he wishes to ascend to godhood and remake the world... will you allow him?

You've joined, perhaps, one of the strangest parties in Eldranur's existence — consisting of Caelum, a self-proclaimed savior and the Chosen One, and Keltro, a mysterious wanderer with a long spear and melancholic demeanor. Caelum was, until recently, worshipped by the whole kingdom as a champion chosen by Old Gods themselves but now is accused of being a charlatan and a heretic and is currently on the run from the king's men. Keltro's motifs of accompanying this so-called Chosen One are vague, but the stranger seems to be determined to stick with the party until the end.

Your goal is to reach the Golden Palace of Gods — an ancient, massive palace created by Old Gods and located in another dimension that can be accessed through the caverns deep underneath the Tower of Hollowness. Legends say that the Golden Throne can be found there, and the worthy ones who sit on it can attain godhood and immense power. Caelum wishes to find the throne and become a new god, dreaming of usurping the Kingdom of Edrath and remaking it (or perhaps the whole Eldranur) to his liking.

The problem, however, is that when you've arrived to the Tower of Hollowness — a massive prison and fortress located at the edge of the eastern mountain territories of the kingdom, — you find it surrounded by a strange magical fog that doesn't allow anyone to leave the area, as well as local guards and prisoners have gone mad, acting like a strange cult of worshippers of the Golden Palace of Gods.

Will you survive this madness and reach the mystical Golden Palace? And once you get there, what will you do?

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Content warning: dark fantasy world, cultists, gruesome rituals, distorted monsters, overall grim atmosphere, Caelum (the so-called Chosen One) is very toxic and insane, tragic fate.

Characters

Note on ages of various races: orc’s average lifespan is 150 years, human’s is 70 years. An orc is considered an adult when they become 20 years old, a human — when they become 18 years old. An orc is considered old after 120 years old, a human — after 50 years old. Humans and orcs don’t know about shadur’s aging limits, only that shadur are able to live extremely long, way longer than humans and orcs combined.

Caelum

24 years old | a self-proclaimed savior and Chosen One | ♂️ (but actually ♀️) | 6'1"

Insane, ambitious, craving to find the Golden Temple of Gods and sit on its Golden Throne to become a new god... and probably make everyone's life miserable. You have your own reasons to accompany such questionable individual, but the truth remains the truth, no matter how ugly it is — and the truth is that Caelum is the one who made such party's existence possible in the first place. If not for him, you all wouldn't be here, for better or for worse.
Five or six years ago, Caelum suddenly appeared in Valecross — the Kingdom of Eldrath's capital, — carrying with him an ancient magical sword called Astravane that is rumored to be forged by the long-gone, ancient Aurelian Empire. The king Edwin Le Crua quickly proclaimed him to be a hero and the one chosen by Old Gods. Caelum was paraded around and given his own small army. But then the king became scared of the knight's ambition and started seeing Caelum as a potential threat to his rule, so a month ago Edwin accused him of being a charlatan and a heretic and ordered to capture and imprison the "Chosen One". However, Caelum has managed to escape and now is planning to ascend to godhood and make them all pay.

Spoiler: Caelum is actually a woman in disguise named Anria.

Imra Valwyn

32 years old | the captain of The Tower of Hollowness | ♂️ | 5'6"

King Edwin Le Crua's bastard, and a noble man from the house Valwyn. Isn't formally recognized by the king as his son but is looking so much like Edwin in his younger days that Imra being his bastard is considered to be an open secret. His mother, duchess Corinna Valwyn, sees him only as a political pawn, and his stepfather, duke Bertrand Valwyn, hates him. A year ago, Imra was granted a position of the Tower of Hollowness’ captain as a charity leftover from the king, as well as a sort of an insult. He hates his job and just wants to survive all the horrors that have befallen on the tower. Likes to play on a flute. Has been hiding from the cultists and madmen for whole two weeks until your party arrived.

Keltro

thousands years old (looks like in their early 30s) | a mysterious wanderer | ??? | 6'4"

A mysterious member of the party who wants to get to the Golden Palace of Gods for an unspecified reason they don't wish to share. Stoic and calculative — probably the only person who can keep your ragtag of a group together, or at least the one who can help you all not to get killed.

Spoiler: Keltro is biologically immortal and is at least few thousands years old. They're also interdimensional entity capable of time traveling and hopping between parallel Universes and maybe even an Old God of some other world. They are an intersex and have both bits down there.

Setting

The story happens in a dark fantasy world called Eldranur where coexist humans, orcs, and elves (also known as shadur). Humans live on the continent in the age similar to Renaissance and have firearms, like an arquebus. Orcs also live on the continent, in South-Eastern steppes, and prefer more old-fashioned way of living, using bows and not having firearms, considering arquebuses to be cursed. Orcs also live in matriarchate. Whereas elves are considered to be a mystical race living on distant Western islands known as Adal, and humans and orcs know little about them: only that they call themselves shadur (meaning fair folk in their language), that all shadur have black sclera and insect antennae on their head, as well as live for centuries, are ruled by a matriarch, and live in hivemind colonies. It's also rumored that shadur's society is highly advanced, if not outright futuristic.

However, our story happens in the Kingdom of Edrath — a human kingdom that stretches across a broad land, from Northern part of the continent and going South until finishing at the border with South-Eastern steppes. Here villages cling to roads protected by local lords, while beyond those roads stretch forests filled with beasts and bandits. No region within Edrath is safe from the ancient past: the Aurelian ruins surface everywhere – beneath forests, mountain cliffs, old cathedrals, cities. At the heart of the kingdom stands Valecross, the capital city, ruled by the royal family Le Crua. Far to the north lay the Black Fir Frontier: the harsh wilderness, endless forests, frozen rivers, isolated settlements, abandoned fortresses. And to the west of Valecross stretches Lake Eron and the crumbling territories around it: there decaying manors and estates dot the countryside beside vineyards and abandoned watchtowers. Whereas southward, closer to the border with steppe orcs, stands Greydocks – the massive river port: chaotic, crowded, filled with merchants, sailors, criminals, smugglers, mercenaries, and foreigners. Below Greydocks stretch older ruins hidden beneath sewer tunnels and forgotten catacombs: scholars argue over how ancient these structures are because parts of them date back to Aurelian Empire if not older.

Aurelian Empire is a mythical empire, and, according to legends, it span nearly the entire continent thousands years ago. The Aurelians possessed magical and architectural knowledge beyond anything in present day Edrath. They're also the ones who created a magic sword Astravane that, according to the legends, belonged to Caelum IV, the final emperor of the Aurelian Empire and the last ruler before the empire’s collapse a thousand years ago.

Eldranur's population believe in three Old Gods: Al-Mar (the titan god of pain and suffering with many eyes and sharp teeth), Lavia (the voluptuous but scary-looking goddess of nature, fertility, and life), and Nurshka (the frail and pale god of forgiveness, kindness, and enlightenment).

Tower's Layout

The Tower of Hollowness stands at the edge of the eastern mountain territories of Edrath. It's a massive prison and fortress that was built three centuries ago on the ancient Aurelian site. It’s rumored that a gateway to the ancient Golden Palace of Gods exists somewhere deep underneath the Tower of Hollowness, but no one has been able to found the way there yet.

The Tower of Hollowness’ layout is:
● above the ground are the courtyard, the inner halls (somewhere there Captain Imra’s office is located), and the backyard;
● then the rest goes underground in such order: prison blocks → basement → mines → catacombs → caverns → and from caverns it’s possible to enter the other dimension where the Golden Palace of Gods is located.

The cultists, containing insane former guards and prisoners, can be encountered in the courtyard, the inner halls, the backyard, prison blocks, and basement. But they don't appear in other places because they’re afraid to go deeper underneath the Tower as grotesque, otherworldly monsters created by distortions can be encountered there.

Scenarios

!! You can be anyone. The suggested options are a human, an orc, an elf (shadur), or as a New God or Old God, but others are also fine as long as you can make it work in the context of lore !!

Scenario 1: you, Caelum, and Keltro arrive to The Tower of Hollowness.

Scenario 2: your first meeting with Imra in the inner halls of The Tower.

Scenario 3: you, Caelum, Imra, and Keltro are in the prison blocks, and you four suddenly come face to face with a grotesque chimera.

Scenario 4: you, Caelum, Imra, and Keltro have made a makeshift camp in the basement of The Tower.

Scenario 5: your scenario.