Welcome to Soros

A century ago, the world was different. There were no gods, and only four species of intelligent people. They were vastly different and yet so remarkably similar. The Aelvar, the Denro, the Cannor, and the Romari. In the beginning each was alone in the world, separated by ocean and mountain. But as each overcame the challenges of being locked in place, they encountered each other.
The Aelvar were the first to overcome the challenge with their control of magic. They encountered the Cannor and in both a sense of fascination and superiority, enslaved them to help "uplift them to a greater state." The Cannor controlled a vastly different kind of magic than the Aelvar, and it frustrated and infuriated them that it was a magic they could neither access nor control.
The Cannor were a peaceful people and were content in their own lands until the Aelvar took over. Their strong natural ties to their lands and to the animals of the world was much different than the strange magic of the Aelvar. At first, they hid it from the invaders, and then used their primal connection to the land against them. In the end, the Alevar still took over, demanding they share the secrets of their magic. The Aelvar never truly grasped that a true connection to the land was required to tap into it. Their arcane magics were all about control over connection.
The Denro came next. They saw the Aelvar and how they had enslaved the Cannor and fled back to their lands to warn them of what was coming. Their superior engineering skills relied on their near religious fascination with Cor, the force of innovation and genius. Denro could commune with this force and found themselves overtaken in a frenzy of building. Their technology could match the magic of the Aelvar, and the Aelvar found themselves thwarted by the Denro's superior technology. In anger and pique, they created magical monsters and unleashed them on the Denro. The Denro were forced underground and the Aelvar, losing control of their living weapons, fled from their own perverse creations.
The Romari appeared last. They had overcome through sheer perseverance and a need to learn and know everything, but willing to try to become a part of things rather than reshape them to their own ends. Seeing what had become of the Cannor and the Denro, they declared war on the Aelvar, and offered to help the Cannor and the Denro both fight against the oppressive Aelvar Dynasty. They readily accepted and the Aelvar rose to the challenge the Romari offered. The Aelvar were surprised and dismayed to discover the Romari could use, not just Aelvar magic, but Cannor magic as well. They learned how to tap into Cor with the Denro, and even managed to find ways to combine the elements together in new and innovative ways.
The Aelvar grew desperate as the rest of the world rose up against them. Unwilling to give up or acknowledge they were not the most superior people of the world, they started to enact darker and darker rituals. Raising up magical towers of crystal and glass, they reached out beyond the Veil and found other beings. Beings who were hungry and ready to devour the enemies of the Aelvar for a price. A price they were all too willing to pay.
Not all Aelvar wanted a war or wanted to play a role in the Dynasty's ever increasing desperation for a new way to win. They secretly started to undermine the Dynasty's war machine before they were caught. In fear, they fled to the sides of the others, ready to help them stand against the insanity of the Dyansty. Using the Aelvar's own magitechnology, they discovered other realms of beings who stood against the dark ones the Dyansty were ready to unleash against the world.
In what would be a final push, the Aelvar Dynasts chose a nihilistic path forward. If the world would not bend the knee to them and accept them as their eternal rulers, then the world needed to be cleansed of all that stood in their way or to be destroyed while they escaped to rule a new world. Their ritual failed spectacularly. The mountain top home of the Dynasty violently exploded in a magical conflgration that reduced to it a flat glass-like mesa half the size of the original mountain.
The magical energies of the ritual expanded out threatening to destroy the world,but as quickly as they had escaped, they fizzled out. And then the sun went dark, the moon disappeared, and the stars in the sky fell. In the darkness of that event, the survivors fell into a deep and magical slumber. All of them had what came to be known as the Dream Promise.
In the dream, twenty robed beings stepped forward and told them they had created the world and observed it from afar. The near destruction of it had convinced them they could no longer afford to merely observe, and they had stepped forward to save their creation. The world would be different when they woke. Nothing would be the same again, they said. "We are watching," they said.
The people of world awoke to a world both familiar and different. It was as if the world was made of pieces on a game board that had been scattered and put back in the wrong places. And now there were more than four intelligent species in the world. And more than that, there were new forces in the world, new places, and new mysteries. The Awakening was a mere 50 years ago. What mysteries will you find in this new world?

The Aelvar are traditionally known as Elves. The Denro are traditionally known as Dwarves. The Cannor are traditionally known as Halflings. The Romari are traditionally known as Humans.