Age of Penance - The Tear of Sarwen

Disclaimer:

• This story is a work of fiction with particularly extreme themes and sexual fetishes. Read responsibly.

• The story is written fully manually, handcrafted word by word, without the assistance of AI.

• AI is used for illustrations only.

Change notes:

• September 30, 2025: Realized my early chapters had two distinct parts each, so it felt better to split them in 2 (Ch 2-3 became Ch 2-5). Chapter 6 is newly added.

• October 15, 2025: Added (sfw) illustrations to Chapter 2 and Chapter 3

• October 25, 2025: Added Chapter 7 - Raid on the Convent

• October 29, 2025: Updated Compass on Chapter 1 map.

• November 5, 2025: Added Chapter 8 - The Bound Guardian

• November 29, 2025: Added Chapter 9 - Warrior's Rest. Small retcon on the fate of the caster at the end of Chapter 8. Renamed Ch. 1, 3, 4, 5 (no content change).

• December 13, 2025: Small re-write of Chapter 9 ending and changed the title to "Instrument of Pain"

Founding

Elarya was a vast and wild realm. The Old Texts say that more than a thousand years ago, Elaryon the Great had sailed from an unknown land looking for a hospitable home. He landed in Providentia, navigated up the majestic Great River and founded Trium, where the stream split into the three tributaries. To the present day, there has never been another ship arriving from the Endless Sea, nor has any explorer ever sailed back to the mythical shores. 

Wild Realm

For hundreds of years the realm slowly grew. New provinces were founded and settled, men worked to gradually tame and develop the land. Roads were built, cities rose from the dirt. Cliffrock to the north, under the shadow of the imposing Blue Mountains; Fairhaven and its wide fertile fields to the east; Sandvale with its burning dunes and mighty sun in the South; and the fierce riverlands and raging skies of Stormguard to the West. Together with Imperia, the five provinces formed the heartland of the realm. And still within these borders, the country remained vast and wild, and many areas remained untouched.

Reverence to the Gods had always been strong, ever since the days of Elaryon. Chief amongst them was Kelon the Mountain, the God of all enduring elements, earth, air, water, from the highest peaks to the furthest sea. At his sides the shadow and the flame. Feiro was the God of all that burns, fire, the sun, passion and destruction. And Nilfye was the god of all that is hidden and dark, the night, secrets, shadow and death. Altogether they formed the Great Three, the eternal Elemental Gods, who always have been and ever will be. And then came Sarwen the Poetess as she was known then, the Goddess of life and creation, happiness and sorrow but also of love, pleasure and pain. Born from a spark when shadow touched flame, she was the patroness of all living things.

Golden Age

With the heartland settled and under the protection of their Gods, the people of Elarya thrived, ushering in an age of prosperity and adventure. They rediscovered how to build tall and strong walls, smelt ore to forge weapons, and work centennial oaks into mighty ships. Fearless adventurers pushed the boundaries of exploration. They settled Shiverwood under its immenses trees to the North, they sailed to meet the strange creatures of Goblin Island, and they even mined the rich frozen slopes of Irontide for its rare and powerful ores. The mysterious ruins of Highwind, remnants of a civilization lost long before Elaryon were claimed for the realm. Daring adventurers entered the never ending paths of Ironmaze and traveled past the Westgate seeking to meet fabled strange people and mysterious creatures. War was also frequent between the increasingly rival provinces, with some even at times challenging the supremacy of Imperia and the throne. But overall it was an age of riches, prosperity and expansion. And as civilization progressed, Sarwen became ever more celebrated while the old Old Elemental gods fell from the mind of the people of Elarya, almost relegated to the rank of superstition.

Rupture

The golden age came abruptly to an end on a fateful evening of summer, eighty years ago. On that night the skies tore open unleashing a storm of a power and devastation never witnessed before, neither in legend nor in memory. This event changed the face of Elarya and became known as “The Rupture”. A flood of pure magic poured from ripped open skies into the realm and penetrated its every part. From the forests to the mountains, from the plains to the sea, the land became wild, magical and dangerous, teaming with strange and dangerous creatures. There had always been a few attuned people in Elarya, with supernatural but faint abilities. After The Rupture, they discovered themselves able to develop real magical powers.

In the imperial capital Trium on the night of the storm, Emperor Ikas V was visited by the Gods. He saw in a dream the Dark Prophecy, a vision of nightmare where the Goddess Sarwen, her mind lost, mad and drunk with power betrayed the Old Three gods. In his foresight, down in Elarya, Women with burning-mad eyes sacrificed men in frenzied rituals of blood and magic, all over the realm. He knew this warning was to come true if the people of the realm continued in their heathen ways. 

Shocked, the Emperor retreated from the affairs of the realm and spent eighty days in solitude and prayer. With Elarya in total disarray, the Emperor emerged with a new revelation from the Gods. In the heavens, the Old Three Gods Kelon, Feiro and Nilfye had united their forces and subdued Sarwen the Sinner-Goddess. He had seen her kneeling down, chained, expiating her sin and accepting her just punishment and the hands of the Elemental Gods. He then saw the women of the realm, in their turn chained, kneeling and subdued, enduring a brutal but just servitude in penance of the Sin of Sarwen. He understood this was the will of the Gods, and the course that must be set if the Realm was to survive.

Age of Penance

The words and vision of Emperor Ikas V spread across the Elarya like fire. Faith in the Old Gods was reborn with unprecedented fervor. In all provinces, mobs formed spontaneously to submit women to the will of their Gods and their Emperor. The fair gender was made to accept their new fate or suffer the consequences. The host of groups putting them in their true deserved place were quickly organized into the mighty Order of the Inquisition, dedicated to hunt and punish women with the slightest thought of resistance. Province by province, the vision of Emperor Ikas became the law of the land. After a few generations passed, the way of the True Penance had become the only reality the living people of the Realm had known.

Eighty years after the ripping of the skies and the vision of now defunct Emperor Ikas V, the realm was fully living in the Age of Penance. The land remained as cursed and dangerous as ever, and nearly all women were subjected to ever more cruel oppression. Perhaps nowhere was it truer than in the province of Stormguard, one of the most brutal towards women, and the home of the Iron Slaves, a much feared order of face-branded, permanently fused collar-wearing slaves living a life of forced labor while always being maintained in pain. But even in other provinces, woman were really never more than a man’s whim away from imprisonment, torture or execution. 

As we start our journey, the powerful province of Stormguard had declared war on their smaller neighbor of Cliffrock, with the full support of the Emperor and the Grand Inquisitor, for their failure to truly enforce the will of the Gods and the ways of the True Penance…

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To be continued in Chapter 2: The Pained Maiden