Age of Demons¶
"The Einar realized that they would soon be ruling over a barren rock filled with crazed demons if they did not act quickly." — History of Terrun (S386)
The Age of Demons runs from the Demonic Invasion to the Demonic Abscission. It is the age in which demons first came to Terrun and nearly consumed it, in which the Einar created the Primal Dragons to fight them, and in which the quarrel over how to fight them broke the gods in two. Kalar and the Younger Gods shattered the Throne of Law into the Astral Shards, forged the Anthu'Mithis, the Worldstone, and with it cut the Abyss out of the world to hold the demons. The younger races were made in this age, and the Eldritch were driven from it. The war itself has its own page, the Demon Wars.
The ordinal is not ruled. The 2026 cosmology and the 2022 treatise on magic call this the Third Age; the 2020 history folds the whole span into its Age of Titans; the 2014 compendium covers the same ground as the Second Age, the Age of Faerie. The treatise gives it a length of "approximately 22,000 years" (S208).
The Demonic Invasion¶
"A new era began with the arrival of the creatures known as Demons. They were powerful and destructive incarnations of Chaos. At first they were just a few, but soon they were appearing in hordes" (S386). They were bent on consuming all life and life-energy, and they could not be killed for long: "when they died, their spirits quickly found new hosts and they reincarnated rapidly". The Einar kept them out of the Astral Plane, but on the Material the early races were pushed to breaking (S386). Where the demons came from is disputed in-world; the theories are gathered on the Demons page.
The Birth of Dragons¶
Izhtari and the Einar used the Throne of Law to create the Primal Dragons and their broods. "The Primal Dragons were forged of Astral and Elemental energies and added considerable power to their Dragon Broods as well. The Dragons were very successful at slowing the advancement of the Demon Hordes, but not successful at stopping them" (S386). The treatise on magic adds that the dragons were "placed above the Titans (the most powerful Fae casters) and were also well-versed in Ethereal Magic, in some cases rivalling the Eldritch" (S208), and that they were formed "from ancient Titans, who in turn were given dominion over the Elements" (S208).
Rebellion of Kalar¶
The demonic threat split the Einar. "Some felt drastic measures that would reduce the Throne of Law's considerable power were in order", and when the violence escalated "Izhtari declared those Einar who were not with her as outcasts and banished them from the Astral Plane" (S386). The 2020 history calls what followed the Ascension of the Younger Gods; it is also recorded as the Second God War, after the Elder God-War of the Age of Titans. The Eldritch Keeper scrolls of Kilmarn call it the Rebellion of Kalar (S164).
The rebellion was short, and most of its dead were the Einar who had opposed Izhtari. "A group of Einar led by Kalar made a pact with four imprisoned Primordial Elementals and managed to break into the Astral Plane and destroy the Throne of Law. Izhtari's power was broken, and individual Einar took possession of the remaining shards and power of the Throne" (S386). The four Primordials who helped "were freed as part of the bargain" and ruled the Elemental Planes thereafter as the Elemental Aspects (S001). Dominion passed from the twelve High Gods to the Einar who claimed the shards, "numbered now in the hundreds" (S001). Kalar's faction, the Younger Gods, "won out" (S208).
The 2015 regional lore gives the rebellion a cause: "Kalar was Izhtari's favorite, and firstborn son. He led the rebellion which overthrew his mother. The rebellion began over a rivalry between Kalar and Zatan, specifically over his creation of Demons. The Demons ended up being the downfall of the pantheon" (S498). The Elder Gods were not killed; "their powers were usurped and are now greatly diminished" (S498). Not every Eldritch chose the same side: Phaendar Nar'Vizerai, one of the Three Grand Sages of the Eldritch ArchConclave, "was offered ascendancy by Arcantus and Orandos, but he ultimately sided with Izhtari" (S164).
The Demonic Abscission¶
"Kalar took one of the shards and with help from many other Einar (and their shards) forged the Anthu'Mithis (Worldstone, which created the Mithis Plane). The Anthu'Mithis split off a portion of the Material Plane into a separate plane known as the Abyss. This was a tremendously destructive act and shook the foundations of Terrun, triggering worldwide cataclysms." Demons caught and bonded to the Abyss reformed there instead of on the Material, "and their numbers quickly dwindled, until they were all exiled to the Abyss" (S386). The cosmology describes the prison's construction: the Seven Hells "were originally Astral Shards repurposed as prisons", with the Mithis Plane made as a barrier to keep powerful beings from leaving, each hell governed at first by an Einar Warden (S001). The treatise places the Worldstone at the very end of the age: "Kalar created the Worldstone to banish the demons to a sub-plane known as the Abyss. There the Demons have largely remained, trapped" (S208).
The younger races and the Eldritch¶
"Many new races were formed during this age by Kalar and the other younger gods, including Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Trolls, Orcs, Draconians and others" (S208). The overview of the gods assigns the makers: Khardas made the Dwarves, Orandos the Elves, Rakkar the Draconians, Orcs, Ogres and Trolls, and Necatus the Dark Elves and Goblins (S429).
The Eldritch did not survive the change. "Also during this Age, Eldritch and many other Ethereal Magic users lost favor with the Gods and were driven extinct. By the end of this age, practitioners of Ethereal Magic outside of those under the direct influence of the Gods (Divine Magic) and Dragons were scarce" (S208). Their destruction is the Eldritch Succession Wars.
Earlier accounts¶
The 2014 compendium (S372, S384) tells this story as the Age of Faerie, the Second Age. The Faeries "emerged as some of the most powerful titans, and ruled the Elemental and Material Planes". Humans, orcs, ogres and trolls were created. The demons were not invaders but a plot: "Some of Rakkor's Ventari (Rakkari) conspired against the Faeries, and Demons were created. They fed off the energies of the Faeries." Kalas's Ventari "empowered the primal dragons with massive astral energies to deal with the Demons", without success, because "the demons simply spawned too rapidly"; Kalas then "formed a new plane (the abyss), and in the process split the earth and did massive damage to the elemental and astral planes". The demons were banished with the Worldstone, the primal dragons were declared its guardians, and "the faeries transitioned to the Elemental plane where they were less vulnerable and more powerful". The 2019 overview of the gods (S429) keeps the name as the Age of Faerie, with the Abscission as its defining event, and remembers it as the Age of Fae in which "the Fae population was utterly decimated"; in that account the demons were the work of the Destroyer, who "tricked many of [the Dark Gods] into helping him create the Demons".