Origin of Ardicil

Before the gods, and the material plane and the creation of elves, men, orcs and the many other races that occupy Ardicil, there was pure chaos. The four great titans of Earth, known as Nyx, Air, known as Feng, Water, known as Ra, and Fire, known as Ko, crafted the material plane using pieces of their own domains to combine together. It was not long before the titans went to war. They clashed in their dominions and the warring spilled into the material plane. The titans would constantly form and break alliances with each other, creating powerful demi-beings that soon became the gods of the material plane. The Titan's first children. These children sculpted the material plane to their own liking, carving out great mountains, and deep oceans, both beautiful and terrifying.
The material plane was finally pacified by an intervention of the Titans children, they split the material plane from the chaos of the elementals, in an event called the Sundering. But the children turned on each other, and waged the War of Divinity against each other, until finally the beings of light were able to split those evil beings from the material plane. This formed the weave of magic that remained, and forced even the gods of light and goodness to leave the material plane and ascend to become the first gods. This rift created the shadowfell and the feywild, as well as the outer planes. Each of the gods spread out, claiming a realm of their own and forming their own domain.

With the material plane of left to its own devices, the remaining children and creations of the Titans remained on the material plane. Giants and Dragons rose from the ashes of the War of Divinity and the Sundering, and each carved out great empires for themselves. Inevitably, they clashed and waged war upon each other. Each producing offspring and warriors of their own, much like their titan and celestial predecessors. The dragons producing dragonborn, and giants producing goliaths and Firbolgs. The dragons proved to be much stronger, and the giants were all but wiped out. But the dragons fragmented when the children of the dragons and metallic dragons turned against their crueler chromatic overlords. This brought dragons to almost extinction, and left their children in a precarious position. This was the end of the Dance of Dragons.

A great Saurian race of lizard men, children of the earth plane, carved out a great and magical empire for themselves on the land, while a massive empire was created beneath the waves by Tritons. These two empires filled the void left by the dragons and Titans, and their own creations. These two great and powerful nations used their magic to manipulate the world around them and form powerful and incredible magical weapons and societies. These great societies, being children of the original Titans viewed the gods with hate and jealousy. They rose to challenge these celestial beings with their inventions and extreme mastery of arcane power. They were joined by the Azer, great craftsmen who forged massive weapons of war and technological marvels.
Many are unaware of what led these two societies to draw the ire of the gods, but they did. Some say they began to develop great weapons aimed at killing divinity in its entirety. Regardless, a great war was fought between the gods and these massive powerful empires of Saurians and Tritons. This was called the War of Arcanum. The celestial gods fought using proxies, the young races of elves, dwarves and gnomes, and gave them the knowledge to craft great weapons and armor to aid them. These weapons became known as the Relics of Arcanum. 
The dark gods even bade their own creations of Orcs, Minotaurs, and Goblinoids to fight these empires, giving them dark blessings and weapons of their own. The war evolved as well between the races of the Prime Deities and the Dark Gods, however, there were enough on both sides who saw the threat that the Saurians and Tritons posed against them both. Each knew at the end of one war, there would be another that would solidify their power in the new world.
With these two briefly united in cause, they tore apart the empire of Lizards and Tritons, known as the Old Ones, and destroyed their magocracies. Tearing their empires apart in great battles that forever shaped the future of Ardicil. However their lack of commitment, and desire to underhand each other at every step lead the armies of divinity to prolong the war, and cause even more destruction and death around Ardicil. 
At the final city's collapse, a final last ditch attempt by a Saurian Slann, corrupted by Tzeentch accidentally shattered the divine gate just long enough for some of the worst Dark Gods to once again return. Nurgle and Tzeentch both returned to the material plane, letting loose their demonic hordes upon the realm.
The dark and the light clashed once more almost ending the existence of Ardicil as a whole. The Dark Gods once again returned, those who served the prime deities were isolated from their own gods. The champions who lead their respective races during the war against the Old Ones, once again found themselves as champions against each other. The great and arrogant elven cities plummeted from the skies, and dwarven kingdoms fell to ruin as the ruinous demonic gods. The war ended as the tide was turned by the races of the other supposed dark gods, the goblinoids, orcs and minotaurs joined with the races of men, elf, dwarf and many more to push back the demon hordes and seal the divine gate for all.
With the assistance of the newly awakened men, and the help of halflings, they were able to once again separate the darkness from the world. United in purpose, powerful magi and champions of the prime deities created the Eye of Terror, splitting the dark gods and banishing them from the material plane. This was known as the Calamity.
There was an era of peace for several hundred years. With the former creations of the gods all carving out parts of the world for themselves.
However, still weakened and battered, elves and dwarves shrunk in their influence of the world. While men have began to spread their influence to all corners of Ardicil. In recent years as well, men easily corrupted by promises of power and wealth have turned on each other as well. Much smaller in size than what they once were, the once evil races of Orcs, Minotaurs and Goblinoids had proven themselves as influential against the great demonic beings. Because of this, many of these races have found their ways into the new societies of Ardicil, having forgotten the hatred and terror their ancestors caused each other in the past. Now the creations of both the Prime Deities and the Dark Lords live side by side in almost all of Ardicil, slowly rebuilding the world millennia after the War of Arcanum.
Now is the time of freedom and exploration, a time of changing tides and sifting sands.