The Founding
Era beginning/end
The Founding was the first age of Ardyn. During this time the Gods brought forth mortal creatures to inhabit the realm and faced much resistance from chaotic and titanic elemental beings formed from the natural material of Ardyn itself. These creatures were known as the Primordials. The conflict with the Primordials culminated with the Gods splitting into three separate factions and a divine war between The Profane Gods and the Dawn Deities. The age ended with The Profane Gods being banished from Ardyn and the defeat of the Primordial titans.
The Protean Creators
During
The Founding, gods brought forth the elves, dwarves, and humans, along with as many other races as they had the inspiration to create. Because the world was still a dangerous place, ruled by elemental chaos, many of their children were killed in the earliest days.
Saddened by the loss of so many children, the gods gifted mortals with arcane magic so they might better defend themselves. The Dragons Metallic were created to aid in the defense of the Children of Creation. With the dragons' help, civilization began to flourish and mortals first offered worship (and purpose) to their creators
The Primordials
These Elemental Titans had lain beneath the land since before the coming of the gods and now rose up to wreak havoc on the gods' creations. Their carnage invited the attention of demons from the Abyss, who came to feast on the remains.
As the Primordials devastated creation, three factions arose between the gods. The
Dawn Deities wished to stay and conquer the Primordials, leaving the land safe for their children.
The Profane Gods, frustrated by their losses, gave up; some gave in to madness, and some began twisting their creations and joining forces with the Abyss. The
Neutral Deities seemed altogether disinterested with choosing a side in the conflict and instead focused on fostering their own whims.
The
Dawn Deities, with the help of their mortal champions, ultimately destroyed the Primordials and banished
The Profane Gods from the Material Plane. Tharizdun was imprisoned beneath Shadowcap Mountain.
The fate of one of the defeated Primordials, an earth titan, is known to the world to this day. This titan was thrust feet-first into the earth in central
Xhorrun, it's palm now serves as the base of the capital city Ain'Duheela.
With peace finally achieved, the first true civilization was able to take root. It was called
Aon, the "Dawn City", and the "Cradle of Creation." This is believed to have happened tens of thousands of years before the events taking place surrounding
Blossom's Burning Blades. After
The Founding of
Aon, the races ventured forth to discover new lands. The world was named Ardyn.
Civilizations other than Aon
Before the age came to an end, the Kuul'tevir, noble predecessors of the
Lizardfolk, built cities with magic nearly on par with the elves'.
An unknown civilization had a settlement in the area that became the
Ironbark Thicket.
And arriving through a portal from the Far Realm, aboleths and other aberrations conquered the Underdark beneath the Bladeshimmer Coast and drove their slaves to build their capital: Salar, the Unseeable City. They slowly began expanding toward the surface, and their psychic energies gradually produced the azuremite of the Crystalfen Caverns. Not far away, the Illithid city of Yug'Voril may have been established during this era.
End of the era
At the end of
The Founding, primeval elves felled the ferocious molten titan and it was sealed beneath the ground, giving birth to the Cloudpeak Mountains
