(This is a deep lore entry designed to add to the narrative of the setting)
The Epilogue of High Pontiff Artreus, Winter of 1241
The High Pontiff laid in his bed with his eyes shut tightly, trying hard to relax his long and laboring breaths. He had just suffered through a several hour coughing fit involving several pots of water and many clean linens to replace all the blood stained ones. As certainly as he could feel his own bed, he could tangibly feel that his life’s end was coming nearer with alarming speed. He knew that now was the time to ask his caretakers to leave the room and let him die in peace. Their protests where great but the High Pontiff pushed back with a moment of stern clarity and told them he wanted his last moments on this world to be between just him and the high lord. With a grim understanding and with very heavy hearts they each said a gentle prayer and turned to leave the room.
The Pontiff closed his eyes again and lay very still, feeling several minutes of peacefulness and calm. He then felt two strong, warm hands hold his own in an obvious act of love and comfort. Artreus felt his heart fill with joy that tears streamed down his worn and wrinkled face. “I thought that I had lost you” Artreus whimpered. “I have not heard your voice for years and feared the worse, I should not have let my faith falter, please forgive me…” Atreus opened his eyes and saw a handsome but ragged man covered with the dust and grime of traveling long roads. “Why have I not heard your voice in so long Lord? Did I stray too far from you? Where did you go?” the Pontiff asked.
Valos smiled warmly. “Dear child” he said, “I never left your side and I have been with you this whole time.” His smile then turned a bit flat. “The once great powers of this world will soon be forgotten. In decades they may feel like nothing more than a memory and in centuries beyond perhaps nothing more than a fairytale. We will always be here though, even if unseen and unheard, we will always be here and we will always love you.”
Tears streamed down the Pontiffs face and Valos gently dabbed at them with the corners of his ragged linen robe “How will the faith endure Lord?” he asked “How will the world not fall into darkness? I need to know before I leave that everything in this world will be alright.”
“Dear child” whispered Valos. “It is hard to fall, believing it is hard to fall. Belief is a power unparallel and faith in their beliefs will make that belief stronger. True faith is knocking at our doorstep to test our souls. It is easy to believe in miracles when you see them happen before your own eyes, but how sweeter and stronger the faith when the evidence is not what you can see but instead what you can feel in your heart? Faith will endure because faith will carry the people of this world beyond what can be seen.”
With no time left for him on this world, the cryptic wisdom would have to suffice, and he did truly trust Valos. Artreus felt great strength in his hand and arm, a feeling he had not felt in several decades. He pulled himself up with Valos’s aid and as he did, he felt himself leave his body. For a brief moment he could see himself or rather his body frail and lifeless in the bed below him. This was not how he felt, this was no longer him. He felt warm and strong, and vibrant. He felt young and ageless at the same time. He felt light and love everywhere and in everything. The feeling was so strong that it was the only thing he could perceive until in a flash he himself was that light and love, so powerful and so foreign that no mortal words existed to describe the transcendence.
(This is the actual Story Prompt to base this parts individual stories from)
“The Forgetting” (Story Prompt for the 10 year span of 1235 - 1245)
All of the great mystic powers of the world are fading fast. Magic, Druidism, Mentalism, Miracles and so much more become less and less relevant in everyday life. (All casters have access to their rank I and II abilities only, no new apprentices can be made because newer heroes cannot grasp the arts enough to hold onto them) Most items imbued with these powers have gone dormant. Only the most powerful of artifacts retain some semblance of power. Many declare that the relevant forces and the sources behind them are dying, while a fewer number believe firmly that we are forgetting it all through the attrition of time and the lack of a needed practical application. The truth of it will never be known. Of all these powers faith appears the most resilient, for faith seems to endure deeply in the lives of everyday people despite the ability to perform or witness miracles.
Teleportation of any kind is almost all but gone, working only in rare circumstances. Therefore, traveling involves a far greater commitment as weeks and months at a time could be spent just getting to your destination.
In 1236 a practical decision is made that Ramier Stonewall is chosen to become the new King of Kormyre and therefore seamlessly continue running the Kingdom. On the eve of his coronation however he is killed brutally by the Butcher of Bastian’s Wake. After this alarming and surprising tragedy, the royal council quickly installs Hystern Medicia as the new King who is successfully crowned one year later in 1237.
In 1239 a significant threat appears to plague the countryside. Swarms of rats traveling in sea-like waves washes over and devours anything in their path. The adventurers gathered for the expansion of Kormyre attempt to destroy it and fail utterly. The best they are able to accomplish is learn its weaknesses and inform all local lands on how to protect themselves from it with light and fire. The swarms do some real damage at first, but once everyone knows how to avoid them, whenever they are spotted the precautions are instituted and casualties are mitigated. Their traveling pattern and migration habits are unknown but some lands and areas thankfully do not see them for years at a time.
The High Pontiff of the church of light dies in the winter of 1241 and Cardinal Farrow elevates as the next High Pontiff of the church of light, becoming known as Pontiff Alexander. Pontiff Alexander is a young visionary who wishes to bring structure and order back to the church of light, but still retain the humble ways of his predecessor.
By the time 1243 comes around, The Kingdom of Kormyre has almost doubled in size over the last decade. The expansion efforts on this side of the rift went far easier than expected and is now over. The dangerous wilds outside Travance seemed not as dangerous anymore and the resistance to claim land was minimum compared to what was expected and prepared for. Three new baronies and twenty new provinces within them made during this time. All of these lands swell up with a flourishing population. King Medicia of Kormyre Installs Alister as the Duke of all Baronies east of the Rift, then installs former admiral Piper Owen as Baron of Travance.
In 1244 Gaaldron is conquered by the Empire of Vorlorrn and any survivors scatter to the wilds. New Gaaldron’s internal civil war finally comes to a close as the hobgoblin rule is toppled and orcs, ogres and goblins reclaim the land as their own. The land is ravaged by the war, but it is being happily rebuilt by goblinoids who no longer feel oppressed.
Within this decade peace between the warring elven nations becomes a reality as treaties are signed eagerly by all sides.