Era of Ascension

The arrival of the gods was foretold by Angwar the Ancient only a decade before the Godsmount rent the sky asunder with flame and ash.  Those Primordials who could be gathered together formed a seething multitude at the slopes of the Godsmount, preparing for the arrival of the prophesied destroyers.  Others fled for the farthest reaches of the world; some sought refuge deep within the trenches of the oceans while others delved deep into earth or soared high into the skies to seek refuge from the utter destruction foretold by Angwar.  Few lived to tell the tale of the battle on the slopes and in the skies above the Godsmount, yet it is said that the carmine shores of the Shattered Isles were once pure white sand stained in perpetuum with the blood of countless Primordials (though Angwar or the handful of Primordials who have made friendly contact with the Empire would say this is nonsense; Primordials are beings of pure Aether given corporeal form and have no need for blood).

Little is known of the arrival of the Gods.  Legends hold that the assembled masses of Primordials were annihilated utterly;  though Angwar did not fight in the battle herself, she lost her two eldest sons in the conflict.  The fledgling gods gathered the Aether of the sundered Primordials and wove the ragged strands of their essence into the greatest threat the plane of Elara has ever seen.  These beings were created by the will of the gods themselves and became known as the Primevals by the natives of the world.  Each Primeval was spun from pure Aether and given thought and form only to serve and accompany the gods through their inscrutable schemes in this newest battleground.  And so the gods dispersed throughout the world, claiming territories and imposing their will upon the natural order instinctively, warping the flow of the Aetherium into a twisted semblance of its former majesty.

The gods themselves furthered their designs through use of these Primevals;  only seldom would a member of the pantheon involve themselves directly in the course of events, preferring instead to empower their agents.  Nothing delighted them more than the requital of a fellow god, while nothing caused greater agony than the loss of one of their Children.  And while the direct conflict between the gods and their creations remained entertaining for decades, the attrition of their favored children became too great for the gods to bear.  The pantheon required a new diversion, and one less costly as the death of each Primeval returned a massive amount of power to the Aetherium, strengthening the rogue Primordials who still dwelt in the hidden and remote regions of the world.  A great moot was called as the gods presented proposals for the next century of challenge and diversion.  It was during this moot that Grackis the Bloody Fang (servant of Roppa, Lord of the Void) proposed a new path;  grant the Primevals the ability to create their own servants for the entertainment of the gods.  These beings would embody the characteristics of their forebears, yet would be imbued with only the tiniest spark of Aether to grant them life and sentience.

The gods were elated.  Where their struggles were once monumental in proportion now hundreds, thousands of plots and schemes could be executed simultaneously, causing the scope of conflict between them to expand by an order of magnitude.  The loss of these minor servants was beneath their notice, yet the exultation from a successful coup remained nearly equal.  Better still, the loss of Aether was minimal, no longer empowering their enemies with the loss of their Primevals.  The creation of these lesser servants (known now as the demi-humans) ushered in an era of unimaginable bloodshed and conflict known today as the Era of Strife.