Age of Ancients

The age of Ancients represents a time of knowledge and power far beyond that which is available to modern scholars. This was the golden age of the Elven and Dwarven nations. A time of powerful magic, and mighty weapons. A time of hero and legend. With the An’Dar and the Fae consigned to history no impediments remained to outshine the glory of the younger races.

Elven cities were famous across the vast world of Phantera for their beauty and magic. The buildings were grown from living plant and crystal matter. Each held soaring towers that seemed to touch the sky with grace, and shouted to all the world the power of the Elven nations. Each building was imbued with its own consciousness. This consciousness was a sort of vague intelligence which according to tales passed down in the lands of men, was capable of controlling lighting, doors, temperature, and directing visitors to the proper hallways.

During this time the great magic of order and essence reigned supreme over the Elves, and their wizened spell binders could look across time and space for answers to nearly any question. With Elven sorcery chariots that could move themselves were devised, weapons that needed no wielder, and perhaps the greatest creation of all, the Valkin’vi. These race was progenitored by the Elves to control the very weather of the entire world.

The Guthry race, young and care free wandered the face of phantera in great caravans, whose wagons could stretch for miles across great golden plains. Each wagon stood close to thirty feet tall, being pulled by a team of four giant shaggy beasts. The colors were so bright and garish in the sunlight that at times visitors would have to shield their eyes from the light of a caravan making its way like a great glittering snake across the rolling hills.

Guthrie storymeets originated during the age of ancients and were known around the world. According to the Guthries, thousands would flock to their summer festivals for the honor of hearing the greatest legends ever written portrayed by the Guthrie epic poets. Once every ten years the entire Guthrie nation would gather at Great Meet for a year long festival of song and dance. The noise and comotion was said to be second only to the great artifice furnaces of the Dwarven nations.

As for those Dwarves, they had carved out the interior of entire mountain ranges, filling them with the work chants of Dwarven smiths and great cities of living stone. The high science of alchemy was first invented here as dwarves discovered new methods for strengthening and blending metals. This quickly passed on and changed among the other races to become the blending of minerals and herbs we know as alchemy among the modern studies of scholars. Dwarven armor was said to be impervious to any bombardment, even the fire of dragons, scarcely heated the surface of these great works of master smiths. Nowhere on Phantera were such marvelous creations of steel possible. For the first time in ages Dwarves and Elves worked as allies, through their emissaries, seeking to balance each others weaknesses and improve both their lots.

The Valkin’vi first appeared in the Age of Ancients as creations of Elven sorcery. A small group of young Elves was volunteered (usually those who had committed some crime) and through a rigorous magic transformed into ethereal beings capable of controlling small portions of the upper Airs. In order to control and monitor their new creations who were of fiery temper and less than happy with their new positions. The Valkin’Vi were given into the care of a powerful race of beings calling themselves the Valkin. These strange travelers who never appeared in great numbers and seemed to step through thin air at will were capable of balancing all of nature’s forces within themselves. Though unable to naturally procreate the Valkin never aged and maintained unceasing vigilance over the Valkin’vi and the pleasant weather of the Elven empire.

At this time the Gnomes were greater in numbers and often found living in large enclaves as either diplomats or engineers. They hired themselves out to Elves and dwarves as go-betweens and aided in the construction of a vast empire of magical causeways to ease travel across Phantera. Gnomes were liked by all for their honesty and amiability, in fact a common saying among the other races was to compliment on being ‘honest as a gnome’. In all respects gnomes were generous and warm hearted, the folk proved to be warm hearted and have a genuine concern for the well being of others. They looked upon themselves as a race as responsible for guiding the less educated masses into careful decisions.

The Aviana dominated the highest peaks and airs of Phantera, feeding their communal society on the refuse and castoff scraps of others. Often a Dwarven gem or Elven orb would mysteriously appear in a rookerie with none the wiser as to how it got there should the owner come a looking. This was a time of equality and peace among the Aviana who were known as marvelous guides and linguists to the peoples of Phantera. Their gift for language was not lost until the talkative fellows were silenced by the poverty and corruption that destroyed their socialist lifestyle at the end of the age of ancients.

As for the sly and cunning Ga’Vin with their enormous numbers of shock troops and reavers, an entire continent was theirs to lay waste. Their struggles transformed the ground into an ever changing landscape of muck and battle as each Ga’Vin shaman and war wizard tried to carve out his own empire as Father, from the chaos around him. Their numbers were so great that no one Ga’Vin was able to meet and challenge all those of the same Tier in order to prove his superiority, and conflict was rampant. At birth Ga’Vin were born into the slums that were the only town left after armies moved across the land. If they lived long enough, at puberty each Ga’Vin would enter the fire and follow in the footsteps of his predecessors.

Those with the cunning and strength, which the Ga’Vin prized among their soldiers earned great honors and collected the bones of many enemies to adorn themselves with. The rare Ga’Vin who lived through a decade of service went back to the slums to raise huge litters of children, some of whom might live long enough to follow in the war-like footsteps of their forebears.

In the time of the ancients the world was a well settled place, filled to bursting with many races and cultures of people. Great cities sprawled across the surface and under it. Wars of glory and conquest crossed and recrossed the land. In the end over population became the great burden of Phantera, her life and beauty sapped by the creatures dwelling upon her creaking back.

No more space existed for the travels of the Guthrie. No more mountains to be carved by Dwarven masons. No more forests to sculpt and hunt for the Elves. No new lands for the Ga’Vin to conquer. The only beasts living were those bred to use as food or in war. The only game remaining was that too terrible to eat. Realizing the imminent danger for the world should not a solution to this overcrowding be found a great meeting was called and the wisest men and women of all races were called forward to speak on behalf of their peoples. For two long years they met and argued over what was to be done.

The dwarves believed the solution lay in greater structures and mightier buildings. The Ga’Vin agreed that the solution was to kill everyone over the age of fifty and any who could not fight to defend themselves. The Elves did not appreciate this view greatly and suggested simply killing all the goblins instead and opening a new continent for settlement. The Aviana said things were fine the way they were, and the Valkin’vi stormed out in rage against the control of the Elves, never to bow under their yolk again.

In the end it was the gnomes who proposed the chosen solution. They suggested that a series of mighty portals be opened to other realms so that the over-crowded world of Phantera could colonize distant worlds for herself. After much debate, it was decided that this was a plausible solution and the most powerful magicians and sages of the various races were gathered.

From each race and culture they came, the mightiest spell weavers to live in a time of great sorcery. Aged beyond belief and fearsome in their wisdom, they represented the pinnacle of the secret arts. Behind each traveled five hundred colonists waiting for the portal to a new realm, fit for colonization and expansion. Together the mages numbered over a thousand of the most brilliant minds the Age of Ancients had to offer. Together in a show of trust and camaraderie that was never to be repeated they worked the magic to bridge the gap between worlds. Together they succeeded beyond their wildest dreams, and failed beyond their most terrible nightmares.

Of order and essence they wove strong connections between the fabric of reality, bridging faint fibers of life between distant worlds, a magic so great that none today could duplicate its magnitude or the number of worlds it touched. While deep in ritual the vile betrayers attacked. A host of Ga’Vin, brought through a portal from the Ga’Vin continent by their own warlocks descended upon the host of mages who were too busy in their own ritual to defend themselves. Unprepared for this betrayal they fell under the sword of Ga’Vin hordes who desired to rule the entire world without the interference of other races. It was genocide. Luckily they failed as well.

The magic of order and essence so carefully shaped and maintained went awry when its controllers died. Driven by the emotions of their dying thoughts the magic perverted and twisted in upon itself becoming magic of chaos and some dark force never before realized. The world was shattered as the magic streamed through all the realms corrupting what it touched. Whole mountains rose from the sea, continents disappeared and chaos was loosed upon the world as a malignant hatred created by the sorcerous deaths.