The First War

The first god to create life was, of course, Isi, goddess of plants and life, who made the fertile earth green with grass, shrubs and trees, giving rise to the Age of Life. It was her son Astir, god of animals and hunting, who then, seeing the world ready, created the first creatures, animals of all types and kinds, from those who can’t be seen with a mortal’s naked eye to the enormous. His was an intensive and ceaseless labor of love. He would give birth to the myriads with tiny variations from one to the other. His brother, Astor, god of creatures and diversity, was of a different mind. Instead of creating countless individuals, he decided to birth very distinctive and surprising creatures most of which are magical in nature, like the griffin. The other gods marveled at his creations.

That is how the first mortals came about. Of greater intellect and emotions, they would distinguish themselves from all other creatures. Impressed by Astor’s work, the Twins, Kaia and Kai, put their mind together and created the first dragon. It was a wonder of perfection to all the gods. Once the beast was mature, they could talk and exchange with it having long conversations, even work magic. It didn’t take long for the other gods to create their own dragons, varying their interests, characteristics and colors. The Age of Dragons had begun and they towered above all other creatures.

The gods then began to live amongst the dragons and finally settled down in corporeal form. It goes without saying that Nora, goddess of sculpting, building and architecture, created for herself a sumptuous palace that bred envy amongst the gods. Many sought her out and asked, demanded and even ordered that she also created their own abode. After a while, she became annoyed by all that and decided to create a race of mortal builders as tall as gods, the titans to help her out. She gifted them with all her genius and sent them to work amongst the gods, beginning The Age of Titans.

Titans being of a height with the largest dragons, these immediately took notice. For the first time, a creature was worth their attention and they would flock to them to talk and look at what they were doing. That caused many problems, chief amongst them was the fact that the pesky dragons were interfering with the work of the great builders who would happily stop what they were doing for a chance to speak with the majestic dragons.

Thus Nora received many a complaint from the other gods. In turn, she complained to her mother, Era, goddess of dreams and ideas, who quickly decided that her daughter shouldn’t have to deal anymore with such silliness. So, she sought out one of her other daughters, Aska, goddess of reason. Together they came up with a simple solution. They created a race of giant mortals to distract the dragons.

The giants, thus created, were smaller than the titans to keep them from being bothersome but were big enough to be noticed by dragons and made more varied than the elder titans to keep a dragon’s attention for a long time. These giants proved quite a success, even with the gods who would often have them as attendants.

These enormous mortals were all well and good, thought Astir, but it puts them apart from the animals he had created. So, he went to his sister, Nina, goddess of forests and trees, to know what she thought of it all. It didn’t take them too long to come up with a smaller race of mortals who would understand the forest and animals, the elves. These would forever regard Nina as their benefactress and respect Astir for his bounty. They revered them and build cults around them, sending them countless prayers every day, dawning The Age of Rapture.

Rom immediately noticed how powerful those prayers were and decided to walk amongst the elves and thought them the secret of fire and steel. Also curious, Nora joined him and thought them her art until they were close to the talent of the titans.

Ilsi, goddess of the wilderness and nature grew slightly jealous of all these prayers to her sister Nina and saw these mortals build and disturb nature. She immediately went to stay in their midst, trying to convert them to her following and teaching them to respect nature. The elves grew to love her, and many revered her, but their heart would always belong to Nina. So Ilsi creates the fairies, a smaller version of the elves who would see her as their patron and respect the wilderness and nature even more.

Although Nora stayed with the elves long, Rom didn’t. He immediately went to work and created with the help of his son, Kra, god of stone and endurance, his own race of mortals that would revere him and understand his principles like no others, the dwarves. These lived in the mountains, worked with stone and fire and learned the art of building great cities from Nora who was mightily impressed by them.

Alik, god of fertility and seasons, Asia, goddess of unions and family, Tera, goddess of land and agriculture, and their children had their own cult following within the elven and dwarven societies, but they thought that they could have a greater following if they created their own race, one turned toward their own good and have a greater understanding of The Family. Thus were born the halflings. Although a merry race, they never grew to be very numerous and mostly enjoyed life on the fringe, but The Family thought it perfect.

Ka, the First Mother, goddess of chaos and violence couldn’t help but notice the growing power of the gods being worshiped by those new mortals. She immediately sought to emulate them and created the orcs. Brutal and quick, totally devoted to her, just slightly taller and stronger than elves, they had a much shorter lifespan and so bred like maggots. Her power grew even faster than she anticipated.

Lys, goddess of fate and future, seeing the rise of those small mortal races saw in her visions that they would prove key to the survival of the universe. However, with the apparition of the orcs, the balance of power was gone. A new race was needed. She went to her half-sister, Astai, goddess of hope, and asked her to create the human race. Astai, surprised, asked her why. Lys, responded that the short lifespan of the orcs was a cruel twist and that a competing race would need hope to prosper under such conditions. Astai agreed. Soon, all the gods not under the influence of Ka saw the number of their followers rise with the multiplications of humans.

Mighty Ka sought immediately to shift the balance of power in her favor again and created a second race, smaller with an even shorter lifespan also completely devoted to her, but it was a failure. The goblins proved too erratic and difficult to control. So the First Mother used her primeval powers and started influencing the mortals and violence became common. Dragons would steal each other’s eggs or hoard other mortal’s riches. Humans would raid each other, dwarves would create war engines, elves would isolate themselves and giants would go on the hunt.

The Age of Rapture came to a brutal end. The First War had begun.

As orcs swamped the earth, they raped, pillaged and destroyed. Many races were in the grips war and Savar, god of war, conflicts and strife, would cheer them on. Soon the gods were presented with half-orc and half-goblin babies by mortals who did not know what to do with them. Only Mina, goddess of mercy, was willing to take care of them, knitting them into a new society. Ala, goddess of justice, balance and order, came to her as she toiled and told her that they needed to be the just response to the atrocity from which they were born. So, Arka, goddess of combat and prowess, and her daughter Akra, goddess of warfare and tactics, taught them the secrets of fighting. Those half-breeds grew to call themselves the Arkraïds, a simple society based on combat prowess. Viewed as barbaric and uncultured by other mortals, they are mostly referred to as The Brutes.

As the hordes of mighty Ka ravaged the lands. They were aided by the gods she called her true children, like Ryza, goddess of plagues, who created the hekatons, large black rats with fiery-red eyes who would spread a hundred new diseases, some even affecting the untouchable elves. To remedy this, Sid, god of health and healing worked tirelessly or else the hecatomb would have been complete. He then made certain that forevermore all priests, including those devoted to others, would know his spells. As these atrocities mounted, outrage grew amongst the other gods to a fever pitch, but Ka wouldn’t relent as she told them that she was first and thus their empress, a term never used before. When she then asked for their submission, fighting ensued. On one side, Ka and her true children, on the other the rest of the pantheon.

As the war broke out, mighty Ka lured dragons and giants into her service, created ogres and trolls as brutal war machine, and cyclops to rival the work of the titans. The various conflicts lasted uncountable generations and the world was almost destroyed. When finally Ka and her followers were brought to their knees, Ala, goddess of justice, balance and order, came to the fore. She declared that the only way to avoid tearing asunder the universe they built was to create true balance. They would need to imprison the demonic Ka and her immortal hordes, but to do so, the gods would need to seclude themselves in a similar manner. Her brethren called her names and her plan insanity. Silent, she let the devastation speak on her behalf. They eventually came to see sense in her proposal.

So, Ala, channeling the power of all gods in cosmic balance, created Hell to imprison the demonic forces and Idyll for the gods to retire to. Mortals cried at their departure and the demon empress Ka vowed to escape and destroy them all, mortals and immortals alike.

Thus started The Age of Mortals where dragons, titans and giants are few and far between and the gods live on a different plane.