History

The Pale, originally, were nothing more than desperate humans trying to escape their creators, The Firstborn. Fleeing into the darkness of the corrupted earth seeking refuge from their abusive masters. Thousands of years within the darkness of the Labyrinth, forced to eat corrupted mushrooms and other creatures, with few to no females due to them being kept as breeding slaves by the Firstborn under far heavier guard meant that they were forced to adapt to life without females.

A process that normally, would be impossible. However, the corruption encouraged rapid mutations in the bodies of those that fled into the darkness. Desperation mixed with the power of the taint, encouraged negative, primal emotions that already ruled much of their minds. Eventually, what was originally humans became something far darker. Twisted, vile, and full of hatred for the world around them. But more than that, a desire to survive. This evolved to the capture of surface species in raids, desperate to have females to breed with they tried to free the human women in war tactics.

Occasional success led to the acquisition of a few women, but it wasn't nearly enough to keep a species going. Not with the limited birth rate of humanoid females. It was due to this that the mutations continued with each "natural" generation. The evolution, mutation, and steady corruption of mind and body. Natural-born females began to change, and shift as the corruption spread to them. The first Broodmother. Though they were far from the modern mothers known by so many. They gave birth to litters and held the same twisted biology as their new males.

More years passed, more kidnappings, more mutation, and finally the Pale evolved into the state that they were now capable of spreading their corruption to other living creatures. It would be at this point that the Pale began to truly become creatures of terror. Humans had begun their revolts, fleeing from their Firstborn masters, and the Daemon saw the opportunity for the chaos it so relished. Offering them and many Firstborn its blood for freedom, and power.

The Fae and Giant-Kin were left to their great kingdoms, and the war of the first age began. The armies of the Daemon marched across the continent, tainted humans, and the first chosen of the Daevata assaulted the great kingdoms from one side, yet from within the depths of the world, the Pale spilled forth and began to raid them as well. The forces of the empires were spread thin, until one day, a Faedran female was captured by the Pale after a Hivemother attacked them while traveling.

The transformation of the Fae woman into a Broodmother was the turning point of the world. Her knowledge of a true name granted it, in turn, to the Pale as a whole. Her children held the power of True Magic, becoming elite pack leaders that led the assaults against the Giant and Fae, while the armies of the Daemon assaulted the Firstborn directly. This led to the fall of Nature, whom sacrificed itself to drain the life force from the roots of the world. Killing the lands, and with it, the Pale.

But with Nature's death, the very roots that held the continent together began to wither. Its purple blood spilled into the sea, melting the earth and splitting it asunder as the Deva, Fae and surviving Giant-Kin rallied together. Driving back the surviving tainted and Pale, forcing them back into the earth and cornering the Daemon within the depths. There, the Celestial and dozens of other long-forgotten deities directly intervened. Sealing away the Daemon in a tomb of obsidian. The tainted no longer heeded the Daemon's telepathic pull, yet, the Pale remained.

Now they roam the darkness of the Labyrinth, their hives shattered, but not defeated. Only weakened. Only waiting for the rise of a new Hivemother. A new leader, to rally them to the surface once more.