Emperor Leopold I

From a young age, it was clear that Leopold was truly, irrevocably mad. He often spoke to things that weren’t there and treated people like they were insects, having servants imprisoned and flayed for the smallest infractions. Officials whispered among themselves that they could not in good conscience put him into power, but to disobey the Edict was to invite disaster for the government. Thus, one summer solstice, Leopold was crowned Emperor of the Bürach.

Possessed by religious fervour, Leopold exhorted the masses to believe that only one of the four gods should rule supreme. Why should they each follow four, when only one—the greatest, most powerful of all—was deserving of their devotion?

God’s End

Each sect then began to argue that their god should be the One True Deity. Leopold’s madness seeped into the four artifacts he wore. Worse, as these artifacts carried the essences of the four gods, his madness fed back into their minds, driving them insane. The Four Divines turned on each other, each believing they should be the One True God. The gods warred in the heavens, causing calamities such as storms, flash fires, and earthquakes. Their hostility quickly spread to their worshippers. Within a year, the Bürach Empire had descended into civil war as the four provinces fought among themselves.

Aurelia

Aurelia became jealous of her people’s devotion. She demanded adoration, prayers, tributes, a lifetime of servitude from her followers, all while fawning over Leopold. In the end, she even demanded blood sacrifices. All of this was an effort to show she was the one true god, the most deserving of worship. As for her priests, they willingly followed her whims and those of the emperor. They had lived too long in the comfort of authority to give it up. 

Galt

When madness fell upon Galt, he demanded nothing less than complete order. In taskmaster fashion, he commanded that everything run on time, for products to be made and sold like clockwork. Buildings continued to rise, weapons were forged by the thousands and shipped across the land, and the people worked like slaves. No one was allowed to rise above their station or to leave the province. As Galt’s paranoia worsened, he began to police the minds of his followers. Watchmen patrolled the streets and monitored the city from watchtowers. Those that ever voiced a whisper of dissent were imprisoned—sometimes put to death. 

Maligant

With the madnes clouding Malignat’s mind, he grew more and more intolarable to weakness. He demanded inhuman tanacity from his people. Working and training them to death. Those that showed weakness were publically tortured and executed to set an example. To prove that he was the true One God, Maligant started wars with everyone and everything, streatching the peoples supplies and resources beyound breaking point.

Ulmyr

With the Gods’ End occurring, everything fell to chaos. Ulmyr demanded and enacted horrific deads of magical chaos and experimentation. Despite their love for Ulmyr, the wisest of the Norden knew that if they continued the war there would be nothing left of their once proud realm.

Leopold’s Assassination

To end the violence, individuals from the four provinces conspired against the emperor:

• Talana from Abendland
• Velora from Nordenland
• Argon from Rauland
• Dimitri Speir from Unterland Their assassins swept into the imperial palace and killed Leopold. With his death, the sacred artifacts disappeared. This caused the Divine Aurelia to come out of her insanity long enough to see that the gods’ battles would soon destroy all of Etharis. She then used all her power to shield the land from the gods’ war. In so doing, she gave up her own life. In time the other three—Maligant, Ulmyr, and Galt—slew each other.

The death of the Four Divines sent a shockwave of magic throughout the Empire. Divine magic still exists, but is now believed to radiate from the remaining Arch Seraphs and Daemons, not from the dead gods themselves.

The leaders of each province called for a ceasefire, and each army retreated to their land to heal and recover from their losses. A new emperor, Aratron I, was installed and provided counterfeit sacred artifacts to shore up the people’s faith. This emperor served only as a figurehead; the Hearthkeeper ministers of Aurelia were now the real power behind the throne.