The Age of Stars
The destruction of Tarien displeased Shar’iish’ta and Jez'bali'dahn. The blame fell not on the sentient races, but on the now worshiper-less and therefore powerless Guardians. Once again, the Mother and Father summoned the Old Ones from their distant slumber. They recreated Tarien exactly as it was before the great wars, but eliminated all knowledge of Teck'nahl'eesh. Jez'bali'dahn bound the excess energy from left from the dissipation of Teck'nahl'eesh into an azure flame on the uppermost point of the Peak of the World. A large tree grew there, its leaves engulfed with this azure fire, guarding the mass of energy and the essence of Jez'bali'dahn.
By this time, many other gods had come into existence, through affairs either between themselves or with mortals, and some began to choose races as their children.1 Tyloma chose the noble Soulmeliti . Kharl, the smith chose the Khadra, who had a name lost to history at the time, but changed it to reflect their devotion to their deity. Grashua claimed the Orks. Goblins developed over the years, due to freak magical happenings, inbreeding, crossbreeding, and the like, all continue to worship Grashua. Humans, by now the most diverse of the races, accepted a myriad of deities, each affecting a different aspect of their lives. The only races unaffected by this picking and choosing were the Kari-Zaro and the Tzecheni'korak, who remained strong in their faith toward Shar'iish'ta.
A great peace that lasted for millennia of millennia followed. The races of Tarien rebuilt its splendor without entrance of Teck'nahl'eesh into the world. New races also came into existence during this time. The goddess Chetria, in order to spite the other gods, began this process by planting the Flind, an unattractive race of sentient and warlike beings just to the east of the Orks. She imbued them with a devotion to the physical realm. They felt no compulsion or desire to seek out a god for worship. They have remained atheistic ever since. Over the years, this lack of spiritual devoid-ness has resulted in Flind mysticism and the development of strange mental powers in more than a few Flind.
A group of Humans, while exploring the sea, shipwrecked along the shores of the Swamps of Malar. At the same moment, a group of demonic forces infiltrated the depth of the Underworld and destroyed a greater demon. The ensuing explosion spilled into Tarien for some unknown reason and metamorphosed these humans, shrinking their bodies until they became Kyushu. Kyushu legend states that in order to survive the first months, they had to eat the body off their dead crewmates, thus instilling cannibalism into Kyushu culture.
The Ruins of Human Temple in Central Eldoria
A Shrine to Tyloma
Kayla , the God of Mischief and Trickery, in an effort to win a bet with Intrix, the God of Curiosity and Invention, sprinkled divine dust over the cribs of one hundred children of Khadric. The babies' noses grew long, their voice's gained pitch, and their girth shrunk. The children of Khadra, displeased with these mutant looking babies, abandoned them in the mountains. Intrix felt a responsibility for their abandonment, as it was his bet that brought them into existence. He swept them up in a whirlwind, dropping them safely in the wild hills to the far west, making them the Nerrid, and his chosen race. Affairs between various gods and immortals also spawned offspring. At one point, Grashua took a harem of twenty Titan women. The children that resulted became the giants of Tarien, who along with Orks and other Goblinoids, worshiped him. As Grashua hungered for power, and power came from his worshipers, he imbued his chosen races with the exceptional fertility that they possess to this very day.
An affair between Tyloma and the cat lord Feldane yielded a litter of ten Elynthi children. The cat lord, fickle in his affairs, left them alone in the Soulmeliti Forests for the noble race to raise. Their numbers grew and the two races existed in harmony for thousands of years. Their mother Tyloma, however, felt slighted by the cat lord and his impure children. A hostile feeling toward them grew in the church of Tyloma.
Peace gave way to small skirmishes and eventually minor wars broke out between races. The Kari-Zaro and the Tzecheni'korak fought a constant war in the Jungles of Thallox. On a grander scale, the Orks and the Soulmeliti fought in the forested hills that divide their homelands. Humans, constantly bickering, fought among themselves.
Finally, about five thousand years before the crowning of the first Emperor in Eldoria , the Soulmeliti developed writing. The Elynthi, who by now occupied the southern part of the forest, quickly followed suit. By the end of the next millennia, writing had expanded to the Khadric, Nerrid, and Humans. By the date of 2,123 before the first Emperor of Eldoria, Soulmeliti scholars began recording history in scrolls.
1 For more detailed information regarding the history of the Gods, see The Imperial University of Karradone's Manual for Religious Studies, 6th Edition.