The First War

After Thrice left, Tremolyn betrayed his brothers and sisters, and led his favored race, the Selk, into war to bring all Kalyssia under his control. The Selk, and Tremolyn created monstrous creatures and hideous beings to bring about the destruction of the other gods and races.

Tremolyn held the Manifest closely at this time, wanting the races to mature before he revealed Thrice's knowledge to them. He believed that they were not ready, and if given too much information too early, it may cause their demise. Hella, Zude, Solonium, and Anusek agreed with Tremolyn. Wares, Parashiak, Xexex, and Bassek disagreed, however. This was treated lightly in the first 100 years. But as time went on, it became a raging feud, as each side began to stir up their followers against the others. Aggressive preaching, and demonization of gods took place. But it was not until Tremolyn himself killed a high priest of Wares did the First War begin. It was unknown to Tremolyn's fellow siblings that conservation of knowledge was not his goal. He believed that the world could not survive having more than one god. As long as their was more than one, violence would erupt between them. So, using knowledge only he knew of, he began to plan out a way to make sure Kalyssia only had one god.

In the first year, Tremolyn masterfully whipped the Selk, Ivorsk, and Jekauze into a fighting force. They formed the first army.

Tremolyn warned Wares, the leader of the group opposing him, to cease teaching his followers and the followers of those gods he was aligned with, that Tremolyn was wrong. He demanded that Wares stop teaching that the Manifest was a stolen book, and instead that it was forbidden until such time as the god of knowledge saw fit. Wares, however, did no such thing. He responded with missionaries to the Selk, Ivorsk and Jekauze, the races that followed Tremolyn. Under Wares, were the Kathal, Jedem, and Humans. They taught that that the Manifest was a stolen text, that had all the knowledge Thrice wished to impart to the races. They believed that Tremolyn kept this knowledge to further his own power.

These missionaries were executed on the borders of the territories of the respective races. This surprising act of brutality caused Hella, who had been questioning the entire movement, switch sides. This caused a great fury in Tremolyn, and a deep sense of unfairness. The first battle of history took place in the Sea of Thuum, where the Jekauze attacked the city of Wallares capital of the Jedem. Details are sketchy of this horrific event, but it is widely believed that the temple of Wares was where the attack began. As the war raged on, Anusek became the second god to question his allegiance. Though Tremolyn was winning every battle, Anusek judged that the fight was not worth fighting. The feud had gone too far. He left the battle and took the Ivorsk with him. The timing was rather poor, as Tremolyn had planned a battle against the Kathal the same day Anusek took the Ivorsk into hiding in the woods and forest.

The resulting battle was the first Tremolyn lost, and the sense of betrayal he felt was beyond human understanding. This was the first betrayal in Kalyssia. In rage, Tremolyn began to plot away for the end game. In truth, he had only wanted to strip his siblings of their godhood. Now, however, he began to plot their demise. Even Solonium and Zude were not exempt from this new goal. He set the Selk with a secret mission, the creation of new life to take vengeance against Anusek. To do this, he granted them the same ability as the Jekauze and the gods. He gave them Magic. They were able to store things, and release them at a later time. This extended to the physical, to the immaterial. They might store a fire, to release in battle later. Or they might store their sight, becoming blind for a time, to see at greater distances later. This could even extend to health, or water, or cattle. But they could not store these things freely. For Thrice had imbued magic with an innate rule when he left. Something had to be sacrificed to store these things. What they sacrificed, was life.

To work their magic, something had to die. The greater its Nakesh, the more powerful things could be stored. This was the true turning point for Tremolyn, who truly had become the god of Secrets and Destruction. The Selk created powerful monsters by storing the sense, extremities, and properties of animals, objects, and people, and mixing them together once released. Awful, terrible things were birthed out of this process. They slaughtered the Humans, who made the brunt of the force for Wares. In their desperation, they called for divine intervention, but Wares did not heed them. He was too busy attending to the Jedem. Instead it was Xexex who came to their aid. When Xexex saw that Tremolyn had given the Selk magic, he felt that it would only be fair to give the humans the same.

The result changed the course of the war completely, and changed Kalyssia forever.

Xexex was far more detailed and intricate than Tremolyn had been, attempting to give a balanced, yet useful system so that humans could fight back without changing the face of the world for the worse. While he was successful to a degree, he forgot that Thrice had made humans specifically to test boundaries and excel with limited abilities. Giving them magic, allowed them to ascend to a higher position on the Kalyssian political ladder. Where before, humans were unexceptional, and were often considered impressive just for keeping up without any advantages, they now became the second most powerful force in the world. The one race that was able to defeat them were the Jekauze. However, the Jekauze took many casualties, and did not reproduce nearly as quickly as the humans did. With defeat seeming likely, Tremolyn used his knowledge to imitate Xexex's power. He gave the Jekauze the Contract of Acquiescence. If they would commit themselves to Tremolyn, blood and flesh, they would be immortal.

Not unsurprisingly, the Jekauze agreed. And they continued to fight for him even when the Selk, his favored race, abandoned him. The Selk, during this time, had begun to truly question why they were making monsters, why they were fighting, and most importantly, if they were on the right side. After five hundred years of the war's beginning, the Selk abandoned Tremolyn, and destroyed many of their former creations. They were hardly welcomed by the Humans, who by that point had spearheaded the fight for two hundred years, but found friends in the Kathal. The Jedem, remained neutral due to the fact that they rarely had to face the Selk in battle.

Tremolyn then knew that his time was coming. Hella, Anusek, the Ivorsk, and the Selk had all left him, and he knew that their was only one way he could possibly win the war. He needed to strike off the head of the snake, and extract enough Nakesh to increase his power to a point where he could not be denied. Through careful planning, he met Wares on the field of battle. Throughout the war, all five hundred years of it, no god had personally gone to the forefront of battle. When Tremolyn began to appear, it was obvious that Wares would have to do the same to keep Tremolyn from destroying his troops. The battle became known as the The Battle of Furrow's Hill. Tremolyn defeated Wares by use of great magics and the remaining monsters that the Selk had failed to destroy. Upon Wares's defeat, Tremolyn slew him and absorbed the Nakesh that had made up Wares.

Although this seemed a normal outcome to mortals, who were designed to die and pass on to Hella's furnace and the world beyond, this came as a shock to many of the other gods. They did not know that they even could die, and none even thought Tremolyn truly willing to slay his brother. The gods had forced the mortals to war over the notion that it did not matter, that a n after life awaited them, and their lives were temporary regardless. This event changed the god's perceptions, and cost Tremolyn his two remaining allies. The Jekauze were all Tremolyn had left, aside from the monstrous creatures his Selk had conjured. Tremolyn had foreseen this, however, and used the Nakesh that had made up Wares to create greater beasts than any of his underlings had ever managed. He created the Dragons, elemental monsters of fierce intelligence and power, and laid waste to the armies of Human, Selk, and Kathal. The Jedem had retreated under the oceans, and the Ivorsk still hid with Anusek.

It was at this point that the Jekauze wished to leave Tremolyn's service, but due to the Contract of Acquiescence were unable. Though their minds were their own, their bodies had been sold to Tremolyn so that they might have immortality. It was very probable that with this army of monsters, Dragons and Jekauze, Tremolyn would have succeeded in killing off his other brothers and sisters. But, once again, Xexex came to the Kalyssian's aid. The prayers of the Jekauze had touched him, and he wished to help them in anyway he could. The Contract was worded in a way, that allowed Xexex to circumvent it by removing the bones of those who truly wished to be free. Their minds would inhabit the skeletons, and they would have their freedom and immortality both. However, the process was just as horrific and painful as can be imagined. While about half of the Jekauze accepted Xexex's offer, the other half remained entrapped within their own bodies, destined to serve Tremolyn forever.