Godstime
The Elder Gods
Every culture has its own myths and legends about the creation of the Realm. As cultures mix and stories get passed from generation to generation these stories transform. New deities come forward, and old ones are discarded.
The generally accepted story of creation told by the human inhabitants of the Reaches late in the Third Age, tells of eight beings known as the Elder Gods. These "gods" represent the elemental forces of the world, and their tales most likely have been passed down from the earliest inhabitants of the Realm. Personification of the Elder Gods has been reported countless times since the dawn of civilization. However, rumors of the human forms of the Elder Gods have never been substantiated by the academic population.
- Death - Death is the most mutable figure among the Elder Gods, as it appears in different guises to different peoples of the Realm. In the Reaches, the most common vision of Death is that of a tall, thin man dressed in tattered robes with a cowled hood. He carries a large polearm, although many claim this is a tattered banner of the house from which he is collecting his next soul. Others claim it is a scythe. The only constant in Death's description is the smell of decay and the grave that always surrounds his appearance. In the Old Kingdom, Death is often accompanied by Fate, a young woman, covered with tattoos and the milky-white eyes of the blind.
- Melandrea, Goddess of the Sun - Descriptions of Melandrea portray her as a young woman of alabaster skin dressed in simple yellow robes with a dark yellow silken sash. All visions of the Goddess of the Sun have rays of light streaming from her head, forming a bright yellow aura that obscures her face and features in a halo of sunshine. Some have claimed she has angel's wings.
- Blacklock, God of the Air - The mist-shrouded form of Blacklock, when described in human form, is a man, oftentimes middle-aged but always with powerful features and an ominous countenance, storm-like and full of rage. His features are cloud-like, white with streaks of dark grey. Blacklock is often depicted as balding with a fringe of flowing white cloud-like hair and a streaming mustache and beard of clouds.
- Baliol, Warder of the Seas - The sightings of Baliol are almost always from sailors, storm-ridden and fearing for their lives. The creature appears sometimes one hundred feet tall, towering over ship and sailor. At others, it is a mass of black tentacles gripping a ship in a tightening terror, glimpsed only by the sudden flash of nearby lightning.
- Karelia, Goddess of the Stars - Visions of Karelia are common amongst the dreamers and fortune tellers of the Realm. She is always a young woman dressed in a white gown filled with starlight. Her hair is usually dark, mirroring the night skies, but filled with tiny flickering, star-like jewels. Stars seem to trail around her form dancing with a life all their own.
- Hastur, Master of Stone - In visions, Hastur, appears as a low-lying fog, hugging the ground. It is always calm when Hastur arrives, still and without breeze. As the fog of Hastur's form rises from the ground, some have told of a form, human-like but with elongated arms and a misshapen head - always a faint grey outline in the roiling mists.
- Oakentree, God of Nature - Oakentree is always seen in the form of a tree, usually an old man with a long beard of moss, large features of knotted wood, and a slow, deep voice resonating like the wind sweeping through an creaking ancient forest. His presence is always in a quiet grove or promordial woods, typically in the Evenwild.
- Chronicler - The Chronicler is always an old man with wrinkled features. Some portray him as a ratman, others a human. He is always seen carrying a ponderously large tome, bound in gold. Sometime he also carries a gnarled wooden staff. His presence is always calming and gentle with air of studious curiosity.
Godstime: The Pre-History of the Races
The three gods of the elements struggled to control their realms against the chaos brought on by Death. Baliol battled great hurricanes, typhoons, and tidal waves that attempted to tear the very soul from the sea. On the earth, great quakes and volcanoes shook the ground deep into the realm of Hastur. Even the airy domain of Blacklock swirled with great tornadoes and whirlwinds. Far above the highest clouds, the goddesses of the heavens also felt the chaos. Melandrea, the Sun, oftentimes went black during the heat of the day. Comets and meteors filled the darkness of the night, the realm of Karelia, Goddess of the Stars. Oakentree saw that all good must be balanced by evil, all law by chaos, and all life by death. He reveled in the life of Summer and mourned the death of Winter. And so the epochs passed. The Elder Gods were unchallenged, supreme.
As seasons came and went, great storms raged and died, the earth shook and then rested, and through all of this the Elder Gods grew more dormant, the equilibrium of the forces of nature lulling them to sleep. In the Realm, the animals of the earth and sea continued to evolve. The primitive races evolved more quickly - the vestiges of civilization had begun. However, they were inconsequential and insignificant to the Elder Gods.
The End of Godstime: Arrival of the Dark Moon
While no definitive narrative exists that details the arrival of the Dark Moon, all the races of the Realm have a folktale of the event. Several common threads in these stories tell of an inky blackness eating the nighttime stars from the skies - the Dark Moon. The dwarves noted that the sun dimmed - causing a great winter over the land which lasted a score of years. The Old Kingdom tales speak of forty men, riding in flaming chariots, glowing in silver, with swords that cut with light. These beings brought with them great magic and knowledge which they shared with humankind.
The most important tale from this time comes from the Druids of Oakentree, although the tales itself predates the organization by hundreds of years. The Druid tradition tells of a strange battle at the dawn of the First Age. In the days after the arrival of the Dark Moon, it is said that Oakentree's power began to wain. Inconsequential at first, the effects of this sickness began to accelerate: the trees became blighted - the air and water becoming murky and rancid, the animals sickly. It was as if the forest itself was dying. The elves worked tirelessly to protect their land. It is said the battle turned when Eldevera dropped a thousand staves that were taken by the elves to every corner of the forest. Using the staves as sounding sticks, a constant song was sung to awaken Oakentree and warn him of the danger. The elves were successful, but as Oakentree awoke, it is said that the other Elder Gods did not. Instead, they fell into a deep slumber that would last three thousand years - until they were released from their prison and returned to the land.
The imprisonment of the Elder Gods, the arrival of the Dark Moon, and the winter that lasted twenty years, marked the end Godstime. The First Age had begun.