Our God awoke to see the expanse of space and time, empty and devoid of life. Only drifting shards of stone and ice circled the void. With hands outstretched, God made light from their body that shone through the expanse and went forth as Luminos forever after.

Luminos gathered shards to form the world as the foundation for creation. Seeing the ice and stone stand empty and still, a spark of Luminos’s soul was given to the world to give it life and warmth. The once frozen mountains surrendered into rising seas and oceans. Valleys of rock began to melt and climb to towers of fire. Soon the world was in motion and churning to form the home for creation.

Luminos saw the world was alive and willing to nurture more of God’s creation. However land and sea still rose and fell, and would swallow what was made if left to its nature. Luminos, wary of the chaos in the world, gave breath and created the sky to calm the earth. Soon the world slowed, the churning lessened, and the time for creation had come.

Luminos began to labor on the earth as though it were a garden. Each flower was given a name and each tree treated as a friend. The labors continued as Luminos created creatures and beasts, each with unique purpose in this great garden. As the garden grew, some creatures clung to the shadows away from Luminos’s light. Seeing this, the light was hung into the sky and Luminos set the world to dance around it and chase the shadows. With this came the first dawn of creation, and with it the Age of Light.

Wherever light exists, shadows are cast. This was still true for Luminos’s light. Some creatures still shied away into the shadow. With a world now teeming with life, our God decided to bring caretakers into existence to tend to his creation. Similar to Luminos’s own form, the Elves were made. Masters of living creature, they were made swift and graceful and taught to wield some of the magic in the creations of Luminos. These beings were fair to look upon and gifted with near-immortality to assist in the care of the world and the protecting of creatures of light. Millennia passed as Luminos taught the values of life and creation, and the Elves went on to expand the garden and build great civilizations. When the time came for the world to expand our God revealed the next of the folk in our world. While Elves would become masters of magic and manipulating the flora and fauna of creation, they were not able to shape the earth and stone to open the rest of the world to them. Thus, Luminos woke the Dwarves, second folk to walk the world. They were made stalwart and strong for their purpose. These people were made resilient to all the elements of the world, and stood stout so as to go forth and develop the world in places their Elven kin could not. While Dwarves would not live millennia, centuries were given to their lives. They learned quickly and became the masters of nearly every craft, save the magic the Elves had learned in their time with Luminos. Although the finesse to wield magic was difficult for Dwarves, they learned to capture the essence of earth’s magic through runes embedded in their crafts. After millennia passed and the children of the world flourished and expanded, Luminos rested away from the children to take pleasure in what was created and allow all creatures their free will to experience the gifts of life. Our God went away to create the resting places for the souls of those who have labored in Luminos’s garden. Thus came the twilight days in the Age of Light.

While Luminos prepared a place of rest, the folk of the world prospered. However, the dark can be deceiving and time will fool the memory of even the most long lived races. Some Elves began to doubt the teachings of their people. This lead some to doubt the very existence of Luminos and their purpose in the world. A division among the Elves grew more apparent over time. A small few chose to remove themselves from the growing tension by isolating themselves in the great forests or remote islands. Those who remained began to grow distrusting and apprehensive towards one another. Over centuries, this tension grew and evolved into aggression. Elves knew of the magic to create, so to sum this proved they were just as likely the creators as the creations. Others held fast to their beliefs and teachings and remained unyielding to their faith in Luminos. That faith was tested in the centuries that followed. A great Elven noble rose among those who are sad to doubt the teachings of creation. Lord De’grun set out to prove his capability of godhood. While our God gave the ability to create that which was designed for this world, Lord De’grun needed to create something new and worthy of the title he desired. Turning to the dark and the secrets that lie and its shadows, he was able to create new races from the creatures that hid there. These races were distorted and grotesque. Thus from the shadow were born orcs, goblins, trolls, and other foul creatures of the dark. This magic proved to be intoxicating and corruptive. Lord De’grun and all who used this dark magic after were marked by its power. Their hair lost its color, their skin grew pale, and their eyes grew dark to reflect the betrayal of their existence. This came to be known as the Fallen Age.

The Elves soon set violence on their kin as the division became more severe. Those who remained loyal to their charge and teachings of Luminous began to refer to themselves as High Elves and referred to the fallen as Shadow Elves. Lord De’grun crowned himself king of the Shadow Elves and lord over all creatures of the dark. After amassing his dark armies, King De’grun set out on the world to snuff out all that clung to the light and its bounties. Centuries of brutal war followed and the world knew chaos. Great hosts of Elves on both sides were wiped away and the darkness of the world grew in their place. Even those who avoided the conflicts felt the pull of dark forces. The isolated Elves became distrusting and bigoted. The Dwarves delved deep into the earth to avoid the bloodshed and sought riches and greed. They went so far as to take treasures from the Elves to create tools of war for both sides. King De’grun went on to seek aid from a renown Dwarven craftsmen in order to create the ultimate weapon to harness his own magic and amplify it to the god-like level he so desired. In a ritual to imbue this blade with powers of creation and destruction, De’grun sundered the essence of his own being and bound his vitality to the sword. In the common tongue this weapon became known as the Etcher of Souls. King De’grun became known as Father of Shadow and worshipped as a god by his creatures of darkness. Soon after, Prince Korlan, heir to the Kingdom of Shadow Elves, was born and the campaign to vanquish the light quickened. As the years passed, the High Elves were hunted and slaughtered by hordes of shadow. Pushed to the brink of extinction, light had all but faded from the world. Just before their victory could be made, the creatures of darkness surrendered to their own nature and moved to usurp their master. Driven by greed and ambition, the generals in King De’grun’s army attempted to slay him and claim the Etcher of Souls. The Shadow Prince Korlan was forced into hiding while the hordes of darkness turn in on themselves. This was the start of the Age of Rebellion. Armies of the Elves, orcs, and goblins rose and warred in the following years and eventually killed De’grun. The Etcher of Souls was never found.

Luminous wept as the children of creation were seduced by darkness and violent greed. The garden, once made to be perfect, laid scarred, wounded, and nearly devoid of all of its children. The Elves and Dwarves were diminished, but they continued to fight against each other as well as the remaining creatures of the dark. They burned their offerings in the ancient Fire Temples of Luminos, while outside the world grew dark.

Luminos set out to make the final labors of creation to settle this world. While the ancient races slowly retreated from the forefront of the world after the wars faded, Luminos made the last of the world’s children. Mankind was set to inherit the world as the ancient races collapsed. Their tribes and kingdoms would be built on the ruins of civilizations past, and this new race would arise to keep the sacred flames burning in the Fire Temples the ancient ones had built with skill beyond the ken of mortals. Luminos made man with able bodies and clever minds. While they were able to adapt to the world, they were not given the gift of long life as their older siblings were. Their lives would remain short in the span of time so as to give them and the remaining ancients appreciation for the gifts of life. Mankind would also proliferate quickly so as to fill the world anew and tend to it keeping. Knowing the allure of the darkness, Luminous also chose to withhold the magic of creation from Man, giving only small bits of knowledge to the first to walk the world’s plains. For fear in knowing the dark powers that still slumbered in the world, they would not be left without a torch in the dark. Luminous fashioned from the stars a blade of shimmering beauty and mirror like finish. It became imbued with the light of our God and would serve to protect and defend against the darkness and the Etcher of Souls if it ever arose. The first men called the blade the Sword of Hope. Luminos took the blade into the world and hid it in time for the day it would be needed again. Luminous took a leave thereafter to watch over the world from afar. And thus began the Age of Man.