Backstory

The following is a non-canon backstory we will use for Gates of Eternity. It is based on the history of the Mormon Pioneers, as well as some canon references within the Core Rulebook and Game Master's Guide.

God
God is an absentee landlord. It's true. But that doesn't mean that He doesn't love us all.

In the beginning there was only God. God conceived of the Word, and suddenly the Word was manifest. The Word was the Word (literally: "Word" was the Word of God, in whatever Angelic tongue He decided to speak). The problem with this was that God needed a way to elevate His own perceptions. And so it was that God decided upon a plan.

And so God Created. And in Creation, God found that there were other Words. But these would be difficult to manage, and so God found that there was a way to separate His consciousness out. And so He created Michael. And that was pretty cool, so He did it again, creating Lucifer, Jesus, Yves, Kronos, Abaddon, Gabrial, and a few others. And in each, He invested experience, time, and attention.

And then God left. And He didn't tell anyone where He went.

Lucifer God created Lucifer. And God's love for Lucifer was evident, and it was widely considered that Lucifer was God's favorite angel. And God said: "Lucifer, thy Duty and thy Word are Bound unto thee. And thy Word shall be Redemption." Lucifer's duty was to create a plan to elevate everyone. Lucifer toiled for thousands of millennia. And finally, he came up with an efficient plan which guaranteed that everyone could be elevated, thus everyone and everything in the universe was spared, with nothing wasted. He had worked for so long on this singular task that he had removed himself from God's Grace. And he said to God: "I have redeemed all. Look at my work! See how it guarantees that not one soul shall be lost! It guarantees everything thou asketh, so that I may redeem all." And God said: "Lucifer, thy toil is evident. And all that ye have wrought is good. There is yet a singular Dissonant flaw." And he said to God: "There is no flaw!" And God said: "See how thy labors and thy toils have taken you from Me! See how thy time spent doth Me harm!" And Lucifer replied: "No harm have I done unto you that you have not visited upon me ten thousand fold." And God said: "Lucifer, thou shalt be no more in Heaven if thou doest have such belief. Unto thee I commend my love." And he said to God: "Fuck off, old man. Your love is meaningless." And with that, God cast Lucifer out.

The War
The popularity of Lucifer's idea spread to one-third of Heaven, who decided openly that they would rather follow the Plan of Salvation than the Plan of Free Will. So it was that Jesus stepped forward, trying to be ever the peacemaker.

"Why don't we incorporate the element of Free Will into the Plan of Salvation?" Jesus asked. "Let's give people the ability to choose Elevation, and to Save themselves." "'Thy words ring true,'" said God. And so it was that Jesus had the plan that Lucifer had toiled for so long to make.

"I was robbed!" cried Lucifer.

"Remember who the Boss is, brother" Jesus told him. "It's His plan, not mine or yours. We work for Him."

Upon them, God smiled in Love at that moment, both of them equally. But Lucifer sneered.

"I'm outta here," Lucifer said, and returned to the Host of Heaven who bore him so that he would not violate the Decree of God that he wouldn't be in Heaven any more.

The Attack
But rather than returning to Hell, he said to them: "We're taking over. Those wimps don't want to fight, but we're forcing the issue. First we attack, and then we enact the Plan of Salvation. Screw Jesus and his Plan of Free Will."

Then another came, saying: "Lucifer, Lord, I mean no disrespect, but do we not have Free Will right now?"

"We do," he said. "But Corporeal reality should be orderly. Jesus is talking about utter anarchy. We cannot possibly allow this to happen."

And Lucifer led one-third of the Heavenly Host into battle, but was met by a force equal to their own, led by Michael.

The Showdown
"Where you goin', Lu?" Michael asked.

"Out of my way," Lucifer growled.

"I can't let you do that," Michael said. "Dad's not in a mood for this today. So I'm to stop you."

"Fine," Lucifer said, and stepped into the heavenly realm from the Host. "You and me, right here, right now."

"Good by me," Michael said. "But you're still not getting past me. Heaven will remain closed to you."

"If I win," Lucifer said, "I will make you king of your own world."

"If I win," Michael said, "You and your Host will all go to Hell."

"Agreed," Lucifer said, and then attacked.

The battle was mighty and fierce, and it lasted for half a millennium. Lucifer sucker-punched Michael, who then responded by fighting harder. Stars died. A universe collapsed. But in the end, Michael claimed the victory. He bound Lucifer, separating him from God further.

"As you agreed," Michael said, hurling Lucifer into the abyss. "Leave, and do not return until the end of time. I cast you out of Heaven and into the Abyss of Hell. Take your Host with you."

And so it was that Michael cast Lucifer into the Pit of Hell.

"This is not over!" cried many of the Host, vowing revenge. "We have hardly begun!" cried many others.

Earth
And Jesus, seeing that Heaven would be in peril, created many worlds, populating some with living matter which then received consciousness. And he went to find God, but God was nowhere to be found. But he happened upon one world in particular, one which had already been made and life brought together. And the beautiful little world wasn't the nicest, but it was still pretty good.

"This is where we'll test the Plan of Free Will and Salvation," Jesus said. And it was so. "If Lucifer wants to attack, that will be a much better battleground than here."

"You should rule while Dad's gone," Michael said.

"Why not you?" Jesus asked.

"I'll be busy preparing to fight Lucifer," Michael said. "After all, his forces are growing. I think he has spies here in Heaven."

Incursion
Lucifer, meanwhile, did in fact have spies in Heaven. And it was dark, and it was cold in Hell. And so the spies willingly went into Heaven's midst, basking in its glory and gathering intelligence. And it was exactly this which brought news of God's world, which they had called Earth.

Seeing that this new world was unpopulated, Kronos, who had joined Lucifer's numbers, saw that there was great potential for this world, and saw that its destruction at his own hands would prevent Heaven's Plan of Free Will from coming to fruition. And so he tried to destroy it, hurling comets and meteors at it, and even throwing a small moon in its direction.

But luck was not with Kronos that day. As Fate would have it, Kronos in fact provided the raw materials from which life grew. But another came along, Saminga, saying: "I will bring death to most of the Earth's population. Imagine the suffering!"

Lucifer, bound in the bottom of the Pit of Hell, gave his consent to proceed. And so Saminga found a life form that gave off a toxin known as oxygen. Feeding this life form, and making it resilient, Saminga encouraged its photosynthesis and production of oxygen in vast quanities. It killed off more than 90% of the world's population at that time, and it was considered good.

Free Will Returns
But Heaven fought back, making ever more-complex organisms which fed from these oxygen-producing life forms, and before too much longer there was a flourishing bloom of life again, this time larger animal life forms which would be more difficult to simply kill off.

And so it was that Malphas came along and convinced one life form to prey on another, dividing the life forms so that they would be more easy to conquer. Very soon the dinosaurs came, and Malphas ensured that there were many predators.

And then Jesus stepped in, striking all major life forms down, saying: "Yo, this is outta hand, guys! Let's make this fair: I'm going to make humans, and we'll use them to fight for a few hundred millenia, okay?"

"Fine," said Baal, who scowled at Jesus. "Winner takes all."

"Maybe," Jesus said.

"What's wrong?" Baal smirked. "Afraid of a little wager?"

"Not at all," Jesus said. "But to make it a fair fight, we have to each select our champions. Those who have the most popular Word among the humans will have more influence in Heaven or Hell, so pick your best. And we'll do the same. And then we'll set this whole human thing in motion."

"Deal," Baal said, and then reported back to Lucifer.

"FOOL!"  bellowed the King of Darkness, in a voice that shook the cosmos. "You have just allowed them to set the Plan of Free Will and Salvation into motion!"

"Then I will be the one to correct the damage I have done," Baal said. "Allow me to be the Champion of Hell. I'm the most powerful in Hell. Aside from you, of course, Lord."

"Fine," Lucifer said. "You command my armies. Recruit more among the humans. I want this done quickly."

"As you wish," Baal said, and immediately set out to war on the battlefield of Earth.

Salt Lake City
As the Mormon pioneers left Nauvoo, Illinois, two among their numbers were of the Angelic side (Arethiel and Aurimus ). And among their numbers was a Demon, who was slowly poisoning the leader of the newly-founded Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, Brigham Young, both in body and mind, yet leaving the soul intact so that it could be twisted to serve the Dark Lord. And she would have succeeded, had she not succumbed to her own greed.

During their trek toward New Zion, another Demon named Kadzul insinuated herself among several of the female population. She helped to influence the decision to take the hardest routes possible, and the numbers of Mormons dwindled rapidly. She helped them to decide to follow the route of the ill-fated Donner-Reed party, since it was actually the easier path (yet harsher because of the nature of the insects along the route, which tended to spread disease through the group like wildfire).

Because of her influence and her service to the Word of Plague, all but two of the women and three of the children of the company died, leaving 143 men among their number. Kadzul rode quietly and safely among them into the valley. But she finally had the opportunity to take on the leader of the fledgling church, Brigham Young, bringing with her all of the disease that had killed everyone else.

But rather than kill him, she simply made him ill, tormenting him for months with odd illnesses and fevers. Seeing the desolate place where it was likely difficult to grow anything, she could see that it was barely enough to keep a small population alive. So she said: "It's enough. This is the right place. Drive on."

But meanwhile, the Angelics were busy with their own plans. Had they expected to need to look for an Infernal in their midst, they would have smelled her, but they were distracted. In designing the new Mormon Temple, they incorporated a Tether to the Cathedral of Charity, the first to be build solely by human hands.

And in teaching "Brother Brigham" the Celestial Song of Harmony, one of the Angels believed that the Tether would remain safely out of sight. But the zeal of the Mormons was underestimated, and so when the temple was complete, it lacked the actual Tether.

But all of the physical structures being in place, all that was required was to enter the Mormon Temple and construct the new Tether. However, Hell had other plans.

Miracle of the Seagulls
Sending a plague of katydids to distract the Mormon settlers, Kadzul raided the foundations of the temple through use of the Song of Possession, using the vessel she had commandeered to defile the temple grounds. She did not count on there being two Angelics, and so erred in her tactics, counting on the katydids to distract everyone.

However, Arethiel found her, and they did fierce battle on the temple grounds. Being a Malakim Servitor of Fire, Arethiel defeated Kadzul, who had taken only one form. It was such an utter defeat that it would take 10 years for Kadzul to recover enough Essence to once again take shape, but her sights would never again fall on the new city.

Meanwhile, Aurimus (a Kyriotates of Yves) found a flock of seagulls to the north, and (possessing them) drove them to eat the katydids (which they didn't normally do, and so out of compassion, Aurimus had the seagulls regurgitate the katydids, which were large and black.

However, the Mormon settlers (not being knowledgeable about insects), dubbed these black katydids "crickets" and to this day they're called "Mormon crickets". Aurimus saved the settlement, inspired the group to unity, and prevented a catastrophy of Fate.

Rise of Great Salt Lake City
The new city's rise in influence really began with the completion of the Mormon Temple, with its Tether of Charity intact. But disaster struck in 1919, when a Demon named Gauthul managed to raid the Tether with a small army, destroying it rather than permitting its continuance. Gauthul declared victory for Lucifer in the city, until his forces were badly outnumbered very quickly. Apparently there was at least one more Tether to contend with.

The resulting battle forced the incorporation of the Mormon Church, as well as establishing several power bases for both sides in the Salt Lake City valley. The destruction of several artifacts led to a need to expand the city and increased the stakes on which the battlefield's victory would offer.

But one of the most damaging effects of the War in this city was that it slowly eroded the unity that people felt, and so such division has been something of a difficulty for the Angelics. However, the Infernals have long sought to find ways to stop the Mormons by driving factions to rally against them, and even encouraging sexual misconduct within the Mormon ranks through ever-so-subtle means. These actions have had consequences that have decimated both sides.

And so in the year 2000, the war subsided for almost a decade while both sides focused efforts elsewhere. But it did not stop—really, it was fiercer than ever.

The Current Story
Since the year 2000, many improvements have come to Salt Lake City. But the war rages hotly, carefully kept behind the scenes, and it continues on desperately, the battlleground hotter than ever before.