Caleb M. Powers

An immortal knighthood…

The Hellbreakers are primarily an order of warriors and leaders, though there are many roles tangential to these aims that are fulfilled by members of the larger organization, including the wives and other family members of the core group of celestial “knights.” Granted the gift of functional immortality (they can still be killed by violence, though they will not die from age, disease, or other natural causes) by swearing themselves to said order via a magical ritual, each Hellbreaker bears a cloak that is the primary vestment of those within the ranks. This cloak is inherently magical, though the fullest extent of each cloak’s abilities are discovered and heightened over long years of possession.

Anyone can become a Hellbreaker, and though children born to Hellbreakers often have some mark of their heritage, they do not automatically gain the full powers of a member of the order and must undertake the oath and rite themselves to gain their cloak. Those that break their oath and leave the order do not lose their cloak or access to the magic songs of the Hellbreakers, but both cloak and songs are twisted into mere shadows of what they once were. The cloak becomes shadowy and indistinct, and the songs become callous and harsh.

…descended from a race of dragonslayers…

The Hellbreakers began as a literal race of people, the Jadonites, who followed ancient prophets who spoke to them the will of God. The Jadonites escaped slavery under a harsh regime on their homeworld of Bastamen, before coming to the new planet promised to them among the Spheres—the world of Asah. Guided by new prophet-leaders, they were tasked to drive out the fell creatures that ruled their new home, enslaving and twisting the men who lived there. These fell creatures were known as taneryn, or dragons.

While many of the Jadonites valiantly carried out this mission, driving the dragons and the men under their sway from Asah, there remained a small collection of dragons and evil men who were left undestroyed, due to the laziness and disobedience of the Jadonites. When the taneryn returned in full force to destroy the kingdoms of the Jadonites, hundreds of years after they had first arrived on Asah, the Jadonites fell to the onslaught.

Only a small group of men and women and their families remained true to the mission and cause of their God and the prophets of old, and took up magical artifacts of legend to defeat the taneryn and save the faithful remnant that were being crushed beneath the heel of the dragons.

While Asah ultimately was lost, and the Jadonites as a people fell under the sway of the taneryn, those remaining faithful left Asah and became the Hellbreakers. Messengers of God lead them to Azimuth, a ringworld that would become their home base for the next phase of the mission God had given the Jadonites, and those who had become their heirs.

…defends the galaxy…

The Spheres constitute the known universe, a collection of stars and planets where both God’s presence and the influence of the fell taneryn are felt. The Spheres are, in modern terms, an elliptical dwarf galaxy, and while space and time work similarly to our own material understanding of the universe, there is another force at work in the Spheres as well—the Music, the voices of the universe that connect and align all things either in harmony with creation or into discord. More will be spoken of the Harmonia, the Discordia, and the Melodia later on.

From their home base on Azimuth, the Hellbreakers have been tasked to defend the Spheres from the evil that threatens it, and provide rescue, salvation, and redemption to each planet and its people. This is accomplished through war with the taneryn, but also more subtle methods such as teaching, conversion, reconnaissance of the enemy, and building and maintaining culture and civilization that seeks to be in harmony with the way God made the creation.

…from a scourge of shapeshifting demons…

The taneryn are a much bigger threat than just the dragons of Asah were. Each planet has felt the touch of these demons, and never in exactly the same way. As spiritual beings, the taneryn don’t have a natural physical body, and so as they gain connection to each individual world among the Spheres they take on a different form. On Bastamen, they took the shape of horrible eldritch monstrosities, as if from the depths of the ocean. On Asah, they took the form of terrible, ancient dragons. On others they have no physical form, instead flitting as spirits from one mortal ear to the next, whispering lies and attempting to seduce with promises of power. The Hellbreakers seek to find out the weaknesses of these forms wherever the taneryn appear, and destroy them utterly.

There are other spiritual beings in the universe, some good and some ill. The messengers of God, known as malavim, also have no natural physical form and so may take different shapes. Most commonly, they have taken form as celestial synthetics, sleek machines with deadly songs to sing from artificial voices. There are also the kalahim/balahim, the stewards of creation, tasked in the beginning with the caretaking of worlds and their peoples. Some have remained true to this assignment (the kalahim), while others have been corrupted by the taneryn and have gone astray (the balahim). There are also lesser spirits, often called resonances, which can influence and be influenced by mortals in some ways.

…using abilities granted through divinely empowered music.

In the beginning, there was one voice—the Melodia. The pure and unfettered intention of creation, set singing by God himself to keep his universe in line with his purposes. But something happened to interrupt this perfect consistency, something not outside of God’s will, but certainly contrary to God’s moral purposes for his creation. A second voice entered the Spheres, brought on by the sin of men and the seduction of the taneryn—the Discordia. This voice sought to bring creation into discord and rebellion against the natural order. And so, God, in his infinite wisdom, set in motion a third voice—the Harmonia. This voice would seek to bring creation back in line with His redemptive purposes, weaving harmony between creature and Creator.

These voices are the way all in the universe sing, either in harmony with God, or in discord with Him. Power can be granted with either voice—one can humbly accept the power of the Harmonia and fulfill one’s destiny in God’s will, using the Music of the universe to accomplish wonderful and heroic feats for good, or one can attempt to manipulate and corrupt the natural world, shaping it to one’s will using the Discordia.

Each race of men and each world has its own flavor of supernatural ability—some use the Music to enchant magical artifacts that grant their wielder strength or speed, some use it to travel great distances with merely a word. Whatever the ability, it always comes from either the Harmonia or the Discordia. These powers are not typically good or bad in and of themselves (though there are some forms that are inherently wicked, such as the necromantic arts), but instead can be used harmoniously or discordically.

The Hellbreakers themselves use this music in quite a literal sense—they sing powerful arcane songs that shape the world around them. Some songs are used to empower one for battle, others are used to make gardens or fields grow plump and ready for harvest.

The Hellbreaker universe is full of angels and demons, dragons and dragonslayers. Each world must choose its side in the coming conflict—will they take a stand against the coming onslaught of the taneryn, or will they be corrupted and fall into darkness? As the Hellbreakers seek to redeem the Spheres from the fell influence of the taneryn, they are both warriors and missionaries. Both steel and song are needed in the coming war—the conflict that will decide the fate of the galaxy itself, and every living soul among the stars.