First Mortals Copy link
Before the mortal races walked the lands of Rhuna, there were the Astraleth, celestial beings who were deities in training, young divine forces meant to govern and guide existence under the watchful eyes of the Prime Deities. They were the apprentices of creation, tasked with shaping realms, tending the Threads, and learning the balance of Order, Balance, and Chaos. However, unlike their elders, the Astraleth were still immature, volatile, and easily swayed by emotion. Their creations were often erratic—brilliant yet flawed, beautiful yet unstable. As they sought to prove their worth, they became reckless in their experimentation, bending the fabric of reality without true understanding of its consequences. This impulsiveness made them vulnerable, and none knew this better than Xantyr, the Lesser Deity of Fate.
Xantyr, seeking to manipulate the cosmos for his own ends, tricked the Astraleth into their downfall. He led them to believe that by weaving themselves into the fabric of Rhuna, they would gain full divinity, surpassing their mentors. What they did not realize was that this process fractured them instead of elevating them, binding them to the mortal plane in a cursed, half-formed state. The Astraleth were no longer celestial beings—they had become the Vathians, fractured immortals trapped in a cycle of endless rebirth. Their divine essence was split across lifetimes, their memories muddled, their purpose lost. As a result, they became aimless, impulsive, and quick to anger, lashing out as they struggled to understand their existence. Some tried to reclaim their celestial knowledge, while others wandered in a haze of confusion and frustration, desperate for meaning.
When the Nuhlrin arrived, it changed everything. The Nuhlrin were older and structured, guided by their own Deities and possessing a strong sense of governance, tradition, and purpose. Though the Nuhlrin had their own struggles, they brought something the Vathians desperately needed: discipline and direction. Through symbiotic alliances, the Nuhlrin and Vathians learned from one another. The Nuhlrin gained the Vathians' raw power and insight into the divine—for even in their fractured state, the Vathians still carried echoes of their celestial origins. In return, the Vathians gained structure, culture, and purpose, learning to channel their scattered knowledge into something greater than themselves. Over generations, this bond matured the Vathians, allowing them to reclaim parts of their lost divinity in ways Xantyr never anticipated. However, their past still haunts them, and the pull of their fractured existence means they must constantly battle against their own chaotic nature, lest they fall into the endless cycle of rebirth once more, forgetting all they have gained.
Portals Copy link
Long before the Call for Balance, the ancestors of the Nuhlrin were created from uncorrupted Threads on distant planets and in distant galaxies. They lived through generations before the ancient resonance of Rhun’s cry drew certain lineages toward Rhuna. When the Call came, their own gods and deities opened portals upon their worlds, connecting them to the gateways of Rhuna. The arrivals brought existing civilizations, families, beliefs, and histories; they had not been made for this purpose.
But Vel saw an opportunity. The Deity of Chaos, weakened but still lurking in the shadows of existence, reached into Rhun’s mind and corrupted his divine purpose, twisting Balance into something cruel and destructive. Instead of merely selecting those who could maintain Balance, the portals became instruments of judgment and annihilation. The moment the Nuhlrin arrived, they were weighed, measured, and purged—any civilization or lineage that was deemed “impure” in its Thread alignment was erased, leaving only those who were in perfect harmony with Rhun’s warped vision of Balance. Countless Nuhlrin empires were eradicated before they even had a chance to set foot on Rhuna, their people reduced to nothingness in the very moment of arrival. Those who survived were forever marked by this tragedy, and their understanding of Balance was never the same.
However, Vel’s corruption was no accident—it was a deliberate move in his grand design. Vel wanted the Call for Balance to be answered not to preserve equilibrium, but to fuel Chaos itself. Mortals, by their very nature, are breeders of Chaos, driven by ambition, desire, and hunger for power. Vel saw the Nuhlrin’s arrival as a catalyst, a way to infuse Rhuna with unpredictability and conflict, ensuring that mortals would spread their ambitions like wildfire. Even those who survived the Balancing were left with deep-seated resentment, loss, and vengeance, emotions that would drive them toward conquest, rebellion, and war. Vel did not need to create Chaos directly—he merely needed to shape the conditions so that mortals, in their striving for purpose, would inevitably bring it forth themselves.
Now, the arrival portals remain dormant across Rhuna. Their ruins preserve the history of passage between worlds, while the Rhunai study and guard the gateways on Rhuna’s side. Some hope that restoring Rhun and freeing him from Vel’s corruption could allow safe passage again; others fear that reopening the routes would repeat the Balancing. Their original makers belonged to many distant worlds, and the surviving gates hold only fragments of that larger history.
Balance Betrayal Copy link
When the Nuhlrin first answered the Call for Balance, they arrived on Rhuna as the pure-threaded, drawn across the cosmos by the very forces that shaped existence. They believed they were fulfilling a sacred purpose, becoming the new stewards of a world where Order, Chaos, and Balance intertwined. However, they did not anticipate that Rhun, the Deity of Balance, had been subtly corrupted by Vel’s influence at the time of their arrival. Balance, in its truest form, had become an executioner’s blade. Those deemed "imbalanced"—those whose essence carried too much of Order or Chaos—were not welcomed, but instead Balanced by force. This cleansing was swift and merciless, and the once-thriving Nuhlrin arrivals were either eradicated, scattered, or reshaped by the Threads themselves. The purest among them—the ones whose Threads aligned perfectly in Rhun’s vision—survived, while the rest were deemed unworthy and undone.
The survivors—the Imari, Ereth, Duranine, and Corvians—were those whose essence was perfectly aligned with the Balance Rhun sought. They remained largely whole, forming the first great alliances with the Vathians they encountered. But the broken remnants of the purged Nuhlrin empires—those who had been cast aside, shattered by divine decree—did not perish entirely. The Meridian banner rose from the ashes of betrayal, uniting the scattered remnants into a new empire, one built not on Balance, but on the will to endure, adapt, and reclaim what was lost. These Nuhlrin rejected the notion that Balance alone should govern their fates, forging a path that acknowledged Order, Chaos, and the raw necessity of survival.
Yet, not all who were cast aside sought civilization. Some turned to the wilds, forsaking the ruined echoes of their once-great empires. These became the Irenuk, the Wildlanders, those who embraced the primal call of nature, threading their fate into the untamed lands of Rhuna. Others, the Zhe, the Beast-Speakers, began to listen to the voices of Rhuna’s beasts, forging pacts with creatures both divine and monstrous. Both groups stood as living testaments to the consequences of forced Balance, existing outside the grand alliances that had formed in the wake of the cleansing. What began as a divine call for unity had instead splintered the Nuhlrin into the privileged and the forsaken, setting into motion the conflicts and shifting power struggles that would define the future of Rhuna.
Rise of Meridians Copy link
Among the Nuhlrin who were nearly eradicated by the Balancing, ten great empires once stood, their civilizations stretching across vast lands with unique cultures, philosophies, and advancements. These ten empires had each answered the Call for Balance, believing they were destined to forge a new era . Instead, they were deemed unfit by Rhun’s corrupted judgment, and their people were unmade, their cities razed by divine decree. Survivors scattered, watching as their legacies were reduced to ruin, their histories all but erased. But where Balance had sought to cleanse them, it instead gave rise to a new force—one forged from loss, defiance, and an unyielding refusal to be forgotten.
The remnants of these fallen empires banded together, forming what would become known as the Meridian Empire. Unlike the other Nuhlrin who had managed to maintain their first bonds with the Vathians, the Meridians had no trust left to give. They viewed the alliances of the Imari, Ereth, Duranine, and Corvians as a betrayal—proof that only those who conformed to Balance were spared. This hardened them, forging a culture that valued strength, unity, and absolute loyalty to their own kind above all else. They refused to bow to Balance again, rejecting the whims of the gods and instead vowing that no outside force would ever decide their fate again. In time, they built a grand empire along the Western shores, fortified against all who might seek to challenge them.
Now, the Meridians stand as a proud, yet isolated people, their cities vast and imposing, their borders nearly impenetrable. They do not engage in the politics of the wider world unless forced to, nor do they readily welcome outsiders into their ranks. To them, survival is not just a necessity—it is a sacred duty. Any who seek entry into their empire must prove themselves worthy, for the Meridians will never again allow their people to be erased from history. Though some call them paranoid and xenophobic, others recognize that they are merely the product of divine betrayal—an empire that exists not because Balance willed it, but because they refused to be forgotten.
The survivors carried the interwoven legacies of ten broken empires. Their descendants formed two broad Meridian traditions: western Tydrunar around Vanthis and the Luckshores, and eastern Khaldyr around Irenfel and the marches. Neither tradition descends from only one empire; each combines people and lineages from the wider catastrophe.