Planar History
Here's the three lines that opens the campaign setting's creation myth:
[sblock]Before the beginning, there was the Dream, for the Dream has neither beginning nor end.
At the beginning, there was the Maw, for in the Dream there are sometimes nightmares, and there they dwell.
In the beginning, there was the Void, and we knew it because it was not the Dream.[/sblock]
The first Catalysis trapped the Elder Evils, and created the world that would later be known as Lirani-Og (the campaign's main world).
[Sblock='Lirani-Og']With the creation of Lirani-Og came the birth of the original angelic goddess Selune and her sister the Fey goddess Shar, also known as the Mother Light and the Mother Darkness.[/sblock]
Once the Elder Evils were trapped, other factions from within the Dream touched off the War of Law and Chaos.
[sblock='The War of Law and Chaos']The Wind Dukes of Aqaa and Obyriths such as the Queen of Chaos are contemporaneous with the first Planar Catalysis, having existed in the Dream for long before. The Vaati / Wind Dukes revered the concept of Law, but this word might be better translated as Runegod (see Esoteric Religions, above). The Wind Dukes attributed the sealing of the Elder Evils after the first Planar Catalysis to 'Law', so defined. This belief may have been shared by the forces of Chaos, and if so, was an antagonizing factor in the conflict.[/sblock]
The war of Law and Chaos awakened the three primordial dragons, and they too performed Catalysis, creating the world of Cidacor.
[sblock='Cidacor']These 3 beings were Tiamat, Chronepsis, and Bahamut. Cidacor has a lot of parallels to Krynn, but with even more dragons.[/sblock]
One Catalysis is entwined with the origins of the illithids, which is inspired by an
idea by Mouseferatu that spawned from
Lords of Madness.
[sblock='Aedesce']After the trapping of the Elder Evils, as the war of Law and Chaos raged, the aboleths, spawn of the Galchutt and in service to Dagon, were flung into the void and searched for many years for the prison of their masters. In time, they came to Lirani-Og, and were disgusted by the presence of Mother Light and Mother Darkness.
Still, the aboleths were in no hurry to release the Elder Evils, or depart from the world. Instead, they built a great empire beneath the waves of the primordial sea, and there created many of the aquatic creatures that dwell there to this day. In time, divinations told the aboleths that their titanic empire would one day end, and to escape this coming cataclysm, they engineered another Planar Catalysis. Ironically, it was this event that destroyed the Aboleth empire, but it was not entirely a failure. A world was created, but only a small number of Aboleths survived to enter that realm. This new world, with far fewer aboleths, had grown a life-force of its own, and this force, wounded by the Aboleths' attempt at Catalysis, awakened. Plants, animals, and other forms of modern life began to flourish across the world.
Meanwhile, The Aboleths' new world advanced through its timeline far more quickly than its neighbour planes, and the aboleths found themselves unable to contact other planes.
The world they created was dimly lit with fens and bogs and many races suitable for becoming slaves - it was ideal for the aboleths' habitation. Eons passed, and again the Aboleths rose to power over their created world. The Aboleths dominated this life, but mourned - if an aberration can be said to mourn - the loss of so many memories with their lost kin. New methods of preservation were discovered, and eventually these Aboleths created the first Elder Brains. Meanwhile, the aboleths nurtured life on their world to the point of sentience, and in time found themselves awash in new breeds of slaves. With slaves that finally possessed minds of their own, aboleths rejoiced, and began to work strange magics to bend and warp these slaves into different forms.
As the aboleths' perverse mutations were perfected, they began to turn their powers on themselves. In time, the race fractured, one species occasionally rising in dominance over the others - but largely leaving a core of sea-bound Aboleths beneath the waves, while more freakish monsters were driven onto the land.
But the world was flawed, and after many ages, despite the Aboleths' greatest efforts, it began to die. First came the poisoining of the seas - and the Aboleths trapped there lost their intellects, becoming hardly more than beasts. But the most freakish, landbound aboleths - now calling themselves Mind Flayers after their unspeakable ceremorphosis - discovered a method of escape. They built great ships, and with their slaves (the giths) and memory keepers (the Elder Brains) crossed the barrier between worlds.
These are the Illithids we know of today - to them, this is as if they were thrown back into an ancient era, only to lose control over their most prized race of slaves.
Here is an adventure seed, to be developed later:
[sblock]Ever since being thrown backwards in time the elder brains have been increasingly suffering decay and paranoia. While most illithids are either too deferential or too quickly found out to address the problem, a handful of illithids are seeking information on the aboleths to discover what they can about how to repair the problem.
Of those, one has discovered the beginnings of a ritual that other illithids would call blasphemous: The devouring of an elder brain by a properly stimulated Ulitharid will result in the creation of an independent, aboleth-like creature with the inherited memories and psionic capabilities of the elder brain. But as this is a desperate gamble for an illithid even to research, it is most likely to be done by one dwelling apart from Illithid society - perhaps lurking in a major city such as Ptolus. Such an illithid would need to gather resources and information through agents - such as an adventuring party - and could easily disguise his intentions by posing as a human or elven wizard searching for possible aberrant danger.
Meanwhile, a mad council of elder brains plot a war of annihilation against the aboleths, whom they see as their only true threat.[/sblock]
And another:[sblock='Aedesce in the void']Fragments of the world of Aedesce float within the Void; these are home to horrible creatures of that dead world, ranging from vile aberrations to swarms of undead gith.[/sblock][/sblock]
Yet another Catalysis is attributed to great mystics, who created the world of Velne and would go on to become powerful Fey gods.
[sblock]Shortly after this Catalysis came the rebellion by Giantish and Elven peoples against their Rakshasa masters in the Shadow Realm.[/sblock]
Another example is the creation of the world of Esh, a large world of floating islands, which was created by the Spell Weavers in the great event that destroyed their civilization.
[sblock]Spell Weaver ruins can be found in many places on Esh, and this world is their most enduring legacy. Spell Weaver imagery features strongly in the religions of Esh's native Lizardfolk and Aarakocra. The few Spell Weavers that still live seek to unlock the powers their brethren undoubtably built into the world of Esh.[/sblock]
