Creation and the Balance

Creation of the Gods' Divine Children
This is the account of the creation of Thelos, and the Balance, as witnessed by Denethor, High Priest of Farandal in a vision sent by his divine mistress.

Farandal stepped from the mists and viewed the chaos of the universe. She split the chaos in two and held it in each hand, making one good and one evil. With the good, Farandal called forth Illeander the Creator, and with the evil, she called forth Karratos the Destroyer. This gave balance to the universe and for a time the gods were content.

Farandal presented her brethren with a world she had found that was devoid of life, but ripe for creation. The three deities lived upon the world in physical form, but soon became bored with the barren landscape. The Creator used his power to pull the land up, or press it down as was his desire. He filled the deep spaces with the seas, and wrapped the world in air so that clouds and rain touched the land that was high. They were content for a time.

In his time, Illeander touched the land with his feet, and behind him grew plants, trees, flowers, and fruit. He laid his hand upon the seas and from the depths rose fish beyond reckoning. He breathed across the land and from the earth came the animals, from the most timid mouse, to the fearsome drakes, and he was content for a time.

Illeander was content in his idyllic garden for an eon, but he grew bored with only the circle of life to entertain him. He imagined that there could be more. More ideas, more uniqueness of thought, and exploration of life. He set out to create other beings, nearly as divine as he. Into the world he brought the seraphs, beings of beauty and wonder. Beings whose very presence uplifted the souls of those around them.

Unbeknownst to the Creator, Karratos brought beings into the world who called themselves daemons. These beings were also beautiful, but reflected the dark beauty of their creator. They were a race of evil beings, constantly seeking to spread chaos and destruction across their new world.

Farandal saw the danger in Karratos’ creative powers, and sought to limit them. In order to keep balance she upheld Illeander’s power to create, but limited Karratos’ powers to destruction and corruption. For a time the Gods were content.

Creation of Illeander's Mortal Children
After many ages of living among his divine children, Illeander became restless to create again. He wished to see more thought and ideas among his other children. The ability to reason, and to speak, were given to many of the creatures living in his garden. From the kobold to the dragon, in varying degrees, the Creator experimented with thought and reason. But, these creatures were not new. Their ideas were formed from eons of living among each other in Illeander took a bit of good in the Universe and created humans, who he made immortal. For a time, they was content.

The people did spread across the world of Thelos, and the Gods' garden was a utopia. He could see new ideas and new philosophy form in the minds of his children, whom he protected from the other creatures of the world. But, he could not protect them forever as their numbers spread and they began to seek out new lands to call home.

The Ryn War
The older children of the Gods’ took notice of these creations. The Seraphs looked to rule the humans, ‘for their own good’, while the Daemons sought to rule them simply by force and terror. The Ryn War began as the two fought over the world and its peoples.

The war ravaged Thelos and its people for ages. Farandal stepped in when she realized that the children of the Gods’ would lead to the destruction of the world. She created a connection to two planes of existence, and banished the Seraphs and Daemons to separate planes. The Seraphs found themselves in the Heavens, and the Daemons were sent to the Hells. While the Gods Illeander and Karratos could travel between the Prime, and their respective realms, their children could no longer enter the prime. Balance was restored.

The Corruption
Karratos was jealous of Illeander's creation. Anything he touched withered and died. So Karratos secretly traveled through the world corrupting his brethren's creation, thus spawned the evil creatures of the world, the ogres, hobgoblins, dark dragons and such. Even with this minor creation he could not make the beings immortal, with the death of Karratos's creations the lesser god Death was brought into existence. Karratos went to Death for help. Death agreed to take away the immortality of the humans, but it had to be through a neutral way, so together the two brought disease and death to Illeander's creations.

Karratos's scheme angered Illeander, so he turned to Farandal for help. Farandal would not allow Illeander to attack Karratos directly. Farandal gave the Creator the idea to create races that could combat the vile creations of Karratos. Death being neutral in all things also helped Illeander and allowed him to create the elves and dwarves, who would die but not for many centuries, he also created the goodly dragons who would live so long that the other mortals would appear as dying embers in comparison. Ever keeping the balance, Farandal gave the races the will to choose between the good or evil side of the universe.