The Great Powers
Mythology & Lore
First, there was Aner, The Cause of all Causes, King and Lord of All.
He stared into the great void and called forth two beings and told them to go forth and create. These beings were Saint Ord, the embodiment of Law, and Kos the embodiment of Chaos. Kos moved first and created the Astral and Ethereal seas, The Abyss, and the Elements which crashed in a great sea of primordial energy. Saint Ord moved next and shaped the wild energies into worlds. It is here that The Realms were formed. Saint Ord filled them with creatures and Kos gave them life. This is the time when the eldest of The Fey and The Elementals were created, and The Celestials first graced The Realms with their presence.
But that age would come to an end- for Kos became insane and, in her madness, she began to destroy all so as to plunge The Realms into the elemental chaos of The Abyss. Her brother Saint Ord asked Aner for help, as he was evenly matched with Kos, and Aner granted Saint Ord the ability to create beings lesser than himself that would not be of pure Law, to aid him in overcoming Kos and preserving The Realms. Thus, Saint Ord and Aner created the six original Children of Orde, setting them above even The Fey, The Elementals, and The Celestials.
First, they created The Sky Father to lead and govern The Children of Orde and the lesser immortals. Next they created The Earth Mother to heal and watch over them. They created The Voyager to watch over the depths of the Astral, Ethereal, Primoridal, and Material seas and the dark places. They also created The Teacher to govern Magic, and to instruct the others. They created The Warrior for the upcoming battle with Kos. Finally, They created The Peacemaker to maintain harmony among The Children of Orde.
While individually none of The Children of Orde were as mighty as Kos, though The Warrior was her equal in combat, together they were able to constrain Kos, and with the aid of Aner- shatter her essence and scatter the shards among the heavens so that she may never destroy The Realms. Those remnants of Kos’ essence became the Stars. Saint Ord, without his sister to balance him, was placed by Aner into a deep slumber, lest the world grow too ordered, and his slumbering form became the Sun.
The Children of Orde ruled together for a while, but it was not to last. Like The Voyager, The Warrior did not linger much in the halls of the other Children- he was ever inspecting the Stars for signs of Kos’s madness, and messages between The Warrior and the other Children often went through The Peacemaker who usually followed him. It is said that on one such journey The Peacemaker listened too long to the song of a mad Star and she began to wonder what it would be like to sow discord instead of peace. Thus, she began to lie to The Warrior when they met to tell him the news of the other Children. This went on for a long time, and she created a great fear in The Warrior, that the other Children feared his power and would seek to imprison him or shatter him as they did with Kos.
The Warrior determined to strike first and assaulted The Palace of The Sky Father. The Warrior was the mightiest of The Children, and very nearly slew the Eldest of The Children, but The Teacher jumped in front of The Warrior’s spear- saving The Sky Father’s life at the cost of her own. The sacrifice of The Teacher gave The Sky Father the chance to speak- begging his brother for an explanation of his hatred. The shock of having slain his sister, with whom he had no quarrel, and hearing the anguish in The Sky Father’s voice caused The Warrior to see how he had been deceived. Fearing Aner's wrath for the death of The Teacher, and wishing vengeance on the one who had deceived him, The Warrior and his followers fled the The Palace of The Sky Father, pursuing The Peacemaker, now called The Lady of Discord, and her followers into The Abyss where her followers became corrupted into Demons.
The Warrior, now called The Fallen, built the mighty fortress of Braator on the edge of The Abyss to launch his invasions of The Abyss- for he now wars eternally with the Queen of Demons in vengeance for his deception. The Abyss has corrupted his followers into Devils.
The Voyager was distraught at the The Teacher’s death and sailed along hidden paths through all The Realms looking for what might have happened to her. Aner led The Voyager to her at last, deep in the Underworld, changed by death- now The Lady of Night and charged by Aner to be Judge of the Dead for she knows the true hearts of all. The Voyager, undaunted by the change, embraced her nonetheless and asked Aner to be allowed to ferry souls to The Lady of Night for Judgement so that he may remain with her.
With Aner’s blessing, The Earth Mother bore The Sky Father two children, one to replace The Fallen and one to replace The Lady of Discord- The Crusader to protect The Children of Orde and their charges, and The Traveler to bring them news of The Realms. Also with Aner’s blessing, The Lady of Night bore The Voyager The Eight River Sons, who together control the Eight Schools of Magic, and The Three Daughters of Night, who weave Aner’s tapestry of time and fate.
Without The Warrior hunting them, The Stars grew restless and some used their fragment of Kos’ power to create small realms of their own. One woke as a great eye in the void and his mad dreams created the Beholders and their kin. Another woke as a mind that literally sought to devour the knowledge of all, and if is from this Star that the Mind Flayers appeared. A third became madness incarnate, taking the form of giant frog and from its skin burst the first Slaadi. Though not all the fragments are evil. There is one who woke and has what appears to be a beneficial interest in the child races.
The most threatening of these fragments of Kos though, was The Great Serpent that attacked The Realms and attempted to destroy them. The Children of Orde managed to imprison The Great Serpent beneath the waves of The World River, but The Great Serpent’s malice still seeps into the world in the form of the Aboleths and other aberrations of the Deep.
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