The Book of Tannis

The Second Moon and the Coming of Dragons

When the second moon arrived in the sky, all the fiendish monsters came to Aeryth. That was when the cataclysm came, when the war in the heavens scorched the land and boiled the sea and broke the old moon and reordered time, and the dragons and all their abominations poured forth.

The Second Fragment

…the Golden Age ended when N'Mosis appeared, called Demos by some…

The Third Fragment

…We are the pawns of the gods…

The Third Fragment

…The dark gods. The ones without names. The fallen Aia…

The Pillars of Creation

The Pillars of Creation were erected by the Aia to hold aloft the heavens and the home of the gods in the White Palace of Ateos. In the first days of the world, the gods placed the sun and the moon to balance the sky. Gold and silver they created them, one to watch by day and one to guard by night. In the first days, the waters rose and fell with the breath of the gods. The seasons shared the world in equal measure, and the crops, sprouted, grew, died, and sprouted again in their time. These were the days of the gods, and they lasted 40,000 years.
In the days of heaven, the Aia created the Sheetha, the first of the mortal races, and charged them with care and guardianship of the world. That is why the Sheetha shun the cities for the forests, and the morning for the twilight. The Sheetha served the Aia in all things, and cultivated all the lands of the world. These were the days of the Sheetha, and they lasted 10,000 years.
The Sheetha spread across the continents of the world. No river barred their crossing and they sailed on every sea. No lands were cursed then, and the Sheetha walked even to the halls of Ateos, hand-in-hand with the Aia, for they could travel to the Faelands then as easily as a man rides a horse. They built themselves great kingdoms then, and learned the command of magics that shaped the world.
In the last years of the Sheetha kingdoms, the great Leviathan arose from the Abyss. The Leviathan opened its mouth wide, and out poured all the aberrations from the nine hells. Tiamat was their goddess, and claimed Aeryth for herself with Rahab her consort. They brought archfiends and demon lords and the armies of the Azoth. They chased the Sheetha kings from their thrones and halls, until the elves became a fugitive people, pursued by the light of the Demon Moon.
The Aia sent fierce warriors to the world to aid the Sheetha. The first were the Divergos: stout fighters of great cunning and perseverance. They built great engines of war and carved sanctuaries out of the living rock to hide their armies from the armies of Azoth. But the generations of the Divergos were too few to fight the hordes of the Azoth, so the Aia created the Anghenfil clans. The Anghenfil were strong and hungry for battle, like the Divergos and the Corrach, but quicker to breed. The Aia made the Anghenfil simpler than the Corrach, but this made them easy to sway and prey to their own lusts. They were brought under the thrall of the demon lords.
Finally, the Aia created humans. They were wiser than the Anghenfil, but less cunning than the Corrach. They were quicker to breed than the Corrach, but less easily swayed than the Anghenfil. Together, the humans, the Sheetha, the Corrach, and the Anghenfil fought the War in Heaven, which lasted a thousand, thousand years. The war broke the old world and created the new. The old moon itself rose to fight the dragons and their demon armies, so Rahab smote the old moon with his fist, and shattered her like an egg. And that is why she is now called the Broken Moon, or the Dead Goddess.
After a thousand thousand years, the Aia slew Rahab and chained him in the nine hells forever, together with his dragon consort and the demon army. But the Aia too were slaughtered, until only the eight great captains remained. They flew to the palace of Ateos in the sky, where it is said they watch carefully all the acts of men, and guard against the return of demons.

The Fifth Fragment

…the stars themselves exploded, and turned night into day…

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An ancient text purporting to be a written record of the War in Heaven. Only fragments remain. There is significant debate and controversy regarding the provenance and authorship of the text. Given the variations in style and word choice, it seems clear that it is the work of multiple authors, and may in fact be a collection of texts from multiple sources.