What happened to the last Immortals
by Paul DooleyWhat with all this talk about new spheres, crystal spheres, Gods v Immortals etc. I think that there's now enough information out there to put it all together and see if the pieces fit!
Lets go back to the beginning when the Old Ones created the Mystaraverse and retreated beyond the Great Maelstrom.
In the beginning there were only two forces active Life or Integration and Death or Dissolution active, but as Life became more complex (doesn't it always?) it spawned children. However Dissolution made sure that these children were less than they could be, not out of any malice (though malice there was), but simply because that's its purpose.
From these early stirrings came the first Immortals, as was planned by the Old Ones all those aeons ago, who went out and explored creation , fought wars etc until a time came when ALL Immortals had to stand united. The coming of the GODS.
No mere avatar these, this was the gods themselves, manifest in their full majesty. Whence they came non knew, but it was obvious by their conduct that they couldn't be allowed to stay. What of the Old Ones you ask, where were they at this time. It's simple really, to them all the time that had passed was the merest blink of an eye. So the Immortals of the six spheres had to stand alone.
Victory was eventually achieved, but a more pyrrhic victory would be hard to comprehend, the shattering of the sphere of integration, the sundering of the astral from the prime, and the loss of EVERY Immortal in existence along with All mortal sentient life.
With the sundering of it's parent sphere the positive plane disappeared from the inner planes and all it's gates destroyed. this imbalance thrust the negative plane into the astral an caused the elemental planes to enter their now familiar aspect of dominance and opposition. As for the outer planes the great wheel that the gods came from was sealed off with a barrier consisting of the will of ALL those who had died in the conflict. Since they could no longer enter in anything like their own power the gods went elsewhere for their amusements. Time passed new Immortals came into being. All around them was the evidence that they weren't the first but what had become of those who were before? A question still unanswered by the Immortals themselves. Also some amongst them even then had no recollection of mortal existence. Why was that? It's simply because they are just a small fragment of the memories of one of the first generation Immortals that has come back after aeons since their paths are being followed again. We now move into the recent past when an artefact was cursed to drain the power of a sphere indirectly. It was then that the Old Ones decided to check on the experiment and found it in need of repair. The direct intervention which weakened the sphere of Entropy was actually done to allow for the return of the missing sphere which had slowly re-integrated itself.
Though the Immortals themselves still debate upon whether this sixth sphere exists or not it's force can already be seen about in the Mystaraverse. After all the troubles of the recent past on the whole things do seem to be getting better. Unusual spontaneous events such as the regeneration of the arm lost by Prince Jaggar of Glantri only add fuel to the fires of wild speculation.
What about those so called spelljammers some of you may ask (BTW if you've actually read this far thanks). well it is true that Mystara does have a crystal sphere BUT this is a new type for it contains an entire universe. each entry point upon the surface of the sphere leads to an entirely different star system on the Mystaran prime. Finding the same one twice becomes quite a headache, and as for the reputed speeds of spelljammers it seems that the plane itself limits the maximum speed for some as yet unfathomed reason.
Well that's just a few of my
thoughts on why thing are as they are. It does sort of all hold
together and anyway I like it, but over to you. It's a cask of cod,
here's a Purdey, happy shooting. <;-P