Ael-Baran

**Ael-Baran**, known later in his life as **Ael the Progenitor**, was a demon created by the Mother with the intent of creating order out of the wild chaos of the universe in its original incarnation.

## Creation and Early Life

Ael-Baran was one of the Mother's first wave of creations. Practically built for wielding magic and shaping the energies of creation, Ael-Baran was a paragon among the masses of demons. He created a great many worlds before his kind decided to revolt against the Mother in the interest of catering to their own free will. Eventually, Ael-Baran emerged as one of the Elite; the Mother's primary and greatest force for creation. Ael-Baran sculpted himself a great hammer of stone and molten rock and used it to create planets for the Mother out of the chaotic energies of space.

When the demons revolted against the Mother, Ael-Baran crafted a small, unnamed planet in its most primordial form of molten rock, abandoning the hammer that demon society taught was a symbol of his oppression under the Mother.

## Freeing the Mother

Ael-Baran would often spend his days near the Mother's prison, listening to the song of creation as her energies rebounded against themselves in her prison. For thousands of years he spent increasingly large amounts of time near her prison, avoiding the gaze of Drak-Narash, her guardian. The singing brought him great sorrow, and eventually drove him nearly mad with grief.

Ael-Baran retrieved his hammer from the world he had created for it, shattering the planet due to the immense magical energies of the hammer having seeped into the essence of the planet. Taking his hammer to the Mother's prison, he struck a great resounding blow against the magical sphere and was immediately set upon by Drak-Narash.

After a short and violent battle, Ael-Baran crushed the guardian's skull beneath his hammer and shattered the Mother's prison. Her light once again flooded the universe, and as a reward for rescuing her, the Mother reshaped Ael-Baran into her equal. This was the origin of the shape of man.

Ael-Baran, now named Ael, was given the Hammer of Creation, reforged into the sword Sorrowsong, and was charged with protecting the Mother from his former brethren as she continued her work of shaping the universe. Ael became the staunchest protector of life and creation, slaying demons by the thousand as the Mother did her work.

Six hundred thousand years passed, with Ael giving no quarter to the legions of demons that assailed him with each passing day. Eventually, the Mother's work was all but complete. In a final act of providence, she used all of her remaining energy to create a a new world for the demons to inhabit, and vanished from this universe. Ael, being the only sentient being left in the universe, set out to create himself some company.

## Creation of Erristan

For one hundred and fifty thousand years, Ael wandered, marveling at the creations of his Mother. She had created plants, animals, and base life forms by the trillion. Ael, however, hungered for something more. He wanted to have someone to speak with, someone he could legitimately watch grow and change throughout the ages.

At long last, the lonely god found Erristan as he neared the end of his days. Soon after he descended to the planet's surface, he was met with an astounding discovery: the dragons. Through a unique line of evolution he had not seen elsewhere in the universe, dragons had evolved from their reptilian ancestors as powerful magi and intelligent scholars. The dragons spoke with Ael, finding him unique and pleasant, but Ael still found no significant connection with them. He resolved to create life for himself, as an experiment.

Ael crafted the first man from his severed left hand and wove woman from the energies of creation. He crafted the elves from the trees, and several other races as well. Ael remained for several generations of human life to ensure that things were going well. In his twilight years, he returned to the place where he had first touched down on Erristan, a lake in the northeastern part of the continent, and, with his last bit of strength, hurled Sorrowsong to the sky and caused the sun to flare with energy and flood the world with light.