Whence Came the World

Few who live, even the gods, saw the beginning. Those few who did see creation do not idly speak to mortals, so their knowledge passes to us through younger gods.

Most traditions tell conflicting tales of the beginning. There is no mortal way to determine which is correct and which is not. For the theologian, the true beginning will always be in doubt. Even so, a few creation stories are worth noting more than others.

According to the storm hags who live in the Endhaven, the world was rescued by the Mother of Storms. They do not know the reason that she rescued the world, but they are certain that the world itself is mortal, and that the Mother of Storms will be the one who destroys it.

According to the dragons, there were once many worlds, but they were destroyed in some unnameable conflagration. The Mother of Storms saved many pieces of those old worlds, knitting them together into this new world. This is why there are so many different peoples and languages, and why there are so many ruins older than old.

According to the Valite elves, a great battle with a dragon toppled the tree at the center of the world. All races were created from the dragons carcass, except the elves, who sprang from the seeds of the toppled tree.

Antiquity

When the world was new, heroes arose and civilized it. They formed kingdoms, established dynasties, and formed the basis of the world today. The gods themselves walked the world in this age, leading armies. This is the era that the bards sing epics about. The world was wild. Civilization was uncertain. The fate of the world rested on the courage of every hero.

The Crusade of Light

The Crusade of Light marks the end of Antiquity. This was the last of the epic wars, fought with high magic and high ideals. After this war, the gods became more remote in the conflicts of the world, and the conflicts themselves became vaguer and less directed.

A new god, called The Prophet, appeared and appealed to the gods to change their ways, especially "human" sacrifice. Some gods did change their ways, the first and most important of those gods being the undefeatable Nomos. He forswore human sacrifice, and the other gods knew that the world was changing forever.

In response to the Nomos, a group of other gods met in Carmarthen and divided the world among themselves, then swore to discount all other alliances and oaths, to only aid each other, and to kill Nomos. In time, these gods became known as the Oathbreakers of Carmarthen. Secure in their might, they turned their armies upon the world, seemingly an unstoppable force.

Nomos called a council in Charyastos, and many gods flocked to him. The Prophet gave him a banner with the sign of the sun, and Nomos declared the Alliance of the Sun. The Alliance fought against the Oathbreakers.

After several decades of war. the Alliance won the Battle of Carmarthen. The Alliance imprisoned the Oathbreakers, and brought light to the land.

The victory was Pyrrhic, however, as the great kingdoms involved had bankrupted themselves. Their own mercenary armies turned on them, and soon those kingdoms were crushed by the very forces who had defended them.

The Age of Empires

The Mercenary Empires

For generations after the Crusade of Light, great mercenary armies fought each other, each seeking to build an empire. For each warlord defeated, a new one arose. No one could claim victory. No king could pass on his throne to the next generation.

The Thule Empire

One King did not die. He bargained with the Mother of Storms, and she granted him Empire. No one knows when he did this, but after the Battle of Carmarthen, General Thule turned his army against the unconquerable city of Charyastos and seized it for himself. From there, for generations, he lived and built the greatest military machine ever witnessed upon this world. In time, he defeated every opponent, and so became the Emperor of the World.

After 100 years crowned Emperor, Thule abdicated his throne, splitting his empire between his three sons. Some histories claim that the Mother of Storms herself split the empire, handing each son a banner emblazoned with a creature.

See:

• Thule Empire

The Three Empires

Thule split the empire into the Dragon Empire, the Griffin Empire, and the Phoenix empire. These empires fought for centuries against each other as each son strove to repeat their father's achievement.

See:

• Dragon Empire
• Phoenix Empire
• Griffon Empire

The Late Empires

Despite constant war, the great empires proved unable to conquer each other. They were too finely matched. Even so, history slowly overwhelmed them, weakening from the inside as well as the outside.

The late empires saw the creation of two pivital philosophies: Axiomatism and Transgressionism. According to the Axiomatics, organization was the entire purpose of government and religion. According to Transgressionism, rules existed to bind the ruled to the rulers, and so rejected the legal framework of the empires. This religious argument developed into a full blown, intractable conflict that undermined the empires.

During one of these wars, in Glittering Vale, Undefeatable Nomos fought all the gods of the elves and King Plasm of Fire. Nomos almost won, but died in the immolation caused by the death of Plasm. Of that disaster, only Passion survived, becoming the new Queen of Fire. Glittering Vale burned to dust.

Following the fall of Nomos, Tythia, the Herald of Justice, was voted to lead the Alliance of the Sun.

Soon after the death of Nomos, the Oathbreaker Samael escaped his prison. He formed the Feral Nation about himself which collapsed the Griffon Empire. The re-emergence of two more Oathbreakers, the Red Lady of War and One-Eyed Jack, further collapsed empires. These gods formed a new alliance among themselves, now touting themselves as Bloodletters. They revived the abandoned notion of human sacrifice. The Alliance of the Sun, much weakened by their own internal conflicts, were not able to counter their rise.

The Red Lady of War collapsed the Phoenix empire through interior squabbling. Although the Empire remained in title, the throne changed hands so often in Machiavellian politics that any semblance of legitimacy was an illusion.

The Dragon Empire also fell from with. The Malachite guard, the elite dwarves that guarded the Dragon Emperor, rebelled against him and seized the wealth of Charyastos for themselves.

Modernity

Whether we are in a new era, or whether were are just in a lull between wars is uncertain. In the former Griffin Empire, the kingdoms there fight a losing campaign against the Feral Nation. In the Phoenix Empire, the fight for the throne continues. In the Dragon Empire, the Emperor is routinely fighting civil wars. There is no rest for the wicked, for there is so much to do.