The Beginning

So thus I recount the myth of the Avatars.

The Beginning? Time only exists and within it spawned over time is the Platinum Crystal. The Crystal is simple with only six sides and nine facets. Time began to change the crystal and from it issued life. The Eldar Avatars came away from it divided into the forces that would make up TAL, also called Talasia by some. But these ?Gods? had no need for such titles nor long names, simple things suited them best.

The First of these was Knowledge. Knowledge as all the Eldar Avatars could take on any race, sex or indeed form. He, more than the others, understood the magic inherent in Time and TAL. He understood the Path and the Power and from him comes the knowledge of all races and in some part the knowledge of the Avatars. Thus he was first.

Next came something more one sided, for knowledge could be used as those who owned it saw fit. However this creation was not of such a mind. Light, a fair being of power and good will. Light went one step further than Knowledge who preferred to simply observe. Light decided to create life, and from that ?Life? came Gods and mortals. After that the others realised they must hurry their own becomings in order that they might have their proper effects on what was created.

The next to come was Darkness, to counter Light?s never-ending brilliance and bringing comfort to those who found the Light oppressive. From then on the ?Life? not yet having form was in two parts, if you will, good and evil. So all life could now be either. Knowledge allowed another choice however. He was much wiser than the younger two Avatars that fought each other for supremacy and he decreed that no life was born good or evil but would be shaped by that which they chose to contact and worship. Both Avatars had to bow to this excellent reasoning, though they did so grudgingly.

Next came Nature, finally from him, or even with him came the creation smith Talon. Talon was subservient to the greater Avatars and he set about to make a world in which ?Life? could be. Nature could grow on it and thrive. Light could be there, as could Darkness also. Knowledge could be passed on to life and so it went on.

Nature however did not turn out as expected, for he was a wild-god and uncontrolled. He delighted in destruction and power and so he is called Wild, or Fang, by all and Never (not even by the Avatars) is he called Nature. Fang the wild man was not at all pleased with the ?Life? Light had created. It was too orderly and civilised for him. So he made his own life, which the other Avatars sneered at, as inferior. But Fang was confident that his inferior ?Animal life? as he called it, would prove a valuable ally to him and one he would not have to compete for.

Next came Justice he like Light was ?Good? and they formed a powerful alliance both vowing to uphold ?Truth and Light?. Both honourable and powerful Darkness became sore afraid and demanded of Knowledge that the scales be set right.

Thus came perhaps the most feared god Death. Death however could not unite with Darkness, nor Darkness with Death. For upon first sight of each other, they saw in each other, themselves, and were sickened by the sight. Death was inevitability and so, while he attracted almost no support from ?Life? at first, he swiftly gained it when they found they must all needs die and go to his court. Death became almost all-powerful. For even the Avatars feared that Death must inevitably come upon them. But Knowledge feared not Death for he saw that six were come and yet waited.
The edges of the facets of the Jewel glinted with inner light and from them stepped the seventh Eldar god, or Avatar, of the Mithril age.

Chaos stood before the Avatars and ?Life? now, and all knew fear. Death was suddenly no longer inevitable. Without Light there is Darkness and without Darkness there is Light. So it ?had? been. Now however all was changed. Even Knowledge wise as he was, to know Chaos was necessary, still feared his potential. Chaos cared for none of them. His greatest enemy was destined to be Justice whose ordered life style would be followed by those who had chosen to follow him. So, even Chaos was entered into the balance.

Time saw that this was good and that Chaos mixed the other six in a way that had been impossible before. So began the Golden age of the Gods. The Platinum Crystal even now resides in the Paromere (the meeting place of the Avatars). On the Platinum Throne and none may touch it, for to do so is ?To Void? a fate feared by Death above all. In the Golden Age Tal was finished and ?Life? was deposited there and the Avatars created the races. Elves were created by Light and to counter Dark elves by Darkness. The Visks, greenskins and animals-types alike all from Wild. Undead from Death and some of the more terrible creatures of suffering. So it went on and lastly man.

In a way Man was created by all of them. Death insisted they be short lived. Wild decreed they would not have direct contact to anything and start wild, living off their instincts. Knowledge countered that they would be given the capacity to learn easily and quickly. Light gave them their senses and their need for love and instinct for breeding. Darkness insisted that their vision unlike that of the Elves be impaired by his Darkness so his followers could be blessed by him and remain unseen by Light?s. Just as Light gave them a ?good soul? Darkness took all that and confounded it. He gave them a need for greed, lust and envy. Justice insisted they have conscience, one they could overrule but that all were born with. A basic sense of what was good and what was bad and a basic admiration of honour. The last it was decided would be more up to the individual human but the other was granted. Last came Chaos smiling, you have done my job for me. He shrugged (as much as a god can) I ultimately give them the right to be what they will and the need not to be like everyone else. So it was agreed.

Unknown to the others Chaos? last ?gift? gave humans xenophobia, more than many of the other races such as the fair-born elves. So as the Golden Age progressed the Avatars realised that humans were getting out of hand and so they created the Golden Gods. Gods below themselves but a lot of them, to control the various types of humans.

The god of the Forest came from Wild he was a more gentle version and all nature lovers would revere him where as Wild repulsed them. He also did not fear/distrust magic as Wild did and so Wild gained his first magic user followers. Mishaella goddess of Love from Light. She brought in with her the idea that the gods could be female and great joy and happiness. Darius was made by Darkness for nothing more than to destroy what Light was trying to achieve. Darius was a god of rapists and murderers. He was a sexist, racist animal not fit to be human never mind a god. Nevertheless he carried all the trappings of god-hood and was himself most seductive and soave. Talon put himself under Knowledge and became not only the maker of the world but patron of Smiths and the honest tradesman basically he specialised in the hands-on knowledge that Knowledge himself did not always appeal to. Barik came under Death for he was god of Battle. Death despite hardly ever speaking to him or doing more than occasionally admitting that he brought Death many souls did quite like his tough always angry nature. Justice created Troy god of Defence and stability, faith and Order. He and Justice perfectly suited one another and dealt extremely well together. He did not bring more people to Justice however as many of the others had. He did however solidify what Justice was and tied him close to the humans.

After the Golden Age the gods created more gods and they became weaker and weaker gods that needed to work harder and harder to maintain their power. Humans became the dominant race with a love of battle and their dominant intolerant natures. Chaos reined for many years and this is possibly why he never felt the need to create and any lesser god to complement his power. The Golden Age was over and those created gods, began to become more their own people. Instead of being subservient they struck deals with those who had created them. The gods of the Golden Age began to search for their own glory and power to be increased and so they formed the Silver and Bronze gods also. Lastly demi-gods came forth of highly minor things in life and they, to keep themselves in their few followers? minds, visited Tal as avatars, taking on themselves bodies of the flesh. Humans having been taught by both dwarves and elves became powerful and striking out beat down their two masters, forcing them into the outer reaches on the only fully populated continent Karandia. So the Avatars of the Platinum Crystal read into the times and realised how powerful their creations were.

Over time the Avatars have become little more than myths they have no temples and seem to make no impact on the face of Karandia or Tal as a whole. They have become forgotten behind the lesser lights of the many gods that they origionally created. There lore has been lost and their worship abandoned. Yet the Avatars are not dead if indeed such a passing were even possible and years after they were forgotten movements and wispers have been heard of these Elder gods who move once more to shake and remake the world anew...