The Masters

Mysterious beings who once ruled the mistlands before the coming of the mist that brought the demons. They were highly advanced, both magically and technologically and built massive cities of stone and steel, as well as monuments to themselves through slave labor (primarily that of the Tuhka). They were tall (as tall as 8 or 9 feet), with elongated heads and a 3rd eye in the center of their foreheads. Recent discoveries suggest they may have traveled from another world or plane of existence, and that they "broke the world" in some attempt to manipulate planar energy to achieve divinity.

From the historical records of the Mardik, recovered from the Great Library of Mets Gradaran by the Mistlands Expedition

The Age of Ignorance

In the beginning, the sun god Areg created the universe and all the people within it. This is generally regarded to be false. The Mardik originated on a dry, desolate world where life was harsh and hard-won. Despite this, they endured and founded a modest civilization ruled by an emperor divinely appointed by Areg himself. The Sun Emperor was a harsh tyrant who ruled with an iron fist.
In the year 10783 of the first age of our kind, the enlightened being known as Hayk led a rebellion against the Sun Emperor Bel and destroyed the divine empire. Bel was utterly destroyed by the magic of Hayk, and cast down into the depths of hell. Hayk, an extremely powerful mage, announced that the gods were not above the reach of mortals and that any being could achieve the same power as the gods. Thus, the gods were not special and should not be venerated. Thus began the age of enlightenment, during which Mardik civilization developed magic and technology that became indistinguishable. They eventually outgrew the confines of their home world and sought a means to reach the stars.

The Age of Exploration

In the year 12387 of the fourth age of our kind, The Mardik achieved inter-planar travel via the construction of great astral “arks.” These massive constructs of obsidian charged with planar energy allowed the Mardik to travel the astral sea and expand their empire. They conquered a thousand worlds in a thousand years and subjugated millions of peoples throughout the multiverse in their search for a being superior to them. In their search, they came upon a world populated by heroic beings who did not fear death and whose gods lived among them as mortal men. These people were easily subjugated and their “gods” defeated. In an effort to break their rebellious spirits, the Mardik unleashed a magical weapon of vast destruction against their world which utterly obliterated it. Their spirits broken, they were relocated to a new colony established on a nascent world devoid of intelligent life.

The Age of Ascension

In the year 1298 of the fifth age of our kind, the most enlightened ancestor of our forefather Hayk began a project on a distant colony that would elevate the power of the Mardik to that of the divine. On a nascent world far from the heart of the empire, a perfect civilization was established to support the efforts of the ascension project. The world was named Hambardzum. After discovering sentient life on the northern hemisphere of this world, the Mardik conjured forth a wall of magical mist around the equator that would erase the memories of any who passed through it. Using slaves brought from countless worlds, the Mardik established a perfect scientific society dedicated to the ascension project….
…the following documents are found within the restricted section of the historical archive.
In the year 2304 of the fifth age of our kind, a group of rogue scientists led by Sadim Arzhanavory passed through the mistwall and aimed to subjugate the native populations of the world. They discovered primitive people living on the steppes east of the sunscorch mountains and quickly subjugated them, ruling over them as god-kings. After a thousand years of arcane, planar and elemental manipulation the steppes became a desert and the people led a rebellion against their god-kings who could no longer provide for them. The rogue Mardik abandoned their empire and returned south across the mistwall. The knowledge they brought back allowed the ascension project to achieve key objectives that led to the discovery of the god frequency at the Tsovayin military facility in 2310.
In 2312 of the fifth age of our kind, a prototype of the god engine was moved to the elemental research facility of Hrdehayin, under the care of chief elementalist Samvel. The first prototype remained at the great library of Mets Gradaran for archival purposes.
In 2321 of the fifth age of our kind, the efforts to attune the god engine to the energies of the elemental chaos were abandoned. The god engine was moved to the most glorious city of Epikentros and work began to attune it to the energies of the Abyss, having found those energies to be closest to the god frequency.