Genesis

Genesis is considered to be both the first age of the tower and the longest by freelance historians, unbiased from factionalism. At the beginning was the **Godfall Protocol**, the creation of the **Flayed Gods** and the subsequent creation of the tower. Their blood formed the walls of the tower, and the hatred from the betrayal was said to have formed the basis for contracts. While not being technically a living being (although this fact is contentious at best amongst cults / religions.) Genesis is an era whose bounds are formed by extremes, as each floor has it's own individual stories and environmental factors which make discussing Genesis dubious at best. Localized historians, meaning those that are unaligned with the Triarchy (or unaligned with any of the tower-spanning factions) often don't even know of the prior eras. The Triarchy's ability to bury details of history often impedes the work of earnest historians trying to do their job.

## **Godfall Protocol**

**[0 G]** On this day, the tower was created from the blood of those that had sacrificed themselves during the battle against **Ithushar**. Tricked by an entity known as "The Watcher" a majority of the strongest heroes were gathered in order to fight the eldritch beast. The Watcher had gathered all of the 10th level spell casters in order to create a prison for it using the flesh & blood of the heroes that they had recruited. Referred to by those who worship the Flayed Ones as "the first blood."

## **Creation of the Tower**

**[1 G]** From the blood of the Flayed God, the Watcher and his mages designed the tower to be a prison for **Ithushar**. Despite their bodies and blood being used for this ritual, the Flayed Gods created most of what would be referred to as "Floors" within the tower based on their home worlds. With each of these floors essentially being worlds unto themselves. Prior to the ritual that had flayed all of the heroes, the mages designed a particular mirror, known by them as **The Sundering Mirror**. This mirror would go on to further hide Ithushar within the bowels of the tower. On the bottom most floor of the tower, was it kept, and placed horizontally literally mirroring the tower. Placing the mirror deep within the tower, they had inadvertently created the "lower levels of the tower" by doing this.

## **Of Blood & Iron**

**[1-100G]** The **Primordials** & **Heralds** each discovered over the course of the past 100 years or so, the advent of fire and began the creation of basic civilizations. Essentially, each floor's Flayed God guided the races beyond the copper age and into the iron age within 100 years, creating their own languages and cultures along the way. During this time, it was likely discovered that mortals could make contracts with the tower itself, allowing themselves to sacrifice themselves much like the Flayed Ones once did, and to gain power like they did.

### **Creation of the Primordial Families**

**[23-77G]** The **Horizon family**, rulers of floor 2, the **Petrichor family**, rulers of floor 4, the **Terra family**, rulers of floor 6, the **Feyra family**, rulers of floor 8 were all founded in relatively similar conditions. See **10 Families** for more information.

### **The Guardians of the Sundering Mirror are Selected**

**[78G]** The Terra, Petrichor, Feyra & Horizon families offer up their first sons in order to guard the Sundering Mirror from those that would seek to destroy it and unleash the terror known as Ithushar. They would go on to be eternal, immortal guardians of the mirror, hoping that their service would someday come to a close, almost hoping that they would be slain in battle to be reprieved of their duty.

## **Weave & Steel**

**[250-750G]** Within this time frame, most civilizations were able to master the creation of various alloys and metals; specifically the creation of steel. With guidance from their flayed gods, these civilizations were able to very quickly begin to prosper and grow from tribes living on the hills, to grandiose empires with history of their own. When the first spell casters emerged and began to study the weave as it was within the tower, they quickly grew in knowledge from the help of the Flayed Gods, allowing themselves to go from lowly scholars to great mages rivaling power to their own when they were but mortals.

## **Genesis Wars**

**[1100G-7567G]** All of the worlds that had been rapidly built up over the course of several hundred years by their gods had inadvertently gone to war with each other as they began fighting over various resources. During this time many empires rose and fall on their various floors, spreading out several floors up and down, only to be rooted out and eventually replaced.

### **The Blood Empire Forms**

**[1102G]** The blood empire is created, the Flayed God who created them was once an Aasimar. He had been betrayed by his younger brother who had foresaw the Watcher's betrayal and decided to not join the conflict. The Blood Emperor as he would be called, was once a righteous man who would look after his kid brother. He fell to the corruption of the tower, and formed a terribly evil contract that allowed him to leave his station on his floor. Following the example of Baeron Ellias, he began leading his armies to conquer the Tower.

### **The Blood Emperor Conquers 40 floors**

**[1124G - 5435G]** The Blood Empire, using various forms of contracted magic is able to conquer floors 41-71 of the tower. The Blood Emperor, begins to consolidate his power by enforcing terrible rules on the floors he had conquered. Creating physical laws that forced fealty towards him on his floors using his overwhelming contracted abilities. Only the alliance of all of the others within the tower would be enough to stop his power. In his prime, the Blood Emperor was said to be the strongest Ascender in the entire history of the Tower; despite this, he never reached the tower's summit.

### **The Blood Empire Falls & Crumbles**

**[6547G - 7566G]** Over the course of hundreds of years, all of the power that was gained slowly erodes into entropy as the empire is slowly attacked on two sides by a united front. The Blood Emperor is executed, his true name is erased from history. All traces of the empire were later destroyed by the Triarchy during their initial rule, the Red King purposely saw to destroying the ancient graffiti & propaganda that the empire had created. All that remains of the empire are it's ancient tools & weapons that remain sealed in places within the tower, and those that were kept safe in legendary treasure troves protected from the powerful divination magic of the **Seers**.

## **Red Compact**

**[7567 G, 12/24]** On this date, peace was attained for all floors. After signing this **Blood Compact**, all sentient races traded away their immortality for peace. Seeing this as a great trade off, the Flayed Gods returned to their halls and slept for thousands of years as they were no longer needed. A lesson paid in blood so to speak. This holiday is known by some as "**Red Day**." In addition, the original "**Rules of the Tower**" were formed. The creation of a basic system for going up and down floors was created known as the Testing Tribunal, selected people who would judge who is worthy to go up and down the tower. This tribunal would later go on to become the **Testing Committee**, however during this time it was completely uninfluenced by the politics that the current rendition is.