Heru

According to the Elven Creation Myth, the **Heru** are a race of beings spontaneously generated by a "convulsion of Chaos" in the infinite Void. They varied widely in power and capability, but the weak were set upon by the strong. Their numbers dwindled quickly as they hunted and fought with each other until only the strongest and cleverest remained. Among these, the idea spread of working together to overcome others of their kind, further diminishing their numbers. Those that remain are powerful, bloodthirsty, egotistical, unscrupulous, and brutal. Their primary racial ability seems to be the manipulation of raw chaos to form objects and energies on a level unmatched by any other entities. Their physical forms are nearly invulnerable to lesser powers, utterly immune to Chaos energies, and capable of transformation into almost any physical form. Mentally, the Heru are brilliant, powerful, and possess a viewpoint so alien as to be incomprehensible to mortals. They do not seem to speak or use psychic powers, but communicate directly through some unknown agency.

According to the myth, there came a point in their mutual slaughter where the survivors recognized the others as being equal or near-equal in power. These surviving Heru settled into an uneasy truce. They amused themselves with their power over the Void of Chaos, creating and uncreating things as they saw fit. Things continued in this manner for some unspecified time, until the Heru Maddarrah came up with a new idea. Having obtained the support of many of her kind for this novelty, she approached Rendu, widely regarded as the greatest artificer of the Heru, to build a world. Rendu is rumored to have created the first example of many things, including swords, shields, armor, and dragons. (Specifically, Draco Archetypus)

The world in question was a game-board, with living races as the pieces on it. It is presumed the goal of the game is to see which of the races created by the Heru players could conquer and eradicate the other races, but the motivations of the Heru are, at best, murky to anyone but themselves.

Unfortunately, the idea was doomed to fail. While the game of the Heru was entertaining, these bloodthirsty, ruthless entities had a tendency to cheat. Occasionally, one would intervene and interfere with the otherwise-normal progression of events to favor his or her or its own race. There was no way to guard each Heru, as any two or three might tacitly agree to aid their races against all others and fight it out amongst themselves later.

Therefore, to preserve the game and allow it to continue, it was decided to build a place where the Heru could observe the game without interfering. Again, Rendu was called upon. He was not a participant in the game, contenting himself with his own creations, and so was considered a disinterested party.

However, in building such a structure, he observed it would have to contain the Heru--effectively, making it their prison. Since no Heru would willingly be imprisoned why any other Heru remained free, it meant that Rendu would have to join them inside. To this he agreed, reluctantly, but set the conditions of the prison's opening. Rendu was the key. While Rendu would have to remain in the prison of his own making, a condition all the other Heru insisted upon, any Heru who wished to leave could demand exit. By doing so, the prison would be undone and everything in it would be set free.

The prison took the form of a high Spire, set in the center of the game-board world. From there, the Heru could observe all their creations and their progress. The Spire is still there, so, presumably, no Heru has yet seen fit to leave. Observations of the area around the Spire, however, imply they do not wish to be disturbed, either. All around the Spire is a broad, circular valley, filled with gigantic, slumbering dragons--the mounts of the Heru.