JohnB's Games

No faith quite agrees with any other about the ages of the universe, quite which god came first and who created whom. However, many sages, and even many priests, accept that there was something before the current age. This is the most commonly held theory.

It started with the creation of the world, when the sky and the earth were one. As there was no sky or earth, as a result there was only an empty void. However, one day, a gap formed in the void. All that was lighter than the gap headed upwards and formed the sky. All that was heavier than the gap fell down to become the earth. Rain fell from the sky creating a great mire before a clear blue drop of life-dew fell, settled into the newly created swamp and grew into a great tree, the Tree of Life. The tree stood firm on the ground and pushed the Sky up. With each day the sky grew ten feet (3 meters) higher, the Earth ten feet thicker, and the tree ten feet taller. And the bubble expanded.

After a while the tree grew seed pods which, when they burst gave forth the Elements, time, positive energy and negative energy. However, the release of all of those conflicting energies caused a huge explosion and the bubble that contained the earth and sky was blown apart - creating lots of little bubbles with their own little bit of earth and Sky. We live in one of those little bubbles. The energies coalesced to make the elementals planes. The void that was left became the Astral, the Ether and Void Space. It is said that the tree is still there, invisible to most, stretching from the heavens to the hells, passing through the Astral and the Ethereal, and linking all the bubbles together. The elements trapped inside our world bubble became the Primordial Powers, and between them, they nurture all life on earth.

Sources This Mythology contains elements from a number of creation myths (Korean, Serer(Senegal), Pangu(Chinese), Mande(Mali), Celtic and Norse amongst others)

Little is known about the first age. It is believed to have been a time when the gods walked on earth and were truly the patrons of their people. It is sometimes called the age of heroes, and is often believed to be a golden time of great learning. But in reality all real knowledge and understanding was lost during the long wait after the Gods War when people regressed, to the levels of barbarians, so they could survive.

After the eternal winter the great snake drank the sea, the wolf ate the sun, cows turned to lions and ate everything. The armies of the righteous, the chosen who had died in battle, those whose hearts were lighter than a feather, and those who had gone into the east with the sun were mustered and they fought together against the undead legions of the underworlds. Gods and demon giants fought to the death, then the fire came and the seas rose up. Everything was destroyed.

Except that it wasn’t. The Tree of Life (Sometimes known as the World Tree but actually part of The Ethereal and Astral planes) is indestructible – and life goes on. Some hid within the trunk of the great tree, others became as birds and flew to the topmost branches, others hid in the great ant mounds around the roots, and some took refuge in the well of knowledge, some moved to other worlds. Even on our own world, many small groups survived to repopulate the world when it was healed, those with Dark Vision most likely hid somewhere under the earth during the god wars, water breathers hid underwater and others hid in whatever nooks and crannies they could find. However, they are all less than they were in the days that went before.

Note: Spells like Plane Shift, Shadow Walk, Create Demiplane and Planar Refuge made it possible to escape and wait out the apocalypse. Even some mid-level casters would have been able to escape, and presumably take their entourage with them. Each one was, potentially, a seed for the new tribe.

This is where we are now - and different people will tell you different things about this age - nothing is certain. You must form your own conclusions …..