11th Age - The Plague Era - 17,000AB - 17,500AB
The great god of Plague and Storm, Vibarii, son of Habrintom, supreme god of the Habrinteans in Abirria becomes frustrated at the Abirrians(People of Habrintom and Arsham) are not falling to his plagues or his storms, and are naturally resilient, their magical prowess preventing Vibarii from using his abilities. Previously held in Abirria’s territory by his father Habrintom, Vibarii leaves Abirria to target the supercontinent known as Ethrell, now remembered as Old Ethrell, after a priest in Ethrell insults Vibarii in a grand sermon, calling him useless and not of concern.
Habrintom disappears and is not seen or heard from for 6 months, Vibarii searches for Habrintom, to gain permission from his father to spread his plagues elsewhere, Habrintom is not on Abraeas’Dor, nor have any of his other children seen him, and the priests of Habrintom struggle to perform their rituals and cast their enchantments, Vibarii realized Habrintom is gone, not dead, just gone, and leaves Abirria.
Vibarii seeks out the priest who insulted him, and inflicts him with The Rung, a new infection, a new plague. The Ethrellians are not protected from him, Habrintom does not appear to stop Vibarii, and the fall of Old Ethrell begins. The priest begins to unknowingly infect the people of his temple, and this spreads silently, and infection begins to happen all at once all across the supercontinent. The plagues have arrived, and Habrintom was not there to reign in Vibarii. The fall of Old Ethrell leads to the following event that marks the tipping point from The 11th age to the 12th age.
During this age, many plagues are dropped among the people of Ethrell, and tensions between Abirria and Ethrell are high. The Abirrians had begun to produce more of their own defenses, and the Ethrellian government was too proud upon the arrival of The Rung and several dozen other plagues to ask for assistance.
By 17,090AB, Ethrell had begun to find cures for the plagues that started off small, ending many threats through their medical technology.
By 17,150AB, Ethrell had driven away the first wave of plagues released by Vibarii, including the original Rung Virus, and had re-established connections with Abirria, thinking they had avoided the worst.
By 17,210AB, the continent had found relief from the plagues, and the Abirrians now acted as emergency allies in the cases of outbreaks, as new plagues and viruses constantly appeared, Vibarii creating new plagues every decade.
By 17,330, the first wave of the Wrath V1 Virus appeared in Ethrell, and infected not only people, but all plantlife, acted quickly in converting those afflicted into fungal and plant monsters, and only took 1 week to take a life. This particular offshoot of the Rung was not responding to medical technology, and was spreading quickly through entire cities and towns, even through the beautiful gardens and forests of Ethrell. The Abirrians assisted in slowing the virus down, at first their magic was the only thing that could slow or end infection, leaving Alithean tech useless.
By 17,400AB, many of the forests of the world were infected, and had been closed off to the public. There was a new normal, and med kits had finally been developed to fight The remaining viruses, The Rung, re-emerging in 17,380AB, and the mutated Wrath V1 Virus which was able to be cured with medkits and medical science in a great discovery in 17,395AB.
By 17,450AB, again, the Ethrellians believed they no longer had to fear Vibarii’s plagues, until their independent research into the infected and attempts to utilize the infected in defense systems failed, and another outbreak occurred, this time with the appearance of Vibarii himself, who brought with him a new order in the wake of Habrintom’s continued absence, an order simply called The Rot. This attack was known to the world as The Withering Invasion. After years of preparation and watching the people lower their guard and working with the assistance of the other Habrintean gods, Vibarii launched an invasion of his own upon the world, and claimed to have been crowned the new great leader of the Habrintean pantheon. As a show of his new title and powers, he released upon the world what the Alitheans would call Wrath V2, a quicker, more lethal version of Wrath V1, and released upon the world a great wave of storms and divine wrath. He targeted temples, appeared in cities with his warriors known as Rot shepherds and Rotwitches, and attacked not only Ethrell, but Brotto, Mithiias, Abirria, and Ibanakar. Many other gods rose to challenge vibarii and the habrintean gods, and their fighting took to the heavens, their battle causing devastation across the world while Vibarii’s order swept across Ethrell, the new plague once again resistant to the modern methods of healing for Wrath V1 and The Rung, but this time, there was not enough time for the people to find the perfect cure.
Agents of Vibarii who had been turned to his side over the course of the last 50 years revealed themselves and assisted in the invasion. The Ethrelllian and Alithean tech was a great force against Vibarii’s order, but the already infected forests had been afflicted with Wrath V2, and modes of travel became unsustainable and unsafe to use, cutting off great swaths of the continent from each other. This attack was coordinated, and aided from the inside by double agents and the true extent of The Rot’s reach was revealed when the advisors of the High King of Ethrell slew the king and infected the great councils of the land.
Brotto attempted to assist Ethrell, but their own people were dealing with their own problems with the infection, and the Ibnans fought hard to stop the plagues from destroying their entire homeland.
Only Abirria could assist Ethrell, once again devising a magical cure for the plagues, and many healers, shamans, and holy warriors rose to the occasion and travelled to Ethrell as it struggled, their people more able to travel the lands due to their resistance to Vibarii’s plagues, re-establishing the connection between the many regions of Ethrell.
By 17,470AB the lands had begun to fail. Even with the thousands and thousands of Abirrian mages and shamans' assistance, the wild lands of Ethrell, long treated as treasures of the land, had become overrun, by infected animals, insects, and fungal abominations. Their best efforts were put forth, but the Ethrellians and Alitheans inaction in destroying the infected forests earlier in the century had left too much land to be infected with the new mutation, and ultimately, Ethrell fell into chaos and infighting, as riots began to take over the great cities of Ethrell, some blaming the Alithean gods and their elected leaders for allowing their land to remain infected for so long. A civil war appeared as the Ethrellian government struggled to maintain control, with public opinion in temples and healers guilds shifting with the rise of a new societal force called The True Order. The True Order argued to let vibarii take the lands, for his influence had destroyed what they thought was the greatest empire in the world.
By 17,500AB, the government of Ethrell collapsed, the artificial intelligence ARGAN had been bombed by the The Trueorder, and the godly war happening in the heavens ended with the disappearance of several dozen gods, including the Habrintean pantheon, leaving the world in a desperate state, with many believing the gods had died or abandoned them, leaving the world in a period of divine silence. The end of this age is marked by the great events known as The Ascension and the Sundering, a new era for the Alitheans, and the birth of new nations formed in the aftermath of Ethrell’s destruction and a geographical disaster unheard of in all of Abraeas’Dor’s history.
