Before The Age of Dreams
Recoiling from Its failed attempt during the Vaati/Teotl War to form Itself into a plane on the Great Wheel, that resulted in It being thrust into the Outside; It slept. Though utterly separated from the Known Multiverse, It had Memories of some of the oldest inhabitants and places of the Known Universe. Its failure came in the epoch after the Time Before Time, and after the splitting of the Serpent: perhaps during the Forging of the Ring was when It made Its try.
Cast Out, It resembled nothing so much as an egg of pure white in a truly infinite Absence. Plunging inside the egg would reveal a habitat much like the endless fog of the Ethereal plane, but devoid even of the shadow pictures of the Prime.
Within the dormant body of It catalysts began to spontaneously drive reactions. Parts of Its body began to remember what Had Been and glow with the pure radiance of life, while other began to blacken forming patches of utter nothing. And then It stirred and remembered Its lost purpose; to be a plane. Well if that were impossible It would at least create a single world. With this thought It descended fully back into slumber, and subconsciously a seed formed in it's exact center.
The seed grew and flowered and yet it was barren. A full world but without life or any form of sentience it was nothing but a tumult of geological, chemical and magical processes and reactions.
Now with a place to house them, more of Its memories began to surface and inhabit the seed. The first simple beasts and animals came to be, the first earths rose from the sea, the first trees grew, the first stars a-lighted, the first rivers ran'¦ the world that would become NordgÄrd was fresh and untouched.
With this foundation, this living planet now formed, other memories, those recollections of true sentience had a place. It briefly awoke and saw the Worldseed it had created and was glad and It remembered the Gods but this was too much and both the It and the new Divinities then slept.
[ooc]Surprise! Nordgard ended up coming back to the front burner rather than Karras![/ooc]
Really liked the creation story. Intrigued to know more.
[ooc]Ask and receive.[/ooc]
The Age of Dreams
Fires of millions of souls burn...Nothing
Darkness consumes, gnaws, and devours...Nothing
Dreams are born and die and from death become..Nothing
[ic]The end doesn't end; it starts lad. What have you [/i] learned? Who taught you that time is linear? I ought to demonstrate to them what fools they are. If only. And don't tell me that the end is where things start, thats astoundingly silly. Things start at the beginning. It's just a matter of being able to tell which is which. That, even I can't do, boy.
~
Talerion Agaedamus, Archmage of Time; to an inept young professor shortly before the Rising of Maxias
The 1282nd Year of Our Glorious Fivefold Empire[/ic]
In the time before the Dawn, It slept fitfully. These are the ancient days of the world of NordgÄrd days. What happened occurred simultaneously as it did, as well as all the other ways it could've have been and shadow plays of the future played out. The most ancient myths of the Faerie speak of times before they entered the world and of the spirits and people that arose out of the early age who discovered magic in its raw form. Using this magic, which they called the
Arda'man, they created a stable monoreality. In time, as such things happen, some rose to power and some died; and an empire reached out to span the world. So peace ruled for a thousand generations.
What came next, no myth dare speak; the undoing of an entire existence is to terrible even to conceive. Perhaps the Arda'man failed. Perhaps the power of peace was not enough to prevent a war to end all wars. Perhaps The One That Is Three That Is Nine stirred and in doing so collapsed whatever contingency held the world together. Or perhaps, as come with all creatures, this was just a legend.
The Age of Stars
Awake! From the Earth.
Awake! From the Seas.
Awake! From the Mountains.
Awake! From the Skies.
Awake! From the Dream!
[ic]Stars! They first saw the stars and sang their names! The dark night, the seasons turn, the thousand thousand pin pricks of light. They name them. They name each other. Perhaps we should have called it the Age of Names. Stars! Can you imagine the the awesome wonder of seeing a pure night sky? The awe of being the first to see it? The first in the whole world...
~
Lord Disc lecturing a class at on the awakening of the Faerie.
Bloodruby Keep, The 1265th Year of Our Glorious Fivefold Empire[/ic]
In an flawless, empty world The Faerie awoke and wandered through the pristine lands.
Most purely said the Faerie were thoughts, and ideas, and philosophies walking the land. Incarnate dreams and spirits that are tied inherently to the cycle of life. The songs and records of this time are laden with subjectivity, myth, metaphore and lies. Even in the Age of Stars, The Folk never discussed a begining, such an idea was antithesis to their nature. Under the guardianship of the Faerie, Nordgard flowered and they came to be masters all things, cheif amongst those the arts. The Faerie Willed each and every thing they desired to create just to Be. Magic, poetry, blades, and more.
Realms and rulers rose. As their numbers grew, the most wise and effective leader among the Folk was deemed the Queen or King. Eventually, as all things are, the harmony of this way was broken.
The Faerie cannot be called Good or Evil, for they came before such things and do not understand them. Rather their deeds cast in more natural, cyclical terms. Light and Shadow. White and Black. Dusk and Dawn. Yet even a cycle can become a perversion. It was in this way the the first of the Others were made.
The Sea'ch came from the nightmares of the Faerie. These were creatures both tentacled and vile, oily and unfathomable and upon their creation, they fled from Reality. So too did the first Dragons come from the minds of The Faerie. The Dragons were the first truly unique creatures born of Faerie-thought that were not imitations, transmutations or perversions of the world around them and this act of perfect creation would ultimately spell their doom.
After this the Faerie began to contemplate things beyond what they had before. The concept of opposition, rather than synergy was considered and in time this led to the polarization of the Folk.
The Cúir Na Sidhe, sprang up in the northwest of the world. The OÃche Damh likewise came to be, in the center of where now stand the Godskull Mountains. War came between the two even as they formed. Desires, blood feuds and conflicts changed the very nature of The Faerie, altering their very nature. Some even turned to the Twilight and became deathless.
Millenia passed and outright war did not come between the Courts. Yet, the idea of combat was now in the world and The Faerie came to fight their own creations cheif among them the Sea'ch. Despite all this it was ultimatly still an age of innocence. The Dragons were used as warmachines and guardians by some and advisors by others but no matter what place they held it was below that of the Folk. By this, at last the Dragon were displeased and as one they took flight from the many places The Faerie inhabited. Where they hid, to where they flew, was beyond all ken.
And then blood was spilled. The Courts came to heated battle though history does not record the reason. Shepherd, daoine, fool and nighe alike were all but rendered extinct by thier own hand. Only the most removed philosophers and humble earthkin escaped the scathing. As centuries past and the war exponentailly raged, the world was torn by The Faerie and in the tearing they broke Creation itself into pieces.
Let it be known that Evil was never of Nordgard, nor Good and when those ideals arose during the War of Sin their very existance sundered Reality. New Realities came to be. The Three Hells formed as did The Perfect Heaven. Rifts were torn open to the Age of Mist, a white-silver Nothing where time itself wends about as physical plane. Some of The Faerie themselves rose and fell with the units of Reality that broke away, becoming Other. When this happened The Fallen and Ascended became separate from the worries and world of the Faerie and took to themselves new names.
At last on the Plains of SlÃdhos the culminations of the two Courts armies clashed. SlÃdhos was witness to the first Sin of Slaying and became stacked with corpses. The Armies of Night and Day wept as they slew Faerie for the first time and above all sorrow reigned. It was then that the Dragons returned.
Ritual flames darkened the sky and sixty thousand pairs of wings beat the sky over SlÃdhos. With roars and claws The Faerie were undone. But physical decimation was not enough and to utterly end the reign of the First Folk. The Dragons unleashed then the spell they had wrought. It tore apart the very land and cataclysmically cast down the courts and countries of The Faerie. Physical scars opened upon the world under the assault of this Magic. The Seed of Darkrime ripped itself into being. Mountains rose and a great ocean grew between the cracked continents.
The Age of Blood
We are the ones who sing a proud roar for every feeling we embrace.
We are they who laugh at the notion of fear, and step aside for none.
We are the beings whose tongues burn with fire, hum with lightning, and dance with noxious vapors.
We are the creatures made of fancy, wonder, and terror.
We are the dreamers with beds made of ancient wealth.
We are the keepers of the past, the watchers of the present, and the fortellers of the future.
We are the stars of legends too long forgotten and fairytales too often told.
We are the masters of claw and wing, the delvers of the sea and the carvers of the earth.
We are the rulers of kings and the archons of the world.
We are the epitomes of might and the wielders of the first magic.
We are the primal, the indomitable, the haughty.
We are the devourers of demons, the slayers of angels, and the allies of the gods.
We are Dragons*.
[ic]Just a simple nursery rhyme that every toddler in the Empires is taught. Or is it? Few know that it is one of the only pieces of literature - or record at all to come out of the Age of Blood. Count yourself lucky that we strayed onto the subject, so that you can be counted among them. It's part of the work entitled the Proverbs of the Twelve scribed by an unknown dragon for an unknown purpose. I personally suspect that it was well known in that time and served as a moral code or mirror; but beside that it's poetry and vivid imagery strikes a chord even in the modern day.
~
Master Tremane to Emperor Galerius as a young boy.
The 1246th Year of Our Glorious Fivefold Empire[/ic]
The very world being torn asunder by the Dragons heralded the coming of a new time. Though it is still unknown where the Dragons went during the absence and what happened in that place, it is universally agreed that the destruction of The Faerie is the only thing they ever cooperated upon or did as a united whole. While it would be unfair to say that it was "every dragon for himself" the opposite is certainly not true, and more often did single dragons rule realms than did they form confederacies.
This is the first time in history when more then one set of players existed. The Dragons took many varying views on the fallout formed from the most visible remains of The Faerie; those who were know beyond Nordgard: The Ascended and The Fallen. For now the world was spun from it's axis. There was Good and there was Evil and every dragon made their own choice on how to align itself. From this choice came many terrible and epic combats and workings.
The doom laid upon the Dragons was at once subtle and glaring: with the passing of the Faerie the power of Thought and Dream and Idea was no more within Nordgard. What one desired must now be worked upon or for and this was a mixed destiny. The Dragons were no frail, airy creatures at home in the mind, rather they were perfect forces of manifest Material. The Dragons thus were no longer able to call things into being with a simple will, but in time they learned that the process that allowed that was still there, it simply required effort and practice. So careful experimentation began and magic through the conduit of the Arcane was founded.
With these new tools the Dragons carved out kingdoms and empires, each formed of like-minded individuals- some little more than beasts and some great and wise. But they were not alone in this. The Fallen and The Ascended had not yet been bound from the world and anon crept from their planes and executed upon it their own plans. Worse yet, in the secret places, the hidden places Sea'ch still plotted. In high places and low, forgotten places and those locked away the Eldin Udh moved with grace and perfection, determined to repay with justice the destruction of what they once were the Dragons wrought.
The world was truly alive at last; throbbing, beating with the pulse of many rather than One. Soon ever more would come.
The plans carried out by the Eldin Udh were Three in number as befits The One That Is Three That Is Nine.
First: they worked in secret to Awaken beings. From deep in the mountains of the world and the bowels of the stone they rose the Dwarves from the Earth. And in this they were diminished, no longer had they the power of Dream among them.
Second: they gathered from the world all that was of lost Faerie and even that which was still in themselves and cast it out and wove it together and so bore the Elves. And in this they were diminished, no longer had they Themselves, nor the power to Create.
Third: they worked their longest task, and watched as the Dwarves delved and the Elves became subject to the powers of the Dragons. They watched as the aeons rolled past and they watched as War came and Peace came and the cycles of Nordgard repeated. Most of all they toiled upon their own Plan.
The Eldin Udh with their sundered forms; unchained and sang awake the Gods that had slumbered so long. And in they were utterly diminished, undone. Though many lived thousands of years longer they were in that moment dead shells of The Faerie they once had been.
The Gods awoke slowly, unconcernedly. With no prior memories past the subconscious awakening was simply Birth for the Nine Pantheons. Each of the Nine came onto Nordgard from a different physical place. These locations are now known as the Six Hearts of the World. Upon entering they did not act immediately, nor throw down the Dragons, as the Eldin Udh hoped. Rather they left for the Three Hells and The Perfect Heaven and alternatively waged wars or negotiated diplomacy to gain Realm of raw neo-Reality. The gods won these and made from them their home planes. And in this they took millenia.
The Elves choose for their own homes the cleanest, least populated places, feeling two urges they could not explain: a tie with nature and a hatred for the Dragons. This was not to last and even as their civilizations flourished the Dragons became aware of them and subjected the Elves, yet unskilled in War, to be their slaves. The Dwarves, the very bones of the earth, remained in their home, the continent they term Môrdrôm, and carved out their land beneath the mountains they call the Mornzak. They too attracted danger and their unified empire drew the attention of the Dragons. But when the Dragons came for them, a new epoch began.
There came Kaldár, a popular dwarven warlord who declared that he refused persecution and would rather die that be subject to the Dragons. And he rose and took the fight to a nearby flame wyrm, slaying it swiftly in it's cave and igniting the War of Blood.
Never before had a Dragon died of anything save battle with another Dragon or disease. In the decision to strike down the errant Dwarves, whose presence indeed puzzled them, The Dragons were nigh unanimous. What they did not count upon was that a few rebellious Dragons who fancied themselves wiser would aide the Dwarves. Neither did they suspect that those whose spirits they had crushed, whose fledgling societies they had destroyed with but a thought, the Elves would rise up as well.
Many of the Dragons over the millenia had forgotten that they had destroyed The Faerie for injustices less severe than those they they now perpetrated. The Dragons would not easily fall, and so the war raged on the land, in the sky, under the ocean and deep in the earth. And the Gods saw and intervened for the first time. And with this the other Realities came into the War some of each aiding both sides.
Even with the Elves fighting from within the Dragon's realms, and the Dwarves without, and with many Fallen and Ascended and even the Gods themselves against them the Dragons drew out the War of Blood for more than 400 years. Yet in the last days many dragons individually surrendered, fled or were killed.
It was the final battles of the War of Blood that would shape much of the future. A personal battle for the political support of the remaining dragons to either continue their tyranny or lay aside their claim, raged between two powerful lords. Legend and history remember them only as the Anarch and the Archon.
Their solitary battle spanned the globe and as they fought in the storm tossed waters to the south of Môrdrôm, each delivering mortal wounds upon the other, their blood fell to the ocean below and from it arose a new people. They each delivered death blows to their counterpart and their bodies fell and hardened and became the continent of Orruken.
Without their chief leaders the dragons were soon undone.
The end had come to the Reign of the Dragons and The Heirs of Nordgard came into their inheritance. When all was told fewer than two thousand of the Great Wyrms remained.
[spoiler]*Thanks to Trevor for giving me this piece he did.[/spoiler]
Glad to see Nordgard make a return. Also glad to see the dragon poem is still in there. :)
What happens to fey? I'm guessing that "Faerie" is just a term for an ancient kind of being, and you still have nymph/dryad/pixie/nixie/grig/etc. equivalents present in the setting?
The Faerie all possess the fey subtype and the majority of them are from the Faerie Project at Dicefreaks. Those that you named are also present and have been from the start. I think I refer to them as earthkin in the narrative.