With the world in balance, the
Primordial Dragons allowed the birth of the first mortal dragons, bringing time into a world that they knew would run with perfect harmony. The life that the
Titans had cultivated grew and flourished in this new environment, but the titans themselves discovered that time was a slow poison for them, and that only the first generation, the greatest of their kind, were immortal by nature.
For some time, however, the World was as it should be, all elements and creatures in perfect harmony and balance. The titans were shocked, but accepted the new order, for the most part. In time, however, disaster came upon
Aiaos, with little warning and no precedent. Why they came, none can say for sure. Some say that the dragons and the titans became arrogant and drew the wrath of the gods upon them, while others say that it was the actions of mortal titans, desperate to restore their immortality, that drew the gaze of those who dwelt in the Void. Whatever the cause, be it punishment or folly or sheer bad luck,
The Firmament was torn asunder, and vast and terrible forms, alien and inimical to the perfection of Aiaos descended upon the hapless world. These were the
Colossi, and fleets of terrible ships followed them, bringing their
Outerfolk worshippers.
Massive, alien and terrible, the Colossi were unknowable and unfathomable, impossible to reason with, and as implacable in their advance as they were obscure in their motives. The titans and dragons came against them, but the mere presence of the Colossi shattered the perfectly ordered Primeval world. The Old Gods sickened at their advance, and soon followed their predecessors into the Void. The mortal dragons could not look upon the alien forms of the Colossi without their minds fracturing. Those able to face the invaders directly - the titans and the elder wyrms - were overthrown and died in defence of the world. At last, with the world on the brink of destruction, the last of the Colossi were finally defeated, either cast down into the Abyss or driven back into the Void. Their followers scattered, but the cost was terrible.
In the wake of the Colossus War, the world was left fractured. Power flowed into the cracks from the other planes and
Magic entered the world. In an attempt to restore the balance, the Primordial Dragons created the
Dragonborn to aid them, and the Old Gods channeled divine power into the cracks, where it congealed to form the beings known as the
Young Gods.
The Young Gods were manifold and highly plastic, taking whatever forms enabled them to thrive. They began to fashion their own races, from whole-cloth or from the existing creatures of the world, to take up the mantle of the dwindling Titans, and as they formed the mortal races, they became like that which they made. Some races prospered – foremost among them were the
Giants, the
Elves, the
Dwarfs, the dragonborn, the
Orcs and the
Tortle – while some races foundered and some just… were. Some of the Young Gods thrived, some did not. Some gods stayed in the world to rule their creations, while others went into the Firmament or passed back to the Void.
Then the world shattered.
Ruptured to the core by the Colossus War, the planet split apart in the disaster known as the Cataclysm. Storms, earthquakes and volcanoes tore at Atharis. The single landmass broke into four continents, ocean pouring into the gulfs between what were once neighbouring lands. The different races were scattered across the face of the globe. In shock and horror, many of the Young Gods retreated into the Firmament, forswearing direct interference in the world and choosing instead to act only through their followers.
The Dragon Age
Three of the new continents –
Yethera,
Suto and
Caino – were wracked by further earthquakes and volcanoes, but the Primordials held the fourth – Ladon – together. The gods – those still remaining in the world – and dragons struggled to hold the world together, but for a time the Primordial Dragons managed to tame the instability of Aiaos, balancing it between the four elemental planes.
For millennia there was peace, before a schism between the Primordial Dragons erupted into violence. Strife between the Primordials sent ripples through the pillars of Aiaos. Ladon was shattered into the archipelago of Ladonia, four of the Primordials were slain and the mightiest of them, Tempus, sacrificed themselves to prevent a second Cataclysm. Tempus’ dying spasms created the Web of Fate which bound the world together. The Gods were unable to pass across the Web, and so those in the world were trapped there and others were able only to interact through intermediaries. The dragons scattered, spreading across the world and disappearing from sight of the lesser races.
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