A History of the First Times
The Beginning:
No one knows how the world was born.
In the beginning, there were trees and mountains and rivers and storms, forests and animals and deserts, but it was chaos. Primordial elementals vied for control of the soul of the world itself and they twisted and changed the world to their liking. It was a time we cannot understand, barely remembered and then only from conversations had with elementals that existed so long ago, such that we know it occurred, but know of no time before, and know little of the time that was. However, we do know that it was into this that the Great Dragon came.
The elementals do not truly understand time, able to tell us only that one day the Dragon was there, and its magic was breathed into the world’s soul. That where the shadow of its wings went, in its wake the world was ordered, the cycles of nature set, and life was given room to grow and bloom. Its children came in its wake, populating the world where it was to their liking – the Dragons. They ruled all that was, and their birth, life, and death, their existence asleep and awake, brought magic into the world, the weave growing stronger with each generation. When the weave was strong enough, the Green and the Shadow, the Feywild and the Shadowfell, were born. These realms represented the awakening of the world’s spirit, in turn showing us the Dream of possibility.. and the gateway to the world beyond, the End of Things. Magic became self-reinforcing, and the weave grew from a passive, useful thing to the beating heart of an entity so grand it defied complete understanding.
When dragons fought with each other, their blood stained the earth - from this came the first of the underfolk - the Kobolds.
From the Dream came the Eladrin, exploring a new reality that enticed and excited them; some chose to stay. Those who persisted in living on the now-living world grew attached to its weave, diversifying and becoming all of the various races of Elves. Also? There came from that impossible realm the first of the goblin-kin, denezens of the wilder spaces – and they, too, settled on the burgeoning world, seeking a new life away from the dangers of the Dream. At first there was strife between the Orcfolk and the Elffolk, as the former saw the latter as oppressors and the once-Eladrin saw the Orcfolk as barbarians – but, in time, this faded, as they mingled and learned from each other, sometimes by force and sometimes in peace. In the end, a unified civilization rose – and the Half-folk between the two peoples, called Hobgoblins, proved to capture the strengths of both races with long lives, ordered minds, and great strength of will and body.
From the world itself came Humans, perhaps rising as a reflection of the near-immortal elves and magic-infused goblin-kin. This short-lived race burned hot and ambitious, going from simple creatures that roved the plains of the East as nomadic hunter-gatherers to a great civilization at a shocking pace. Their strength has always lied in their ambition and their will – a will that transcends generations – coupled with clever minds and hands. This ambitious empire rose – and began to spread though diplomacy, and then conquest, from the east. Humans, given millennia, divided – becoming the Dvarin and the Halflings, each with their own societies – the former allied to men, and choosing the mountain holds and the undercroft of the world, the latter choosing to lay aside ambition and take a broader path of exploration, becoming the wandering nomads they are now.
In places where the Shadow was strong, there came forth the first of the beastfolk, born from the darkest dreams of the Feywild and built to prey on the larger world; this was the birth of lycanthropy, the rot of undeath, and similar diseases of the soul. But, while the moon-driven and the dead became a plague endemic to the world, their existence caused other, unforeseen consequences. Born from the children of lycans that mastered their curse, the Shifter race, never populous, spread through the world nonetheless – especially as the traits of the ultimate parents proved persistent throughout their children, not truly being diluted by the march of generations.
The Dragons watched all of this from above and below, amused at the antics of races who were young and still learning – they interfered and played with the growing civilizations as a child would play with interesting toys, guiding them along paths of their own devising, often at odds with each other in some obscure game for status, wealth, and proof of their own cleverness. From this meddling, and their earnest love of their playthings, came the Dragonborn – product of the unions of dragons and any other sentient race, where the dragon’s blood inevitably proved dominant. These beings held themselves aloof, generally valued by their Dragon parents and occupying a strata between the legendary Dragons and the races of the world.
The world, then, was still chaos – but a different kind. The various peoples mingled, philosophies emerged, and those philosophies went to war – but the world was still vast, and was not yet so full as to force empires to war; that said, make no mistake, empires did rise, around strength or around common cause, and those empires grew.
Into this came the Gods – and the ancient, cold war that persisted until only a few short centuries ago.
The Coming of the Gods:
There is rampant speculation about the Gods – the argument about whether they were born of the beliefs of the various peoples of the world or were drawn to them is chief among them. Regardless, the Gods came to the world during its time of early promise and changed how it would grow forever.
The Lord of Morning is master of the weave and the laws that govern reality. His symbols are the sun and the lantern, the cross-hilted sword and the shield, and he is a creature of order, civilization, and judgement. In his most general aspect, he is depicted as an androgynous, tall form from any race, of golden eyes and hair, carrying a spear tipped in light. His domains are Arcana, Tempest, Law, the Forge, and the Grave.
The Lady of Twilight is the mistress of dreams and possibility, the spirit of hope and rebellion, and mistress of both secrets and music. Her symbols are the moon and the torch, the book and the dagger, and the hand that balances the scales. In her most general aspect, she is depicted as a woman of any race, clothed in stars, with eyes of fire – and great wings that stretch across the entirety of the horizon. Her domains are Arcana, Trickery, Knowledge, Nature, and Light.
With them came their.. child, a thing created by an forbidden act in time immemorial – the Beast. A creature of foulest aspect, that longed only for its own death which could only come, chained as he was to existence, with the death of all things. The antithesis of creation, from it is birthed abominations and the undead, the worms that gnaw at the root of the world, the twisted beasts that exist only to destroy. It is the corruption at the heart of glory, the self-destructive impulse, the callousness of unfettered ambition. It is never depicted, but always described as the worst nightmare the teller can imagine. Its domains are Death, War, Trickery, and Darkness.
But.. more on the Gods later.
The Ordering of the People:
What is important to note is that with the coming of the Gods came the Ordering of the People, mirroring the ordering of the world by the Dragon in ages past. The Lord brought law, the Lady wisdom, the Beast the vicious ambition that drove change. And so, too, came their children – the Aasimar and the Tieflings, the Genasi and the Harengen, the Changelings, Aarakocra, Kenku, and Lizardfolk. The world became a true mixing pot of ideas and peoples and motivations – the great empires that slowly rose were truly wonders driven by he strengths of the various peoples within them, while ‘pocket kingdoms’ of more isolated racial groups existed where like creatures naturally pooled with like creatures. What is truly wonderous is that wars of race were never truly committed; rather, philosophies of rulership, of society – these went to war. Empires fought for power, kingdoms fought for resources, people fought for their version of the truth. The gods? They simply looked on – lending their power to the devoted and watching.
More gods rose as civilization grew – The Raven Lord, who stood as guardian of the gates of the dead, a faceless barbarian clad in furs and feathers, the ensurings the sanctity of the dead, and the entropy that must exist that defines endings, whether those endings are of lives, kingdoms, or ideas. He is in constant war with the Beast, whom he cannot overcome, but who has corrupted a part of his domain – from which undead are born. His followers treat undead as anathema, and his Hunters are a great order of slayers, rising from the ashes of time past. His domains are the Grave and Knowledge, and he is Neutral, with followers of all alignments.
The Demigods and the Great Truce:
The Storm Queen, haughty, cold and vicious, for whom the Giants are her favored people – she is said to have come from a distant world, and turned her children loose upon the world in these early days of the gods. Goliaths grew from the union of giantkind and the other races, and she bears them a special love… though that love insists on proving strength and standing tall through cunning, artifice and power. She is the queen of storms and weather, laying claim to all mariners who sail her seas and skies, and she rules the elemental powers of the world. She is selfish and inhuman – capricious and unkind. Her mortal worshippers entreat her for elemental power for their own purposes. Her domains are Nature, Light, War, and Tempest.
The Great Mother – sibling of the beast and child of the Lady of Twilight, said to be born of a special mortal (the race varies by the teller) and the goddess; she is the master of all things living, holding sway over the natural cycle and guardian of the gates of the Feywild. She has hundreds of names – a different one in every culture – but she does not care as all are her children. Commonly worshipped by druids and rangers, physicians, and those drawn to family, childbirth, and farming, she is at constant war with the Beast and tasks her followers to destroy all abberations, which stand against the order of life. Her domains are Life and Nature, and, while she herself is Neutral, she has followers of all alignments.
The gods rested in a sort of uneasy truce with the Great Dragon, who viewed their presence as an intrusion, but not an unwelcome one. His children still truly ruled, and the other races played at their whim, and the circle only grew wider with more pieces on the playing field.
So it went for millennia untold, with the rise and fall of cultures, civilizations, countries, kingdoms, and empires; the varagries of mortals in a flowing tide of life and death – at least until six centuries past.