Book: The Earliest Creation

The Earliest Creation is a book received during the Main Quest. It can also be purchased in the Erudin or Underhill Library. The following is not a set of spoilers for the Main Quest, but the actual text of The Earliest Creation in its entirety.

Introduction

Translated by Monrin Ital, scribe to the High Lord of Freeport, in the 720th year of the King.

The Earliest Creation

Life... is born of chaos

Aeons past, before the breath of life came to the world known as Dalaya, it was but a barren rock spinning through the black eternity, far away from the warming light of the stars, dancing a dance of solacy in the black void of space. Before the Elemental One came.

An ancient force of creation, the Elemental One's motives and reasons can only be guessed at. Why He picked one barren rock among others for his purposes, no one can say, but it is known that he stretched his burning hand towards the crust of Dalaya, planting upon the barren soil the swirling elemental force of creation, as air, water, fire and earth clashed in a chaotic maelstrom, surging through the core of the world, igniting a burning flame in its midst. The Elemental One drew back from the world, leaving the energies He had unleashed upon the world to themselves, content to watch. He left one final parting gift, as He took a part of himself, and formed the sun around which Dalaya rotates, Elael. Then He disappeared back into the blackness from which he had came.

On Dalaya, living spirits formed out of the chaotic maelstrom that ravaged the planet. Spirits of flame danced through the lava that flowed below the crust of the earth. Spirits of water flowed in the great glaciers on Dalaya's poles. Spirits of earth tread the land, moving over the shifting soil. Spirits of air soared on the wind, swirling in the chaotic flows of air. Cataclysmic battles were fought as the different spirits sought to make their own force predominant, to expel the other forces from the young world,. Finally, after decades of battle, the four most powerful spirits met at the summit of Dalaya's highest peak. They were Shojar the Cold One, Tarhyl the Lord of Fire, Shiritri the Wind Queen and Sihala the Lady of Earth. They all saw the fruitlessness of the war, and they worked out an agreement, to share Dalaya between them. The new rulers of the Gods, they became known as The Four.

The oceans would flow across the world in conflict with, but never be allowed to consume, the masses of earthen land. The lava would burn beneath the crust of the world, warming but not harming the surface of the planet. The air would flow above the land and the water and the fire, but would not attempt to invade the deeper reaches. And the earth would hold it all together, in perfect balance. And so, the forces of the elements melded, and together they created our world.

While the turmoil of the young world had settled down, life had not yet come, save for the spirits that ruled Dalaya. How life as we know it now was created has been lost, but it is said that it all begun as a single plant burrowed its way up through the hard crust of a small crevice, opening itself towards the light of Elael. The flower spread its seeds, and soon the small crevice was overgrown. It was at this time that Sihala happened upon the flowers. She was bedazzled by the simple beauty of the fragile plant's life, how it struggled against rain and wind, and spawned its offspring to grow on the barren soil. Out of a notion, she picked one of the flowers, and laid her hand over it. She removed one finger from each of her hands, placed them on the frail plant, then laid it down on the ground. As she did, the fingers began to change, becoming two small earthworms, that burrowed themselves into the soil.

Slowly, life spread, evolving from those first plants and worms, to become something greater. Fish swam in the seas. Trees sprung from the earth. Animals ate and were eaten. And at last, hundreds of thousands of years after the arrival of the Elemental One, the first two-legged beings walked the surface of Dalaya... the Iksar. While it would be long before they came to call themselves this, the pre-historic Iksar were cave-dwelling omnivores that employed crude tools and cruder magics to hunt and forage in the endless tunnel system that were their home.

What drove the lizardman from their tunnels and into the vast jungled lands of the south is unknown, even to the Iksar of today themselves. It is known however, that while being the first, the Iksar were slow to evolve and adapt, and soon warmblooded mammals reached and evolved beyond their level. Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes, Hallfings and other races populated the planet, waging war and carving out kingdoms. Above them, the Elemental Spirits watched, bemused by the struggle of the mortal life. And above it all, from the face of a burning star, the Elemental One beholds his creation.