Wednesday, February 27, 2008

A Brief History of Everything

Legends, myth and history come of an interesting weave of tales, written accounts and songs of heroes long gone. Some things everyone knows; and some things everyone believes; and some things everyone hears, but no one quite understands. These tales make up the history of Greyshad.

Before the World

Eons ago the Primordials ruled all. The World did not exist and the Primordials controlled the fabric of existence. For reasons unknown and surely beyond the comprehension of mortal beings, the Primordials formed the Gods, divine beings of pure energy and the World, a place of matter and substance. The Primordials influence over the World caused mountains to rise and fall. Waters appeared and flowed over the face of the World. Lakes of fire and storms of unimaginable fury battled in the World.

The Gods, curious beings, watched as their progenitors created and destroyed at a whim. As the World twisted and turned, grew and fell asunder by the will of the Primordials, the Gods sought to duplicate their forebears' efforts. The Gods tried to manipulate the matter of the World, and in a flash of divine energy and primal matter Life began.

The Gods stared in awe at the beings they had made. Strange, wondrous and terrifying, the many forms of Life wandered the face of the World and explored and lived and died. The Primordials, indifferent to the Life the Gods had created, continued to make, remake and unmake the World. Their every move destroyed the Life the Gods had fashioned until it all faded from existence.

The Gods moved again to partake in the wonder of Creation. Again their influence caused Life to spring into being when their holy essence combined with the matter of the World. Again the Life of the Gods perished under the uncaring power of the Primordials.

As Life faded from the World the Gods turned to the Primordials and pleaded with them to stop their capricious making and unmaking that destroyed the Life the Gods had created. The Primordials, unconcerned with the Gods' needs continued to make and unmake the World.

Before the last of Life vanished from the World the Gods banded together and brought War upon the Primordials. They used their divine energy to destroy the pure matter of the Primordials. The Gods called upon the Life they had created, and it fought in the battle against the ancient beings of eternity. Gods perished, Primordials faded and Life died. The Primordials created Life of their own: great beings of pure elemental power, the Titans and the lesser Giants, to battle Life on the face of the World as the Primordials battled the Gods in the Astral space and the Elemental Chaos that grew around the World.

The wars lasted for time unimaginable, and in the end the Gods prevailed. All of the Primordials were destroyed or banished to some lost realm or imprisoned in the Elemental Chaos. Titans fled the World leaving the Giants behind, and the battles between the Life the Gods created and the Giants the Primordials crafted continue to this day.

Unknown to the Gods and the Primordials, as their war raged, the World bent and twisted under the pressure of their struggle. Warped and twisted reflections of the World appeared over time. At war's end the Gods discovered new realms. The Shadowfell, a dark and twisted reflection of the World, waits for the souls of the Life when it fades from the World. And the Feywild, a magical and wondrous, but no less twisted, reflection of the World, hosts a fascinating Life of its own.

And now these three Worlds exist side by side, ever torn by the struggles between the pure matter of the Elemental Chaos below and the pure energy of the Astral Sea above. The Gods still look down on the World and sometimes show favor to the Life they created. But rarely do they interfere directly with events there.