Origin Mythos

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## In the Beginning

At the dawn of creation, there were many gods, fading into and out of existence as quickly as bubbles in a pot of boiling water. Some were born strong and are still around to this day, Pelor, Moradin, and the like. Some were born weak, mere flickers of light in the void, snuffed out as soon as they formed.

As the cosmos settled into the formation we now know, those gods that survived began to solidify their power. They claimed aspects of the cosmos for themselves. Some claimed distant planes of reality like Hades, Pandemonium, Celestia, etc. You would not have heard of any of their names. Some began to create here, on the Prime Material plane. These are names you would know. Pelor, Corellon Latherian, Gruumsh, and others.

The gods grew lonely over the eons. Some desired companionship, others desired worshipers, but all felt the pull of creation, an undeniable cosmic force that even they could not resist. The gods pulled from the elements and aspects of the prime material plane to create the living creatures of Aerus.

Naturally, as in any family, there were conflicts. Some gods competed, while others worked together. Pelor god of sun and sky, and Corellon, bringer of rain and the waters of life, worked together to mold both humans and elves. Moradin carved the race of dwarves from his stony skin and infused them with the liquid metal of his blood, and so on with various gods until all the races were formed.

Over the centuries to follow, some gods became jealous of the other’s creations. They sought to improve their own worshippers, or to create new ones, but the original, irresistible cosmic spark of creation had faded. They turned instead to war and conflict. It was during this time that many explicit lines between good and evil creatures were drawn.

Gruumsh in particular stood alone against the other gods, though unlike many others he felt no jealousy, neither did hate rule his heart as it did some others like Nerull who only wanted to see all things ended. Rather he felt pride, and fancied his orcs to be the superior race. Disciplined, strong, smart, they made for excellent soldiers, and he regularly pitted them against the other races as a simple show of power.

Eventually the other gods grew weary of the senseless challenges and confronted Gruumsh. Corellon and Gruumsh came to blows, the first time that the gods had ever attempted violence directly against each other. After hundreds of years of combat, which was mirrored between orcs, elves and humans on Aerus, Corellon bested Gruumsh and took his eye as punishment.

He cast it into the elemental plane of fire, where it circled for eternity. Gruumsh took it upon himself to reign over the plane, appointing himself god of fire as well as war. There he sits on his throne of flame, bitter and prideful but wise enough to know better than to confront his brothers again. His eye eternally wanders from the the plane of fire into the Prime Material plane, watching all things, reminding him of his defeat.

On Aerus, the wars between humans, elves, and orcs were not so easily forgotten, and they raged off and on for a large part of history, the rivalry between the gods naturally reflected in their followers.

This story repeated itself in many ways, with many variations, among different gods and races. It was known as the Age of Chaos, and it lasted centuries, as all the gods and their creations vied to establish their place in this new world. Many races, and their creators were snuffed out, until eventually the chaos settled into largely the makeup of the world that we see today.

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