Levistus's_Leviathan
5e Freelancer
Welcome to Tor-eal (pronounced tohr-ee-ahl). A strange world, with nearly no gods, no outer planes, no astral plane, and only the Elemental Planes, Ethereal Plane, and the Shadowfell and Feywild. Legends and elders say, that once, a millennia ago, there were many gods, dozens of them. There were demons, devils, and clerics to these living gods. Unfortunately, the Catastrophe changed that. The races of the world are changed, the Underdark is conquered by the psionic, tyrannical Duregair, who have the enslaved Dhaer people under their control. The surface is filled with many new races, from Surfneblins to the fearsome Hearthdrak Dragonborn, and the penitent, magic worshiping Goblinoids. Fiends of all kinds are nowhere to be found, and celestials protect coastal cities from awful krakens.
How it happened:
The ancient Blood War, the fiendish clash between forces of law and chaos, of tyrannical oppression and destructive freedom. Raging on for thousands of years, costing hundreds of mortal lives annually, as well as thousands of demon and devil lives, this war was despised by all, but also recognized as a "necessary evil" to maintain planar balance. This understanding revealed itself to be true, because when the balance between the forces of lawful evil and chaotic evil is disturbed, cataclysmic events follow. Though it now has been proven to be needed for planar balance, did nothing to stop the Devils from winning.
Throughout the centuries, others have tried to end the Blood War, like Zariel the fallen angel, and the previous Archduchess of Avernus, and Graz'zt, a previous Archdevil of Baator, and then Demon Lord of the Abyss. No one succeeded in winning the Blood War for all the millennia it was raging, but then that changed. How so, no one remembers, or at least no one is telling. Whomever meddled in the Blood War the last time favored the Devils, and allowed for them to destroy, or somehow rid the world of the demons. And truly, all the demons were gone. Lolth's worshippers lost their magic, Yeenoghu's fierce race of hyena-shaped humanoids, the Gnolls, were released from his control, and all cultists of the demon lords lost their abyssal power.
With the Demons gone, the Devils were mostly unrivaled in the Lower Planes, and they easily subjugated the Yugoloths. Banishing the Orc gods and Goblin gods from Acheron to Carceri, the Devils conquered the Lower Planes. The Celestials were slow to act. Firstly dumbfounded by the events that unfolded to allow this to happen, they started arguing about possible solutions to this problem. A group of them wanted to attack and obliterate the Devils, but the other side claimed that they should cautiously thank the Devils for ridding the multiverse of the feral demons. The Celestials ended up taking the more peaceful option, not wanting to provoke the Devils, and possibly bring upon themselves their fiendish wrath.
A contract was created. The Celestials and Devils agreed upon these terms:
They then took advantage of it. Immediately noticing its faults, they gathered their forces and attacked Mechanus. Asmodeus slew Primus, and took his place as the leader of the Modrons. Outraged, the Celestials claimed that the Devils broke the contract. The Devils slyly smiled and said they did no such thing. The Celestials, noticing the fault in their agreement, saw no option except attacking Mechanus, trying to slay Asmodeus. Failing at destroying the seemingly endless armies of the newly fiendish modrons, the Celestials retreated, losing many of their numbers.
The Devils, now attacked Mount Celestia, taking the plane, and slaying many of the gods. Tiamat aided by Dispater slew Bahamut, Asmodeus killed Torm and Tyr on his own, and so on. The Celestials, noticing that they had no chance at overtaking the Devils, used their last moments in the Outer Planes to weaken the barriers of Carceri, allowing the Goblin and Orc deities to escape. The Celestials and all the gods (except Tiamat and Asmodeus) fled to the Inner Planes, and in an act of desperation to protect the races they worked so hard creating, they sacrificed themselves to create a barrier around the Inner Planes, cutting off the Outer Planes forever. The Astral Plane was cut off, Sigil no longer accessible, and there was no way for the Devils to invade the Inner Planes. Though many of the gods that sacrificed themselves were evil, and never cooperated with anyone before, they saw the need in this dire situation, and were willing to give their lives for the people of the Inner Planes. And, chaos ensued.
The Celestials made their home in the Elemental Plane of Air, with the Angels protecting the Material Plane from threats that may destroy them without this celestial aid. The Devils conquered all of the Outer Planes, dominating the Gith of the Outer Planes, and searching for any way to get inside the Inner Planes. Though most of the gods died, the Shadowfell-dwelling deity, the Raven Queen, survived the Catastrophe.
What happened to the races:
The Blood War ended 79 years before the gods died. This is important for 4 races, listed below:
Drow: When Lolth died, or was banished, or otherwise gone from the multiverse, her clerics lost their power. They lost all their demons, all divine power, and became substantially weaker. Noticing the lack of power and leadership among their matron mothers and priestesses, the drow mages (mostly, but not completely male), overthrew the oppressive society that the matriarchy had festered. Becoming a magocracy, the new drow society mostly remained in the Underdark, allowing their slaves to go free, slaying their spiders, and a few thousand drow journeyed to the surface to see what belonged in the world above. About 56 years after founding their new government based on arcane magic, still severely weakened by the loss of their fiendish allies and divine power, an army of Duergar, their slaves, and aiding devils came to Menzoberranzan, and started attacking the Drow. After the mages of the army were slain, the Drow surrendered to the Duergar, becoming slaves to their awful new masters.
The psionic duergar tortured and mutilated the drow with psychic powers for a thousand years. Now, they are barely recognizable, and are a purply-gray skinned race of dark-elven heritage. They are now known as the Dhaer, are are a skinny people, with glowing blue eyes, inconsistent personalities, and horrid speech patterns.
Though the drow who remained in the Underdark were taken prisoner by the Duergar, many Drow already left the underground to become a new race of people, over the millennia losing their weakness in sunlight, and gaining a culture of worshipping the stars. This race became known among the surface dwellers as Surdrae, and are a benevolent people.
Gnolls: When the demon lords were defeated, and were erased from the Multiverse, gnolls immediately noticed a difference. Normally driven by the fear and hunger inflicted upon them by Yeenoghu, Gnolls are maddened with savagery. When Yeenoghu no longer had a hold on them, they lost these overwhelming emotions, and felt strange. For the first time in their lives, they didn't feel motivated to do anything. Then, they all felt anger at how they had been dominated for centuries, and they fell upon their humanoid cultist companions, devouring them. With this final act of savagery, consuming humanoid flesh cleansed them of their bestial nature, and caused them to feel shame for how they acted for those hundreds of years. They vowed never to do so again, throwing off their horrid jewelry, clothes, armor, and weapons made from humanoid remains, burying them, and became a peaceful race. As they attempted to be redeemed for their transgressions, as the demonic influence of them slowly left, half of the gnolls transformed into female versions of their race.
Travelling north of the High Forest, in between the Nether Mountains, founding a town in the hills populated at the time by 7,500 gnolls. Now, there are now around 150 million gnolls scattered across northern Faerun, with around 100 million of them living in this city, known as Zeer-Han (Our-Home in Gnollish). They also created a new language, which was a mix of their previous language, the Orc language, and Common.
Orcs: The Orcs were devastated by the Catastrophe. First, when their gods were imprisoned in Carceri, they lost most of their contact with them, and communication was hazier and harder to do. Their societies revolved around consistent contact with their deities, and so they descended into chaos. Tribal leaders were chosen based on guesses, marriages were assigned by a priest of Luthic based on their own interpretations and not on direct omens from their pantheon. Orc society still functioned for the several generations, but among the clergy of their gods, they were slowly becoming more and more disoriented.
Then, when their gods were released 79 years longer, they started receiving many omens and proclamations from their gods, but these were different. They weren't filled with rage, anger, or fierce emotions like before. No, instead, they were tired, solemn messages admitting guilt of dragging their followers into an eternal pointless war. The orc gods let them be free of their traditions, and told them that unless they stop hurting the other races, they will never be happy. This destroyed orcish society. The younger generations called the older generations to let go of their traditions and savage ways. The older generations remembered the tales of the omens of their gods, and confirmed that these messages were legitimate.
Over the course of many years, most orc tribes of Toril abandoned their previous ways. They stopped raiding, killing, and abusing others. They vowed to protect the wilds they once took advantage of, and created a new culture of nature worshippers, druids, and rangers. They started patrolling forests, fields, plains, and the other wilds, and protecting the land from destruction and molestation.
Goblinoids: Much like the Orcs, the goblinoids lost contact with their gods for generations, but because their society was not rooted in tradition that was dependent on direct, constant contact with their gods, much of their ways were not changed during this time period. Small, mostly unimportant changes did happen, such as hobgoblins no longer being born with bright blue and red noses, and their souls no longer traveling to Acheron after death, and divine magic no longer seemed to be forbidden, or at least it wasn't punished by the gods during this time. Some traditions did fall way, due to the lack of surveillance by their deities, and the elders claimed that the younger people were being swayed by devilish temptations. When their gods were released, unlike the Orcs, they received no messages, omens, or communications of any kind.
When Maglubiyet and the other goblinoid gods were freed from Carceri, they were weary from their battles in Carceri against the orc gods, and what other monstrosities lie in that fiendish plane. Tired, weakened, and unmotivated to start another war against the impossibly powerful Devils, Maglubiyet commanded his pantheon to flee to the Material Plane and protect it from the Devils. They received news of what the other gods were doing, and grudgingly agreed, knowing it was for the best of the races they had wronged for so many ages. Not once during this entire period of time during their release did they bother to attempt to contact their loyal servitor races. They then sacrificed themselves alongside the other gods, and once again left their people.
When the goblinoids learned of the events that transpired, and the fact that their gods killed themselves to protect the people of this world, they were shocked. Utter chaos followed. Bugbears, consumed by utter rage and disappointment in the weakness of their deities, overthrew the society of the oppression. The goblins fell under their sway, and obeyed the new leaders of the goblinoid cast. Immediately after the gods' deaths, with Mystra and the Weave being destroyed once more, magic reformed. No god or goddess of magic was recreated. No tapestry of the universe, connecting threads of magic, was respun. Magic was left fractured for 24 hours, causing magic to fail during that time, similar to the Spellplague. Magic reformed, united once again, but it was different. There was no Weave. Instead of a vast flowing source of magic throughout the world, magic seemed to connect things more. "Strings" of magic connected all objects in the universe to seemingly every other. Magic started effecting the world around it. An act of substantial magic near a powerful spellcaster could temporarily or permanently change the area around them. A cleric resurrecting a creature from the dead could cause the grass around them to start glowing, or a necromancer creating a skeleton could cause bones to rattle on the ground around them. Magic and the world was more interconnected. The presence of an archmage in a village could cause Wild Magic Sorcerers to be born, or an angel could cause the births of Aasimar.
Hobgoblin Devastators were the first among the goblinoids to notice this change. With the permission of the bugbears, they were allowed to study it. They created notes, journals, and collected knowledge about it. They called this new source of magic "Yikare", which was Goblin for "The Law". Soon, the goblinoids literally started worshipping it. Bugbears became clergy (Arcana Clerics), Goblins were blessed with divine and arcane power due to these clergy, named Booyehgs (Divine Soul Sorcerers), and Hobgoblins trained more wizards, them being called Dehvoes. They even adopted 3 new commandments that were adapted from observations about the Yikare. These commandments were:
Surfneblin (Surface Deep Gnomes): When the duergar marched in the Underdark to capture the Drow, the svirfneblin watched in horror, unable to do anything. With a sense of self-preservation acting, the inhabitants of Blingdenstone fled to the surface, most of them settling down in Silverymoon at first. Over the centuries, they were eventually mostly assimilated across Faerun, with around 1.5 million in numbers. When the gods died, Svirfneblin lost their ability to control Earth Elementals, but otherwise, their society was not changed much. Though their true names are Svirfneblin, the people of the surface world have adopted the name of "Surfneblin" as a mockery of their contradictory nature.
Verdan: The Verdan, who before the Catastrophe had no people, no cities, no culture, and no religion. In a way, this was a boon. They had no ties, no society to fracture, and no foundations to be shattered. Due to this, and their reaction to this event was mainly calm. When they were first created, there were only about 1,000 Verdan. Now, scattered across Tor-eal, there are more than 2 million verdan, filling many positions in day to day life.
When the Catastrophe occurred, these calm and mellow goblinoids reasonably, which was beneficial to them as a people. For example, in Waterdeep, while the city was scrambling from the deaths of Laeral Silverhand, Vajra Safahr, a few Masked Lords, and the destruction of the Blackstaff and Blackstaff Tower, a verdan man named Wural Ulmokina, who was only 28 years old at the time, was able to rally together Waterdeep and be elected as the first High Magistrate of Waterdeep. The government became a democracy, and the High Magistrate was elected every 12 years, voted out of office when they lost popularity or died of old age. Wural was a compotent and charismatic leader, who allowed Gnolls, Orcs, Drow, Goblinoids, and Svirfneblin into the city 8 years into his first term. He was able to protect the city from the Second Dragon-Giant war, and was elected for 9 terms, serving 108 years.
This, and many other instances of Verdan reacting well to this stressful situation, allowed them to do well in their communities, becoming lawyers, politicians, public speakers, actors, musicians, and in general, great friends to people of all races. They were even well known enough to be openly accepted into goblinoid cities, though they were looked down on still unless they were practitioners of magic.
Dragonborn: Similar to Verdan, Dragonborn were fairly new to Toril when the Catastrophe ocurred, but they did have a culture and traditions. A few dragonborn had adopted the worship of Faerunian gods, such as Torm, Tyr, Helm, and Bahamut, but not a substantial amount of them were followers of gods for the Catastrophe to destroy their culture. At the start of the Catastrophe, they remained relatively the same physically, socially, and socially, but they eventually began to change, thanks to the Second Dragon-Giant War. They split into two groups, not divided by color, heritage, physical differences of any kind, but instead philosophical differences. They were named as the following:
Hearthdrak. These dragonborn sided with the dragons in the Second Dragon-Giant War, aiding them in war, and attempting to unite their people against the giants. They remained the war until its end, and fought well, but they weren't reunited with the people they split from. In modern Tor-eal, they are physically different, more charismatic and intimidating, and are able to frighten people.
Othrilers. These dragonborn fundamentally disagreed with the assertions of the Hearthdrak. They didn't think the larger and otherworldly races were worth following, and instead decided to turn against them. They don't like any race that they claim "pretends" to be better or more powerful than them. They remember their subjugation and enslavement under the dragons and primorials on Abeir, how the gods would take advantage of them, and they reject other races.
Mind Flayers: The illithids of Toril were stunned by the events that became known by the humanoids and celestials as "the Catastrophe". Instead of adopting that name, the Mind Flayers at first called it the "Opportunity" and eventually called it "The Changing". Seizing the moment, the Mind Flayers took advantage of the moment of insanity and chaos on Toril, while the numbers of Gith on the planet were small in numbers. They first sent their thralls to steal white dragon eggs, and kidnap sleeping white dragons. They then transformed the captured dragons into Brainstealer Dragons, brainwashed the newly hatched dragons into serving them, and luring multiple dens of kobolds into Mind Flayer bases, where they were gathered up into their remaining fleet of spelljamming ships, where they fled into Realmspace to leave before they were stopped from leaving. During the millennia following, they warped the Kobolds into a new race known as the Coalbs, and bred their brainwashed white dragons with sun dragons, to produce radiant dragons.
Gith: Though they were were separated from their home planes and commands from their superiors, the Gith who were in the Inner Planes at the time of the Gods' Sacrifice were able to unite as a single race. Led by a Shasal'Kou Githyanki named Xei'karr, both the Githzerai and Githyanki united to start a faction of illithid and aberration hunters known as the Telairkarr. The united gith race, now known as the Githxei (gith-xay), recruited humans, surface drow, and gnomes to help them in their quest to track down and destroy the Illithids in Realmspace and the Inner Planes.
This is what I have so far. Clearly, there are a lot more races for me to add, and more information and lore to update, but I wanted to put this here just as a test. What are your thoughts on it? Any advice?
How it happened:
The ancient Blood War, the fiendish clash between forces of law and chaos, of tyrannical oppression and destructive freedom. Raging on for thousands of years, costing hundreds of mortal lives annually, as well as thousands of demon and devil lives, this war was despised by all, but also recognized as a "necessary evil" to maintain planar balance. This understanding revealed itself to be true, because when the balance between the forces of lawful evil and chaotic evil is disturbed, cataclysmic events follow. Though it now has been proven to be needed for planar balance, did nothing to stop the Devils from winning.
Throughout the centuries, others have tried to end the Blood War, like Zariel the fallen angel, and the previous Archduchess of Avernus, and Graz'zt, a previous Archdevil of Baator, and then Demon Lord of the Abyss. No one succeeded in winning the Blood War for all the millennia it was raging, but then that changed. How so, no one remembers, or at least no one is telling. Whomever meddled in the Blood War the last time favored the Devils, and allowed for them to destroy, or somehow rid the world of the demons. And truly, all the demons were gone. Lolth's worshippers lost their magic, Yeenoghu's fierce race of hyena-shaped humanoids, the Gnolls, were released from his control, and all cultists of the demon lords lost their abyssal power.
With the Demons gone, the Devils were mostly unrivaled in the Lower Planes, and they easily subjugated the Yugoloths. Banishing the Orc gods and Goblin gods from Acheron to Carceri, the Devils conquered the Lower Planes. The Celestials were slow to act. Firstly dumbfounded by the events that unfolded to allow this to happen, they started arguing about possible solutions to this problem. A group of them wanted to attack and obliterate the Devils, but the other side claimed that they should cautiously thank the Devils for ridding the multiverse of the feral demons. The Celestials ended up taking the more peaceful option, not wanting to provoke the Devils, and possibly bring upon themselves their fiendish wrath.
A contract was created. The Celestials and Devils agreed upon these terms:
- The Upper Planes were for the Celestials, and were not to be attacked by the Devils.
- The Lower Planes were for the Devils, and were not to be attacked by the Celestials.
- The people of the Inner and Material Planes were allowed to worship whomever they chose, with no otherworldly interference.
They then took advantage of it. Immediately noticing its faults, they gathered their forces and attacked Mechanus. Asmodeus slew Primus, and took his place as the leader of the Modrons. Outraged, the Celestials claimed that the Devils broke the contract. The Devils slyly smiled and said they did no such thing. The Celestials, noticing the fault in their agreement, saw no option except attacking Mechanus, trying to slay Asmodeus. Failing at destroying the seemingly endless armies of the newly fiendish modrons, the Celestials retreated, losing many of their numbers.
The Devils, now attacked Mount Celestia, taking the plane, and slaying many of the gods. Tiamat aided by Dispater slew Bahamut, Asmodeus killed Torm and Tyr on his own, and so on. The Celestials, noticing that they had no chance at overtaking the Devils, used their last moments in the Outer Planes to weaken the barriers of Carceri, allowing the Goblin and Orc deities to escape. The Celestials and all the gods (except Tiamat and Asmodeus) fled to the Inner Planes, and in an act of desperation to protect the races they worked so hard creating, they sacrificed themselves to create a barrier around the Inner Planes, cutting off the Outer Planes forever. The Astral Plane was cut off, Sigil no longer accessible, and there was no way for the Devils to invade the Inner Planes. Though many of the gods that sacrificed themselves were evil, and never cooperated with anyone before, they saw the need in this dire situation, and were willing to give their lives for the people of the Inner Planes. And, chaos ensued.
The Celestials made their home in the Elemental Plane of Air, with the Angels protecting the Material Plane from threats that may destroy them without this celestial aid. The Devils conquered all of the Outer Planes, dominating the Gith of the Outer Planes, and searching for any way to get inside the Inner Planes. Though most of the gods died, the Shadowfell-dwelling deity, the Raven Queen, survived the Catastrophe.
What happened to the races:
The Blood War ended 79 years before the gods died. This is important for 4 races, listed below:
- Drow
- Orcs
- Gnolls
- Goblinoids
Drow: When Lolth died, or was banished, or otherwise gone from the multiverse, her clerics lost their power. They lost all their demons, all divine power, and became substantially weaker. Noticing the lack of power and leadership among their matron mothers and priestesses, the drow mages (mostly, but not completely male), overthrew the oppressive society that the matriarchy had festered. Becoming a magocracy, the new drow society mostly remained in the Underdark, allowing their slaves to go free, slaying their spiders, and a few thousand drow journeyed to the surface to see what belonged in the world above. About 56 years after founding their new government based on arcane magic, still severely weakened by the loss of their fiendish allies and divine power, an army of Duergar, their slaves, and aiding devils came to Menzoberranzan, and started attacking the Drow. After the mages of the army were slain, the Drow surrendered to the Duergar, becoming slaves to their awful new masters.
The psionic duergar tortured and mutilated the drow with psychic powers for a thousand years. Now, they are barely recognizable, and are a purply-gray skinned race of dark-elven heritage. They are now known as the Dhaer, are are a skinny people, with glowing blue eyes, inconsistent personalities, and horrid speech patterns.
Though the drow who remained in the Underdark were taken prisoner by the Duergar, many Drow already left the underground to become a new race of people, over the millennia losing their weakness in sunlight, and gaining a culture of worshipping the stars. This race became known among the surface dwellers as Surdrae, and are a benevolent people.
Gnolls: When the demon lords were defeated, and were erased from the Multiverse, gnolls immediately noticed a difference. Normally driven by the fear and hunger inflicted upon them by Yeenoghu, Gnolls are maddened with savagery. When Yeenoghu no longer had a hold on them, they lost these overwhelming emotions, and felt strange. For the first time in their lives, they didn't feel motivated to do anything. Then, they all felt anger at how they had been dominated for centuries, and they fell upon their humanoid cultist companions, devouring them. With this final act of savagery, consuming humanoid flesh cleansed them of their bestial nature, and caused them to feel shame for how they acted for those hundreds of years. They vowed never to do so again, throwing off their horrid jewelry, clothes, armor, and weapons made from humanoid remains, burying them, and became a peaceful race. As they attempted to be redeemed for their transgressions, as the demonic influence of them slowly left, half of the gnolls transformed into female versions of their race.
Travelling north of the High Forest, in between the Nether Mountains, founding a town in the hills populated at the time by 7,500 gnolls. Now, there are now around 150 million gnolls scattered across northern Faerun, with around 100 million of them living in this city, known as Zeer-Han (Our-Home in Gnollish). They also created a new language, which was a mix of their previous language, the Orc language, and Common.
Orcs: The Orcs were devastated by the Catastrophe. First, when their gods were imprisoned in Carceri, they lost most of their contact with them, and communication was hazier and harder to do. Their societies revolved around consistent contact with their deities, and so they descended into chaos. Tribal leaders were chosen based on guesses, marriages were assigned by a priest of Luthic based on their own interpretations and not on direct omens from their pantheon. Orc society still functioned for the several generations, but among the clergy of their gods, they were slowly becoming more and more disoriented.
Then, when their gods were released 79 years longer, they started receiving many omens and proclamations from their gods, but these were different. They weren't filled with rage, anger, or fierce emotions like before. No, instead, they were tired, solemn messages admitting guilt of dragging their followers into an eternal pointless war. The orc gods let them be free of their traditions, and told them that unless they stop hurting the other races, they will never be happy. This destroyed orcish society. The younger generations called the older generations to let go of their traditions and savage ways. The older generations remembered the tales of the omens of their gods, and confirmed that these messages were legitimate.
Over the course of many years, most orc tribes of Toril abandoned their previous ways. They stopped raiding, killing, and abusing others. They vowed to protect the wilds they once took advantage of, and created a new culture of nature worshippers, druids, and rangers. They started patrolling forests, fields, plains, and the other wilds, and protecting the land from destruction and molestation.
Goblinoids: Much like the Orcs, the goblinoids lost contact with their gods for generations, but because their society was not rooted in tradition that was dependent on direct, constant contact with their gods, much of their ways were not changed during this time period. Small, mostly unimportant changes did happen, such as hobgoblins no longer being born with bright blue and red noses, and their souls no longer traveling to Acheron after death, and divine magic no longer seemed to be forbidden, or at least it wasn't punished by the gods during this time. Some traditions did fall way, due to the lack of surveillance by their deities, and the elders claimed that the younger people were being swayed by devilish temptations. When their gods were released, unlike the Orcs, they received no messages, omens, or communications of any kind.
When Maglubiyet and the other goblinoid gods were freed from Carceri, they were weary from their battles in Carceri against the orc gods, and what other monstrosities lie in that fiendish plane. Tired, weakened, and unmotivated to start another war against the impossibly powerful Devils, Maglubiyet commanded his pantheon to flee to the Material Plane and protect it from the Devils. They received news of what the other gods were doing, and grudgingly agreed, knowing it was for the best of the races they had wronged for so many ages. Not once during this entire period of time during their release did they bother to attempt to contact their loyal servitor races. They then sacrificed themselves alongside the other gods, and once again left their people.
When the goblinoids learned of the events that transpired, and the fact that their gods killed themselves to protect the people of this world, they were shocked. Utter chaos followed. Bugbears, consumed by utter rage and disappointment in the weakness of their deities, overthrew the society of the oppression. The goblins fell under their sway, and obeyed the new leaders of the goblinoid cast. Immediately after the gods' deaths, with Mystra and the Weave being destroyed once more, magic reformed. No god or goddess of magic was recreated. No tapestry of the universe, connecting threads of magic, was respun. Magic was left fractured for 24 hours, causing magic to fail during that time, similar to the Spellplague. Magic reformed, united once again, but it was different. There was no Weave. Instead of a vast flowing source of magic throughout the world, magic seemed to connect things more. "Strings" of magic connected all objects in the universe to seemingly every other. Magic started effecting the world around it. An act of substantial magic near a powerful spellcaster could temporarily or permanently change the area around them. A cleric resurrecting a creature from the dead could cause the grass around them to start glowing, or a necromancer creating a skeleton could cause bones to rattle on the ground around them. Magic and the world was more interconnected. The presence of an archmage in a village could cause Wild Magic Sorcerers to be born, or an angel could cause the births of Aasimar.
Hobgoblin Devastators were the first among the goblinoids to notice this change. With the permission of the bugbears, they were allowed to study it. They created notes, journals, and collected knowledge about it. They called this new source of magic "Yikare", which was Goblin for "The Law". Soon, the goblinoids literally started worshipping it. Bugbears became clergy (Arcana Clerics), Goblins were blessed with divine and arcane power due to these clergy, named Booyehgs (Divine Soul Sorcerers), and Hobgoblins trained more wizards, them being called Dehvoes. They even adopted 3 new commandments that were adapted from observations about the Yikare. These commandments were:
- Magic chooses, and can be chosen. Revere and serve the Choosers, Chosen, and Chosen-Choosers.
- Protect, and receive protection. Harm, and be harmed.
- Do freely until others cannot freely do.
Surfneblin (Surface Deep Gnomes): When the duergar marched in the Underdark to capture the Drow, the svirfneblin watched in horror, unable to do anything. With a sense of self-preservation acting, the inhabitants of Blingdenstone fled to the surface, most of them settling down in Silverymoon at first. Over the centuries, they were eventually mostly assimilated across Faerun, with around 1.5 million in numbers. When the gods died, Svirfneblin lost their ability to control Earth Elementals, but otherwise, their society was not changed much. Though their true names are Svirfneblin, the people of the surface world have adopted the name of "Surfneblin" as a mockery of their contradictory nature.
Verdan: The Verdan, who before the Catastrophe had no people, no cities, no culture, and no religion. In a way, this was a boon. They had no ties, no society to fracture, and no foundations to be shattered. Due to this, and their reaction to this event was mainly calm. When they were first created, there were only about 1,000 Verdan. Now, scattered across Tor-eal, there are more than 2 million verdan, filling many positions in day to day life.
When the Catastrophe occurred, these calm and mellow goblinoids reasonably, which was beneficial to them as a people. For example, in Waterdeep, while the city was scrambling from the deaths of Laeral Silverhand, Vajra Safahr, a few Masked Lords, and the destruction of the Blackstaff and Blackstaff Tower, a verdan man named Wural Ulmokina, who was only 28 years old at the time, was able to rally together Waterdeep and be elected as the first High Magistrate of Waterdeep. The government became a democracy, and the High Magistrate was elected every 12 years, voted out of office when they lost popularity or died of old age. Wural was a compotent and charismatic leader, who allowed Gnolls, Orcs, Drow, Goblinoids, and Svirfneblin into the city 8 years into his first term. He was able to protect the city from the Second Dragon-Giant war, and was elected for 9 terms, serving 108 years.
This, and many other instances of Verdan reacting well to this stressful situation, allowed them to do well in their communities, becoming lawyers, politicians, public speakers, actors, musicians, and in general, great friends to people of all races. They were even well known enough to be openly accepted into goblinoid cities, though they were looked down on still unless they were practitioners of magic.
Dragonborn: Similar to Verdan, Dragonborn were fairly new to Toril when the Catastrophe ocurred, but they did have a culture and traditions. A few dragonborn had adopted the worship of Faerunian gods, such as Torm, Tyr, Helm, and Bahamut, but not a substantial amount of them were followers of gods for the Catastrophe to destroy their culture. At the start of the Catastrophe, they remained relatively the same physically, socially, and socially, but they eventually began to change, thanks to the Second Dragon-Giant War. They split into two groups, not divided by color, heritage, physical differences of any kind, but instead philosophical differences. They were named as the following:
Hearthdrak. These dragonborn sided with the dragons in the Second Dragon-Giant War, aiding them in war, and attempting to unite their people against the giants. They remained the war until its end, and fought well, but they weren't reunited with the people they split from. In modern Tor-eal, they are physically different, more charismatic and intimidating, and are able to frighten people.
Othrilers. These dragonborn fundamentally disagreed with the assertions of the Hearthdrak. They didn't think the larger and otherworldly races were worth following, and instead decided to turn against them. They don't like any race that they claim "pretends" to be better or more powerful than them. They remember their subjugation and enslavement under the dragons and primorials on Abeir, how the gods would take advantage of them, and they reject other races.
Mind Flayers: The illithids of Toril were stunned by the events that became known by the humanoids and celestials as "the Catastrophe". Instead of adopting that name, the Mind Flayers at first called it the "Opportunity" and eventually called it "The Changing". Seizing the moment, the Mind Flayers took advantage of the moment of insanity and chaos on Toril, while the numbers of Gith on the planet were small in numbers. They first sent their thralls to steal white dragon eggs, and kidnap sleeping white dragons. They then transformed the captured dragons into Brainstealer Dragons, brainwashed the newly hatched dragons into serving them, and luring multiple dens of kobolds into Mind Flayer bases, where they were gathered up into their remaining fleet of spelljamming ships, where they fled into Realmspace to leave before they were stopped from leaving. During the millennia following, they warped the Kobolds into a new race known as the Coalbs, and bred their brainwashed white dragons with sun dragons, to produce radiant dragons.
Gith: Though they were were separated from their home planes and commands from their superiors, the Gith who were in the Inner Planes at the time of the Gods' Sacrifice were able to unite as a single race. Led by a Shasal'Kou Githyanki named Xei'karr, both the Githzerai and Githyanki united to start a faction of illithid and aberration hunters known as the Telairkarr. The united gith race, now known as the Githxei (gith-xay), recruited humans, surface drow, and gnomes to help them in their quest to track down and destroy the Illithids in Realmspace and the Inner Planes.
This is what I have so far. Clearly, there are a lot more races for me to add, and more information and lore to update, but I wanted to put this here just as a test. What are your thoughts on it? Any advice?
