Legends of Belariath

Magi History

The End of an Era

The story of the Magi began in a world far from here, separated by more than distance, more than time and space. There Kron, the Father of Gods and Men bent the stars to build a paradise. A place where Men could live, and worship the Gods in safety and bliss. Yet all too soon did ravaging Time break down Heaven's Gates, to bring ruin to this peaceful world.

Kron heard a whisper, passed on between the spaces in the night sky, an vision of the future. He saw his world cracked, and broken, flame gouting from the earth, brother fighting brother for survival, and children lying slain on the battlefield, while Gods squabbled over petty differences. He saw a monster born from his own hands that would stalk the land, destroying everything, until finally, consuming itself when there was nothing left. Horrified by what he had seen, the Omnipotent commanded the Gods, (For he knew that they, and Magic, the gift they gave to Men, would be their undoing) to confine themselves to the clouds, and never more trouble the lands below.

At first, his children listened. They turned away from Men and concerned themselves only with their own affairs, lived in the clouds. But some dared to look down upon the world, though they could never touch it. Morpheous was first among these Gods to shed her tears for the pain of Man. For in the absence of their deities, the people below were wracked by torments innumerable. Disease ran rampant in cities, whole tribes were buried by volcanic detonations, their easy grace no match for untempered Nature's fury.

It is said her tears fell as rain from the skies, healing and watering the land below, giving aid when none seemed possible. On the surface, the first Jade Priests prepared, and planned. In secret, a small group of Gods led by Morpheous met with the Jade Priests, to bring about the only end to this suffering they could see. Paranoia had made Kron cruel, and his reign grew ever tighter, and more tyrannous. It was if he no longer cared about his children, or worse, desired to see them suffer. With this in mind, Morpheous, her fellow deities, and the Jade Priests conspired against their God.

With the blood of the Gods, the blood of the Priests, forged in the heart of the world itself, they made a weapon. A sword so terrible to swing it was to rend the world itself. Bearing this weapon, Morpheous rose to do battle with Kron, far above the sky. For ten days, and ten nights, the sky was darker than night, true black, with not a single star. Some say it was a shield placed there by Morpheous, to hide things no man or God should ever have to see, some say it was the blood of Kron blotting out the Sun.

Dawn came, at last, on the eleventh day, and Morpheous came with it, plummeting like a falling star, battered and burned but victorious. On shaky legs, she swung that terrible blade, and cut a chasm from the fabric of the world, before hurling the blade into it. It is whispered among the Jade that she admitted, to a Priest of the time, her failure. She had not slain Kron, merely imprisoned him high above the world, to watch his creations evermore.

Just so began a Golden age, a happy time of wealth and prosperity, wherein the people spread across their world and flourished under the care of their Gods. No more the tyranny of Kron, but now, a Divine Council ruled the world's affairs, with Morpheous at the helm. It seemed there was no end to the glories they could achieve. The cities they built shone with rainbow colors, a great many of them created at the hand of Morpheous' chosen, the Jade Priests. This order served as the protector's of her nation, upright and righteous, the very best of the people.

Time conquers all things, though. Scarcely ten milennia passed before unrest spread amongst the Gods. Some grew jealous of Morpheous' unsurpassed command of the magical arts.. some desired supremacy for their people over all others. Some yearned for the rule of Kron. One God pushed things too far, and within a decade, peoples peaceful for ten thousand years marched to war. The fragile alliances between the Gods crumbled as they fought for power, and before long, Morpheous became the first to withdraw from the Divine Council. The rest followed.

Armies marched, and armies fell, whitening plains and reddening the rivers with blood and bones. Only Morpheous kept within her borders - and it was rapidly realised that any army which dared invade would never be heard from again. The simple truth was the Jade Priests. Not that they annihilated the enemies with magical power, but rather, that they would walk out to meet them unarmed, and convince them that there was a different way of life. No one ever chose to go back out to the world of death and hardship, seeing the kind of life Morpheous offered to her faithful.

Perhaps things would eventually have died down, had not one God taken things to a new level. Thenatos, a longtime rival to Morpheous, looked on her nation and seethed with envy. Sacrificing his own divine beauty for more and more power, the handsome God was soon twisted into a monster that hungered only for more, driven by a ruthless intelligence. Eventually, he crossed the final boundary. With the blood of children, women, men, Thenatos cut open the fabric of the world, and retrieved the Sword used to strike down Kron.

With this in hand, Thenatos became unstoppable. He and his forces, dark, twisted remnants of the beautiful Magi, roamed the lands slaying men and Gods alike with the help of the one weapon that could do so. Every blow he struck tore the fabric of the world only further, and the lands felt the pain. Great chasms swallowed continents overnight, as the world cracked, and burned. Flame gouted from the earth.. brother fought brother for survival, and children lay slain on the battlefield, while Gods ran and hid in the face of their own mortality. Kron's vision was coming true.

In the last days of the world, Morpheous gathered the Jade Order for one mighty spell, that claimed the lives of many, nearly that of Morpheous herself. With a rumble that shook the stars, the whole continent that carried her followers lifted itself from the land around it.. and kept rising. Onwards and upwards, further and further until it passed through the very sky itself.

Legends hold that far beyond their sky, they came to a cage of blood-red fire, screaming without stop. There Morpheous raised her hand, and struck the flames aside to reveal the imprisoned Kron, tears rolling down his face as he saw his world destroyed. They spoke a while in conversation, then she turned away in tears. After a long silence, she removed the fetters from her Father.

Kron took the floating island on his palm, as one might hold an ant, and blew, gently. His exhalation threw the continent, Morpheous, and every living thing atop it far, far from their burning world, into a place of darkness. Records of the time describe a great rushing sound on all edges of the island, and no stars above by which to chart their progress, or their speed. Those close to Morpheous whispered of the terrible toll placed upon the Goddess just to hold her island together, and save for a simple message that they should hold on together, she wasn't seen outside her Temple.

For what seemed like an age, the Magi travelled through the dark, glacial void. Without the passing of the sun to mark the passage of time, hours, minutes, days lost all meaning. Time was measured only by their dwindling stocks of food, their fading candles.. and the endless, creeping cold. After an ordeal that left many weakened, some dead, some claimed to see light. While hardly something new - there had been reports of light since their travel began, and none of them verified - this news carried with it an unexpected, infectious hope, that soon, their troubles would be over.

Reports are ambiguous when it comes to the exact nature of their arrival. Some say Morpheous tore a great portal for the last leg of the journey, others say they simply arrived from nothingness, one moment there, and the next, not. Whatever the manner of their advent, the Magi had arrived in a new land, to start again under the watchful eye of their Goddess, the last remnants of a world that burned.They were drawn by shared interest to the recently-founded tower of Unigo, and Morpheous found a natural ally and kindred spirit in Katarein, founder of the White Tower. Soon Magi were a common sight among the peoples of the land below, and the Empire that ruled it.