Creation Myth

To begin, we must discuss the underlying fabric of reality, that is the planes. Depending on who you ask, the planes are conceptualized in different ways. For the purpose of our understanding, the planes can be thought of as adjacent dimensions. They exist next to one another in a certain sense of speaking, but going between them is the stuff of legend for mortals. The planes themselves predate the existence of even the gods. Whether they were created or simply have always existed is a matter of philosophy and religion. Some claim that all of reality is even just the drawn-out thoughts of a being beyond conception – while fanciful and fascinating, these theories have no strong effect upon inhabitants of any of the planes, save for perhaps the most powerful of the powerful deities. With this in mind, we look, as you say, backwards.
There was once a time when immortals and mortals comingled their existences on the material plane. There were times when gods held courts among mortals and the temples were not just shrines but the living space of a gods form while in the material plane. It was during these times that not just good or lawful deities came to the material plane, but also chaotic and evil deities. The gods had battles that laid waste to civilizations and were destructive beyond any present capacity. The volume of blood shed by the mortals of the material plane in the fights of the gods was said to be enough to fill the oceans 10 times over.
While the gods had their divine magic, divinity was (and is) not the only source of magic in the world. Common thought remembers the arcane, the natural, and powers granted by sub-god creatures that are still extremely powerful.
For any historian who looks back on when there were gods in the material plane, the moment there stopped being gods is known as “The Departure”. Theories run rampant as to why the gods deserted the material plane and why they have not returned. Some speculate the gods made a pact to let the mortals choose their own paths. Some speculate that the good and lawful gods used their own magic to create magical barriers that prevented any deity from entering the plane. Some even suspect the gods all died off and the magic of clerics today is just an echo of their power that has yet to die out. These are all good theories worth investigation and research so we can better understand the nature of the world in which we live.

Gods? By Lore Keeper Saldon, 2593

In Literature

See also the works of Lore Keeper Razif Dore III circa 1722-1759.

In Art

Various depections of The Departure can be found in enormous murals throughout the capital and major cities of the world. These vary not only with culture, but also with artistic flair and patron ideology.

Date of First Recording

82

Date of Setting

Pre Departure