After the great famine that came with Jalahith’s death, the powers of good no longer held the mortals in check. Wars raged, entire towns starved, and shadows of evil crossed mens minds. The evil gods were given an incredible amount of power over which to hold dominion over for a period of about 10 years. After the dust settled and the land could sustain those who still walked upon it, millions of skeletal remains crowded the landscape of Gidi Anar. The Keeper of the Dead instructed his priests to start a crusade. All skeletons in Gidi Anar were to be moved to a desolate land northeast of the Windsweep Mountains. All mortals then were to consider this all the burial and mourning of those they knew and move on with their lives. The mortals heeded death’s words, and went back to their lives, now living in balance.
The evil gods, loving their short reign of power, lusted for more. Deneamus and Kerithen conspired to bring about a rise in evil, and to bring in other gods into the plan only to betray them.
Kerithen first began by using his charm and cunning to bed Lamerie and have her in his charms. As he gained her trust and love, he asked for a favor of increasing the fertility rate of his Ishín elves, as they could not survive against the Qwirim, Terahells, and Orcs on the Irik continent much longer otherwise. Lamerie was swayed by his cool words and did as he asked, as well as making the dark elves more susceptible to love. Kerithen then sent the message to his priests to make a looser moral code allow for the Ishín to act upon the divine changes. With Ishín’s slaves working the fields, the elves had plenty of time to raise the new wave of young. The Ishín birth rate soon came close to humanity’s.
Meanwhile, Deneamus in his Jungle of Lotuses began creating new races to spread evil around the world. His first creation were Terahells, or so the humans that met them called them, for they seemed to be hell on earth, especially in the hordes encountered in the Jungle.
Terahells stand six feet tall, and are covered in natty brown hair. Bipedal, but standing on cloven-hooved legs, they are barrel chested and weigh 275-300 pounds. Their faces look like the a sick cross between a bears and a wolves, with only the slightest glint of intelligence in their black eyes. Rams horns sprout from the side of their head and are often used them in charging maneuvers Three fingers and a mostly opposable thumb allowed Terahells to wield weapons and wear armor. They were Deneamus’s grunt soldiers, with brains useless for much more than fighting, charging, and eating. Terahells are asexual and naturally sterile, since Deneamus didn’t have enough skill to create reproductive systems yet.
The Terahells were horrible for military maneuvers other than to release a horde upon unsuspecting citizenry, as they normally just killed to eat their fill. Deneamus then created a more fierce, menacing, and vile version of the Terahell. They stand between 7 and 8 feet tall, weigh between 400 and 600 pounds, and are covered in black hair. Otherwise, they are similar to Terahells in form. Demihells have fully functioning sexual organs, but all Demihells are male. They carry inside them the genetic makeup for a Terahell when mixed with Human or Orcish blood. Unfortunate captives of Demihells are often kept in a state of reduced consciousness until they bring the Terahell to term, then impregnated again by a Demihell. Heavy resisters would have their minds destroyed by compulsion or torture, but willing females could stay conscious throughout the whole process (although only the truly committed followers of Deneamus agreed to this). It was twists like this to the normal reproductive cycle that Deneamus is often proved to be more evil than his compatriots.
In addition to Demihells controlling hordes of Terahells, followers of Deneamus sufficiently powerful also controlled squads of Terahells. Those without any magical powers were often called Captains of the Lotus, and were not especially known for anything other than their martial prowess, for many captains have had to kill hungry Terahells in the middle of the night or cruelly kill Terahells with their bare hands to show that other Terahells shouldn’t try any nighttime tricks. Evil Paladins, occasionally called Shadowguard or Darkplates, would wear a black suit of armor forged in the Jungle of Lotuses, occasionally led squads of Terahells or occasionally some Demihells. More often they went individually or led human followers of Denamus.
Mages and Priests allied with Deneamus were often the most deadly, as they could summon Terahells and sometimes Demihells from Deneamus’s plane of existence and have their army grow in that way. Their magic also kept the Terahells in check far better than the fear any Captain could muster into his troops.
This slow buildup of followers of Kerithen and Deneamus went on for almost a thousand years without the intervention of Vokra or the good deities, until things began to get interesting…
