=encoding utf8 =begin comment This is the source for some of the books in crossfire, at least, it should become one. Authors: Gorlin Mark Wedel Marc Lehmann The Crossfire Wiki Each =head1 should become its own book. =end comment =head1 History of Creation, by Khalis, Volume I In the beginning the land was barren. No life yet moved upon the large continents and islands that lay empty between the seas. In the seas, nothing moved as well. The world itself held its breath while the Creator rested. Then, a spirit from outside, serving the Most High, entered the world, and she saw a place yet empty of life. So she began to create grass to cover the face of the earth, and trees and other plants. Other spirits from outside watched, and agreed that Gaea had wrought wonders upon the devoid place. Since she was by far stronger than the others, those lesser spirits asked her for leave to join in her work. Gaea accepted their offer, and so the spirits of the Elements of Fire, Air, Water and Earth began their work as Gaea's servants. It can be assumed, that outside the world, the Creator watched and approved. In time, the elemental spirits came before Gaea, and beseeched her to help them create beings able to move of their own free will, living among the plant world. And Gaea saw that without animals, the green world would still miss a vital element, so she in turn went before the Creator. What happened between them noone knows, but soon afterwards living beings began to populate the land. Fish swam in the seas and rivers, birds flew their first flights through the air, and other species moved on the land. The cycle of Nature seemed complete, and Gaea was content. Already, however, other spirits had noticed what Gaea had done. Dark were they, and they treasured still the image of the empty world. To them, a place devoid of life seemed far better, far more perfect, and so they entered the world to return the world to its past. Sicknesses and poison began to spread among the animals, that threatened to extinguish entire species - yeah, indeed several of them might have died during that time, of which we have next to no information. Bones in the ground seem to indict that there were large animals which do not exist anymore, and sadly, we may not meet them evermore. In anger, Gaea named these dark spirits the Devourers, since they were those who devoured all life, and she and her Elemental allies fought them back, and tried to heal what they could. =head1 History of Creation, by Khalis, Volume II In that time it also happened, that a great many of the creatures the Fire Elementals had helped to make were betoken of great madness, and started to rampage among the other beings. In time Gaea and her allies found out the truth, that one of the greatest Elementals of Fire, Ruggili, had turned against them, perhaps on order of the Devourers. Yet, Ruggili now served neither Devourers nor Gaea, instead he sought to increase his own power, and spread madness and chaos upon the world, and he became mightier than any other Elemental in existence. The other Elemental beings came to Gaea, and spoke, "With both renegade Ruggili and the Dark Ones to fight, we need others to assist us. Some of the beings we created are already strong enough to do their part, such as the unicorn or the sphinx. The strongest of them, however, the dragons, have switched their support to Ruggili. We need allies, or this world will become either a place of eternal fire or one of darkness." Gaea was clearly troubled by this, and again left the world to commune with the Creator. Shortly afterwards, new, more intelligent races emerged on the world, among them the dwarves, elves, trolls, goblins, humans, halflings, lizardman, any many others, and they joined the fight on the side of Gaea and the Elementals. During this time, which we now call the Second Age, cultures grew and were destroyed, races rose to prominence and disappeared again, mighty magics were found and forgotten. Ruggili#s followers were beaten back at great cost, and the forces of Gaea could again concentrate on the fight against the Devourers. The fight went on for a long time, but it seemed that the Nature Goddess was able to reform the world into a place of Life. The mortal races assisting her had become weary of the fight, however, and spoke to her thus: "The fight has clearly been won, the death spirits and the Fire God are in retreat. We wish to fight no more, but to settle down in peace. Though we still respect you and always will, we can give you our support no longer." Gaea accepted in silence, even though she knew that this meant that the war would not have a definite ending. Neither the Devourers nor Ruggili would be defeated be her alone. The Devourers and Ruggili watched the retreat of the mortals, the Devourers planning to attack and destroy them now that Gaea was not near, and then to use their own dead spirits against the Nature Goddess. Ruggili instead bided his time, sending down dragons to burn mortal cities and Devourer strongholds both. The Elementals serving Gaea assisted the mortals still, and gave some protection to them so that the Devourers would not destroy them. During this, Third, Age, the mortals segregated according to their nature. The dwarves moved into the mountains, and with the help of Earth Elementals began their first kingdoms underneath the face of the earth. The elves moved into large woods, the lizardmen into swamps. Wars broke out between some of the races, none however anywhere in that measure as the Great War of the Second Age. =head1 History of Creation, by Khalis, Volume III In the Third Age it also happened, that spirits from the outside, who had been content to watch until that time, took pity on some of those races. The goblins, orcs, trolls and giants began to serve a being called Gnarg, who had promised to raise and protect them. He helped them build up protection against the many poisons which still plagued the lands, and in time they began to use poison as a weapon against their enemies. Their most hated enemies were the dwarves and the elves, who each had been stronger than them before the coming of Gnarg. Now, stronger than ever before, they attacked them and sought to utterly destroy them. First they moved against the elves. They burned down forests and elven cities, until the being Lythander came to guide the elves and to oppose Gnarg. He sent confusion to the goblin races, and cursed them to utter stupidity. this curse is still active even now, there are fewer orcs or goblins who possess high intuition, intellect or magical affinity then in any other of the mortal races. During the time the curse was first spoken it was much worse. The orcs fell down muttering insanely, the giants and trolls clubbed each other senseless, and the goblins jumped down high cliffs to escaped the voices in their head. The goblin attack faltered, and all the goblin races and giantkind returned - after a few accidents and wrong turns - to their homes. They also immediately stopped their plans to attack the dwarves. The dwarves, however, had other problems. The dragons also claimed the mountains, and the followers of Ruggili sought out the dwarven cities and the treasures they offered. The pitiful cries of the dwarves, and the many deaths among dwarvenkind, roused the spirit being Mostrai, who entered the world and came to the dwarves. He showed them how to create magical weapons which might wound even the greatest of dragons, and he also helped them to withstand the dragons' fire. As was Gnarg to the orcs and goblins, and as was Lythander to the elves, Mostrai became god to the dwarves, protected them as they worshipped him for it. The most numerous of the mortal races had no god of their own, and they despaired, seeing that others had gods of great power to call upon for assistance. In their fear of being destroyed, in their anger for being left out, and their hatred for those who left them alone, they cried out for help. And in the darkness, someone heard them. Far away, in another dimension most probably, dwelt beings of great power. Endless torment was their desire, hatred, fear and anger the ways to their dark hearts, and fire their most potent weapon. When the humans had cried long enough, the doorway was opened, and the demon host went through. The demon lord Gorokh led those who entered the world, and he offered the humans many riches and great power in exchange for their worship and for sacrifice. many humans fell, and began to serve the powers of darkness. Others sought redemption, and a pure spirit called Valriel came to their aid. Others again returned to the worship of Gaea, hoping that the forces of Life would protect them, a few humans even went to the goblin, elven and dwarven gods for help. =head1 History of Creation, by Khalis, Volume IV As the human worship began to spread out among all the gods and beings of power who had entered the world, a small group of them who wished not for the blessings of Nature but the power of the elements as weapons spake to one of the Elemental Lords following Gaea. And as Ruggili long ago, Sorig left Gaea's path and accepted the mortal's worship, teaching them the way of lightning and thunder in return. Other small sects began to emerge, and then the one things noone had foreseen happened. Some humans began to worship the powers of Death, who until then never had living followers. Those poor deranged people believed that in death they would be truly free, and the Devourers gladly accepted their help. When those humans died, the most mighty of the Undead were finally created - those who joined the Devourers of their own free will: the vampires, the spectres and the liche. And so the world lies before us today, turmoil and chaos has spread among the many gods who have entered the world. The fights are numerous, but at least we can be called lucky that no single faction has power as great as during the Second Age - for another Great War would probably destroy the world itself. In the First Age only the spirit being existed, in the Second Age we mortals served the forces of Life to survive, in the Third Age we left them and began to worship other Gods. This then is the Fourth Age, in which we hope the ceaseless fighting and wars will finally end, and we will be allowed to live in peace. But whose peace will it be, which gods, which peples will lead and which will follow? Khalis, Grand Hierophant, Servant of Gaea =head1 History for the Impatient Written by Maris the Scholar, a student of Khalis whom he opposed much later in his life. Gaea created the world. However, for things to thrive, rain is needed so Sorig came along, and provided the rain and lightning. The lightning created fire, and so Ruggili was born. Gaea is the source of all nature and life, without any great need for followers, as the natural world itself gives her power. She gave life to a number of sons, all gods of their own. Her son Mostrai saw a flat and uninteresting world and created massive mountains and deep dungeons. Her other son Lythander was bored and created some animals. Gnarg saw that and created the goblins on the world for some reason we no longer know. Lythander, disgusted what the goblins where doing to the beautiful forests, created the elves and halflings to help protect the forests from uncontrolled goblin destruction. Mostrai, seeing what was happening to the forests, decided to take pre-emptive measures and created the dwarves to live deep within the mountains he created. Then Gaea created the humans, to protect and provide balance in the plains and along the coasts. With the constant battles for balance, many of these new life forms died. The gods that created them did originally see the souls that these new life forms had, but the gods Gorokh and Valriel did. They took the worst (and best) of these departing souls in order to create creatures for their own desires. The souls that neither claimed became the domain of the devourers. What the god of devourers lacked in the strength of individual souls, he gained in the sheer number of souls he controlled, and with these he created wights and vampires to give him even more souls. Some of the powerful humanoids worshipped him in hopes of eternal life. For some of these, they gained this eternal life in the form and lichs and demilichs. The Red Dragons were created by Rugilli because he wanted some worshippers of his own. It is believed that the other dragons eventually resulted from those by the constant in-breeding experiments Ruggili made. Nobody knows where the nearly god-like titans came from. Some scholars claim they could be descendants of some of the forgotten gods so little i known about nowadays. =head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis. =head2 Calendrical Introduction Present Day We are currently in 8437 Era Khelentari (EK). =head2 Volume I: The Early Days Around 350 EK: The Story of the Fourth Mariner is written by an unknown author. 435 EK: Colony of Skorn Founded. It would eventualy become the city of Scorn. 711 EK: The outpost of Heaven’s Gate is founded. =head2 Volume II: Second Millenia EK 1223 EK: Ekkis the Drunk leads a disastrous crusade against the Sirens in the southern seas. =head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis. =head2 Volume III: Third Millenia EK 2287 EK: Battle of Tered - The Kingdom of the Masts is dismantled by Navar. 2567 EK: Fernast Fergono, exiled from Navar, leads a famous exploration expedition in the south-east seas. 2765 EK: The city of Heaven’s Gate is burned by pirates. =head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis. =head2 Volume IV: Fourth Millenia EK 3084-3154 EK: The Artificers' Wars take place in the East. 3154 EK: The High Tide of the Gears: End of the Artificers' Wars; many islands are flooded or disappear forever in the depths of the Eastern Ocean. 3867 EK: Juradiths take the direction of Scorn and create a republic. 3885 EK: Juradiths are expelled from Scorn by revolting citizens. They are vainquished at Battlefield Lake. =head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis. =head2 Volume V: Fifth Millenia EK 4127 EK: King Kadriosa IV of Scorn leads a Crusade against the elves of the south-east, who flee the country. 4131 EK: Foundation of the Elven City of Tashkeren-tah at Vkovzerov (Lake Country). 4453 EK: The Elven City of Tashkeren-tah sinks into the largest lake of Lake Country. =head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis. =head2 Volume VI: Sixth Millenia EK 5524 EK: The Meteomage Grab of Ledh fails an experiment, making the weather mad for a while, an event remembered as “The Weather Madness”. Late LVIth Century EK: The Great Schism between the Simplifists led by Mish the Toon and the Stabilists: The Sedition Wars. 5581 EK: Battle of the Glowing Crystal: the Order of the Careful Coders is disbanded. 5598 EK: The Simplifists exile themselves into the Pocket Dimension of Daï-Moh-Nî, “The World With a Future”, in Ancient Daigojij Language. =head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis. =head2 Volume VII: Seventh Millenia EK 6356 EK: Butakis settles in Lake Country and starts building the Lake Pump. 6356 EK: The Lake Pump is destroyed by Twak. Lake Country is covered by fog. Butakis is disfigured. =head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis. =head2 Volume VIII: Eighth Millenia EK 7124 EK: Harta accidentally creates a Dimensional Grid, connecting the Crossfire Continuum with the Daï-Moh-Nî Dimension. 7563 EK: The tower of Melficef the Red explodes. =head1 Recent Historic Events, by Khalis. =head2 Volume IX: Ninth Millenia EK 8009 EK: Euthville is destroyed. =head1 Euthville History The Ruins of Euthville can be found just off the Imperial Highway north of Scorn. =head2 The Origins of the City The Codex Skudensis tells that Euthville was founded by the Euthanasia the Builder, hence its name. =head2 Past and Destruction Ah, Euthville - “City of the Pearl”, in Old Hemdalite, has indeed a rather sad story!! If you went there about half a millenia ago, you’d have seen something very different than the field of haunted ruins it has since become. It was initially founded by a handful of industrious, clever dwarves, that had found a mystical way to locate fields of precious Karitta, the famous metal that is as transparent as a pearl of the North Sea, yet as strong as the best irons of Navar. And thus, they found at the location of Euthville a lot of that raw metal, which quickly made the city one of the richest of all. And for a long time, it stayed so. The inhabitants of Euthville weren’t interested by war, work, or anything else too tiresome - they preferred to pay somebody else to do all of this. And with the advanced technical knowledge bring by the dwarves, working was less and less an issue for them. Yet yhey were facing a problem. All their devices, all their machineries, all their tricks to cheat with nature required energy. Lots of energy. They relied first on the strength of horses and donkeys, but it wasn’t enough. Then, they tamed the dangerous Wyverns of Kal-Durandasi, so that the hot lizards would provide them with the full force of their steamy breath. But soon, it wasn’t enough. They also used the hidden power provided by the Faeries of the Tarniska river, building a dam, so that they could put the invisible horses of water that the sylphids are rumored to breed in use. But even so, their hunger for power wasn’t satisfied, and became an increasing nuisance for them. So, the Commander of Euthville (which was, more or less, the equivalent to our King at Scorn), finally decided to send messengers across the whole Continent, calling the world for a challenge. Whoever would be able to fulfill the needs of Euthvillians of energy would become the new Commander, thus the ruler of the richest city ever built since Khelens. Many answered the call, of course, and many failed. Wind, Sun, Stars, even dwarven beer were proposed, but nothing seemed to be enough. For years, wizards tried. And failed. And then came a boy. He wasn’t a wizard, nor pretended to be one. He was young, but the story didn’t kept the record of his name, and some now think it is because he was damned. Who knows? The Boy sat in the middle of the city, playing with his flute, laughing whenever he saw one of the demonstrations the powerful wizards and engineers failing again and again. After several days, the Commander noticed the Boy, and said: “who are you to laugh, you, who has only a flute ?” “I have only a flute for sure - but there’s more in my simple pipe than in those legions of wizards.” “Really ?” said the Commander, half-laughing, half-curious, “so you think you can solve my challenge ?” The Boy smiled. “Not only I can, but I shall - and my price will be quite acceptable to give you the energy you need.” “And that would be...?” - “A new pipe.” came the reply “That one is becoming old.” “Agree, you have your chance.” The Boy then started to play an amused melody. It sounded like an invitation to a great feast, the opening of a meeting where everybody was invited. And then came from earth itself sounds of steps, climbing from the depth. The fountain that stood in the middle of the place crumbled, leaving a great hole from which flames emerged. But the fire seemed to dance at the rythm of the music itself. The Boy then said to the Commander: “As long as you keep playing for the Demons there, at least 23 hours each day, you’ll get them to make whatever you need.” And he gave them the score, took a brand new silver flute, and left, and never was seen again at Euthville. At first, things seemed fine, and the Commander couldn’t believe his luck, as a pipe was a feeble price to pay for such a powerful recipe of prosperity. Who wouldn’t want to tame the Demons themselves? Quickly, though, it appeared obvious that, for enough demons to be there, that music needed to be played rather loudly. And if, at first, it sounded entertaining, joyous, and funny, it quickly grew on the nerves of many. And especially because it was played 23 hours a day. Finally, the Commander decided that the city couldn’t stand this anymore, and ordered that the Demons had to be attracted faraway from the city. On this fateful day, a whole fanfare left the city, hoping that the demons would follow, attracted by the music. And so, they did. One after another, they climbed out of Earth itself, and walked in the direction of the music, obviously unaware of the hundreds of buildings they were crushing by their giant footsteps, and the thousands of inhabitants that they toasted with their dark fire. Seeing that, even the bravest ones went mad, and ran for their lives, leaving pipes, clavicelles and harpsichords fall on the ground. The rest of the story is easy to understand: Demons, free from the magical music that enslaved them, crushed what remained of the city, in a bloody fest that they will forever keep in their twisted memories. The Commander went mad, of course, and it is said that his madness was so strong that his mind was unable to understand that he was dead. If you search enough in the ruins of Euthville, you’ll probably encounter his ghost, as well as those of the many who perished for having believed that mortals could enslave the hell. Some demons stayed there, obviously enjoying the area and its newborn ashes that smelled fresh blood and carnage. Euthville is now, of course, a dangerous, deserted place, and the richesses that are still sleeping below the ruins of its former palaces are now guarded by powerful entities of the 9th Circle. Many said that, if the Enchanted Music could be found, it would open the gates of many treasures, but because none of the former Euthvillians survived, and because nobody knows where the Boy went afterwards, those gates are still closed. I’ve heard that the School of Daemonology was precisely founded to rediscover that spell. But who am I to claim this to be true ? I’m only a man of the past that tells stories before a fire, and the fire is dying, and so has my tale reached the end. =head1 The Kiritani Pass (from "Euthville Legends") The "Kiritani Pass" is the part of the map you can see on world_104_114, between the two random caves and the forest full of hidden stuff. Nowadays, it is marsh and beach, but centuries ago, it was a passage for boats sailing from and to Euthville. =head1 Sannistra (from "Euthville Legends") The Sannista is a legendary flying boat that was powered by the reaction of a fire and a water elemental. It was built by the tenth Commander of Euthville, Farkennis, as a gift for the 18th Birthday of his daughter, Sannista. That’s the boat that was stolen by Fax when he fled from Euthville, and that he used to get to Khelens. Giusitta the Verbous then sailed it back to the Continent, and hid it “somewhere in the mountains of Euth”. So I *guess* she would have put it there, although I’m not *sure*. Many people thought the story was speaking about the mountains just east of the ruined city, but now that I’ve discovered those two caves, I’d rather bet on them - it seems more logical. =head1 The Name of the World I, Forag the little-known, have invested my lifetime into exploring the various names of this, our World. In this tome I wrote down all my knowledge. Be careful with it, else it might overwhelm you, as it did me! In Khelens and most of its territories, it was named “The Earth”, while the major western landmass was called “The Continent” while the eastern landmass was called "the Wilderness". Fendrakis used “Raxida”, which is also the name they gave to the Fox Lady, Mother of All Things, deity. Elves traditionally use “Eänella”, which translates as “The Land of Green” Dwarves of Khorolizov use “Herdankaupf”, “Country of the Horses”, which is a reference to their mythology (see the legend of the Twelve Days for that) The Orcish name is “Knâgsh-Ishzeh”, “Rotten Branch” The people of the Old Wall, used the name “Harinappa”, “Bottom of the Pit”, to designate the world. Most people nowadays use the old Khelenti name ("The Earth") or its direct translation in local languages/idioms. =head1 Melficef the Red Melficef was a powerful mage that conducted thaumical studies to try to store magical energies in an efficient way. He created many self-recharging rod spells that are still commonly used today, as well as the thaumic bomb, a device storing a massive amount of mana and releasing it in a violent explosion - such an explosion actually killed the unfortunate Melficef himself.