The Awakening
Millions of years ago to ~200,000 years ago.
Some time between three and four million years ago, early treants evolved - or were awakened by the gods - from the trees. Treants were the first to speak, the first to use magic, and the first to meet the gods. While the primeval treants loved the Sister-Moons, the Old Gods, and the various geshtai, they loved Antu, Shepherd of the Forest the most. For millions of years, the treants lived and worshipped, learned the secrets of druidic magic and awakened slumbering trees. In time, whole forests were made up of intelligent trees and shrubs, and the treants began to awaken the animals of the world.
In time, the gods would create other life modeled on the treants. The thriving multitudes of treants across the Jehannian continent would dwindle. The intelligent forests would find their autumn and retreat. For millions of years, the once-dominant treant clans have given way; first to the giants and their yesreni kin, then to the fey, to dragons, and descendants of their slaves, the ausrani and the caisheni. The treants' numbers are now much reduced. Where once they ruled a continent, now they are concentrated in the last remnants of their ancient territory - the Carentan Forest and the fey forests of Cernoa.
Some say that the Sister-Moons created the treants, and that after millions of years in a world dominated by treants and their awakened creatures, the Old Gods decided to create life of their own. In those days, there were more Old Gods than there are now. And all them came together to create life -- even dark and evil gods now long forgotten.
Inspired by treants, the Old Gods created life in their image. They were up to fifty feet tall and, unlike a treant, made of animal muscle, bone and blood. The first giants were beautiful, powerful and glorious to behold.
In the two million years since the primordial giants were created, their descendants evolved to inhabit every ecosystem on Jehaan. Some became the various giant types, some became giantkin, and some became dwarves and gnomes. Today's giants, giantkin, dwarves, and gnomes refer to themselves collectively as the yesreni or "people of the gods."
The yesreni lived among themselves for two million years, from the creation of the giants until about 800,000 years ago - when a rift opened to another world. No one knows where the rift was, or how long it stayed open, but at that time the fey began to appear on Ancathra.
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