Triol

After the fall of the Giants, when the Humans had suddenly lost their masters and protectors, they had to fend for themselves, taking to agriculture and animal husbandry. Especially the latter is not an easy undertaking - beasts have to eat every day, summer and winter - so they started creating protective deities: Kurikups for cattle and Triol for goats and sheep. In a world still permeated with residual magic from the wars Shilen and the Giants had fought against the gods, those deities soon took on a life of their own. They evolved from pure figments of imagination into real beings.

Everything went well, the gods got their sacrifices and in return made sure that the cows calved and the ewes lambed. Then came Emperor Shunaiman with his religious reforms, declaring the worship of all other gods except Einhasad as heterodoxy, persecuting their followers with inquisition and bloody crusades. While the Children of Shilen held on to their old faith, Kurikups and Triol rapidly lost followers. Apart from the purges, this also had practical reasons. The magicians at the Ivory Tower had in the meantime developed all sorts of healing potions which made animal husbandry much easier - no more need for supernatural help. And for those people who did have a religious inclination, worshipping one single goddess who took care of everything was much cheaper than making donations and burning incense for several gods.

Of course Kurikups and Triol were not happy; gradually they developed positively evil character traits. While Kurikups became a follower of the renegade magician Beleth, hoping to regain some of his old power in this way, Triol made a pact with Necromancer Hardin, who promised to create for him a basis in Rune Township. The major obstacle Hardin was faced with in this task was the von Hellmann family, staunch supporters of the royal house and incorruptible upholders of law and order. Hardin's opportunity came with the war against Gracia, where the Kingdom of Elmore fought at the side, or rather under the leadership of Aden against the invaders. After King Amadeo Cadmus of Aden had defeated the armies of Gracia in a decisive battle near Giran, he forced not only a peace treaty on King Paris of Gracia, but also on King Astor of Elmore.

That treaty, the humiliation of Elmore not being able to deal with the invader by itself, threw King Astor in a deep depression. Hardin now approached Alfred von Hellmann, head of the family, and had long talks with him every day. He convinced Alfred and his eldest son Eilhalder that they should stage an insurrection to shock King Astor out of his stupor or, failing that, take over the throne themselves. The von Hellmanns had already become somewhat disenchanted with Astor. They decided that their loyalty should lie with the crown and not with the king. More meetings followed, clansmen were invited to join the cabal. But then the conspirators were betrayed - it is everybody's guess by whom - and slain by the royal troops in von Hellmann Forest, now known as "Forest of the Dead".

Now Hardin was free to act. Together with the friends he had made in Elmore's aristrocracy and clergy (the so-called "Benandati Cartell") he summoned the pagan god Triol, building a vast temple for him in the heart of Rune Hill, directly under the Einhasad temple. As mentioned above, Triol had in the meantime developed a downright evil character, demanding human sacrifices in exchange for the power he gave to his worshippers. Ultimately power is the only thing those people are interested in, and this is also the reason why they enjoy those sacrifices so much: by killing the victims they exercise power over life and death.