Category:1st Age

The Age of Gold, Warmth, and the Lion: 10,750 – 8600 BCE
The First Age is the age of Urthe's creation.

Greater Powers of the Age
Corellon Larethian (Arborea): God of Elves

Titania (Arborea, Beastlands, Ysgard): Goddess of Faeries

Jazirian (Seven Heavens): God of Couatl

Great Beholder Mother (Abyss): Goddess of Beholders

Gruumsh (Acheron): God of Destruction, and God of Orcs

Io (Concordant Opposition): God of Dragons

Maglublyet (Acheron): God of Goblins and Hobgoblins

Lathander (Elysium): God of Sun

Mystryl (Arcadia): Goddess of Magic

Oghma (Concordant Opposition) God of Knowledge

Silvanus (Concordant Opposition): God of Nature

Sune (Arborea): Goddess of Beauty

The Conception
The beginning was the void, the domain of the Power of Nothingness. The end of all, without substance, beyond scale. And although there was nothing in the void, the Overpower, Aom, discerned within the void a single point. A point in the void thus conceived, this point expanded in one dimension. Aom focused his attention on the point, and the point grew evenly in height and width: a circle in two dimensions. Turning in three dimensions, it became a sphere. Extending in four, five, six dimensions, and growing further still, the Power of Nothingness retreated.

The Dawning of the World Gold_sky.jpg
Elemental Forces rushed into the center of this new 11-dimensional sphere: servants of Kossuth, Grumbar, Ishtishia, and Akadi. Fire at the core, under a crust of Earth, covered in Water, and enveloped in Air, the Urthe began to take shape. Other Powers in the universe took immediate notice of this new material world. The Power of Sun and the Power of Magic enveloped the globe, and the sky shone and sparkled gold. The first day had dawned.

The Great ThawThe_Great_Storm.jpg
Only a single island continent stood out from the surface of a great ocean, the Sea of Thalassa. The island was Pangaea, and at the center of the island there was a smaller sea, the Sea of Tethys. The Power of Nature began to work on the land and the waters, with the help of the Elemental Forces, and the Powers of Sun, and Magic, and Beauty, to bring forth a seed of life on Urthe. In opposition to this, the Power of Destruction, with the Power of Oceans, the Power of Cold, the Power of the Beast, and the Elemental Forces, all besieged this new life, from without and from within, without warning, and without mercy. The Power of Nothingness, much weakened, nevertheless returned to claim what he could.

The Birth of UrtheGolden_Age_Urthe.jpg
For seven hundred years, this struggle went on. Life survived, diversified, and adapted. As the seas rose and the land trembled, Life took on many forms. Ooze and Jelly, Pudding and Slime all grew and bred, then Fungus and Plant bloomed, and soon true Animal kind was born, each creature combining and creating new forms after their kinds. The Life of Urthe flourished. Yet more Powers arrived, and they all swarmed over this dynamic, new, fertile world.

Sowing the Seeds of Baramin
The Power of Elves was among the first of the Great Powers to bring forth a particular chosen race on Urthe, casting his seeds from high in the heavens above over the land and the waters of Urthe. The Power of Destruction (and Orcs), always a watchful enemy, and jealous of the Power of Elves, searched the land for all of his seeds that he could find. When he would find one, The Power of Destruction would bite his cheek and spit a blood curse upon the seed. These cursed seeds turned harder than diamond and heavier than lead, and they sank deep into the Urthe, where they slowly mutated, in a womb of rock and fire, into the first beings of the Orcish race on Urthe. The Power of Sahuagin stole all the seeds that the Power of Elves cast over the coastal waters, and from them he created his own chosen people. The Power of Sea Goblins took the seeds that fell out over the deeps of the oceans, and twisted them into a myriad of forms in his own horrible image.

But the Power of Elves' actions were not in vain, as he hid some of his seeds from the Power of Orcs, and the Power of Sahuagin, and the Power of Sea Goblins. These hidden seeds were planted to grow in the most beautiful places on Urthe, in the places he knew they fail to recognize, fail to see, or fail to reach. These seeds were blessed with the Power of Elves' own immortal blood. These seeds blossomed quickly, and begat the first beings of the race called Elf. Finely boned and delicately featured, Elves stand about 5 feet tall, on average. These Elves are the true, pure creations of the Power of Elves.

The First Elves of Urthe
The Power of Elves' seeds were planted in all the beautiful places of the Urthe and, like the Power himself, the Elves too are creatures of great beauty. Some Elves were born on the mountaintops, some were born in the valleys and the plains, some were born in the forest, and some were born on the seashores. Like the Power himself, these Elves were very curious, and highly intelligent. They began to explore the world before them; in whatever environment they found themselves. The Elves spoke to themselves, and with their fellow creatures. They befriended the Brownies and the Centaurs and the Dryads and the Nymphs, the Pegasus and the Unicorns and the Treants and the Couatl, and even some of the Dragonkind. They spoke to the Powers as they worked upon the Urthe. Some of the Powers spoke back to the Elves, and shared with the Elves the gifts of song and joy, and divine magic. The Elves talked to their animal neighbors, great and small, and conversed with all the trees, and plants, and even the stones in their surroundings. The elves showed friendship to all their fellow inhabitants. Gold, silver, and gems of all kinds littered the Urthe in this age, and the Elves collected some of these in recognition of their beauty. They developed uses for oil, and created stone lamps that they used in their temples for their first rituals of Communion with their creator.

Soon, the Elves of the seashore met the Elves of the forests, and the Elves of the mountaintops met the Elves of the valleys. Stories were shared, in poetry, in song, in dance, and in celebration. With this intermingling, the Elves began to increase their numbers.

Never the Muse is absent from their ways: lyres clash and flutes cry and everywhere maiden choruses whirling. Neither disease nor bitter old age is mixed in their sacred blood; far from labor and battle they live.

The Elves lived in ever-growing nomadic tribe communities. They collected, and later cultivated, the calabash fruit, which they used for food, for containers, for pipes, for music, and for their many rituals. They hunted, and fished, and harvested wild grains, using elegant tools of wood and bone and ivory. They helped the struggling herds, and the smallest fishes, and the dusty fields, and the drying forests, and the grateful animals and plants helped the Elves in return. Some Elves took special interest in a particularly clever breed of ape, which they called the Hsing-sing. The Elves loved to watch, from a safe distance, and assist these creatures too, always unseen, from time to time, whenever it appeared like the Hing-sing needed help.

During harsh storms, the nomadic Elves took shelter beneath the waves of the canopy of broad trees, or in wide caves of stone. They sometimes painted on the walls of the caves; pictures of the beauties of life on the surface, intended as messages of peace to the frightening and often-unfriendly creatures of the dark places underground, who would emerge from time to time. Other than the occasional run in with a Beholder, or an evil Dragon, or a pack of Goblins, one had a sense that the Power of Peace walked the Urthe.

The Elves lived a peaceful existence like this for over seven hundred years. After a time, some Elven groups began to make structures in the woods; others began to build temples and small buildings of brick and stone. After surveying the continent, the Elves divided Pangaea into three nations: Aedan, Borea, and Knod. The first settlements were created; including the village called Jericho in the land called Aedan. In these early settlements, the first arcane magic of the Elves was developed.

The First Orcs on Urthe
When the Orcs emerged at last, they sought to make war upon the Elves. Heavily boned, thickly muscled, and grotesquely featured, with coarse hair, yellow-brown tusks, and mottled skin of a greensh grey pallor, the Orcs stand about six and a half feet tall, on average. The Orcs attacked with their jagged stone-bladed knives and spears, and the Elves defended themselves with their elegant hunting weapons: graceful arrows and elegant spears of wood, horn, ivory and stone.

For over seven hundred years, ambushes, occasional assassinations, and random raids escalated to frequent skirmishes, and eventually, full-scale war raged between the two races. The Elves were winning the war, on the verge of wiping out the Orcs, when the Power of Orcs and Destruction himself stepped onto the field of battle. The Power of Elves then appeared on Urthe too, and the two Powers fought mightily, with the Power of Orcs finally losing an eye, and the Power of Elves standing over him, victorious. But, rather than destroy the Orcish race utterly, The Power of Elves and the Elves themselves agreed to allow them to live in the lands east of Aedan, so long as they agreed to keep the truce, and to stay within their own borders. The Power of Destruction and his Orcs had no choice but to accept the truce, for the moment. The Power of Peace, who had fled, once more returned to Urthe. The Orcs retreated to the land called Knod, bitter in defeat, and hungry for revenge. They set to work, razing forests, mining for ores, and breeding new warriors: building for the war to come. The Orcs burrowed back underground, tunneling their way underneath the Elvish lands, developing their plans for a devastating sneak attack. For eight hundred years, they stayed underground, and they grew accustomed to the dark.

Aom looked on…