The Age of the Ancients

It is unknown when the age of the ancients began, but mostresearchers and scholars believe it started when the first races experienced death for the first time. Having been immortal before time began, the first races feared this unending sleep and prayed to the Five who blessed them with these forms to save them. The Aspects heard their plight and were crushed to see the pain in the hearts of the first races, and so the Aspects sought to ease their suffering. First, by extending the life of the halflings by a hundred years or so, hoping that this extended time would ease their pain before the unending sleep. To their dismay, it only prolonged the inevitable. The Aspects continued to experiment, extending the life of dwarves, gnomes, elves, and lastly the wyverians far beyond that of humans, but they found it was not within their power to extend the life of the first races indefinitely, but they could mold it. Death was not the end, but instead it was the beginning and end of a cycle. When a creature died, the Aspects welcomed the first races and all other creations of the five to the Outer Planes where they remained until they were infused with new life and returned to the material plane.This is commonly referred to as "The Wheel."

But the Wheel was flawed. Unknown to the Aspects, the twisting and contorting of the Five's original creation had corrupted it. This corruption slowly seeped into the pores of the Outer Plane, forming the Fatalis, the lord of the newly formed Lower Planes. Thought to be created by the mixing of energy between Limbo, the Abyss, and the Nine Hells the Fatalis sought to destroy and recreate in its own image. In the beginning it started small, first influencing small monsters making them rabid and territorial. The harmony of nature had been broken, but the Aspects did not take notice. Their concern for the first races blinded them to small changes in the world. As the wheel turned, the Fatalis grew in power and began twisting and contorting the monsters under its command into the first demons.

Next it moved its sights to the first races, offering power and knowledge to the weakest of them. The ones who accepted the Fatalis's offer became the first devils. The ones who attempted to resist the Fatalis but failed, were twisted into the monstrous races like the orcs, goblins, or kobolds.

The Aspects looked on in horror as these abominations to nature invaded the Five's creation. Monsters and humanoids alike were being slaughtered, forests were burning, mountains were demolished, and seas became sand. The War of the Ancients had begun.

War of the Ancients

The War of the Ancients threatened to undo everything the Five created. The battle took place across all creation and the Aspects were unable to focus their assistance in just one area. So they shared their knowledge with the first races, showing them how to fortify themselves by creating walled settlements. They taught them how to harness the nature around them to fight, how to bend the earth to their will, use the bodies of fallen monsters to strengthen themselves, harness the destructive power of the magic they possessed, and work with the uncorrupted monsters of the world. A century went by, but inch by inch the monsters and first races forged ahead together. They pushed back the corruption from the world, winning skirmish after skirmish until the emergence of a new threat.

The Fatalis released its generals across the Material and Upper Planes. Created from granting its most powerful warriors fused with its own essence, the Archdevils were the ones to invade the Upper Planes in an attempt to break the Wheel and spread the corruption further. On the material plane Demon Lords, created from elder dragons under its influence of the Fatalis, trampled armies and once again threatened the existence of the Five's creation. With hope waning, the first races once again turned to the Aspects again, praying for assistance.

It was never in the Aspect's power to grant immortality to all of the first races and they knew that, but it was within their power to gift it to a select few. In doing so they would weaken themselves, but it was what was required. And so, the Aspects called upon the most faithful, wise, and powerful of the first races and ascended them to godhood. These lesser pantheons of gods took to the battlefield against the Archdevils and Demonlords, pushing them back into the Nine Hells and the Abyss. The Aspects themselves took the fight to the Fatali's lair where they sealed Fatalis away, preventing it from ever physically leaving its lair for eternity, but at the cost of the first Aspect Io's life.

Notable Events and Locations during the War of the Ancients

Heaven's Mount

In the small village of Cathar, old folktales are told of Heaven's Mounts creation during the War of the Ancients. It has been said that the peak of Heaven's mount is a gateway to the Upper Planes and was guarded by a number of elder dragons known as dalamadur. When the Archdevils attacked the Upper Planes, they used the gate atop the mountain to invade, but not before the dalamadurs massacred much of the Devil's army. Now the mountains have markings all over them, showing where each of these elder dragons dug. In the present, chunks of the mountains are falling to the ground and the formations don't look natural in the slightest. It is said that these giant elder dragons went underground under the mountain and still guard the gate to this day.

Great Forest Brawl

In the War of the Ancients, a brawl took place in the Great Forest. This fight was between an espinas and an unknown elder dragon, believed to be the first of many created by the Fatalis.
Espinas was the ruler and protected its home with all of its might, even going as far as taking on the elder dragon solo to stay. Through determination and power, espinas was able to defeat the elder dragon and claim its title as Lord of the Great Forest. This made espinas one of the few monsters equal to an elder dragon during this age, but there is no known sighting of espinas in recent years.

The Great Seas

In Ancient times, the desert region of the Old World was covered by a great sea filled with the ancestors of some monsters seen today. The Jhen Mohran's ancestors ruled the region and defended it with the tritons against the Demon Lord Dagon and its army during the War of the Ancients. These sea battles did untold damage not only to the sea itself, but it remained in a constant stalemate between the two forces until the end of the war. Whenever one side would win a battle, the other would counter attack somewhere else, canceling out the territory each gain. It wasn't until the lesser gods entered the battle that Dagon was forced back to the abyss, but not before he opened a portal to the Shadowsea that would consume the entirety of the region's water before vanishing. For centuries after the war, the region remained an inhospitable barren waste of sea creature bones and decayed vegetation until the Sand God, Odibatorasu transformed the region into the deserts found in the present

The End of the War

The war finally came to a close when Fatalis and its generals were finally pushed back to their respective planes. The second Aspect, Pelor, filled the void that the First Aspect left behind, becoming the leader of the other Aspects and gods. The lesser gods, or guardians as they came to be known as, said their goodbyes to the first races and joined the remaining Aspects in the Upper Planes. The first races and the monsters of the material plane went their separate ways, nature was once again in harmony, for now...

Though the Fatalis was sealed, the corruption of the Five's creation still seeped into the Lower Plane, forming new devils, creatures, and other abominations. It was only a matter of time before the corruption once again leaked into the Material Plane. So, the Aspects and Guardians set forward their plans to protect the world.

Unlike the original five Aspects, the Guardians did not agree on how exactly to go about protecting the world and split into smaller pantheons that reported to one of the Aspects. They were known as: The Platinum Court, The Wild Lords, and the Radiant Eye. Some believed the creation of new monsters and expansion of nature was the best solution, and so they went to the Beastlands to begin their work. Others believed that the first races were the answer. After all the Aspects choose them to become gods. So they shared their power and knowledge with those deserving and created what is now known as the ancient civilization. Finally, a select few sought to contain the corruption, hoping to prevent its spread. In doing so, the world would remain in harmony forever, or so they thought.

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