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Creation Story

A quintet of elemental deities from a distant plane grew tired of the quarrels between the gods of their home and the races they’d created, and tired of the supplications of their worshipers. These deities, called the Omma, represent not only an element, but also a strong philosophical stance associated with that element. The god of Air is Jok, a being of chaos. Fire is governed by the evil god Raikan, Earth by the lawful Tar, and the lord of Water is the good Helos. The last deity of the five is Otan, associated with Life and Balance, who mediates between the other four.

In order to escape the world they once belonged to, the five traveled to a distant corner of the Astral Plane, where they discovered a great Astral Storm. In the eye of this storm, they established their new Prime Material. After the effort of bringing this fragment of calm to the storm, they rest. Eventually, the Omma become restless in this void they’ve created. The first to act is Jok, filling the void with ether and atmosphere. Not to be outdone, Raikan puts a great fire to the void, filling it all with light. Tar acts next, creating all the worlds and bodies of the heavens. Helos then covers many of the worlds with water, and seeds it throughout the heavens as well. Last, Otan sets the worlds in motion, separating day from night and creating the seasons.

Otan and the other Omma descend to the second world, the place most balanced in the four elements. There, they work to create life, eager to make a self-sufficient world, a place where they can interact without worry – as equals, but each still comfortable within their own element. Raikan creates the Trolls, knowing that only sentient creatures can harness the full force of his element. Concerned that these powerful, sentient creatures could dominate the world and tilt the balance of this pristine place in Raikan’s favor, each of the Omma in turn creates a sentient race of their own. Helos creates the gnomes, gifting them with a great talent for arcane power. On a whim, Jok mimics the size of Helos’s creation, his mischievous tendencies producing the Halflings. After much thought, Tar creates the Dwarves, short like the creations of Jok and Helos, but strong enough to face the Trolls. Lastly, Otan borrows energy from each of the other four to create Humans, each one with a perfect balance of the four elements. There they agreed that they must not interact directly with their creations, for fear of the fate of their old world overtaking this one.

On the Origin of Elves

The elves come from the world abandoned long ago by the Omma. At that time, there were a host of other “Gods” living in that realm – mortals who had grown powerful enough to transcend their physical bodies. These gods bickered and pushed the races and nations of that world to warfare. There were, at that time, three races on that world – the elves, the Pit’hai (pronounced “pit high”), and a race of sea-dwelling creatures much like the Sahaugin. (The Pit’hai is a race that naturally has the traits of half-orcs, with the addition of small, useless horns). Through the centuries of warfare that followed, the Sahaugin were all but destroyed, and were forced to abandon all their surface territories and retreat to the depths of the oceans. On land, the superior physical forces of the Pit’hai were threatening to overrun the elven forces when one elven wizard discovered that the gods had made themselves vulnerable when they gave up their physical forms. He was able to trap several gods in gems, destroying their consciousnesses and harnessing their power. By the time the other gods reacted, it was too late. All were destroyed or captured by the power of the gems.

With their gods destroyed, and the elves wielding their power, the Pit’hai were decimated. Some fled and formed tribes in the distant reaches of the wilderness, and many were captured and enslaved by the elves. The elves had become the undisputed lords of their world. The nine gems containing the essences of the slain gods came to be known as the Seeds of Life, and they were distributed amongst the most powerful elven families – those who had been the warlords during the great war.

This situation persisted for many centuries, with occasional revolts being put down viciously by the elves. Over time, though, the elven families grew distant, the bonds which had held them during the war now seeming less important. They split into two nations, Andare with five of the seed families, Ethiel other having four. This too, persisted for many generations, as the nations slowly grew further apart, each disdaining the other.

Now, over two millennium since their enslavement, the Pit’hai revolted again in Ethiel. Led by a charismatic warlord named Korun (actually a sorcerer), they were able to achieve some small victories, razing outlying towns and freeing their brothers. Understanding the power of the Seeds, he avoided the cities and fled in the face of opposition, knowing that any confrontation could be his demise. Ethiel responded by deploying the Seeds with small highly mobile forces to catch and crush the bands of rebels. They enjoyed some success, but Korun evaded them – he had made his way into their capital city under cover.

Andare, seeing the chaos consuming their rival, viewed this as a chance to snatch up the other four Seeds of Life. They launched an invasion, deploying their own Seeds to counter those of Ethiel, attempting to capture them. As their forces met for the first large-scale battle, one band of Pit’hai shock troops under the Andare banner turned on their masters, snatching and shattering two of the Seeds of Life. The battle degenerated into chaos as Pit’hai on all sides revolted and the elves fought each other and the Pit’hai. No clear winner of the battle was established. The Pit’hai revolt gained some momentum, and a large force of well-trained warriors. Pit’hai across both nations revolted, and the elves found themselves in a three-way war once again – but now with the Seeds divided against themselves.

Korun, having infiltrated the royal household of Ethiel with his sorcery (a skill the elves assumed inaccessible to the Pit’hai), launched a revolt with the house slaves and captured the palace. He executed the king and captured two of the Seeds of Life, which he immediately set about trying to exploit. Shocked by the loss of their king and both of the Seeds that had been left in the capital, the remaining noble families of Ethiel begged Andare for help, throwing their allegiance over and joining their remaining Seeds to the remaining Seeds of the Andare – five seeds now against the two captured by Korun, who still hadn’t deciphered the secret of their use.

Korun burned most of the Capital of Ethiel to the ground, and his forces set about building a fortified camp in its place, buttressing the walls and preparing for war. His emissaries convinced the outlying tribes of free Pit’hai to join the war, to gain their long-awaited revenge. The rebels in Andare burned much of the cropland they had worked for centuries, with not enough elven guards to protect the vast tracts of earth.

The elven armies surrounded Korun’s forces and laid siege to his camp. With the power of their four Seeds against Korun’s inability to access the power of his two, the elves ruthlessly crushed the Pit’hai, decapitating Korun on the throne of Ethiel and reclaiming both gems. Unbeknown to the elves, his experiments tied his life force to one of the Seeds. In a final act of desperation as the blade clove through his neck, Korun was able to cast his spirit into the gem, his anger and rage against the elves perverting the stone into the Seed of Destruction. It acted as his phylactery, and even as the elves celebrated their victory and set about chasing down and killing the survivors of Korun’s rebellion, he rose as a powerful Lich.

Using his new-found undeath, and his new understanding of the Seed of Destruction, he called down fire on the elves as they attempted to rebuild their city, taking even his own fortifications and all the captured Pit’hai to their graves. As he grieved their loss and the apparent defeat of his race, the Seed spoke to him, the long-lost consciousness of the once-deity telling him how he could restore his armies. He turned the Seed of Destruction to their corpses, and called them all to unlife, a hoard of thousands, an army that needed no food, no rest, and desired only revenge against the elves.

His new army routed the elven forces, impervious to their arrows, resistant to their magic, and bolstered by the might of the Seed of Destruction. Korun killed livestock, burned fields and forests to ash, and poisoned the waters in an attempt to destroy the whole elven race. The elves were forced to use the Seeds of Life more and more simply to sustain their troops and their people as the Pit’hai laid waste to the countryside. The elves retaliated by killing their remaining slaves by the thousands, their armies marching into the lands of the tribes and burning villages down – killing women, children, and the elderly.

The last of the free Pit’hai joined Korun, relying on his protection and providence as the war slowly destroyed their world. The elves could see their final defeat approaching as more and more of their cities fall, the six Seeds of Life doing little more than holding Korun’s forces at bay – they refused to use them in direct confrontation for fear that he should capture or destroy them.

The elven nobles, now having watched Korun make much of their world uninhabitable, looked to the legend of the deities who fled – the Omma. Not knowing the destination of those ancient gods, they turned the power of their gems to making their moon habitable, a new world for their people, a refuge away from the destruction wrought by the perverted gem. Even as they evacuated their cities, the Pit’hai learned of their escape. Korun could not follow quickly, but the elves worried that they would never truly escape. They joined their six seeds again in desperation to make their final escape – hurling their whole world into the astral plane and cutting off the planar ties.

They drifted through the astral for many years before scouts located the heart of the Storm, and the peaceful world within. Hoping that Korun will never be able to find them inside the storm, they expended the last of the Seeds’ power to shield their world from the rage of the Storm, and push it back from the Astral to this new Prime Material. They appeared in orbit of this new world, much to the shock and dismay of the natives. They wait nearly a century before finally descending to the surface, their population too much for their mortal magics to sustain on their moon.

In the three centuries since their descent, they’ve established two nations on distant parts of the globe, and the six dormant Seeds of Life have been divided evenly among them – each to the head of a powerful noble family. With more than four centuries since their flight, most elves alive now were born after the escape, but the lessons learned have been passed down.

History

The history of this world is intentionally left a little open, so that players may freely create portions of the history to enhance their character’s back story or character concept. What follows is essentially an outline (using the calender common to the countries of Archos and the Troll Kingdoms).

• -10,000 to -5,000 – the Old World. Little survives from this time but a few ancient tombs or mounds of rubble in the distant wilderness. According to legend, the Troll Lich Antiri was born during this age.
• -5,000 – the Cataclysm of the Old World reduces civilization to dust and ashes. Few records remain from this age, so the cause is a mystery, and often the subject of religious beliefs (i.e. the world was “punished for its wickedness”)
• -4,500 – The New World begins with the re-appearance of the written word.
• -1,000 – The Lich Antiri single-handedly conquers over a dozen kingdoms to forge his own empire.
• -800 – the human kingdom of Leistos is the first kingdom of the New World to make widespread use of iron. Fielding large armies equipped with superior iron equipment, they easily conquer their neighbors. Non-humans are considered second-class at best, and even conquered humans can only own land after serving in the legions of Leistos. Only two nations withstands their assaults – Antiri’s empire and the Kingdom of Arkuz, which is protected by formidable natural borders.
• -100 – the oppressed races in Leistos launch a number of rebellions, all brutally put down.
• -20 – a band of adventurers infiltrate Antiri’s keep and destroy the Lich Emperor. The Emperor of Leistos perceives this as an opportunity to expand his reign, and launches an invasion of the Troll lands. Legions are called from across the kingdom, but the physically powerful Trolls make progress slow at best.
• -5 – with most of the Imperial Legions tied up in the war against the fractured Troll Kingdoms, uprisings overwhelm distant parts of the empire. A sect of Gnomish Arcanists enter the cities at the heart of the empire by posing as slaves. Once there, they open great portals to the Dreaming, using their magic to call up creatures from the nightmares of the population. With the Legions and their War Wizards away, the cities are helpless against the nightmares.
• 0 – the empire of Leistos officially falls with the death of the last emperor. A period of chaos consumes the continent as both Leistos and the Troll Empire fall apart.
• 500 – most of the land of the modern kingdom of Archos is consolidated into one nation through a combination of wars, arranged marriages, and political alliances.
• 700 – the elven moon appears over the world. The arrival causes huge tidal fluctuations and volcanic eruptions. Widespread panic ensues, but dies down as it eventually becomes clear that no apocalypse is forthcoming.
• 790 – elves descend to the world and establish tentative contact while forging their own nations from the wilderness.
• 997 – the game begins.

Culture and Kingdoms | Religions | Languages | Races | Calender and Time

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