Bards Of Dimaril

Othmyr is said to have been a world created out of necessity. The gods who rule the lands are rumored to be outcast gods from other worlds. With no place to go they were forced to create a world of their own and devide it accordingly umongst themselves. 

Some gods like Zanthros, the god of disaster took the lesser desired, yet necessary roles. While gods like Emetrius, the god of the Sun were the first to claim their spots in the pantheon. The result is that when the dust settled, not many of the gods were quite happy with where they ended up.

Not many creatures alive on Othmyr are aware of just how long the wars raged. Some argue they still rage behind the veil to this day. Bitter gods stealing food from each others plate on a cosmic scale.

No god was more upset with their newfound position than Ovlo, the Dark Prince of Clowns. He was bored beyond reason at his delegated area of the pantheon. Fated to walk the same liminal path as his previous life, not entirely sure what his job really was. Being taunted and even assaulted by the others for merely doing what he thought it was they wanted him to do. If they wanted him to play his role, then he would. But not for them anymore.

Ovlo worked behind the scenes for hundreds of years as the world developed. Planting seeds of mistrust and deception. Playing every side imaginable. With no other goal than to make the other gods as angry as he was.

By the time the more mortal races began appearing on the world: the dragons, the fey, the dwarves, and the ancient ones, the balance of the pantheon was far beyond fixing. As the mortal races discovered the gods and began celebrating them, a system of popularity developed. And this popularity seemed to effect the gods powers. The envy and jealousy that the power divide caused was the final wind needed to blow the tower over.

The gods began commanding their followers to attack the followers of other gods in an attempt to weaken their power, and thereby influence over the pantheon. As the desperation of the gods grew, so did their efficiency in war. And it was around this time that the humans were created. 

The gods had created the humans as nothing more than fodder. They needed souls who worshiped them for power, and bodies to secure that power. But as the humans were created by the gods, they were connected in ways the gods couldn't have predicted. And the lines between mortal and god began to blur. 

It was in this time the god of war himself, Mako came into existence. A man so obsessed with war he was able to find godlike power in the way he commanded his armies. And with his godhood arose many questions. The mortal races saw Mako and wondered why the gods were worth fighting for at all. If a human could become a god, then why are any of their lives less important?

The humans grew tired of the war after centuries of fighting it. They began to dream of a more heavenly existence, and curse the gods for sitting in their paradise while making them suffer through hell. And as the humans cursed the gods, other races followed. And soon only a handful of gods retained enough power to make any meaningful difference in the world. 

The gods began sending down angels and avatars of themselves to Othmyr. Some genuinely cared for the Humans and it was the only way they knew to help. Others saw it as the only way to continue to grow their influence. 

With the gods nearly powerless, the creatures of the world began to change the ways they behaved. Obedience turned into curiosity, and it wasn't long before the mortals of Othmyr had discovered the magics of the world.

This was the dawn of the Mortal Gods

The gods simply couldn't accept the fact that they had been cast out of a world they they themselves had created, by the people who they had created. While they began to see the error of their ways, they also needed to have some kind of connection to the world. All of the gods of the Pantheon that had any power left offered a fraction of it up to create Aimerial The Absolute. The Arch Angel of the Celestial Mountain.

Aimerial was tasked with watching over the humans from the tallest mountain in the lands. And for years they did this, interfering where they could to help swing chaos towards order. But the Arch Angel's power was limited, and they tended to act more as eyes than blades.

But then came the day where the Arch Angel left their perch involuntarily. 

The world had recovered from the worst of the devastation of the war after several hundred years. But the peace was never long lived. Without the influence of the gods to protect the world, it was up to the mortal creatures to take care of it. But after being forced to stand up to god-like threats for so long, the mortals of Othmyr grew guite capable.

One of the biggest conflicts in the history of the world happened around 800 years ago, in the year 240. An Ancient Silver Dragon named Vauthir and his identical twin Fenrir acted as god-like figures to the people. Fenrir would travel the lands helping to solve dragon sized problems, while Vauthir retreated into the Celestial Mountains and built Silvercrest Sanctuary. 

To call Silvercrest Sanctuary a library or a university would be doing it a great disservice. It was the greatest collection of knowledge available to any creature in the world. It's said the information was offered free to anyone who visited, but ancient stories allude more to a cult-like society that the Sanctuary operated under. 

Whether it was madness cause by the knowledge he absorbed, or the fear of losing that knowledge into the void upon death, Vauthir made a desicion that changed the continent of Gathirim. Vauthir would use his followers to become a Dracolich in an attempt to fill the power vacuum left by the missing gods.

And as his first action in his new form, Vauthir flew stright up the Celestial Mountain. Right past bitter reach and onto Aimeriel's Peak. Through a clever use of magical items and spells, Vauthir was able to trap Aimeriel inside of a phylactery, and so the god's only answer to the threat had been quashed with no chance to react.  

Vauthir swept over the lands with a storm of snow and ice. Everwhere from the deserts to the oceans surrounding the continent were frozen solid. The power of a god was going to be needed to solve this problem. But the only thing the world had left was a Gnome.

Borvil Tark had always had an affinity for magic, but not in the way a wizard or sorcerer might. Borvil was obsessed with building small contraptions that solved big problems. He was the one who discovered gunpowder and designed several types of arcane engines that the world still uses today.

The magic that Borvil was drawn to came in the form of his small machines. As he would explain to people, once you get small enough of a part, you can't move it mechanically anymore. It has to be done with energy. But he was never able to explain the "energy" that he harvested for his machines. 

When Vauthir attacked Gathirim, Borvil was hiding in the walled city of Vigilkeep, far on the West coat of the continent. The most powerful forces from the continent had gathered there as a last line of defense against the unstoppable undead dragon.

The city of Vigilkeep had been planned and built by the mortal races as a stronghold. Throughout the city were arcane catalysts and magic power systems designed to act as a massive spell focus for a group of spellcasters. And each of these systems were integrated with small machines that Borvil had built. A massive interconnected source of Arcane, Divine, Natural and Mechanical magic. 

When Vauthir arrived for the final battle, and the citizens of Vigilkeep mobilized their fortress against him, Borvil took the helm of his own machine. A machine so large, not even he could have possibly understood the power of it. 

He was never seen again in the normal way you might see someone. He didn't die, but he's not quite alive anymore either. No, Borvil just seems to be where he wants to be. And when he wants to be there. They call him the God of Time, but those who claim to have spoken with him say he laughs at that title. "Not even I have dominion over something that complicated" 

The aftermath of the Vauthir situation was thought to be well known for centuries. Keldrick Moonstar the Wizard King, backed by the Wizards of the Original Order and with the power of the raging arcane machine limiting the power of the Dracolich, threw himself at the Dracolich, destroying him and his phylactery. Sacrificing himself in the process. 

What we didn't know at the time was that Keldrick Moonstar did not defeat Vauthir. He merely released Aimeriel from the grasp of the Dracolich. The Arch Angel was weakened, and fearing that Vauthir would just absorb them again, Aimeriel broke themselves into 5 pieces and scattered themselves across the land.

One in a Person. One in a Thing. One in a Place. One in a Time. One in an Idea.

That was the riddle that sent thousands of people on fruitless searches for the souls. The promise of great power or the return to balance were the common desires. 

800 years later, Vauthir came back. The continent began to freeze once more as an ice storm exactly like the one of legend swept across the lands. The descendant of Borvil Tark and his Halfling friend teamed up with the Saints of Sanda Fey on that night in Vigilkeep. Both groups of adventurers had arrived on their own time for their own reasons, but ended up working together to stop the threat. The group all together had assembled the 5 pieces of Aimeriel and were able to harness the Arch Angel's power to drive the dracolich off once more. For how long, is anyone's guess. 

They say the Arch Angel is back on top of the mountain now. Regaining power and informing the gods of what they have seen and heard over the past 800 years. 

Since the return of Vauthir, the influence of the Goddess of Fire Rithas and the God of Disaster Zanthros have been spreading quickly. The power and following of all of the gods continues to grow, but is nothing like it once was.