Chapter V: The Age of Birth

The gods would ascend to their homes in the Divine Isles; tired, wounded, and drained. Many eons would pass as the primordial beings seemed to live in peace with the land that the gods had created for them, though they would begin to forget about the eleven divine gods that fought a war to deliver them from slavery.

The eldritch blood spilled in that war that had also seeped into the earth and the waters. Grotesque and evil beings would rise from the earth; the coming of the primeval beasts. A host of bizarre and strange creatures would rise from the primordial ooze, the mixture of eldritch blood and the elements, and inherently twisted and evil.

Silvanus while still tired and recuperating in Arborea, decided to send a champion to the world below. Nocturna had tried to gain Silvanus’s favor after the Great Coupling, and wanted to give him a gift. She took the stars from her night skies and set them in Arborea. Here those stars would become the fairy and the fae, created to be the servants of Slivanus.

The god of nature procreated with the most desirable of fairies (causing Notcurna much jealousy) and she gave birth to the twelfth goddess (after Asmodeus’s demotion and banishment) Serenna, who would be sent forth to safeguard Silvanus’s natural order. He gave to her a legion of fae that were mischievous and rebellious in their home in Arborea. In exchange for their freedom and escaping punishment, Slivanus would send them with his daughter, Serrenna, and tasked to be wardens of the world below. The fae would give up their immortality, and over time have their form and shape altered, with the divine command to obey Serrenna, and of course, himself. They became the elves; the first people to walk the earth. There the elves would create, art, poetry, and music and become one with their god’s creation.

Eons later, deep within the earth, the dark races began to rise. The blood of the Nameless Ones consumed unwittingly by the primordial beings, as well as the evil magics of the eldritch Aberrations, begat the creation of the orc, giant, and goblin races. They began to burrow into the earth and mountains, threatening to discover the home of the god Volturnus and his bride, the goddess Mystra. Volturnus would not let he and his wife’s rest be disturbed, so he took the stone and the rock from deep within the mountains and created beings in his own image; the Dwarves. He taught them mastery over fire, stone, and metal to create great tools, weapons, and treasures. The dwarves would defend the realm of Volturnus in a millennia long war against these evil races, as both sought to drive the other from the mountainous caverns to the surface.

Prospera, Mystra, and Ketsimus wanted the dwarves and elves to have friends. They wanted to see a people that combined best of the two that previously walked the earth. Together they melted dwarf and elf and created the Halflings. Given an amiable nature to counteract the other races seeming need for conflict and warfare, the halflings sought to be allied with their forebears and to aid them in their quest for survival. They could live below the earth or above, and seemed to possess the shrewdness and bravery of Volturnus’s dwarves and a love of frolic, food, and fun like Silvanus’s elves. Ketsimus gifted them with an abundance of good fortune, ensuring their survival.

Primus looked upon his fellow gods and their creations with amusement. They seemed to take much pride in their creations, but these beings would never change or grow and within time become stagnant. They were instilled with a calling to serve their individual creators and not give their adoration and love to the gods of their own free will. These races’ cultures had peaked, and Primus could foretell one day his fellow gods’ prized creations would be in decline.

Primus took the remaining primordial life of the world below and imbued them with a small divine spark. The power to change, grow, to adapt, and true free will were seeds planted within them. He called them Humans. The other gods teased their leader because his primeval men were primitive, primeaval beings; little better than animals at best. Primus smiled knowing that his creations would grow smarter and stronger and able to be the masters of the world someday. Primus willed his humans to forge their own paths forward and wanted their love and adoration of the gods to be given willingly, and not because it was born within them like the elves, halflings, and dwarves.