I'm currently running a new campaign for my players that is meant to take place in the VERY earliest times of the Lost Omens setting's creation, right after the then-described "Faewilds Experiment" was deemed a failure and the Gods moved on to create the Material Plane as a new plane of existence for Mortals to live upon and feed into the newly proposed Cycle of Souls.
As such I'm trying to compile a list of everything, no matter how small, that we know about Pathfinder's cosmology and prehistory, things that would have happened way far back in the past, even before Golarion became basically the center of the universe. Anything could be useful and would be appreciated, thank you all.
Huh... I don't know of any failed Feywilds Experiment, at least not called by that exact name. Perhaps this is an older version of the idea that the First World (realm of the fae) is in fact the first draft (not a failed experiment) of the universe which was later abandoned once all the kinks had been worked out of the laws of physics.
Let's see... a short list of events I can remember mention of off the top of my head, in no particular order:
- Either Pharasma or Asmodeus & Ihys (depending who is telling the story) pops out of the Great Seal on the roiling tide of the Maelstrom. Pharamsa's version of this myth is recounted in Three Fears of Pharasma (part of the Windsong Testaments web fiction series).
- The gods create the elohim, divine architects responsible for raising the First World, and then later overwrite it to create the Universe itself.
- It is said in the Rage of Creation (Windsong Testaments) that Rovagug devoured 7 worlds before their first sunset and was driven back. Desna raises the Sevenfold Cynosure as a memorial.
- Mortal sapience eventually arose, becoming the spark that would cause Asmodeus to betray Ihys, beginning the War in Heaven which would end with Ihys' murder--specifically because this attracted Rovagug's attention for round 2
- Rovagug is finally caught and sealed up inside Golarion. This event marks the end of the Age of Creation
- The Eternal City of Axis is said to have survived countless assaults, but three legendary wars are notable above the rest. A devastating protean assault which inspired the creation of the first Inevitables (really hope we still get to have a clockwork law guardian immortal after Remaster...), the war between the gods and the titans, and finally a war against Rovagug before he was sealed (assumed to be part of the above conflict?)
- In the super ancient days it is whispered that both the Void and Creation's Forge (negative and positive energy) had the capacity to create, but the jyoti stole it from the Void, leaving a permanent imbalance in the cosmos (citation needed, I may be conflating some memories)
- A some point, a bunch of danavas (titans charged with regulating reality in the early days) decided they'd take over the soul gardens in Creation's Forge (pos energy) and were defeated an imprisoned. No one remembers what exactly happened but this is thought to be why jyoti hate gods to this day
- At some unknown time after the cruel elemental lords usurped their benevolent counterparts, two of the elemental planes (Metal and Wood) sealed themselves off to avoid the politics.
- Before the gods first turned their attention to the void Universe (material plane), there were already creatures living within. These eldritch beings were considered remnants from previous universes. According to the alghollthu (aboleth species), they also grew up in primordial oceans before the gods created anything, albeit it's unclear if they mean between when the gods created oceans and when they created life.
- A forgotten daemonic Horseman created the first demons using soul larvae; an act which triggered a chain reaction as the Abyss itself learned the trick. Qlippoth have been miffed about mortals ever since.
- At some point, rebel psychopomps escape to the haunted Ethereal realm of Xibalba where they prey on mortal fears
- Before the surface of Golarion was much inhabited, the mysterious xiomorn arrived from the Plane of Earth and built the vaults of Orv in the Darklands, have a war with the alghollthu, and then leave.
Most of that, if not all, probably occurred during the Age of Creation. The Age of Serpents following naturally gets a lot more messy as it's halfway between mythic history and mortal history. Probably the gigantic lizard folk from space recently teased to have ruled in the Valashmai jungle will open up new understanding of this era, but for now it's mostly the first sekmin (serpentfolk) empire, complete with some competition between the cyclopes empire and the elves.
Eventually we get to when the alghollthu decided to start experimenting on some monkeys and created the first human empire, Azlant, which remains a fairly significant milestone for the humans of Golarion.
In Osiriani legend, the Age of Ashes was caused by the murder of Osiris by Set who took his throne as ruler of the gods and mortals. Isis later resurrected Osiris, and Horus reclaimed the throne from Set. It's a legend, not necessarily true and probably just an in-universe theodicy to explain why the sky turned dark for a thousand years or so, but in a universe where the gods are demonstrably real and reachable through magic it has a greater chance of being true than not.