Cosmology of the Spinelands

The Cosmos is one among many worlds created by the mysterious Wanderer. As the Wanderer travels through the void, worlds appear in the wake of the Wanderer’s travels. But the Wanderer does not linger over the worlds. The Wanderer must keep moving. The Wanderer alone knows why the world exists or how it fits into the Cosmic Plan. Though the Plan is written across the void in the patterns of the stars.
Barad, the King of the Heavens, was born as the Wanderer passed the world. He illuminated the sun to cast light on the fledgling world and the Celestial Host, also born as the Wanderer passed, pledged fealty to Barad. Meanwhile, in the world, Hesta, the Queen of the World, was born from the soil and the sea. From the darkness, Nelaam the Seer observed all and tried to fit it into the plan written across the Heavens in the stars.
From the chaos of the primordial realms, the Titans came. And they tore and shaped at the young world, spreading their influence and offspring. Barad paid no heed to the world itself, for his concern was for the sun, the sky, and to whatever purpose the Wanderer had for him. Nelaam foresaw that, without intervention, the world would be destroyed. Hesta, alone on the world, tried to hold back the Titans. But they were too powerful for one, alone, to defeat. Nelaam called Barad’s attention to Hesta and told him that his purpose was to protect her so that she, in turn, could protect the world. And so, Barad took Hesta into the Heavens to protect her.
Hesta and Barad had two children. Joran was like his father – noble, and high minded – but also independent and inveterately curious. Gaera was like her mother – practical and grounded – but she was also wild and free-spirited. The family lived in the Heavens for a time, but Hesta yearned to return to her world below. Gaera rebelled against the perfect order and unchanging nature of the Heavenly Kingdom and the host of rigid, unyielding celestials. The two appealed to Barad to declare war against the Titans, but he would not listen. Gaera, impatient with her father's inaction, left the heavens to do battle with the Titans alone.
Meanwhile, Joran, exploring the Heavens, heard a voice between the stars. It called to him, it saw that his free spirit yearned to be tested and that he wanted to explore, to discover. The voice seduced him into taking up his father’s sword and cleaving in two the star that formed the cornerstone of her prison. The mysterious Maleen, sister to Nelaam, who had been imprisoned by the Wanderer between the stars, was freed. And she turned Joran’s attention to the world.
Joran appealed to Barad to free the world from the Titans, pointing out that they were chaotic and uncontrolled and were destroying the Wanderer’s creation. He appealed to Barad’s need for control, to impose order, and he succeeded. Barad would not leave the Heavenly Kingdom undefended though. Instead, he entrusted Joran with a detachment of Celestials to wipe the Primordial scourge from the world.
At first, Hesta was pleased. And despite Nelaam’s warnings, Hesta supported her son’s desire to marry the mysterious Maleen. Maleen and Joran were married, their union blessed by Barad and Hesta. But then Maleen surreptitiously let slip to Hesta that Joran’s true intention was to the bring the world under Barad’s cold, harsh rule and not leave it to flourish. Hesta turned against Barad and Joran from that point on, and returned to the world. It was here that she met the offspring of the Titans. She took pity on the primitive, formless creations, and saw great potential in them. She named them Life, adopted them as her own. She sheltered them from the tyranny of the Titans that birthed them.
Meanwhile, Joran’s celestial army swept the Titans from the world. And, as they did so, he discovered that his sister, Gaera, had been wandering the world for years, wild and free. She knew the ways of the world and the dangerous beasts that called it home. Impressed by each other’s strength, the siblings joined forces. For a time. Joran reassured Gaera that he had no intention of letting Barad rule the world, that he merely wanted to free the world from destruction to allow it to grow and flourish as it would. To make it better. And to see what mysteries it held.
But, as the war came to an end and the Titans were banished into the chaos of Limbo, Gaera revealed to Joran that she had fallen in love with one of the Titans. A wild spirit, temperamental and tempestuous, named Raxis. Gaera turned against Joran to protect Raxis, but Joran would not take up arms against his sister. Instead, he asked for one of Gaera’s beasts of the world. One with a wild heart and an explorer’s spirit that could bear him across the world. She gave him the horse. And, to her dismay, he tamed it and domesticated it. Later, as a peace offering to his mother, he provided Hesta with the secret of taming plants and animals and making them servants to the people of the world.
Gaera and Raxis roamed the world together. During this time, the unity of ancient primordial forces and celestial blood begat three daughters: Lira the Blue, Sael the White, and Eos the Red. Gaera begged her father to ascend her offspring in the hopes that it may soften his opinion on her chosen titanic mate. Barad begrudgingly allowed their ascension, only to deny them access to the upper celestial spheres. From the lower heavens, the sisters found that they could command the primordial energies of the world. Barad's rejection fueled their fury, and they unleashed great cataclysms upon the world that moved oceans and raised mountains. They became known as the Tempests.
Lira the Blue, Lady of the Waters, created powerful tides, deadly ocean maelstroms, and relentless downpours. Sael the White, the Sky Spirit, commanded great winds and thunder. Eos the Red, the Goddess of Fire, commanded the deep fires from beneath. Her fury shook the ground, erupted the earth, and ignited vast wildfires. Barad was impressed with the furious anger of the Tempests. He realised that their primordial origins gave them great influence over the material realm and its inhabitants. Barad requested that they assist him in asserting his will on the Material Plane. In return, he will one day award them with full ascension. They accepted, and are occasionally called upon to smite and decimate mortals who dare draw the ire of the sun god.