The Fall of Avsohm¶
This page is an extensive lore summary of the events leading up to and happening during the collapse of the empire. For the much shorter lore book found in the map in Drabyel, see The Fall of Avsohm.
The Empire of Avsohm, far and away the most powerful political entity to ever exist on Drehmal, met a mysterious and violent fate, marking the end of the Second Avihm. The main story of the map often revolves around uncovering the truth of what happened to Avsohm and why, and this article contains an account of the empire's death.
This information is designed to be learned in-game over the course of nearly the entire story, so be advised that if you have not completed the story, much of this information may be new to you, likely spoiling the experience of playing the game yourself.
Spoiler-Friendly Synopsis¶
Avsohm was the single greatest power in Drehmal's history, using their technological dominance to rule over nearly the entire continent for the last 2-3 centuries of the Second Avihm. They seemed to be destined to rule over the entire realm for as long as they pleased, until one fateful day in Av2 1820.
Within the course of this singular day, approximately 75% of Avsohm's top government officials, military officers, and other high brass mysteriously disappeared, with various accounts describing a series of extremely bizarre events on the day of the fall. These include apocalyptic storms, sightings and rumors of twisted monsters and ominous figures, and Avsohmic buildings found riddled with perfectly circular holes. A particularly high amount of attention is pointed at Avsohm's secretive actions around Mt. Yavhlix.
With the empire's infrastructure crippled, Maelihs launched a long-awaited war on the west with his most vicious designs, the Skullbeasts, and reclaimed almost all of western Drehmal with minimal resistance. Elsewhere, regional leaders were suddenly heads of state once again, with no greater banner to unite the Drehmari race. Anything related to Avsohm became taboo, and many cultures tried to distance themselves from the fallen empire as quickly as they could.
In the coming years, some would try to recreate the unity and strength that the Drehmari once felt under Avsohm, with the Insohmic Order coming the closest. Ultimately, none would succeed, and nobody would even come particularly close to replicating Avsohm's technological dominance ever again.
Background¶
You feel an arcane presence...
This page or section may contain significant spoilers for Drehmal: Apotheosis. Read the additional messages below for specific spoiler information.
WARNING!!! This article/section contains EXTREMELY SIGNIFICANT spoilers for end-game areas (after the Mt. Yavhlix sequence).
If you have not FINISHED THE MAIN STORY OF THE MAP IN ITS ENTIRETY, we strongly recommend that you DO NOT read the contents of this article.
Note: The true end of the storyline will take you to a dedicated credits room, NOT the vanilla Minecraft end credits.
The Empire of Avsohm was an extremely powerful entity, ruling almost the entire continent of Drehmal in the late Second Avihm (Av2). This power came primarily from their discovery of a massive tear in the fabric of reality at Mt. Yavhlix, dubbed the "Spiral Anomaly" by Avsohmic researchers. This anomaly was releasing an incredibly high amount of Primal Energy into the realm of Drehmal. Avsohm harnessed this tear to power their empire and fuel their incredibly rapid scientific progress, but in doing so, began to meddle with affairs far beyond their knowledge.
A large, fortified facility was constructed within the mountain to facilitate energy collection and distribution throughout the new empire, whose growth was rapidly spurred on by this discovery. Avsohm became the greatest political superpower in the realm's history, and achieved technological progress that was not replicated for the millennium after their collapse.
One day, the flow of energy from the anomaly greatly slowed down, and Avsohmic researchers first attempted to actually look inside the anomaly. What they found was the lost Aspect of Fear, Tethlaen, who had been missing and presumed dead for over 1500 years, residing within the Nothing on the other side of the tear. They were able to form a working relationship with the Aspect, treating his extradimensional wounds in exchange for being given permission to keep siphoning energy for their growing empire.
Further dives into the anomaly revealed even more bizarre findings. Avsohm came to discover the existence of trillions of other realms outside their own, discovered an image of a spear which would become the Mythbreaker, and were at one point interrupted by an entity from outside the Veil. Nonetheless, they continued pushing forward, with Emperor Anyr growing obsessed with the idea of ascending to godhood and ruling over a multiverse-spanning empire.
The Apotheosis plan was developed and put into action, with Red Dawn secretly constructing the God Machine at Azimuth Labs and Blue Exodus preparing the Avsohmic military to wipe out their enemies on the day of Anyr's ascension. The Apotheosis plan was approximately as follows:
Anyr would be elevated to godhood using the God Machine once it was ready. Someone would then take the Mythbreaker, in its inert form, to the Avsohmic facility at the Numencore, the massive source of Primal Energy in the center of Lo'Dahr. Charging the Mythbreaker with Khive's personal stockpile would surely anger the Arcane aspect, so Anyr would use his newfound power, combined with the might of the spear, to either force the Mystic Elder to stand down or slaughter him and any other Aspects who stood in the empire's way. Avsohm would use secret advanced weaponry and Anyr's new power to rapidly conquer the Empire of Maelihs, with Anyr himself defeating the Deity in a duel. After the Empire had taken over Drehmal, the Mythbreaker would be used to tear a hole in the Veil, and God-Emperor Anyr would lead his people to spread their empire to as many realms as they could possibly visit.
The main issue with this plan was the logistical aspect of the energy demand. Both using the God Machine and charging the Mythbreaker would require absolutely colossal amounts of energy, and the energy network on Drehmal in particular could be collapsed by the God Machine. For this plan to work, everything would need to be ready to go in perfect order.
Events¶
God Machine
The Fall of Avsohm began with the activation of the God Machine.
According to the machine status holotext at Azimuth Labs, the God Machine worked. However, visiting the God Machine in the end-game, the player learns that despite this, Anyr died on the machine's massive throne, his corpse still found there a thousand years later. His means of death is not clear.
The exact timeline of the empire's fall after this event is not clear, but several disparate events and methods of destruction are detailed.
Mt. Yavhlix
Shortly after the God Machine was activated, the Resonant Eye deep inside of Mt. Yavhlix opened on its own, filling with "incomprehensible projections". Chief Observer Orix Cehein ordered that the veilstone seal be put in place over the facility, and immediately left.
The workers left inside the Primary Energy Collection Facility were completely trapped, with several surviving accounts of the facility's destruction and corruption. It appears that Those Beyond, bizarre orbs of dark energy, were able to enter the facility, chewing perfectly circular holes into anything in their path—people and the facility alike. The Patron's Pleas and They've Been Lost books seem to describe the scene, with the former book describing a death to the orbs as follows:
I saw tiny holes appear in his body. Tiny, perfectly circular holes. They pierced him, the ground, and the walls. They grew larger and larger. Then he simply ceased to exist.
Several holotexts in the facility also show snippets of the empire's final day. Many seem to have perished in the initial barrage, but others survived and were somehow corrupted by the Nothing. They remain in the facility as enemies today.
Those Beyond, with their task largely complete, consumed themselves, one another, and even portions of the holotexts, causing them to be filled with holes.
Aphelion
Supposedly propagating through the surveillance camera feed between Mt. Yavhlix and the Aphelion, the hole monsters were able to reach the empire's flagship. Commander Verpyne sent an SOS through avSYS to any high-ranking officers, which went unanswered until the player heard it in the Admin Wing.
Based on the relative lack of damage to the ship itself, it seems that Those Beyond may not have reached the Aphelion in large numbers, but many of the crew members were killed or corrupted by the Nothing.
Storm
Multiple accounts, including Wisewoman's Journal and Simplicity's Reward, describe a massive storm enveloping the realm, starting at Mt. Yavhlix and spreading throughout the rest of the continent. The former source writes of "streaks of primal, yellow light" crashing down from the clouds, wreaking havoc on their targets.
Ring Facility
In Khive's Domain, the book Dread of the Ageless describes the unique fate of the Avsohmic Ring Facility. There, a bizarre creature manifested in the sky: a "twisted thing" with "knotted, repulsive wings" bending the light around itself impossibly. The Tehrmari account states that the creature emanated a disturbing two-tone sound, like a bell ringing out, before turning into a large drill and descending upon the lake facility, killing everyone inside and disappearing. It can be assumed that the other Avsohmic facilities on Lo'Dahr suffered a similar fate.
Stasis Facility
Immediately following Orix's order to seal off Mt. Yavhlix, he and a select few other high-ranking Avsohmic officials were put into indefinite temporal stasis at the Stasis Facility. Intending to remain in stasis for a few years then awaken to re-establish the empire, these people were instead frozen in time for over a millennium.
The facility was breached by the Emissary of the Void, likely just after the fall. It is possible that the Emissary tampered with the facility's system, extending the duration of stasis to an indefinite amount of time to sabotage the remnants of the empire, although the Emissary's exact motives and actions are unclear.
Dune Wars
On the day of Avsohm's fall, Maelihs, in a perpetual state of war against the empire, learned that their infrastructure and leadership had been mysteriously devastated. Wasting no time, the Burnt Lord launched an all-out assault on the western stronghold of Sal'Anyr. Deploying the Skullbeasts for the very first time, Mael's forces captured and razed Sal'Anyr in a day, and expanded their conquest to the entirety of the west.
This war of conquest would come to be known as the Dune Wars, a catastrophic loss for the people of western Drehmal, who would be subjugated by Maelmari off-and-on for the next millennium.
Perpetrators¶
In the end-game sequence, one character speaks to the player and directly claims responsibility for the destruction of Avsohm:
Mytho states that Avsohm was one of very few groups that became strong enough to necessitate his direct intervention, as they sought the power of his metaphorical "crown". As such, it can be implied that the catastrophe which befell Avsohm was all, to some extent, the will of the Mythoclast.
Multiple different beings are implicated in the mass killing of Avsohm's people.
Those Beyond
Those Beyond are the dark orbs which chewed through the majority of the people at Mt. Yavhlix, and the main source of the "perfectly circular holes" found throughout the Avsohmic ruin. They appear to have entered through the Spiral Anomaly, and may have also spread to other Avsohmic facilities such as the Aphelion.
Gaping Hole
The Gaping Hole is a name given to the massive black and red worm monster with reported sightings around the time of the fall of Avsohm. The books at the Nihilist's Cabin center around it, primarily Creature of Nothing, which implies that this monster created the massive tunnel beneath Highfall leading to the Compass of Nihility in the Oblivion questline.
This monster is also referenced in Hole-Filled Notebook, a book within Mt. Yavhlix, as well as seemingly being responsible for the "battle" cited in Transcription of Artifact CXE-445.
The Gaping Hole seems to be able to kill anything it looks at, turning its targets into Nothing. This appears to take a similar form to how Those Beyond fill their targets with holes, suggesting that this creature might be responsible for what happened to the Aphelion.
A projection of what seems to be the Gaping Hole in the Resonant Halls.
Drill Monster
The drill monster referenced in Dread of the Ageless seems to be a different creature from the rest of the reported beasts on the day of Avsohm's fall. It is possible, however, that it is simply another form of the Gaping Hole, based on the fact that it refracts light in a similar color scheme and is also described as emitting a two-tone ringing noise.
The Pawn
The Emissary of the Void, also referred to as "The Pawn", is a mysterious figure in the service of The Mythoclast. Wearing a purple hood and wielding a copy of the Oblivion scythe, the Emissary appeared at several locations throughout the realm immediately leading up to the fall of Avsohm, acting as an omen for the empire's demise. These sightings include those documented in The Omen at a bar in Elvett, in Bryde's Warning in Capital Valley, and at the Stasis Facility as captured by the security cameras in the facility.
The surveillance camera frame of the Emissary infiltrating the Stasis Facility.
As written in The Pawn at the Nihilist's Cabin, the Pawn is believed to be responsible for the destruction of Avsohmic documents, targeting their most forbidden knowledge and removing it from the realm.
The description of Oblivion suggests that the Pawn was responsible for killing the most important Avsohmic commanders and leaders. There are no surviving accounts of the Emissary hunting down any of these leaders, although it is possible that this was his intention in sabotaging the Stasis Facility.
Blasphemous Eye
The Blasphemous Eye was a massive, golden eye which is reported to have appeared in the sky during the fall of Avsohm, wreaking focused havoc upon the land. It is mentioned very sparingly, but has been hypothesized to be the eye of the Mythoclast himself, actively smiting down the realm.
Facet Connection¶
Facet II very closely parallels the events of the fall of Avsohm:
2:1 - The sky will blacken and shadows will grow longer than ever before. Tendrils of dark will seep into every corner of the world, grasping at forbidden knowledge.
2:2 - And Those Beyond will enter, perfect and circular. They will devour all in their path. They will even consume themselves.
2:3 - For one day and one night, a golden oculus dripping with blackness will grace the very sky. It will not be a creation of the Star-Rise Drake. It will see all, and all will see it.
2:4 - The Blasphemous Eye will havoc the world, scorching and abducting every last opposer.
2:5 - When the Eye closes, so too will the eyes of all who have witnessed it for three days and three nights. They will think it all a distant dream.
2:6 - And the interlopers will be no longer.
This seems to imply that Rihelma foresaw the destruction of the empire before it happened, and the Prismatic Council was either unable or unwilling to prevent it.
Furthermore, this "Blasphemous Eye" seems to be similar to the eye at the top of the Court of Nothing. A now-deleted lore book was the only clear first-hand account of this eye, stating that it appeared during the storm and shot down a focused beam of energy into the "northeastern mountains".
This was widely interpreted to mean that the Mythoclast shot a concentrated beam of Primal Energy into Azimuth Labs to kill Anyr immediately following his ascension, explaining the Emperor's death, but its removal from the map calls this into question. The Blasphemous Eye is also mentioned by Maelihs in his dialogue.
Impact¶
A thousand years later, it is evident that the realm of Drehmal never truly recovered from the fall of Avsohm. Untouched Avsohmic ruins can be found throughout the map, often avoided by the survivors of the catastrophe due to whispers of a curse that destroyed the empire.
Avsohm's untimely demise left a massive power vacuum throughout its sphere of influence, which spanned almost the entire continent. Regional leaders were forced to take control, and most distanced themselves from Avsohm as much as they could. Furthermore, many seem to have developed an aversion to cooperating with other states and creating larger coalitions.
Avsohm also kept their secrets particularly well. Even though their technology could be accessed by many survivors, many of the most important pieces of knowledge connected to the Miracle of Avsohm died with them. This included the location of the Rehntite Cave, the method of safely mining rehntite itself, the secrets of Primal Energy, and the way to enter Mt. Yavhlix. Some of this information was recorded, but the forces that destroyed the empire also seem to have destroyed some written knowledge pertaining to their most secretive efforts.
Whispers of what caused Avsohm's demise eventually passed into myth. All of Avsohm's advanced facilities became ancient ruins littering the landscape, and even the gods spoke in hushed tones about the impossibly powerful forces that must have been behind it. Mystic Elder Khive vaguely seems to understand that a single being was behind it, referring to the destruction of the empire as "The Foreigner" intervening. Maelihs states that he does not know exactly what was behind it, but the thought is one of very few things that makes him uneasy.
Insohm would be the only state to truly attempt to carry on Avsohm's legacy, beginning in mid-Av3. They were able to take back much of the land from Maelihs in the Third Avihm, and they re-constructed some of the empire's technology, but Avsohm's deepest secrets were never revealed to them.