The Corruption

Once the most trusted and powerful of the celestial servants of The Source, the being known as The Corruption grew prideful and demanded to be acclaimed as a god and demanded that the created races must worship it alongside or even above The Source. In an event known as The Great Betrayal, this being attempted to overthrow and destroy The Source for denying The Corruption this claimed right of worship. The Corruption became filled with infinite hatred and, knowing it was limited and thus could never truly oppose The Infinite Source, sought ever after to corrupt, defile, and destroy all that The Source had created. There are those who worship The Corruption, but it is not and never will be divine, so while it can grant great power (even providing spells and abilities to clerics), it is not truly a god and cannot act beyond the limits placed upon it by The Source.

Origins

In the early mists of pre-history, early in the Dawn Times, One of the greatest of the servants of The Source became prideful. It is unknown what race this being was, perhaps even a race long lost to history. This entity, however, became drunk on power and honor, and decided it deserves far more power and honor than even The Source, and it's pride twists and deforms it's being. It became "The Corruption". None, save The Source itself, knows what happened then, only that there was a betrayal, The Corruption planned for unknown centuries and then, in a surprise assault from within the throne room of The Source, sought to unseat The Source and become supreme over all that is. It failed. The Source was unsurprised, although terribly disappointed with it's creature, and cast The Corruption out of the celestial realms and down to this world with an unimaginable thrust that sent The Corruption ploughing into the land. The impact created a range of mountains called, in the ancient tongue, The Corrupter's Fall. Those mountains are called "The Star Crash Range" today after a later event when a star fell from the sky in the largest section of that range.

The Corruption, vastly reduced in power and now bound inescapably to this world, immediately set about spreading it's corruption to the creatures and lands around it. It Corrupted the Dragons first, the great and powerful monarchs of the sky were easy to tempt and thus to twist. Each metallic race lost their most power-hungry, most prideful, most terrible members as The Corruption twisted them. These twisted and evil Dragons changed color and developed new natures as the corruption twisted and transformed them. Thus were born the chromatic dragons, the red, blue, black, green, and white. All are degenerate and twisted, no longer beings of grace and majesty, they were now terrible beasts intent on murder and destruction. The Corruption then set on the lesser beasts to practice, creating twisted and corrupted monstrosities. Abominations, impossible creatures of nightmare; strange hybrid creatures; blighted and twisted plants animated by corruption; slimes, oozes, jellies, and all manner of filth animated into corrupt monsters; all of these things began to appear and grow. The Corruption, having refined it's process, then turned to the other high races; the elves were first, and their corrupted folk became the first dark elves, terrified by the light and unable to abide any suggestion of The Source, they delved deep underground to hide from The Source, and be closer to Corruption. The Dwarves were next, The Corruption turned some of them into the Duergar, giving them power to grow and dominate in return for their allegiance; they too sought the depths and hide from the light of The Source. Gnomes and Halflings resisted, their great hearts refusing to twist, but some gnomes were finally corrupted, along with a few humans. Weak and degenerate, these became the goblins, hobgoblins, and bugbears.

At last The Corruption sought to turn the Humans, but it failed. the last race created by The Corruption was from twisted human stock, but it was rushed and hurried, so this evil race is degenerate and weak, the Orcs. Their origin from humans is why Half-Orcs exist, but such combination of The Source's creations with The Corruption's creations are unfortunate and untrusted. After the Orcs, The Source placed limits on what can be done to high races. The Corruption can still create whole new races, but it cannot twist those that already exist. The Corruption screamed in rage at this interference, this reminder that it is finite and limited. It turned to darker designs, seeking a means to work around the limitations placed on it's corrupting influence. In time it found a way, the way of unlife, and created the first undead. For centuries The Corruption worked to refine it's false imitation of life, to create ever more powerful and intelligent dead creatures animated by it's corrupting force. While it worked at this it discovered yet another way to corrupt the work of The Source. It devised ways to turn hearts without twisting the creature's form. Ways to deceive the high races into choosing corruption and rejecting the light voluntarily. The Corruption devised what we now call "evil". With this new tool it began to spread corruption through all of the original races, now individuals could, and some would, choose to live lives of evil and corruption, and instead of creating new races the corruption gained power and followers from individual choices. The first wars began, as the agents of evil encouraged the races to turn against each other, and nations sought to conquer other nations.

The Great Maker War was the first of the great wars that followed. The Elves and Dwarves, each declaring the other race to be a servant race, began to war on one another, the conflict escalating until both sides were contemplating genocide, the eradication of the other race from existence. The Humans and Halflings stopped this war, they brought the leaders of each race together, forced them to talk instead of fighting, and eventually showed that The Corruption was behind the entire conflict. The Elves and Dwarves were so ashamed at their conflict, that they had been so used by The Corruption, that they vowed never to fight a war between two races ever again. The two races have never been on good terms since then, but the only time combat erupts is between individuals, never nations or entire races. Unfortunately, the Humans and Halflings became the next target for The Corruption. Having failed to set those elder races on the path to genocide, it sought to break the bonds between Humans and Halflings. It could not, however, create enmity between these closest of allies, no matter how desperately it tried. Both races had seen the evils that arose when hate filled hearts, and the great Loremasters ensured that the tales remained, generation after generation, to warn against such things. To this day The Corruption harbors terrible hatred for Loremasters, and it's agents will kill or corrupt every Loremaster they can.