Glossary
Apollyon (War, History)
Prologue
Whilst certainly the strongest, Anahitanism was not the only religion to spawn from the War of Mages. Most of the bands of civilization that had fled what is now Bast and Ter’Ciel had an Angelic protector, although Anahita would turn out to be their savior. Once Anahita left, the rest of the Angels fled their charges, ashamed by what they had wrought. Whilst most were amalgamated into what would become Palmeria, there existed a small band that was the opposite of the Angels light. They settled within what would become Nori, yet the darkness persisted amongst the faithless inhabitants of this young town.
History
As the nations around it grew into this large new land, Nori expanded, meeting Palmeria and Tekas to the North, and Theon to the south. The city became the center of a nation, little recorded in history. Yet it was situated upon rich fields, and the greed that would betray Theon later pushed Norian expansion back. At first reflective of the same chaotic borders of Barbaria today, Theon soon began moving towards an even more aggressive front. So, when the second Grand Prophet appeared in 1276 YA, the people of Nori fled in three ways as Theon was distracted. North, through what would be Stoci and across the Myrian sea. North, over the newly formed cities of Ter’Ciel. North, through the Nomads Land. These latter were the first to reach the new green lands, and whilst they fought for what would be Tanor, the dark culture seeded itself in the southern lands of the new country.
Little is known of what the worship of Apollyon entails. Certainly, the anarchy and chaos expected is hardly seen in what has been infiltrated. Fear reigns whatever people there is, yet what they follow conflicts between was first seen after Tanor settled, and Apollyon’s resurfacing in recent years. Hiding itself within Rossek, the strongest of the Three Houses, the cult kept the government under it’s thumb, slowly bringing what it wanted into force. However, when the Bast Exodus finished, the rest of Tanor began to notice these dark leanings, and the royal houses began to spring from Durian and Teshire, lessening Apollyon‘s dark influence. When a Rossek house regained power in 1882 YA, it began a hundred-year dynasty that ended in civil war, as Durian and Teshire rejected King Julian Rossek IV’s extreme reaction to law-breaking. The war worsened when the heir revealed himself as a Mage and claimed to be Apollyon himself made flesh, earning the disgust of Theon on both fronts. Magic has always been a dangerous ability in humanity, the flesh being weakened by such a large connection to the spirit realm, that such a person becomes mad with control over their surroundings.
When Apollyon, as King Julian insisted on being called, ravaged Tanor, the two main nations of Theon and Bastet recoiled from such brutality. But whilst old Theon was safe, new Bastet was not. The fledging nation struggled to survive in the desert in which it had fled, yet in the three hundred years since the Bast Exodus, it had grown to an Atlantean strong population. It seized a chance at two salvations, joining forces with what was left of Durian and Teshire to decimate Apollyon. Upon his defeat, a Grand Alliance was made between the two nations, and Apollyon died with Fren’s walls. Or so it was believed.
After nearly a thousand years of inactivity, Apollyon loomed once again from Fren’s ruins, seemingly reborn with as much malice as before. Whilst Durian and Teshire had prospered, Rossek had weakened as a result of it’s dark heritage. It would be Rossek’s salvation, as Apollyon’s army cleaved at first Teshire, then Durian, attacking cities with destructive force. The lords of Durian and Teshire fell with their armies, and Apollyon circled onto Rossek like a vulture.
Yet when Apollyon met the forces of Lord Raldor Rossek, they felt the first falter, as they were joined by the armies of Stoci, Atlantis, Ter’Ciel and Theon. Lord Raldor led the charge that ran Apollyon back to Fren, where the Faeries themselves joined the battle to deal with the Mage. Yet the two never met, Lord Rossek returning from the city itself with Apollyon’s head, his dark helmet covering a head rotten from years of abuse from magic. Some say the two dueled atop the tower of Fren, but whilst such an encounter is unlikely, it resulted in the first Rossek king in a millennia. The country became insular as King Raldor vowed to scour Apollyon from Tanor, culminating in the exile of the Damners, the law council which had set in motion much of Apollyon’s dark tenets.
Since then, Apollyon as a social cause has died to a small buzz, blamed for the inexplicable, from the Hope Disaster to the fall of Nori. It has been exorcised to the extreme from Tanor, King Raldor enforcing a no-tolerance policy. But whilst this dark sect still has a single follower, it is a entity to be feared, as it is as much part of humanity as Anahitanism, offering humanity‘s darkest desires in exchange for obedience to their chaotic law.