The Age of Creation

**-50,000,000AF**: The Creation of the Universe - The first of the Elder Gods are born from the swirling cosmic void. At first they are formless, shapeless, and mindless but as the millennia go by these entities begin to grow in power by feeding on the roiling, chaotic energies of the universe. In time they develop sentience and personality. The oldest and most powerful are able to adopt a corporeal form and exert their will upon the void, changing it as they will.

**-30,000,000AF**: Many of the Elder Gods have attained great power and under the leadership of the oldest among them, Dievas the Allfather, spread out across the universe, creating worlds and seeding them with the building blocks of life. A small but influential faction led by the Elder God Maz'gathod are against expending their energy on creating life and instead are focused on the attainment of yet more cosmic powers. The universe is partitioned amongst the Elder Gods with half being seeded with life while the other half goes to Maz'gathod. This leads to vast swaths of the universe going dark completely as they drain the life of every star they come across.

**-10,000,000AF**: The Elder Gods have started life on millions of worlds across the universe. The Allfather and his followers continue to foster their creations and use their power to maintain order in the universe. Interestingly, the entities discover they receive power from the reverence given to them by their creations. Maz'gathod and his followers look on hungrily as the Allfather and his fellow gods bath in adoration and power and a plot is formed.

The Golden Men, a race of incredibly long-lived and magically gifted humanoids, are created by the Allfathers shortly after the creation of the kosmos to be stewards of their creations.

The **Black Star World** is discovered by the Allfathers, having formed naturally from the swirling gases and rock of the early universe. It is locked in perpetual night and it's surface dominated by savage beasts. The Allfathers recognize its potential and move it closer to the sun over many millennia in order to make the world habitable for their chosen creations. The Golden Men establish colonies on the large, resource rich world and nurture it into a temperate world teeming with natural life.

Over the aeons the Allfathers create yet more intelligent life and the elves, humans, and others come into being. Over many thousands of years the society of the Golden Men develops into a prosperous, educated, and technologically advanced civilization. They develop means to leave their world and travel among the stars.

### **The Celestial Schism**

**The Celestial Schism**: The Elder God Maz'gathod, grows jealous that the Allfather’s creations venerate Dievas the most and becomes more and more envious as their faith strengthens him. Millenia of jealousy results in Maz’gathad beginning the schism in order to cleanse the universe of life so that it may be replanted with creations loyal to him. As he begins exterminating entire worlds he finds that he is able to draw more power from the fear of mortals than from reverence. This allows him to gain in strength quickly with every world he destroys. Like-minded elder gods follow in his footsteps, destroying entire swaths of creation before being confronted by the other Allfathers. When Dievas meets Maz’gathad in battle he finds his former comrade twisted beyond recognition by the dark aether he has absorbed.

As the two sides battle, Maz'gathod attacks and devours the weaker elder gods, absorbing their celestial energy. He is confronted by Dievas himself and an epic battle begins that sees both gods gravely wounded and taken to safety by their allies. Maz'gathod's faction becomes known as the Fallen. The War for Creation has begun.

**The War for Creation**: Both sides muster their forces and a sequence of universe shattering battles take place which see the outnumbered Fallen steadily pushed back by the Elder Gods. Despite the violence Dievas held out hope that both sides might be reconciled. Maz'gathod turns to the seeded worlds rich with life and the Fallen begin draining them completely of energy, turning vibrant worlds bursting with life into barren rocks. Thousands of worlds and billions of mortal lives are snuffed out, sending a mournful howl through the ether and the Elder Gods knew what had happened. They pursued the Fallen, catching some and destroying them but for every one they caught many more slipped through their defenses and destroyed yet more worlds. The Fallen grew more powerful and before long were able to fight evenly with the Elders and not long after the tide turned in the Fallen's favor.

The war waged on for thousands of years with untold scores of cosmic beings on both sides being destroyed and much of the universe being laid waste. After many defeats and being driven back to their final refuge, Dievas and his remaining followers realized the only way they would stand a chance against their enemy

The world is shaken to it's core as the Elder Gods do battle in the skies and Maz'gathod's corpse is spirited away in the final clash. The moon Selene is heavily damaged in the fighting and a large chunk of it breaks off and hurtles toward the world. The Golden Men, few in number, use their magical might to shield the world from the worst of the cataclysm and one by one they die under the strain. Despite their noble sacrifice, many large chunks of moon rock make it through their protective wards. The continents are shattered and many of the sentient races are pushed to the brink of extinction.

Dwarves abandon all of their holdings south of the Jadestone Mountains and return to their oldest and most established subterranean cities. As the mountains shift and continents crack, several of the dwarf holds are crushed by the titanic forces. Few escape the complete obliteration of the cities.

The elves mark this period as the Dark Time, a period of intense natural disaster, famine, and plague that nearly wipeout their entire race. With the Golden Men destroyed the disparate people of the world lack leadership and struggle to survive and over time, forget much of what they once knew.