Aeth (Ay-th)
The world before Aetheus was simply known as Aeth.
This primeval world of plants, beasts and nature deities existed within a disconnected and tumultuous region within the Elemental Chaos after the birth of the universe, in a time before there was only the Moon and not a sun in the sky. A time before the Inner, Outer and Elemental Planes were separated or connected, even before mortal races and humanoids existed.
This primal world was populated by the ancient nature deities and a series of demi-powers known as Primal Furies, that contested against an antagonistic Primal Titan known as the Overgrowth. The Overgrowth was an invasive plant-like collective that consumed all living organisms and spread across the world, taking all it consumed to form a greater part of its collective, linked by common hive-mind sentience. Beasts and plantlife grew in their own form, ranging in sizes from gigantic megafauna to small life forms - consisting of ancient prehistoric mammals, fish, birds, reptiles, amphibians and various flora. But these creatures had no permanent physical shape or form. For instance, a mouse did not remain permanently a mouse, nor did it keep the shape of a mouse - the more energy it retained through consumption or interaction with its environment, therefore the larger the form of a creature could grow and take shape, such as into an elk or wolf. However over time the energy it burned made it smaller, becoming an insect or worm.
This forced a competitive nature to each individual spirit of beasts and plant life - and through everything one consumed, the spirits learned from their pain, experiences and ability to survive, being able to change or learn in order to adapt to a natural challenge offered against other spirits. Even the plant life evolved, bloomed and changed, in form and shape, though they would remain flora and not fauna. The cosmic laws of this primeval were the laws of nature. Thus all creatures competed for the greatest amounts of energy.
The world was bound between the Ethereal and Material Plane, creating a space in which the physical and the immaterial spirits of the world worked together in a cycle of reincarnation through the source of life energy known as the Essence of Life. Not only this, creatures did not retain a physical form and could enter regions in which they would become spiritual - escaping danger and retaining their energy, however, these regions changed, ebbed and flowed in tumultuous and unpredictable fashions. Offering only temporary sanctuary for these creatures in time.
Time on this world was also circular, and non-linear, thus the world entered into ages of either complete darkness and desolation or became overwhelmed with life; with the spirits that pass on until there is only a few remaining, having collected a great sum of the spirits and infused with concentrated Essence of Life, they evolved into greater spirits that continued after each cycle.
During the time of this primeval world, there existed no sun, but beings were enamoured by a font of life that ebbed and flowed from the Positive Energy Plane - as well as the primeval Moons of Shelune. The darkness and light of the world were not separate, instead, it was a united twilight realm filled with rampant nature & spirits. The spirits passed on into the primeval form of the Shadowfell, a physical territory one could walk to in this primeval world. This was where those who were dying or losing energy effectively 'died', but were returned to the natural cycle through the quintessential Spirit of Life - those that gained great power and prominence remained in the bright primeval realm space of the Feywild, the region of the world that embodied the epitome of positive energy, magic and life.
The three most powerful and most ancient spirits were Bwom'sambdi, the force of natural decay and rot - Gwynndrassil, the Eternal Tree, the keeper of spirits and the natural forefather of all-natural plantlife - lastly, Gazenaroc, the Shapeless One, the forefather and protector of all animals and beasts, maintaining the balance of evolution in the world. These three Primal deities all cooperated and competed against one another to keep the balance of the essences of life. They were the most powerful, but others, greater spirits who claimed their dominance over the circular time cycles of Aeth, began to join them. They came to be known as the Primal Furies who succeeded as the greatest spirits after each circular cycle of this primeval world: Ericerbic, Hyana, Asterion, Sekoloth, Toridon and Odile - and many others, all came from this place and were made an intrinsic part of this world and its cycles.
As time passed, an unprecedented phenomenon occurred where the world of Aeth came into a collision course with another world. A world of other powerful Primordials that embodied the essence of the Elemental Chaos, known as Theus. The collision of these two worlds devastated the two planets, racking them in thousands of years of a calamitous apocalyptic period that desolated the region... the creatures and plant life of the world of Aeth were only saved by harbouring sanctuary within the pockets of the Ethereal Plane that appeared, retaining their spiritual form and remaining unharmed from the disastrous calamity and storm across the planet as it reformed under the guidance of the Essence of Life.
The Primordials, immortal beings, did not die from such a calamity and began walking the new earth of their shattered home, curious. They came to learn about the spirits and sought their destruction and bringing them under their sway. Wishing to impose their will of dominance and territorial supremacy.
The Primordials found that the greater spirits that survived the Great Collision, aided by the Three Primal Ones (Bwom'Sambdi, Gwynndrassil & Gazenaroc) - were beaten back by the great spirits and the survivors of the cycles. Surprised, they had not realised that the beings would put up much of a fight. Then, the last vestiges of the Evergrowth that remained after the calamity, sought to reclaim its territories and the new world that came. The Evergrowth began to fight off against the Primordials, and were winning... at this time, the world had been reformed into the world we know today as Aetheus, in its primeval infancy.
