[Cosmology] The ur-Stone. (Thoughts wanted.)

Funksaw · September 5, 2006

First, there were the ur-Men; the beginners, the ones before all. They were alone.

The world they lived in was wild and chaotic and this displeased the ur-Men, so they created the ur-Stone; a way to control the chaos, and they fashioned bodies with forms. They seperated matter from thought, dark from light, earth from sky, life from death, and time from endlessness.

They did not banish the chaos, for they were not that foolhardy. They, instead, harnessed it, segregated it.

They created a stone so heavy that the most omnipotent of them could not lift it. Inside the stone, they placed all that was without order and without reason.

"Here," they said, "is infinite possibility."

"Elsewhere," they defined, "is immutable reality."

They called the stone a name lost to prehistory. We call it the ur-Stone.

They lived in a paradise of their own creation; a land with order and reason, but with but a desire, they could grant themselves what they needed. They had a power that made them gods on earth. They had a magic - a far greater magic than we now possess.

And then something happened.

Perhaps they called on the power of the stone once too often. Perhaps loftier, higher gods than they grew angry at their hubris. Maybe chaos is simply too wild to keep contained all at once.

The stone split into three, along the seams of the three realms: the physical realm, the ephemeral realm, and the spiritual realm.

The ur-Men were now powerless and the ordered world that was created was now their prison - as it is ours. The ur-Men searched for generations for the three pieces of the stone.

The fragment of the body - the Athelete's Stone - flew into the sky, and so the ur-Men who searched for it live in the trees. Over millenia, their decendants became the Elves who search for the stone of body through their own personal physical perfection. Each generation, they believe, draws nearer to it.

The fragment of the mind - the Artisan's Stone - burrowed into the ground, and so the ur-Men who searched for it also lived underground. Over millenia, their decendants became the Dwarves who search for the stone of mind through the intricate technologies that they've developed. Each generation, they dig deeper down and build cleverer and cleverer devices, and they too believe they draw nearer to it.

The fragment of the soul - the Philosopher's Stone - fled to the four corners of the earth, and so the ur-Men who searched for it also spread to the four corners of the earth. Over millendia, their decendents became mankind as we know them today, and search for the Philosopher's Stone with rituals, celebrations and festivals, building works of great art and the civilizations to enjoy it - they live, and they too, say they draw nearer to it each generation.

Men, Elves, and Dwarves were not alone in the world.

First, there were the shadow races; the dark reflections of what we are. Some say that they came into being when the stone split, others that the ur-Men had a shadow race. Others believe that those who sought the stone and found it were twisted by it.

The Beast-Men, or Orc, bourne of the soul-stone, are all of Man's destructive natures laid bare, rejecting art, beauty, and civilization for the darker side of humanity - unbridaled savagry and destruction.

The Dark-Elves, or Drow, bourne of the body-stone, know only that the strongest can survive, and therefore that the strongest shall lead. In regiments and warfare, they seek to dominate all other life. The exist only to control others and to rise in their society to control more - a meritocracy of malfeasance and of military regimentation.

The Lost-Dwarves, or Goblins, bourne of the mind-stone, are twisted by their search for knowledge beyond, and devise lethal traps - physical traps, traps of diplomacy, tricks, and pranks, while seeking out forbidden knowledge and do dark things in the pursuit of their twisted, mad science.

There are also the mixed races - Halflings, produced when Elves and Dwarves bred; Elvenmen, the offspring of Elves and Men, and Gnomes the children of Dwarves and Men, and a whole host of other races.

And there are the shattered races - twisted mockeries, usually more monster than capable of rational thought, created by a magician, alchemist or scientist merging together life from disperate parts.

And that is how life began.

(Why, yes, I did just create an elaborate backstory as an excuse to have Wuxia Elves, Gadgeteer Dwarves, Evil-Empire Drow, Mad Scientist Goblins, Barbarian Orcs, and all the dungeonpunk fun, turned up to 11.)

Captain Obvious · September 5, 2006