Remnants of the First Gift

Remnants of the First Gift is a book recovered from the Labyrinthe in northwestern Ahlus.

## Description

A thick tome bound in aged leather, the spine of Remnants of the First Gift has long since splintered and broken - and so handling the book is a time-consuming task that requires a great deal of care and attention.

## Research

### Completed by

*While the current calender of Ahlus finds foundation upon the creation of sentient life by the Dawn Matron Aita, there remains irrefutable evidence that the soil and stone upon which they were placed has existed for many centuries, if not millennia longer still. The age that began with Aita's Second Gift has done much and more to define the lands upon which Realms now exist, but the remnants of the time before, following her First Gift, are still scattered throughout them all - or have become the very lands themselves.*

*At some point, Caihrnn created the lands, shaping the soil, carving the stone. This is known with certainty, but the matter of when remains a defiant fact outside of mortal knowledge and view. Into that land, he populated all manner of plant and beast - from great bears that stalk between towering pines to frogspawn sheltered beneath lilypad. Land, sky and sea were made as per his will, and in the quiet and perfected calm of a world of interwoven flora and fauna, he revelled in serene isolation. An eternity had surely not yet passed when his creation enamoured the attention of other ancient forces, primordial personifications of the might of nature - wind and flame, water and thunder, ice and storm, stone and erosion. Unchallenged, they carved valleys were once they had not existed, shattered coastlines into the waves, stirred the heat of the earth to spill from mountain peaks, sealed forests within sheens of unyielding frost. Divided, the consciousness of Caihrnn was shattered, and from this rending new life spurned - the creation of Aita herself, who would gift her light to bring into existence the Sixteen, included amongst them an echo of Caihrnn once more.*

*Banishing the shadow that loomed from the division, the Ahlusian Sixteen turned their focus to the Primordials, seeking to reclaim the lands desecrated - but now found themselves further confounded by other malign forces attracted by the efflux of divine might. Delighting in the chaos of conflict, demonic entities lurched through the veil of the Abyss, revelling and gorging on the carnage and corrupting the lands further still through their presence. Wielding weapons without equal, forces of good and evil alike sundered each other with divine might, and while never truly defeated, their power found itself diminished by the endless cycle of conflict. With the tide of battle shifting against them, the Malign started to turn to mortal servants to further their goals, retreating into the cosmos to guide their words and deeds from afar. Utilising what strength remained to banish the primordials that still bent the lands to their designs, the Sixteen turned to do the same, bringing about the Second Gift as they gifted their residual manifestations to teach the Principal Races and set them on a path unknown, watching from citadels of starlight in the heavens.*

*Since, the Remnants of the First Gift has been used in a variety of contexts. Sometimes, the name is given to locations that were thought to have existed from before the Second Gift, most commonly created by an entity other than the Principal Sixteen. The Labyrinthe, created by the Horned King Baphomet is an example of such, and the Remnant Hills themselves of Central Ahlus supposedly take their name directly from the time period. According to legend, the Hills were created by debris scattered when with the destruction that also created the Greater and Lesser Cicatrixes, an event of such scale that if it is true must have surely occurred around the time of the First Gift. Rarer still, entities from such a time, are sometimes referred to as Remnants too, languishing on planes other than the Material in their banishment. Nuldomul, known as the Stoneheart Despoiler after its rampage destroyed the Mount of Iotl and created the Shrouded Valley, is sometimes referred to as an Elemental Remnant for this exact reason.*

*Most common however is the usage of the term to refer to the weapons wielded by the gods themselves, scattered to the Realms and occasionally finding themselves in the hands of mortal Exarchs dedicated to their will. Discourse, Desecration, Fading Vision, First Light, Forgemaster's Might, Hedony, Netherblight, Ossium, Realm's Demise, Red Mist's Haze, Tempest's Deep and Whispersong are but a few of those known. Created by the divine, it is said that only by the will of its creator, or the fury of another equal weapon that they can be truly destroyed.*