History of Canticlyth

## The Beginning

Millions of years ago, the high god, called Oleda, shaped the universe with his hands. The pinnacle of his creation was Canticlyth, and more importantly, the life that dwelled in it. The ancient people of Canticlyth existed as only one race, the Elder Race, which were tall, strong, and, so it is said, rather beautiful. They were harmonious people, who lived together in peace. With no reason, nor people to fight, the Elder Race controlled all of Canticlyth unopposed. However, at some point, Oleda created many sons and daughters to assist him in governing his universe. Each of his many children were given a certain aspect of existence under their control, such as, but not limited to: the Stars, the Sun and Moon, Wind, Water, Earth, Fire, and some of the races of man. The groups of the Elder Race given to some of these children eventually evolved to resemble the gods they were controlled by. However, a portion of the Elder Race remained under Oleda's control.

## The Death of Oleda

Inevitably, some of Oleda's children became jealous of his rule. Teloth, Master of the Humans; Aranore, Master of the Dwarves; and Elestrianna, Lady of the Elves decided to have their people turn against the Elder Race. This ended up being a terrible idea. While the Oleda and his Elder Race were outnumbered 3:1, ALL of the races involved only had a small portion of their population remaining. At this point, the Perfidious Triad decided to turn on Oleda themselves, rather than having their peoples fight for them. In his last moments, Oleda summoned a cataclysmic event that tore apart Canticlyth, entirely reshaping it. Unfortunately, he was also forced to wipe out the Elder Race, in hopes of ending future conflict between his children, as well as making sure that their holy gifts would no longer be shared with the other races of Canticlyth. Ultimately, Oleda had allowed himself to be destroyed, but immensely punished his children for it. He divided their people, and partially severed the ties between them and their gods.

## Coming of a New Age

The Perfidious Triad and their peoples became the dominant forces controlling Canticlyth. Serving directly under them were the Chauvinist Dyad, then the Masters of the Beasts, and finally, all the forces of nature. The Perfidious Triad eventually began squabbling among themselves, and began forcing their people to fight. Due to the severed connections forced by Oleda, this greatly fatigued them, and many of their people continued becoming more and more independent. Their peoples continued evolving with more and more diversity, and began fighting by their own accord, without being ordered by their gods. This infuriated them, but in their fatigue, they were unable to punish them, so they instead decided to reward those who followed them rather than punishing the ones who did not. These issues did not affect the Chauvinist Dyad's peoples, the Halflings and Gnomes, who tried to remain neutral whenever they could.

## The Tribal Era

Eventually, over the course of millennia, people began to separate from their masters naturally, and began banding together with other members of their races (and sometimes even those of others). These tribes often fought and conquered each other. There was little annexation between these tribes, only pillaging and destruction, however, some tribes were fundamentally larger than others. Of course, these larger tribes were more successful, but the Masters of the Beasts' peoples often succeeded regardless of being outnumbered. Unfortunately, some would say, while the peoples of the Perfidious Triad and Chauvinist Dyad eventually came to unify with one another, the Masters' races remained largely independent, even with one another.

## The Imperial Era

The peoples of Canticlyth eventually came to the realization that they would have greater strength in numbers and began to unify. While they would mostly stick to members of their own race, there were some, albeit few exceptions. Three great empires arose, under control of the races of the Perfidious Triad. Some of the races had become intermixed during the Tribal Era, however, the empires each worshiped the god of their dominant race, meaning that a small percentage of Humans would worship the Lady of the Elves, and other such combinations. At this point, the gods cared little for this sort of thing, and therefore allowed it to continue.

## The Modern Era

In more recent times, the people have become more lax, living without war, at least for the most part. People are more interested in searching for ancient temples of the Elder Race to advance their own knowledge. From the texts unearthed so far, the peoples have developed the art of alchemy, the manipulation of the forces of nature. Conflict in these times has become more of an intellectual arms race rather than a hostile conflict, though that isn't to say that hostility is completely unheard of. The epoch of Canticlyth is based on the discovery of alchemy, a relatively new art only 3031 years old at present day.

## Present Day

The Modern Era has led to a time of constant tension between the Empires. The race for alchemical development has brought the world to the brink of war, and powerful magical weapons are forged with arcane runes to grant them intense abilities. Each nation builds an increasingly large army in secret, armed with the powers granted by the ancient gods. Adventuring parties ranging from single men to giant organizations race to steal the secrets of alchemy for themselves. The world of Canticlyth is on the brink of falling into utter chaos, and the only god who could have stopped it is dead.