Pantheon of Lornon "Dark Gods"

Pantheon of Liabo "Light Gods"

Lesser Gods, Spirits and Beings Non-Pantheon Gods

Overview (Official Gemstone III Documentation)

It is interesting to note that those the Elanthians worship as gods were once servants themselves. The Arkati began their existence as the slaves of the Drakes, for although they were as old a race as dragonkind, the humanoid Arkati were lesser in both powers and numbers. The Arkati earned this worship, for it was only by their intervention that the lesser races such as elves, humans, dwarves and halflings lived at all.

At the peak of each population, there were perhaps one hundred dragons and fifty Arkati. The planet became overcrowded, and the Drakes sent their servants to live on the moons of Lornon and Liabo. Unable to refuse their masters’ command, the Arkati regretfully left for the satellites. Many feared that the dragons were using Elanthia’s overcrowding as an excuse to remove the lesser races, and that the relocation of the Arkati was to facilitate this genocide.

Thus, it is perhaps too convenient that the Ur-Daemons chose this time to appear. Those Arkati that lived on Liabo did their best to reason with the Drakes, entreating them to leave the lesser races be. Many say that those on Lornon followed the same tactic. Some legends recorded by Faendryl seers and elder historians tell a different tale.

Among those sent to the moon of Lornon was Eorgina, an Arkati with a passion for domination. She was the strongest personality of those there, and the one with the most talent for leadership. She was tired of taking a backseat to the Drakes, and having to grovel for what she wanted. With her masters’ eyes off her activities for the time, she acted.

She went to Fash’lo’nae, the scholar of those on Lornon, and asked if he had found anything in his studies that would rid the Arkati of dragon rule. Fash’lo’nae, punished at one time for spreading knowledge to the lesser races and bringing them fire, promised Eorgina his aid.

Fash’lo’nae had never mentioned his planar studies to his masters or his fellow servants. Nor had he ever mentioned the beings he found in the alternate dimensions. Thus, Eorgina and the other Lornon Arkati were quite surprised when presented with an Ur- Daemon. Eorgina, quick to recover from her surprise, wasted no time in pointing out the Drakes and their abundance of mana to the Ur-Daemons. Were they to remove the dragons, they could share in the abundance Elanthia presented.

The Ur-Daemons were not stupid. The Arkatis’ ploy was an obvious one, but the rewards were real. Should they remove the Drakes, the Ur-Daemons would be free to plunder the planet as they saw fit. They had no intention of sharing with the Arkati, and these lesser creatures had ended their usefulness the moment they had opened the Veil. With a smile, the Ur-Daemons agreed to help the Arkati.

Whether or not this legend is true is lost to time. What is known for certain is that the Ur- Daemons found their way to our dimension, and with them came chaos. The Ur-Daemon War broke out between the invaders and the Drakes. Many Arkati rushed to help their masters and were summarily killed. The intelligent ones hid from the conflict, thereby ensuring their survival.

The War lasted one thousand years. The final stand, before the portal to the Ur-Daemons’ home plane that Fash’lo’nae had secretly opened upon Elanthia, blasted the landscape for hundreds of miles, leaving it a lifeless wasteland. The Ur-Daemons were gone…but so were the Drakes. Their numbers had been decimated, and most of those left had been driven insane by fear. The Arkati were servants no longer.

Their time on Lornon and Liabo had changed the Arkati, however. Those who state the Lornon Arkati had summoned the Ur-Daemon say that the Liabo Arkati were horrified and appalled by what the others had done. Others say that the differing influences of each moon had changed them. The results are undisputed: when they moved to heal the damage done to Elanthia, the Arkati were a race divided.

In the early days after the War, some Arkati walked among the mortal races as teachers, leaders, and guides. They considered Elanthia and its inhabitants a trust which had befallen them. These were the Liabo Arkati. As they taught the mortal races, they advised caution dealing with “the Arkati who once lived upon Lornon.” This shortened to “the Arkati of Lornon.” The pantheons of Liabo and Lornon were born.

Those of Lornon did not see things as their Liabo siblings did. They considered the lands a playground, and the lesser races toys to be trifled with or worse. The two pantheons grew further and further apart. For a while, war between the groups seemed imminent.

Then Koar summoned the remaining Arkati to a chamber in his mountain sanctum. What was said in that meeting is unknown, but when the Arkati emerged, they no longer spoke of fighting each other. They went their separate ways and have never come into open conflict, although an abundance of small battles are waged in the background daily.