Dawn War

Celestial / Cosmic

The Dawn War is the multi-millennia spanning conflict between the Gods and the Primordials for the fate of the newly made world of Tol and its inhabitants. The Primordials, having fashioned Tol's physical structure, returned to the Elemental Chaos to rest. While they were gone, the Gods created life on Tol. When the Primordials returned, they intended to destroy Tol and start anew, but the Gods wanted to preserve it. War between these forces and their creations for ages and generations. Eventually, thanks to an alliance between the Gods and the Primal Spirits, the Primordials were defeated, and Tol was saved.

According to oral and written tradition, before the creation of Tol, there was the Astral Sea and the Elemental Chaos. The Gods ruled the many domains of the Astral Sea, and the Primordials wallowed in the madness of the Elemental Chaos. The two realms and their inhabitants remained strongly apart from each other, and there was no conflict between them.   Eventually, however, lured by the shine of the Astral Sea, the Primordials came to the very edge of the realm of the Gods. In the No Mans Land between them, they began to fashion something new out of the stuff of the Chaos. Earth, fire, wind, and water, along with many elements between were shaped and changed over aeons of time, until they had shaped a sphere of matter. Parts they felt were too bright were discarded, becoming the Feywild. Parts that they felt were too dark were discarded, becoming the Shadowfell. Finally, they were content, and they returned to the Chaos to rest.   As they rested, the Gods found this sphere of matter and were fascinated by it. They blew life into it, setting the wind and water and fire into motion. Then they began fashioning new aspects to be a part of it – living plants, living animals, and, finally, living people. They delighted in the world they had added to and named it Tol, which in the Supernal tongue means, “Alive.”   When the Primordials returned from their rest, they planned to destroy their creation and begin anew as was their wont, and they were infuriated to find that the Gods had interfered. The Gods were distressed by the idea of the Primordials destroying something they had come to love. And so it was that the Dawn War began.   Many epic battles were fought over long aeons. During the chaos of the Dawn War, the god called Tharizdun planted a gem of pure evil down in the very depths of the Elemental Chaos. This gem festered and wrought the Abyss upon the Chaos below. The Gods and Primordials were so horrified by this turn of events that they called a truce until Tharizdun was captured, stripped of his name (becoming known as the Nameless for thousands of years), and imprisoned in the moon Kassyle. Once this was done, however, the war began anew.   Towards the end of the battles, many gods and primordials were slain. Three gods, known now as The Three Who Are Hidden defected to the side of the Primordials, believing that the gods could not win and wanting to be on the winning side. With the gods slowly weakening, another took advantage of the situation. Asmodeus, Exarch to a mighty god, slew him and stole the divine spark within him, becoming as a god himself. The god’s destruction was so complete that he is remembered now only as the Mourned God. The other gods, horrified by this act of deicide, turned the Mourned God’s astral realm into a prison and sentenced Asmodeus and his followers to eternal damnation there. The crafty evil god remains ostensibly trapped in this Hell, but his reach extends far across the worlds nonetheless.   Even as it began to appear that the Primodials would surely be triumphant, help came to the gods and their servants from an unexpected source. The awakening of life on Tol had granted the world and its nature a spiritual aspect. These Primal Spirits recognized that to allow the Primordials to win would mean their own end. The seven greatest Primal Spirits struck a deal with the gods: the spirits of Tol would aid the gods against the Primordials if the gods agreed to withdraw to the Astral Sea after the war was over. They would be allowed to send their angels and exarchs and aspects and mortal influence, but they would never again set foot their themselves. The gods agreed.   In the end, with the aid of the Primal Spirits, the Gods were triumphant. They imprisoned the Primordials in various locations throughout reality, hoping never to have to face them again. The Gods withdrew to the Astral Sea and have kept their bargain to this day. The Primal Spirits watch and wait upon Tol for signs of any alien influence. The Primordials that were not slain remain imprisoned, but they watch…and wait.