The Second Emergence

The Second Emergence — Nagash, Arkaan & Bazrak

In the aftermath of the First Primordial War and the fall of Arkunethax, the world of Cruseryx did not stabilise, it fractured.

Where once reality had been shaped by singular, overwhelming entities, it now struggled to contain the residual force of broken divinity. From this instability arose the Second Wave of Primordials, not creators, but intrusions, each one forcing a new rule upon existence.

Nagash. Arkaan. Bazrak.

Together, they did not simply wage war, they redefined what the world was capable of becoming.

Nagash — The Undying Sovereign

Nagash did not introduce death to Cruseryx, but instead broke the established laws of death for his own benefit.

Before his emergence, death was believed to be absolute, a transition that could not be undone or interrupted. Nagash shattered that certainty. From him came undeath as a new state of existence.

Necromancy, in all its forms, is traced directly to Nagash. Every spell that binds a corpse, every soul that is denied passage, every creature that exists beyond its rightful end is, in some way, an echo of his presence.

His influence reshaped the metaphysical boundary between life and death:

• Souls could be anchored, stolen, or repurposed
• Bodies could rise again, not as life, but as will imposed upon flesh
• Death became something that could be delayed, manipulated, or weaponised

During the Second War, entire battlefields are said to have risen at once, mindlessly willing to battle against the very brothers-in-arms they had fought alongside only hours before.

Even now, necromancers do not “discover” their craft. They tap into something that already exists, something left behind by Nagash.

He did not simply create undead.

He made them possible.

Arkaan — The Worldbreaker

Where Nagash altered death, Arkaan altered reality itself.

Arkaan is credited with the creation of the Elemental Planes, fire, water, air, and earth, not as distant realms, but as extensions of the material world given independence.

More importantly, he did not leave them separate.

He connected them.

Through Arkaan, the boundaries between planes weakened. Elemental forces could bleed into the material world, and the material world could, in turn, be shaped by them. Volcanoes, storms, tidal forces, and shifting stone are all believed to be lasting consequences of this connection.

But Arkaan did not stop at creation.

He ruled what he made.

• Vast armies of elemental beings answered his will
• Clans of genie, marid, djinn, efreet, and dao, were bound into his campaigns
• Entire regions of the world were reshaped through elemental warfare

Dwarven records speak of mountains rising and collapsing within days. Coastal empires describe seas that moved as if commanded. Storms were not weather, they were weapons.

Bazrak — The First Hunger

Bazrak is the primordial responsible for bringing the Abyss into existence within the cosmology of Cruseryx, linking it directly to the material plane and allowing demonic entities to enter reality.

It should be noted that the Material Plane was not Bazrak's initial target. His initial invasion took place within Avernus - The 1st Layer of the Nine Hells.

This initial invasion is widely believed to be the origin of the Blood War, an endless conflict between demons and devils that continues beyond mortal comprehension.

From Bazrak came:

• The first demons to walk the material world
• The corruption of regions into chaotic, hostile landscapes
• The presence of entities driven by destruction, not conquest, but annihilation

Even now, planar scholars consider the Abyss to be less a location and more a wound in reality, one that has never fully healed.