Imagine, if you can, a time before barons, before wars, before earth and stars and air, before sorely mistreated horses and narroot strips. Before there was even physical form or time or dreams, there were the First. To conceive of them (the pronoun “them” is used for sake of simplicity, the First being thought of as neither single nor plural, neither male nor female) is to imagine the mere idea of an entity. The First are greater in terms of potential than mighty gods, for it is to the First that gods owe their own existence. Yet also they are lesser, for the First lack personality and form, and therefore have nothing to which a thinking creature can relate.
The legends are not clear as to whether the Void came into being with the First or the First created the Void. Some interpretations suggest that they are one and the same. Whatever the truth, the Void is the space within which all later creation took place.
Without breath, tongue, or lips, the First are said to have uttered songs or poems that shaped the Void, defining its potential and giving birth to all things. These verses described ideal forms and natures. Elves insist that echoes of the Lays can be heard to this day in the rhythms of nature. They say the sounds of these songs nourish spirits like food, and it is in this tradition that the Wealdweavers work their craft.
Three Planes of Power are Conjured From the Void
The First conjured three distinct existences from the Void, called the Planes of Power. The highest of these is the Empyrean, a plane of perfection. Elven legends talk of the four spheres: the spheres of light, air, life, and dreams. These spheres exist in such an unadulterated form in the Empyrean that the cares of hunger, age, and discomfort are utterly unknown there.
The lowest of the Planes of Power is the Ynfernael. Whether the First intended the Ynfernael, or whether it was through the influence of some other malign power, is quite unknown. What is clear is that it is a dismal place populated by monstrous entities that crave to visit torture and degradation upon mortals. The Elves speak of several spheres that they associate with the Ynfernael, and these include (but may not be limited to) Darkness, Pain, Death, and Hunger.
Between them, the Aenlong was formed, the realm to which the plane of physical existence is connected. The Aenlong is a spiritual plane, however, believed to be the same as the fabled Grey Lands spoken of in the practices of the Dream Walkers. Over time, the Aenlong became full of the refuse of creation, half-tangible, unfinished things that belong in neither the Empyrean, nor the Ynfernael, nor the mortal realm.
Setting in Motion the Verto Magica
The First then set into motion the Verto Magica, which is also known as “the Turning.” According to Elven sources, to create the Verto Magica, the First employed a sort of spiritual mechanism involving the rise and fall of the Empyrean and the Ynfernael planes. Without the Verto Magica, everything would be fixed in place, and time would stand still. Learned beings propose that for something to occur, the energy for such an occurrence must exist, and it is speculated that all such energy is due to the Turning.
The Elves
The First then undertook the creation of more familiar beings, and prominent among them were Lord Emorial and Lady Latariana, called Father and Mother to the Elves. If the Elven myths are true then light (in the form of an archetypal sun) and air (in the form of a primeval sky) were initially created separately, but then “light was drawn in to bask in the sky” (as the Legendum Magicara has it), and the two were married.
Desire and Betrayal
The Turning turned and time passed, and Lady Latariana slowly began to covet more than her current existence. She longed for greater power than the Elves had in the Empyrean plane, and she told Emorial of her heart’s fervent desire, a Crown of Dreams and Life.
Scholars ponder over why Latariana became avaricious, but consensus suggests that a shadowy spirit from the Ynfernael plane tempted her in secret murmurs. Others suggest that the First, lacking personality, were too cold an entity (or entities) for Elves to form any sort of deep relationship with them. Whatever her motives, she cajoled her husband and made ceaseless requests for him to win her dominion over the primary spheres, or perhaps all the spheres, of the Empyrean. Emorial eventually agreed to her pleas, and to please his love he set off to grant her wish. He traveled to the farthest edge of creation and called for the First to relinquish control. The First did not so much as deign to respond, leaving Emorial humiliated and wrathful.
He returned to the Elves and marshaled them in mutiny against the First. He marched his host through the Gate of Years, Lady Latariana at his side. The Elves thought they would pass into the halls of the First, but instead found themselves on a bridge over a great river. Though they did not realize it, they were crossing over into the Aenlong, never to return to the Empyrean.
References
- Realms of Terrinoth