User:Dragonlord217/My Sandbox

The beginning of the nightmare
"'It was always a small flask, filled to the brim with an oil-black liquid. Force-fed to the victims of the inquisition, it rendered them were unable to tell lies, so the truth spilled from their lips in anguished screams as the searing iron tormented their flesh...' - Journal of Rebecca the Brave, one of the first crusaders."The Order, known back then as the Holy Church, was not the world-wide megachurch it is today. Rather, it was a smaller, weaker religion, dominating mainly the kingdoms and villages of the west rather than the globe. The Holy Church was corrupt, often engaging in human sacrifices and worship of pagan gods. Such rituals, along with many more heinous ones, were left unprosecuted due to collusion between the leaders of the Church and the rulers of the kingdoms themselves.

The event took place than a decade before the age of the current Demon Lord. A man, identifying only as "Iscariot", discovered the corruption of the church. He waged a guerrilla campaign against the church and the kings, kidnapping authority figures in the middle of the night before interrogating them in public and executing them.

As the public became aware of the crimes committed right under their noses, they too riled themselves up into a frenzy. Iscariot, wielding a strange magic that could not stopped nor deflected, stormed castle after castle with his newly-found army, toppling the barons who controlled the fiefs and eventually the ruling family of the west itself, dragging the royal family into the streets and burning them alive on crucifixes. This event is known as the Holy Revolution, the prelude to the largest loss of human life in history.

The birth of the Order
"'He wasn't power-hungry, or at least he never seemed like it. He never stayed in a castle, even ate with the regular rank-and-file soldiers. So why does he want all this power? I don't really know honestly. Maybe he really does want to bring glory to The Chief God in his own way.' - Meridia the Sinsayer, elite crusader of the early Order."The west found itself in chaos, the rulers and barons dead and the public itself still not pacified after their religious world toppled down around them. Iscariot rounded up the army that he had used to realize the revolution, along with the surviving soldiers of the kingdom and began the church anew. Dubbed the Order of the Chief God, the ranks of this new religion swelled quickly, filled with those who felt abandoned by their previous, corrupt church. Iscariot himself was noted to be a charismatic leader and a powerful orator, and he soon built a new base of power. With a kingdom of fanatical worshipers behind him, he set his sights on a new target: world domination.

The fall of the Northern Tribes
"'Beware the flames that burn the spirits""That steal your breath and blacken your bones""That sear the land and scorch the skies""Beware the Red Tyrant""My child, my child' - Lullaby passed down among the descendanct of the Whitecap tribe of the North."The territory north of their kingdom was a wild, untamed land. Filled mainly by monsters and tribes of warriors toughened by the bitter cold and harsh, sparse land, it was here that Iscariot first set foot with his army, to spread the religion of The Order by steel and flame.

Iscariot moved swiftly. Had he given time to the tribes to unite and oppose him as a singular army, it was unlikely that his campaign would've succeeded, or at least to the extent that it did. Choosing only small bands of elite fighters from his army, he conducted raids on the tribes, sending scouts to ascertain the locations of the villages before moving in and butchering the inhabitants. He always started by burning down the villages closest to other neighboring tribes, sometimes going so far as to haul the bodies of members of said tribes and scattering them among the massace. His tactic was effective, sowing suspicion and paranoia amongst the North.

There were hundreds of different tribes, but separate bands of crusaders, each led by a Hero, targeted chieftains and other authority figures, tribes allied to one-another and seized control of the small patches of farm-able land, keeping them disorganized and unable to fight back effectively. By the time the men of the north were able to put their differences aside and unite, their ranks had been decimated, and they were routed by the main army of The Order. Thus, the north was subjugated under the banner of the crusaders, and much of the cultures of the various tribes vanished into history, purged by the conquerors.

The conquering of the south
"'Castle Dreux is lost, its gate burned down and its walls overrun. The Mad Apostle and his flames destroyed everything. Our father is dead, his body burning outside as I write. Meredith, you must get to a ship and escape to Zipangu. You and the child in your womb will be the last of our line.' - letter signed by Prince William Dreux, recovered from the corpse of Princess Meredith Dreux."Another advantage of targeting the Northern territories first was that they were relatively isolated from the rest of the world, so the death of the tribes and rise of Iscariot went relatively unnoticed by the rest of the world. Aside from a few tales from drunken travelers, the kingdom of the south did not believe that a man wielding holy flame and descended upon the earth to raze the north and the west. This complacency would prove fatal, as the crusaders descended upon the southern kingdoms soon after.

Here, Iscariot demonstrated clearly his unique magic: flames unable to be blocked both by anti-magic and by fortification. The armies of the south, having never before faced magic like this, were unable to achieve even a single victory against the crusaders. Dealt rout after rout, the kingdom of the south was toppled, the ruling families hunted down and slaughtered. The conquered populace were indoctrinated into The Order, and any who refused to convert were burned at the stake as heretics. All in all, the total death toll of the Iscariot Crusade is estimated to be over ninety million, outstripping any other war or disaster to this day. It was after this that the rest of the main continent surrendered unconditionally to The Order, sparing themselves of bloody war, although the "unbelievers" among them were killed.

The defense of the Sun
"'Victory? Victory doesn't feel like this. The dead litter the ocean, we can't even recover their bodies. Our women wail for their husbands and our children mewl for their fathers. Our country has become one of orphans. There is no victory in war, merely avoiding defeat.' - Midori of the Storm, Head Priestess of the Atago Shrine."Finally setting his sights overseas, Iscariot seized the fleet of the southern kingdoms before setting sail, with a singular destination in mind: Zipangu, the kingdom of the Sun. The small island nation, at a glance, stood no chance against the combined might of the rest of the world. However, it was at this point that the people of the island revealed their greatest strength: its alliance with the inhuman.

Yōkai, the monsters of the island nation, took action in defense of their homeland. Elite monster agents known as Kunoichi seduced and kidnapped many of the elite heroes. The military fleet of Zipangu itself, aided by the Yōkai, sailed out to sea. On the high seas the two forces clashed, both sides sustaining heavy casualties during the conflict. It seemed as though the unstoppable crusader army would finally meet its first defeat in naval warfare, until Iscariot cast a spell that "split the ocean and set it aflame" according to the surviving monsters that witnessed it, which destroyed the Zipangese defensive fleet, rendering them unable to do more than retreat hastily, chased by the magic firepower of the fanatic army.

The alliance of monsters and humans were decimated, and the fleet of Iscariot sailed forward to conquer the land of the Sun. The leadership of Zipangu, knowing they had no chance of defeating the oncoming army, were prepared to surrender. Perhaps by a stroke of luck or perhaps it was sheer overuse of mana, Iscariot's health failed him, and his body broke down on the flagship, causing panic among the ranks of his army. Demoralized, the invaders quickly reversed course and the army sailed back to the mainland, sparing Zipangu from a purging and the genocide of their culture. To this day, the island nation remains the only human-inhabited area of the world where The Order has no sway.

The end of a long nightmare
"'It was just before he descended into Aceldama that we spoke for the last time. He told me that someone else would come, a prophet who spoke with the voice of The Chief God. She would change The Order, shape it into a true church that spreads peace and happiness instead of death. I can only hope she spread that peace to him as well, gave him the rest he so desperately needed.' - Father Malcolm the Pious, first official Pope of the Order of the Chief God."The defeated fleet of the Iscariot Crusade returned to the mainland only to find a disaster in the works. As a final attempt of defiance by the worshipers of the pagan gods, a curse had begun to spread from the west. A hideous hex that mutated and transformed everything it touched, turning humans and beasts into twisted abominations and the land itself into a toxic hell. Iscariot, seemingly recovered from his breakdown, took up his sword and traveled into the infected area, a size of a kingdom at the time, alone.

For a while, the corruption spread, albeit slower than before. It was only after 5 days had passed that the spread stopped entirely. While many rejoiced at the damage being minimized, others were concerned. Iscariot had not returned.

Days turned to weeks, weeks turned to months, and still there was no sign of the man who had changed the world. Finally, it was accepted: Iscariot was dead, he had sacrificed himself to stop the curse from destroying the land.

Thus, the crusades came to an end. Malcolm the Pious, one of the original disciples of Iscariot from the beginning of the crusade, took up the mantle as the leader of The Order, and the Papal Inauguration was done two months after the disappearance of Iscariot. The cursed area, now stagnant, was named Aceldama, and no one dared enter it, for fear of death or worse.

The rise of the Lightbringers
"'I will save him.' - Yesha, the Prophet."It was two months after Iscariot's disappearance that an unmarked ship of Zipangu make landed on the main continent. From this ship, an adventuring party of three descended: A sword wielding hero, named Kou, a magus in black, named Ashe, and a woman who called herself the prophet, named Yesha. These three adventurers quickly attracted the attention of the populace at large due to their combat aptitude, which some said rivaled the late Iscariot himself.

Father Malcolm, then Pope, called for these three to appear before him. It is unknown what was said during their meeting, but soon after they departed with supplies and the Pope's blessing. Their destination? Aceldama, the cursed land.

The three adventurers delved into the twisted kingdom, and it was only three days before the corruption began to recede. The land was purified, the abominations vanished, and the land became habitable once more. The three heroes were praised as the Lightbringers, the ones who gave life to the deadly realm.

The fate of the prophet and the magus are unknown after this is unknown. Kou, the hero, later betrayed The Order, siding with the current Demon Lord against the Chief God. He is now known as the Demon Lord's husband, the enemy of the Order of the Chief God.