The Decay of the Binding

With the Ancients dead and gone, stewardship of the Pillars fell to a now-human Circle of Nine. Incapable of matching the Ancients' power or their understanding of the Pillars' magic, the human Guardians could not successfully maintain the Pillars they served. In addition, Vorador's vengeful assault had temporarily broken the Circle, contributing to further weakness. The magical binding began to decay, loosening the boundaries between dimensions just enough to enable the most powerful Hylden soul to escape back into Nosgoth's material realm.

This disembodied Hylden successfully seduced two of the Circle, Azimuth and Mortanius who, unaware of this entity's true form and intention, created a secret cult beneath the cathedral in the city of Avernus to worship their new deity whom they came to know as Hash'Ak'Gik. To facilitate expansion of this cult, Azimuth stole a time-streaming device from Moebius and captured a massive and vicious creature from the future to serve as the physical avatar of their god and recipient of their blood sacrifices. With their god granted a physical avatar in the material world, the cult's influence began to spread across all of Nosgoth. Eventually, Mortanius' faith was tested and the Guardian opened himself to willing possession by his 'god' Hash'Ak'Gik. With the powerful vessel of the Death Guardian at his disposal, Hash'Ak'Gik set into motion a terrible plan to free his people and take revenge upon Nosgoth.