The Bridge Campaign- Lore

A timeline for the events of a Dungeons and Dragons campaign story. All written by Me.

TIMELINE  

The Golden Age (Six thousand years before the campaign) 

In the beginning of the world, there were no higher beings on the continent of Yearn, only animals and primal ancestors of Humanity. Then the gods came. It is debatable whether the gods created the world themselves or were just incredibly advanced Nomadic Travellers, seeking a land to shepherd. Their arrival marked the Golden Age of civilisation. The gods were said to rule over the lands as Monarchs, living above the Humans in their palaces in the clouds, and commanding their Angels, creators of all magic, to go down to the earth and teach mankind of their ways. 

Contrary to belief, angels were not really the children of the gods, but beings manifested from the god's raw power. After the angels, there were sub-angels like Druids, Valkyries and Aasimars. They acted as soldiers and citizens of the heavens. The gods were forbidden to breed with each other as the creation of a natural born God who could potentially not abide by the rules that all other Gods followed or be weaponised would pose too much of a threat. However this didn't mean that the heavens barred their knowledge from the rest of the world. 

The first recorded event of humans using magic was the form of healing magic given by the patron Saint Jean Lańne. Jean Lańne was an Angel who performed miracles for mankind regularly and was the healer of the angels who would help his brethren during conflicts. Unlike most other angels he was never able to hide among the humans, as it is said that he was so beautiful that even if he was to hide away his Angel form, people who saw him would still think that he himself was a God. 

The gods sent the Angels off to teach humanity magic while they reigned over the world, shaping the land and heavens that they would call their home. The Kingdoms down below were; Chilta, a mountainous range in the north that held many small settlements; Pilmore, a north western land of dense pine forests and mountains; Laurier, the centre and capital Kingdom filled to the brim with lush grasslands and beautiful cities; Qi’han, an eastern land of Jungles and rainforests; Velmarsh, a south eastern set of islands that consisted of mostly uninhabitable marshlands and a few fishing hamlets; and finally Ranta, a southern mass of desert which overtime had many cities built into it. Throughout the land there was peace and above all unity amongst almost all the gods. 

The Bridge (Hundreds of years before the campaign) 

However this unity was tarnished by a lone God of unknown origin, who for reasons only it knew, went on a conquest to absorb the other gods and become the one true Ruler of the world. This God was aptly named The Traitor. It started small, by assassinating smaller, isolated gods and stealing their souls to consume them. Once it was strong enough it started to challenge gods to test its strength. This event was known as The Bridge as this became the bridge between the two ages of the world: the Golden Age and The Silent Age. By the time the majority of the gods were aware of The Traitor's presence it was already so powerful that it could take on many opponents at once and win. 

Because of this risk, the gods banded together to commit a sin. They conceived a child and hid it away, hoping that one day it would grow strong enough with the powers of its parents to destroy The Traitor. Once it was stowed away the gods prepared for The Traitor to appear and devour them all. And devour it did. This was not a war, as there was only one “battle” and said battle was more of a slaughter. The servants of the Gods whose souls had been devoured either aligned themselves with the Traitor or were killed. This made no difference, as even alone at this stage The Traitor was able to absorb the remaining Pantheon of Gods and slay the angels, thus ending The Golden Age. 

Once it absorbed all the other gods, it took the bodies of the two greatest human warriors ever to live; The King of the south and The King of the north, and ripped out their souls so it could split itself into two entities and inhabit their bodies, each body having half of the god souls. This was done as having the power of all the gods in one entity was impossible for The Traitor without it destroying itself, thus it became two entities. These two were named The Tilvmarine and The Kardakk. The two of them became brothers, forced to take care of the new world that they were now in charge of, but the two of them resented the god that they were created from, cursing it. They were lost children without the guidance of their mother who had been thrown in to rule a world they knew nothing about. But they could not seek help as they were the new Kings of the world, and Kings do not seek help. Despite this, the brothers had each other at least. The Kardakk did love his world and people, kindness was in his nature, but The Tilvmarine only cared for his brother. He saw his power as a merciless curse.

The Mountain Slaughter (Two hundred years before the campaign) 

One day, the brothers got into a heated argument about how the world was to be ruled. Eventually this argument came to blows due to their naivety and brashness. This could’ve turned to war if The Tilvmarine didn’t trap his brother in a magical prison, locking him away from the rest of the world behind the mountains and snow of Chilta. The prison was created when The Tilvmarine collapsed many mountains on top of The Kardakk and used all of his might to rip out some of the god souls within him to create a barrier of the tortured souls, trapping his brother. This heavily wounded and permanently weakened The Tilvmarine whose arm was left crippled and bloodied from creating the barrier. This mountain collapse destroyed entirety of Chilta, killing hundreds if not thousands and leaving only a lone tower there to show what used to reside.

The Blood Basins (Hundreds of years before-during campaign) 

After the bloodied battle between the two gods, travellers who came across the massacre in the mountains found a pool of The Tilvmarine’s blood from when he created the soul barrier, and discovered the powers from contact with the blood. These travellers each took a basin of blood for their own means and went their separate ways. 

Two blood basin carriers made the western and eastern Blood-Hunter guilds. Blood-Hunters devoted themselves to hunting down the monsters and devils of the lands, using the blood to connect themselves to their brothers and sisters in arms and enhance their abilities to fight monsters. 

Another blood basin was led to The Kardakk’s soul barrier and once presented to the barrier was let in as the blood was absorbed into it. Once they entered, the land they stood on beforehand was destroyed by an explosion caused by the new energy The Soul Barrier had gained. These travellers became some of the people within The Kardakk’s realm.  The last blood basin had many users, and had by far the most vile lifetime of all them. 

Father Irithyll (Hundreds of years before- 1 month before the campaign)

Irithyll was an Aasimar, a hybrid of Angel and Man, created by Jean Lańne alongside many others to serve the Gods. Irithyll was loved by his brothers and sisters but he also lusted for the power of his Forefathers. Whenever he tried to involve himself in the gods affairs, he was mocked and shooed away. Even his own creator told him that his pursuit of power would lead only to destruction. And so, when the gods fell, Irithyll simply sat aside and watched. 

With the absence of those who would have kept him in check, Irithyll became more wicked and continued his lustful conquest for power, eventually coming to an Ultimatum: He was the last remnant of The Golden Age of Gods, so naturally he was the heir to the world. he would become the all powerful King of the lands, and to keep his people in service to him, he would create gods of his own. This plan came to fruition when he witnessed the massacre in the mountains and watched as The Tilvmarine shed his blood on the snow. He did not dare go near the blood itself or The Tilvmarine as he still feared what the God could do to him. Once again he waited and watched as others claimed the blood for themselves. He followed one basin, kept by a religious family using the powers to covet greed and control over their children. Irithyll watched as the generations of this family grew less protective of their blood basin, and it was then that he burnt their lodge to the ground as they slept and claimed the basin. Now he could begin his reign. 

He started by taking control of a tribe of northerners that dwelled near the mountains, the lone survivors of the massacre. He quickly turned them into a Cult willing to do whatever he commanded. He started to subject his cultists to the blood so they would become whatever image he desired and forced the other tribes people to give up their children to his camp. He chose to use children for his plan as their youth made them easier to corrupt and influence. He would lock these children away and only ever fed them with human meat which would create a thirst for man-flesh. Then after a time he would feed them the blood, hopefully transforming them into beasts that would become mans predators. After many failed experiments, he managed to create three perfect Goddesses for him to use. He called these beasts "wendigos" and continued to use them as his bodyguards until his camp was destroyed. 

While he trained his Wendigos, he sought out one of the Blood-Hunter guilds which had obtained a blood basin of their own. Not wanting these primitives to be on the same level as himself, he tricked the Hunters into walking into a trap and forced them to slaughter each other. Despite thinking he had won this war, it would soon be his downfall. He was thwarted by a lone Blood-Hunter, her thirst for vengeance for her fallen family so strong that she alone took on the cult of Irithyll. She could not win against him and his cultists, but she managed to free the Wendigos from their chains, where they then ran off into the woods away from Irithyll. When he went to look for them, he discovered that most if not all his cultists had been torn to shreds by just one Wendigo, that same one then hunted him down endlessly. Irithyll was forced to flee and watch his creation work from afar. He did not dare go near her as he still feared what the Goddess could do to him. And so, he continued to wait... 

The Kardakk (Hundreds of years before-during campaign)

During The Bridge there was one more factor to play in the absorption which no one knew of. Saint Jean Lańne, Healer of the Angels, had incredible foresight granted to him by the will of the universe for being such a pure soul and he attempted to look into the future in an effort to save his people. No matter how hard he tried and how much help he received, he could not foresee a way to win against The Traitor's oncoming attack. Though he did dream of and eventually foresaw The Traitor's plan to split its power. He then realised that if someone powerful enough were to become one of the beings whom the power was given to, then they could gain back the full power of the gods and save the world from what tyranny The Traitor would bring and restore order. 

The Angel of illusion, Riktell, knew that it must be Jean Lańne himself who would save the world, and they disguised him as the Northern King and once the absorption was done he became The Kardakk. The only problem was that, once he had become The Kardakk, he lost all memories of his past life and was essentially a new-born man alongside the Tilvmarine, who remained a nobody cursed with this power. 

Flashforward to the Mountain Massacre and The Kardakk was trapped with many corpses from the other side of the mountains within The Soul Barrier. He then revived them to be his people. He held no resentment towards his brother and simply wanted to continue living within the prison as a home and Kingdom for his people, but they had a lust for vengeance against The Tilvmarine. While The Kardakk was able to hold off his people's vengeful plans for a short time, over the years they enacted a rebellion with the help of The Soul Barrier, which had began to gain a conscience. It poisoned the minds of the people and whispered in their ears to fight back. 

The Soul Barrier and Farron Children (Over 60 years before-during the campaign) 

The first instance of The Soul Barrier's interference was with the birth of the Farron Children. The Kardakk wanted to have children of his own that weren’t revived corpses, but he wouldn’t choose a wife as he saw all his subjects as his children already. So he used his power to try and grow offspring from a tree. The Soul Barrier, unbeknownst to him, allowed this to happen under its soil, acting as a vessel for the children’s birth. Thus The Kardakk had his children. He had 3 beautiful daughters who he named Juniper, Lavender and Jasmine, and one sickly son that he named Lupin. These children would soon lead the revolt against the rest of the world. 

They spent their lives hearing the stories of the day when The Tilvmarine slaughtered the people of the mountains, and they harboured vengeance for what he had destroyed. The children were among the first to be influenced by The Soul Barrier. The Soul Barrier, while unable to act or move, could influence the minds of the children as they were born from it. The soul barrier named them the Farron children, a name The Barrier had adopted from a dead man that was killed during The Mountain Massacre. 

And so The Kardakk's people, through Farron’s guidance from The Soul Barrier, were given the knowledge to develop advanced weapons like guns and steam powered robots. But the people needed to keep their work hidden from the pacifist Kardakk, so the soul barrier showed the people the Underdark, an underground tunnel system which was mostly unexplored by The Kardakk due to the dark energy it emitted. The three daughters of the Kardakk became the leaders of the Underdark rebellion due to their fiery passion for revenge. The monsters discovered within the Underdark were either captured and tamed by the rebellion or were extinguished by them.

 The first sister, Jasmine, led an expedition through the Underdark and discovered that from there they could leave The Soul Barrier, but she and her soldiers were killed by the untamed monsters which hunted them down. The second sister, Lavender, left the rebellion and went back to her father because of Jasmine's death and because she had seen the way that this influence from The Soul Barrier could corrupt her siblings. The third sister, Juniper, took in her sick brother Lupin and became a tyrant within the rebellion, where she and Lupin took to terrible methods to raise their army.  Many of the people created workhouses to create soldiers or workers to work in munitions in the Underdark. this is where a little girl called Marla was born. 

Marla (Forty two years-months before campaign) 

Marla was born to be raised as a worker inside one of these factories and was worked day and night to create weapons for the rebels until she was a teen. Her and her friends never fought back against their captors because they had guns, little did they know those guns had no ammunition because they were being saved for the fight against The Tilvmarine. 

Eventually, Marla and her friends started coming up with a method of escaping and managed to do so, finding a way to escape further into the Underdark and to their surprise, exit the soul barrier, But as they escaped they were followed by the real army, including Juniper, causing yet another explosion from the energy being absorbed into the soul barrier. This was because Juniper was of course a demi god, thus her power was taken by The Soul Barrier when she left it, causing a burst of energy. During this explosion, all but Marla were killed including her friends. Unbeknownst to her, Juniper had survived, and while lost in the vast Underdark and stripped of her powers, she turned to insanity and became the wild dark dancer, a mutated human who wandered the Underdark searching for game to hunt. 

Marla ran away just before the barrier was closed again and managed to find the rest of the world, devoting the next eighteen years of her life to finding out how to get back and destroy the army before they start a war. Once she entered the society outside The Kardakk's world, she became a scientist and historian and spent the next few years trying to scour out places connected to The Kardakk. 

She often tells a story to travellers that is sort of her life story but twisted:

The story tells how her people treated her terribly and told her to be scared of monsters that lived outside, she escaped one day knowing the monsters would kill her, but when she was lost and injured in the woods a pack of wolves comforted her and kept her warm. They weren’t monsters, they saved her and made her calm. For her the real monsters were the ones who hurt her, but to other people those were family and friends. Monsters aren’t real, monsters are only created through the eyes. You may see a monster in the form of a huge lumbering beast with claws and fangs but they’ll just be animals with families and lives of their own. A real monster is one who embraces and relishes in the hatred they receive and give out. 

This is one reason why she feels she needs to destroy the army because they can’t see past their hatred and made up stories to make anyone that wasn’t them look like demons. This philosophy was somewhat proven as, back in the barrier, the loss of all his sisters had made Lupin Farron bitter, and because of the time he had spent under the ground and the hatred he harboured, he ended up becoming so pale and cold that he looked like an Ice Demon. Thus his reign grew even more terrible for the people under him, something Marla would have guessed and now works to stop.

Crimson twins (Twenty three years before- during campaign)

Deep within the mountains, The Crimson Twins were born and raised as part of a cult that worshipped The Kardakk. This "Crimson Family" was formed from a few remnants of people that survived the massacre caused by the two gods and those once faithful to The Tilvmarine who deserted him. They believe that The Kardakk is resting in paradise and that he isn’t trapped at all, but is instead waiting to bring only the most faithful subjects into his world to be freed from the tyranny of The Tilvmarine. 

Lucille and Sonny were half siblings born to a concubine mother and brought up by the cult to be agents for them. They were tasked with bringing more people into the cult and finding out more about The Kardakk as the cult seemed convinced that they were connected to him. They were also meant to snuff out and destroy anyone who found out about them as they needed to keep pure and hidden from the rest of the world, like The Kardakk, to be seen as worthy.

 The cult, while usually fruitless when finding info about The Kardakk did find one thing. The Crimson twins had special magic that the were born with, Lucille with the power to heal with red crystals that sprouted from her body and Sonny to harm with the crystals that sprouted from himself. The cult thought this was The Kardakk's holy spirit giving them strength. One day, when he was younger, Sonny was looking out his window and saw a freezing cold Marla walking through the snow and he was convinced that she was one of the Kardakk’s angels. He was manipulated further by the cult to believe this. 

Lucille wasn’t as brainwashed as her brother because her mother, who was unwillingly a part of the cult as a concubine, told both of them to stray away from the cult. Sonny was too brainwashed by the cult and so Lucille had to break away from them herself. One day, Lucille's mother asked her to kill Sonny, but she refused. While she was raised with nothing to learn but apathy and coldness, she couldn’t bring herself to kill her brother and instead managed to run away from the cult once and for all, leaving her mother and brother alone. But sonny, now known as Mr Crimson, was tasked with collecting her again as it was believed that both siblings were needed for the Kardakk to consider them so they can help him battle The Tilvmarine. But the real reason Mr Crimson is looking for Lucille is much more in line with how the Kardakk, the real god, feels. Sonny just wants his sister back. 

Yörik, The Child of The Gods  (Hundreds of years before- during the campaign)

The Forbidden God Child, before it was hidden away by it's parents, was shown the knowledge of mankind for when it would grow up. In its mind was stored knowledge. The knowledge to speak, to create and most importantly, to fight. It was then placed within a cave near the mountains where it wailed for decades. 

Starving for something to feed on, it crawled it's way into the sun which burnt it's skin and eyes, because of the pain it had no choice but to crawl back into the caves where it was then discovered by an insane group of army deserters in search for remnants of the blood basins. They knew this child must have had connections to the gods and worshipped it for the long years they spent in the caves, feeding it their own flesh and building up hatred within it until the child developed from a God to a Beast. This monster was kept by the worshippers until their organisation crumbled, leaving only one man left to worship it.

Before they all died, these worshippers witnessed the creation and expansion of a new technology from above: the Steam Train. Some of the worshippers ventured to the north of Laurier and found a company building the tracks for these trains. Before they struck they began stealing materials from the company to then show the monster. The company knew that someone was stealing from them and upped their security, but eventually the worshippers slaughtered the workers and fed them to the monster. Then, using the monster's power, they manifested a train of their own with railways into the mountains, which they would have tried to use had they not all died out after an accidental release of the monster.

 The disappearance of the train company and the mysterious cave was known to the public, but none dared to explore due to rumours of a curse within the caves. Even the Laurier army didn’t dare venture into there, for they had pressing matters of their own within the capital.

(During the current evens of the campaign) The Monster was eventually found and, after hearing words of common from the party, it was able to regain his intelligence and escaped the caves. It slowly transformed back into a man and found out about The Tilvmarine, and instantly knew him as was The Traitor. Now that he was a man, he needed a name. Yörik. Yörik  raised an army made up of worshippers of the angels, soldiers unfaithful to The Tilvmarine and even parts of Rantallan armada, an elite force within Ranta. He made himself a shining red set of armour which looked like that of a demon, to symbolise the blood that would be shed and to show The Tilvmarine the face of the devils he’d soon see in hell...

The Tilvmarine (Hundreds of years-fourteen years before campaign)

After trapping The Kardakk, The Tilvmarine regretted his choice and tried to release his brother from The Soul Barrier. But he wasn’t powerful enough to break it in his weakened state as he had given up too much of his own power to create the barrier, thus not being able to destroy it. If he tried to enter it he would have his soul ripped out of him by the barrier and would surely die. 

The Tilvmarine continued to rule over the world but he was crushed by the overbearing guilt from imprisoning his brother, the massacre he committed during their fight and the fact that he was thrown into the world with no memory and forced to rule it with only one helper. Now that helper was gone. He took whatever followers were willing to go with him and expanded his grand city to the northern side of Laurier so he could watch over the mountains and pray for his brother's freedom, as well as to get away from the conflict he had caused himself. 

Most of the world accepted The Tilvmarine as the one true God, thinking that he alone was the one who absorbed the gods, not even aware of the Kardakk’s existence, but the southernmost Kingdom of Ranta was dissatisfied with his leadership and wanted him gone. They saw him as a coward who couldn’t lead his own people and seized power only to not use it. And considering he wore the armour of their dynasty they took this as a threat and insult to their dignity, unaware that before he was God, he was the King of Ranta itself. So they began to plot against him and have been threatening with war against the rest of the world for years.

 The Tilvmarine was not alone for all this time however, he once had a lover, a servant girl who he fell for and took to love and they called each other "My Heart". Finally, after all these years, he was loved by someone. Soon, The Tilvmarine's Heart bore a daughter who she named Maria, but she died after the birth of her child. Not being able to take care of Maria and being scared that she’d be killed by either Ranta assassins, the returning Kardakk or even himself with his untamed power, he sent her away. He looked far and wide for someone he thought could take care of her and found Jamos, The Duke of Alińn creek, a small town in Pilmore. He seemed a good man, in fact he seemed a great man. Kind and loving. The Tilvmarine prepared himself to give Maria away but When he left her at the doorstop of the Duke, he began to shed tears which trickled down onto the crying baby and obscured her name tag. He soon couldn’t take it any longer and fled. She was the only reminder he had of his humanity and the fleeting happiness he had and he gave her away… but he didn’t go to find her despite his regret because he didn’t want her to have to live with the life he had. He was truly alone….

Division of the kingdoms (Two hundred years before-during the campaign)

The Capital Kingdom of Laurier stayed loyal to The King Tilvmarine alongside its western sister Pilmore. Pilmore and Laurier shared similar trade routes and unlike the other kingdoms at the time, retained a close and connected border.

 Other kingdoms changed dramatically: Qi’han, once known for its luscious jungles and brilliant culture, devolved into a brutal death trap of a Kingdom, where the dynasty took part in enslavement and necromancy, bringing back their dead to use as slaves and cannon fodder. Their jungles were now rigged with lurking assassins, enslaved corpses and vicious animals, all due to the assassination of the previous dynasty during the absorption; Velmarsh did not get as involved, but a war that closely followed the absorption changed the marshes for the worst. From a smaller island, the reptilian humanoid races attempted to start a war with the people of Laurier in an attempt to expand their land now that the gods were not there to stop them. The war was short lived and due to the combined forces of Laurier and Pilmore, the reptiles lost despite their advanced magic, and all reptilian humanoid species who didn’t return to their land like dragonborn, lizard folk, and kobolds, were all cast aside and forced to live in the swamps of Velmarsh, as punishment for the war they lost; And finally, Ranta, in disgust of The Tilvmarine's rule, took most if not all her people and moved southward to the bottom of the kingdom. The only civilisation in the entirety of ranta is now in the capital off the south coast. All that remains besides that is the desert. Some say that down there in the lowly capital, the Rantans are plotting to overrule The Tilvmarine and start a war. They even started an alliance with Qi’han, who in turn took the supplies they were given and broke off the alliance to start their own war with the north. 

After the Tilvmarine gave his daughter away, he renamed Laurier to “New Maria” to honour her. This was the last public statement he gave, read out as a law by an adviser who proceeded to then mispronounce Maria to sound like “mauri-ahh”. This was fourteen years ago.

The Demon Wars (One hundred and fifty years before the campaign)

For years there was relative peace in the lands. The Tilvmarine ruled and those who opposed him stayed well away in their own Kingdoms. But one day, from down below where no one had ventured, the Demons came. The motivations of these ghastly monsters were never explained, they only seemed to want to kill and conquer all that stood above them. They may have won their vicious conquests if it wasn’t for The Tilvmarine going to the hive of all demons, Hell itself. He vanquished the demons and became the butcherer of hell. Or so the story goes. Said story was a lie. The real butcherer of hell was Cthulhu, the Prince of The Demons who wiped out hell after the Tilvmarine weakened Satan. Cthulhu killed the weakened Satan and butchered most of hell before he then took over what was left and went into a deep slumber, waiting for his time to fully recover the strength he needed to challenge The Tilvmarine once more. Though some demons escaped hell and still remain, they were either enslaved by the necromancers of Qi'han or lived to serve Cthulhu. One such demon was the Hydra Häaldrich. She was one of Cthulhu’s most valued servants but like all evil things she had an ulterior motive. She was alive during the absorption of the gods and lusted for the same power that The Traitor had gained. And so, she planned to do the same thing, starting off by devouring the souls of powerful mages, then moving on to stronger subjects. She awaits now for the return of Cthulhu, in the hopes to challenge him and eat his soul, gaining all the powers of hell and to become the new found Demon Queen.