The Nine, The Races And The Sibling War

Once, The mortal world of Era was overrun and inhabited by demons and devils, waging war against each other. After hundreds of years of devilish and demonic warfare, Era was almost a barren rock. The only living creatures left which weren’t devils or demons, were the dragons, and they were all but extinct.

Then The Nine arrived, beings of extraordinary power, and the tide changed. They claimed the world as theirs, and told both devils and demons to be gone. They didn’t. So great battles were fought, and in the end, the demons were pushed into the Abyss and the devils into the Nine Hells, and Era was all but closed off to them.

The Nine, now self-proclaimed gods, set upon restoring the mortal world, breathing life into Era, so that it once again would be a pleasant place.

Moradin, the All-Father, showed the way, and soon created the perfect creatures. Dwarves. Tall, powerful and hard-working, they were all a god could wish for. He showed them how to build and organize things, and soon the dwarven populations grew and populated Era, building cities in the mountains.

Corellon, his wisest child, having grown forests and populated them with animals, decided to follow his father’s example. He created the elves, slender, elegant and serene, perfect for living and enjoying the wilds of the new mortal world.

Asmodeus, Corellon’s older brother, quickly became jealous of his brother’s creation. Or rather, he saw room for improvement. The elves were way too free-spirited and freedom-loving, too undetermined for Asmodeus’ taste. He wanted creatures much more driven, just as himself. Not long after, Asmodeus created the dark elves, a darker and more malign version of the happy treehuggers his brother had created. The dark elves lived in the forest too, but whereas the elves loved dancing in meadows in the sunlight, the dark elves loved prowling in the shadows, hunting and hurting.

Not wanting to take the backseat compared to the other kids of their father, Pelor, Bane and their sister the Raven Queen pooled their magical might and created humans. While individually not as powerful as the dwarves, elves or dark elves, the humans were none the less a force to be reconned with. Especially their quick procreation and ability to adapt and learn proved to be a decisive factor. Humans soon eclipsed the other races in numbers.

Mask, the enigmatic brother/cousin, soon followed suit. Not having the creative powers of his brethren, he made a hybrid. He took a little of each, and although the result was surprising, Mask was satisfied. The halflings were definitely different, an unknown quantity.

Tiamat and Bahamut on the other hand, seemed satisfied with their newly acquired symbiosis with the dragons.

Time passed and differences grew. Slowly the gods came at odds with each other, either directly or through their races.

In order to not ruin their creation in the war that everyone by now knew is coming, the gods made the Divine Pact and seclude themselves away from the mortal world, vowing to never interfere directly with the business of mortals.

Moradin even ordered the dwarves to take no part in the upcoming conflict, as he thought his children to be silly and careless. He sent the dwarves underground to be far away from the war. There they are somehow affected by mystical energies, and slowly turn into what they are know as today, short stocky and stubborn people.

The war, later called the Sibling War or the War for Dominance, began, with Pelor, Corellon, Bahamut on one side, and Bane, Asmodeus and Tiamat on the other. Mask played both sides, and the Raven Queen played none - or both perhaps. The humans of the triplets were divided as well.

The war raged for years before Mask openly participated. He stole some foul magic from Bahamut’s personal spellbook and gave the magic to Tiamat. She used the magic to corrupt stolen eggs and created the dragonborn. Later during the war, some of the dragonborn rebelled against Tiamat and joined Bahamut, who welcomed them home, like lost children. Tiamat became desperate after losing a big part of her own personal army, so she corrupted eggs of her own chromatic dragons too, hoping they would be more loyal.

As time passed, the magical might of the new races start to take on horrific aspects.

The dark elves use evil ancient demon-magic discovered in the ruins of the demon-cities to twist captured elves and halflings into horrible creatures called trolls and goblins. Meanwhile, in retaliation, the elves capture humans and use their magic to change them to orcs, brutal warriors to put in their vanguards.

(TBC)