Post by Pip Mystral on May 19, 2015 18:25:00 GMT -5
Listen child and listen well, for the story I am about to tell you is the foundation of our world.
Once, in an age so long ago we have no records or recollection of it, the world was made by the First Gods. Those gods looked down on the world, and pronounced it good, and seeded it with all manner of strange and incredible creatures, and one of those creatures was Man.
Yes - humankind. They were the First People of this world and they grew strong and multiplied and discovered strange and powerful forces that even magic cannot obtain. For thousands of years they ruled the Earth and they built a mighty civilization, under the watchful eyes of the old gods. Tribes, kingdoms, empires, systems of government we cannot even name rose and fell with the ages and all was good, until there came to be a time that man set his sights on the heavens, and what we call the Age of Heroes began.
No one knows where they came from - stories, certainly, tell many different versions of their origin, but even the most learned scholars do not know the truth of it - but the Changed Races appeared. Those beings who were neither humankind nor base animals, who live and work in numbers almost as great as mankind's, in our age, originally started as but a few. Some say the gods made them to challenge Mankind for their arrogance, while other legends say that mankind themselves made the other races and were punished for it by the gods. Certainly it is common knowledge that they came from humans, and it is accepted that the vampires were created by those who later became the Dark Ones, but how the others came to be is and will forever be a mystery.
Either way, however they were made, it does not matter, because what happened next was the same.
Mankind has always been a greedy and jealous race, a trait that too many of the Changed Races will not admit that they share, and a war broke out between the new races and Mankind. The first Heroes rose up and joined in alliance to stop the fighting, and created a paradise for their kind, though Man still dominated the world. They lived long and fruitful lives, and when they died, the First Gods looked upon their souls and judged them worthy, and Death set them aside for safekeeping while they slept their eternal sleep.
The Changed Races eventually grew in number, but they were always outmatched, outpaced, by the First People, the humans, who in their ancient folly still looked down upon and shunned the younger peoples of the world. Still, the Changed spread across the world (which was much larger in those days), carved out niches and places for themselves, made their own societies, but they and humans still stood divided despite their common heritage.
And then it happened.
The Old Gods, tired of the bickering between their first and newest children, and growing weak from their long eons of service, looked to the ancient prophecies and knew that it was time for change. And so, with no warning to the peoples who lived upon the Earth, they sent the Gate.
We still don't know exactly what the Gate is - just that it Is. It is a primal force, a rend in the fabric of the universe, and it came into existence in an instant. It opened in chaos, and fire, and poured the primal essence of the gods into the world, some believe even killing them in the process.
The primal essence of the gods.
Magic.
None know what strange powers the first people wielded to create their empires, what sorceries and strange forces they wielded, for we know they must have wielded some power that we do not possess, but magic as we in this Age know it came into existence that day. Many awoke, changed, twisted, altered; the First Peoples awakened to find that their world no longer worked the way it once had. Hundreds, thousands, woke to powers they could not comprehend or control, and the creatures of magic flooded through the gate, both of good and of evil.
Almost overnight, their world was destroyed by the forces unleashed upon it, and the First Era ended.
Then, Death, the last of the Old Gods, reached into the vault where he had placed the heroes' souls. The process took three days, three days of chaos, of fire, of destruction.
On the fourth day, he woke the heroes, and those heroes became the new Gods. Yet there had been an oversight - Heroes cannot exist without Evils to conquer, and the practice of laying aside only good allowed the worst Evils from that Age to awaken as well. Each side reached down to tap chosen mortals for their cause, and the Great War, born from the confusion of the people mixed with the meddlings of the inexperienced new Gods, began.
No one knows how long the Great War lasted. Its end marks the beginning of our history, because the evil Gods deliberately razed temples and libraries, destroyed cultures, devoured civilizations. They were determined to return the peoples to barbarism... and nearly succeeded. Many Races did succumb, losing everything, having to start anew from scratch, but the Hero Gods preserved as many as they could, though several lost their Spark in the process and faded into oblivion. The Hero Gods won, though; civilization outlasted the Great War, though all of the Ancients' cities were destroyed and buried deep beneath the earth. In the end, the Gods banded together with chosen champions and forced the Gate shut, sealing the evil ones into the realm of the Gods and preventing all but a trickle of their power from reaching our world.
It is now the seventh century AG, seven hundred years since the Gate was closed. Civilization now flourishes in the world the Gods laid out for us, a civilization of adventurers and mighty kings, where all races live in general peace. There have been wars since the Great War, but none quite so grand.
Now is the time for your story to begin.
Once, in an age so long ago we have no records or recollection of it, the world was made by the First Gods. Those gods looked down on the world, and pronounced it good, and seeded it with all manner of strange and incredible creatures, and one of those creatures was Man.
Yes - humankind. They were the First People of this world and they grew strong and multiplied and discovered strange and powerful forces that even magic cannot obtain. For thousands of years they ruled the Earth and they built a mighty civilization, under the watchful eyes of the old gods. Tribes, kingdoms, empires, systems of government we cannot even name rose and fell with the ages and all was good, until there came to be a time that man set his sights on the heavens, and what we call the Age of Heroes began.
No one knows where they came from - stories, certainly, tell many different versions of their origin, but even the most learned scholars do not know the truth of it - but the Changed Races appeared. Those beings who were neither humankind nor base animals, who live and work in numbers almost as great as mankind's, in our age, originally started as but a few. Some say the gods made them to challenge Mankind for their arrogance, while other legends say that mankind themselves made the other races and were punished for it by the gods. Certainly it is common knowledge that they came from humans, and it is accepted that the vampires were created by those who later became the Dark Ones, but how the others came to be is and will forever be a mystery.
Either way, however they were made, it does not matter, because what happened next was the same.
Mankind has always been a greedy and jealous race, a trait that too many of the Changed Races will not admit that they share, and a war broke out between the new races and Mankind. The first Heroes rose up and joined in alliance to stop the fighting, and created a paradise for their kind, though Man still dominated the world. They lived long and fruitful lives, and when they died, the First Gods looked upon their souls and judged them worthy, and Death set them aside for safekeeping while they slept their eternal sleep.
The Changed Races eventually grew in number, but they were always outmatched, outpaced, by the First People, the humans, who in their ancient folly still looked down upon and shunned the younger peoples of the world. Still, the Changed spread across the world (which was much larger in those days), carved out niches and places for themselves, made their own societies, but they and humans still stood divided despite their common heritage.
And then it happened.
The Old Gods, tired of the bickering between their first and newest children, and growing weak from their long eons of service, looked to the ancient prophecies and knew that it was time for change. And so, with no warning to the peoples who lived upon the Earth, they sent the Gate.
We still don't know exactly what the Gate is - just that it Is. It is a primal force, a rend in the fabric of the universe, and it came into existence in an instant. It opened in chaos, and fire, and poured the primal essence of the gods into the world, some believe even killing them in the process.
The primal essence of the gods.
Magic.
None know what strange powers the first people wielded to create their empires, what sorceries and strange forces they wielded, for we know they must have wielded some power that we do not possess, but magic as we in this Age know it came into existence that day. Many awoke, changed, twisted, altered; the First Peoples awakened to find that their world no longer worked the way it once had. Hundreds, thousands, woke to powers they could not comprehend or control, and the creatures of magic flooded through the gate, both of good and of evil.
Almost overnight, their world was destroyed by the forces unleashed upon it, and the First Era ended.
Then, Death, the last of the Old Gods, reached into the vault where he had placed the heroes' souls. The process took three days, three days of chaos, of fire, of destruction.
On the fourth day, he woke the heroes, and those heroes became the new Gods. Yet there had been an oversight - Heroes cannot exist without Evils to conquer, and the practice of laying aside only good allowed the worst Evils from that Age to awaken as well. Each side reached down to tap chosen mortals for their cause, and the Great War, born from the confusion of the people mixed with the meddlings of the inexperienced new Gods, began.
No one knows how long the Great War lasted. Its end marks the beginning of our history, because the evil Gods deliberately razed temples and libraries, destroyed cultures, devoured civilizations. They were determined to return the peoples to barbarism... and nearly succeeded. Many Races did succumb, losing everything, having to start anew from scratch, but the Hero Gods preserved as many as they could, though several lost their Spark in the process and faded into oblivion. The Hero Gods won, though; civilization outlasted the Great War, though all of the Ancients' cities were destroyed and buried deep beneath the earth. In the end, the Gods banded together with chosen champions and forced the Gate shut, sealing the evil ones into the realm of the Gods and preventing all but a trickle of their power from reaching our world.
It is now the seventh century AG, seven hundred years since the Gate was closed. Civilization now flourishes in the world the Gods laid out for us, a civilization of adventurers and mighty kings, where all races live in general peace. There have been wars since the Great War, but none quite so grand.
Now is the time for your story to begin.