. The Ealdormen intended to lay siege upon Carabrim, but Freygr raised a white flag and left the castle with an old, cloaked man to meet with the Ealdormen.

Not much is known what happened in that tent, but the Ealdormen named her one of their own and left her shire. War never came to Awoudan. The men-at-arms returned to their homes and keeps and all fire for battle went out of the Ealdormen. Rumors called Freygr a witch-queen and insinuated that she had charmed the Ealdormen and taken control of their thoughts.

Whatever misgivings people had of her, she ruled well and fair and the Shire of Carrdun thrived for it.

3 AD - Return of the Fell Gods

The Fell Gods return was not an immediate thing. First, visions afflicted the old clergy. Then they spread to the common folk. Then there were signs. Prayers for rain were answered. Plague and pestilence in the homes of thieves and murderers. Folk began to go missing, or change unnaturally.

Then the Omens were born. Their appearances had never ceased under Christian rule, but they were far rarer. Now every child in fifty was born under a dark sign, touched by one of the twelve Fell Gods.

Little by little, shrines and prayers to the Fell Gods became everyday life.

6 AD - Dark Tidings

Reports from the East reached the ears of Myrddin, the old advisor that Freygr favored. His scrying was clouded by a greater magic, but echoes of a great evil carried on the wind. Myrddin himself journeyed to the East to discover the truth of the rumors.

7 AD - Freygr’s Paladins

Myrddin returned one year and a day from his departure. He conferred his discovery of the Great Shadow and the Umbral ones to Freygr. Myrddin’s luster was able to resist both, but only in small measure. Awoudan would need more greater than he in order to survive the encroaching darkness.

And so an order of warriors called the Paladins was established. They were trained and cared for in ways that even Awoudan Knights were not. The selection process was not based on lineage or standing, or really anything that people could at all suspect.

It was later peaced together that all recruits were Omens. And so the people grew to fear and despise the Paladins for no reason other than superstition, despite their worship of the Fell Gods. The Paladins did not mind it. They were loyal to their Ring Lord with their heart and souls.

33 AD - The Great Shadow

Like a storm, the Great Shadow huddled across the sea on the southeastern horizon. It marched towards Awoudan, but Freygr had prepared for this. She called the banners of all Ealdormen and bade them stand at the border of the shire, but not enter it. She marched with her Paladins, entering this southeastern shire alone. Evacuations were underway, but most would not leave their homes before the storm. Some fled before the Paladins, but most hid indoors.

The Shadow crashed upon the shore. All in its path warped and became umbral, their skin purpling and greying. The light of humanity left them, and they attacked the Paladins. The luster of the Paladins protected them, but only for a short time. Soon the Paladins were forced to turn on their own. The Shadow merely rested upon the shore.

It relished in this carnage, and seemed to gather itself as it watched the humans destroy each other. It was in this moment that Myrddin sailed a longship directly into the Shadow’s mass. He was undetected for he wore Freygr’s Sable ring. None understood the magic words he chanted, but a great flash rippled from within the Shadow and a noise like the breath driven from a man’s lungs echoed across Awoudan.

The Shadow and Myrddin were gone. Freygr was victorious. Few Paladins survived, and none were unscathed. While the Shadow had dispersed, Freygr believed it would return. She retrieved the Sable ring and then quested alone across the land for a year.

34 AD - Freygr’s Return

None recognized Freygr when she returned. They thought her a beggar, perhaps a witch, and entreated her to basic hospitality. It was only Ealbryst, her Paladin Commander, who recognized her. Though her skin was sunken and she bore no arms, armor, or rings, she looked into his eyes with the same cunning he was used to.

She would take no food, nor water, nor rest and demanded they help her to her throne. As she walked she shook and spoke only these words:

I have done what I can to protect Awoudan. The Shadow will come again. Myrddin foresaw this. The Paladins are the only hope for the people. Live well, old friend.

She sat upon the throne with a tired smile, and then was still. Her flesh was cold to the touch and the beat of her heart could not be detected. But the luster inside her had not faded, and so the Paladins dare not move her.

And there she still sits. Waiting. Patient. Our lord, bereft of all she was. We pray that one day she will rise again.