Prologue
“Once, there was nothing. No animals, no plants, no Men, in fact there was nothing at all. Only a vacant void, a blank canvas in which nothing dwelt, and nothing writhed. And then, in one great flicker of light, the Great Gods came into being. And they were lords over everything, for their powers knew no bounds, and their smarts found no limits. And there were ten of them in all, and they created our world as we know it. Where there were no deer to graze, they made animals. Where the soil soaked up minerals from the Deep, plants were grown, sprouting like tall spires. And where there was no race to keep them safe and protected, they made Man. And the smartest of them all, Erendor, he bestowed upon them the greatest gift of all; magic. And there the Great Gods ruled over the race of Man for thousands of years. But even for almighty beings such as the Gods, their power corrupted them slowly, and drove them quite mad. They were too harsh on Men, and watched with maniacal glee as their own creation wreaked war and brought about battle amongst themselves. Erendor, the smartest, the Light in the Darkness, noticed it, and told his brothers of what they were doing. And they agreed, for they knew themselves that their hearts, where once noble and pure, were now heavy and wrong, blackened by evil. And so, finding no choice but to destroy themselves to save the race of Men, Erendor, Light in the Darkness, summoned a colossal flame, one that caused even the mightiest of men to look away, and set it in the sky to shimmer there forever more. And this bright ball of flame was too much even for the Gods, and soon they could not stand its hellish gaze, and they began to burn alive. And in the last few moments of their lives, Erendor passed his power and mastery of the arcane to several objects that found their way into the clutches, and the grasps, of Men, to stay there forever more. These items of such pure power were named the Artefacts of Erendor, and their creator could only watch as they fell from the stars towards earth, his heart still heavy with grief and evil… and then he crumbled to nothing, and the Great Gods were no more.”
