SFC Book II – Appendix #1 – The Fall of Alastria
The following is a passage from the writings of Shanos the Lesser, also known as Shanos the Archer, from his master work The Trium Belleros, or The Three God Wars and Beyond.
The fall of Alastria has its roots in the end of the First God War, back before the world of Midmere was in the mind of any god. For it was during the First God War when the Archduke of Hell, Malchutt of the Void, was born. Where he came from, no one knows for sure, but Incarus Rexus writes that Malchutt was born when the god of pride cheated on his wife Humility with the goddess of wrath. Malchutt was born of this sin, but it’s important to note, it was not sin of lust but the sins of anger and pride.
According to Incarus Rexus, demons were born of the sinful aspects of the Seven Instincts while Angels were born of the virtuous aspects. They were the first races to exist, even before humans. The first people were either filled with sin or filled with virtue, so writes Incarus Rexus.
It was Malchutt that led the armies of hell against the legions of heaven. He was battling the forces of order when the fourteen gods and goddesses—those twin aspects of the seven instincts—began to fall in love with each other. They needed a secret place to meet, and so they created Midmere, though the Alastrians didn’t call it that. They referred to Midmere as Ilamonido, or the love nest of the divine. It was Malchutt, the great demon, who came to destroy Midmere, furious that the gods and goddesses were falling in love rather going to war.
Midmere—the land between heaven and hell—might’ve been destroyed if it wasn’t for the rise of the humans, powered with their magical cores, who learned to wield magic. According to Incarus Rexus, Humans were born on Midmere from the coupling of the fourteen gods. Humans were the perfect combination of sin and virtue made flesh.
It was the First Avatar, Zaccai of the Fire, who led the fight against Malchutt. It is believed that Zaccai of the Fire was a Divine Core Magus, even more powerful than a Grandmaster Magus. Zaccai led the other manamancers against Malchutt and his demonic hordes. The angels had already abandoned Midmere by this time.
Zaccai of the Fire was not able to kill Malchutt, but he was able to drive him back through the Weeping Well and into the lands of chaos. The doorway to hell was sealed shut for the first time, and Midmere was at peace for eons.
Malchutt, though, sneaked through the Weeping Well and back into the world, for that is his way. He whispered into the ear of his mother, Humility, who lived in the Crown of World near the Joy Threshold, also known as the gateway to heaven. He told his mother of Pride’s infidelity, and his mother’s wisdom failed her. Driven mad by Malchutt’s whispers, when Pride returned to their palace in the clouds, she cut out his heart.
From Pride’s dying blood, dragons were born.
And so the Second God War began, for it was Malchutt who whispered to the other gods and goddesses who slew each other. Malchutt remained hidden, even as the gods and goddesses, those that lived, butchered each other after murdering their spouses. And soon, they were not alone, because the Divine Instincts enlisted their blood-soaked children to fight with them.
The seven Blood Races rose quickly, protected by their murderous parents.
Orcs from Wrath murdering Patience.
The Fae from Chastity murdering Lust.
Goblins from Gluttony murdering Temperance.
Dwarves from Greed murdering Temperance.
The Beastkin from Diligence murdering Sloth.
Elves from Envy murdering Kindness.
As the gods battled one another, humans once again joined in the fight, but even the Second Avatar, Simon Benejj, another Divine Core Magus, couldn’t defeat the gods as they threatened to destroy their love nest and all their children.
It was only when Strong Simon and his wife Aestia the Kind, bonded forever, went to the seven Blood Races and united the children of Midmere to kill the last of the gods. They finally defeated the goddess of Wrath, and the united peoples went to battle the goddess of cruelty, who had been the goddess of kindness, but they were too late. The goddess of cruelty was murdered by Malchutt, who still walked the world, hidden from all. Malchutt used the blood of the goddess of cruelty to weaken the gate holding back hell. And so, eons later when the Archangel Ishal threw open the gates of heaven and claimed Midmere as the realm of the angels, Malchutt was able to bring forth his legions from the Weeping Well.
Ishal’s slaughtering of the peoples of the north was the start of the Third God War, not fought by gods, but fought between Archangels and Archdemons, led by Ishal and Malchutt, who battled across the world, laying waste to the eight races, both the humans and the Blood Races. Malchutt emptied hell, Ishal emptied heaven, and the world threatened to become a wasteland.
But some say there were two gods left, Hope and Despair, sometimes called the Eighth Instinct and sometimes called the Divine Instinct. Some say that humans were born from this pairing, but Incarus Rexus does not, but Rexus does concede that just as Order battled Chaos at the beginning of the world, Hope will fight Despair just as the Archangel Ishal fought the Archduke Malchutt.
Once again, another avatar of the divine, the Third Avatar, Akazel the Bound, brought an end to the war. Accazel the Bound was another Divine Core Magus, who had such a mighty core that he could bind seven wives to him. It was Accazel and his seven wives, of all the different Blood Races, who created the seven pylons that closed the Weeping Well to the south. But the angels were also equally dangerous to Midmere, and so Akazel created seven floating towers in the north to close the Joyful Threshold forever.
Without the mana flowing from their respective gates, the angels and demons couldn’t replenish themselves, and they were soon slaughtered by the eight races of Midmere.
But again, Malchutt fled before he was killed, and he went to live with the dragons in Alastria, who found a way to live in the Null Breaks. Alastria was a beautiful kingdom of dragons, aeries, sprawling cities that stretched from the ground to the sky. The jewel of Alastria was Caelvarum, where there were said to be kindly angels who didn’t want war, only peace.
For a thousand years, the dragon king Regnarum ruled from Caelvarum with his wife Ylena, and to them was born a daughter, Cassandra, who became a Grandmaster Magus, and it was the daughter that led to the fall. For Cassandra fell in love with another dragon prince, Thraxis, who was Malchutt in disguise.
Cassandra allowed Thraxis to take her, expecting a bond as strong as her parents, but no, it was then that Malchutt revealed himself. As a demon, such a bond was impossible, for both demons and angels are beyond the simple bonds that love creates among the eight races of Midmere. Malchutt had wanted to see if he could make cambion dragons, but it was impossible.
Malchutt had his legions of cambions ready—inbred demons of all the races, twisted by chaos and darkness and lust—half-humans, half-elves, half-orcs, and half-Fae all living near the Belly of the World on Mal’Mireth Peninsula, in Pubis Port, in the Thistle Mire XXX—the three parts of their kingdom of Cambrosia.
Malchutt knew that the Alastrian dragons would stop him if he took his cambion legions to the Belly to open the Weeping Well, and so his plan was to destroy Alastria, and then march south to the Belly of the World to open the Weeping Well.
He first slew the king and queen, and he thought to kill the princess, who was filled with such torment at what she had done. Instead, she rose up, and slew Malchutt, but in doing so, the lands were blasted, and no one would ever live there again. Now, they are known as the Crumblelands, and Caelvarum is called Scarhaven, and it is a place for evil and pirates and monsters.
This was before the Wrath Tower fell.
This was told to historians in the Backbone Islands, by a goblin chef named Mimolette Walthamstow, who managed to flee with other goblins as the dragons and cambion legions fought and destroyed an entire continent.
Whatever magic allowed the dragons to live there is gone forever, for there is no mana in the Null Breaks and the people there have no mana and no souls.
Not long after the fall of Alastria, the Wrath Tower in Wrath City fell. Some say Cassandra, burning with guilt and shame for falling in love with Malchutt, couldn’t stop thinking about him and longed to see him again. In her madness, she wanted to find him in hell—at the bottom of the Weeping Well—and so she went and destroyed the First Pylon, the Wrath Tower in the Belly of the World, to see him again.
Others say it was Malchutt himself who destroyed the tower and is free again to walk the world and to sow chaos, blessed with a patience that only the truly evil have. What future mischief there might be, who can say?
But chronicling the mischief of Malchutt, this author sees the corroding thread woven into history that has yet to be undone. And so, it was Malchutt and his demonic ways that has brought so much death and sadness to this world. But perhaps the world longs for such evil. Perhaps, Malchutt, who is the singer of the seven songs of sin would be silenced if creation did not want to hear such music. With the gods murdered and the orphaned children of the divine lost and alone, who shall sing other songs of virtue and light?
Who shall bring order to the chaos if not us?
AUTHOR NOTE: Thanks for reading! I included a ton of this stuff in an early chapter in book two and it's sprinkled throughout the book. Might be a bit complex, but I kinda fell in love with the world and the stories. And each Avatar has their own story. Funny, it goes from Zaccai of the Fire, who is alone, to Strong Simon who has his beloved, Aestia the Kind, and then we have Akazel the Bound with seven wives! Kind of progression there. Thanks again for reading and thanks for commenting!
ADDITIONAL AUTHOR NOTE: Love the support I get on my Patreon and I have a website AARONCRASH.COM. I'll start posting book three next week or the week after. The chapters are rough, but they'll be here for your reading pleasure. Super appreciate comments even if it's just to thank me for a chapter.