The Campaign Builder's Guild

The Ages of Valaeras

The Creation

In the beginning there was nothing, no one knows how the universe first began, all they know is that it did. The planes were formed and life began to flourish.

First came the Elishaar, the Dark Ones, and the Nevaya, each composed entirely of the essences of good, evil and neutrality respectively.

The Elishaar watched over the fledgling life with care while the Dark Ones plotted only its mindless extermination.

Eventually, this conflict twisted into a battle between the two forces, which ended in the imprisonment of the Dark Ones in what was to be later called the Plane of Negative Energy.

After the imprisonment, the radiant Elishaar encountered the Nevaya, who told them that if they did not voluntarily imprison themselves, they would break the newly erected seals over the Dark Ones. Their work done, the Elishaar agreed, and sealed themselves within a plane later entitled the plane of Positive Energy. The balance restored, the Nevaya retreated to an unkown place.

The war finally abated, a new form of life began to emerge on the Prime, the godlings. These beings are the first stage of god-hood. Each of them a potential deity, they only need belief for their powers to flourish.

The Rise of Draco Nobilis

As time went on and the godlings flourished, one of them, Io, a great lizardlike godling, joined with the godlings Bahamur and Tiamat to form a new race, which they entitled Dragon.

The world soon became overrun with the new race, and the godlings retreated to alternate planes. As their population grew, they turned to the worship of other gods, Astilabor, Chronepsis, and Falazure to name a few. These godlings flourished and encouraged the growth of the fledgling species.

These godlings were initially peaceful with each other, as were their followers, but soon after their creation a mighty schism occured within the Draconic pantheon damning the chromatic and metallic dragons to eternal strife.

The Godess of Entropy

This state of chaos and strife existed for many years until a powerful being, a graveywrm named Voax'chessirania, came forwards. She had made a name for herself as a mighty wielder of the arcane magics and had finally attained what all of dragonkind had feared. She had ascended to godhood.

Being a god-turned mortal allowed her to ignore several of the laws that held the gods and godlings in check. She was able to directly interfere with the world without the aid of her followers. Driven mad by her power, she began a bloody crusade to exterminate all life and all of the planes. To aid her in her task, she broke the seals of the Elishaar and freed the Dark Ones, binding them to her power.

The ensuing war was the only time that all of creation has fought together. Chromatic and Metallic Dragons, even Celestials and Demons fought side-by-side to protect their respective planes.

Finally, the Dragon Lords, led by the Golden Dragon Troa'lacksethisas battled the godess, and sealed her with their magics. Dying from his wounds, and knowing that she would one day be free, the noble dragon intoned a powerful spell, binding his power and the power of all his descendants to be carried down through the ages to once more fight against her.

In total, approximately 75% of the draconic population was destroyed during this war, the bones of Io's children littered the ground, the sky turned red from dragonfire and the skies rained in sorrow for years.

The Coming of the Elf Lords

Lured to the new world, a young humanoid godling came to Valaeras. Appearing on the land of Aelos, he surveyed the destruction of the mighty draconic race and, dropping his blade, wept.

He had come to the prime to follow in the footsteps of the Draconic deities, to create a race of beings to fill the forests and aid him in his fight. Viewing the destruction however, doubts crossed his mind. How was he to accomplish what even the great draconic deities had failed.

Before he could begin his work, a spear flew down from the sky. Rolling to the side, he reached behind his back and pulled out his longbow, an arrow nocked a moment later.

The horrible beast that had chased him throughout the planes appeared a moment later, twisting his spear out of the ground.

Kicking the blade away with its foot, it charged. The lithe young godling jumped back, nimbly avoiding the blow and loosed an arrow. The beast screamed in pain as the arrow drove through his eye, into his skull, and out pinning it against a rock far in the mountains.

Lashing out blindly with his spear, he managed to score a deep wound on the godling's side, causing his divine blood to drip to the ground and mingle with the dirt of the forest.

Wincing in pain, he ducked and rolled under the wildly swinging spear to his sword. Laying his hands upon it, he struck out against his attacker, his face and hands covered in his own black blood.

Blocking the blade with his spear, his eye widened in horror as he saw no visible wounds upon his enemy's body. Swearing revenge, he retreated.
Placing his hand over the wound, he collapsed once more to his knees, nearly blinded by his wet hair, clinging to his scalp.

"Are you all right my lord?" A melodic voice asked him.

"What, who are you?" He turned, and saw a multitude of humanoids like him watching from the forest.

"I don't know my lord." The leading figure replied. A man, and naked. He stood where the spear has first pierced the godling's side. "Who are you?"

"Corellon Larethian"

The newly created elven race flourished in Valaeras, building their towering cities across the known world and experimenting with the arcane magics taught to them by their god.

They created the three towers of High Arcana, the towers of the sun, moon and star, as well as the Keel, a powerful magical barrier that holds out almost all extraplanar travel performed by a non-native.

Eventually, Larethian divided the powers of his station amongst other godlings. Among these was the bewitching beauty Araushnee, Larethian's lover.

The Age of Shattered Moons

Araushnee, the elven godess of fate, investigated a powerful disturbance in the Underdark, the twisting maze-like tunnels beneath Valaeras' surface.

Coming at last to a large chamber, she saw a stalagmite formed of a seamless black gemstone. She felt herself drawn towards it and cautiously reached out towards it.

The second her beautiful pale fingers touched the stone, Araushnee was no more. The stone, recorded here as the Source, stole her essence, replacing it with a mockery of its old form.

This new being was one of pure evil, and she used her power of Larethian to attempt his destruction and usurp his power as coronal of the Seldarine.

To begin her plan, she came to the dreams of powerful and ambitious elves across the multiverse. Promising them power and glory if they were to serve her. It is a great source of elven shame that many of them accepted.

The Crown Wars, as they were called, were a horrible shock to the elven people. The had ruled uncontested for many centuries but now their own power was being turned against them. During this war, the High Tower of the Stars was destroyed and demons penetrated the Keel. Rather ironically, the echoes of the war caused the caverns leading to the Source to be closed for all eternity.

Araushnee's plan failed and she was banished to the Abyss and her followers to the Underdark.

The Human Kingdoms

With the elves crippled by their own forces, a power vacuum was formed and adequately filled by the fledgling human race, which grew and prospered, often forcing the weakened elves from their lands.

The Age of Vecna

It was during this time that a powerful Lich named Vecna came to power. Never before had a single being claimed total control of Valaeras' surface.

The Age of Golden Fire

During the Ritual of Godhood, Vecna was betrayed by his vampire lieutenant Kas. By the end of thier battle, Kas was dead, Vecna was a god, and the city that served as the hub of Vecna's empire was destroyed.

It was then that the order known as the Golden Flame came forth. They battled the weakened empire at every turn, gaining hundreds of thousands of supporters until finally they killed the new emperor, the vampire Keld'aseth.

95% of the order returned to their lives as they had been before Vecna gained power. The last 5% though, stayed and fought against the evils of the world, creating their headquarters at the golden palace in Alunia.

It was this fault in their logic that caused them a great loss of life. A powerful force of dark warriors, clerics, mages and demons allied with each other under the name of the Shadow Brotherhood and struck out against the golden palace and the agents of the flame.

Before the Flame could react, a fourth of their order was lost. According to the history books, the order was destroyed at the final battle between themselves and the Brotherhood.

Note: The Golden Flame still exists although it is a secret organization. The knowledge about it is parallel to that of area 51 in our world.

The Age of Fallen Arcana

Not much time had passed since the destruction of Vecna's empire and the world had seen the power that a wizard holds.

In the human lands, fear began to spread towards the arcanists, then distrust, then hatred. Mage guilds were formed in an attempt to control the flow of magical knowledge and power, but all attempts of exerting "control" over the arcanists failed.

It all broke down in the small village of Alsensen when an apprentice mage cast a cantrip at the wrong time. Acting on mob mentality, the villagers killed him.

Emboldened by the death of a wizard, they marched against the other arcanists in their town. Some stayed, fought and died, but the rest fled.

Purging their town of magic, they sent runners to their neighbouring towns, warning them that the wizards were planning a coup. From then, it spread like wildfire. Arcanists within human cities all over Valaeras were forced to either flee their homes or die.

The exiled mages fled to an island in the north, far beyond the reach of the human settlements, and founded the city of Eisalos where they could record their magical knowledge for future generations should they themselves be slain.

The arcanists gone, humanity turned its eyes upon the elder races, the Dwarves, Halflings and above all the Elves, who had first taught them the arts of magic.

Humanity had now declared war upon all the other races, but ironically, without the aid of the very people they exiled they could not hope to win. So, showing true human nature, the leader of the human armies on the continent of Savarias made contact with the mages of Eisalos, hiring them to fight against the Silvassan elves to the west. Drawing funds from the fledgling city of Kethka, made rich by a nearby mountain range called "the Vault", they hired more than half of the remaining human wizards, who were all too eager to return to human society.

These mages, paid well by the general, reformed the mage guilds to teach their knowledge to the new generation.  This sudden influx of approximately half of humanity's mages to one small area served to make Kethka a powerful force to be reckoned with.

---

Relatively bad I know but I thought if there's any place to put it, it might as well be here.

Hello and welcome. I can guess that this is your first setting. I'd like to offer you this disclaimer before I say anything:

[ic=DISCLAMER] :onrant: RAELIFIN IS INSANE AND HARSH. Do NOT listen to him if you are sensitive to criticism. :soap: [/ic]
Light criticism:
[spoiler]While it's a good first attempt at creating a backstory for the core setting, it's been done before and it is essentially Greyhawk with a different name. Try developing some of the core themes, ideas and people to make it unique. Never be afraid to get rid of things that bug you about the core, this is your world after all. ;)[/spoiler]
Heavy criticism:
[spoiler]Wow, I'd be hard pressed to call this your setting. O_O It reeks of overused ideas and plagiarism. Start with a core statement about your world and work around that instead of slapping some random background on one of the oldest and most beloved settings. (Told ya so.)[/spoiler]
What Raelifin realy thinks:
[spoiler]Mmmmm... donuts. :morons: [/spoiler]

Good gaming,
-Rael

I don't know anything about Greyhawk save that it's in Core, but for a campaign setting designed to be played with you and your friends there's really no plagiarism issue to speak of.  In fact, using Greyhawk material (gods, etc.) might be helpful to players who are familiar with the basic game (after all, just by reading the PHB they can learn something about Corellon, etcetera).  Syrinth, some of the settings here are geared towards publishing, which means no use of non-OGL (open game license) material whatsover, but I see no problem with its use in what most settings are for - playing with your group.

Of course, a setting is more than just a creation myth - have you considered the setting itself yet, maps, nations, classes, religions, and so on?

Are you using Kas and Vecna in order to make better use of the Tome of Magic? If you are, there are articles on making your own vestige on the WotC home page. I'm not a big fan of reusing specific deities, npcs, and so on from other settings. Vecna inspired villains however I have no issues with.  

Try making a couple of posts in the camapign element and design forum to address some of the goals of your homebrew, and the mechanics you want to use. Try to tell us some of the unique aspects that will make your setting special, like an orc wizards guild, or an ongoing holy war between paladins and blackguards, or whatever else you happen to have in mind.

We can discuss the little things, and help you put it all together, if we have a good idea of what you want to do. Nothing so far in your first post tells me much about this setting is really like.

-Nasty-

Greyhawk?

All I know about Greyhawk is its name and something about Ravenloft... >.<

Only reason I use Vecna is because I think he's a cool character and wanted to incorporate him somehow.

Curses.

And I do actually have more stuff, nations, cities, and characters. (We've been playing in Valaeras for a little over 2 years now) But Im trying to organize my thoughts on how I should post the rest of it.

And for the record, be as critical as you want.  NOTHING anyone can say can possibly be worse than my own opinions on my work :D

Edit:  I just took a brief skim over Sulos' thread and I think I'll be re-writing this in a style like that, as was suggested in another board.  Will probably make far more sense then >.<

Edit Edit:  Would it be a good idea to delete this thread and remake it to a more neater version once I get all the concepts worked out in a legible format?

I'd say that's up to you. I'd probably just edit the original post.

Wiki on Greyhawk: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greyhawk
Wiki on Vecna: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vecna