Lore

Ancient History
At the beginning there were two primal forces, Lumen and Tenebris. Lumen was an avatar of light, growth, natural harmony, mortality, and life. While Tenebris was the lord of darkness, stagnation, rivalry, sin, and death. Their names have been known ever since the Primordial Clash, a great battle for domination between the two.

As it happened, none of the forces wanted to give away their fields freely, which led to a point where Tenebris used the opponent's influence to trick her severely. With an element of surprise, he rapidly brought Lumen to the brink of utter defeat. However, it wasn’t enough to eradicate the forces of light completely. In the last stroke of hope, Lumen sacrificed herself to break the structure of both forces and defeat Tenebris.

This desperate act led to the creation of time and reality, which developed in the form of Thousand Planes. The dimensions that bordered with each other directly, and which eventually spawned unstable and chimeric structures, bringing chaos across all the realms. Soon, from the already spreading darkness that followed Lumen and Tenebris confrontation, something extraordinary was born. A pure, stoic, cold, and emotionless force that strived only to bring an absolute balance to the universe. It was a being called Entropy, a being for which there was no price too high to keep the perfect synergy between realities, even if it would take to dismantle some of its parts. Her potential, thrive to act grew as were the conflicts persisting. Thereupon, the first objective of Entropy ended with the creation of Gates on the far reaches of Thousand Planes, which stabilized structure of the rising universe.Meanwhile, she has also called shapeless servants into existence in order to balance the stormy processes of creation. Such titanic effort has rightfully paid off, the absolute balance has been brought upon the universe as intended. Yet it also exhausted Entropy so much so that she fell into a long and deep sleep...

Shortly after, from the shreds of Lumen were created the new beings of light, called Redeemed. Those were the first humans, seraphims, and children of nature. On the opposite side, the decaying body of Tenebris have spawned creatures of fire and death, called Sinners, to which belonged various monstrosities such as undead, vampires, and demons. Each party resided in one of the two neighboring dimensions, between which the Gate stood open. Inevitably, it wasn’t long before the two have had their first contact, which regrettably ended with a great war. This devastating conflict lasted for hundreds of years. However, the impaired armies of both sides were too weak to continue the conflict and were eventually forced to sign a non-aggression pact. Furthermore, the Redeemed and Sinners decided to only strengthen their decision by sealing the ancient Gate, a chain that bridged the gap between their worlds.

Modern History
The effectiveness of the Pact proved to be surprisingly high, as for many centuries none of the parties have tried to break the Seal, at least not openly. Many adventurers, bandits, or even some more intelligent undead proved that with a bit of cunning and persistency, every lock, including the seal itself can be eventually broken.

Over the course of time, more and more such roguelike incidents happened, which often took forms of the guard units being attacked or surrounding habitats being burned off to the ground. As a consequence, both sides have established extra garrisons from where the wardens could patrol the surroundings of Gates more closely, and undertake appropriate actions whenever necessary.

At first, the Redeemed reacted to singular transgressions relatively mildly. They sent less dangerous intruders back to the other side of Gate, while those more treacherous deemed to pacify without having a second thought. However, their orders also strictly forbade the admission of strangers, who often were distraught families seeking asylum. This order forced Redeemed guards to neutralize anyone who refused to go back, and many of them opposed this senseless bloodshed that contradicted with the values worshiped by their ancestors. And yet, an order was an order… Conversely, the Sinners had no problem at all with instant elimination of intruders. Moreover, some of them even fed up their ranks as the successive undead.

But when the Seal was broken, nobody was prepared. Bloodthirsty hordes swept across the realm, marking their path with death and decay. The Elders were first to face the demonic onslaught. Despite a heroic last stand, most of their lands were destroyed.

Now, a modest band of courageous Champions - ignored by King Adelmar - makes its way towards the evil core. May fortune smile upon brave and foolhardy alike, as they count for both…