Age of Beginning

## Ages

At the introduction of written history, the world was already ages old, spanning a multitude of planets and hemispheres. Fellish history begins with the ancient religious texts known by all, a collection of fables, myths, parables and descriptions of many glorified lands. Most importantly, this Age is far longer than the others, the years comprised of the turmoil between the Elder Races: the Humans, the Elves, and the Dwarves. These people were unaware of their previous, relatively harmonious relations, or chose deliberately to ignore it. they existed in a time of endless slaughter, and fought a war unmatched in scale, though not necessarily in savagery. History will prove the ingenuity of these races when it comes to killing one another.

This first Age was precluded by the presence of beings worshipped as gods, the supposed first of their kind. These gods claimed to be eons old, and that they were creators of the multiple heavens, hells, and material realms. The Elder beings followed these gods, also known as Avatars (In the words of the Ancient Way faith), dependent on their powers for conquest of inhabitable land.

Scholars assume the beginning of life occurred in the center of Fel's singular land mass. In this Age, the lands of Fel were completely connected via ice bridges, before massive tectonic shifts created the seperate continents by 1A1000. Geologists have recently concluded that this shift was a natural occurrence due to the roil of molten materials at the center of the hemisphere of Fel, and has determined that the continental shift will eventually cause new land to spring from the Roi'an volcanic areas, and push existing land masses farther into the Sea of Fire on Fel's outer ring, destroying them. This process, however, would be measured in thousands of years. From the origins of the Elders creation, Humans, Elves, and Dwarves were driven into conflict, each race fighting for the preservation of their species. The earliest years were enveloped in terrible wars which bare no name, long-forgotten kings, expansion and re-location. The Dwarven people, unafraid of the great mountains due to their short stature, claimed the highlands and underground, defending them with ferocity and forcing Humans, Elves, and their children to battle for the remaining surface. Eventually, Elves were able to claim the largest of the forests, who in truth were single beings of unimaginable size, but in doing so, they relegated rule of the rest of the world to the Humans. It wasn't long after that the segregated races began creating offspring that were unlike themselves, and thus began the races of Gnomes, Halflings, Orcs, and the hybrid races of Half-Elves, and Half-Orcs. It is thought that this breeding of races was attributed to cult worship, placing a great stigma on their kind. Each of the three major races were rivaled in their xenophobia, in their own ways, until lomg after the age passed. Slavery among all three Elder Races became a commonplace facet of their societies. The other races did not develop a culture of their own until generations passed. Eventually, more freedom was given to those such as the Halflings, and in some places, Humans and Elves would coexist, and their offspring would form the new communes where they could live in peace.

During this expansion, Three Aspects were worshiped above all else, Plath, Ithis, and Hexe. Constantly in conflict with each other, like jealous siblings, no matter how loudly mortal voices cried for them to make their peace with each other the gods would not share, and thus Mortals fell into conflict. No one has accurately discovered which race actually appeared first (though it has suggested that Humans did come into being shortly after the others, perhaps even as the result of interbreeding between Elves and Dwarves. This theory is suggested by the Humans' much shorter life span, and is often considered a matter of shame in Human cultures. However, this theory remains pure conjecture). The original gods were given many names by many cultures, however, the three were unique, such is the nature of their religion. These three beings were the offspring that remained from some ancient Promethian race.

At the center of the original Fel landmass, a wellspring of tectonic activity arose, and in c300A1, receeded into the earth. In its place, a flood, followed by a drought left a desert in the site of a dust town known as Riftmore. Named for its origin in terrestrial changes, the town would attract only the bravest of vagabonds, and outcasts, until a gathering of prospectors turned the town's fate around. Riftmore would serve as the home of developers, who, in conflict with the major powers (The kingdoms of Human, Elve, and Dwarf) strive to bring harmony to the kingdoms. Using magic, and diplomacy, the Riftmori people grew to hunt the primordial beasts that roamed the land, mapped the farthest reaches of the island, and combatted aspects of chaotic nature gods. In their effort, a druid known as Artemis brought them a dream, which was antithesised by a witch's nightmare. The residents of Riftmore whom could utilize divine magic could alone decypher the meaning, and receive warning that a foul draconic magic threatened the land. This premonition was percrived throughout the kingdoms, uniting them in effort to supply the Riftmori with the lore needed to understand the race of dragons. These beings whom resided in a plane of hell sought to use elemental magic to  corrupt Fel to the point of destruction by storms.

Then, the prophecy was furthered by new Avatars, and an anthology of nightmares began to ebb and flow like ink in clear fluid. The witch Ethel, and her guardian angel Anthel sought The Author in search for confirmation that one of them was right about the propecy, and each thought the other a necessary evil. When they found Atrius in Ezrathun's Librium, a miracle was created to weave a story, The Muses appeared along with Atrius, and the two visitors and their warband were i vited to stay and recieve copies of The Ancient Way. The recovered writings of the original Ashen Scroll were impossible to understand without knowing the language of The Writing Book, a secret art to create new worlds... or else, link them, subverting the Diefic Realm of fire. The guests asked many questions about the creation ofnp the world, and the meaning of the prophecy. The story was better shown, than said, and the Author then agreed to simulate The Ancient Way text with a vision, a day dream. As they entered the aura of stories wrapped around Atrius like a cloak, they were protected from dreams by his dreamshield. Amongst them, Fnord, the dream creature was most at home, and his sudden ingratiation by the muses gifts of perfect charisma, ans the return to the dream laid the plan for the first orders of business of the small Fnord. No one knew that the protective spells cast by Fnord , and Atrius would pale in comparisson to his newly gained moral from his unicorn hair granted to him by The Muse of Beauty. His very sense of purpose allowed him to realize the dream's potential, and demonstrated his nesr infinite power as a dreamer, and audience to the story by beckoning the dream, and transforming into a Slaad. Im his new form, he had a powerful weapon, a necessity, for the prophecy was beginning, and at the moment of creation, the world woukd be on display for them. With only the vehicle of their projected auras of story, and shields from dreams to transport them all safely through the ensuing chaos, no one failed to notice the near incomoetance of Atrius as a leader, as his focus was enturely on generating the story. As long as their real bodies remained in The Librium shrine to Esher, and Siir, they were in no real danger, save from the failure of their mission causing some mental trauma. Atrius's books, The Ancient Way included an index of chapters, each with a painting which moved about the page, displaying the setting of one area of the story chapter. Touching the paintings woukd transport one into the story of that chapter, and as the prologue began, the primal darkness opened up with a crack of light, and a dot of intense white heat.

The mechanations of mortal Men, Elves, and Dwarves were put on hold, as time stood still while they experienced the story; an army halted in place. The city council in Riftmore no longer able to progress relations with Ezrathun, Apollo, their Viceroy who welcomed them to the capitol city stood in place in the Librium watching over their sleeping bodies. But some things stirred still, beings not beholden to time, and dark forces ready to take advantage of the dream simulation to ensure that the worst nightmares would manifest. The ultimate nightmare, to entrap those within the real world, as well as the dream world in an eternal nightmare, becomming the god of gods within the dream, was the goal of the witch Ethel. Atrius, duty bound to prevent the nightmare was too weak to withstand the chaos of the beginning of creation when all the gods appeared in the dark room, its physical space still the same as the Librium circle chamber, but containing the entire universe of darkness so deep at the edges of the room that they nearly ceased all light, but some still played across the ceiling. Colored lights bounced across the domed ceiling, and the paintings of angels who then began to move aswell, and were meant to represent the esoteric concept of god, before god had form, The Primordeal Angels; Hexe, Plath, and Ithis. Their appearance cause an immense explosion of energy, spreading out through the darkness of space, with only the stars, slowly appearing one by one, as company. Only Ethel, and Mahakashaba were powerful enough to withstand the chaos; the witch, and the former mayor of Riftmore, yet transformed by alchemy into a mutant psychic clairvoyant, an albino shapeshifter, capable of transformation into a telepathic hybrid of man and beast-like pale featureless elephant with a third eye, granting the power to resist the dreamy illusions. The paitings emenated an intense chaos, and from them, the world started to form beneith, and the progenerations of the newborn gods were conveived timelessly, and fire flew out into space to challenge the gods. So began The Librium Miracle, the Prologue of the story, and under a great assault by hellfire, Ethel raised defensive walls of ice, and they held long enough for Mahakashaba to follow Fnord's example, and polymorph into a stronger form. Because they were in a dream, their lucidity, if carefully monitered, can alter reality, and so the paranoia set in, and the thought of failure brought the fear of paradoxes to mind. The two were intent on witnessing as much of the first moments in creation, although their perspective was slightky limited, but no one else could survive the fire; Anthel touched The Ancient Way book's chapter depicting the resulting end of lawful combat, and the first paradox appeared from a single event. The room rippled at the stress of the chaos, and the armies of Hexe assaukted Ethels icey walls. Mahakashaba then revealed his new form, the Aeon of creation, mutated with pure clarity, with the singluar goal of extrapolating the meaning of enlightenment from the moment of creation in The Prologue. With his magic, they were defended, he projected extreme creation magic, and invented a creature, so many of them that the plane could not contain them anymore, magical beasts like stilt legged elephants nsmed Dahli Kashapa that speak out the thoughts of the concious minds of mortals, and cracked the world with an engineered paradox. The prologue shattered, and the fading Librium circular chamber was completely gone, and only a perfectly contained universe behind shattered glass, and nothing between the shards. The witch, and Aeon were suspended in The Prologue, and agreed to retreat, and return later. Mahakashaba, in the form of the Pleroma created a pocket dimension tethered to the dream, and they entered. Fnord, Emmerich, and gridford sepparated from Anthel, and traveled to the chapter depicting the glowing Mayor's office in Riftmore, light filtering into the Arborium and onto the great Dracaena Cinnabari, the young living center of Rift ore castle. As everyone except Anthel were safely inside, the guardian angel witnessed the birth of corruption, and was spared by Aeites when they came face to face, the knight bearing a sword on The Author, or a dream facsimili of Atrius, who woefully presented the original copy of The Ancient Way.

The burning of that book began every paradox, the major corruption which caused the world so much pain, that the gods themselves were driven to madness on the very spot. They split into their Instincts, and their Morality, dual forms of each god bent towards chaos, each anchired to the world with a paradoxical moment; loss; death.