The Founding of Emlenor, Part I: Creation

The northern land of Prevelas

Before the world was created, there were Three.  They occupied neither time nor space, but existed as spirits living in perfect harmony with one another.  All knowledge and power and authority rested within them; they knew all that would be, and they also knew light, for they were its source.  This light was good, and is even to this day, though the wicked strive to overcome it with darkness.  They will not succeed.

It came to pass that the Three were in agreement as to the creation of the physical realm, and their first ordinance was to create three jewels.  They spoke, and forth came the objects of their minds’ eye.  Flawlessly round were these stones, crafted of a material that the Three refrained from using in all subsequent creation; tamim it was called, unmatched in its beauty and resilience to any physical weapon.  The first jewel they named Armenor, and it is a construct of the purest, swirling white shade.  The second they named Prevelas, hued with a blue as that of the deepest sea.  The third they named Marnon, a stone of entrancing purple.  Each of the jewels are small enough to be clenched within the palm of a man’s hand, though a child might consider them to be larger than the average stone.  There they hovered, hanging upon nothing, upheld by the inexhaustible power of the three Greater Gods.

It is not known how long these stones remained in place, occupying the dark physical realm and visible only to their Creators.  But it is known that in these jewels the Gods instilled the elements of creation and destruction; and when came the fulness of time, they spoke once more, and from the stones there emanated great power.  Four spiritual beings were developed, outside of time just as were the Greater Gods; and the Gods loved them, and named them Crel, Gelnarost, Rulisce, and Argelas, and charged them to watch expectantly at the creation to come.  These are the same lesser gods we know today, though one has betrayed us and the Creators.  But his recent victories shall only be temporary.

Below the jewels formed an unbroken expanse of water, and the Greater Gods and lesser looked upon the deep with eagerness.  They spoke again, and out from the jewels burst a great light that flashed upon the sea! Everything the light touched they blessed, and looked they upon their illuminated creation with ineffable joy; but everything the light did not touch they did not bless, and thus they established a divide between the light and the darkness.

The Gods then proceeded to prepare their world for the coming races.  First they separated sea from sea, surrounding the orb of their world (fashioned in the same shape as the three jewels) with a protective film comprised largely of water.  Then they brought dry land up from the deep, and formed the highest peaks and lowest valleys.  Next, they caused all foliage and trees and fruit-bearing plants to sprout across the earth; such would be for shade and food.  Pleased with all things that yet inhabited their world, they turned their eyes to the vastness that lay beyond the heavens, and it was their joy to bespeckle the firmament with innumerable points of light—for, as you remember, the Gods are the source of light, and all light is a mirror of their perfection.  So it was that they also created the sun and moon, that all lights may serve as markers for times and seasons for the races to come.  And in anticipation of these imminent races, the gods deigned that creatures of the wing and creatures of the sea populate the earth—dragons, wyverns, hawks, falcons, eagles, vultures, ravens, fish, dolphins, sharks, whales, tortoises, and larger animals of the deep (though this list is not exhaustive).

And when the Three saw all that they had made through their power and the authority of their voice, they decreed that there be beasts of the land to roam upon the earth.  From the mouse to the bison to the cheranga, beasts of all sorts materialized from the dirt and proceeded to venture as their Gods-given instincts bid them.  The Three were pleased with the appearance and quirks of such creatures, but the pinnacle of their creation was yet to be.

Then they spoke again, and from the dust of the land there also grew humans, gnomes, dwarves, giluzions, giants, elves, and scaldrons.  From the salt and spray of the oceans they formed the aquins, who are one with the waters.  From the trees they also made the dryads, and from rocks the hardy petreins.  The Gods delighted in these beings above all other aspects of their creation, and into them they swept a mysterious Wind, which became a soul, and animated the peoples in personality and intellect and morality.  From the beasts of the field and the birds of the sky they withheld this Wind according to their own good pleasure, and thus they separated the peoples from the animals in the hierarchy of all created order.  Then they spoke to the races, and ordained that male and female of each race procreate and make their mark upon the earth—to care for it, to tend to it, to build kingdoms, and to live in peace.  They called this world "Emlenor."

And when they finished with creation, the Three determined that the jewels should reside in three separate locations in the world; and from these three locations there formed the three lands, now distinguished from one another (though the Gods made no such separation themselves).  Indeed, in the modern age, the people of one land are generally unaware that anything exists beyond their own.  In the north, upon the island of Azrabock, the Gods placed the blue Prevelas, and such became the name of that land after the Corruption.  In the south, in the forest called Sorlan, the Gods placed the purple Marnon, and such became the name of that land after the Corruption.  And in the center of it all, in Palenki Forest, beside a still river, the Gods placed the white Armenor, and such became the name of that land after the Corruption; and Armenor is exceedingly beautiful, a land unfettered by country or border, and from it there shall rise a great Sage to dispel the darkness that has impinged upon the light of the Gods.