Kor’Tunni is arguably the most powerful god in the current hierarchy, despite her husband Aeruus’ position as leader of the pantheon. As the goddess of magic, she can ban the use of magic by any being of lesser power than she. For the record, there is no one she can’t ban. Even the Demon Kings tread carefully so as to not offend her. More than one demon lord has lost his rank do to power loss, and power hungry rivals. There is a great deal of history about her that would take longer than the year I am committed to her cause to tell. However I will mentioned five major turning points in Kor’Tunni’s long history as the goddess of magic..
As a gift to the then Dragon Emperor Kraasynx, a conclave of celestial dragons created the Ma’Dara. The Ma’Dara are the ancestors to the elves we know today. At some point the Ma’Dara grew in number and Kraasynx gifted a number of them, whole tribes, to his favored vassals. One such vassal began to to teach his Ma’Dara magic out of curiosity, and found they were well suited for magic. Though too weak to cast true dragon magic, they adapted it to suit their needs. Though the vassal was punished for teaching magic to non-dragons by Kor’Tunni, the goddess of magic could not ignore the sudden influx of power the pre-elves gave her. Thus she was not quick to punish when the the deep dragons, recreated the spells that formed the Ma’Dara, to create the Go’ru, precursor to the dwarves and gnomes. In fact, she was far more open to non draconic worshippers than her fellow divines, Titan or otherwise. This was yet another reason why her powerbase grew so quickly. Though she loves her dragon children above all else, the mortal races intrigue her, even as much as they vex her. The swiftness in which they discover new spells, or new uses for existing spells fills her library far faster than her dragon children ever could. The myriad ways they have found to undo reality as we know it is unfortunately the flip side of that magical coin, and the primary reason spells are and can be banned.
At some point the protarchs, the original four elemental beings responsible for the elements, and by default everything in Creation, took offense to the worship of the Titans, and even more so of the “lesser” gods that had begun to crop up since the Age of Mortals began. Although the mortals did pay homage to the elements, they did so on a far lesser scale than they did to their chosen gods. They decided the Titans (and all gods in general) had forgotten their place, and were no longer worthy of the gift of the spark they had been bestowed with. Thus they decided to take back all that spark, the divine power of the gods. The Primordials had only worked together once before, and that was to create Duir’Aion, the Aether and the surrounding cosmos. Now they worked together to undo everything. Splitting the spark from fallen gods equally between them. Ironically, this united the typically factitious gods under a single banner, led by the elemental fire duke Aeruus. The elemental fire duke had betrayed his elemental kin, and warned the gods what was coming. The Prime Wars ended when Waroozs, the elemental prime of air was destroyed in the ensuing battle, and Furazsh the elemental prime of fire was badly wounded. The gods forced the protarchs back to their realm and invoked the Pact, forbidding gods, titans and protarchs from ever manifesting in their full divine forms on Duir’Aion. Avatars and other agents were exempt from this Pact. Aeruus lost his dukedom for his betrayal, which was a moot point as the Titans and gods offered him a place among them. Taking the mantle of god of the sun and fire, the entire Pyre Court full of elementals of fire, eventually fell under his purview anyway. A side but important impact of the Prime Wars, was the creation of the Gray, also known as the graveyard of the gods. Many gods and titans fell during the war, and the Gray is their final resting place.
During the first Godswar which took place roughly a millenia after the Titanswar, Karaanx, then titan of death, tried to steal the portfolio of life from the goddess of magic. He believed the upstart godlings were taking what were the Titans birthright. Worship. The unwavering truth is worship equals power. Without worship, deities lose power, eventually withering, and theoretically becoming something more than mortal, weaker even than a demigod. Of course that reality rarely happens, as gods tend to make enemies. A rival gets weak enough, he will be destroyed without protection. Even so called good deities know this, and can be ruthless in protecting their own power base. So he decided to kill the Turasja the goddess of life and steal her portfolio. With control over life and death, backed by the power Karaanx had as a Titan, there would be no god that could stand up to him. His intention was to ambush the goddess, before anyone could act. Fortunately for the goddess, she was in favor with Neissithaar, the Titan of secrets and knowledge. Neissithaar informed his sister, who in turned told her lover Aeruus. Confronted, Karaanx and his allies of like minded Titans declared war on the pantheon. The Godswar was brutal. Once again many divine lives were lost for the want of power. Karaanx himself was mortally wounded and thought dead when he plummeted into the Pit. He would return as the first Demon King many eons later. Aeruus and Kor’Tunni declared their love after the Godswar, officially becoming husband and wife, after being married by the gods of love.
The first Dragonswar took place a millenia or so after the Prime Wars, with the dragons going to war with each other for control of Duir’Aion. This ended with a vast empire of dragonkind that stretched to all corners of the world. As world changing as this was, it was the second Dragonswar that shook the very heavens. The mortal races were in full swing, creating kingdoms of their own, spreading across a world that the Dragon Emperor, the third to hold that title, felt was rightly his. He ordered his vassals to crush any attempts at a settlement larger than a small city, in order to curb the mortals. The Emperor did not take into account the courage, and craftiness of the mortal races. Nor their devotion to the sun god Aeruus, who centuries ago had gifted the mortals with the power of the paladin order. In order to ensure his beloved mortals would survive, Aeruus shared with the same secrets of dragonkind. Secrets he had gleaned from his wife Kor’Tunni. This would lead to the advent of the Order of the Wyrm, powerful dragon slayers, and the magic that empowered them. Although he tried to limit the dragon slayer’s growth, as they were an offshoot of paladins, some of the magic, specially dragon slaying magic and weapons circulated out side of the order. This led to the deaths of hundreds of dragons, as well as a Titan or two. This act infuriated Kor’Tunni. By the end of the war, the Dragon Emperor was dead, and the empire shattered. Kor’Tunni the censured the entire paladin order, refusing to grant even the lowest levels of spells or abilities. Seeing dragonslaying as a betrayal, it drove a wedge in the marriage of Aeruus and his wife. A wedge that exists to this day. As of this writing only templars exist, a hybrid warrior and priest. Paladins are the stuff of legends, dragonslayers even more so.
The Pit is where the infernal reside. It is a pocket of suffering and torment. It is the mirror of the heavens in the Aether. No one knows exactly where the Pit came from, or how it was created. It is believed to the be final resting place of some horror from ages past. It is not, as the general populace believe, the original home of the the infernals. Rather, the Pit ripped open to some dimension of darkness and the infernals came through it. They climbed their way up, establishing cities, outposts. Before long the Pit became the home of the devils, daemons and demons and other horrors. They would have poured out like the plague they are to consume all of the world if not for Aeruus. The sun god was offended by the creatures of darkness, and wanted to empower his followers to be able to fight back. Kor’Tunni gave Aeruus the knowledge of the magic that could hold back that tide of darkness. In turn, Aeruus created the order of the Paladins. Without the Paladins, aided by the holy powers of the clerics of Aeruus, the infernals might have indeed overrun the world. They were driven back and the archmages and high priests sealed the entrance to the Pit with magic long since forgotten. It’s a shame the paladins are gone now. Especially since the Seal has cracked.
For now, Kor’Tunni works in her great library, listening to the magic in the Aether. Magic is her passion, her one true love. She will never give it up, and enjoys flaunting magics that others do not possess. Yet she is troubled. The goddess of magic has tasked her followers to be on the lookout for unusual displays of magic. While the casual follower may not think anything is amiss, as her Magi, I have concerns. Either there exists a magic that is not within her control that is stirring. Or something of great power is. Either way does not bode well for the world.
A Darkness Rising 