The History of the World

In the beginning was Evendur. Extensions of himself floated around him like multicolored strings, and he grasped at them and began to weave them together. First he used the brightest threads he could find to create twenty-four beings, whom he named the Meydra. He was pleased, and saw fit to place them in a world, where they could perhaps be tremendous forces for good. So he wove together a world which he called Ekaia. First came a great expanse of solid ground; next he took the softest, most fluid threads and created the seas and the air.
There was much more that Evendur wanted to do, so he elected to allow the Meydra to sleep peacefully until he was ready. He laid them in a special place, a safe place, which he chose himself, and which he promised would allow them to dream without fear of what might happen to them.
As they slept, Evendur continued to shape the world, moving about the threads of himself and bringing a vast variety of creatures into the world. He designated continents and islands and decided to place some creatures in some places and some in others, and was excited to see what his creations would name their homes. He saw there were still many, many threads remaining, so he began to shape them into other planes. Some echoed the Prime Material Plane in many ways, but each was distinct. Among the final things added to the material plane were humanoid species. The first of these were the humans and the elves, and then came many, many others, some of which still populate the world today.
When Evendur had finished, he saw that many strings of creation were being left behind, the barest, thinnest ones, some even too small to create something of their own, left completely unused. After much pondering, he decided to allow certain creatures access to these threads, as they floated all around the world which was Evendur. Use of these threads is, today, known as magic.
When all was ready, after millennia of carefully crafting every small nook of the world, Evendur took the twenty-four and breathed life into them, and inside of them flared up a brightness which was a spark of his own divinity. And he created music from the crescendo of the oceans and the lightning and the wild winds, called now the Song of the Beginning, and the Meydra woke up.

The Age of the Meydra

The Meydra wandered, learning about each other and Evendur and the world he had given them. They always felt safest where they had long slept, in the Valley of the Meydra, but still they felt a great curiosity about this world and a desire to explore it. Many of them chose to help the early humanoids who were still learning to fend for themselves, something the Meydra never had to worry about. Many actively worked against this, and each other. Much conflict and strife arose when the Meydra misused their power, and Evendur mourned this, but he had told them what would happen if they turned away from him, and had given them the choice.
They had children, who grew quickly and were almost as powerful as their parents. In the end, the twenty-four were joined by thirty-one more. However, when the second generation had children, and when any Meydra had a child with any other race, the result was a group of individuals who were decidedly different from their parents, but still far more powerful than any of the humanoids unrelated to them. These were the Simrae, and they lived difficult lives, never truly belonging to either world, but many did a great deal of good with the power they wielded. In small amounts, even the Simrae could save entire settlements by coaxing animals to be calm and plants to grow.
And when the greatest amounts of power were unleashed by the eldest Meydra, whom the humanoids regularly referred to as gods, it was enough to reshape coastlines, level mountains, and bring up islands from the depths of the sea.
It is unknown exactly how long the Age of the Meydra lasted, but it is widely understood to have gone on for thousands of years. At a time unforeseen by anyone, Evendur chose to bring the spirits of the Meydra to the Beyond to abide with him, in a moment known as the Death of the Meydra.

The Era of Cloud

The era is thus named as it was a time of great uncertainty in the wake of the Meydras' departure, particularly for the Simrae. Many were distracted, confused, and lost to the point of uselessness. A notable figure during the beginning of this era was Kallistos, who was the only Meydra who walked the earth at this time, as he had been created in the same moment of the Death of the Meydra. In an effort to make his parents, Lekatash and Tekina, proud, he embarked on a bloody conquest, which he ended after some years when Evendur warned him in a vision how very far he was from pleasing his parents or Evendur. He spent the rest of his life trying to atone, and founded Kroshesket in memory of his parents. In the year EC 147, he was lost in the final deciding battle of the War with the North, though it is unknown what exactly happened to him.
At this time many Simrae, who lived for several centuries, still walked Ekaia. Many were trying to live quiet lives, while others desperately wanted to work out where they were meant to be in Evendur's great plan and embarked on great enterprises to do as much good as they could, and still others used their power only to seize more.
Near the end of the Era of Cloud, ships were built that were able to travel across the oceans and allow contact with other continents. The elves spread from Quellevore to Talazic, humans spread from Talazic and even the tabaxi left their homes in Kiritchati. It was a time of discovery and exploration.
The scant historical documents available have suggested that all the Simrae were gone by the year EC 1690. Around this time, most communities were very small, and many free folk of the world lived in hunter-gatherer communities or nomadic tribes. Conflict on a large scale was rare; the most significant example was the Kallistan War (~2-70), though also taking place during the Era of Cloud were the War of Fire (beginning early 2000s, lasting around 200 years) and the Great Hunt (3832-3859).
The Era of Cloud lasted for 4642 years; then darkness descended.

The Great Shadow

Without warning, a great darkness descended over all the world. Nothing could penetrate it, not even the most powerful magic. Bitter cold seized the land, creatures with blindsight reigned supreme, and many died. It was a time of profound fear.
After what has been estimated to be about a year, though it was extremely difficult, even impossible, to tell time during the Great Shadow, the darkness lifted. The monsters retreated back to their dens and lairs, and all seemed to be well. None knew why at the time, but one thousand years later, it was learned that it was a cyclical weakness on the part of the gods, due to a wicked ritual that had taken place two thousand years before the end of the Era of Cloud, which had been taken advantage of by fiendish forces.
When the darkness did lift, a new age was declared, an era of light, truth, and courage.

The Era of Light

The return of light saw also the return of many to devotion to the Meydra and to Evendur, particularly Meydra associated with light such as Kaeli, Miranelle, and Kishike. It has been a time of rebuilding in the wake of the Great Shadow, as the people of the world commit to learning about magic, Evendur, and themselves. Answers finally came in EL 1000 along with the final assault by the forces of Mavislak the Blood-eyed, who desired to destroy all light and take the world for those who lived beneath. His ultimate failure coincided with the revelation to all the world that the stars form a path for all the faithful departed which they may follow to eternal paradise—something which had been speculated by select academics but never certain before.
Nearly three decades after this revelation, the peoples of Ekaia continue to move forward through an imperfect world under Evendur's watchful gaze, celebrating and anticipating the final victory of good with the annual Festival of Light.