The First Men

Born from Vengeance

When the First Ones were created in the image of the Deities of Order, the delicate power dynamic between them and their evil counterparts, the Deities of Chaos, tensed and strained. At this time, these Deities were in an agreed upon peace with one another after fighting each other in the empty Cosmos for eons. This delicate peace hinged upon each member having complete control and autonomy over their own specific domain and leaving the other Deities alone. It made no mention of restrictions on what could and cannot be done in one's own domain, nor did it forbid allyship between Deities or joint projects from being carried out. This loophole made it entirely plausible, and valid, for the Deities of Order to create their own subjects in their respective domains, and so they did just that. As these subjects grew and increased in population, their devotion and worship grew immensely, thereby increasing the power and control the Deities of Order had. The Deities of Chaos, once they found out, simply could not let this continue unchecked, and so they too planned to create subjects that would worship them and make them offerings.

Their plan was simple: create subjects with attributes that would overpower the more passive ones contained within the First Ones, and unleash them on the Material Plane with the goal to dwindle their numbers and the power of their creators.

The Deities of Chaos were smart and methodical. They noticed that the First Ones were created in the image of the Deities of Order and possessed many of their attributes. Attributes like complacency, happiness, peacefulness, and cooperation were thus prevalent in the Material Plane and were largely responsible for the success of these creatures during this time. These attributes, though beneficial up until now, were easily oppressed by their more visceral and chaotic opposites and this weakness is precisely what the Deities of Chaos would exploit.

A Careful Design

Knowing that they needed specially designed subjects that contained these very specific chaotic attributes, these entities came together and created the First Men to carry out their plan. Since it was crucial that the First Men had to expand quickly and with ferocity, they made sure to imbue each creation with the desire to conquer and gain power. They also ensured that their creations were easily tempted by their desires and that their will to resist them would be weakened by default. This would make it extremely difficult for them to resist their most innate desires, and thus be easily tempted to do things that otherwise might've been protested or outright refused.

Their creations are the predecessors to the modern day races of Humans, Elves (Drow), Orcs, Goblins, and many more. While it is not exactly agreed upon what these primitive races looked like, most scientists theorize that their features may have been exaggerated or less developed than the modern era races that are descendants of them. Of course, over time, these races mixed and created the hybrid races, but it's largely agreed that these individual creations, the First Men, were pure versions.

After feeling confident that they landed on the optimal design to carry out their plan, the Deities of Chaos let their weapons loose on the Material Plane.

A New Age

Around 1,200 BC, the First Men were unleashed on the Material Plane with the simple goal to conquer the world at any cost. They quickly expanded out from the Vesper Forest, killing, conquering, and enslaving the First Ones that were unfortunate enough to live there. Without much effort, at least in the beginning, the First Ones were conquered simply because they weren't created to be violent or kill other creatures. Their passive nature, while an advantage up until this point, was completely capitalized on and responsible for their quick demise.

These wars against the First Ones became proxy wars for the Deities of Order and Chaos to battle each other and exert dominance over one another. After all, these creatures were the creations of the respective group, and so battles won and loss were personal statements about the strength of the deities themselves.

For over 200 hundreds years, the First Men pillaged and conquered the lands inhabited by the First Ones. The interconnectional civilizations of First Ones were soon overthrown by the First Men, and the entire Material Plane largely covered in these violent races.

A Great Gift

Thanks to their efforts and relentless pursuit of conquering the Material Plane, within the span of 200 years, the First Men had expanded to all continents and controlled almost all of the land therein. The power of the Deities of Order had been greatly diminished, with most of their creations becoming extinct or on the verge of becoming so.

The Deities of Chaos, with their newfound power and pride in their subjects, decided they would gift them a new continent: one filled with innumerable adventures, delights, and treasure. This gift, now known as the Green Isles, was placed upon the Material Plane, shrouded by a great barrier that prevented the entrance of any First Ones brave enough to attempt. With no time at all, the First Men moved to this vast land, searching for quells to their desires and legacies to etch them into history.

Power Shifts

With the rapid decline in numbers of their creations, the Deities of Order banded together to quickly come up with a plan to stop the rapid death of their subjects. After all, if this went unchecked, the Deities of Order would be at a significant and serious disadvantage in terms of power and influence over the Cosmos. But, instead of worrying about creating a counter to the chaotic and evil-touched First Men, they decided to use the desire-driven mindset built into these creatures to their advantage. Their plan was to systematically begin to convert these creatures to act as champions of order rather than of chaos. And so they did.

A Vast Mixing Bowl

This plan, while unorthodox, worked rather well, to the detriment of the Deities of Chaos of course. With great promises of power and control, the Deities of Order began to convert the First Men to be warriors championing peace and order rather than war and chaos. This resulted in the steady decrease of worshipers of the Deities of Chaos, but also created new races in the Material Plane with interesting mixes of both chaotic and orderly attributes. Modern day Humans, Dwarves, High Elves, Luxodons, and many more were created once these chaos-touched creatures were converted to walk a path of order and peace.

It is believed that it was during this time that many of the modern-day races were created, and is the reason why most races have blends of each of the attributes of the Deities of Order and Chaos, some more than others of course.

Picking Up the Pieces

Once things settled down and the battles were over, the damage had already been done. Most of the First Ones were extinct or enslaved, with their descendants being this strange blend of the Deities with attributes from both sides of the divine spectrum. Having been, for the most part, sufficiently diluted enough and seeing the damage done by these wars, all of the creatures of the Material Plane decided to enter into peace agreements. For the moment, these races would coexist, at least semi-peacefully, so things could be rebuilt and civilization could be expanded on. And thus a great age of expansion and innovation took place.

Of course, the Deities of Chaos are never satisfied, and make many attempts to convert large swathes of the creatures on the Material Plane to do their bidding. The Deities of Order, in return, do the same, except they will their subjects to protect the Material Plane. Thus, the stage is set for the modern state of affairs, with each side planning wars against the other, using the Material Plane as the board and the creatures therein as their chess pieces.