Darkgate (3.5e Campaign Setting)/History

The Creation of the Planes and Darkgate

"In the begging of what is now known as the Zero Verse, there was nothing. Then a hole in the realmscape opened and a portal to another existence appeared. Out of this stepped a being that is now known as The Creator. He spent much time crafting the realms and the planes into what was to exist.

"In the year of 1500; V0, the Realms became unstable. The Creator saw this to be caused by his massive power. In a ritual that was lost with him, he split himself into three different beings: Newrok; the essence of his learning ability, Wodahs; the essence pf his intellect, and Rage; the essence of pure power. In this moment Zero Verse ended, the Verse 1 began.

"Newrok set out to learn everything about the Realms from magic to combat to what they are. All knowledge became known to him. Wodahs wondered the realms aimlessly, never knowing what to do. Rage was the one to take intuitive and took members of the first mortal races and taught them the power of rage. These being where called Shadowwolves, what we believe to look like hybrid werewolves but all black because of there love of darkness.

"Wodahs was the first to see this and made an army of beings that were the ancestor to goblinkin. He led his army into combat against Rage’s and could only hold him off because of sheer numbers. He then went to Newrok, who was calling himself Zan. He had mastered his martial style, and was close to mastering the magic of mana. Zan recruited and army of elves, humans, and dwarfs.

"The combined armies marched into battle. Mages of all races casted they’re mana-magiks, as they were known as at the time, in this time beings that were within range where changed by the colliding magic. Dragons, unicorns, and many other creatures were born into life after this. The corpses of the fallen warriors where enchanted by magik where then Rage’s magik, breaking the mage’s control over them, creating the first undead.

"During the battle, Zan and Wodahs pushed they’re way through Rage’s army and defeated him. However, even with the combined might of these two powerful beings could not kill him. They instead imprisoned him in a contraption of Wodahs’s intellect and Zan’s magik.

"The Shadowwolves were cut off from the magik that gave them their great power. They were killed by the thousands. There fled across the Realms and are now rarely seen. This war marked the end of Verse One.

"The Second Verse contained many great happenings. In this time, Zan, who was called Shadow through much of it, was corrupted by the planer winds, the raw energy that was left over from the Creation. During his time as a corrupted monster, Newrok raped a women that later gave birth to his only child, James. James’s real name had been lost to time, even he doesn’t remember it. All he remembers from this time was a black form always watching him and a feeling like it was protecting him. Later, Newrok confessed to it being him, as he could not bring himself to talk to his rape-child or face his victim. When James was 18, he and his older half-brother found a stone that they used to create the Prime-Material Plane, the one that we reside in.

"James used the power the stone gave him to create a realm for a race he thought should have another chance. He created the ideal realm for humans. In the hundredth year of the settlement was the first contact with shadowwolves since what is now called Rage’s War. How they got there, no one knows, and no one ever will. 200 years after the contact, the shadowwolves attacked the humans. In this moment James created The Third Shadowblades. He discovered that every time a group of people were needed to stop a cataclysmic event from occurring they would use this name, which is “Justified Power” in True Magik, a language that few know any words too. He discovered that the first Shadowblades was an army of elves that died saving there clan from a dragon assault, though both groups vanished without any evidence. The second was a mage guild that used they’re very essence to power a spell that stopped a mortal becoming god with no reason for his ascension. During this war Newrok found James and joined the Darkblades with James having no idea who he is. James also fell in love with a human woman, who later gave him twin sons.

"After the war, the few shadowwolves that survived attacked James, his wife, and his children. Using his mastery of magik, he sent his children to what he believed were safety. He tried to stop his wife from being destroyed, but she died as he finished the spell. Because it was ancient magik (a kind he was unused to using), it rebounded to him, allowing his soul to wonder as he rebuilt his body, making it almost impossible for him to truly die.

"One of his children later became Shadowwolf, how was later given the name Wraith by Newrok. The other became Wolfshadow. For many years the two fought. Wolfshadow trying to destroy the world that Wraith was raised on, Wraith always stooping him. In this process Newrok, James, and Wraith all came to know each other and love each other as a proper family. James always regretted that he could not save Wolfshadows’s soul. During Wraith reign of his native land, he had two children, an event rare for one with such power, as the planes can’t handle so much energy in one area. The children were a boy and a girl. The boy became known as Demon. He gained this name because he was a half-demon, for Newrok’s corruption somehow was passed on to this boy in part, however, he usually took the appearance of a human male. The girl faded into history and nothing is known about her now.

"During this time, Wodahs was building an army for future use. He recruited and enslaved hundreds of thousands of people. Using his corrupted form of magik, he created all sorts of demons and devils. Before Wodahs could use his army, however, Newrok attacked his encampment. He destroyed most of the demons and devils, the rest he flung into the Nine Hells and the Abyss. The thralls where slain because there souls were connected to the demons and devils.

"The next great event that happened was when Oblivion, a being whose power was the exact opposite of Newrok’s, tried to destroy the Realms. His army pushed Newrok’s back to the First Plane, the oldest plane that Newrok could access. No known plane is older then this one. During they’re retreat; James sacrificed himself by standing against Oblivion alone. Oblivions power tore James’s essence apart, truly killing him, as far as anyone could tell.

"Before the final battle, Newrok gave his Planer Scimitars, scimitars that drew their power directly form existence, to Wraith, for Newrok could not kill Oblivion or the two powers would cancel each other out, killing both. Newrok led they’re army into war. While he was doing this, Wraith snuck behind the armies and fought Oblivion. Wraith, however, did not kill Oblivion. Before the final blow could be struck, Oblivion’s body shattered and dissipated. Many believe that he is just bidding his time waiting for his next chance. His army never stood a chance against Newrok’s leadership. They were almost all slain. Millions of undead were exorcised; thousands of demons and devil were banished.

"The last great event that took place during the Second Verse was the war that became known as The War of Supremacy. Little is actually known about what happened. The magiks that where thrown about caused the Realms and Time to fuse and separate. This led to many different endings and futures that happened. What is known is that a great evil tried to destroy existence and was thrown down. Wodahs then took up his mantel and tried the same thing. With his defeat, a third being tried to it, he was destroyed as well. What is believed to have happened is that a half-elf named Lionheart slew this final foe for killing the only women he ever loved. The death of the foe caused her to be revived and little is known about what happened to these two.

"Only one more event could be considered to have during the Second Verse. This is the rising of the Shadowblade. This was a warrior that Newrok trained in martial talent. The thing that makes this one warrior so important is that he destroyed an evil that Newrok never could. That evil’s name was Rage. Rage continued used many beings, mostly shaddowwolves. The Shadowblade used a magik that was unique, as his drew from the Void, a plane that holds a lake that would destroy anything that touches it. Using his magik, he caused all off Rage’s army into the Void. They’re souls overran Oblivion, the original plane of the dead, flooding it with power that it could not handle. This caused it to implode, sending the just souls to they’re elemental plane, the unjust to She-Oto, a plane of torture.

"The last person he cast into the Void was Rage. Rage could go no where, as he was an essence embodiment, someone who has no soul because he is just essence in a physical form. Rage was annihilated, he will never even be heard of again except in a child’s nightmare. Rage’s destruction tore a rift in the Void, an unseen consequence. From this void a world emerged, lifeless. Shadowblade used his power to lift this world into the Prime-Material Plane. While it rose, many magical creatures where trapped on it. This world eventually became known as Darkgate. This was the end of the Second Verse.

"The Third Verse was of Shadowblade ridding the Darkgate of many of the creatures that became trapped there. However, no one could slay all of them.

"During the Fourth verse, witch was mostly uneventful; a new thing came into existence. It was a race, known as Spellscale. These people are very fun loving individuals, but they strive to secure a place in the world for them selves. Many would see them as absent minded, and they would be wrong. When a spellscale give his word, he will never break it.

"The Fifth verse was marked by as onslaught of the Planer Winds, the very thing that corrupted Newrok millions of years ago. Many people were corrupted during this time and had to be killed before they would do any damage to themselves or any one around them.

"The children of the time seem mostly unaffected witch lead to many people believing that a divine force was punishing them for something that had occurred in recent years but before the children were born. Many held to this believe until a new revelation came to light: the Spellscales seemed unaffected. This led many to thinking that they held a ritual to summon the winds. They just were physically unaffected. Mentally they took the hardest hit. Many became insane, but withdrew away from people.

"The end of the Fifth verse was the coming of what is now known as Darkblades, the original name having been lost. They have no distinguishing physical feature. They have the ability to channel energy from the Plane of Shadows. These people grew in numbers at an astounding rate.

"The beginning of the Sixth Verse was a sudden collapse of the Darkblade’s numbers. A war broke out between two opposing factions after this, both blaming the other. No one knows for sure what caused it and no one ever will.

"The end of the Sixth Verse was marked by a great human population explosion marking them as the most populace race on Darkgate."

The above has been told for countless generations and was just recently put into publishing by James, Saint of Knowledge. He thought to be the James from the story, but no one can confirm this one way or the other.