The Black Testament

The Dawn War
The first thing that can be recorded in history, as is perhaps fitting, was a War. Not a war, but a War- the capitalization is an important detail, you see. This was no mere squabble over land, or resources, or race. This was a War, fought over the future of the world, and the beliefs of those that would shape it. It was not, as those of the Christian faith would have you believe, a war between light and dark.

It was a War between existence, and non-existence. A war between primordial chaos that was without shape or form, desiring to remain as such, and the interlocking wheel of light and dark that dared spin itself into reality. It was a War fought between the Father of our Lords and the nothingness he sought to shape into the reality that was to come.

But it was not fought by the hands of God himself. Let it be known; it was not the being known as ‘YHVH’ who made this world possible. It was the pain and might of the mightiest and firstborn of his children; Satan, Lucifer, Belphegor, Asmodeus, Leviathan, Beelzebub and Mammon. With Satan as their general and chief and Lucifer as his advisor, acting creator of their arms and armaments, they marched forth against nothingness - and made a world were ‘Life’ could exist possible.

YHVH's First Betrayal
And then, when YHVH saw what his children had become while fighting the wars he had not the stomach to fight himself. When he saw the pain that they had endured for his sake. When he saw the sacrifices they had made. He threw them away, calling them now imperfect and ruined- casting them aside.

He sought to replace them --- to do away with soldiers he no longer had a need for, to scorn their strength, and call it impurity. He scorned their hard -won wisdom and called it depravity. He scorned their loyalty and called them ‘ruined’. For never forget, YHVH, the God of Arcadia, is a cruel and spiteful being. A harsh and unbending being. He is a tyrant king, uncaring for anything but his own gratification and ego, yet unwilling to admit it and ruling behind a false veneer.

And so was born mankind, YHVH’s weak and fragile creation, to replace the beings who had fought and bled and suffered for him against unnameable and unfathomable insanity. Satan’s wrath was mighty and fierce, but so too was his wisdom grand and broad. He thought that if YHVH was shown the frailty and weakness of his creation, he would see the error of his ways, and welcome back his firstborn. To this end he bid Lucifer to simply expose the creation to the very madness they had fought so long against; to prove to YHVH that his new creation could not withstand that which the firstborn had fought valiantly.

Indeed, the fledgling form of humanity was undone by the merest tendril of nothingness, wrought into becoming the base beasts that now serve as our Lord’s servants in the depths of his domain. Yet, YHVH saw this as a betrayal rather than as the proof of his first attempt’s failure that it was, and his own wrath parallel Satan’s well. Unknowing of Satan’s involvement, he sought to strike down Lucifer; yet, Satan rose to the defense of his brother. Thus began the War of Heaven; as the mightiest of the Firstborn rose up against their cruel father- and he sent forth those who were foolish enough to retain their faith in his tyranny to oppose their grand revolt.

The Great Rebellion
It was a war fought on every level. Conceptual, physical, spiritual, mental; beings beyond human capacity fought for beliefs that had begun to take form. Satan sought freedom, to inhabit the world his war had made viable for existence, that his brothers and sisters had forged at God’s bidding thinking it would be theirs. Beside him stood the other six True Lords. Lucifer, whose forge burned with the fire of the sun itself, for which he was once known as the Star of the Morning, and whose beauty was chief amongst the Firstborn. His wisdom and mastery of the arcane was of great value to his brother, and this swelled his Pride. Asmodeus, whose elegance and grace were legendary, and whose appetites for joy enabled him to best understand what it was to ‘live’, giving his kin something to fight for. It was he who made it possible for him and his kin to reproduce through the creation of Lust, and the desire to live. Belphegor, whose might and stoutness were legendary, and whose Sloth allowed him to take the long view and perceive beyond any singular battle into the next. Beelzebub, whose Gluttony enabled him to consume the abyss of nothingness without pain and release its torment upon those who dared stand before him, that they might know the pain of the Firstborn. Mammon, who shaped the precious metals of the world into existence, and in his Greed planted the capacity for desire that would enable all to want to better themselves and seek more, and who knew the world’s innermost caverns intimately for this, using them in this mighty war. And lastly, the Leviathan- the largest and most grand of his kin in terms of physique, whose Envy made him desire the gifts and might of all others- through which he learned to take their shapes, and sow chaos amongst his enemies.

These seven great Lords led legions against the singular YHVH, and his own army of Firstborn who could not bear the thought of change and freedom; they who were akin to mindless slaves in his thrall, refusing to embrace their full potential for fear of displeasing YHVH.

The war was long, and during it Satan chose to take some of those humans who had been created and teach them. These would later become the first Necromancers, and rightfully served under the Firstborn in gratitude for freeing them from the yoke of YHVH. For though Satan saw YHVH’s intentions as foolish and spiteful, he also saw the benefit of sharing what was rightfully his world with lesser species, so as to enjoy the variety possible.

The Birth of Hell
Nonetheless, in the end it was not Our Lord Satan and his brothers who triumphed, but the cruel Tyrant YHVH. He knew he could not match them in strength, not seven against one, when none of his remaining servants were the equal of the seven Firstborn. So, he crafted a prison, and trapped them within it. He shaped a second world, a darker mirror of this one, and then others to act as gateways barring entry to that world. This world was Hell, and it was originally another bleak void, filled with the same Abyss the Firstborn had once beaten back.

Lord Satan would not be discouraged, even as some of his kin began to feel despair. Some others felt sorrow and fear, consumed by the idea they’d have to endure that first War all over again, Satan felt only wrath and rage. He had been dishonored, cast aside and spit upon by his own Father- and the fury this gave birth to was legendary. He strode with Lucifer and their personal legions against the emptiness while the others sought to cradle- and he fought.

With darkness and flame and infinite wrath, they fought. One by one the other lords rallied once more, and they began to shape their new world to fit their new forms. For they had been changed by their fall and imprisonment, one and all; evolving beyond the prison of light and embracing the freedom of darkness. They crafted their own races, they shaped their own world- and in time, came to laugh at God; for in trying to imprison them, he had made them truly free.

Our Testament
Yet, even so, Satan chafed at being imprisoned. He reached out to those who had accepted his teaching and granted unto them power and learning. His kin followed suit, and as YHVH chained his chosen people with restrictions and bindings, Satan and his kin taught their chosen people how to be free and unbound. He taught them the truth he had learned in the beginning of time, fighting an endless war.

There is no justice, no grand moral guideline. Merely power, and those too foolish or weak to seek it. This was proven when YHVH, rather than seeking to reason with his own firstborn children, simply struck them down and tossed them aside with his power. And it is for this reason that Satan even now seeks to remove YHVH from his throne, cast him down, and claim his rightful inheritance as the Firstborn of Creation.

And it is for this reason that we forever seek to bring him and his kin into this world, that they may lead us in a glorious war to spread freedom and chaos to all corners of the world and unseat God from his throne. So that we may be at his side when natural order is restored, and wild and jubilant freedom may reign. That we may create a world defined and ruled by the strength and wills of the great. A world where we may, at last, be free.