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An introductory tale spun by a street hermit, reciting a generalized story of the world's origins, gods and era defining events up to the present.
Srreesh… A shining world, a lonely world… In the Time of Beginnings, when our world was but a barren speck in the vastness of space, vast beings arose of that wonderful chaos. Coalescing from the wild forces of creation, three arose; The Primodrials! Earth, Wind, Fire. Each sought to make our planet in it’s own image, each clashed with each other in pursuit of this goal. Now, things were simpler back then, it was just “I wanna make everything burn!” “I want to make everything windy!” There was no hate, the young Primordials quite literally had no such concept. It was just a rivalry between infinite beings, newborns flailing about as they learned about the wonderful world they were building around them.
Naturally, the world did look like a mess. On one side, you’d have flat plains sheared by howling winds, towering mountains cutting across a sea of magma. It was utterly unrecognizable. Until something changed. Something that changed everything.
Storm, a Primordial born of the dust and smoke and wind. Something they had created together. Storm was wild, and Storm was beautiful. It was with xeir birth that the other Primordials found their purpose. They ended their quarrels and banded together to shape the world as we know it today. However, there was another… ferried on rocks from the stars, summoned by Earth in the earlier conflict, Frost and Flake, the twin-headed god of the seas, found themselves on Srreesh. And they brought with them the seas. Frost and Flake did not know the Primordials, and the Primordials did not know them. The water twins were mistaken for invaders and were driven away to the depths of the blue. While they keep to themselves in the chilly depths, the other gods are content to forget about them. But the resentment from being spurned has always lingered…
But that’s not quite important! No, what truly matters happened next. As the Primordials shaped Srreesh with the godly powers, they radiated magical energy. Their energy shone as bright as any star. It attracted to our humble little world… The Umbra. A hivemind of deformed beings reduced to amorphous goo. And it was hungry. The battle between it and the Elder Primordials was so grand and so long that if we understood the scale of it all we’d probably go mad! But on and on their war raged, Earth, Wind, Fire. The originals. Storm, the culmination of their passion. Frost and Flake, something else, yet still similar. Together, they are the Elder Primordials. And it took all the Elder Primordials to push the Umbra back. It was hard fought, and much of the world was torn asunder, but in the end our fledgling world won the right to live on.
Naturally, the gods were exhausted by the ordeal. Together, they erected the towering Stone Arches to rest upon and exerted the last of their energy to raise a great Arcane Shield over our world to prevent the Umbra’s return. The shield was comprised of pure magic, the result of all elements working together. And it was invisible to the naked eye, that we may still witness the splendor of the stars. With that, they slept. And slept. And slept. For eons, their eyes were shut, their silent vigil only to be broken if those foul creatures returned. In that time, we were born. Well, not you or me specifically, but our predecessors. The beastfolk of Srreesh.
Life as we know it would emerge in the age of peace that followed. It was a golden age, a time of song, a time of echoing glory. the Time of Songs and Echoes. There was no great wars or world threatening calamities, just a virgin world, a canvas- No, a grand tapestry upon which they would add their stories. As life filled out our world that a new Primordial was born, Gaia, the warden of life. He raised servants to watch over us and spread his word to wherever life has taken hold, the fox-raptor dragons, the Akaalii. Among their charges; The feline Chattine lived out their tales of chivalry. The cervine Hy’rsch roamed the hills and forests. The birdmen of the Ti’xian went to and fro on their feathered wings. And who knows how many more who have been lost to us with the passage of time.
But every song has its end. A final note. And our first song would crescendo with a boom and a whimper. Of the peoples of the world one rose above the rest, the Hummens, Apes gifted with vast intelligence and infinite curiosity. With great machines and potent spellcraft, their civilization rose to heights we can scarce dream of today. Glittering towers of mirrored silver, ships that soared on clouds as if sailing the water, and the ability to reach anyone, anywhere in the world in an instant. But that was not enough for them. At least, not for their leaders. From their high towers, the Hummen’s spiritual leaders proclaimed their people was destined for more, to ascend beyond and reach for the stars. Back then, without the gods to tell us, no one knew about the Arcane Shield, let alone what lay beyond. Or maybe with all their fancy toys the Hummens did know? I imagine that for all their grand ambition, they would not be so blind as to not look where they were going.
A wave of fervor washed over Hummens, and over others who believed in the dream. The Evangelical Ascendancy they were called, the havers of that dream. At least, that’s what name we have left for them. Their leaders spoke of it as if it was the destiny of hummenkind. But if you ask me, they just wanted to escape responsibility for what they took from everyone else to make their glittery cities in the first place. And ascend they did. Aboard an ark of such grand scale it carried the full weight of the Hummen people and their fellow believers from the other beastfolk beside. Together they soared. Higher. Higher. Higher. Until… Boom. A thousand, million souls cried out in pain. Their great ark collided with the Arcane Shield, and the magics used to lift it mixed with the shield for a chain reaction of such… Apocalyptic and I must stress, apocalyptic, proportions! The shield cracked, the ark’s hull buckled. Then it all broke. The ship and all souls aboard were gone in a flash of light. The shield fractured and pieces flaked off, falling down to the planet and expelling vast, uncontrolled energies that ravaged the surrounding lands and raised horrible mindless beasts. Thus began the Time of Howling.
Records were hard to keep in the end times, so little remains to tell us exactly what happened. But I can tell you many died and went to the Second Life, civilization collapsed, and the world was plagued for ages. Gaia’s twin aspect, Mortis the god of death, emerged as his twin head in the chaos. And yet, another god emerged. ar-Kaius the Curious. A tragic being, really. ar-Kaius was born of that magical explosion as the god of Arcana. A being of pure magic born of so much death. Many believed It the source of the Ascendant Calamity, but really it was as much a victim as anyone else. So it wandered alone, learning of the world alone. Word has it that one day it stumbled upon papers about the Ascendency, and sought to see what was beyond the shield for itself. However it came to make it’s decision, it reached for the stars. It shone a beacon, trying to bring the stars to it instead of making the same mistakes as before. I’m sure you can see where this is going.
Instead of some luminous beings, or the stars themselves, or… whatever Kaius expected, the Umbra answered it’s call. The Umbra smashed against the weakened shield, awakening the Primordials, and their war waged anew. As if the world was not ruined enough, the war with the heavens waged across the planet, and we beastfolk were caught in the middle. Gaia and Mortis did their best to protect us from the carnage- Yes, yes. Mortis, despite being the god of death, does not like when it is untimely. But eventually some of our number rose to met the threat to our very existence. Heroes were a part of life again. Every single one of those people who fought? True heroes to the end. They held back the tide while the gods fought the sea of black itself. And much to everyone’s surprise, allies from the ocean emerged to join the fight. Frost and Flake’s secret children of the deep, the Hydra! Mind you, the Twins never did like the surface… So they carved out their own world down in the seas.
This new war was much shorter than the last one. I reckon the Umbra cut on the shield on the way in, but either way it was weaker, smaller than last time, or so the gods say. And it was different, some part of it broke away and assumed its own agenda. This breakaway, this Unfettered Umbra, attempted to steal a chunk of the planet and turn the creation of the gods against them. But with a roar that pierced the heavens, the gods unleashed their wrath upon the Umbra and slew it once and for all! The rest of the Umbra that remained withdrew back into the stars, even lesser than before. While it still haunts us today, it is a paltry threat any competent warrior can put to the sword or the scroll.
With the world successfully defended, the Elder Primordials finally took stock of a ruined Srreesh. Horrified at our world teetering just on the brink, they created the Kabaiyo. Molded in their image, the Kabaiyo or “Protector Dragons” as they were then known, were sent out to every corner of Srreesh to restore peace to our broken lands. They were rough about it, some had to use aggressive diplomacy, others were just aggressive, but either way they eventually succeeded and stabilized Srreesh. Got quite a nasty reputation in the process, but hey, the world was calm once again. Working together with the survivors they established many of the fledgling kingdom-states we’d come to know today! Survival was no longer a struggle. The malformed creatures born of the Calamity were returned from whence they came, and any serious lingering pools of the Umbra dispelled.
And that brings us to today. Ages and ages later, in the Time of Flights. Our time of peace and stability. Thanks to the tireless efforts of those before us, generosity, curiosity, and ambition, etc etc are easier than ever to aspire for!
Speaking of… You are quite generous, yes? Telling stories is not easy work, I’ll have you know! And there’s a nice juicy melon in that shop down there...
Srreesh… A shining world, a lonely world… In the Time of Beginnings, when our world was but a barren speck in the vastness of space, vast beings arose of that wonderful chaos. Coalescing from the wild forces of creation, three arose; The Primodrials! Earth, Wind, Fire. Each sought to make our planet in it’s own image, each clashed with each other in pursuit of this goal. Now, things were simpler back then, it was just “I wanna make everything burn!” “I want to make everything windy!” There was no hate, the young Primordials quite literally had no such concept. It was just a rivalry between infinite beings, newborns flailing about as they learned about the wonderful world they were building around them.
Naturally, the world did look like a mess. On one side, you’d have flat plains sheared by howling winds, towering mountains cutting across a sea of magma. It was utterly unrecognizable. Until something changed. Something that changed everything.
Storm, a Primordial born of the dust and smoke and wind. Something they had created together. Storm was wild, and Storm was beautiful. It was with xeir birth that the other Primordials found their purpose. They ended their quarrels and banded together to shape the world as we know it today. However, there was another… ferried on rocks from the stars, summoned by Earth in the earlier conflict, Frost and Flake, the twin-headed god of the seas, found themselves on Srreesh. And they brought with them the seas. Frost and Flake did not know the Primordials, and the Primordials did not know them. The water twins were mistaken for invaders and were driven away to the depths of the blue. While they keep to themselves in the chilly depths, the other gods are content to forget about them. But the resentment from being spurned has always lingered…
But that’s not quite important! No, what truly matters happened next. As the Primordials shaped Srreesh with the godly powers, they radiated magical energy. Their energy shone as bright as any star. It attracted to our humble little world… The Umbra. A hivemind of deformed beings reduced to amorphous goo. And it was hungry. The battle between it and the Elder Primordials was so grand and so long that if we understood the scale of it all we’d probably go mad! But on and on their war raged, Earth, Wind, Fire. The originals. Storm, the culmination of their passion. Frost and Flake, something else, yet still similar. Together, they are the Elder Primordials. And it took all the Elder Primordials to push the Umbra back. It was hard fought, and much of the world was torn asunder, but in the end our fledgling world won the right to live on.
Naturally, the gods were exhausted by the ordeal. Together, they erected the towering Stone Arches to rest upon and exerted the last of their energy to raise a great Arcane Shield over our world to prevent the Umbra’s return. The shield was comprised of pure magic, the result of all elements working together. And it was invisible to the naked eye, that we may still witness the splendor of the stars. With that, they slept. And slept. And slept. For eons, their eyes were shut, their silent vigil only to be broken if those foul creatures returned. In that time, we were born. Well, not you or me specifically, but our predecessors. The beastfolk of Srreesh.
Life as we know it would emerge in the age of peace that followed. It was a golden age, a time of song, a time of echoing glory. the Time of Songs and Echoes. There was no great wars or world threatening calamities, just a virgin world, a canvas- No, a grand tapestry upon which they would add their stories. As life filled out our world that a new Primordial was born, Gaia, the warden of life. He raised servants to watch over us and spread his word to wherever life has taken hold, the fox-raptor dragons, the Akaalii. Among their charges; The feline Chattine lived out their tales of chivalry. The cervine Hy’rsch roamed the hills and forests. The birdmen of the Ti’xian went to and fro on their feathered wings. And who knows how many more who have been lost to us with the passage of time.
But every song has its end. A final note. And our first song would crescendo with a boom and a whimper. Of the peoples of the world one rose above the rest, the Hummens, Apes gifted with vast intelligence and infinite curiosity. With great machines and potent spellcraft, their civilization rose to heights we can scarce dream of today. Glittering towers of mirrored silver, ships that soared on clouds as if sailing the water, and the ability to reach anyone, anywhere in the world in an instant. But that was not enough for them. At least, not for their leaders. From their high towers, the Hummen’s spiritual leaders proclaimed their people was destined for more, to ascend beyond and reach for the stars. Back then, without the gods to tell us, no one knew about the Arcane Shield, let alone what lay beyond. Or maybe with all their fancy toys the Hummens did know? I imagine that for all their grand ambition, they would not be so blind as to not look where they were going.
A wave of fervor washed over Hummens, and over others who believed in the dream. The Evangelical Ascendancy they were called, the havers of that dream. At least, that’s what name we have left for them. Their leaders spoke of it as if it was the destiny of hummenkind. But if you ask me, they just wanted to escape responsibility for what they took from everyone else to make their glittery cities in the first place. And ascend they did. Aboard an ark of such grand scale it carried the full weight of the Hummen people and their fellow believers from the other beastfolk beside. Together they soared. Higher. Higher. Higher. Until… Boom. A thousand, million souls cried out in pain. Their great ark collided with the Arcane Shield, and the magics used to lift it mixed with the shield for a chain reaction of such… Apocalyptic and I must stress, apocalyptic, proportions! The shield cracked, the ark’s hull buckled. Then it all broke. The ship and all souls aboard were gone in a flash of light. The shield fractured and pieces flaked off, falling down to the planet and expelling vast, uncontrolled energies that ravaged the surrounding lands and raised horrible mindless beasts. Thus began the Time of Howling.
Records were hard to keep in the end times, so little remains to tell us exactly what happened. But I can tell you many died and went to the Second Life, civilization collapsed, and the world was plagued for ages. Gaia’s twin aspect, Mortis the god of death, emerged as his twin head in the chaos. And yet, another god emerged. ar-Kaius the Curious. A tragic being, really. ar-Kaius was born of that magical explosion as the god of Arcana. A being of pure magic born of so much death. Many believed It the source of the Ascendant Calamity, but really it was as much a victim as anyone else. So it wandered alone, learning of the world alone. Word has it that one day it stumbled upon papers about the Ascendency, and sought to see what was beyond the shield for itself. However it came to make it’s decision, it reached for the stars. It shone a beacon, trying to bring the stars to it instead of making the same mistakes as before. I’m sure you can see where this is going.
Instead of some luminous beings, or the stars themselves, or… whatever Kaius expected, the Umbra answered it’s call. The Umbra smashed against the weakened shield, awakening the Primordials, and their war waged anew. As if the world was not ruined enough, the war with the heavens waged across the planet, and we beastfolk were caught in the middle. Gaia and Mortis did their best to protect us from the carnage- Yes, yes. Mortis, despite being the god of death, does not like when it is untimely. But eventually some of our number rose to met the threat to our very existence. Heroes were a part of life again. Every single one of those people who fought? True heroes to the end. They held back the tide while the gods fought the sea of black itself. And much to everyone’s surprise, allies from the ocean emerged to join the fight. Frost and Flake’s secret children of the deep, the Hydra! Mind you, the Twins never did like the surface… So they carved out their own world down in the seas.
This new war was much shorter than the last one. I reckon the Umbra cut on the shield on the way in, but either way it was weaker, smaller than last time, or so the gods say. And it was different, some part of it broke away and assumed its own agenda. This breakaway, this Unfettered Umbra, attempted to steal a chunk of the planet and turn the creation of the gods against them. But with a roar that pierced the heavens, the gods unleashed their wrath upon the Umbra and slew it once and for all! The rest of the Umbra that remained withdrew back into the stars, even lesser than before. While it still haunts us today, it is a paltry threat any competent warrior can put to the sword or the scroll.
With the world successfully defended, the Elder Primordials finally took stock of a ruined Srreesh. Horrified at our world teetering just on the brink, they created the Kabaiyo. Molded in their image, the Kabaiyo or “Protector Dragons” as they were then known, were sent out to every corner of Srreesh to restore peace to our broken lands. They were rough about it, some had to use aggressive diplomacy, others were just aggressive, but either way they eventually succeeded and stabilized Srreesh. Got quite a nasty reputation in the process, but hey, the world was calm once again. Working together with the survivors they established many of the fledgling kingdom-states we’d come to know today! Survival was no longer a struggle. The malformed creatures born of the Calamity were returned from whence they came, and any serious lingering pools of the Umbra dispelled.
And that brings us to today. Ages and ages later, in the Time of Flights. Our time of peace and stability. Thanks to the tireless efforts of those before us, generosity, curiosity, and ambition, etc etc are easier than ever to aspire for!
Speaking of… You are quite generous, yes? Telling stories is not easy work, I’ll have you know! And there’s a nice juicy melon in that shop down there...
Category Story / All
Species Unspecified / Any
Size 50 x 50px
File Size 21.3 kB
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