Age of Creation

Lys’ decision to create the Elves ushered in a new age, the longest in Aellorah’s history, in which all but one of the Seven Sisters chose to create their own race. Like the Dwarves, Lys created the Elves at the base of Mt. Ardreth, the mountain where her own Wellspring lies. Though she wished to give the Elves a place of their own to call home before first contact with the Dwarves, the Dwarves had already spread across much of Aellorah. The Drakantal Empire had already been formed by the time the Elves arrived. However, first contact between the Elves and Dwarves was anything but ideal.

The Elves did not meet the Dwarves straight away – they spent years in the wilds to the west of the Great Divide being shepherded by Lys before she told them of the Dwarves’ existence and suggested a meeting. When the two races finally did meet, it initially went well, and the area that would later become the city of Mythwell became a place the two collaborated to build a great settlement. The Dwarves taught the Elves the basics of magic, however choosing to teach them the more advanced spellwork they had wrought from ages past, keeping the secrets of the Runescribe from them. But after a half a century, the Elves’ domain of Temperance began to clash with the Dwarves’ progressive sense of discovery and desire to create. The Elves took issue with the Dwarves’ methods of gathering resources, felling large amounts of trees, and harvesting stone and ore from under the surface. The Dwarves grew irritated with the Elves, reminding them that they were there first and the Elves were guests in their territory. However, the Elves continued their complaints and it escalated to violent acts in an attempt to preserve the natural world.

This culminated in The Battle of Bast Wilds, in which the Elves, who had taken residence in the large forest west of Mt. Ardreth in an attempt to stop the Dwarves from harvesting its trees, attacked a large group of loggers collecting trees. The Dwarves responded in brutal fashion, using their superior magical abilities to overwhelm the Elves, driving them south, and establishing wards and borders to their territory that the Elves could not cross safely. The Elves were forced to retreat south of the Bast Wilds, and from then on, their relationship with the Dwarves was soured for thousands of years.

While the Elves and Dwarves feuded, Lekaris and Umos began drafting their life forms. Lekaris had the idea to make a shorter-lived race than the Elves and Dwarves, believing that it would give them the motivation to pursue goals quicker and be more progressive, due to their Zeal domain. Nearly 1,000 years after the birth of the Elven race, Lekaris created the Humans at the base of Mt. Valgar in northern Myr, where her Wellspring resides. Umos finished creating the Vesperkin not half a year later, placing them near her Wellspring in southern Myr. Lekaris had shown some difficulty guiding the Humans due to their ambition, and Umos imbued the Vesperkin with the domain of Community, hoping they could help unite the Humans. So she sent emissaries from the Vesperkin people to help them, and a bond was forged that remains to this day that has often made the two races feel as though they were one. The Humans and Vesperkin are very close.

Another 1,000 years later, Quen created the Lynoxi people in Arak near her Wellspring in southern Myr at the southern tip of the Great Divide. Their arrival startled the Elves and Dwarves of the northern regions, who initially believed them to be beasts due to their appearance. However, their ability to use language prevented an unfortunate incident during first contact. The Elves get along fairly well with the Lynoxi in modern times, but initially they found them to be “unclean” due to their lifestyles. The two races were able to find common ground though through their shared love of the natural love and their desire to explore and preserve it. The Dwarves, however, rejected the Lynoxi seeing them as a threat, as they now had two races they had to deal with beyond their southern borders. The Drakantal Empire barred the Lynoxi from entering the north.

It would be another 2,000 years before Estrea created the Ettinor on the largely unexplored continent of Gothir. They would not be discovered until hundreds of years later by explorers that came from Arak. The Elves that discovered them did so covertly before they ever made contact, and were horrified at the Ettinor’s cannibalistic practices, viewing them as monsters. Due to this initial belief, the Elves of the newly formed Kingdom of Derunadel attacked the Ettinor, but were overwhelmed by the Ettinor’s brutal and powerful fighting capability and endurance. They were also terrified of the Ettinor’s Soulbinding abilities, which allowed the Ettinor to turn the Elves’ dead against them. Relations between the two peoples were extremely hostile for thousands of years. However, the Ettinor were able to form an alliance with the remnants of the Drakantal Empire when the Ettinor visited Arak and the Dwarves seemed to respect their strength and unusual magic.

Long before this era ended, the Drakantal Empire would fall, wiped out by the Voidspawn, a new threat sent by the dark god Emir to destroy life on Aellorah. The Voidspawn, attracted to charged Flow, were drawn to the Dwarven civilization, as they were frequent users of magic. The Drakantal Empire fought back for a time, but could not hope to withstand the terrible power of the Voidspawn. But the Drakantal Empire was not just wiped out – the Voidspawn devoured their very essence, leaving those few that survived hollow and devoid of emotion. These Dwarves would later come to be known as the Ashenfolk due to their pale complexion and pale red eyes – a side effect of the soul draining effect the Voidspawn had employed against them.

Some remained in Arak for a time, establishing a city under the Great Divide known as Blackfrost, but that too was eventually destroyed. Some Ashenfolk collaborated with the Ettinor who had migrated to the Esterburn Highlands in a small settlement known as Keogan in the region now known as the Blasted Lands. This region was once a vibrant jungle, but the Ettinor in residence at Keogan became corrupted by Maven and created a terrible artifact known as the Chronicle of the Dead, which they used to kill off all of the plant life in the Blasted Lands, leaving it the desert it is now. When the Ashenfolk tried to return home to Reshyk, the Dwarves there feared them, believing them to be evil spirits or revenants due to their ghastly appearance. They fought for a time before the Dwarves exiled the Ashenfolk to an island off the coast of the mainland. The Ashenfolk would then settle in the region called The Ashlands, creating cities under the mountain range known as the Basalt Peaks.

About 4,000 years after the creation of the Ettinor, the Voidspawn would begin to attack the other races of Aellorah. Not knowing what to do about this new threat, the Seven Sisters began to form a defense line against the approaching threat, turning their attention away from their creations. This would mark the end of the Age of Creation, and the beginning of the Age of Darkness.

This period of Aellorah’s history is abbreviated as “AC”.