The Myth of Creation

Before our recorded past, before the wars of mortals, before the founding of Kingdoms, before the very Gods themselves, eons before Terran was as we know it today, Terran was a stone. A blank slate, with nothing to show for it. Then, twin entities that roamed the sky above came upon this humble stone and used their boundless power to meld it as they saw fit. We now know these entities as the Light and the Dark. The two worked together to create a realm that they could be proud of together. They began with the seas, drowning this stone in seemingly endless waters, and created a thriving ecosystem underneath the surface. With curiosity, the Light brought aspects of the stone below to the surface and created flora to thrive among the rocky terrain, creating the continents. Evolution steadily progressed, and animalistic life existed, including the first Dragons, a masterpiece of godlike power that thrived in the ecosystems they called their homes.

However, the Dark was not satisfied. It believed that the entities should not be alone in their cognitive thought, so it began by giving sentience to the very elements that made up their land- the seas, sky, mountains, and even fire itself began to rise as primordial titans that wandered the landscape. The Light then gave sentient thought to the Dragons, and then the two worked together to create their very first “simple” race- the Giants. These three titanous ‘races’ ruled the skies, sea, and land that surrounded them. The Primordial duo followed this up with smaller beings that could make far greater use of Terran’s resources- the elves that adapted swiftly to their environment, the dwarves that sought to build into the world around them, the Beastfolk that lived alongside their primitize predecessors, and even the primitive beings that would one day become humanity. However, the peace of this world was never meant to last.

The Dark had grown jealous of the light. While the Dark saw how these mortals fought amongst themselves, the Light believed they must not interfere with their creations. However, these Mortals revered the Light, as it brought bounty to their land and clear sight whenever it was near, while the Dark enshrouded the land it was near, and many chose to simply ignore or fear it. The Dark believed the Light was biased to these creations, to the Dark harnessed it’s rage and created creatures of the night- nocturnal stalkers, primordial nightmares from his creations...in short, the first monsters. Creatures such as Chimeras, Hydras, and even the dire mutation of Lycanthropy. These monsters not only caused grand devastation, but the clans of mortals on their continents began to war with one another, blaming each other for the wrath of their gods. The Light was outraged, and demanded the Dark take back what it had done, but the Dark simply stated that “they should not interfere with their creations”. The growing tension eventually erupted into a battle between the gods, which ended in the dark’s defeat, where it was banished from the world.

However, not all was well. The Light, now alone, could not purge these creatures away. Wherever it went, there would always be shadowy corners just out of sight where these monsters would go to hide. The Light became desperate to undo what it’s sibling had done, and as it became distracted by this desperation, the Darkness returned.

From beyond the view of this realm, the Dark had birthed an unrelenting onslaught of horrors from it’s mind unhindered, and set them upon the world to end everything, and create a new blank slate for the Dark to reform alone. Mortals were slaughtered, and as the Light was desperate to protect what it held dear, it showed weakness that the Dark was able to exploit.

The Light was sundered and torn by it’s twin, and so the Dark contorted the light’s body and sent it deep into the sky, turning it into the great star we now know as the Sun. After doing this, the Dark proceeded to enshroud the entire world within itself- no light would ever shine through, save for the firelight that would attract the Dark’s horrors to the creations it once held with pride, now giving way to the Dark’s loyal primordial horrors that wandered the landscape, destroying all in their wake, all while the Dark contained itself within a new continent, one made of ice and snow, where no living thing could possibly come to disturb it. It was here that it came to be known under a new name, a name whispered in fear even today: Azathoth.

However, the night is darkest before the dawn. While this went on for countless unknown eons, our world is one that is known to give birth to heroes. On each of the continents, a hero rose: the Dragon Utherian, the Archfey Lunaria, the Giant Kodran, the Primordial Gaia, and the humble Iala. Together, these heroes travelled their world to gather the five components needed to combat Azathoth! The battle was long and arduous, but when the killing blow was landed, Azathoth was destroyed, it’s corpse contorted into the moon to forever be with it’s sibling, the void above their world acting as a graveyard. The pitch-black corpse was eventually bleached by the light to become the shades of gray that we see our moon as today. The world had been saved, and the residual power gave the heroes the power to ascend to godhood. The new gods of this world, they vowed to protect it. Utherian and Lunaria wed, as did Kodran and Gaia. They dubbed their home “Terran”, and vowed to protect it for eternity. This world needed to heal, and they would take their talents to teach the mortals of this realm to respect their home. Azathoth’s monsters still lurked in the shadows, and so they began to teach their mortal kin how to truly defend themselves and each other.

Utherian became the God of the Sun, Agriculture, and Medicine. His bride, Lunaria, became the Goddess of the Moon, Love, and Dreams. Gaia became the Goddess of Nature, the Sea, and Fertility, while Kodran became the God of Strength, Disaster, and Competition. Finally, Iala became the Goddess of Knowledge, Destiny, and Memory.

However, these gods were soon faced with a new challenge. While Azathoth and the Light ruled, the souls that left the deceased would be remolded to create new ones. However, when Azathoth ruled alone, he used his dark power to consume the souls of the deceased to grow ever-stronger. Without either of these entities, the souls of the deceased now ran rampant. Some wandered as shades, confused and unable to comprehend their own demise, some forcibly attempted to return to their bodies, creating horrid undead creatures, and some were so obsessed in grief or their own hatred that they became dangerous and ghastly horrors. A mortal rose to solve this problem- a woman who wielded a scythe, wearing a birdlike mask to prevent the toxins and airborne diseases these creatures carried from reaching her face. A rival she had was a greedy goblin known as Cairos, who wished to use the souls for his own enslavement and entertainment. The two fought many times, but it was after a particularly deadly encounter that left both barely alive that the woman realized that she needed help.

Beseeching the gods for aid, the five revealed that they had been working to create a realm for these wayward souls to go to. However, it needed a caretaker. Iala and the woman made a deal- if the woman gave up something important to her, Iala would give her the secrets to ascendance. She would become a new god, whose sole purpose would be these souls. The woman accepted, and offered to give up her name and her very memories. However, Iala could not complete this task alone, so she looked for Obsidius…

Obsidius. The God of Secrets, Undeath, and Dark Magic. No one knows how he ascended or how long he has been a god, but references of him go back as far as the others. Many believe that Obsidius used his power as the God of Secrets to strike his past from history, while others believe he may have simply always existed. Obsidius took the woman’s memories, her past, her very face…and now no proof of her exists anywhere beyond this tale, and her existence as a god. She became the Reaper, the Goddess of Death, Order, and Chaos. Within her city, she would draw in souls to be cared for until their shades eventually faded.

Of course, it was not only the noble that found themselves achieving godhood. A tricky gnome known as Adhira had clashed with the heroic human known as Liberta, as they had goals that contested each other. Adhira wanted to live her life free of all shackles, while Liberta wanted to ensure that justice and fair trial was always kept. They butt heads constantly, all until Adhira had enough. She realized there was only one way to be rid of Liberta’s meddling, so she went to Kodran and asked him for a contest, her versus him! Kodran laughed at the miniscule being, but she said it was simple! If he won, she’d convince her vast following (of which there was none) to convert to his religion, and if she won, he’d have to help her attain godhood! Kodran accepted, believing that he could best this cocky gnome in any competition she wanted. After her victory and she achieved godhood, she cockily declared that Kodran was “easy to trick”, and ever since them, she has had multiple gods against her ways. This is how Adhira, Goddess of Mischief, Luck, and Freedom.

Meanwhile, an angelic and greedy celestial named Satanael was gathering a following, and attempted to assassinate Utherian. After grievously wounding the god, Lunaria’s rage unfettered forced the angel to flee, as the two ripped his wings from his back, causing him to plummet below, into a dark volcano. After this event, the gods became paranoid of if the more greedy mortals might attempt to usurp them. To solve this, the five heroic gods worked together to create a new being- combining their efforts into a Primordial Dragon of immense power known as Dra’cuul.

Dra’cuul soon became greedy for power, and became sick of waiting for someone to kill his progenitors for his godhood. He realized that if he simply found his own way to ascend, he’d become an even greater god upon inheriting their domains. He began amassing a following of dragons and mortals to begin his twisted ascension, gaining a following by destroying the foes of any who worship him, causing an increasing following through fear. The hero Liberta went off to gain revenge and defeat him, but she was found by Adhira, who shared that Dra’cuul is worse than anyone else she’s tried tricking before, so the two made a truce to defeat the dragon. One Adhira trick later, Liberta successfully interrupted the ritual, and while the backlash may have severed Dra’cuul from his kingdom, the great power still imbued both mortals with great power! Dra’cuul fled into a volcano, hoarding his great treasure while plotting, thus becoming the God of Greed, Wealth, and Revenge. Liberta, meanwhile, was blinded by the light of the battle, and now wears a blindfold to act as the Goddess of Justice, Nobility, and Honor. With the truce over, Adhira and Liberta resumed butting heads, now wholly unable to do anything about the other’s antics without breaking their respective moral codes.

Mortals were becoming more and more confident in their abilities, and soon discovered a mythic stone that could defy gravity itself when energy is channeled into it! It became known as “Helia Stone”, and from here on each continent gained a massive kingdom that ruled over their majority. The elves had their kingdom of Ingentes (of which the continent is now named), the Dragons and Draconians created their capital of Drakeroost to soar in the skies, the Danius of Kodros had a utopian society all across their lands, above and below ground, known as Fulfillia, Verdaan’s nation of Atlas, where the half-elf Atlesians performed experiments upon themselves, and the flying kingdom of Origh, which made its home in the Frostwell, advanced in their unique creations known as “technology”.

However, each kingdom fell to hubris. The best known is the tale of Athel, a humble woman of Verdaan, who discovered that the Atlesians were attempting to harness the power of the countless elemental fanes on the continent for their own wicked ends, splicing themselves with elemental energy for boundless potential, and she knew she had to put a stop to it. They had already conquered her home, and they would not be satisfied with a single continent for much longer. She went to the main primordial fane and fought her way through Atlesian legions, and just as she was about to be killed, she threw a pouch of stones, each inscribed with an explosive glyph of elemental energy, into the fane. The resulting backlash of raw elemental energy combined with the primordial force of the fanes had the desired effect, an explosion that closed all of the minor fanes forever, while sealing the four major ones. However, it did not end there- the resulting explosions also ripped a hole between the planes, sending the Atlesian kingdom, and all of their inhabitants living within, to an astral void. No one is certain what came of the Atlesians, but only their descendants and those that were outside their kingdom borders remained...and 100 years later, Athel returned to Terran, a divine being and Goddess of Civilization, Invention, and Law. No one is certain what happened in that span of time, but she took on the mantle of “Gearmaker”, and for her heroics was welcomed among the deities. Of course, she did not emerge alone. An Atlesian named Kronoz emerged and ascended as the God of Darkness, Mutation, and Poison.

Meanwhile, the noble dwarves, led by King Eldrin, let the Danius have their land, but made their kingdoms in the mountains and the coasts of Kodros. An invading force of the boarlike orcs from Verdaan, cast out for their violence, arrived on the shores of Kodros seeking war. The Danius refused to help the Dwarves, so they sent correspondents to the other continents. They had no way to request aid from Origh, and Verdaan had no proper kingdom without the Atlesians, so they sought help from Vastum and Ingentes. Bringing gifts and praise, Lord Galadriel of the elves and King Ruinus of the humans accepted the call to arms, and three races worked together to face the orcs and their Dread Chief Tartarek. The orcs were defeated and forced to retreat, and Ruinus held a banquet in their honor. However, the treacherous conqueror planned to poison the eight elven lords, these children of Lunaria, along with King Eldrin himself. However, divine intervention in the form of the trickster Adhira prevented this from happening, and with the evils of Ruinus discovered, the elves teleported themselves and their allies far away from Vastum, back to their homes- all while Ruinus stewed in his failure.

While the dwarves and elves considered going to war for the second time so soon after their previous victory, a new threat was expanding on the continent of Vastum. The treacherous angel Satanael gained an alliance from Cairos and Ruinus, promising them all power. Once Cairos had gained all the souls they need, Satanael corrupted several kingdoms with dark and fiendish blood, as a new pair of wings sprout from his back, and creating the new race of stygians as he became the God of Tyranny, Contracts, and Hellfire. Ruinus becomes the God of War, Conquest, and Famine, while Cairos became the God of Slavers, Prisons, and Torture. With this new power, they launched their attack against the gods and the dwarves. During these fights, Eldrin fought hundreds of foes to the bitter end, and as he was dying, the gods gifted his heroism with the power of ascendance, and he became the God of Creation, Craft, and the Forge, upon which he continued the fight!

All was not well, however. At the same time, one of Lunaria’s daughters, by name of Arachne, was leading her Dark Elves on a path that she had found, inspired by the Danius. She made witchlike dealings with Tartarek and Kronoz, and Kronoz gave her the secret of godhood. She became the Goddess of Arthropods, Deceit, and Strategy, while Tartarek became the God of Destruction, Slaughter, and Beasts. Arachne used the souls she had gathered to create demonic hordes of pure evil that were at her beck and call. With this, Arachne crippled her siblings’ kingdoms, and set off her armies to fight. Her brother Galadriel fought her, ascending due to his Mother’s blessing to become the God of Beauty, Art, and Magic itself. Arachne had corrupted the beautiful World of Fae her mother had been cultivating, forcing it to be cut off from the mortal realm, splintering it away.

Simultaneously, Dra’cuul had finished his preparation. He had raised 6 dragons to be the pure incarnations of what he saw as perfection. They are known only by their monikers: Ashbringer, Deathstorm, Souleater, Arboreaker, Frostmourne, and the Dark Serpent. These dragons spread fear and chaos across the world with their king, and created yet a third threat…but even so, not all was completed.

During this tumultuous chaos, the old followers of Azathoth, amphibious beings that fled to the deep ocean, had been cultivating small sparks of his power. They created four primordial titans, just waiting to be unleashed, led by the reborn remains of the Dark One’s power- a being known as Nyarlathotep, who would become known as the Faceless One, and the new Deity of Madness.

The resulting battles caused countless deaths over an unknown number of years! Kodros was almost entirely reduced to a Wasteland, destroying the Danius kingdoms, and Origh was sent asunder to the ground, destroying Iala’s library, and most of the world’s recorded history of the time during the war. We don’t even know how long it was- it could have been a few years, it could have been countless centuries. Terran’s population was risking total annihilation, so the gods realized they had to make a true sacrifice.

Iala had been working on a failsafe ever since Dra’cuul’s uprising, but was never able to perfect it. Therefore, the gods would have to make the ultimate sacrifice to protect the world they had cultivated for so long. After Adhira and Lunaria worked together to trick the forces of Satanael and Arachne to war against one another, Iala let loose her creation, an arcane binding known only as “The Chains”. It would contain each god to a realm they would have domain in, severely limiting their influence on the mortal realm. However, it would affect every god, not just those that Iala wanted. To save the world, the gods were willing to leave it. Bringing an end to the war once and for all, each god was bound away, the titans as well banished to the elemental realm by mortal champions- except for Nyarlathotep. Made from the essence of Azathoth, it was too powerful for any binding the gods would create. Therefore, mortal champions cut the Faceless one asunder, into five living pieces of flesh. Each piece was sealed somewhere on the material plane, ensuring that Nyarlathotep would be sealed in a unique way, forced to live in a realm it could never destroy, kept in a state of being worse than the fates of it’s two progenitors.

Satanael and his forces, as well as Arachne and hers, were sealed in a plane known as the Underworld. There, they wage wars endlessly, constantly blaming the other force for their failure. Dra’cuul was sealed in the Realm of Echo, where the Reaper lives to keep the dragon in check, all while working with her angels to ferry souls to the appropriate afterlives. The rest of the gods sealed themselves in either an Overheaven of their making or in the Realm of Faerie. Gaia, however, is a special case. She and Kodran fell out of love, despite their connection, as she could not love him with how little he truly valued life. From there, she fell in love with the Reaper, and her final creation was the seasons. During spring and summer, she would cultivate these things by living in the Realm of Faerie, but during the autumn and winter, she would allow the deathly cold to come, while she enjoyed her time with her wife in the Realm of Echo.

Iala’s final gift to the mortal populace was a calendar- a way to track time and far more easily record history with exact dates and times. With this, she sealed the source of the chains deep within the Astral Void, guarded by angelic horrors akin to what first roamed Terran during the Dark’s invasion, to prevent anyone or anything from finding a way to destroy them...should such a method ever come to exist.

Almost eight centuries have passed since the binding, and the continents have slowly but steadily begun their recovery.

On the continent of Ingentes, the elven kingdom is a shadow of what it once was, but dwarven immigrants have made their homes in the mountains, creating a beautiful sign of peace. Two centuries ago, the elven kingdom of Arborea fell, leaving the human immigrants to take the mantle and create their own kingdoms on the continent. The three races’ kingdoms live in a constant state of alliance, but never true peace.

The continent of Vastum is predominantly ruled by different human kingdoms, who have recently begun to create an alliance of kingdoms to benefit all, and the Draconians have considered joining this arrangement, though it would require an abolishment of their slavery.

The continent of Kodros is home to a desert known as “The Wastelands” that takes up nearly the entire continent, and is almost entirely dead sands where nothing can grow as it once did. The Danius kingdom is long dead, but there exist organizations seeking to bring a new change of peace to this dark land, but horrors lurk in it’s landscape, as do an order of Mage Hunters, creating an ever-dangerous climate.

Verdaan is inhabited and full of life, with the largest variety in nature Terran has to offer! Home to the Beastfolk, these tribes have grown into cities, and the peaceful tribes live in harmony, all while the islands on the coast are plagued by the scourge of pirates.

Finally, the Frostwell has the least civilization, as all that exists are the native Frostwalkers and the exploring folk that have built their own society here with the intent of unearthing the past and forging ahead, reverse engineering the advanced magic of the Orighian empire in order to create a bright new future for their people!

There exists countless goods and evils in the realm of Terran, but it is the danger of repeating history that poses the greatest threat to the safety of this realm.