Age of Freedom At the end of the civil war in Sollovast four great tribes of people abandoned the land to seek refuge elsewhere in the world. The once powerful Human nation was now weak and at the mercy of foreign enemies. Before long, those enemies amassed at the border and besieged Sollovast, Wood Elves, Orcsand more were attacking the lands, the people and razing all that they came into contact with. Queen Yanella was desperate for a solution. She turned to Valim the High Bishop of the land and asked for his guidance on a solution to their plight. He did not disappoint though his reasons did not align with the Queens. Unbeknownst to Yanella, Valim held a dark secret. His wife and child had died and while in mourning for them he was contacted by a voice that offered him the gift of resurrection should he only serve. That voice belonged to the lost soul of Mazaroth, the God that had lain wasted to Vathria and was responsible for the death of the other Gods in the previous age. Valim was ultimately seduced by Mazaroth and pledged himself to the fallen God. He may have called Yanella his Queen, but Mazaroth was his true master. Valim fed Yanella with suggestions of how the invaders could be beaten back. She listened and considered his solutions. Valim told the Queen to turn to the power of the Undead. His plan would have the mages of Sollovast practice the magic of Necromancy to turn the tides of wars. Some questioned his motives and others argued against him but ultimately the Queen agreed. Necromancy was a taboo in the world of magic and a line that mages were taught never to cross. Valim instructed mages of Sollovast to cross that line, to give in the temptations of the Undead magic. He quickly gathered followers, legions of the young and eager who wished to stand behind him, loyal more to Valim than the Queen they pledged to serve. A plot hidden in plain sight to enact mass irreversible change. In hushed voices opponents to the group labeled Valim and his necromancers the Cult of Shadows. Before long, Mazaroth had more believers following him which would spell the end for Sollovast. Birth of the Dreadlands With Valim advising her on all matters, the inexperienced Queen Yanella allowed her mind to be filled with paranoid notions of the Wood Elves, their planned attack on Sollovast, and an uprising in the ranks of her Queensguard. She started to exert influence through power, sending her armies to her towns and settlements to maintain control. With the threat of the elves looming, Queen Yanella rallied her armies and sent them to the approaching elves, facing heavy losses. Valim convinced the Queen that he could revive her armies using a Holy Gem, a gift to the people that once belonged to the God Oriani, but during the ritual he replaced it with a powerful dark relic known as the Shadow Gem, turning all those within Sollovast to Undead. A catastrophic blast of magic tore through Sollovast poisoning everything it came into contact with and killing the land almost immediately. Nothing living survived, instead a curse brought about by Valim and the Cult of Shadows dragged the nation into a new age of horror. Even Valim and his followers in the region died, but this was all part of the Archbishops plan, Mazaroth's plan. For Valim knew that the ritual would change the land and its people turning them into something new. The dead began to rise, but just a fraction of a fraction of the former population. This magical weapon of mass destruction had converted a fragment of the people into the Undead, including some members of the Cult of Shadows who were present at the ritual. Valim had left them all instructions. Should he not rise with them, they were to claim his body and withdraw to safety. His undead necromancers fought against the newly converted Queensguard, and in the chaos they managed to escape. Queen Yanella had also been changed in the attack and her first instinct as Undead was to take the sealing stone and prevent the Cult from taking it with them as they fled. The corpse Valim and his group disappeared, the new Undead of Sollovast were lost and in the wake of the battle, the Dreadlands came to be. Age of Invasion The Cult of Shadows brought about the first Demon Invasion on the world when they opened the Demon portal. The cultists assisted their new master Gereth in his plans to open the portal and fought alongside the monsters that poured through. The powers of necromancy were brutal against the armies of light, but the heroes of the age did not falter. They pushed back the armies of darkness and the Cult of Shadows barely managed to escape extinction and went on to open the gateway to the Demon realm a second time using the power of the leyline energies of Vathria. The Demon wars boiled the lands in fire and blood over decades, but once more the Cult of Shadows would be defeated and forced back into hiding by the efforts of Aldren Brightborn and his champions. Defeated but still ever present, the order waited, electing to go into hiding, to rebuild and await instructions. They longed for the day they would bring their lord and master Mazaroth back to the world. The Age of New Kingdoms In the decades following the Age of Invasion, kings and Queens of the lands issued edicts to the people. The Cult of Shadows were to be rooted out of their hiding places. The Undead necromancers went deep into hiding, hibernating throughout the years and waiting for change. Many living members however were not so lucky to simply disappear. Many were rounded up and executed after interrogation. Historians of Vathria question whether the number put to death in this age is accurate and whether most of those who admitted did so under duress and may have been innocent after all. The Age was one of great change for the realm as the continent of Vathria was unified by Thellen Brightborn, nations developed and peace blossomed. The Cult of Shadows was largely forgotten about, a relic of a dark past that most in Vathria would rather never remember. The Current Age There are whispers in the wind of evils return to the world and the Cult of Shadows has been listening. Mostly silent for centuries, they have waited till now patiently for the time when their masters would give them instruction once more. Gereth has returned with a plan that will result in the destruction of the land and his faithful followers will stop at nothing to ensure he is successful. The Ages yet to come The histories of tomorrow are awaiting an author, one who would tell the stories of the heroes and events not yet known. The Cult of Shadows have something colossal and terrible planned for the Vathria and there is little in their way to stop them. However those stories for now are unwritten and their outcomes unknown as the looming threat grows larger across Vathria. . .