The Grim Times

The Grim Times of Kalara lasted for thousands of years. This was a bleak, history-less era of near-barbarism and perpetual misery, in which the pursuit of personal joy was nearly extinguished from the lives of the Children. Instead they turned more and more to religion for the comfort and strength to endure the challenges of bare survival.

They embraced with fervor the catechism of the Covenant, which taught that true happiness and an everlasting spiritual life were to be found only through the surrender of self in a mystical union with the Divine. And this, they believed, could happen only through the intercession of the gods. Their time in the world of life came to be regarded as a trial of suffering and duty, a term of service in a holy war against the gods’ supernatural enemies.

This turn to religion, combined with the collapse of secular authority and the loss of the ancient knowledge, led to the rise of Church of the Divine as the dominant and unifying force among the Children. Despite the trials of the Grim Times, the promise of the Covenant held true. It remained the one source of magic that never waned in their endless battle for survival, and their greatest weapon against their enemies. It was the one constant that the people could always count on for succor and inspiration, and they did.

Despite the trials of the Grim Times, the Children endured. Ever regrouping, rallying again and again around the might of their warriors and the magic of their priests, founding new colonies and new cities, they eventually wore down their enemies.

Those enemies, while powerful, were rarely able to match the Children's resilience. Living ever by predation, the demons and their allies often fell upon each other in the absence of easier prey. Their devotion to The Way of the Will — a philosophy of unrestrained ambition that embraced personal whim-worship — was too often at odds with the long-range organization and discipline needed to win the long war with their opponents. As a consequence, they slowly gave way over the course of millenia to their eternal rivals.