The Darkness Arrives
The Darkness arrived nearly 500 years ago. Before then, people lived in the lowlands, the plains and the valleys from which they fled to reach higher ground.
The story goes that the Dark Lord rose up from the depths beneath the The Flameheart and smothered the Light which it brought to the world. This corrupted the Flameheart and turned it into a beacon of darkness, known nowadays as the Shadowspire. The Phoenixes living in the Flameheart were consumed by the darkness and destroyed, and the clouds of shadow swelled up inside the mountain until it overflowed, spilling out into the world. Anything the Darkness touched was deprived of Light, those with more Light in them were affected much more quickly and severely than those with less, as if the Darkness was alive and targeting them, feeding on them. The Phoenixes, being creatures of the Flame, were struck down first - all whom the Darkness touched were destroyed. All save one. The other races could survive within the clouds, only being mildly connected to their respective aspects of Light. Still, they would not last when the Darkness claimed everything that they - or their food - ate. Not only that, but the more immediate danger was the manifestation of Darkness in corporeal form - the Shadowspawn.
The Shadowspawn were essentially Darkness given shape, but they were also capable of venturing ahead of the encroaching clouds for short periods, just as beings of Light could spend some time in Darkness. They caught and dragged away their prey, preferring those more sentient races with a connection to Light. They could be wounded by normal weapons, although none seemed to kill them for good, and they were simultaneously drawn to and afraid of great quantities of light. Like moths to a flame, they were fascinated by fire until it hurt them and they fled. For a short time at least.
Over a period of about a year, all people retreated before the relentless clouds, seeking higher and higher ground. A quest had been sent deep into the Darkness towards the source of it all, to discover - and hope to stop - its spread. They succeeded, managing to bind the Dark Lord and halt the shadows, but they did not dissipate, instead remaining across the lands, to become known as The False Ocean , with the survivors clinging on to islands that were once mountains, to plains once plateaus, separated by the Darkness.
Type
Metaphysical, Supernatural
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