When the World was young, everything was much simpler – as one might well expect. When Valder, King of the Almati, proclaimed himself the first Emperor of SARAN in the Year 500 by right of his lawful possession of the holy Sun Diamond and founded his capital at Valdra, politics were fairly clear-cut. The Alliance consisted of the Goddess of Law, SARAN, and the God of Evil, ALTIS. They dwelt in the Pit, beneath the Mountain of the World, whence SARAN directed the affairs of civilised Men and ALTIS the affairs of the fearsome Orcs and Goblins. Their enemies were the God of Good, ESCUS, Who dwelt amongst His Elves, in the far forests of the South West, and the Goddess of Chaos, DALA, Who never particularly dwelt anywhere and meddled with the affairs of Men whenever and wherever She felt like doing so. Emotions were charged by the Goddess of Love, SHELDA (an ally of ESCUS), or by the God of Hate, HAERIM (a member of the Alliance). Up on the Mountain dwelt KOROS, God of Life and Neutrality, Who took no overt part in the affairs of Men, but kept the balance – and was worshipped by many. These Seven were the Clerical Gods, Who rewarded Their Faithful with Clerical Magic, and Who protected and guided Their followers.
By the Year 600 the Empire of Valdrea encompassed all civilised Men. SARAN had introduced them to the strange race of the Dwarves, who had taught them the art of metalworking – for they too, in their own way, were followers of the Way of Law. Their new-found peace was favourable to the improvement of agriculture. The conquest, by land, of the seafaring peoples of the Haprah gave them the ocean-going sailing ships that enabled them to contact the Dwarves. But it also brought them into contact with fierce barbarian pirates from the lands of the far North, many of whom were ESCUS-worshippers. The barbarians from the mountains to the West, however, were ALTIS-worshippers, and an uneasy truce prevailed with them.
It was whispered there was an Eighth God; a God of Thieves, worshipped by the Brotherhoods, secret societies of thieves, who played an important (though largely hidden) part in Imperial society. Powerful, too, were the Demon-Summoners and Elementalists, but they were far fewer in number.
Then, in the Year 605, in the Third Watch of the Night of 13 Garrack, a huge many-coloured Star fell from the night sky and, like CAERULAS descending, dropped into the Ocean.
This was the first Anarea 1-off. It went well, but there were problems with the players all having conflicting objectives, and being lowish-level and so dying easily. In later 1-offs I tried to address these playability issues, in differing ways and with differing results.
What happened? Well, Alex ran riot on being Caught by the Starweb, and another Player learnt the true destiny of Caldora.
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