World Information

~History~

In the time before Armarria, the line between mortal and god became blurred.  The gods walked among mortals, sharing wisdom and power with their favored and dispensing vengeance upon those who openly opposed them.  This created tension among the gods as their mortal champions came into conflict.  The struggle between opposing sides raged for centuries and became known as the "Divine Strife" or "Holy Contention" for the gods never openly engaged each other, but rather used cat's-paws and misdirection.  As each god maneuvered for more advantage over their peers, artifacts of immense power were created and mortals were given more and more of the divine spark to increase their power.  But with power came arrogance among the mortals.  As the power of mortals grew they came to resent the gods using them a pawns in their supernal games and thus was The Cataclysm enacted.  The mortals banded together to use their god-given power to end the ceaseless struggle between gods.  But mortals, being such brief creatures, thought not of the consequences of their actions.  Seeking to overthrow the gods themselves, the mortals unleashed unimaginable power and rent the world asunder.

Seeing that the mortals would destroy everything, the gods took pity on the mortals, for it was the divine powers bestowed by the gods that enabled this desecration.  So the gods worked together to create a new world, preserving the faithful and leaving the rest to destroy themselves.  The gods created Armarria,  "The Shielded Land," and born into a new world on a plain the gods spoke from a cloud of fire.  The mortals were charged to do better than their predecessors.  They were warned to be wary of power as it was a two-edged blade that cut both ways, and to revere life.  When the gods had spoken, the land itself heaved and broke, seeming to slide away from a central point, leaving a massive mountain in the middle of a land that was quickly growing new vegetation and animal life.  The mortals had been given a second chance.

~In the Beginning~

You all find yourselves at the New Dawn Festival of 774.  At the base of Mt. Aldeyn, the only mountain in all of Armarria and rising from the exact center of the land, is where the festival is held.  This year the festival is hosted by Acellevin Duranth, the port city of humans and so the main concentration of the festival is on the south west face of the mountain, although there are festivities and markets almost all the way around the base of the mountain.  For your own personal reasons, you find yourselves at this years festival.  Legends hold that in the early days of Armarria, a pillar of fire appeared at the top of the mountain at the end of the week of Festival, a sign from the gods, but no one has seen such a thing in several hundred years.  The festival is in full swing on this third day with much to see and do.