J. L. Langland

Apostles of Doom

Michael Begel, Jay Haesly, Sean Jones, Bob Bingham, Jeff Hodapp, Rick Szekeres, Don Meyer

Edited By: http://www.5starediting.com

Cover Art By: Jacob Atienza (http://jacobarts.weebly.com)

Visit http://www.Astlan.Net for Maps, History, Details and Artwork.

Thanks to all the tireless Beta Demons who labored in the Salt Mines of the Abyss to improve this book!

Preface: Dates, Time and Previously

Reminder from Volume I: The planet of Astlan has two moons. Uropia, the closer moon, orbits Astlan around the axis of rotation from East to West (like Earth’s moon) and Anuropia, further out, orbits Astlan over the poles of rotation from north to south and then south to north.

http://www.astlan.net/Home/AstrometryAstrology/TheMoonsandTheirCycles.aspx

Uropia, the moon with a feminine aspect, has ten months per Astlanian year. Anuropia has five months per year. Thus, for every one Anuropian month, there are two Uropian months. The five months of Anuropia conveniently correspond to the five seasons: Hearth, Winter, Spring, Summer, Harvest.

Anuropian months are not specifically named, given that they also correspond to the seasons which are reversed in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Anuropian quarter months, however, are named. Each named quarter month has two ten-day weeks that correspond to the relative positions of the two moons.

While timekeeping does vary across Astlan, the dates are fairly standardized for trade purposes. Typically, dates are given as Anuropian Quarter Month/Day of Quarter Month/Year. In texts, the quarter month is denoted by either a number 1 to 20 or the name of the month.

http://www.astlan.net/Home/AstrometryAstrology/AstlanianCalendar.aspx

There are multiple calendars that designate the current year depending on specific events. Over the last few centuries, calendars that do not start and stop at the same time have fallen out of favor so that currently, the major calendars in use have years that are only offsets of each other.

http://www.astlan.net/Home/History/Timeline.aspx

The Council States, where many of the humans in Demons of Astlan live, officially use the Post-Vargosian Calendar, which dates from the fall of the Vargosite Empire, 424 years before the arrival of the Dark Lord Tommus. Mount Doom is obviously in the Abyss, which does not have real days, nights or seasons. However, its denizens do use a rough calendar system in which the years seem to roughly correspond to Astlanian years, although this is a completely arbitrary choice made by various demon lords.

As a quick summary of historical milestones:

• Mount Doom was founded 54,760 years before the Dark Lord Tommus ascended to the Throne of Orcus.

• 4,467 years ago, in the final battle of Ragnarök, Asbrú—the bridge connecting Ásgarðr,' Jötunheimr and Midgard — was destroyed by Loki, thus sealing both the Æsir and the Lords of Jötnar from access to other planes of existence.

• 4,027 Astlanian years ago, Sentir Fallon, an avatar of Tiernon, slew the Demon Prince Orcus on the world of Etterdam. Most of Orcus’s D’Orc army was slain permanently by unknown means.

• Oorstemoth was founded by the Anilord Ponchas 1,620 years before the Dark Lord Tommus appears.

• The last of the Anilords were slain 1,071 years before the beginning of the current events.

• One year later, 1,070 years ago, the first Etonians (a.k.a. the Five Siblings) arrived in Natoor, where they spent approximately the next 200 years eliminating the followers of the Nyjyr Ennead.

• The last temple of the Nyjyr Ennead fell 820 years before Lord Tommus’s ascension.

• The Vargosite Empire, founded 1,052 years ago after the fall of the Anilords, collapsed 440 years ago.

• Three years later, 437 years ago, the Magedom of Turelane was formed by Archimage Turelane Al-Addin.

• In 5 PV, 435 years ago, the Kingdom of Abancia was founded; it would last for 300 years until the Abancian War of Dominance, in which Exador laid waste to Abancia when they refused his demands.

Recent milestones:

• Approximately 150 years ago, the Archdemon Bess arrived in the Courts of Chaos, having previously been living in the outer realms due to a feud with Orcus. She claims no one bothered to tell her that Orcus had perished several millennia previously. Her principal fortress near the Courts of Chaos is called “the Outpost.”