Out of the endless ever changing masses of Chaos, eventually a consciousness was born. Afterwards, many others followed and formed the first pantheon. Of course, by that time nobody knew what a pantheon was, nor were their lands or worshippers. Instead, the mindful but formless beings traversed through nothingness, thinking, evolving and learning.
Time went by - or not at all - it remains unclear as this was a rather unpopular concept back in those days and the gods did not discuss such matters with anybody afterwards anyway. Yet, as probably everything that has a mind of its own, they got bored, like really, utterly and completely bored. Thus they used the remaining masses of Chaos and created just about everything and called it the material plane and named it "Ethrea".
But even a world does become boring after all its secrets and surprises are lifted, unveiled and understood. What was needed was life. Everchanging, unreasonable, forever evolving, boundlessly hating, from the bottom of the heart loving and reliably drama causing life. So it came to pass that each of the great gods created beings after their own design, following their mood, their artistry or their own vanity.
Their creations populated the plane and spread over all the continents, built shrines and homes, temples and awe inspiring cathedrals. It will come to many as unsurprising though that dark clouds eventually covered the skies.
Rarely will people stay within their boundaries, life is looking for more life after all, it was the time of the great expanse and the first races and people bumped into another with more than the usual banter over who is worshipping the superior supreme entity.
One might think that supreme beings such as gods would stand above such petty quarrels and at first they were just that. Some of them though came to the realization that all of the creatures were expanding and fighting to thrive and the best chances were with the strongest to secure the most befitting lands. The gods started to involve themselves besides the usual getting worshipped and thanked, or feared - depending. They realized one after another that the race for the leadership over the lands had already begun and fights were but inevitable. Near all the members of the pantheon secretly chose champions who they empowered and blessed and formed into leader for their people.
Soon after that the first age ended and the age of war was upon Ethrea, turning the world into a place of horrors, fear and unbalance. While the gods were fighting in the skies, their armies walked the surface of the world, driving many people extinct, sickness and disease added to the black clouds. Every once in a while a gods was defeated and so were their people and a temporary piece was achieved until another people challenged a territory or affronted a deity one time too many.
All in all, three great divine wars were fought, each more devastating and taxing on the people and the lands than the previous. The last war though came to a bit of a surprising end, as a party of champions of rivalling gods united themselves and brought their armies together to not fight amongst themselves anymore, but to bring the war to the heavens. The gods were furious and in return united themselves against the people they created. At least some did. Among all the fighting and despair, a few gods opened their eyes and realized how far they had removed themselves from their once noble and innocent aspirations. Those deities made a stand against their brethren to give the mortals a fighting chance but they were all betrayed, although it was never known who the traitor was.
Fire fell from the skies, erupted from the sea and the ground, ashes covered the ground 5 foot high, animals and people died, suffocating were they stood and it was already decided that this was the end to all existence. In a final attempt to avoid the unavoidable, the remaining champions of the gods pressed on, refusing to just give up on life and marched into the heavens and faced gods and demons alike. Most reports of this heroic act were lost, if there truly were any at all. It is being said though that a wave of golden light erupted over the skies, tearing clouds apart and soothing the scorching earth in one gargantuan blow and for but a few seconds, a webbing of golden chains has been seen throughout the skies with the bare eye, which got the name of the divine gate.
Quite quickly it became known that how and wherever the divine chain came from, it banned and separated the mortal world from most of the divine influence and the gods were forced to retreat and built their own realms, though weakened from the creation the material plane still, the creation of life and the following war, many were lacking the strength to do it by themselves and allied with other, similarly aligned gods, thus the other realms were born and the seconds age ended.
The third age started as the age of recovery, and the people aspired peace and recovery, at least for a time. But not all the wounds healed as some left smouldering underneath the surface to fester and emerge. Centuries later, the Eastbound continent, a city rallied to arms to subdue and send their armies of their inquisition into the world and unleash the burden of war once again.
Will there be new heroes to safe Ethrea?
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