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Message: <blockquote data-quote="Mordane76" data-source="post: 1391563" data-attributes="member: 7172">The creation and history of Devro, as told by Faen, an Ulath sage:“Ours is a spoken history, handed down from father to son, through over a thousand generations.  Man writes his history in books, because his life is so short; he has not the breadth of life that we Ulath possess.  Our experience of history is interrupted only by the outside ravages of Nature, and since long before the Fire rained from the sky and scarred the face of Devro, sage had told apprentice this account, and such will be the pattern for many generations to come.  Our record begins long ago, before Owl gave birth to the Ulath, before the great lizards ruled us all, before even time as we know it began.  We know of this time from what the eldest of the great lizards could remember, and would recount to assembled court with a touch of melancholy.  The greatest of the wyrms spoke of ages long past; in that time, they say, there was nothing.  Nothing existed except Ul, the complete one, the creator of all.  Ul knew only loneliness; he longed for something, anything, to accompany him in this nothing.  Thus, in his solitude, he looked upon the nothing, took it in his hands, and with tenderness worked the nothing into substance.“Ul worked the nothing into an orb made of stone, and then set the orb aloft, floating in the nothing.  Yet, as any wise man knows, creation creates more than the object created – it also creates the possibility of that object’s destruction.  Ul, having completed the act of creation, was no longer complete, and no longer alone.  The act of Creation created Lu, the mirror of Ul… the destroyer.“Creation pleased Ul; the presence of the orb, and to a lesser degree Lu, eased the pain of Ul’s isolation.  This new pleasure quickly soured, however, as Ul became again displeased.  To his dismay, the orb was desolate and cold.  Creation became obsession; Ul wished to create more – he wished that life would team, cavort, and be fruitful and happy as it bounded across the surface of his orb.  Lu, however, the opposite of creation, was not pleased that the orb even hung in the nothing.  He was not happy that Ul existed, he was not happy that he existed.  Creation, even existence itself, was an affront to the nature roiling within Lu.“And so was borne war.  Brother Ul fought his mirror Lu.  Both were equal, both were powerful… and both were destroyed.  Brother slew brother, leaving nothing but a hanging cloud of miasma to float around the orb of stone.  Such was the way things went for time unmeasured – the lifeless orb surrounded by a cloud of the remnants of both Ul and Lu.“But then, something changed again.  Something happened, and streams of miasma mingled.  They changed from separate clouds of creation and destruction into something different and unequal from the original clouds, and this new cloud began to invade the orb.  It penetrated deep into the surface of the orb, and completely suffused the orb.  This whirling mass then began to change and flourish – the commingled miasma, which we call the Essence, bought life to the orb of stone – Devro.  Thus, as we Ulath know, Life is part Creation and Destruction, as is the Essence.“For many years, lesser creatures ruled the surface of Devro.  Such beasts included creeping things, fishes, birds, snakes, lizards, and other lower animals.  Nature ruled – the strong preyed on the weak, but in the grand scheme, all possessed equal potential in their niche.  Yet, not even these low things were impenetrable to the Essence.  Lizards so altered and empowered, or so we believe, became the great flying monstrosities of legend… dragons.  Now Nature was no longer equal, and the great lizards ruled the surface of Devro for many, many years, until the Essence had completed its work with other lesser animals and plants, giving birth to the elder races.“We Ulath were the first; borne are we of the owl, who is wise, possessed of great intellect, and strong of character.  The ferret is the Essence-instilled womb from which the Quith did crawl – small, crafty, unassuming, and yet potentially vicious.  From the willowy trees of the forest did the Essence form the Elves, and their bodies show this resilience, as they live nearly as long as we do.  Lastly, from the very earth itself did the Essence hew the Dwarf, and he is just as short, hardy, and hardheaded as his ancestor.  We Ulath ponder whether others rose from the lesser beasts, but if they did, they no longer exist.“Yet, these were not enough to supplant the great lizards – we four could not overcome the dragons, and fell into slavery.  Some faired better than others, mind you; the wiser and longer lived Ulath and Elves were more respected and better treated than the lower, craftier, and more stubborn Quith and Dwarves.  We, speaking of the Elves and ourselves, found our labors light and closer to the masters, while the Quith and Dwarves slaved in the pits of the earth, mining for gems and gold to appease the master’s desires.  Regardless, all chafed under the yoke of the great lizards, but it would take the Others, and the children of the primates to free us all.  From the grasslands, from the sparse interior of Devro, which spanned for many miles before the Fire, came the ape who walked upright…  Man.  His advantages were clear – quick adaptation, rapid reproduction, and understanding that did not correlate with his years.  Man quickly learned the secret ways, mostly through trial and error; he learned to forge weapons from bronze, iron, and steel, he learned to tame the beasts of Devro for use as mounts, and he learned to mend his fellow’s broken body.  He learned to string and fletch bows and arrows, he learned to build and farm.  He learned to manipulate both simple arcane energies that our wizards and the great lizards used, and he learned to weave the Essence itself.  However, even though Man possessed such potential, it was his ally, the alien Tulaire, which finally broke the stranglehold of the dragons.“While men became capable channellers, the Tulaire wielded the Essence like second-nature.  They also possessed the mentality for conquest and leadership, and forged the elder races, with the help of their human allies, into an efficient resistance against the dragons, and finally into an army to fight the elder wyrms.  The Tulaire’s leadership, the sheer numbers of humanity, and the tenacity of all under the alliance finally broke the dragon’s control over us all.“The great lizards withdrew to the high mountains and the low valleys, to the hidden places of Devro, but they did not retaliate.  The alliance had spared them – they did not hunt the dragons down, and the dragons knew that our alliance could kill them, as many of their fellows had been killed, if the lizards attacked again.  Peace ruled Devro… or perhaps it would be better to say that Nature ruled Devro, as the natural order returned.  Elves returned to their forests, Dwarves to their mountains and quarries, and the Quith to their mingling among all.  We, however, remained among the humans, who now looked to build villages, farm, and better their lot in life.“It would not be without struggles, however.  Long distant and removed, Devro was not prepared for some of the denizens of the Nothing who would come to our land and attempt to assert their control on an unassuming people.  From the bowels of the Earth came a plague of vermin the size of men – we called them, quite simply, the Ratmen.  In the jungles and deserts were located bizarre snake-peoples whose very gaze could turn others to stone.  Some heretics suggested that these beings naturally evolved as we had, borne of the Essence as we had been.  Of course, we met their considerations with naught but scoff, ridicule, shunning – we were civilized, while these creatures were monsters bent on destruction.  Other monstrosities followed in those days – large bulls that walked as men, bovines that turned others to stone, and other horrible creatures rarely seen today, thanks to both our prudence.“With these horrors, the Tulaire and the humans redoubled their efforts.  Under the direction of the Tulaire, the humans came together into the nations for protection, and thus the Seven Kingdoms of Man were borne.  Even the Elves and Dwarves thought this to be an advantageous arrangement, and thus the three Elven Nations and the Dwarven Commonwealth were borne.  The Seven Kingdoms and the Commonwealth bound themselves together under the Tulaire, and thus was the Tulaire Empire born.  These alliances brought about a new peace, as the nations protected each other, and the monsters found themselves hunted down and destroyed.  This was also a time of great advancement, as the Empire discovered new means of mastering the Essence, developing beforehand unfathomable forms of technology – devices that could heal the sick with a touch, or obliterate the enemies of the Empire from afar.  Also, this is the days when the Empire discovered the secrets of the kajh, which in and of themselves greatly increased the power of reach of the Empire.“Perhaps the heretics were right, because now we found Nature's order replaced by politics.  The power of these nations grew rapidly as they become increasingly insular and less threatened; after a thousand years, the previous friendship between the races became forgotten, as only the Ulath could remember such a time.  Questions of land, title, and suspicions drove race against race, nation against nation, and former friend against friend.  Those who suffered the worst were the Ulath and the children of both Elf and Man; we Ulath could remember when all had banded together, and the Half-Elven could not choose between their parentages.“However, it would not be Man, nor Elf, nor Dwarf that would destroy us – it would that which we had forgotten so long ago, the Old Ones – that which had given us life would finally rise up to destroy us.  For what we did not know, that the great Old Ones were not destroyed, but imprisoned, imprisoned by the mightiest of the wyrms before time was numbered – these would be our doom.  Men would find these ancient relics, and war began over who could control their power – but no one could control their power; all who tried were consumed by them, made hands for the Old Ones, to open the Gate and bring about oblivion.“These wars saw the human creation of the Ratan, the perfect warrior.  Originally of unknown origins it was captured by the human nations; their progenitor became a plaything, subjected to the ministrations of the Tulaire and Drak weavers.  The perfect soldiers, they were unleashed on the growing armies of darkness in hopes that they could destroy or hold back the oncoming might of the Old Ones.  However, there were complications – the channellers had not taken into account the ability to control such large numbers of Ratan, nor their creation’s lust for blood and combat.  The Ratan would soon turn on their masters, killing everything in sight.  And so did all come to fear the power of the Essence… yet the end was not yet come.“Destruction followed the followers of the Old Ones – our world was nearly torn in two.  No power could stop the avatar of Destruction – U, the Original, the embodiment of Entropy.  Terrible was its wrath, fueled by that which gave us life – the Essence.  Not even the Tulaire, although not originally of this world, could stop it; they went before it like the reed before the storm.  Only one hope remained – and it was grave indeed.  U went unchecked, destroying cities with its will alone, sending its minions to raze the kingdoms of Man to the ground.  Its power scorched the earth itself, leaving nothing behind but ashen soil, bereft of life.  Clouds of acid rained down where it trod, unmoving – as if Nature itself was perverted in U’s wake.  It cut a path into the heartlands, killing Man, Elf, Dwarf… anything in its path, as its minions razed east and west.  The Tulaire made one final stand against it, at Magehold, in hopes of stopping it by normal means… but they failed – failed miserably, and were left with only one option.  They would cut off that which gave it power – they would sever all ties to the Essence.“It worked… at least in theory.  In practice, even this was not enough to destroy U.  Cut off from its power, U was dramatically weakened… but not destroyed.  But, in cutting off the Essence, all magic was destroyed – all that which had made the Tulaire great was done, for their channelers now had no power.  The final battle against U was fought by hand, not by spell, and it was as bloody as all that came before it… but it was won.“What was the cost, however?   The world has remained tainted for the past three thousand years; the damage has not healed.  The plains and mountains that once dominated the center of Devro still lie desolate, many still ashen or drenched in acrid rain  – we call these lands the Great Wastes.  Only three of the original Seven Kingdoms of Man remained, nestled in their fertile lands along the eastern seaboard.  Now, only Callandor remains, having absorbed most of Drakenmoore and Cauldor.  The Elven Kingdom remains as it has for many thousands of years – isolated, nestled in the forests and jungles of the western seaboard.  The Dwarven Commonwealth has regained much of its strength, and now inhabits many of the arable mountains and hills bordering the Great Wastes.  The Quith, wanderlust still intact, yet travel the width and breadth of Devro.  Fortunately for them, the Ratan, free of their masters, their senses cleared by fear, have moved to roam the deserts east of the Great Wastes.”</blockquote>

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