Heliestheos Crisis

The Unification of Emaxus

With Yathra Silthame captured by the Stars, the FoS and their allies organized a desperate council in Camaerith. They invited the movers and shakers of Emaxus, summoning leaders of the Imperium, The Theussaun Protectorate, the kingdoms of Iotura and even The Aasveigan Pantheon.   Through this council, the FoS forged a planetary alliance the likes of which had never been seen before. Together, they plotted a full-scale assault of the Stars' two greatest strongholds: their new fortress in Yahtra Silthame and their long-term powerbase on Lysithea's surface. The assault would come on Miirphys 21, Notharel, 399 AR. Until then, all members of the alliance would prepare and gather their strength.   The FoS went about preparing a mass counter ritual to stop the Stars' desire to summon Heliestheos back from Xeccamund, as well as gathering weapons and artifacts to battle the Stars and their followers. At the same time, great ephemeral chains appeared connecting Yathra Silthame and the Dragonheart Caldera to Lysithea; Heliestheos was coming.

The Battle at the Dragonheart Caldera

Mercy was a Star and one of the most powerful monks to live after The Reckoning. She had built a powerbase at the Dragonheart Caldera, and due to the presence of one of the two Emaxian chains at said fortress, the FoS decided to spearhead a surprise assault on Mercy and her followers.   Although the FoS nearly tasted defeat, they ended up achieving a crushing victory in which Valna awakened her Inner Dawn, becoming the first master of the Way of the Inner Dawn in millennia, Mercy was slain, and her followers were slaughtered. Veldrin, using his power as the Sage of Order, shattered the planar chain and delayed Heliestheos' arrival by several days.

The Great Slaughter

On Elendiir 20, Notharel, 399 AR, an event that has come to be known as "The Great Slaughter" occurred. Thur'anach's hundreds of thousands of followers across his countless false religions committed mass suicides, and their souls were captured and channeled into the interplanar ritual to summon Heliestheos. She would arrive far quicker now, counteracting the damage that the FoS's assault on the Caldera had caused.   The FoS contacted their alliance and urged them that they needed to act now. Thus, the final assault began.

The Liberation of Yathra Silthame

Spearheaded by the FoS and Isael's Stormforged Legions, the assault on Yathra Silthame began in the early morning of Miirphys 21, Notharel, 399 AR. Under Vyllath's rule, the city had quickly been turned into a volcanic hotbed ruled by draconian overlords.   The battle was quick and brutal. Within three hours, the FoS (with the help of allies on the Council of Greatwyrms) had slain Threspotus and Vyllath while their forces had liberated much of the city. With the FoS's portion of the fight complete, they gathered their most powerful allies and took a Gate to Lysithea for the most important portion of their battle: defeat Thur'anach and stop Heliestheos's arrival.

The Assault on Lysithea

By this point, the ephemeral chains connecting Lysithea and Yathra Silthame had pulled Heliestheos's Core of Spacetime into Yophas. The FoS knew their time was running out, so they hit the Stars' Lysithean fortress hard and fast alongside their ritual strike team. They needed to find and kill Thur'anach, secure the chain's base, and perform the counter ritual.   They secured the chain's base first, and when Thur'anach did not reveal itself, they decided to press on with the counter ritual. But, once the ritual had begun, Thur'anach began an assault immediately. The FoS battled the aberrant monstrosity while desperately protecting their ritual team, and although they slew Thur'anach, it was not before it had done severe harm to the ritual team and their spellcraft.   Thus, Veldrin made a hard choice: take a gambit on stopping Heliestheos's arrival (with a high chance of accidentally empowering her) or willingly summon her but pull her and them to a battleground of their choosing.   He chose the latter.

Heliestheos's Release and Death

Heliestheos arrived in a multiversal explosion. She erupted from the Core of Spacetime and flew to slay the FoS immediately. With the immense power of the ritual, Veldrin pulled Heliestheos and the FoS to the desolate ash wastes of Epharan, the Ashen Expanse.   There, a battle for the fate of Yophas raged. Heliestheos's power was vast, but the FoS had assembled an arsenal of weapons and boons from all across Yophas. Although the conflict was harsh, they managed to defeat the Dragon of Space and Time; however, Heliestheos still changed reality, even in death.   The sheer volume of energy contained in her Core of Spacetime was no longer restrained upon Heliestheos's death. The Core essentially went supernova, and although the FoS survived the blast, the Core's energy sent shockwaves through reality. It flooded the lunar-arcane, adding a substantial amount of magic back to Yophas; it weakened the boundaries between planes, causing larger and more abundant planar rifts; and, because it added magic that was not of an origin from the lunar-arcane, it created new forms of magic and strange mutations across Yophas.