DM Notes

Launch Page for new campaign created on ChatGPT.

The Proto-History of Creation

In the beginning, before time and matter coalesced, the cosmos was a formless void known as the Primordial Abyss. From the Abyss emerged the Eldritch Forces, vast, ineffable beings that shaped the planes of existence through their wills. These forces were not beings in the sense mortals understand; rather, they were embodiments of concepts—chaos, order, light, darkness, time, and oblivion.

Over aeons, as these forces waged cosmic wars and performed acts of creation, they inadvertently gave birth to the first gods. The gods arose as sentient beings capable of guiding the universe's growth and balance. These gods banded together, seeing themselves as guardians of the multiverse, and created the Great Weave, a metaphysical network that unified the planes and governed reality. Life, death, magic, and time all flowed through the Weave, each bound to its rules.

However, the Weave did not exist unchallenged. A shadow of the Primordial Abyss lingered in the form of Oblivion, a remnant of the original void that sought to consume all that the gods had woven. The gods needed a custodian for this aspect of the universe—someone to oversee death and ensure that Oblivion did not claim too much, and that the balance between life, death, and the afterlife was maintained. Durnstang, originally a god of death, decay, and the orderly passage from life to afterlife, was given this role. He became the Lord of the Dead, a neutral figure who managed the flow of souls between planes.

Durnstang's Betrayal and Frustration

Though Durnstang dutifully performed his role for eons, ensuring that souls transitioned to their rightful places after death, he gradually became embittered. The role he played, while essential, was stagnant. While other gods basked in the creation of life, the flow of magic, and the celebration of their worshippers, Durnstang found himself forgotten and neglected. Mortals feared him, shunning his temples in favour of gods of life, nature, and wealth.

But what troubled him more than his fading worship was the realization of the deeper injustice in the cosmos: the Cycle of Mortality itself. Durnstang discovered that the Weave imposed an arbitrary limit on existence, binding mortals to a cycle of birth, life, death, and rebirth. This cycle, he came to believe, was a prison, designed by the gods to maintain their power by controlling the flow of souls and ensuring that life never truly escaped their grasp. Durnstang, as the custodian of death, saw more than anyone the suffering and waste within this cycle—souls trapped in endless loops of reincarnation, repeating the same mistakes, unable to transcend.

In time, Durnstang began to suspect that Oblivion—the dark force from the Primordial Abyss—was not his enemy, but the universe’s true state. Life, he reasoned, was a temporary aberration, something the other gods had imposed on reality to stave off Oblivion and maintain their divine power. Durnstang grew to resent the Weave itself, seeing it as a tool of control rather than the natural order of things.

Durnstang’s Desire to Break the Cycle

Durnstang's ultimate goal is not simply to end life, but to break the cycle of death and rebirth. He believes that by severing the connection between life and death, he can free souls from their endless reincarnation and elevate them to a higher plane of existence, one beyond the gods’ control. This would end the suffering of endless lives and deaths, and in his eyes, bring true freedom to the universe.

In doing so, Durnstang would reshape reality itself—unraveling the Weave, returning the planes to a state closer to their primordial origin in the Abyss. Mortals would no longer be born to suffer, die, and return to life, and even the gods themselves might fade as their creations no longer feed them with worship or life-force.

However, Durnstang also knows that breaking the Weave entirely would invite the return of Oblivion, which might consume all of existence. But to him, this is a just outcome—either souls will transcend the Weave and be free, or the universe will return to its natural state of nothingness. Both are preferable to the tyranny of the current cycle.

The Cabal of the Unseen Hand

The Cabal's structure is deliberately opaque, with Durnstang’s true identity known only to a select few. Each member has been recruited or manipulated by a higher-ranking figure in the Cabal, believing they are working towards their own personal goals, but in truth, they are all advancing a grand design.

Key Members of the Cabal

Maltherion, the Whispering Lich (Undead)

• Role in the Cabal: Master of necromantic lore, tasked with destabilizing the boundary between life and death, creating new forms of undeath that will challenge the Weave.
• Motivation: Maltherion believes that undeath is the ultimate freedom, allowing one to escape both the fragility of mortal life and the arbitrary rule of the gods. He has been led to believe that the Cabal’s purpose is to perfect undeath for all worthy individuals, making the living obsolete. He is unaware that Durnstang’s plan involves the complete collapse of both life and undeath.
• Key Task: Develop necromantic rituals to keep souls from passing into the afterlife, creating vast zones where death holds no sway, and souls become trapped, causing the Weave to fray.

Sarkathus, the Demon Lord of Bound Souls (Demonic)

• Role in the Cabal: Responsible for recruiting fiends and binding them to the material plane, amplifying the chaos Durnstang needs to weaken the Weave.
• Motivation: Sarkathus has long sought to subvert the natural order by trapping mortal souls in Hellish contracts. He believes that by working with the Cabal, he can undermine the gods and establish an endless reign of demonic influence over mortal souls. Sarkathus thinks Durnstang is a powerful mortal necromancer who seeks to tear down divine authority, not realizing the god of death has far greater plans in store.
• Key Task: Lead infernal incursions into strategic locations where the Weave is weakest, sowing chaos and capturing powerful souls to use as leverage against other gods.

Ivelka, the Fallen Valkyrie (Living)

• Role in the Cabal: Ivelka leads mortal armies and cultists who worship death, focusing on dismantling societies that protect the natural cycle of life and death.
• Motivation: Once a divine warrior tasked with ferrying the souls of fallen heroes to the afterlife, Ivelka was disgraced and cast out of her order after questioning the gods’ design. She believes that death, as it currently exists, is unjust, and that the souls of mortals should have the chance to escape reincarnation. Ivelka is unaware of Durnstang’s identity but is driven by a desire to see the gods fall.
• Key Task: Rally cults of death-worshippers to topple societies that value life, order, and resurrection. Her followers unknowingly play a role in breaking the Weave through bloodshed and mass death rituals.

Orralax, the Beholder of Forbidden Sight (Monstrous)

• Role in the Cabal: Orralax uses his immense psychic powers to gather forbidden knowledge, seeking out ancient magics that can unravel reality itself.
• Motivation: Orralax seeks to control reality, using his knowledge to alter time, space, and life itself. He believes the Cabal is a means to gain power over the Weave, using Durnstang’s plan to replace the gods with his own dominion over reality. Orralax has pieced together parts of the truth, but he underestimates the extent of Durnstang’s apocalyptic goals.
• Key Task: Orralax is tasked with finding ancient magical artifacts and spells that weaken the structure of the planes. He is specifically focused on locating remnants of primordial power from before the creation of the Weave, artifacts that can help tear open rifts between worlds.

Kyros “The Shadowed Fang” (Living, Drow)

• Role in the Cabal: Kyros, a Drow warlord, leads the Web of Knives, a mercenary and assassins’ guild operating in multiple cities. He is unaware that his organisation serves Durnstang’s larger plans, believing it furthers only his personal ambitions and Drow dominance.
• Motivation: Kyros seeks to conquer the surface world through strategic assassinations, destabilising governments, and manipulating information to increase Drow influence. He believes he is working towards the resurgence of his people, unaware of how his actions align with Durnstang’s chaotic goals.
• Key Task: The Web of Knives weakens societies linked to life and death cycles through assassinations and espionage. Kyros believes he is expanding Drow power, but in reality, he is unknowingly aiding Durnstang in unraveling the natural order.

The Viridescent One (Monstrous Fae)

• Role in the Cabal: A fey entity bound to life and nature, the Viridescent One is being manipulated by Durnstang through his agents to slowly corrupt the natural cycle of rebirth in forested regions.
• Motivation: The Viridescent One seeks to reclaim dominance over nature, believing the cycle of death and decay has been perverted by mortals and the gods alike. She views the Cabal as a means to restore nature’s rightful place by unbalancing civilization, unaware that her actions play into Durnstang’s plan to break the cycle entirely.
• Key Task: Use nature’s corruption to spread plagues, twist natural forces, and cause mass deaths in places where life is most abundant, creating weak points in the Weave in areas tied to primal magic.

The Master Plan: Tearing the Weave

Durnstang’s master plan revolves around destabilizing the Weave by attacking it from multiple fronts. Each member of the Cabal has a critical role, contributing to the unraveling in different ways:

• Maltherion disrupts the balance between life and undeath, creating rifts in the natural cycle.
• Sarkathus expands demonic influence on the material plane, further weakening the barriers between planes.
• Ivelka recruits mortal armies to cause widespread death and destruction, breaking the societal pillars that uphold the natural order.
• Orralax searches for primordial artifacts, which, once activated, will open cracks in the Weave.
• Kyros “The Shadowed Fang” (Living, Drow): leads the *Web of Knives*, a mercenary company and assassins’ guild to weaken the structures that bind the Weave and start wars.
• The Viridescent One unleashes natural plagues and corruption, targeting regions tied to nature and life.

As these forces act in concert, Durnstang quietly manipulates the unfolding chaos, ensuring the Weave becomes unstable enough that he can perform a final ritual to sever the link between life and death, freeing souls from the gods' control. If successful, this will not only break the cycle of reincarnation but also dissolve the barriers between planes, bringing the universe one step closer to Oblivion. Each member of the Cabal believes they are working towards their own goals—immortality, dominance, control, revenge—but in truth, they are pawns in Durnstang’s greater plan to destroy the Weave and the natural cycle of existence.