The Twilight Rebellion

The Stirrings of Rebellion

For an age, Solarin’s law held firm, and the heavens knew peace. Yet not all were content beneath his radiant rule. To some, his order was not harmony but bondage — a golden cage built from light.

Vaelen

Among those dissenting voices rose Vaelen, the Star of Liberty and Freedom. Charged with inspiring mortals to break their earthly chains, he came to see Solarin’s dominion as its own form of tyranny. Where Solarin saw perfection, Vaelen saw stagnation. He believed that even the celestial should be free to change, to grow, to evolve.

In secret defiance, Vaelen ascended to Solarin’s own palace, intent on seizing the Krisis, the Spear of Judgment, and turning it against its master. With it, he sought to banish Solarin from the heavens and shatter his eternal order. But Solarin caught him before the act could be done. In desperation, Vaelen hurled the divine spear through the radiant veil, casting it down into the mortal realm so that someone—anyone—might one day rise to challenge the tyrant of the sun.

Solarin’s wrath was swift and absolute. His brilliance flared brighter than creation itself, and in that terrible blaze, Vaelen was unmade — his star extinguished. Some whisper that his spirit still lingers in the cold void between the stars, where no light dares to reach.

The Rise of the Aspirants

Vaelen’s fall ignited the heavens. Many Stars mourned his loss and took up his cause, calling Solarin’s act one of cruelty rather than justice. Thus began the Twilight Rebellion, when the skies themselves turned against their sovereign. Those who rose against Solarin named themselves the Aspirants, sending their chosen avatars — mortals, dragons, and elemental titans — to retrieve the Krisis and complete Vaelen’s final wish. Those who stood with Solarin, the Faithbound, sent their own champions to oppose them and return the sacred spear to its rightful hand.

The war that followed - now known as the Twilight Rebellion - scarred all creation. Seas boiled, mountains cracked, and the once-whole Caelthys was sundered beyond recognition. The heavens burned, and the world below was left shattered — its lands now known as the Shattered Reach.

In the end, the Faithbound prevailed. The Aspirants were stripped of their starfire and bound to mortal flesh, cursed to walk among the ruins they had wrought. The Celestial Realm fell silent once more, its light restored but forever dimmed by the memory of its own rebellion.

The War of the Shattered Reach

The Twilight Rebellion’s Shadow on Caelthys

The Radiant Veil and the Avatars of War

When Vaelen cast the Krisis into the mortal realm, the Radiant Veil—the barrier dividing the Celestial Realm from Caelthys—was sealed. Neither Solarin nor the Stars could pass through or touch the world below. To wage their war, both sides were forced to act through avatars and champions—dragons, titans, and chosen mortals who carried fragments of their patrons’ divine essence.

The Faithbound sought to reclaim the Krisis and restore Solarin’s order. The Aspirants, born of rebellion, aimed to protect it long enough to perform a vast and perilous ritual of return, one that would open a path to the heavens and free the Stars from Solarin’s dominion. The struggle that followed was not waged among the stars, but upon the soil, sea, and sky of Caelthys itself.

The Birth of the Underworld

Hunted and scorched by the Faithbound’s radiant armies, the Aspirants sought refuge where Solarin’s light could not reach. With their divine magic they split the earth and carved a labyrinth of caverns and chasms deep beneath Caelthys—an endless expanse of shadows and molten stone. This hidden realm became known as the Shadowscape

In these depths, the remnants of the rebellion endured. The celestial energies that once fueled their war seeped into the stone and into the blood of those who dwelled there. Thus were born the dark elves, who abandoned Solarin’s radiance for the beauty of shadow; the duergar, dwarves hardened by exile and grief; the deep gnomes, whose craft mirrored the lost brilliance of the stars; and the tieflings, cursed descendants of Aspirant champions forever marked by celestial fire.

Over the ages, some few of these peoples found their way back to the surface. Yet the world above, remembering the rebellion’s ruin, looked upon them with distrust and disdain. They remain scattered and secretive, living reminders of a war the light would rather forget.

The Shattering of Caelthys

The war for the Krisis raged for centuries, each battle unraveling more of Solarin’s perfect creation. Mountains split, seas boiled, and the very threads of the world began to tear. As the ritual neared completion, the chaos of divine magic consumed the land, fracturing continents and rending the sky.

Seeing Solarin’s creation that she had grown to love breaking apart, Lunira descended to mend what she could. With threads of silver light, she stitched the world back together, sealing its wounds and leaving behind shimmering fault lines across the land. This glow has since faded, but the magical energy remains, creating The Seams - places of extraordinary magical power that are both perilous and sacred.

Aftermath

Thousands of years have passed since the conclusion of the rebellion. The fallen Aspirants mingled with mortals, seeding bloodlines and civilizations, but never regaining their celestial thrones. The conflicts since then have been mortal ones — wars of greed, ambition, and pride, fought without the direct hand of the stars. The Faithbound remained distant, operating as good stewards of the dominions to which they were assigned, but wary to step out of line in fear of Solarin's wrath.