Vestal

A world of magic and raw natural powers. The people of Vestal are recovering from the consequences of a divine conflict that occurred over a thousand years ago.

Divinity

§Section titled Divinity

The world is ruled over by 7 divine beings, split between two Divine Councils

Council of Hope

• Opus, the Lifeweaver. The God of Life.
• Astan, the Giftbringer. The God of Festivity
• Seera, the Fate Sighted. The God of Destiny

Council of Consequence

• Cy’cal, the Harvest Queen. God of Seasons.
• Ubis, the Blackscythe. God of Death.
• Judal, the Lawmaster. God of Law.

Banished

• Systal and Bro’thar, the Twins of Twilight. Gods of Chaos and Rebellion.
  • Accidental children of Ubis and Opus
  • Their names became the root of the common words for Sister and Brother.
  • The creators of Elves, Dwarves, Fiends, and

Story of Origin

§Section titled Story of Origin

Once, there was nothing.

And then, born were two opposing forces. Opus opened her eyes first and gave form to everything around her, including her counterpart - Ubis. Together they brought upon the natural forces of creation and destruction - the push and pull causing change to occur, and the two were the first to ever experience the flow of time.

Opus and Ubis would go on to explore the worlds they had given existence too, and shortly began to wonder if they were the only beings in existence. At the end of their search and dissatisfied to realise that they were alone; a shared moment of desperation by the two lone gods, Systal and Bro’thar were accidentally born.

Sharing both their father’s resolve and mother’s optimism, the two learned to control the powers of creation and destruction simultaneously. Their chaotic nature inspired Opus to voluntarily create more life - to occupy and nurture their insatiable curiosity, although it gave Ubis cause to control how much power they granted to these new beings. Judal and Astan were created to teach the twins wrong from right, by rewarding them for their good deeds and enforcing the consequences of their bad ones.

One day, the Twins were exploring a large oceanic world when a sudden magic force separated the two from each other - something not even their parents had managed to achieve. It shook both of the gods to their core as they experienced true fear for the first time.

To protect himself, Bro’thar created the first Dwarves in the image of himself. At the same time, Systal created Elves after the image of herself in a panic. Their parents were astutely aware of the events transpiring but decided to let things play out to teach the twins a lesson.

The two managed to find their way back to each other and decided to reward their creations with a feast, knowledge, and power. They gave them animals to eat and tame, fire to cook the food, and taught them language to communicate. The twins also introduced the force divine forces of life, death, order/law, and celebration/reward.

The twins rushed back to their parents to inform them of their good deed. Upon returning to the world, they noticed their two creations locked in a war that had seen countless casualties. Opus and Ubis stepped in to quell the destruction; not wanting to see what would happen to such a beautiful world if the mortals were left to their own devices. Ubis and Opus decided the mortals needed some additional divine forces to help steer them towards progress.

Opus spoke with a man named Stal; the leader of the dwarves, who told her he wished there was something other than combat to look forward to. In response, Opus created Seera - the God of Destiny. She gave mortals the ability to feel passions and dream bigger than they ever had before. Ubis spoken with Vess; the Queen of the Elves, who wished for more regular and controlled changes to the world so they could have some familiarity with their point in time. Ubis created Cy’cal - the God of Seasons, giving mortals more predictable changes in weather and nature.

The Twins, unhappy with their parents involvement with their creations, rebelled and created dragons, fiends, and monsters to attack the cities the elves and dwarves had built. The other gods pooled their powers and born from that were humans, gnomes, halflings, and countless other mortal races.

The creations of the twins were significantly more powerful but also tended to infight more; devils and demons especially - both feeling the other received favouritism from their creators, and this was the eventual downfall of the Twins’ forces. The Dragons fled to the far reaches of the continent, being wise enough to see that their leader would fall.

The Twins were placed into a deep slumber by their parents, and their creations - unwilling to cooperate with Ubis and Opus, were banished to other planes of existence where they wouldn’t harm the world now called Vestal - celebrating the two clans that had originally banded together to defend it.

The city of Origus was the last standing place on the now known continent of Ahn’terae - with much of the land uninhabitable. The gods guided the mortals to other lands before leaving them to foster their own lives - having seen what too much divine influence can lead to.

Opus, Seera, and Astan continued to influence the hope of the mortal world - ensuring they have something always to look forward to and were rewarded for doing the right things. At the same time Ubis, Judal, and Cy’cal maintained the order of the mortal world; giving it’s people rules to follow and ensuring mortals experience consequences for their destructive actions.

The mortals regularly celebrated Opus and her council of hope with songs, prayer, and

Geography

§Section titled Geography

Vestal is a large, oceanic planet with 5 main continents and a handful of other small land masses.

• Feldon
• Ahn’terae
  • A large, yet barren, continent in the southern hemisphere.
  • Originally intended at the home for all mortal life, however divine conflicts have rendered much of the land damaged beyond repair.
  • Only the capital; Origus, has maintained any semblance of mortal life due to protections reinforced by the council of hope.
• Monterra
  • A mountainous region surrounding the Northern pole of the planet.
  • Once upon a time, it shared a land bridge with Feldon but has since separated.
  • A strong natural magical presence causes this to be one of the few places that remains cold and snowy regardless of Cy’cal’s wishes.
• Ozel
  • A desert landscape equatorial region of the planet.
  • Home to the oldest continuous civilisations in recorded history - the Ozellian Empire rules over much of the inhabitable land.
  • Currently managing a civil war between a rebellion group in the south.
• Quinston
  • A small but mineral dense nation in the north and eastern hemispheres.
  • Led by the Young Council; a group of elected members of society, named due to only having been formally recognised by the other continents as legitimate 10 years ago.