Prologue
In the beginning, there was nothing.
There was no time, there was no matter; all was a single void.
But from nothing, things will want to be...
A pearl of existence grew. It was small and humble, an embryo inside which two beings awakened - they were the first creators, Cora and Alvus. Cora woke first, and was lonely. From her heart she crafted a world on which the paint of creation could be laid, but it was empty still and drained from its making, she faded away. When Alvus stirred, he looked upon the world that Cora had made and marvelled. Then he too lay his hands upon it - he created light and dark to illuminate it, and with them came time and life. Saddened that his predecessor could not appreciate it, he descended upon the world and from the energy that Cora had poured into it, he drew together three children - the gods Therras, Mareus and Iridus.
Together, the three gods covered the world in plenty. Therras the first-born laid down earth and shaped it into great mountains, valleys and plains. Mareus the second-born spread seas and nurturing waters over the land. Iridus the youngest breathed a sky over it all, filled with clouds and space. Happy now to lay his work down, Alvus then split himself in two to become the twin gods Aurea and Atros who would oversee the light and dark, the day and night. The gods named their garden Alva, in gratitude to their guide.
Therras, Mareus and Iridus populated their domains with life, and under the care of all five gods the world flourished - from the humblest of moss to the greatest of dragons. Eventually, the sentinel gods Aurea and Atros grew to wish for the same, and came together to create the first people, the fae. Gifted with understanding and magic, the fae grew wise and knowledgeable with the blessings of their world.
For a time, all was peaceful. But was not to remain so...
Eventually, the fae split into factions under each of the five gods. The followers of Therras, Mareus and Iridus absorbed themselves in the worship of the land, while the followers of Aurea and Atros grew to harbour the seed of conflict - each praised their own god and shunned the other. As enamoured by their children as they were, the gods Aurea and Atros grew similarly bitter, and each came to see the other as encouraging the ills of heart. To mark them with favour, Aurea's followers she made pale of skin and glorious in the light, and Atros's he made dark-skinned and at one with the shadows.
Finally the peace between them could last no longer. The two sides clashed, and their patron gods came to their support. Appalled by the havoc, the other gods rose to quell the battle that was rending their world apart - for Aurea and Atros had given the fae too much power - but not before Aurea and her followers succeeded in sealing away Atros in pieces across the land. With the balance now disturbed, they forced Aurea into a deep slumber in the sun. The fae they also put to sleep in the trees, the water and the clouds. They banished from them the memories of how to use all but the most basic of their powers - for it was too great a pity to strip all knowledge from them. They then took the power they had divested from the fae and used it to craft a new race, the humans, in hopes that these new people would teach the fae humanity when they woke. Rather than gifting them with great power, Therras gifted them with solidity of heart, Mareus with flexibility of mind and Iridus with a dreaming spirit.
Weary now, the three gods fell to rest themselves. As they did, the fae slowly reawakened to emerge from their resting spots.
Now no longer possessing their old power but still knowledgeable in the old magics, they became the teachers of these new creatures. As they had been stripped of their old names, they called themselves the elves - simply the inhabitants of Alva. The old conflicts, however, were still twisted into their souls and again they split their ways - the followers of Aurea became the light elves, the followers of Atros became the dark elves, and the followers of the other three consolidated as the wood elves. Each of them built their own sanctuary cities at separate corners of the map, and from there they guided the humans through their search for knowledge.
Under the tutelage of the elves, humans too flourished. They absorbed the wisdoms of the elves and added to it cleverness of their own. Those on the western side of the world fell under the influence of the light elves and Aurea, and those on the eastern side to the dark elves and Atros. The wood elves spread their own learning widely, and thus all of Alva came to worship the gods Therras, Mareus and Iridus.
But with progress came forgetfulness and the spectre of conflict again. Humans too came to look ever inwards, elevating their own power, and became embroiled in the ways of war. Their wars, however, were not as deep as those of the fae and were conquered by peace at every turn; and the gods did not wake to them.
So Alva moved slowly through times of tumult and peace, free of gods. The old knowledge was lost and the old gods became the domain only of legend and religion.
Alva had been without war for a long time. The old battles over borders and power faded into history under the guidance of the royal family of Miras, who united the western lands of Alva, and the imperial family of Koben, who did likewise with the eastern lands. Ever weary of the vigorous and petty feuds of humans, the elves as a people retreated to their own cities. Delverne and Estraude partnered themselves with the Miras Kingdom, and Reluir segued into an arm's-length alliance with the Koben Empire.
Over time, however, the rifts between the Kingdom and the Empire grew deeper and heavier, led by their differing opinions on the gods Aurea and Atros, and by the rarifying venom between light elves and dark elves. Though trade still prospered, tensions slowly crept closer to ignition point, and the prospect of new war weighed on the minds of people everywhere.
Here starts the story of Arcem Alva...
