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Let's Start at the beginning, with a new person adding to the world's lore with each post, no matter how small.
I do however request that nobody "Wreck" the world on a nightly basis, or smash other people's ideas outright. (IE: someone writes up a greatly detailed republic and another guy jumps in and says it all exploded because a goblin picked his nose and accidently used the wish ring he got off a dead adventurer.)
I will start it off:
At the beginning there were The Primordials, Elder beings of immense power, their origins and the reason for their conflict are lost to history. But in the formless void the Primordials fought each other in a savage contest of wills and physical strengh. Life fought Death, Sky fought Land, and all fought all in a massive battle royal. Their true names are lost to time, and so they are referenced by what they created.
It was in this conflict that the multiverse was created.
From the broken bones of Land came mountians, from blood of water came the seas, from the howls of lightning came thunder, and so on.
In the shadow of these primordals were the old ones, created from the carnage, born of malice and cold rage. Scurrying insects crushed by the battles of the Primordials often before they could build hovels to hide.
In the end, few remained, and the matter and energy of the dead gave form to existance. This is why the world is so violent, and the idea of slaughtering fifty orc warriors does not traumatize the party fighter, though killing their kids will.
Only two Primordials survived, Creation and Oblivion. During that long brutal war, the two of them fought for long enough to realize the futility of their struggle, and instead fell head over heels in love with each other over the billions of years spent togeather.
It was they who gave birth the first deity, who, like them, was inscrutable and incomprehensible, yet also a being of benovlence who answered the prayers of the first mortals.
Some say he is dead, replaced by more modern faiths, others that The Firstborn is still there in the twilight wind, and motions of the heavens, still weaving fate, and ensuring those who rise in time of crisis do.
The two lovers continue to make love in the center of the materal world. Our world lies closest to where the two exist, always hidden behind the light of the great celestrial objects, the sun, and at night, they part from their shared bed, and hide behind the moons.
(this was inspired by greek & egyptian creation mythology, with a bit of baha'i and Lovecraft thrown in there for good measure)
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No one knows what became of the other planes, or the denizens most surely created on them, but we know of the fate of ours: The World of Leng.
We are not entirely certain where life came from on our planet, but we know WHERE it originated: IN the Cerulean Sea, where strange creatures, still around today, known as the Karkanak, were born.
Compared to their next descendants, they were primitive: Unable to see for more than five feet, barely able to survive the unstable young world. But the planet became more moderate, and more advance forms of life evolved. The Krabmen were the first prime example, ruling vast undersea kingdoms of untold glory which supposedly exist now, untouched by the sea.
But there was dissent beneath the waves.
The Daemon Lord Gandohar created, in the Abyss of the Nightmare, the Sindaren. The Sindaren built their empire, and, when Krabmen explorers went to the Abyss, they launched their attack.
The war was quick and brutal.
In a final act of desperation, the Krabmen fled to the world above, going below water ONLY when necessary. But over time, they evolved, growing more suited to the land. Realizing they could never regain their greatness, more and more went inward, forgetting their past, their culture, and even their name, becoming the Humans-Krabman for Exiles.
Although many humans have completely forgotten their past glory under the waves of the Cerulean Sea, some ancient settlements near rivers directly flowing into the ocean use to throw into the dark waters any leftovers of their meals, which usually disappear in a short time. Their elders say that's "nourishment for the souls of the ancestors".
Most of the exiled Krabmen built settlements on the land far enough from the shores (plains and hills), but some of them decided to explore the red peaks that they had sometimes seen from under the surface of the sea: the Rust Chain, that the ancestors called "Qumro-esh", "Red Razor". They had seen no life form since they had left the ocean, and wanted to know more. There, they found strange stones and metals they did not know: and past the mountains, an immense expanse of sand and rocks. They called this desert "The Boiling Wound", for the sun scorched this place without mercy. While most explorers stopped there and went back to tell the other exiled of their discovery, one of them decided to stay there. His name is lost in time, but we know him as the First Shaper. A thousand days and a thousand nights he wandered the Wound, and there he finally met some animals (the Gauntback with his sad pose and powerful bite, and the Screecher of Night with his bronze wings; and some other things that were born from the primal surges of creation). And he discovered the power of magic, and he became able to transmute and summon. When the Shaper came back to his city, he realized his fellows had built great temples and palaces. But the temples and palaces and cities lacked something: a life form other than humans. The Shaper gave them life through his magic, populating them with animals and other creations of his own. He discovered that his power could change the nature of existing life, and through study and endless efforts the first Aberrants were born:
- Elves, the aberrants of Mind, the first to embrace the power of magic;
- Dwarves, the aberrants of Wisdom, skilled artisans and craftsmen;
- Orcs, the aberrants of Vigor, whose strength was incredible;
- Halflings, the aberrants of Heart, quick and loyal to their friends;
- Gnomes, the aberrants of Lore, keepers of all that is sacred to the ancestors.
Humans were the original creation of the gods: the others, physical manifestations of everyone's natural inclinations.
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Mistaking the Abberants for some new animal, the Exiles readily took advantage of them and used their improved capabilities for the Exiles own benefit. The Shaper, knowing that the Abberants possessed a will of their own, rose to protect his creations. The Exiles, however, did not understand and refused to accept the Shaper's arguments. Only the Gods could form life of value, they said. These were not born of the Divine, therefore they cannot be as the Humans, possessing will and soul and worth.
The Exiles then took for themselves members from among the Abberants and used them as domestic stock, training them in all manor of labor and service. From some of these services, the first Half-Abberants were begotten.
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A century later, however, one Halfling, by the name of Evan Underfooot, escaped with the help of Koreeyen Sandervilt, a respected wizard. Alongside him were Davor Yager, an Orc, Dolgrin Redaxe, a Dwarf, and Beelzebull, a Gnome. Koreeyan and his partner, Romulus, trained the pair in various pursuits, gradually stealing and training other Aberrants. When they had enough, they fled across the Red Razor and the Boiling Wound, and there, after great problems, they found a pastoral grassland filled with difficult (but still huntable) monsters. There they founded the Empire of the Seven, in honor of the first to escape bondage, and started farming the surrounding grassland.
But humanity grew jealous, for while they were free to join the Empire of the Seven, some last piece of the Krabmen's vanity remained, and plowshares became swords as humanity prepared to retake their slaves.
The Seven quickly realized that the only place they could possibly stop humanity in the Razor, and so monuted a defense.
IN the battle, a great many on both sides died before peace was negotiated.
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It was this war, and the powers created therein. Fleshwarped weapons, powerful magics, and created beasts on both sides that would ravage the country around The Razor. Some of those powerful beasts still exist in the lands around the Rusted Razor to this day.
That was what first brought Leng to the attention of The Firstborn. While other gods would come later, and beliefs had come before. In the boiling wound, what are now the ruins of Al-Emeria. It began with sightings of a human, one with no face, white lumious skin, feathered wings, and long hair (though they were actually tendrils they are remembered as hair) and eyes like the night sky. The image would be imprinted on the minds of all who met him, and on their children, and their grandchildren. Enough that every race would come to think of Angels and with similar traits, and so similar traits they would one day have.
The Firstborn was the first being to grant divine power to those who followed his teachings of peace, order, and compassion. It is adhering to these core ideals that empower paladins (his creative aspect) and Anti-paladins (his destructive aspect) though they do not know it, and none worship him.
It was against The Daemon Lord Gandohar that he first showed the face of the destoyer. The Sindaren had raided the shores for centuries for slaves, wealth, and plunder, at his behest. He and his children launched a true campaign of conquest onto land, allied with the growing abolithic and Illithid empires.
The Firstborn confronted him in the surf with the intent to speak knowing none could fail to be brought to reason, and Gandohar, who had never heard of this elder being, struck him before he could speak, impaling him through the chest. This was the Great Failure of Gandohar, for where the blood of The Firstborn was released came the first Archons, Azatas, Devils, and Demons which would one day destroy and supplant his children The Sindaren as masters of the abyss.
Gandohar dried up, in the brilliance of the wound he caused, and experiencing pain for the first time The Firstborn flew into a rage against the Aboloths, The Illithid, and the other allies of Gandohar.
While the "lesser races" were spared his fury, other empires and beings in the Dominion of The Black would be brought to their knees, never to recover.
But as always Destruction brought Creation, and from the prayers of the lesser races and the vast expenditure of divine energy were born the first pantheon of gods capable of granting power to their followers.
The Firstborn withdrew from contact with mortals and the multi-verse at large, for while most of his victims had been twisted monstrosities of alien mind. They had not deserved the sheer volume of punishment his rage had brought. To this day The Firstborn dwells in the ruins of the un-recorded civilizations he destroyed, on dead worlds, a towering being of light in the dark void between the stars. The most powerful being in the multiverse (with the exception of his parents) who will no longer lift a finger, for fear of snuffing out an entire world with a stray thought.
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With the loss of their god and the appearance of these new outsiders (Who quick;y carved out their own fiefs in the annals of the Razor Mountains.), both the Imperium (Empire of Man) And Ondretyia (The empire of Seven: Krabmen for Democracy) gradually faded out of each other's conscience, aside from the occasional trading foray.
Gradually, the two empires split into various kingdoms, as a threat came from the west in the Temujai: Led by a merciless lich claiming to be from another world, Astaurion. He ravaged half the Eastern Kingdoms, causing many of the Elves to flee either South, to the steamy Cassinopian jungles, or into the very depths of the Red Razor, becoming the merciless Drow. The Orcs, in the ultimate act of betrayal, sided with Astaurion to join his hordes while the Halflings went out into the Wound. The rest stayed behind, and had almost lost their last city, Dol-Tomen, an Imperium Legion joined n the battle, the Paladin Yol destroying the mighty Lich's phylactery as he was slain in combat. The ORcs, now outcasts, mostly struck out East, finding the edge of the continent, hunting great beasts on the savage, storm-swept tundras.
With the two once mighty groups forced to acknowledge each other's existence for survival, and the Dwarves willing to protect the trade routes-for a price, of course-in the Razor, the kingdoms prospered as the Pwerful outsiders once exiled from Teng by the Drow returned, spreading goodwill or destruction, respectively.
After the Third Harrowing of the Myrdermire Swamp, Gliskit, son of Gimp, died of complications resulting from a pig.
...This doesn't have to be chronological, does it?
After the Third Harrowing of the Myrdermire Swamp, Gliskit, son of Gimp, died of complications resulting from a pig.
...This doesn't have to be chronological, does it?
I hope not.
One of the primal forces, when they first entered the confined 4D world of mortals, took the form of an eyeball. This eye in the sky(as humans and crabmen who saw it, call it) spawned smaller creatures, the Ooglers to look into small spaces for it. The Eye, and to a lesser extent the Ooglers could see the big picture and deserted the other aberrations when horrible defeat approached. Some humans used Ooglers and their eyebeams like captured cannons, and the Ooglers remember. Some have lapsed into Lawful Evil and delight in enslaving humans. Of course, humans struck their use of prisoners from their legends. Some Ooglers became pure Lawful and call themselves observers, and try to advise humans, and the abberant humans, who would get very annoyed if you called them that. An Observer, Focal Point the third telepathically coined the phrase Alternative Essenced Humans, and even Lizardmen go by that today.|
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Valash, the first empire of the east is formed by refugges fleeing from Astaurion. forced into bandetry at a young age, Numar, rises to unite the tribes under a ruthless, but even handed regime as Sultan of Black Sun.
Valash develops the first monotheistic faith, based around Sol, their god of the sun, who grows from head of their nature spirit pantheon, to a primary deity.
Unlike the former empires, the Black Sun offers an open hand to other races, but these progressive policies have a darker side, the growing nation needs people, needs population, men, women, children, lives. A few generations later the Empire grows strong and fat on the sweat and toil of people, the trade of it's exotic goods, and the intelligence of it's scholars.
The Sultans do not care what you believe, or who you are, so long as they bring order where there is chaos, peace where there is war. Eternal enemies of the orcs who raid their caravans, The Long War begins, and The Black Sun is cut off from the western kingdoms by the orc tribes. They expand south and north, but the bloodfeud continues.
Where there is a sun god, there is also a moon god. While the sun is constant, life giving, and with a fiery temper, the moon is not. The Full Moon goddess is Luminous, and grants magic power, rage, and control of lycanthropes to her worshipers. During the half moon she becomes Evening Light, who grants low light vision, calm emotions, and similar boons to her followers. During the dark of the moon she becomes Janet of the shadows who grants witches magic such as dark vision and invisibility. Most feared was her personality of Ebon Dark, the queen of eclipses. Her association with Drow, led to her being ripped out of the moon goddess by a forgotten ritual, and cast into the underdark by the other gods. Her followers, mostly Drow, are behind the resurgence of the Orcs. They hope to round up enough sacrifices to cast a terrible ritual next eclipse to take control of the moon and make the eclipse permanent.
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Though the eclipse goes off after a group of adventures destened to stop[ it are killed in their formative years by an angry goblin tribe, and never get past level 5.
The drow "buying" slaves with poisonous assistance given to the orcs, sorely underestimate the sacrifices needed. They are able to hold the moon in position for three months before the constant need for mass life force taxes their priests to the breaking point.
This "problem" is compounded by the Black Sun Empire, who see the eclipse as a call to conquest and arms. the Sultan cannot hold his people back, nor does he want to.
When the empire pushes back against the orcs in a massive crusade, it has the effect of driving the survivors them deep into the underdark. this is good for a few days, but then the constant stream of slaves from the surface dries up, and the strain of finding enough bodies causes multiple civil wars as the priests turn to their own people.
This madness does not go unnoticed by the two surviving primordials, a deity controlling their moons, their homes. Untill this moment they had always made love and departed undisturbed, a happy pair.
Creation and Oblivion appear to a startled drow wizard in the form of two featureless humanoids one brilliant white, the other a complete void. the wizard is casing a normal summoning, they simply ride the magic down to the world below.
The pair go exploring through the caverns of the underdark, spreading love and death in equal measure. In their wake they lay low the proud drow city of Yallarban.
Where Creation walks life mutates, creates, breeds out of control.
Where Oblivion walks there is only silence, nothing but stone remains.
A few drow survive, one of the Luminous priests is among them, having used blood magic and a few thousand thralls as fodder to escape.
Izzlt is is name, and he is shaken, maddened, and brings news of streets overrun with mutants and shadows, of a pair of lovers moving through the tunnels.
He is discredited by the Luminous Temple proper as a pervert, heretic, and madman for the stories he spreads, and his attempt to stop the sacrifices. He converts a small group of priests who form the Peacebringer sect. Devoted to stopping the decadence and darkness among drow socity that will draw The Lovers towards them.
The Aboloth stir in their dark hidden homes, and like in the age before time use every method at their disposal to avoid the primordials. Other younger abberations such as the neolithids try to fight them head on, and fail.
For their part The Lovers do not bare any malice towards the drow, nor any other mortal, or immortal. Creation loves them all in every way, and Oblivion could care less about their meaningless existence. It is their raw power and desire to try so many new sensations that brings destruction where they walk, for they do not think like mortals.
Many mongrelmen and Morlocks, as well as other horrors of the deep are a product of this time.
The Kingdoms are largely unaffected, the eclipse is during their winter, and therefore other than extreme cold, and a rise in giant and ogre activity, they do not starve, they do not decent into turmoil, adventurers actually have a much easier time finding work, so much so that it leads to the formation of a few Heroes Guilds.
The only horror to be visited upon the surface by the Months The Moon descended, is The Xeni a group of mindflayers whose devoloution into Barbarian savages allowed them to trek to the surface build the Black Iron Depths in the far north, and Iargraph the Unbreakable, an Abloth given humanoid form by Creation's touch. He establishes a small citystate in the same region. The two groups fight each other to this day, and have little interest in the lands of the Red Razor beyond a few minor raids.
Hasbro is possessive about mindflayers(unless something changed recently).
The rest of it is excellent.
Most of the Ooglers have been forced to the surface. The lawful evil ones have built cities inside of mountains. Those that didn't bolt fast enough became undead(Vampire or Litch mostly) or twisted horrors. The first Eyes of the Deep are the most tame. A few dwarves who saw the lovers from a distance became insane and twisted, becoming the first Derro.
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I feel like Developing the Xeni and lovers both for a bit.
The Xeni: Illithid, but not the kind most scholars know. Long under pressure from slave revolts and drow expansion orc barbarians streaming into their home finally caused their citystate to collapse under it's own weight.
With the death of their elder brain at the gentle caress of Oblivion, it attempted to dominate the primordial, and burst under the strain, causing psychic feedback that killed the upper teir of leadership. The Illithid could not stem the tide of orcish force, they could no longer mass dominate or minuplate the number of minds necessary to keep things stable. Brute force triumphed, the city burned as the Illithid fell upon each other in an ill timed civil war.
In the end few were left, all were scarred, It was Xeni, before the fall he was a mere servant among his peers, a psion of average skill, that created the tribe as they are now known.
He found his way into the court of the new orcish "rulers" of the city. orcs respect physical strengh, and so Xeni threw himself into reshaping his body and bulking up.
A few years of single minded learning and training later The Chieftain's "adviser" was a proud "orcish" warrior in his own right. the orcs began to fear him, as weakling tribe members would dissapear. The long-tusks as a society did not care about a few lost weaklings, but they noticed when the guy the beat on and humiliated dissapeared in the night.
The surviving flayers at the edges of the city tok from xeni's example, and one night, gathered in the deep tunnels and set forth for the frozen reach of the surface.
When they emerged from long abandoned dwarven ruins, the Xeni-Flayers set upon the local barbarian tribes, taking the strongest for crebromorphisis, eating the smartest, and ignoring the rest.
It wasn't until they came up against the Walls of Diz'urah that they encountered a "worthy foe" who could stop their raids.
Xeni culture focuses on strengh of body and mind, and relies on ritual tattoos as a symbol of trophies and skill. Dominated by a shamanistic "Cult of Flesh" they give a spiritual meaning to their consumption of brains, believing in a concept similar to Maoi Mana in the real world.
They are largely male in population (due to favoring more muscular bodies, not sexisim), and no less prone to excess than their ancestors. However where the Illithid were once civilized and prefered their macabe arts, the Xeni are hard fighting, hard drinking, and revel in both base pleasures, and blood sport.
They are more apt to raid what they need than make it, but there are a few among them who devote their minds to crafts of iron and magic. These "Taskmasters" drive their thralls hard, but reward them with base pleasures for successes.
The original Xeni is dead, slain battling human commoners (20/20/20)