The Age of Creation

Era beginning/end

The birth of the Gods and the creation of Altiira.

In the beginning there was chaos - pure primordial energy in the form of roiling flames and crashing, endless oceans and above this all, an empty starless void.     From this empty void, an entity arrived that would one day be known as the Matriarch, new and formless, taking the shape of a great platinum dragon in order to survey the land. Casting her eye upon this violent realm, she saw the potential for great beauty and boundless creation, though she knew she could not tame it alone.     She lay a single egg and protected it from the primordial chaos for eons. Finally, when she had almost given up hope, life began to stir in the egg. The shell shattered into many pieces, and from each piece grew an entity that would mature into one of the gods that preside over Altiira.     With time, the gods thus turned their hand to creation. The first children, the elves, were created with physical grace reflecting the gods’ own divinity. A second creation was wrought—the dwarves, a hearty people intent on taming the land, filled with the craft and invention of the gods. A third people were given life: the humans, endowed with hearts of passion that burned as brightly as their lifespans were short, and gifted with the mirth and laughter of the hands creating them.     Other creations followed as the many races of the world were given form. These Children of Creation walked the land, and as their knowledge grew they attempted to build much like their creators. But the land was fierce and treacherous, and sorrow filled the hearts of the Gods while these first races continued to struggle against a land that did not want them. The Children looked to their creators for guidance and protection. The gods gave to them gifts, lending their own power to their children to create and shape the world around them; these were the first divine magics. Premier amongst these gifts were the first dragons, a protector race of guardians tasked with the protection of mortals, whose divine duty it was to serve as intermediates between the gods and their creations.     Thus, the gods and their children and their dragons, together, began to shape the world into what we know now.     But this realm did not wish to be tamed. Quaking cliffs roared in defiance. Seas swelled and swallowed. Flames erupted from underneath the lands. Beneath the surface, unknown to the Creators, lived ancient beings who had already taken this world as their home: the Titans. These great Elemental Titans that once dwelt deep within the land now rose from their unseen domain to sunder the land once more.     The gods watched as their children—their joy—were dashed against the broken rock or fed to the formless terrors unleashed in the wake of the destruction. Demonic entities spilled from the depths of the Abyss to feast on the carnage, called forth by the violence and terror that the elemental titans left in their wake.     Some gods were so full of grief and anger they wished to abandon this world for another, trying to convince their divine kindred to join the Titans in reclaiming the realm so that they could move on to start anew. Others of the Creators wished to remain and subdue these native Titans, to tame the land for the sake of their creation and joy. This caused a schism in the gods. Some left the family of the Creators to give into madness, chaos and destruction, taking and twisting their children into sick, corrupted manifestations of darkness.     The remaining Creators, wishing to salvage their home and save their creations, were forced to take up arms and learn new methods of protection to defend the faithful. They organised their followers and taught them how to draw from the very powers of creation: to build, to change, and to destroy, all for themselves and without the aid of their divine power. Creation learned to defend itself through practices such as alchemy or by bending the very fabrics of existence through sheer will, though not on the scale of the gods’ works.     This gift was the knowledge of the first arcane magics. With these newly granted capabilities, the good children drove away their traitorous kin, banished the Defilers and their corrupted chaos to the Abyss, and ultimately destroyed the Titans while scattering the chaotic elements to their own plane of existence that became known as the Elemental Chaos.     Peace finally blanketed the world for the first time since creation, and the first real civilisation took root and grew into a grand city called Aureum.     Culture developed anew, the races ventured beyond to explore and discover their own lands, and great music filled the air to give name to this world once and for all - Altiira.