I have been doing a lot of work on this project recently. I have written a broad overview/introduction on how the setting works. It is going really well.
Below is actual text from the draft material. It is a really long post, so boost your mental fortitude.
For aeons, the inhabitants of the world of Coynne had suspected that a divine being created them. Many religions and cults had developed to worship some conception of a God or several Gods. However, these religions were merely the products of creative minds and wishful thinking. The true God had not shown himself to them, nor sent any of his angels to reveal the truth to the people.
Azakriel’s Fall:
One day, an angel appeared in the mortal realm. He called himself Azakriel and despite having been weakened by the transition to this world, he exuded such a powerful aura of holiness that his true nature was obvious to any observer. Azakriel told the people of Coynne that he had long been a protective angel assigned to the human race since their creation. He had silently nursed them at their darkest moments. He had lifted them up from barbarism and guided them through a world fraught with peril into civilization.
Azakriel fortold that humanity was in great peril and that action must be quickly taken. He traveled throughout the human lands and told them the truth. Some received him but failed to make significant changes to their lives. In the Northern Kingdoms, Azakriel was very well-received and so he chose to live among them. A citadel was built for him at Elkhammer and he quickly assembled a team of scholars to transfer his knowledge into a book.
The Book of Azakriel:
Azakriel dictated a book to his followers in his citadel at Elkhammer and this book was replicated by hand many times before his mortal death. It continues to be replicated today by scholars and monks of his holy order. The teachings of Azakriel continue to spread today.
The book contains the only recorded truths about the three realms. It is also a guidebook for the restoration of the world to the light of justice, through a philosophy called the Path of Light and a noble class called the Novarii.
The Three Realms:
Azakriel describes the universe as consisting of three concurrent and overlapping realms; the Heavenly realm, the Mortal realm, and the Ethereal realm. Any single point in space exists in all three realms and travel between the realms is possible only through powerful magic and divine power.
God is the prime mover; the only being capable of creating life where none existed before. However, this new life has free will and God has no power to control it once it has been created. He is unable to leave the Heavenly realm, though He occupies it completely as if a gas in a container. Some might say that He is the Heavenly realm.
God can create Angels to perform his bidding. In the Heavenly realm, these creatures lack free will and are helpless before God. While so enthralled, they can be trained and transformed into perfect agents of His will. If God wills it, an Angel may enter the Ethereal realm where they are able to interact with the mortal realm and influence humanity to follow the morality laid out by God.
The Ethereal realm lies betweent the Heavenly and Mortal realms. Due to the influence of the Mortal realm, Angels in this realm are in possession of free will. They are able to see and observe everything occuring in the Mortal realm and they can communicate with mortals directly through their conscience.
All mortal beings have a conscience, given to them by God, which provides them with innate feelings about right and wrong. Angels can shape and magnify the conscience of a mortal, pushing them to behave in particular ways.
However, there are only so many Angels. Each time that God creates an Angel, he drains away some of his own divine strength. Thus he is hesitant to create more for fear of weakening himself to the point that he loses control of his creations. The current situation is hard enough to bear, the idea of further loss is terrifying.
The Rise of Satan:
Satan was once an angel of God who disagreed with God’s view of good. He accused God of being unjustly commited to only one conception of morality. Intending to show Satan the error of his ways, God allowed Satan to go into the Ethereal realm to construct an alternative view. However, this proved to be a horrible mistake.
Satan was able to tempt mortals and thus dramatically undermine God’s work. He was able to twist and corrupt the virtues of all manner of beings and transform properous and peaceful worlds into barren wastelands of hate and usffering. A furious God ordered Satan to return to Heaven. Fearful of reprisal, Satan refused.
Satan was eventually able to develop a method of creating weaker versions of himself called Demons that could go directly into the mortal realm itself. Using this army of demon servants, world after world fell into Satan’s corrupting embrace.
Coynne was one such world. Facing Satan’s advancements in a variety of locations, God has thrown Coynne to the wolves.
Azakriel’s Fateful Choice:
God has a limited number of Angels and he can only dedicate them to fighting evil in a finite number of locations. Coynne used to be a thriving paradise with two of God’s favored creations having reached ascendancy; the Elves and the Dwarves. Yet both of these races managed to cripple themselves through greed and foolishness. With his own creations having failed and with Satan on the march, God decided to withdraw and use his forces in other battlefields where they might be more successful.
Azakriel was one of these Angels, having been assigned to Coynne for millenia. He refused to return to the Heavenly realm. Yet he knew that if he stayed in the Ethereal realm, he would be fighting a war that he lacked the power to see through to victory. The ability to influence mortal consciences was insufficient to turn the tide against evil. So Azakriel made a decision to step through the Ethereal wall and become a mortal.
In the Mortal realm, Azakriel would eventually die. However, he could preach directly to the people and tell them about the fate that awaited them after the Exodus of God from this world. In the face of this limited timeline, he decided to create a moral code that would endure beyond his death and hopefully ensure their survival.
The Book of Azakriel describes this code, called the Path of Light.
The Path of Light:
Azakriel knew that when God withdrew from Coynne, it would remove the positive pressure on the mortal societies. Without angels to reinforce the conscience of mortals, the only force acting on mortal consciences would be demons and possibly Satan himself. Men would degenerate rapidly into bloodthirsty psychotics. Azakriel believed that people could be saved, but only through adherence to a rigorous moral code that would override the conscience, and thus override the forces of darkness. Azakriel knew that few would willingly submit to this level of moral rigor, and thus he was forced to lay out a method to enforce it.
Azakriel divided all people into two distinct groups; the Novarii and the Laborii. Novarii means “people of the light” in the Celestial language of Angels, while Laborii means “the working people”. Azakriel knew that the Exodus of God would cause a wave of moral decay that would drive most people into the Laborii. It would be incumbent upon those who followed the Path of Light to administer justice to those who failed to do so. Azakriel believed that what could not be taught to a willing subject would be driven into the mind by force of labor. A society of masters and slaves was created.
Azakriel dictated a Codex of Divine Commands against all individuals would be judged. Those who failed to live up to the Codex, decided by a council of Elders, would be placed in the Laborii. For children of existing Novarii, a formal judgment of their moral fitness would be made upon maturity. For any adult member of the Novarii, a re-assessment of their moral fiber could occur if faced with an accusation of transgression by three of their peers. For any member of the Laborii, adult or child, elevation to the Novarii can only occur by recommendation of three adult Novarii. This is a high standard and only truly reformed Laborii can be so elevated.
The Novarii govern their political affairs by an electoral feudal system, where each Novarii has one vote. Azakriel convinced the Kings of Men to agree to this by granting them all Novarii status. The collective term for all of the Novarii is the Novarium.
The Novarium have a number of elected offices, each conferring enormous social and political power upon the holder. In order to hold such offices, aspirational Novarii are expected to prove their worth in the field taking back land from the profligates. Profligates is the term applied to those living outside of human society; Goblins, Orcs, fallen Elves and Dwarves, and other degenerates.
This system ensures that the Novarii are constantly pushing back the tide of darkness. Social and political power are thus paired with moral virtue, ensuring staunch resistance to corruption by Satan.
The Codex of Azakriel:
1. Thou shalt treat all Novarii with the respect due free people,
and Laborii and Profligates with the respect they deserve.
2. Thou shalt have courage in the face of mortal danger.
3. Thou shalt be honest and forthright in all your dealings,
and refrain from lies of omission and commission.
4. Thou shalt care for the aged and the young with tenderness,
for physical weakness is never a part of moral calculus.
5. Thou shalt conduct thyself without frivolity in all matters.
6. Thou shalt not harbor resentment towards others for past
wrongs, but thou shalt not forget them.
7. Thou shalt have loyalty to your Liege,
if thou hasn’t taken one as thy protector and guarantor.
8. Thou shalt seek knowledge and experience out in the world,
for revelation rarely occurs within the cloister.
9. Thou shalt make decisions without prejudice,
but only after careful consideration of the facts at hand.
10. Thou shalt resolve differences of honor through combat,
in accordance with the rules and regulations of such affairs.
11. Thou shalt not steal property from it’s rightful owner.
12. Thou shalt not delight in the suffering of others.
Note: It is important for the reader to recognize that, despite it’s pseudo-Christian trappings, this moral system bears little to no resemblance to it.
The Deluge:
The Book of Azakriel had a powerful and permanent effect on human culture. The Kingdoms that had once dominated it’s politics were swept aside by a new organizational form; the Republic of the Novarii. A unity of purpose was able to create cooperation where none existed before. For a brief moment, humanity appeared to have saved itself from the Abyss. It was not to last.
Within a half century of God’s Exodus, the morality of all intelligent beings on Coynne came crashing to the ground. Societies that once structured themselves through law and procedure were torn asunder as their members descended into hedonistic animals. Humanity was able to grow and strengthen the Novarii in this time, but it was unprepared to deal with the listless hordes of humanoids that had been reduced to bloodthirsty monsters.
Elvish and Dwarvish civilization, or what remained of them after centuries of decay, collapsed in an orgy of violence. A few were able to take refuge in human cities and hold themselves to the Codex, but their fellows decended into anarchy. Human frontiers were pressed hard and in many places buckled under the strain of this tidal surge. Whole nations of people were swallowed up by swarms of deranged psychotics.
Satan was winning.
The Stabilization:
Azakriel organized a defensive perimeter around Elkhammer in the Northern Kingdoms. A line was drawn in the sand. Fortifications were constructed to hold strategic locations like mountain passes and river crossings. Like a turtle, humanity retreated into a shell. In this shell, it endured.
However, Azakriel was now an old man and he made preparations for his passing. He handed off all military affairs to the Novarium and retired to his Citadel to compose his final chapters. It is unknown whether he intended to write more, but the final words found written down on scroll laying beside him on his deathbed read simply;
The courage to fight for principles is the only measure of a soul. For we are ultimately not judged by our greatest worldly triumph but by our greatest moral failure. Leave none.
So it came to pass that the great Angel died. A procession was held that surpassed all that came before and his body was entombed beneath Elkhammer Citadel. It remains a shrine to this day.
Azakriel’s Gift:
It was soon discovered that after Azakriel’s passing, human women were granted the gift of magic. The exact nature of the gift remains unclear and it manifests in mysterious ways. Perhaps it was a final bargain made between Azakriel and God. Regardless, it is very real.
The Present:
It has been a half century since Azakriel’s death. The chaos beyond the outer marches has subsided and a deathly calm has fallen upon the land. The forces of evil are no longer united in their violent surge, but divided by their own petty bickering and greed. Those societies that exist beyond the frontier of humanity are baseless and organized only by internal violence and physical force.
You are a newly elevated Novarii and the time for proving your worth has come. It is into this wasteland that you must venture!
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