The History of the World and the Coming of the Hkahnihn:

Being a telling of the creation of the world and its peoples according to the Holy Ba'al, Emperor of the Holy Ba'alian Empire

 

Believed by: The Cavern Demons primarily, but also the Caldera, Deep, and Chasm Demons for the most part, with little variation. Of the Hkahnihn, the Abyssal Demons are the only ones who flat out disagree with the Cavern Demons on their version of the creation myth, though that is due only to the fact that the Abyssal Demons do not care about their creation, and find the other races pathetic for spending so much time thinking about it.

 

The universe in all of its majesty is predicated on the balance of order and the abhorrence of chaos and vacuum. Into the vacuum of the universe's beginning stepped the order of balance in the form of the divine and the infernal, the Nameless and the Inkari. The Nameless were called that because they were not to be bound by the strictures of uniformity. Though each was a representation of the Umbral elements that populated their home Plane, they would be defined by who they were individually and not as a race of beings. The First was the leader of the Nameless, and below her were Zeaboam, Lotekai, Selan, Azriel, Wazanest, Dosani, Raetavek, Kanatek, and Tikedrion the lost, who was destroyed at some uncounted time in the history of the world to restore the balance. They saw their enemies in the Inkari, infernal beings of the Spectral Plane, and strove against them to better themselves.

 

It was in the nature of many of the Nameless to upset the balance of the universe. They sought to destroy their opponents among the Inkari, but it was easier in the end to subvert them. At the suggestion of Selan, holy Nameless of Control, that Zeaboam began to whisper words of destruction into the mind of Kain, the second of the Inkari. With her whispered urging, he began to destroy the works of his brother Eza, fomenting dissension among the ranks of the enemy. Like a puppet-master, Selan led the other Nameless into urging that turned the Inkari one on another. Before long, they had turned to squabbling and forgot entirely about the Nameless.

 

While the Inkari fought one another, the Nameless were free to do as they willed throughout the stars, with their children the Seriph and the Kaiser.

 

While the Inkari warred fruitlessly among themselves, the Nameless planned the next way they would overcome their eternal opponents. When they saw what Eza would do to his fellow Inkari, binding four of them within a stone on a world of his creation, they chose to sneak within that world at its inception, burying themselves below the surface of Eza's perception and corrupting his creations as he made them. Not ones to expend energy needlessly, they allowed Eza to do that which he desired and simply used his creations for their own purposes. Some of the Nameless even chose this time to create their own children in the world, bound to their will. When Eza finally bound his brothers and cast them away, the infernal Inkari were at their weakest point, but a new concern arose at that very moment.

 

The Nameless had been watching, because they knew in Eza's heart he desired their destruction. The world he created contained nothing that would further that goal, and it seemed as if all of his energies had been so focused on the conflict with his brothers that he had nothing to spare for his hatred of the divine Nameless. However, that was disproved once his brothers were bound and cast away. It was in that moment that his true intentions became clear. He turned from fighting his brothers and returned once more to his goal of destroying the Nameless. He focused all of his power and gave birth to the two most dangerous beings in all of existence: the Eldar and the Drukar. Weapons to corrupt and destroy the balance, these tools could be used to destroy the Nameless and wreak havoc on the universe. While the Nameless found they could not corrupt these tools as they had others of Eza's creations, they were able to sever the control the infernal Inkari possessed over his creations, giving them freedom from the will of the hateful enemy.

 

Desperate to reinstate the balance Eza had willfully threatened, the Nameless gave birth to their own child, Shandris the first of the Hkahnihn. She was born whole and beautiful in their sight. She was brought to life in the deep places of the world where the Nameless dwelt, and she gave herself over to worship her creators. Together with their power she grew a great and wondrous civilization that would span the whole of the space beneath the world, all hidden from the Elves on the world above who sought dominion over all things.

 

For thousands of years the balance was held, tenuous as it was, by the Hkahnihn and the Elves and the Inkari and Nameless watched and waited to discover what would come of their creations.

 

After thousands of years in the care of the Nameless, the Hkahnihn were a powerful empire. Led by the Cavern Demons, the other Hkahnihn races prospered. The Deep Demons, Chasm Demons, Abyssal Demons, and Caldera Demons grew mighty in the care of the Empire. Tension and war wracked the world above, but none of it affected the chosen children of the Nameless. Instead, they grew and prospered and there was peace. It was not until the Elves showed their true colors that the peace was broken.

 

While it had been believed that the Elves on the world above did not know of the Hkahnihn living below them, they did know, and had planned a terrible doomsday weapon that they believed would destroy the Hkahnihn entirely. They had not truely considered the power of the energy they sought to wield, however, and the ensuing Cataclysm did more than decimate the Empire of the Hkahnihn. It also broke the world, spilling seas into place between the fragments of remaining land and consuming the lives of many Elves. Wroth with the terrible destruction rained down on their people, the Nameless rose to the world above to exact their revenge from the petty Elves that had brought about the Cataclysm. If they had been left to complete their culling, the world of Stehreel would have been left a safe place for the Hkahnihn to recover. However, they were not left to their terrible task. Instead, one of the Inkari, Suriel the Goddess of Darkness, used her very life to enact a Binding that sealed all of the Inkari and all of the Nameless into eternal tombs.

 

The First was bound to the new landmass in the southeast, in the fissures where the Abyssal Demons clung to the remnants of their lives. Zeaboam was bound below the new landmass to the northwest in the eastern chasms where the Chasm Demons picked up the remnants of their lives. Lotekai was bound to the chasms below the new landmass to the northeast, in the blackrock deeps where none dared to live. Selan was bound within the heart of the empire to the stones of her people. Azriel was bound to the southeast landmass as well, though further north than the First, in the confusion labyrinths of the chasms there. Wazanest was bound to the northwest continent as well, in the southern caverns inhabited by remnants of the Abyssal Demons. Dosani was bound to the icey caverns of the southern pole. Raetavek was bound in the caverns of the central continent, farther north than Selan's rest. Finally, Kanatek was bound in the great trenches of the deeps where his children the Deep Demons fought to rebuild their lives.

 

The Cataclysm would break the Empire, and for a while it seemed it might break the people. They perservered, however, by the grace of the Nameless, and could have returned to the power they once held but for the sinister trick the Elves were yet preparing to pull on the chosen people of the Nameless.

 

As if the Cataclysm were insufficient, the Elves were planning an even worse attack against the Hkahnihn. After the fires had ended and the people had begun to rebuild their lives, a terrible curse was cast upon the Hkahnihn. Driven by their fear and hatred, the Elves reached into the wellspring of power that had been given them by their hateful gods and poured out that hate on the Hkahnihn, breaking their spirits in such a way as to make them ever hungry. Their hunger could only be satiated by the emotions of the Elves, and in this way the Elves hoped to subjugate the Hkahnihn and make them ever dependent on their enemies.

 

It was discovered in the wake of the terrible curse that three things might feed a Hkahnihn so broken by the Elves. Some were born that could feed on the anger and violence of the Elves. Others were born that could feed on the lust and sex of the Elves. Finally the last were born that could feed on the fear and terror of the Elves. The Hkahnihn were not to be humbled by the terrible curse of the hateful Elves. Instead, the people decided to combat it by turning the curse to their advantage instead. Raiding the lands above, the Hkahnihn took slaves of the Elves that tried to subjugate them and found a way to combat the horrid curse through enslaving their enemies.

 

Driven by new purpose, the Empire began to rebuild, their goal now to defeat and enslave the Elves that had turned so much destruction on them. Once more the Deep Demons and Chasm Demons returned to the fold of the Empire. The Caldera Demons fought to retain their independence and the Abyssal Demons had grown to wild to control, slaying even the emissaries of the Nameless when they walked in the Abyss. As close to one people as they could be after what had been done to them, the Hkahnihn rose from the ashes of the Cataclysm and the Curse with the Nameless as their guides and leaders. They had desired only peace, but the Elves would not let that remain. The Elves had visited death and destruction on their people and that could not be allowed to remain.

 

There was little left for the Hkahnihn who desired only peace. The coming war was as inevitable as it was tragic. The Elves had made one mistake too many.

~Fin~