eons--ages
GENESIS
Nothing can exist. Something does.
Fundamental forces within this Something manifested as elements in a rapidly changing space where all were present at once, then diverged into separate domains. These elemental planes make up the Inner Realm.
The forces interact according to a set of laws and so the elemental planes interact with one another forming a higher order; the Prime Realm.
Over unknowable stages of time, life percolated across the Inner and Prime Realms. Some forms of life, races, evolved more accustomed to the reality they inhabited, becoming titans within their planes.
As these races and titans became aware of the planer and realm nature of their reality, they reflected on why there is Something rather than Nothing. Some, becoming so in-tune with the laws and their interactions, ascended to deities.
OLD MYTHIC
The existance of life understanding reality and with the ability to shape it, the stage of natural creation came to a close. Now, reality would be shaped by will. Future generations of life would emerge from conceptualized ideals rather than the happenstance of laws acting on initial conditions.
Deities fashioned their own worlds, creating the Outer Realm. The planes here being born of consciousness rather than natural reactions to the laws.
OLD PRIMORDIAL
With the realms established, new races either continued evolving from existing life or were created wholly by the gods.
Primordial Children Maldwyn and Cayo, children of the Second Races, were saved by the Wardens.
OLD RECORDS
As the universe settled into a new, more managed routine, the races flourished creating long lasting settlements which developed a system of markings to record and track many faucets of their increasingly complex lives. Knowledge passed down as myths and legends of mortal races and titans ascending to god-hood were now indelibly written. Those that could read collections of these tales, began to question the divine rights of their gods to dictate not only their lives but their very existance.
NEW MYTHIC
Mortal War The first deities tried to suppress the races and titans, beginning a long period of struggle known generally as the Mortal War. The “war” was not an isolated skirmish of a few opposing sides, but rather a long period of perpetual power struggles, ploys, upheavals, and long-lasting conflicts. So long was this time that some of the third races evolved from second during it. Many first deities were slain or created demi-planes to escape into, the third planes. Some second titans ascended into second deities, amongst a few remaining first deities. Any remaining titans were killed off or went dormant to avoid the wrath of the deities. Additional third races were spawned during the Mortal War or shortly thereafter by divine creation by first or second deities. The Realms were in ruins in the aftermath of The Mortal War. Races did not survive the apocalyptic events. Races had been created, altered, and destroyed with each new pantheon throughout the war; pantheons that were themselves constantly seeing new gods emerge, old gods killed, coups and alliances forming and breaking.
NEW PRIMORDIAL
When the firestorm of the Mortal War eventually simmered into relative stability, the races across the realms were able to once again piece together small bands of society. However, important knowledge of technology and the ruins of ancestors had survived and the new primoradial era advanced rather quickly.
Thir Drevson is Born
Thir grew up hearing tales of the mythical White Raven. Those that it gave a single white feather from it’s plumage, would have great power bestowed to their entire bloodline. In the fading light of a night’s last candle, Thir’s elders told of their primordial ancestors. After a great war between the titans and gods (Mortal War), his people trekked over many lands in search for a new home. As they lay freezing in the mountainous tundra, they were visited by this White Raven which gifted them a single feather. From then on, the tribe survived the cold. Thrived in it. They built their new home. The mountain they had been sparred by the White Raven has been known as Kvitravn Mountain and it is sacred to his people generations past. Many other tales had been told of his tribe’s people being given white feathers for extradentary powers, from the heroic to the silly. The Sehlman’s claim their great uncle wandered into the woods after a long night which is why they awake each morning as if their mugs were mere water. Thimig offspring attribute their crafting abilities to the white raven after their fore-father shot a hawk chasing it. And so on.
Arrive at Nokthrin
About two thousand years after Thir Drevson is born, The Wardens arrive at Nokthrin. Drood and Rurik serve a feast to the tribe. Thir Drevson tells Willa Drevson and others all about The Voice and their journey. Battle the Grothmann family and convince the Thimig and Sehlman bloodlines to aid them in the fight. Gunnar Grothmann sneaks off for Kvitravn Mountain to gain the favor of the White Raven.
White Raven Blesses Drevson Bloodline
Wardens establish a republic of bloodlines to replace the Grothmann monarchy. The Grothmann’s are granted a seat in the republic. Willa Drevson takes the Drevson seat as the Wardens chase after Gunnar Grothmann.
Thir was slain by Gunnar Grathmann atop the mountain, dissipating into gold dust that trickled beneath to snow. A death out of time. Gunnar was able to slay the White Raven mid-combat but not retrieve it’s final blessing.
The rest of the party collected the ancestorial axe that appeared on the alter along with 20 white feathers that covered it. Bringing it back to Willa, granted the bloodline chronomancy.
NEW RECORDS
Writing persisted in small pockets throughout the realms during the cataclysmic Mortal War and the short Primordial. This era is defined by the earliest writings in a language recognizable as an ancestor of our modern language. The writings tell of a time of relative quiet from the deities. Deities and their struggles necessarily moved further from the prime realm, deeper into the outer realms. They lost much of their abilities to effect the Prime Realm beyond granting power to clerics and the like, necessitating the need for Avatars to those gods that were still interested in the Prime Realm.
As the divine drifted further from the day-to-day lives of the mortals in the Inner and Prime Realms, the primordial races flourished and began to modernize. These expansions and advancements were not necessarily peaceful, but languages coalesced into the various tongues localized across the Inner and Prime planes.
New Records begins with the earliest interpretable written languages and often overlaps with the New Primordial. Most surviving deities consider this time their early years. Some older gods remember before this, but none of what they say is verifiable from mortal records. Gods can, and do, fake records from before this time, but if it doesn’t fit into the tapestry of disparate sources, their stories are considered from the New Mythic or before or lies.
ANCIENT
With current understanding of the languages, we get a clearer picture as we are able to interpret earlier writings then piecing together what happened to survive the primordial era.
When the majority of disparate sources agree upon most of the general facts on the state of affairs, this is the start of the ancient era.
702 Attack on Shaa Thalas
Informed by the traitorous dark elves, The Darkest of Shadows, her lieutenants, and their army attack Shaa Thalas to steal The Vigor.
The Shadows fail in their attack, burying the lieutenants during their pursuit of Lorzen, and petrifying The Darkest of Shadows.
Lorzen uses The Vigor to prevent the dark elves from using it after his inevitable capture.
The dark elves take Lorzen and The Vigor underground into the caverns with them as they abandon the surface world.
Dormaer, a dark elf mage, is selected by The Silence as her next avatar since The Darkest of Shadows is petrified. As the dark elves retreat to the caves, Dormaer breaks off and leaves Shaa Thalas.
817 Lorzen Escapes Underdark
Wardens break Lorzen out of the prison in the wake of a deep earthquake that rips the city and prison apart flooding the area with deeper creatures. Lorzen joins a group of non-hostile dark elves who lead him to the surface.
EMPIRES
The ancient bands of peoples begin to connect in peaceful exchange as well as violently. Empires that span regions of continents form. Andes Kingdom and Zatar Confederacy rise to power in Edous.
DARK
THE FALL As this progression of events pulled the planes and life further from the baseline of reality, the pull backwards began to manifest. Magic behaved erratically. Deities lost or gained power. Dormant titans began rising. New titans grew from the chaos including Kriv, Gimble, and Drawoc. At its apex, The Fall eliminated many of the deities, disrupting their created planes, races, and titans.