When: the world's dawn (c. 10,000 BC), through the Great Cataclysm (0 to 5 AC)
Where: all of Eldranis
Who: Aurelios, Noctyra, and Galdrim (the three primordials); the Nihilith and their leader Zal'kathor
Outcome: the three primordials shaped the world, the Nihilith invasion broke the Shattered Isles, and Galdrim spent his own life to bind Zal'kathor beneath them, leaving the Seals of Galdrim to hold that prison shut.
Eldranis was made when three primordial powers, Aurelios of light and order, Noctyra of shadow and change, and Galdrim of earth and endurance, joined their strength to fill the Eternal Void. They raised the continents, seeded the first mortal races, and then withdrew to watch. When the Nihilith poured out of the Abyssal Rift to unmake the young world, the gods answered with the Celestial Wardens, and Galdrim gave himself to imprison the Nihilith leader Zal'kathor within the Shattered Isles. His essence became the Seals of Galdrim, and those Seals still hold the prison today, hunted by the Abyssal cults who would break them.
Before time began there was only the Eternal Void, an endless nothing. From it emerged three primordial entities, each the embodiment of one aspect of existence:
Aurelios, the Lightbringer, was creation, life, and order.
Noctyra, the Shadowweaver, was shadow, death, and the potential of change.
Galdrim, the Earthshaper, was the earth itself: stability, endurance, and the physical world.
The three held a careful balance, each respecting the others' domain. In time they wished to fill the emptiness with something that could grow and change on its own.
In a rare moment of unity, the three combined their powers to make a world holding all their aspects. Aurelios gave the spark of life and the laws that governed it, Noctyra wove in shadow and the capacity to change, and Galdrim shaped the land, seas, and mountains. So Eldranis was born (c. 10,000 BC). The great continent of Orethar rose first, followed by three smaller continents and a scattering of islands.
Each god had a different reason for the work. Aurelios sought a place where order and civilization could flourish. Noctyra saw a crucible where life would struggle and adapt. Galdrim wanted to learn whether life could endure against time and the elements. Together, these purposes made Eldranis a divine experiment.
The gods populated the world with the first races:
Elves, children of Aurelios, gifted with an affinity for order, magic, and knowledge.
Dwarves, shaped by Galdrim, strong and resilient enough to endure the harshest places.
Humans, a blend of all three influences, adaptable and ambitious, capable of great creation and great ruin.
Other peoples, including the Nagaji, Gnolls, and Fey, arose where the gods' energies mingled.
Eldranis was built so that light, shadow, and earth would constantly interact. The gods intervened now and then, guiding or testing the inhabitants to see whether balance could hold. Some kept it, others tried to tip the scales, and their struggles became the first conflicts and wars. Eventually the three primordials withdrew, content to watch from afar. They left behind divine avatars, ancient artifacts, and hidden places of power, so that mortals could choose their own fate.
In the farthest reaches of the multiverse lay the Abyssal Rift, and from it came the Nihilith, entities that fed on ruin and sought to remake other worlds in the Rift's image. Early in the life of Eldranis (0 AC), they sensed its convergence of divine energy and were drawn to it. They crashed into the world, bringing corruption and destruction, and the Shattered Isles, then a prosperous part of Orethar, were struck hardest.
The gods answered by forging the Celestial Wardens, warriors made from their own essence. Battle by battle the Wardens drove the Nihilith back, sealing their portals and burning out the corruption. The war came to its point when Galdrim faced the Nihilith leader, Zal'kathor, the Unraveler. Galdrim channeled his essence into the earth and imprisoned Zal'kathor within the core of the Shattered Isles (5 AC). The act bound Galdrim to Eldranis, his consciousness becoming one with the land.
With Zal'kathor imprisoned, the Celestial Wardens took up an eternal vigil and raised sanctuaries and watchtowers across the world. The remaining gods, diminished by Galdrim's loss, withdrew further and left behind relics called the Seals of Galdrim, both a protection and a reminder of the war. The Nihilith left scars that still taint certain regions, and the Abyssal cults who worship Zal'kathor work to weaken the Seals and bring the Nihilith back.
Galdrim and Zal'kathor's final battle was the Cataclysm that broke the Isles. As Nihilith influence warped the land, cities crumbled and the earth fractured. Galdrim wielded the power of the earth while Zal'kathor loosed waves of entropy, and the ground could not hold against them, splitting into vast chunks adrift on seas of molten rock. In his last act, Galdrim sealed Zal'kathor within the earth, stabilizing the region at the cost of his own life.
The Shattered Isles became a place of legend, feared and revered. The Seals of Galdrim, scattered across them, are the only thing keeping Zal'kathor at bay, and the lingering Nihilith presence makes any expedition there dangerous.
The war between the Nihilith and the Celestial Wardens has faded into legend, but the threat has not ended. Heroes, scholars, and adventurers seek the Seals of Galdrim, some to guard them and some to exploit them. The Abyssal cults grow bolder, and their rituals threaten to weaken the Seals and wake Zal'kathor. Eldranis endures in the balance its makers intended, and its people must defend it themselves.