By the waning centuries of the Fourth Age, known in record as the Age of Man, the glories of the ancient world had faded into myth. The once-mighty Vanir cities of Itelion had been drowned or shattered, their knowledge lost to deep hollows. The high elves were no longer a prominent species, but a memory—traces of their (now mutated) blood spread among Human, Dwarf, Orc, and Halfling who had long forgotten their origin.
In this age of rebuilding, nations vied for sovereignty. Great kingdoms rose from ash—Aressas/Ruska/Alpia to the north, Empire of Bastile in the south, the Duchy of Zubar to the southeast, and the Free States in the far north. Among the higher echelons of these civilizations treaded a clandestine cabal of advisors, senators, nobles, oracles, and prophets. Wise, gifted, charismatic—and yet... utterly cursed.
They were the vessels of something ancient.
They were the children of a thought unspoken.
The Cult of Infinitum
It began with dreams.
As the Fourth Age progressed and mortal civilizations matured, rare individuals were born with a "gift"—an affliction of blood and spirit. These chosen, or cursed, heard whispers in sleep, visions of a voice older than thought. Unknown, the Watcher in the Abyss, had begun to speak once more through the thinning veil.
Some broke from the burden, their minds splintered, and were hunted down for their atrocities. Others remained hidden, learning to live beneath the eye of the world. These few heard a clearer call—to find the Infinity Shards, remnants of Unknown. Over decades, they did just that.
They infiltrated thrones and temples.
They manipulated kings and whispered into parliaments.
They sowed wars among the north and south.
And they did it all behind the mask of peace.
In secret, they named themselves the Cult of Infinitum, and began gathering the final shards to perform a rite older than the stars.
The Infinitum Ritual & The Mark of the Blackhand
At the cult’s center stood Kalekai Blackhand—a prophet, warlock, and shadow-lord who bore the Mark of Azhorra’tha, a black glyph etched into his palm and burned into his vile soul. Granted this sigil by Malekith, Kalekai wielded powers that could bend the psyche of lesser men to his will and even thin the veil between realms. His hand rotted, yet pulsed with voidlight. His soul frayed, yet saw farther than most gods.
Kalekai believed, as all mad seers do, that he had been chosen to bring about a rebirth of reality—a new continuum ruled by those who had transcended mortal will, shaped in the image of Azhorra’tha's infinite dream.
But in truth, the Infinitum Ritual was never meant to rebuild.
It was meant to unbind.
The Third Continuum Crisis
As wars escalated between the Northern Kingdom of Avoronia and its neighbors, the Cult enacted their plan. Ritual sites were opened. Seals were broken. Across Tolria, dark skies split and voidrifts appeared in cities and countrysides. Whispers bled through the veil. Dreams turned to madness.
The Cult had nearly succeeded.
Only the final shard remained.
A coalition of disparate heroes banded together to hunt the remaining cultists. They would eventually track down and slay all the cultists, besides one...
In the final battle, they cornered Kalekai in the ruined heart of an Aressas, where he had begun to fracture with the Crystal through his Mark. He was no longer mortal—he was a being of pure eldritch madness.
They severed the connection.
The ritual collapsed.
Kalekai was pulled into the Continuum Crystal, sealed within the void he longed to become.
Legacy: Folly of the Fourth Age
The crystal was resealed, but the damage was done.
- Avoronia was shattered—its royal line extinguished, its cities unmoored by voidstorms.
- The Empire of Bastile, unified and militarized, swept through the fractured north in the aftermath, establishing dominion in the guise of order.
- The Cult of Infinitum was broken, but not forgotten. It is said that some of their bloodlines survive, waiting, dreaming, whispering still.
Thus ended the Fourth Age, and from its ashes rose a new one—the Fifth—an age of progress...