Age of Gods
The beginning of the world is shrouded in myth and mystery. Many religions and cultures have their own creation stories, most of which are entirely inconsistent with each other. As of yet, scholars have not been able to piece together a single origin on which they can agree.
That being said, most scholars subscribe to the view that the world is incredibly ancient. Evidence has been found that suggests that the continents were at one point connected in one supercontinent, sometimes referred to as Hyperboros, which eventually split into the known continents of Akados, Boros, and Libynos. Given the speed at which the landmasses appear to move, some of the wise in Courghais, Reme, Bard’s Gate, and Castorhage postulate an age of the world of billions of years.
Most scholars have also come to a consensus that the world’s creation resulted from the actions (whether intentional or not) of one or two primordial elemental forces. Not necessarily gods in the strict sense, these fundamental powers have been given various names by those cultures that refer to them, including Erce, Boros (from whence came the name of both the northern continent and the world), Ymir, and Behemoth. Some of these forces may be native to our plane of existence, while others may have come from the upper or lower planes.
According to the oldest and darkest legends, there came a time, long after the world formed but eons ago yet, that chaotic beings of enormous power arrived on the world from beyond the stars. In many ways neither gods nor demons, they have come to be referred to as the Great Old Ones. Some of their names have also come down to us, including Hastur, the Unspeakable One; Cybele, the Great Mother, the Black Goat of the Woods; and Tsathogga, the Demon Frog God, the Devouring Maw, who is also said to be a demon lord. The Great Old Ones and their unhuman servitor races populated the world and are believed to have bred beasts for labor and food.
Eventually, the Great Old Ones warred among themselves during a period called the Primordial Wars. None now knows which one of them ended up ascendant. It is thought that Tsathogga was not victorious, but that he and his tsathar servitor race survived the Primordial Wars by retreating into desolate swamps and caverns, though they lost much of their power elsewhere in the world.
The end of the Age of Gods is traditionally marked by an event known as the Judgment of Xtu. According to the legends that speak of this time, a fiery object from the skies crashed into eastern Libynos and annihilated a portion of the eastern side of the continent and devastated the populations of the Great Old Ones’ nonhuman servitor races and the great beasts inhabiting the world. Where the object struck, hundreds of thousands of square miles of land were effectively vaporized. The seas rushed into the massive crater and created the Boiling Sea, which exists today as a part of Mother Oceanus along the east coast of Central Libynos near Imya and the Jungle of Malagro.
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