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Part 1: The Dawn Times and the Age of Wood

In the beginning, the world was new, and the people were frightened and alone.

Spirits, born of the dreams of the sleeping earth, tormented humanity, demanding tributes and power from the one race that could truly understand their wishes, and could therefore be bullied. Creatures from beyond the veil of space and time preyed upon them, devouring their Essence for their own desires and hopes. The world was fragile, and humanity was but an afterthought, a creature abandoned by an uncaring creator.

Who created the world is a matter of endless conjecture. Some say it was the very creatures who preyed upon humanity, the formless Primordials who observed the world, and sent malicious demons in to sow terror and destruction, or the strange Fae who walked the world, and then gave it up to return to their formless chaos through gates that humans could not travel. Others claim that it was a greated God, who abandoned the world in disgust at the weakness of humanity, leaving it to the dark things that lurk between worlds. Some say that no one created the world; it spawned itself, in its own dreams.

Ultimately, it matters only to scholars. Humanity was weak and enslaved, unable to advance far enough to truly defend itself. While the basics of agriculture and writing existed, they were confined to the lucky, for they drew the attention of the many creatures better-equipped than humanity to take them. Writings from this time are spotty, and exact knowledge of what transpired during it are reserved for the most powerful of Sorcerers.

The Dawn Times were nearly the Dusk, as well, an endless period of light and shadow that humanity seemed doomed to linger in forever. Then came the First Magus, whose name has been lost to time.

Part 2: The First Magus and the Age of Fire

According to legend, the First Magus was a priest of a greedy river-spirit, whose tribe was annihilated by the Fair Folk. Angered at the fact that all their sacrifices, all their pain, had been for nothing. The Magus trekked, bleeding and exhausted, to the river shrine that he and his village had so scrupulously kept for their god, the god who had abandoned them. There, he demanded of the god why it had not come to help when they needed it. For three days and nights he remained, neither eating nor sleeping, only repeating his question periodically. Finally, the god appeared.

Imperiously, the god announced that the Fae who had attacked the Magus's village were mighty, and it did not feel the need to risk its safety for mere mortals. The Magus stared as he was informed that, after all, mortals were easily replaced, but a god's life was far greater. When he opened his mouth to argue, the god struck him from the rock, sending him crashing to the ground. His experiences, his anger, and the power that still suffused the area combined, and the Magus passed through the First Gate and found true power. Before the god could react, he had turned his magic against it, finding it not so mighty after all, and bound it to serve him. Suffused with power, he set about finding other humans to share it, and began a war against the gods.

The war was long and bloody. The Magus spread his power to any who would accept it, raising an army of magi to challenge the gods and monsters. As his power spread, the gods began to rally against him, but they could not organize in their paranoia, and it was soon too late. In the end, after decades (possibly centuries) of violence, the gods were brought to heel, and the demons and fae were reduced to sniffing around the edges of the world, no longer ruling it openly.

Part 3: The Golden Era, the Age of Wind

Led by the Magus, the world began to advance in leaps and bounds. Slowly, the mages divided into those who could work the simple tasks, the thaumaturges, and those who passed beyond the Gates and found true power, the Sorcerers. Thaumaturges were widespread, but the Sorcerers were more rare, confined to those willing to take great risk for great power. For hundreds of years, new magics and technologies were developed, and the world lay under a true golden age of prosperity, imagination as free as the wind.

It was doomed to end, however. As their power grew, the Sorcerers began to forget that not all were as they were. One of them, Tetranos, began to imagine a world in which everyone could freely pass through the gates, a world so suffused with Essence that any human could be a sorcerer. Although the world was a beautiful place, there were still constant incursions from demons and fae, and rogue spirits continued to cause trouble at times. With the power of the Sorcerers in all of humanity, the world could advance freely, he thought. Marshalling all of his power and skill, he set about creating the most powerful spell in history, a spell that required five sorcerers of the Adamant Circle and the combined power of all the Manses in a dozen kingdoms. Exactly what the spell did is not known. It is generally believed that the spell redirected the Essence flows of the sky, bringing them more strongly in contact with Creation, in order to suffuse the world with it. It succeeded, but the effect was catastrophic.

Part 4: The Long Dusk and the Age of Earth

Concentrated Essence scoured the land, warping it as it went. The power of the Essence was too much for the patterns of Creation, and they gave way under its onslaught. People were destroyed, or transformed into horrible monstrosities. And as time went on, the Sun grew ever-brighter, and the areas affected by the devastation continued to grow. Tetranos and his Circle were dead, destroyed by the power they had unleashed. The fae and demons laughed, using the damaged patterns to enter and wreck havoc on an unprepared world.

Desperately, fighting against time, the sorcerers crafted rituals to protect themselves and their people from the destruction. Finally, they created rites to shroud the world in clouds, cutting off most of the Essence flows and returning everything to status quo. In their new, damaged world, they took stock.

The situation was grim, but it could have been worse. Most of the Sorcerers were dead; their homes and cities had been built upon the largest concentrations of Essence, which were the first to fall to the Radiance. In some areas, it still pulsed into the world, leaving a twisted mess. The Beyond threatened in these places, letting demons and fae break free into the world. However, most of the world, although weakened, was not gone. The remaining Sorcerers, determined to be more careful with their power, less willing to let just any seeker have it, founded their new Orders and set about rebuilding.

Present Day: The Age of Water

The Age of Earth has been a grim one. The sorcerers have grown increasingly paranoid of each other and of the world, and whenever anything rises to challenge them, they strike it down. In particular, the strange events known as Radiance-flares are their greatest fears, sudden Essence flows breaking through the mystical defenses in response to great need, as the need of the First Magus was great, to create magical beings out of ordinary humans. Once, the Sorcerers tracked these flares and ruthlessly destroyed their recipiants.

Now, however, the power of the Radiance is wearing away the world's defenses, as water wears away a cliff. Both Radiance Flares and complete breakdowns, in which whole regions are swiftly tainted, are becoming more common, even as the number of Sorcerers has dwindled. Some sorcerers look for solutions, others traffic with dark powers, hoping only to survive anything that might come. Pride and lust for power have destroyed the Sorcerers, along with their own withdrawl from humanity, and the Radiants are walking free for the first time. Will they save the world, or destroy it?