The History of My World

Theology:
"In the beginning was THE ONE. The lifeforce. Mana. The pure essence of Life and Magic. THE ONE spoke once, and Dralvalen appeared. Dralvalen was the God of Neutrality, the essence of the will of THE ONE. Then THE ONE spoke again, and Melina & Que'Tal were formed. The Goddess of Order and the God of Chaos, with Dralvalen to balance them they began the creation of our world...."

First off, a word about the Gods of my world. The Gods in my world have limitations. They can be hurt, and they can be killed. They are not omnipresent, and the only God who can be termed "Omniscent" is Chiel, but that is because he is the God of Prophesy. The Gods are immortal, but only in the aspect that they don't age. They can be killed, especially by more powerful Gods.

There are many things in my world that make up a GOD. The two main things are Power and Influence. A God's Power is based on his or her birth order. The amount of Influence a God has, though, is based on how many followers the God has. In most cases, this is proportional.

The God's influence in my world is also dictated by their aspect, or what philisophical construct they stand for: justice, wisdom, strength, war, disease, etc. Unlike most mythos', the Gods of my world are not born with an aspect. Each God chooses what his or her aspect will be. The only exceptions to this were some of the early Gods, as THE ONE gave them dominion over certain powers. All of the younger Gods (the Third Primes down, including some of the Second Primes) all chose their aspect. Now, again, while a God's power is based on their birth order, their aspect is based on thier totem. A Totem is usually in the form of a scepter or a weapon that embodies the aspect that each particular God represents. Dellathor's totem, for example, is a mace. By holding and wielding that mace, he becomes the God of Justice & Law. Were Dellathor to ever yeild that mace over to another God, that other God would then take on the aspect of justice and law. It is significant to re-iterate that this would have no effect on Dellathor's power. It would only rob him of his aspect. However, were a Mortal ever to pick up that mace, it would affect their power, as they would be ascended to Godhood. (Although, chances are that it wouldn't last very long as one of the more powerful gods would, as likely as not, very quickly dispatch them.) Totems can only be formed by Dralvalen, who alone can touch the will of THE ONE.

There are Gods and Goddesses in my pantheon that the mortals know nothing about, as they do not have a totem and as such do not have an aspect. They are in effect, nothing more than True Neutral supermen/women who care nothing about the mortal realm. (Although to say so in my world is tantamount to walking up to a sociopathic religious zealot and telling them there is no God. Ex. see Salem Witch Hunters or Shiite Muslim Extremists. This is to say that you probably won't have much time to regret your decision.) Some of these Gods are as high as Third Primes. They simply don't care enough about the mortal realm to take on an aspect. The reason why I am stressing this point is because it is not uncommon for aspects to suddenly shift, ie the Clerics of, say, the God of Strength to get a dream message one night that the God of Strength no longer wishes to be called by his current name, that his new name is ------. What has happened, unbeknownst to the Clerics, is that their God has been waxed and a new God has taken his place. What sometimes happens when a God is killed is it may take some time before another God takes up that totem. While the Clerics still have their power, as it is derivitive of the Totem and not the God themself, often times the following of that god will wane. This is because the God no longer answers prayers, and by that I don't mean divine magic, I mean conversational prayer.

The question has been raised of what happens when the new God who takes up the totem is significantly different than the old God. This is mainly academic as the totem is a more than just a source of power. It is the physical/etherial embodiment of a philisophical construct. Let's use Dellathor as our example again. Dellathor is Lawful Neutral. Dellathor's Totem is also Lawful Neutral. Even if Dellathor's Totem were to be picked up by a Chaotic Evil God, by picking up the Totem they would become Lawful Neutral, because picking up the Totem causes them to take on Dellathor's aspect, which is justice and law.

Currently the Gods function as mediators for the mortal realm. They exert their will through the actions of thier followers, whom they have regular interaction with. The Gods in my world are very pro-active, and it is uncommon to find a cleric who has never heard the voice of their diety. In fact, most of the truly faithful have been blessed with a personal audience, as my Gods regularly send avatars down from the heavens to interact with their followers.


Ancient Mythology:
In the ancient times, the three primes, Dralvalen, God of Neutrality, Melina, Goddess of Order, and Que'Tal, God of Chaos, formed and created our world. The three primes combined thier power to create life, and brought forth the Twin goddesses, Lashalan, Goddess of Life, and Luca, Goddess of Death. These five powers turned thier eyes upon our world, and filled it will all manner of living things. The pinnacle of their creation was Yggrisil, the First Tree. Yggrisil reached her roots down in the new fertile earth and gained great size. The Spirits of this new world turned thier eyes upon her and were enamored. From her they spawned the first race, the Dryad. Spirits of light and life, they tended the tree and spread her seeds. It is from these seeds that the first elven wood was born.

Of the Gods, Que'Tal took the greatest interest in these Dryad. Eventually, he succeeded in coaxing a few of them out of thier trees. From them he created the first of the dominant races, the elves. He taught the elves in all the ways of natural magics and instilled in them the love of the beauty of nature in all its randomness, even in form.

Melina, on the other hand, had found herself fascinated by the spirits of this new world. Her favorites quickly became the spirits of the earth, who were predictable, logical, and rational. From these spirits, with a little help from Que'Tal, Melina carved her own race, the Dwarves. These dwarves were the polar opposite of Que'Tal's elves. While the elves were tall and lithe, the dwarves were short and stout. Where the elves were erratic and fickle, the dwarves were predictable and content, delving into their mother earth to extract her treasures, learning the slow processes of the earth.

Que'Tal, the spirit of randomness, found such joy in helping Melina create her earth-spirits, decided to form an elemental spirit of his own. Taking his treasured elves, he bred them and combined them with the spirits of the waters, whom he treasured for their chaotic nature. From this union would come the sea-elves, or blue elves as they are more commonly called.

All this time, Dralvalen sat and watched. He knew that this world was unstable, and that these races could never co-exist in peace. It didn't take long for him to be proved correct, for as soon as the elves and dwarves met, they almost instantly hated each other, and took to war. While Melina stood in horror, Que'Tal goaded them on, anxious to watch the ensuing chaos. It was then that Dralvalen took matters into his own hands. Combining the two remaining spirits, Dralvalen created the fourth race, men. Dralvalen used these men to negotiate a peace between the two races, a peace that would cause both races, both Dwarf and Elf, to have a great deal of respect for this new race, for Dralvalen had given them many gifts. The powers of the wind spirits gave them quick minds and great inspiration. The spirits of fire gave them great reproductive power, such that they soon began to fill the world. However, it also greatly shortened their lifespan. These men would become Dralvalen's people, striving always to maintain the balance.

Dralvalen's men would go on to rule the world. His clerics of the church of neutrality taught moderation in all things. However, Dralvalen was still young in the ways of Godhood, and did not tend to his flock. Slowly his church began to get out of control. Inquisitors rose up who performed all kinds of abominations in his name. When Dralvalen finally did decide to act, it was too late, as his church was twisted beyond repair.

In an act of desperation, Dralvalen turned his back on his church, and smashed his totem. Suddenly all the clerics of Dralvalen found that their spells no longer worked, and their sacred artifacts no longer held any power. All Hell broke loose, literally. It is the only time in known history when the followers of Melina, Goddess of Order, and the followers of Que'Tal, God of Chaos, ever worked in symphony with each other. When the smoke cleared, nothing remained of Dralvalen's church but a few scattered ruins. Clerics, followers, no one was spared the wrath. It all took less than three days.

The instant Dralvalen's totem was smashed, the world changed. Melina and Que'Tal both started out as Lawful Neutral and Chaotic Neutral Gods. However, when Dralvalen smashed his totem, the world lost its balance. Que'Tal became more and more chaotic, warping the world in more and more twisted ways, until he sunk into the mires of Evil. Melina, by contrast, was forced to become Lawful Good in order to counter Que'Tal's curruptive power. Eventually, this would all come to a head, and the followers of Que'Tal and Melina went to war, as did the gods they served. It is the greatest battle of all time, and the heavens shook from it, for not only did Melina & Que'Tal make war upon each other, but by their side were the greatest of their allies, their fellow gods. By Melina's side were the gods of Justice, Wisdom, Life, Love, and Chivalry, among others. By Que'Tal's side were the gods of death, vengeance, disease, war, nightmare, and bloodlust. The battle raged for days, but it would be the forces of Melina who would come out victorious.

Melina then did something that proved her wiser than her brother. She knew that the powers of chaos, as much as she might despise them, were neccesary in order for life to grow and flourish, for in all life are the seeds of chaos. So if she destroyed Que'Tal's totem, there would be no more life. However, she did not want another god to pick up Que'Tal's totem, for she feared the same outcome would eventually repeat itself. So instead of destoying it, she buried it with his bones. She then went to great measure to make sure that noone would ever find Que'Tal's resting place.

Melina's first act, as the effective new Queen of heaven, was to forge a new law, that the gods could no longer directly intervene in the lives of mortals. The only way a god could impose his or her will upon the world would be through their followers. The gods could direct their followers to perform their will, and empower them to do so, but they could no longer swing their weight however they chose to. This became known as the Rule of Order, and it is often credited with bringing civilization to the world.



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