The Creation Myth of Archanon, the World of Wizard's Wrath

In the primordial chaos before all notion of existence, there was nothing. Suddenly this No-thing opened its eye and became self-aware thus creating a Universe unto itself. The burden of One single mind was too much to bear so this One God, for now it was aware of its role, had an idea. It proceeded to divide it's consciousness and create fellowship as a lone madman might evoke the voices in his head for an interesting chat. It's many personalities were distinct gods themselves and as usually the case with crowds there were disagreements due to inherent dualities and paradoxes. It seemed that every god wanted the universe to be molded by their individual will, often clashing with others in countless inconsistencies. A compromise was made and many parallel universes were born out of a single supernal realm. A god by the name Gan created a series of universes bound together by a tower, another god created worlds ruled by magic where its denizens built portals by which they conquered other worlds. Some older worlds even allowed mortals enough ingenuity to sail across galaxies.

The gods were archetypes, each recognized by different names in all the myriads of universes and free to interact with all sentient life. Unlike incarnated beings, they could consciously exist in multiple universes, free from the constraints of time, space and linear thought, such are the perks of godhood. One particular universe was the creation of Johvan and his wife Gaia. He was an old god of war and patriarchy, she the cunning and discreet nature goddess. They populated it with many other intelligences in descending scale, gods, angels, elementals and demons. They created the world of Archanon where sentient organic life could stand in the middle of such hierarchy, with the capacity for good and evil. Sages and mystics have chronicled specifics about what gods created which races, but they all came from the first two who birthed the universe. With the constant meddling of the gods in mortal affairs there were aeons of numerous holy wars, each more destructive than the last. Gaia's natural balance of life, destruction and redemption was tipping towards an irreversible extinction. Johvan seemed to be losing grip of his dual aspect as nurturer and destroyer and Gaia noticed the first signs of his future madness. He reveled in decadent violence and sought to crush the free will of all mortal races under tyranny.

While her husband slept, Gaia's tears created the vast forest which now bears her name, it also became her refuge amongst mortals. In the forest she lured a man through whom she born a mortal son. She hid the human baby amongst the Fey who took up residence there and let them raise the boy in the ways of magic. As the boy whom the Fey named Aleph grew into a man, she made herself known to him, and taught him in the ways of divine magic. By this act, she defied Johvan's decree and opened the way for magic to be taught to all mortals as means to self preservation. Knowing that this would not be enough, she gathered the essence of the gods into a grail and crystallized the liquid mana into a solid luminescent stone. With the power of the gods gathered in the stone, her human son could one day make a stand against her sadistic husband. In that moment Johvan confronted her saying that he'd known of her deceit all along. He struck her and the grail-stone fell upon the highest peaks of Archanon, shattering it into 6 pieces scattered across the globe. He revealed himself as the boy's father in human disguise and claims that even if he grew to the level of a god, such power would corrupt, turning the boy into his servant instead. He then proceeded to murder her in the only way a god could be killed, by destroying all her temples, killing her priestesses, banishing the Fey who conspired with her and eradicating all form of worship to her. The gods witnessed this case of domestic abuse in silence, powerless to step in and intervene for their own mother. He extinguished her existence upon his universe.

Aleph watched his world decline into pandemonium, but once he learned of its source, and his mother's fate at the hands of the old god, he sought to reunite the grailstone from its fragments. Upon channeling the power of the grailstone he ascended towards the astral realm of the gods, where he had shed his mortal humanity and became a god, for this reason myth has remembered him as Wraith. The new god Aleph Wraith issued a challenge to all other gods, if any should defeat him in wits or battle Archanon's universe would be theirs to toy with. However, should he defeat them, they were to leave that universe never to return. Many gods, remembering the murder of their mother, secretly sided with Wraith and challenged him with the purpose of making him more powerful with every duel. Most challenged him in wits so that he gradually came to know each god as extensions of his own consciousness. As a man with amnesia rediscovers and reassembles his memories into a whole, so did each god serve as part of the puzzle, fitting into the whole of Wraith's being - the greater the consciousness, the greater the god. “Know thyself” he would mutter to himself in the supernal speech.

Soon there was no one left to duel but Johvan himself. The all-father god tried to corrupt Wraith appealing to the last vestiges of his human ego but failed. Enraged, he lunged at his own son in furious battle, stars clashed, constellations fell from the sky and the god-realm was turned asunder until both of them exploded in a divine supernova. Father and son canceled each other, resolving the previous imbalance in the kosmos. With both gone, the other gods honored Wraith's challenge and left the affair of mortals. While they could roam other worlds they could affect the world no more than a dreamer can touch reality, so long as Wraith and Johvan were no more. These events were witnessed and recorded by the god Daermes, whose last act of interaction with the mortals of Archanon was the spread this grand legend.

There are many theories about what really happens when a god dies. Some say they enter the dark realm, stripped of their former glory, others say that they incarnate as mortals in miserable circumstances ignorant of their true nature. Without any memory of their God-self they have no claim to such powers, thus they're considered dead. Some sages even claim that every sentient life-form is a sleeping god, all the mystic musings aside, no one really knows for sure.

Over a period of two thousand years the mortal races grew more independent of the gods, standing alone in their petty conflicts. The wrath of gods upon mortals became the wrath of mortals upon each-other, their old religions falling into the realm of irrelevant mythologies. Clerics and holy men, learned to tap into the the holy power within, wielding their own holy magic. As the old cults lingered starved from their deities, new humanist faiths and secular philosophy thrived -mortals were the measure of all things.

This ideological hubris fueled the research of magic wielders through the centuries, each rivaling conclave outdoing the other in a tireless race to some elusive mastery of the universe. Great wizards rose and faded following the path of the legendary Wraith, each obsessed with power and its promise of godhood. Two great wars were waged, known to most mortals as the War of Wizards or first and second Wizard's Wrath. All mortal races rose united against a single wizard who sough to become a tyrannical demi-god by reassembling the Grailstone. In spite of all the heroes of Archanon the battle was fought and won by magic. Though victorious, the Great Alliance was at the mercy of powerful men and women who banded together to form an elite nation. Situated at a major ley-line crossroad, The Ivory Citadel policed the world through its cultural, magical and diplomatic influence.

The 25 years of unparalleled peace did little to ease the general distrust and resentment commoners feel for magic and its practitioners. Prosperity has given way to greed and large financial institutions trample on peasant labor. In Lothaire, the largest of human empires, the crown has cut costs by replacing trained law enforcement with common thugs, letting organized crime and civil unrest run rampant. The rising sense of despair leaves mortals with no place to look beyond themselves for solutions. Whispers abound of growing cults turning to the old gods, perhaps hoping to awaken them.

Occult events have been set into motion and cannot be reversed. Your actions, though small at the moment, may someday decide the fate of Archanon. Your world may either be withering into eternal death or entering a new aeon where gods and mortals stand as twins before the vast universe.

The Craft of Gaming- Miniatures

One thing I find extremely satisfying about being in an ongoing campaign is the stuff to do between games.  Chris brought this back out in me, with the mere suggestion of miniatures.  He said "I'd like you to get a representation of your character, because we're going to start using minis."  That's all it took, I was off and running, with miniatures.  Back when Tom played Warhammer 40k, I helped him paint some of his armies. It was crude, at the time, we were using cheap paint and cheaper brushes, just to get them tabletop ready, but I remember deeply enjoying the process.  I'd forgotten all about that brief time, till recently.  Painting miniatures is a way to keep me thinking about my character, the game, the setting, and just game-oriented stuff, in those long spans of time between our monthly game.  I feel like I need it now more than ever, since our C:TL game has been put on seemingly indefinite hold.  If I could draw, I would be frantically drawing all manner of characters and scenarios.  Instead, I'm painting minis.  I really love it.  I think it was a gateway into this new feverish obsession with D&D.  That's for another post, though.  

The painting is appealing to me, on many levels.  I've been trying to wean myself off of playing cRPGs, and MMOs, because they're ultimately time consuming, and not very thinky.  They're lazy, and honestly, as a long time indepth role-player, they're not satisfying even on a "just for fun" level. I call MMOs the methadone to my real gaming addiction.  Painting fills those hours with creation, instead of clicking.  One mini takes 3-6 hours to paint, and it's great for my attention span.  I've also been weaning myself off of vapid internet sites.  I used to spend hours just flitting from tab to tab, without any direction, never reading anything more than a page long, and murdering my already weak little attention span.  With painting, it's such a thorough and intense attention to detail. It requires a zenlike calm, and steadiness of nerves and hands. I have to ground myself and really focus to do it right.  It's been extremely beneficial for me.

I painted for about four hours today.  I tried the other day, and I really didn't feel any mojo. I finished my armored soldier, the other day, then stared at my three WIPs, but that's as far as I got.  I had three minis in various stages of unfinishedness waiting for a bath in break cleaner.  They all had bad paint jobs, ill thought out color schemes, and one had good colors, but poorly mixed paint that went on in blotches.  I cleaned them all yesterday, so I was feeling inspired, today.  I also got my new sable brushes and wet palette in the mail today, so I was dying to try them out.

I grabbed the wizard and re-primed him, then instead of doing a basic blue or purple wizard, I went for a dramatic black and white with NMM gold trim. I couldn't be happier.  He's got a warm white cloak, black robes, and bright gold trim.  His beard and hair are reddish gold, like Irv's and I'm really looking forward to  picking him up tomorrow for finishing touches and basing.  Still trying to think of a color for the fur trim on the white cloak.  I might paint it red, and put some other tiny red accents, to tie it all together.  I should look at a color wheel.

The only two drawbacks to this mini fever are eye strain, and pocket strain.  It has the potential to be a cheap hobby.  Paint costs $3 a bottle, and a bottle can last for years. Minis cost between $4 and $6 and they're at least an afternoon of entertainment, often two days worth.  The startup cost has been a lot, though, with getting brushes, primers, sealers, basing materials, storage, etc.  It doesn't have to be, I'm just thorough.  I know I can do it just as easy with two brushes and a paper plate for a palette, I'd rather get an array of brushes and a good wet palette, which costs some money.  That's just how I embrace things, I guess.