History

World of Terranea

The world of Terranea lies on the Material Plane and is host to a wide variety of peoples and cultures spread across continents. The people were blessed by the gods with magic, and they were capable of extraordinary feats, of both good and ill repute.

Aeros

The continent of Aeros was cut off from the rest of the world following the events of the Planar Invasion, and much of their knowledge of the rest of the world has been lost to time.

The Planar Invasion

In the year 7 BSY, Terranea was invaded by beings from across the planes who sought to take the world for their own. The Planewalkers, as they came to be called, were made up of legions of fiends, giants, monstrosities, and elementals that besieged the land, entering without warning through planar rifts. Celestial warriors led by angels descended from the heavens, sent by the gods to protect their earthly children, and met the creatures in battle. The people of Terranea rose up to meet the threat and fight alongside the children of the gods who had come to save them.

Not all the peoples of Terranea resolved themselves to fend off the invaders. The people of the Underdark, long persecuted and snubbed by their overworld bretheren joined the Planewalkers, believing in the promise of a new world where they could emerge from the darkness as equals. The nomadic tribes of Beastkin refused to enter the fray and retreated to the wilds. And the ancient dragons, the most fearsome of all, turned their mighty flames against the celestials for reasons that may never be fully understood.

The war raged for four years, and the tides of battle were shifting in the favor of Terranea. The power of the celestials was unmatched, as a single angel could effortlessly slay swathes of foes and go toe-to-toe with dragons. The war was all but won, until the elves betrayed the world.

The elves’ longevity gave them ample experience in understanding the other races of Terranea, and their keen observational insights from fighting alongside the celestials gave them a clear advantage. The elves had discovered a way to use their magic to weaken the angels. The might of the celestials was reduced to a fraction of what it once was, and their numbers plummeted as the invaders slew them in droves.

The gods, enraged by the loss of their children, bequeathed the secret to the celestials power to the mortal world, allowing a select few to develop technology once reserved only for the divine. With this knowledge came a new era of Artificing and Alchemy that placed magical weapons once only heard of in legends into the hands of mortal soldiers. They built ships that sailed through the skies, carrying men into battle unimpeded by the land’s harsh terrain. And with the blessing of the gods, they created a new people - the Warforged - replacing the celestials that were lost on the battlefield. With these new weapons in hand the invaders and their sympathizers were routed, and those denizens of the world who remained were left with the consequences of their betrayal.

As a final act of spite, the Planewalkers pulled the gods’ floating throne - the Chalice - into the Material Plane and summoned a storm that surrounded it and the lands below, sealing both the gods and the people off from the rest of the world. The Planestorm, as it became known, left the world forever changed.

Founding of the Holy Republic of Caius

The continent of Aeros and the countries within - the Lethean Empire, the Republic of Caius, and the Kingdom of Geprus - were cut off from the rest of Terranea, sealed inside a storm of extraplanar energies with no way out. None who attempted to brave the storm ever returned.

The devastation across the continent was immeasurable. Entire cities were leveled, families were broken, and resources were scarce. Unable to access trade routes that ran outside the storm, government coffers were quickly emptied and hunger led to riots and uprisings that toppled empires and republics alike.

Despite the devastation, a renewed faith in the gods brought on by their vehement defense of their earthly children provided solace and comfort in the new world. A humble halfling named Lambert Hornwood founded the Church of Caius, a unique church dedicated to the equal worship of all the gods. He rallied the people around him to worship, and the gods delivered sustenance and guidance to his followers. As governments collapsed, the church was there to pick up the pieces. As the members of the church grew, so did the calls for the church to take responsibility and lead the people into this new age. Thus, the countries of Aeros merged under one flag becoming the Holy Republic of Caius, and Hornwood’s unwavering faith was rewarded as he was named the first Pope.

Beginning of the Storm Era

As the Holy Republic of Caius rose from the ashes of war, the gods became more dependent on the people. Cut off from the planes, the gods began to receive their power exclusively from the worship they receive. The most devout were rewarded with places of leadership within the church, so that they may act as an inspiration to the populace.

But, not all the people of Aeros were given the favor of the gods. Those people that proved unfaithful during the invasion were punished in accordance with their crimes. The people of the Underdark were banished to the depths of the earth from which they came, cursed to burn in the sun should they ever emerge. The beastkin, in their indifference, were forbidden the use of magical technology gifted by the gods. The elves - the betrayers - were cursed to a shortened lifespan, so that they may never again believe themselves wise enough in their years to know better than the gods. And the dragons, the beings that slew the most of the gods beloved children, were destroyed, leaving only their bones to serve as sentries to guard the throne of the gods for eternity.

Appearance of the Titans

Three years following the appearance of the Planestorm, the true danger of the storm was discovered. Arcanists of Caius speculated that the storm itself is a physical manifestation of planes of existence at an intersection, where no one plane is domninant, but all still exist at once. They hypothesized that in the correct conditions, one plane could become dominant over the others and open a rift to a single external plane of existence. The wizards, unable to determine the conditions necessary to predict the location the rift would appear, recruited groups of explorers that were distributed to towns and cities across the Republic. These explorers were given magical artifacts in order to research opportunities to circumvent the storm, and make contact from the other side. A rift indeed began to open in the town of Redburn as the wizards hypothesized, but before the explorers could step in, something else stepped out.

A colossal monster emerged from the rift, and wrought unmitigated destruction to the town. Of the nearly 8000 residents of Redburn, less than 200 survived. This disaster would mark the first appearance of a Titan in Caius, and it would come to be known by the name Gigas.

Over seven millenia, five different Titans have appeared in Caius, each leaving a unique footprint of destruction in their wake. None were as large as Gigas, but all were capable of the same level of destruction, or more. Unopposed, entire cities were wiped from the map. They appear at irregular intervals, with records indicating an appearance every 3 to 15 years. No correlation between when a Titan appears and which Titan appears has been found to date.

Following the second appearance of a Titan, the Church of Caius recruited the greatest warriors in the land to join the Protectorate, a special force whose goal was to mitigate the destruction caused by the Titans.

Dawnbringer

In SY 7642, the Protectorate moved to intercept Gigas, in the town of Oldcrest. It was there that Protectorate Commander Cedric Grayvale and his team slew the first Titan. The death of Gigas was celebrated as a new dawn for the people of Caius, and as such Grayvale was awarded the unique title of “Dawnbringer” by the church.