Novaris: Adventure in the Shattered Fang Continent

Earth. 2000. AD.

Shu’dral Megduth’Azo had spent half a century slowly growing its influence on Earth, and it showed. Over the last few decades, thousands of aberrations had slowly and, more importantly, unnoticeably entered Earth.

Then, with the mounds of knowledge gathered throughout the years of observing humanity, its forces had begun to create an army of unwilling followers. Over time, millions of weak-willed humans quickly succumbed to the powerful psychic magics employed by the aberrations.

These unwilling minions were then used to carefully infiltrate all sorts of positions worldwide. Not a single position was irrelevant. From presidents to fry cooks, even the weakest of creatures had their uses. And every pawn was used to achieve the most chaos and confusion possible. The goal was to derail humanity and have it destroy itself.

In truth, the Eldritch God did not need to continue this particular plan. The god knew that it had more than enough forces to begin a worldwide war and decimate Earth in just a few years.

However, over the last couple of decades the god had come to enjoy watching the humans struggle like fishes out of water. If it had been any other planet, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo would have acted long ago, but Earth was so feeble that it truly posed no threat. As such, the god wanted to spend some time slowly dismantling the planet.

One issue the god did see was that its army of aberrations was becoming a little too self-confident. They had never been in a position of absolute power and were eager to exploit this newfound freedom. At the very least, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo did have to applaud their creativity. They were truly testing the boundaries of the flesh and soul.

Another thing that Shu’dral Megduth’Azo had to applaud was humanity's resourcefulness. Even with all the chaos the god was causing on their planet, they had still managed to advance and accomplish some incredible feats without the assistance of magic.

The first truly impressive accomplishment had been humanity achieving space travel. It wasn’t terrific, but it was something that put them ahead of some other planets the god had already feasted on.

Other accomplishments that the god found intriguing were the creation of instant and long-distance communication and the interesting weapon they called an Atomic Bomb. This Atomic Bomb was a useful creation that could possibly eliminate a Realm Monarch. However, to Shu’dral Megduth’Azo, these bombs were simply annoyances.

As Shu’dral Megduth’Azo continued watching Earth, humanity finally found the most incredible resource in the Universe, Mana.

Earth. 2010. AD.

Shu’dral Megduth’Azo was rather impressed that humanity only took one decade to quickly adapt to their new resource. They had gone from a magically barren civilization to a blooming magitech society in a relatively short time.

This incredible leap in magical advancement was, of course, partially due to Shu’dral Megduth’Azo as, without its involvement, humanity could not have made all those incredible leaps in magical knowledge.

For the Eldritch God, this last bit of the plan was done for fun and to teach its minions a lesson. They had gotten a bit too confident, and Shu’dral Megduth’Azo had to bring them down a notch.

Earth had been a relatively easy planet, and the god did not want uts army to grow too soft and confident. After all, the next world the god challenged might not be as weak, and it needed its legion at full power. So, it would let the conflict drag out a decade or two more, allowing the humans to “gain” the advantage while using them as training fodder for Its army.

Earth. 2012. Common Era.

Humanity finally learned about their Astral visitors when aberrations were discovered due to their overconfidence, or at least that's the story Shu’dral Megduth’Azo fed to the humans.

Deciding it was time to complete its conquest, the Eldritch God let some information “accidentally” leak from one of the humans it controlled. Of course, the humans didn’t know this, and much less did the god's army. After all, this was all done as part of the god's plan to instruct said army.

The following days after leaking the information, many low-ranking minions were “found out” all around the globe. The minions fought back, and soon, militaries all over Earth were in pursuit of the aliens. Not having encountered such magic before, the humans were at a disadvantage but had managed to kill most of them anyway, while many more escaped into the wilds.

In reality, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo executed the aberrations for exposing its plans, as a way to make the rest fall in line without further intervention. It was also done to let the humans fall into a false sense of security, and naturally, the god's plan worked.

The humans took the bait and felt rather confident about defeating the alien invaders. Meanwhile, its aberration army began getting in line as they believed that they had underestimated the humans, and they also did not want to be killed for failing their master.

Humanity then spent the rest of 2012 celebrating their victory, searching for the missing aliens, and attempting to heavily enhance their magical weaponry.

Earth. 2016. CE.

Humanity was quick to put behind old grudges in an attempt to work together. After all, what were petty human conflicts when faced with an unknown threat from beyond the stars?

As such, the world united under the Earth Alliance banner. This news was, of course, kept from the masses so as not to cause panic.

Old magic users came to light as they contacted governments across the world. These users felt their expertise was required as they did not want to lose their home planet.

Then, with the new insight provided by these magic users, the Earth Alliance expanded their magitech and began proper training for special magical units. These units were trained to properly wield mana and refine their bodies to become true combat mages.

The Realms were also contacted as governments learned that there was even more unknown life in the universe. Not to mention that the Realms were another possible path to power, and governments soon began making deals with actual Devils, Fey, and Elemental creatures.

With access to these powerful energy sources, new Warlock Battalions were formed to lead the charge against a possible alien threat.

Sadly, it was not enough for humanity, as many of the aforementioned programs and alliances were still in their initial stages.

Shu’dral Megduth’Azo chose this specific time to instigate things further.

One of the new magical units was discreetly pointed to raid a specific hideout. Within this hideout, they found plans created by their invaders. The plans laid out the slow enslavement of humans in order to create an invading force. These plans were, of course, quickly spread among the Earth Alliance governments, and they promptly declared an open war against these creatures.

Then, just like Shu’dral Megduth’Azo wanted, the humans began preparations for combat. New security methods were put in place, and search parties were arranged to look for possible alien camps or enslaved humans.

By the end of 2016, the Earth was in a frenzy as the whole planet prepared for war.

Earth. 2018. CE.

At first, the war had been going rather well for humanity. Following their declaration, they began finding more alien entities throughout the planet and were able to push them back with minimal casualties. Even their preparations went exceptionally well as the war industry picked up speed.

All around the globe, humanity experienced a boost as their Battle Mage and Warlock programs picked up speed and strength. Humanity felt confident in winning against whatever tactics or powers these invaders could use, and morale could not have been any higher.

It was at this moment that Shu’dral Megduth’Azo decided to bring some terror.

The god did not have the opportunity to properly intimidate the Earth and its inhabitants by taking their moon, so after studying the humans, It had come up with a different plan. Humanity tended to appreciate their sky. This wasn’t the first time Shu’dral Megduth’Azo had encountered such a thing. Mortals often tended to be impacted by certain aspects of reality. This impact often started unconsciously and would only grow until it eventually became part of their culture. At that point, these aspects of reality would often manifest as deities.

Now, on Earth, there didn’t seem to be any World Deities as of yet, though it seemed humanity was in the process of conjuring such beings. Shu’dral Megduth’Azo estimated that there was a good chance of one or two gods gaining consciousness in a few more hundred years. It wouldn’t even surprise the Eldrich God that one of the gods would be related to the concepts of freedom, wind, and the sky.

As many humans were calmed by the prospect of the sky. To them, there was simply something freeing about looking up and seeing the vastness of it all. The god knew there was definitely a mental component that helped humanity cope. For them, when things got too terrible, they could always look up, and their problems wouldn’t seem all-consuming.

Another mental component humans valued was freedom. This was often seen in many creatures across the universe, and it wasn’t rare for creatures to yearn for freedom more than anything else. On Earth, much like on other planets the god had visited, humans often saw freedom represented in their sky.

So it was with great pleasure that Shu’dral Megduth’Azo took this core aspect of their reality.

One day, the sky was simply covered in ominous gray clouds. There was no beginning or end for the wall of clouds. They were simply there blocking the sun and casting an all-consuming shadow on Earth. No longer would the humans have access to their sky. No matter the place or the time, all they would ever see would be a gray clouded sky.

This change, as expected, brought chaos into the world. However, it mainly caused confusion as humanity attempted to figure out precisely what caused this change in scenery. Their confusion was then promptly replaced with rage at the only entities capable of this. Eventually, humanity's fury subsided as they were slowly overcome by fear. Fear of what other things these invaders were capable of.

However, all of this was expected, and the Eldritch God knew it would take time before humanity truly felt what they had lost.

From that moment on, any time they looked to the sky, they would be met with a constant reminder of their fate. Humanity was trapped in their home and always in the presence of the shadow that was their doom. Slowly, their psyche would erode as their hope was crushed.

Only mere months after taking their sky, Shu’dral Megduth’Azo also took humanity's trust in themselves. The day came when all those under the aberration's control were finally put to use.

All across the world, millions of unsuspecting humans were betrayed by those whom they had come to trust.

Their leaders, soldiers, doctors, and teachers. Their parents, siblings, and friends.

They were all used as tools of destruction.

It was this betrayal that marked the beginning of the end for humanity.

All this time, humanity had come to believe they held a fighting chance against these invaders, but in reality, they had already lost and just didn’t know it.

At this moment, when civilization came crashing down, and the laws of man were abandoned, the aberrations struck at full power.

They appeared seemingly out of nowhere and unleashed much more powerful magics than ever before against the confused forces of humanity. Then, to the terror of humankind, the forces that had been trained and their technological advancements were nothing compared to the powerful entities from beyond the stars.

Combat Mages? Warlock Battalions? Magic Guns? Naught but child's play to the horrors of the Astral.

Earth’s doom had come, the apocalypse had begun, and an Eldritch God awaited for its feeding time to start.