Xaltoria History

These four seemed to have reactions to one another when combined. The reactions were violent and sometimes harsh, but with the help and guidance of the four creators, they were molded together to create a sphere of incredible potential. The Creators were very impressed with the discovery and watched for many years as the sphere grew, shifted, and changed. The affects the four dimensions had on one another were incredible to say the least. They seemed almost to have a will of their own, forming themselves with no additional help from the creators at all.

Xaltion called the four dimensions the Elements. They were the Elements of creation. When the sphere stabilized, it had grown so huge that it took the creators 24 hours to move around the entire thing. All the reactions had ceased and now there seemed to be some kind of cycle. Keysa, Fergatu, and Kezarai began to be bored and suggested they try adding one other dimension at a time to the sphere to see the reaction.

Xaltion alone was wary of this. He was concerned it might destroy the sphere. Eventually however, Xaltion agreed and, one by one, they began to add dimensions. The results were somewhat devastating to the sphere, changing it further and creating strange reactions. The sphere began to show signs of instability, and Xaltion called a halt to adding any more dimensions.

Once Xaltion understood how the water interacted with the other four elements and the effect of the other dimensions woven into the sphere, he did not grow bored like the others. Instead he had ideas. He began to create again. Not dimensions or plains like before, he began to create what he called Life.

Using the example of how the sphere had taken on a will of its own when all of the elements were combined, Xaltion began to attempt to create Life that would resemble he and his siblings. Life that would create and destroy, change and grow all on its own, be unpredictable.

Xaltion started within his water, creating creatures he called Fish. He created different shapes, colors, and sizes. He created plants that housed and fed the creatures of the massive bodies of water that he called Oceans. He was very pleased with the world he had created. He gave his Fish the ability to procreate with each other and produce more of their kind.

There was no creature that was dynamic and could move through and utilize everything the environment had to offer. Things changed and evolved, but they always had boundaries. There were no creatures that resembled their creators. What kind of tribute was that? Xaltion voiced the idea to his siblings to create creatures in their images. The others were not interested. They were jealous of their power and they felt supreme over everything they created. If they created something in their image, would they be able to feel the same power over them?

The other three left the world again and Xaltion was left to tinker. And tinker he did. He began attempting to create a creature that would be like himself, thoughtful, creative, and willful. He wanted to create a creature that could look beyond foot and procreation and see things not just for food or shelter, but for potential. The first creature was called a Dwarf. The dwarf was a marvel to Xaltion. So willful, tenacious, and it thought in very creative ways. He made a male and a female and gave them the same ability to create others of their kind, and then he sat back and watched the dwarves develop.^[2]

Within a few hundred years, the dwarven population had grown and they had developed a distinct love and ability for crafting things. They were excellent at carving beautiful things from rock and actually preferred to live inside the mountains of the land. Xaltion was very pleased with the dwarves. They were very loyal to him and had developed in very impressive ways. But Xaltion saw room for improvement. Though he saw things he would like to improve, he couldn't bring himself to actually change his dwarves. Instead, he decided to develop a different race.

Elves were tall, slender and beautiful. They had a mystical grace about them and their creativity was very different from dwarves. While the dwarves carved beautiful things from the rock, when it came to more delicate things, like writing or speaking, they were not so talented. The elves not only developed a beautiful spoken language over a couple hundred years, but they created a written language too. The elves were also much longer-lived than the dwarves. The dwarves could survive for 200 to 500 years, the elves could live for thousands.^[3]

Xaltion enjoyed his two races for quite some time. He watched them interact with one another, grow, develop and discover. These creatures were perfect to him for they used everything around them and made new things out of them. They made dwellings, clothes, tools, and so many other things. They were always discovering something new and brought great joy to Xaltion.

After a couple thousand years, Xaltion began to see flaws in his creations. They lived so long and each was perfect in so many ways. He almost felt they had it too easy. He decided to make one more race that would be different from either elves or dwarves. They would not live as long, nor would they be so good at anything. They would be survivors. They would always just make it. And so Xaltion created Humans.^[4]

These individuals became clerics and Xaltion favored them above all others for their devotion and appreciation of him. Because he loved them, so did others of their kind and soon clerics were revered as what they called Holy.

Many more years passed and Xaltion was quite pleased with his world. Then, one fateful day, his three siblings came back. They too were impressed with what he had done with the world, but wanted to try other things. They wanted Xaltion to come away from his world and go with them to create something new. Xaltion did not want to go. He was happy and content with what he had made and didn't want to miss anything his creatures might discover or do. They were his children.

The other three were not so attached. They tried and tried to convince Xaltion to leave, but he wouldn't go. The three became angry and jealous of this world that had taken their brother from them. They began to cause great havoc, calling upon their respective elements to cause destruction.

The earth began to shake and split, volcanoes erupted and fire spread. The air whipped up great storms that toppled trees and building alike.

Xaltion watched in horror as the three destroyed so much in so little time. He commanded them to stop, agreeing to go away with them if they would only stop killing his world. The three stopped and Xaltion regretfully left with them. He was gone for only a few hundred years and felt he could stay away no longer. Leaving his siblings once again, he came back to his beloved world only to find sadness and despair.

So year one of the First Sun in the Age of Mercy began. People prospered and worshiped Xaltion. Clerics once again became revered instead of hated. When the world went mad, the races blamed their clerics for angering Xaltion and many had been exiled or worse yet, killed. Now that Xaltion was back, the clerics were once again accepted into society. Because of their sacrifice and suffering, Xaltion imbued the clerics with more abilities and power.

Xaltion was like an indulgent parent, giving to his children everything he thought they could ever want. Crops were abundant and there were no storms or harsh winters. For over 1000 years there was peace and great happiness. People relaxed and spent most of their time building or resting. There was all the time in the world for fun and games when Xaltion made life so simple and easy for them.

Xaltion was very pleased and enjoyed the feelings of being wanted, needed and appreciated. These were new feelings for him that he had never experienced before. He too was relaxing and enjoying everything. Then they returned. His siblings had finally grown bored and come to collect their brother.

Xaltion gazed one last time at his siblings, then ascended out of the core and the world to once again assume his normal form. Xaltion knew there had always been power in the world. He had watched as the occasional person would be born with the ability to sense it, but not understand it. All the creatures he had made were sensitive to magic in one way or another. Some, however were born with a strong ability to control and manipulate it, but without the knowledge of how to use that control.

With the introduction of the new powers, those who had the ability to use magic could no longer ignore the pull. They began to experiment. Many deaths and a bit of destruction occurred over the many years of experimentation, but within a few hundred years, the races had developed spells and rituals that allowed them to use the powers now available.

The original elves came to be known as High Elves. Some of the elves evolved differently, however, and wandered off. They created a virtually new race that was subsequently called the Tree Elves. These elves were much like the Elves from whom they were descended, but they had different creative tendencies and an uncanny ability to tap into the World Power. They could commune and control animal and plant, land and water, air and weather. They were a marvel to Xaltion. Not only for their abilities, but because he had not created them, it seemed the world itself had created them.

Now there were four races for Xaltion to watch and of which he could be proud. Within a few hundred years he had forgotten about his brothers and sister imprisoned in the center of the world. They, however, had not forgotten him.

The woman was actually freeing Kezarai from his prison. Xaltion was so enraged and felt so betrayed by this act, that without thinking, he struck down Kezarai just as he was released from his sphere of exile. The effect of this was catastrophic.

Because Kezarai was bound to the world and his magic and energy had become part of the fibers that held the world together, the loss of his essence created such havoc on the world that Xaltion was barely able to save it. When Kezarai died, all of his energy was forced into the world and the world could not contain it. Between the force of this energy backlash and that of the strike by Xaltion, the world began to tear itself apart.

Huge tears in the dimensional fibers began to spread. The damage to the material world itself was massive. Mountains grew where before there were only miles of flat land. Other mountains disappeared into the earth and the ocean swallowed up cities and land alike. It rained fire and hail and trees uprooted themselves or were simply sucked down into the ground. The death toll amongst the creatures was massive, but the toll among the races was twice that.