Age of the Godless
The life and worlds that thrived during the Age of the Godless are a mystery to modern scholars for none would survive the Crisis that closed the age. Nevertheless some knowledge from this time persists and it is from these that scholars have pieced together the events of the Age of the Godless.
As the Creator – now called the Eternal One – took the first of many mortal shells the struggles against his imprisonment ended immediately. The jaaren, pleased with their latest scheme, turned their attentions elsewhere while the Eternal One was born into his first mortal body and commenced with the living of his life.
In his first life, the Eternal One took the name of Jacaul, moving through the world alone. Certainly this prison of his was the most beautiful of all the creations of the jaaren, but this did nothing to ease the longing for companionship within Jacaul. Furthermore, he was confused, having no memory of his past or of who he was or from whence he had come to exist. For years he wandered across the world seeking after answers and finally, after centuries, succumbed to death.
It was then, in the singular instant before his death, that the answer to every question was revealed to him. No jaaren had foreseen that at the end of things the Creator would know himself. In rage he looked up to the skies and called upon all his power to lash out and destroy the upstart jaaren, who had dared to cast him into this eternal prison. Whether the act was beyond the scope of his power or not, it was well beyond the limits of his mortal body. Before channeling even the minutest fraction of the power he had called upon, the Eternal One was wholly consumed by the energy he called forth. The form that had been Jacaul fell to the ground, a wasted husk and nigh instantly the Eternal One was reborn into a new mortal body having no memory of what just occurred. Again and again this cycle repeated. The Eternal One was born, lived, and at the moment of death remembered. Without fail, he then lashed out at the jaaren only to die again as his mortal body was consumed in a magical tempest.
With each death, as the Eternal One suffered, so too did the world upon which he lived suffer. As he would draw forth the magical energies, and as they consumed him, great rents and scars were left behind. Into these tears seeped the power of the Eternal One. It pooled there, soaking up the suffering, rage, and hatred he felt anew with each death. And then, from these pools of magic, sprang a new form of primordial life: the farol.
Birthed in pain and hatred, the farol came forth as beings of great evil and darkness. Formoste among these new creatures was one who took the name of Asmodeus and rose to rule over many. Guided by Asmodeus, and awash with the dark power of the Creator, the first of the farol channeled this power into the land around them, transforming the once-beautiful realm into something as vile as the farol themselves. Their new realm, called the Netherworld by some, the Abyss by others, and Hell by others still, broke free of the reality upon which the jaaren had set it and became something new, a plane separated from the prime worlds. And, like the first creations of the jaaren, the first of the farol birthed new races as well. Races that would come to be known as demons and devils and would plague mortalkind for time eternal.
As the Netherworld broke free of its place in the prime material space, the prison of the Eternal One was shattered and the Creator at last escaped the solitude of his isolated homeland. Still he would be born and reborn, but now he walked among the many worlds created by the jaaren for mortals.
The jaaren, consumed with new distractions noticed none of this. In the years to follow the Eternal One lived and died many times and with each death his rage and hatred created dark stains on the perfect reality the jaaren were creating. Nevertheless, Iniis-Elan’s prison held him securely as his frail mortal form was unable to handle even a tiny fraction of his divine energy.
Time passed. Untold ages crept by. The first creations gave birth, evolved, changed. New life was birthed from the old. All the races of mortals were born. The farol seemed content to exist apart from everyone and anything. Things were, one might say, good.
And then the unthinkable occurred. The jaaren Enos-Allas slew his brother Delius-Ra in a fit of lustful anger. This act sent a tidal wave of fear through the jaaren. Never had such a possibility – that a jaaren would lift a hand in anger against another jaaren – even entered into their consciousness. Almost immediately lines were drawn up, two distinct factions arose. The first, led by the jaaren Kel’Elius, believed that life should be preserved – these numbered thirty-four. The second faction, led by Enos-Allas and numbering ninety-four, believed that the mighty ruled over the weak by birthright. A few, including both Annoch-Anol and Iabulus-Ny took no sides in this conflict.
And so the Second War of Powers erupted throughout creation to disastrous effect. Mortal life was fragile by design, and as the titans battled in the heavens life everywhere began to die. Billions were slain as entire planets were destroyed by the rampaging jaaren. This is the time written of by ancient scholars as the Crisis, a time when nearly all life became extinct. Only after another eighty-eight jaaren were slain did Annoch-Anol finally intervene.
Annoch-Anol called the surviving jaaren together in a great convocation. Here, he revealed what had led to their hatred for one another. In secret, the sly and devious farol, guided as always by their master Asmodeus, had come to Enos-Allas. Into his ears they had whispered dark secrets and falsehood, and manipulated him into murdering his brother. Indeed then, they had gone to and fro among the jaaren, kindling anger and resentment, until the very war which they sought erupted. Hearing the words of Annoch-Anol, and knowing them for Truth, the reunited jaaren turned upon the farol in righteous anger. They were cast into the prison of Abaddon where the Eternal One had long ago been incarcerated.
Yet the jaaren were still not satisfied, for it was not enough that the farol were imprisoned. The meddling jaaren had revealed in them a weakness and they could not abide it. So they expunged it as well. All emotion, both good and bad, was cast from their being. Only Iabulus-Ny, who did not attend the gathering, remained whole.
As the jaaren expended their emotions and reality began to recover the time of Crisis came to an end and so too did the Age of the Godless.