The Pantheon of the Old Dominion were once mankind’s greatest allies, a gathering of puissant primordial powers dedicated to fostering a nascent mankind beset by countless perils. While Hazlia led it, he was not always the most powerful entity within it: Kleon, the Lord of Valor, and Ninuah, the Merciful Mother, were entities even older than himself who had, for their own reasons, been benevolent to the stripling race of Man. Intrinsically tied to their aspects, these divinities could not rise as fast or as far as Hazlia who would eventually come to eclipse them.

In time Hazlia became aware that the Trinity was simply not enough to satisfy the ever-growing needs and demands of mankind and so struck a plan to create divinities from the smallest and faintest of the motes’ Creation. Much like himself before Man’s worship, these motes lacked any sentience or direction and merely drifted through the ether. With an intrinsic understanding of divinity and the power of belief, Hazlia quickly set to creating loyal servants and heralds to satisfy the growing demands of his followers. The process, in essence, was simple: all Hazlia had to do was name and define these Celestials and channel a portion of his own power into them. Thus quickened, channeled human faith would rush to them, empowering them and shaping them at the same time, creating the gods that man himself had envisioned under Hazlia’s guiding eye.

Over the course of centuries, the Pantheon became populated with a plethora of angels, saints, and heralds. An entirely new field of theology had to be created merely to attempt to catalogue and name the countless divine servants that crowded the heavens of the Old Dominion: seraphim, cherubim, powers, and saints all toiled together to enact the will of Hazlia upon the world. Depending on their role and importance, these beings could continue growing in power and awareness, becoming minor divinities in their own right, such as Himeros the God of Winter, or Selene the Lady of Secrets and the Moon, but always subservient to the will of the Pantokrator, Hazlia.

While few are aware of it today, the horrific events of the Fall had a cataclysmic effect on the Pantheon. As the ritual of the Sorcerers reached its zenith, Hazlia became aware of their efforts and bent every effort and means he had to ensure their destruction. Almost the entire Pantheon was unleashed against these upstart humans who sought to attack their god, but to no avail: centuries of familiarity and worship had armed the sorcerers with all the information they needed to defeat their celestial foes. Countless died in the opening salvoes of the conflict and hundreds more died to no avail before the ritual was complete. Those few who survived, often the most powerful and aware, perished in the immediate aftermath of the casting as Hazlia called on their power in an attempt to resist the fate the human sorcerers had unleashed on him. Broken winged angels tumbled from the heavens even as sacred statues and shrines cracked and collapsed under the divine onslaught and their drained, inanimate husks rained down on Capitas for hours before Hazlia was overpowered and cast down from heaven.

For those few celestials who survived the Fall, an even darker fate was reserved: the Un-Birth. As Hazlia consumed and was consumed by Death, the abhorrent primordial energy of that unholy coupling flooded Capitas. Those few celestials who had survived were still linked to Hazlia and were utterly overwhelmed. As the Un-God’s cry echoes across the heavens and the dead stirred to life, the hapless divinities were irredeemably corrupted by the energy that had consumed their God and rose once more as dark reflections of all they once stood for: Himeros the Hungering Dark and Selene Who Stalks the Night are just a few of the horrors birthed in that apocalypse. How many succumbed to this fate, few can say, for they thankfully remain bound to the Pyre and Hazlia’s baleful energies, sparing the world of their horror.

But that innocence is about to be shattered.

As the Anointed prepare for war and the Final Creed stirs, the Fallen Pantheon has finally found the means to escape their captivity. For both these terrifying groups have discovered how to once more call forth the Pantheon to inflict Hazlia’s vision upon the world. As embodiments of Hazlia himself, the Anointed possess enough of Hazlia’s power to sustain a portion of the Pantheon even away from the Pyre, while the Final Creed has discovered that the greatest reliquaries of the old faith and the desecrated bodies of these divinities can be infused to sustain the immortal soul of their occupants with sufficient sacrifice.

Far from mindless automata, the remnants of the Pantheon are possessed of a powerful will and even the Anointed must negotiate with them to secure their services. So the Legions of the Old Dominion march to battle once more, wreathed in the dark and glorious majesty of the members of the Fallen Pantheon. May the Gods have mercy upon us all. For They will not.