THE AGE OF MYTH
There are very few reputable facts known about the First Age of Cellworld. Most of the acceptable history is taken from the various myths and mythologies of the races that were present at that time.
The First Races
In the beginning, the chessan duar walked the lands of Kage, taking everything as their own, for there were no others to oppose them. The elves at the time were a secretive, but magical race that lived as wanderers and hid themselves away from all others. The giants, a young race newly formed from the very substance of the world by their own fledgling gods, were not unified enough to oppose the strength of the chessan duar.
Arrogant in their own power, the chessan duar took it upon themselves to awaken that which slept within the first dragons, granting the dragons the gift of intelligence. It didn’t take long for the dragons to rise to their full power, and they quickly began to exert their own might over the giants and elves. Their own enigmatic gods brought forth two more races to serve the dragons; the magically adept orok, who were masters at seeking gems and metals from the earth, and the dwarves, strong and sturdy, who were born with the knack of retrieving and crafting those gems and metals into works of art for their dragon overlords.
But this situation was not to last for long. Both the orok and dwarves were very strong-willed races, and neither of them took well to the treatment they received from their dragon masters. They both chose to rebel, breaking free of their servitude.
Despite this ill-treatment, the orok were content in their place as favourites of the dragons and happy with their position of power and access to the vast magics procured by the dragons and given to them from the dragon gods. On the otherhand, dwarves were not so pleased with their position and approached the orok with a plan to rebel against their dragon masters. The orok would have no part in this and even went so far as to tell their masters what the dwarves were planning. In their arrogance, the dragons refused to believe that their insignificant underlings would even contemplate a rebellion against them. However, the dwarves had secretly been arming themselves with great weapons forged by their best smiths and they did indeed rebel. This primarily took the form of disappearing deep into the earth and mountains far from the view of the dragons and orok.
Furious at the betrayal of the dwarves, the dragons vented their rage upon the orok, taking from them the great magical items and knowledge, and torturing and experimenting on them to make them even more subservient to try and make sure that this outrage would not happen again. This was too much for the orok and they too fled from their masters, sought the hiding places of the dwarves and asked for their aid. However, the orok were magically tied to their masters and the absence of the dragons from their lives caused them to quickly degenerate into savage brutes resembling modern orcs. Living with the now savage orok became steadily more difficult and eventually the dwarves were left with little choice but to demand that the orok find their own homes, banishing them from the dwarven strongholds.
The orok/orcs resented the dwarves and hated them for leaving and causing the dragon masters to turn on them and then turning them out in their time of need. In return, the dwarves hated the orok/orcs for not joining in the rebellion and the demands that the oroks were now placing on them in their own home. This situation led to a lifelong conflict that still exists - though few now remember the true cause.
After a time, the power of the dwarves became such a threat they were able to venture forth from their secret hiding places and they began to raid their former masters, taking their treasures. After all, they were the ones who had mined it, forged it and therefore, it was rightfully theirs. At the same time, the dragons also fought constant battles against the orcs. The giants were also coming into their own power, and the dragons were finding themselves pressured on all sides to retain their place in the world.
The chessan duar, disturbed by the growing violence in the world, or maybe fearful for their safety among so many violent races, disappeared. Some say that they fled to another world; others say that they ascended, becoming gods in their own right. All that is known for a fact is that they vanished from Cellworld at this time, and haven’t been seen since.
Although the orok and dwarves gained their independence, the dragons were still the dominant race of the time. The giants became willing allies with the dragons over time and helped them to exert their power over the other races, which mostly hid from these large enemies.
Settling of Larefian & The Cleansing
A group of travelling elves found a place that to them was so perfect that they did not wish to ever leave it. So the tree city of Layshal Leedahn was established in a remote valley of the northern Larefian Forest. (Over time the elves of the city became the high elves, ‘celenir’rin, from which a select noble group developed into the light elves - or the ‘faelar’rin). The elves that still wandered the forests became known as the ‘sylvanir’rin’ or wood elves.
To compliment their beautiful homeland, the light and high elves decided to rid themselves of all the petty jealousies and evil in their souls. Using vast magic's, now unknown, the elves extracted their inner evils which manifested as a slick oil-like sheen on their skin which then seeped into the earth. This further isolated the wood elves that had opposed such an action from the start.
The apprehensions of the sylvanir’rin were soon well-founded. All did not go to plan with the Cleansing. Some time after black-skinned elves began attacking surface elves from the depths of the earth. These evil elves were called ‘drowarthir’rin’ and the War of Light and Dark was waged between the surface elves and these new dark elves. The war was eventually won by the elves of light and good, banishing the ‘drowarthir’rin’ back beneath the surface of the world where they began, to plot and scheme the downfall of the surface elves, and continue to do so to this day.
Saradanthule, the Runt
The beginnings of the ‘Core Human Pantheon’ and humans themselves occurred when the short and weak god, Saradanthule, was born to the chief giant god, Annam. Saradanthule was labelled ‘The Runt’ by the other giant deities and he was ridiculed and abused for his small stature. Wishing revenge against his stupid and evil brethren, Saradanthule made more use of his intellectual gifts and steeled himself patiently to rise above his siblings and rivals. As the taunts continued, vengeance fuelled Saradanthule’s motivation.
Showing that he had learned much of the possibilities of being a god, Saradanthule created more deities in his short-statured-likeness. These beings (later to become known as the Eldar Deities) accomplished many victories over the giant gods, who were focusing their attention on Cellworld.
To complete his revenge, and rise to prominence, Saradanthule created human beings from the five elements over which he assumed control. He populated Cellworld with his creations to confront and battle the dominance of the giants, as an affront to his brethren. Soon the well-armed dwarves and then the secretive elves added their magical might to the human forces and the rulership of Cellworld was once again in the balance. It is said that Saradanthule also approached other divine beings to help populate Cellworld, so that the dominance of dragons and giants could be completely destroyed. Although victory in battles was few and far between, the humans had established themselves in many parts of the world and took lands from the giants and dragons.
The Dark God
Towards the end of this age of myth an evil ‘twin’ entity of Saradanthule made its presence known amongst the gods and threatened to destroy all that had been achieved. It directly opposed Saradanthule and Saradanthule had to call upon the help of all the Eldar Deities and that of Aris to combat its presence. The Dark God was defeated (but not before it created the goblinoids in mockery of Saradanthule’s humans and granted them the power of witchery). The Dark God was then imprisoned in the only vessel powerful enough to hold it; Aris herself. The Dark God is bound within the Earth Mother that is the world and it becomes known as Cellworld or The Cage (later Kage) thereafter.
The war and the physical binding of the Dark God to Cellworld caused many great disasters and cataclysms. The crater of the Kazari lands dates from this struggle and the Blacklands of Gar-Sanya is known as the point at which the Dark God was interred to its eternal prison.
The Sunset Time
Following the turmoil, the age ended with the humans established upon Cellworld, the Dark God imprisoned and the giants retreating to the more rugged areas of the world to plot their vengeance. The dragons still held their own, mostly due to their magical powers, but still ruled from isolated pockets away from the central lands of their enemies. (The elves had not shared their knowledge of magics with their dwarven and human allies). The newly created goblinoids mostly hid themselves away brooding their time and breeding in large numbers for future assaults upon this new world.
However, on Djana it was the orok that seized power. Their affinity for arcane magic and the ability to work iron enabled them to create a massive empire, spanning the whole continent, except for the Kingdom of Nyaat, where humans not of Saradanthule’s creation and knowledgeable in the arcane arts resisted the orok. (AA p18).
