Demon History
Of the many varied forms of life on Arcana, the Demons are among a select few that
were born on another dimension entirely. Their universe is a bizarre plane filled
with a near infinite number of floating discs that are in a constant and unpredictable
motion. Each massive disc supports its own unique ecosystem populated with untold
billions of life forms. The discs collide with one another frequently. These collisions
do not damage the planar discs as they simply phase through one another. However,
for the inhabitants it is usually catastrophic. As their worlds collide, the creatures
are either destroyed completely or fused together into new life.
The demons of Arcana are creatures from one such planar disc, a realm called Adrob’char
in the demon tongue. Many hundreds of years ago, it began to slowly collide with
another planar disc. The demon kings sought desperately for a way of escaping the
impending catastrophe. The Eldraani, or Dark Elves as they are known today, would
provide them their means of escape.
During the final years of the Elven civil war, both factions risked using dangerously
unstable forms of magic in their efforts to win. In the Dark elf city of Tier-Eldral,
a cabal of powerful sorcerers led by the city’s ruler, Tethran of the Burning Eye,
discovered a means to pry through the barriers of space and reach out to other worlds.
Their city was besieged by the legendary High Elf general, Emryl of the Iron Spear,
and they were desperately searching through thousands of other planes to find either
allies they could use to defend their city or a means of escape.
Through chance, Tethran’s mind came into contact with a powerful demon king named
Achhal. In a heart-beat, Achhal realized it had a means of escaping the cataclysm
that would soon engulf its world. Its consciousness seized the young elf’s mind
and with claws of fire traced a path through the void back to the world of Arcana.
Tethran could do nothing in the face of such raw power and his will to resist broke
down almost immediately. With a victorious scream that echoed through a thousand
worlds, Achhal clawed its way into the world of Arcana. As the elf’s body was ripped
into pieces, Achhal stepped into Arcana and behind it was a portal to the demon
realm. Achhal slaughtered the remaining Elven sorcerers and began to lay waste to
the entire city. Behind it, thousands of demons emerged through the same portal
and joined in its destructive frenzy. In a matter of hours, the demons had crushed
all resistance within the city.
In abject terror, the dark elves opened the city walls and fled into the camp of
their astonished besiegers. The demons followed them and tore into the Emryl’s disciplined
soldiers. Emryl’s army fought against the demons for much of the night. He gradually
realized that that there seemed to be no end to them, no matter how many his warriors
killed. Emryl ordered a retreat and Achhal eager for battle led a huge force of
demons in pursuit. Achhal decimated Emryl’s elite Iron Spear regiment, which Emryl
had ordered to guard his army’s retreat.
As Achhal moved further away from the rift in his pursuit, it found itself losing
strength and struggling to breathe. Even as the last of the Iron Spear regiment
fled before Achhal, it lacked the strength to pursue them. Seeing this, Emryl led
his cavalry in a desperate charge against the floundering demon host. He plunged
his magical sword, Asy’frei, into Achhal’s chest. The demon king fell beneath the
hooves of the horses along with most of its followers. Emryl, his army in utter
disarray, continued to retreat from the city which by now had become a fiery hell.
In the years to come, many other demon kings followed through Achhal’s rift and
brought war, death and misery to the Arcana. These fell lords launched massive incursions
into Arcana and through strength of will created more rifts back to their world.
Through such portals, they summoned vast armies of their minions to further plague
the kingdoms of Arcana. In the years since their first great incursion, dozens of
human, dwarf and elf cities have fallen to the demon armies. From each victory,
the demons create new rifts through new more foul demons emerge.
The demon kings are a dire threat to the world of Arcana. As their home world continues
to die, more and more demons pour through the existing portals into this world.
The kingdoms of Arcana have fought back against the new threat and in some cases
have even battled their way to the very rifts at the heart of the demon kingdoms.
However, none have found any means to close the rifts and until they do so, war
against the demons will continue to be a bloody but ultimately fruitless endeavour.