J. L. Langland
Apostles of Doom
Special Thanks and Dedication to:
Michael Begel, Jay Haesly, Sean Jones, Bob Bingham, Jeff Hodapp, Rick Szekeres, Don Meyer
Edited By: http://www.5starediting.com
Cover Art By: Jacob Atienza (http://jacobarts.weebly.com)
Visit http://www.Astlan.Net for Maps, History, Details and Artwork.
Thanks to all the tireless Beta Demons who labored in the Salt Mines of the Abyss to improve this book!
Preface: Dates, Time and Previously
Reminder from Volume I: The planet of Astlan has two moons. Uropia, the closer moon, orbits Astlan around the axis of rotation from East to West (like Earth’s moon) and Anuropia, further out, orbits Astlan over the poles of rotation from north to south and then south to north.
http://www.astlan.net/Home/AstrometryAstrology/TheMoonsandTheirCycles.aspx
Uropia, the moon with a feminine aspect, has ten months per Astlanian year. Anuropia has five months per year. Thus, for every one Anuropian month, there are two Uropian months. The five months of Anuropia conveniently correspond to the five seasons: Hearth, Winter, Spring, Summer, Harvest.
Anuropian months are not specifically named, given that they also correspond to the seasons which are reversed in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Anuropian quarter months, however, are named. Each named quarter month has two ten-day weeks that correspond to the relative positions of the two moons.
While timekeeping does vary across Astlan, the dates are fairly standardized for trade purposes. Typically, dates are given as Anuropian Quarter Month/Day of Quarter Month/Year. In texts, the quarter month is denoted by either a number 1 to 20 or the name of the month.
http://www.astlan.net/Home/AstrometryAstrology/AstlanianCalendar.aspx
There are multiple calendars that designate the current year depending on specific events. Over the last few centuries, calendars that do not start and stop at the same time have fallen out of favor so that currently, the major calendars in use have years that are only offsets of each other.
http://www.astlan.net/Home/History/Timeline.aspx
The Council States, where many of the humans in Demons of Astlan live, officially use the Post-Vargosian Calendar, which dates from the fall of the Vargosite Empire, 424 years before the arrival of the Dark Lord Tommus. Mount Doom is obviously in the Abyss, which does not have real days, nights or seasons. However, its denizens do use a rough calendar system in which the years seem to roughly correspond to Astlanian years, although this is a completely arbitrary choice made by various demon lords.
As a quick summary of historical milestones:
• Mount Doom was founded 54,760 years before the Dark Lord Tommus ascended to the Throne of Orcus.
• 4,467 years ago, in the final battle of Ragnarök, Asbrú—the bridge connecting Ásgarðr,' Jötunheimr and Midgard — was destroyed by Loki, thus sealing both the Æsir and the Lords of Jötnar from access to other planes of existence.
• 4,027 Astlanian years ago, Sentir Fallon, an avatar of Tiernon, slew the Demon Prince Orcus on the world of Etterdam. Most of Orcus’s D’Orc army was slain permanently by unknown means.
• Oorstemoth was founded by the Anilord Ponchas 1,620 years before the Dark Lord Tommus appears.
• The last of the Anilords were slain 1,071 years before the beginning of the current events.
• One year later, 1,070 years ago, the first Etonians (a.k.a. the Five Siblings) arrived in Natoor, where they spent approximately the next 200 years eliminating the followers of the Nyjyr Ennead.
• The last temple of the Nyjyr Ennead fell 820 years before Lord Tommus’s ascension.
• The Vargosite Empire, founded 1,052 years ago after the fall of the Anilords, collapsed 440 years ago.
• Three years later, 437 years ago, the Magedom of Turelane was formed by Archimage Turelane Al-Addin.
• In 5 PV, 435 years ago, the Kingdom of Abancia was founded; it would last for 300 years until the Abancian War of Dominance, in which Exador laid waste to Abancia when they refused his demands.
Recent milestones:
• Approximately 150 years ago, the Archdemon Bess arrived in the Courts of Chaos, having previously been living in the outer realms due to a feud with Orcus. She claims no one bothered to tell her that Orcus had perished several millennia previously. Her principal fortress near the Courts of Chaos is called “the Outpost.”
• Approximately 100 years ago, Bess aligned with the archdemons Ramses and Exador; they began researching legends of a book containing information that would enable them to depose Lilith and Sammael, the Cofactors of the Abyss.
• Approximately ten years ago, Lenamare the Great learned of this same book and its contents.
• A few years ago, Lenamare ascertained a very likely location for the book and hired a band of interdimensional rogues and bounty hunters to retrieve the book from ruins inside of Oorstemoth.
• Lenamare’s agents acquired the book but were captured; Lenamare, however, had planted magic items on his agents that caused them to blame Exador for the robbery.
• Exador spent nearly a year clearing himself of the charges, and determined that Lenamare had the book that he and his allies wanted.
• Exador and his allies plotted to seize Lenamare’s Academy of Wizardry and more specifically, the book. Lenamare discovered the plot by Exador and began planning his defense.
• On Cyclos 7th 440 PV, during a training session with students, Lenamare and his partner Jehenna discovered what they thought was an unbound lesser demon. Upon trying to summon the demon for the first time, they realized it was actually a Greater Demon. With great risk to themselves and the students, Lenamare succeeded in binding the demon to his will.
○ Cyclos 7, 440 PV is Day Zero for the events detailed here. It is the day that the Demon Tom is first summoned.
• Fourteen days later (DZ +14), Lenamare blew up his own school, taking out the majority of Exador’s forces.
• The following evening (DZ +15), Verigas, the High Priest of Tiernon in Gizzor Del, had his own demon summoning hijacked by a Demon Lord in possession of a party of humans. This began the Rod’s involvement.
• A few days later, an Oorstemothian ship attempted to apprehend a smuggler and was illegally destroyed by one Lord Edwyrd, a powerful animage that also controlled demons. This began Oorstemoth’s involvement.
• Within a week, both the Rod of Tiernon and Oorstemothian forces surrounded the city of Freehold, home of the Council of Wizardry and capitol of the Council States. They both demanded independently that the Council turn over the individuals they were pursuing.
• The Council reacted by raising the city’s incredibly powerful wards of protection, shielding the city from both magical and physical intrusion.
• Talarius, Knight Rampant of Tiernon, while patrolling the city from above, discovered that the city was infested with at least a thousand demons, as well as several Archdemons.
• Thirty days after Day Zero, on Electh 17th 440 PV, the Council managed to expel the demon infestation along with the Arch Demons and Lenamare’s Greater Demon. The demon Tom battled Talarius, Knight Rampant of Tiernon, and Tom defeated Talarius by subverting the mana links between Tiernon and his priests, using the mana to take control of the Rod of Tiernon, the holy army. Further, he reversed the blade used to kill Orcus and tossed Talarius “Into the Abyss.”