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History of the lands: final edit

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Okay I've finished editing my history of the lands, it comes down to 6500 words for that, and 6000 for the separate narrative storyline of the battle of portland (might end up shorter). I might also edit the story of Qast down (about 10,000 but will be shortened a great deal) which is a possible quest-generating offshoot from the main history.

 

What I'll do now is post the history up in very short chunks every day (same sort of thing as Geelef did) to make it a bit easier to get through. First bit will be on Monday. 'The Battle of Portland' and 'Quast's creation' I'll do on a different thread once this one is finished.

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Prologue:

 

It began in darkness, and ended in light, which is all that is certain in the forming of the world. No-one is sure how, or when, and most importantly why we are here, and with all the dangers we face who has the time to try and answer these questions? Certainly not the Warrior, nor the Miner, Alchemist, Mage or Smith.

 

All we know of the times we live in and what went before are the stories our elders tell, and the histories we believe to be true. The old men's tales differ for every race, across every island and every different village. We will never know the absolute truth of these things, we can only guess from the common threads of each confused and conflicted tale, and these become yet more muddied for every passing day that our times remain unchronicled.

 

This work is a tome recording our civilisation, collected to safeguard the knowledge of our forefathers. It is the finest work of the six races, a testament to their glories, their failures, and their Eternal Lands.

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Which words in particular did you not(i)ce were mi(s)spelled? I agree people don(')t like that sort of thing :).

 

Don't worry poetry is kept to a minimum for the most part, but I like to set an atmosphere in the beginning :)

 

--------------------------------

 

Part 1: The Gods, and the creation of the world

 

It is perhaps only fitting that the earliest tales, and the most accurate, can be traced to the great forest abodes of the Elves. They tell of a great birth of life in a time beyond their reckoning. Their legend speaks of six Gods, as different in form as in thought, who for time without end had debated existence and reason. Endless conversations resolved only in an agreement that their first purpose should be creation - the making of a world in which to ground their theories and test assumptions.

 

They began in harmony, placing the ground beneath and the sky above, giving boundaries to the perception of those they wished to inhabit it. They created the inert plant and the active animal, to provide the concepts of time both moving and still. They created sea, sun and moon, to balance the smallness of things with the greatness of concept. And they created the races, wrought in their own image and becoming more separate as their labours split every agreement regarding creation.

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I did not find any spelling erors. I'm not a native speaker, though. Hmmm...nice to see the gods take the scientific route to resolve their dispute :)

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Welll everyone starts neutral dun they :)

 

-----------------------------

 

Hume was the first to depart from the great unity she and the others had shared. She grew tired of the trees and animals, feeling that something lacked from this green and verdant land. She began to experiment. Stones and metals were crushed, mixed and heated to create new and immovable hybrids. Hume found after constant experiments a concept she regarded as an improvement over the vague stillness of root and branch.

 

Her race began to create buildings, and cut down trees to fashion new more permanent things. They began to kill animals and use their furs, and they began to eat to sustain themselves. No longer did they live and die as their god willed, but survived beyond her design, drawing on the goodness of the God's other creations to replenish themselves. They became ever more independent of their mistress, yet kept their love of buildings and permanence.

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Dvar was the second of the Gods to follow this route, but was more careful in his experiments. His love of permanence was linked inextricably to a respect for the early creations it came from, and he worked hard to make everything worthy of their beauty. His work in metal and stone was vastly more intricate than that of Hume, and is reflected in the crafts of his race.

 

Yet Dvar too eventually turned away from the early creations of tree and animal. As the excellence and sturdiness of his work improved he became increasingly obsessed with it, and unwilling to participate in any sterile debates with the other Gods. He and his race became ever more immured in the comfort of their own creations and homes, and as the race of Dwarves gained their own voice, and took to the eating of flesh, they became isolationists and master craftsmen.

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NB// before I go any further, and just to recap, I am aware that the names I'm using at this point aren't the names of the gods in the game. This will all be explained later, bear with me.

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Minos dreamt very differently from the others. He came to believe that permanence was desirable, but only in that it allowed him to watch his own tribe - his own mind - more closely. Minos found within himself the fascination others found in the world around them, and these were the strengths of the soul.

 

Minos saw the trials of his race. He was enthralled by bravery, and shamed by cowardice. He tried hard to purge this second aspect, believing it a fount of division between himself and the other Gods, yet could not, and became anguished with grief over his failure. The Minotaurs, upon gaining independence from his will, strove constantly to live up to this desire for courage.

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Aluwen was the most stubborn of the Gods. She and her race never took to the views of Hume and Dvar, and she instead became enamoured with life and nature in all its brevity. She gave her race long life so they might study it the better, and dedicated her time to watching the first of the God's creations.

 

As her race began to crave independence, their gathering wisdom and the influence of their creator gave them a deep love of everything that lives. They over all the other races give most thanks to their God, appreciating the beauty of the world they have been given.

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Thanks very much :)

 

-------------------------

 

Satyr like Centau was a true believer in change, though her belief did not translate itself into such madness as his. She instead found the sounds of the world to be a far greater source of plurality, and cherished the beauty of music.

 

Like Aluwen, she loved the leaves and animals, and so sought to complement them with beautiful sounds. Her race have become wonderful musicians as a consequence, and live deep in the forests where their music, and their nature, can remain undisturbed.

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Centau hated all suggestion of permanence, and found the attempts of Hume and Dvar to create it incomprehensible. Instead he sought endlessly for change, believing it the only means of finding a solution to the endless nothingness he came from.

 

Centau roamed the world he and the other Gods had created, running endlessly and glorying in endless mutation. His race constantly moved - they were birthed and killed daily under the weight of Centau's need. They were the only race to ever truly rebel against their God, influenced by the serenity of the Elves and betraying a doubt in Centau's own mind, by beginning to eat and live longer lives.

 

Deprived of his race, and obsessed with his need for constant change, Centau fell from grace, losing his sanity and racing like a beast through the plains and wastes of the world. Though the other Gods tried to console him, Centau was deaf to their words, and his final fate would be a dark one.

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But there was one more God, and he disagreed from the start with creation. Mortos fought against the other five, tearing down the sky and the earth even as it came into being. He was horrified by life and death, change and permanence, and wished it all away. For time beyond comprehension he fought the other five, destroying their thoughts and feeding their fears.

 

The Orcs were his own race, and reflected his dreadful hatred, yet in time, even some of them came to disagree with him, breeding with Hume's people and begetting the Orchans, a confused and unwelcome mix of Human and Orc.

 

This travesty, the mixing of one God's essence with another, turned the other Gods against their hate-filled brethren, and they punished Mortos with fearful fury, casting him down beneath the earth to rot with his deviancies. There he remains to this day, and his domain is that of Hell. He sits upon the Ebony Throne and forever plots against this world.

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Whooo...scary little critter, that.

 

Nice Saii, and it's a better read in short pieces.

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It's better for editing too, cos I'm not getting sloppy halfway through. :)

 

--------------------

 

Part 2: The Gods, and the warping of their natures

 

 

The darkness of the Ebony Throne grew powerful over Mortos' long centuries of imprisonment.

 

The Orchans, who retained a link to their creator for most of this period, are the only ones with legends of his activities then, but these are sketchy. We have done our best to piece together from scraps of their most ancient tales what went on in the underworld.

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Early in his imprisonment, Mortos discovered a way to reach the free gods in the world above, invading their dreams and insinuating himself into their subconscious. Subtly, he brought a new campaign to destroy their psyches and bend them to his will. He began with Centau, the easiest of the three, and one who had already been driven to madness.

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Mortos came first into Centau's dreams, where the constant running and tearing, death and renewal of Centau's mindscape proved easy to manipulate. Mortos broke Centau, inflicting horrific images and thoughts on that already tattered psyche until the once great God finally threw himself into the seas, screaming and thrashing until he sank beneath the waves. Though immortal, Centau has since passed out of sight and mind, and is thought to remain beneath the waves, where storms reflect the raging mania of his thoughts.

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Mortos' second target was Dvar, lord of the Dwarves. Mortos found Dvar's destruction a harder task, and worked to lead him away from his kin with dreams of great works of craft. Through the God's precise, mathematical mind Mortos promised ever greater feats that could be made, if only Dvar had peace from the world.

 

Over time, Dvar withdrew from the bustle of life, moving underground to find the silence he needed to make his great creations. In time, he stopped speaking entirely to his kin. Items wrought by Dvar's great craft can still be found in the deep, singing quietly to themselves.

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The third of Mortos' targets was Minos, whose straightforward mind was easy to cloud, but impossible to break. Minos' dreams were simple, unambiguous clashes of honour and cowardice, and Mortos fed from the latter. Minos' own despair was ironically lessened by this, which strengthened his mind both awake and asleep.

 

He soon grew powerful enough to notice and expel Mortos, yet the Ebony Throne's influence was noticeable - Minos' courage and power in war became offset by a lessening of his goodness. He changed his name to Glydoc and became neutral to the affairs of the world.

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Whoops had such a busy week I forgot to post :oops:

 

--------------------------

 

Fourth was Hume, the innovator. She was canny, even in her dreams, and provided far more of a challenge than the first of Mortos' victims. Yet over centuries, Mortos had an effect even on her, emphasising her distrust of Glydoc's new, pitiless nature into an intense hatred of his love of war (and hence, destruction).

 

This was however all Mortos could accomplish, and she soon discovered his presence in her mind, expelling him. Over the centuries, her name has become Elandria, and she is beloved by all for her permanence and peaceful nature - though feared for her enigmatic ways.

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Next Mortos tried to invade the mind of Satyr, projecting dark images of Hume destroying her forests to try and make her disbelieve any warnings. He was too late. Hume had already told Satyr and so she cast him out almost immediately.

 

She and Elandria, despite their differences, have remained firm friends since. Her love for the life of our world has remained undimmed, and we call her Gaia, life bringer.

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Last came Aluwen, the greatest of the six old gods and with Satyr, the one who led the others to cast him into his prison. Mortos, barred from her walled dreams, had to take an altogether different approach against his greatest enemy.

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