The Soul Chamber

When the world was first created by the god known as Aether, there was no magic. The early races of the world hit a stopping point in advancement so the goddess Denera, alongside the god Corellon devised a way for the races to advance themselves with an invention known as magic. The only problem with the invention of magic was that some form of machine had to generate this magical energy, and the machine required souls to power it. The early race of dwarves, with the help of the other races, began construction on a massive building known as The Soul Chamber, deep underground. The Soul Chamber needed sacrifices every year to maintain enough soul energy to power it, which was a small price to pay for the power that magic brought. Most of the sacrifices were either sick newborns who wouldn’t make it, elderly people on the verge of death, willing participants, and criminals who were given the death sentence. They usually had more than enough sacrifices, so they were able to store extra souls for an emergency. There was controversy with the machine. Some people believed that if your soul entered the chamber, you would not reach the afterlife. This was also believed to burn the soul so that it could not be reincarnated, which was a huge problem for elves. With the construction of The Soul Chamber, a golden era dawned, which is referred to as the second era, where the first era is everything leading up to the construction of The Soul Chamber. The magic was used to build grand cities, bring plentiful harvests, and explore more of the world with flying ships. The magical energy was so strong, that very powerful wizards erupted across the world, paving the way for new technologies and advancements. The golden era lasted for about 5,000 years. Eventually all good things come to an end, and the golden era came to a close when an army of elven religious fanatics concerned with souls reaching the afterlife attacked the Soul Chamber and severely damaged it. The elves were eventually defeated and pushed into hiding in a network of massive underground caverns known as the Underdark. The damage the elves did caused the souls to leak out from the machine faster than they could replenish. With the blueprints to the machine lost to time, there was no hope of rebuilding The Soul Chamber. They had stored enough souls to last another 300-400 years with the rate the souls leaked out. This started the dark age, also known as the third era. With magic slowly depleting from the material plane, kings and tyrants grew desperate to keep their control, and slaughtered many people to increase the amount of souls they had stored. They were able to keep the machine running for about another 1,000 years. When almost all the magic had left the material plane, and cities began to crumble, some scholars say the god Aether took pity on his creations and decided to sacrifice himself to keep the machine going. He descended to the earth and put his own soul inside the machine. Other scholars say he was tricked into the machine by mortals in a desperate attempt to have infinite magic. Aether’s soul, as many scholars have come to the conclusion, will last forever, but the power it radiates won’t be as strong as many mortal souls burning at once. Even with The Soul Chamber being broken, Aether’s soul still seemed to work because it was infinite, all of it could not leak through the crack because it was never ending. The magic that leaked out was able to be harnessed by non humanoids such as dragons. With magic restored, although not as powerful, the fourth and final era began. A large group of dwarves stayed underground, where the soul chamber is located, to protect their ancestors creations until the end of time so that another calamity does not befall upon the world. They sealed off the entrance to the outside world and the wizards used magic to erase the memory of its location from the worlds mind. With The Soul Chamber sealed and forgotten, the world slowly recovered from the dark era. Over time, people began to forget where magic came from, and it is now widely believed that the soul chamber is a myth.