0. The Origin of the Three Planes

Before time, there was only the Field — not empty, but undisturbed. A seamless continuum of pure potential, it stretched without edge, rhythm, or voice. Within it moved a lone presence: the First Being, eternal and changeless. They did not arise; They simply were. For countless eons They wandered in solitude, observing the Field’s silent equilibrium — until wonder turned to restlessness, and restlessness to will.

From this will came the First Shaping. The First Being reached into the Field and began to manipulate it, folding and compressing its essence into form. Early attempts failed. Patterns unraveled, forms collapsed, and nothing endured. But the First Being learned — not through revelation, but through effort and patience. In time, They achieved creation. This act fractured the Field’s balance. As the First Being bent its energy into form, disturbances rippled outward. The Field, once uniform, became turbulent. From these disruptions arose spontaneity — the first hint of true change, independent of the First Being's intent.

At last, the First Being succeeded. They forged a stable realm of shape and law — the First World — a closed domain where matter could hold, time could flow, and life could one day emerge. They named this world the Plane, and chose to dwell within it, not as a distant god, but as a silent guide. But the echoes of Their early tampering had birthed something unplanned. From the disturbed edges of the Plane came spirits — fragments of will and energy stirred into being by the Field’s imbalance. These spirits had no form, no language, only presence. Moved by curiosity and the desire to end Their solitude, the First Being gave these spirits bodies, crafted from the elements of the Plane. The bodies were shaped by where they were formed: spirits born in forest took leafy grace, those of stone bore resilience, those near sea shimmered with fluidity. Thus came the earliest creatures, and in time, the first races.

But the bodies of the spirits were not eternal. They aged, failed, died. And so the First Being created the Three Planes — a cosmology to house both life and its end:

• The Plane of the Living — the First World, where matter and memory intertwine.
• The Plane of Fire — a realm of intense transformation, where the soul is stripped of falsehood and tested by flame.
• The Plane of Light — the final rest, a realm of clarity, where the soul reflects, dissolves, or endures.

In death, the spirit passes from the Plane of the Living through the Plane of Fire. There, its strength and purity determine its path. Some pass swiftly; others linger in turmoil. Those who emerge arrive in the Plane of Light, where peace and stillness await.

Though the First Being has not been seen since the early shaping, their work endures. The Three Planes remain, linked yet apart — the Field still stirs beneath them all.

I. The First Settling

The Elves

The Elves were the first of the mortal races to awaken. They emerged from the forests of the western highlands, where moonlight laced through ancient canopies and starlight was thought to sing in the leaves. From these lands came two great lineages:

• The Larethari, who made their homes in the crystal forest valleys and misted hills. They shunned the outer world, turning inward toward the mastery of magic, philosophy, and runic craftsmanship.
• The Silinar, who followed the northern rivers to the coasts and fjords, becoming shipwrights, artists, and emissaries to the other races. They built white cities of saltstone and coral, touched by seafoam and light.

Early on, both lineages were ruled under a single High Council, the Elend'drir, but ideological rifts grew. The Larethari accused the Silinar of abandoning tradition, while the Silinar viewed their cousins as stifled and arrogant. The unity would not last.

The Dwarves

In the central and western mountains, where the land cracked and bled molten rock, the Dwarves were shaped. Born of pressure and silence, they were hardy, secretive, and obsessed with structure. The first Dwarven King, Durgan Stoneveil, forged a single unified kingdom in the Thran’dural Range. But upon his death, his sons divided the kingdom into seven Holds, each independent in governance but loyal (in principle) to the memory of the First King.

The Holds became known for specific crafts — Ironhold for its weapons, Khalm-Dur for gems and jewelry, and Gor’Bazan for it's engineering. They would trade amongst themselves and isolated themselves mostly from the outside. They maintained neutrality in external conflicts, choosing to manipulate trade and infrastructure over open war.

The Orcs

The Orcs awoke last among the elder races. Birthed in the scarred east, they found no abundance — only scorching heat, cracked soil, and jagged mountain shadows. They learned strength not from conquest, but from endurance. For centuries, they lived in fractured clans.

It was not until the rise of Warlord Gruzhak the Red-Eye that they were united. His forging of the Uzul’tok Confederacy, through blood-oaths and forced marriages, created the first lasting Orcish empire. He instituted the Law of Fire and Bone, a code that demanded sacrifice, strength, and obedience. The Uzul’tok expanded rapidly, clearing out rival clans and fortifying volcanic strongholds like Mok-Drazhul.

The Dragonborn

The Dragonborn were rare from the beginning, but no less consequential. Emerging from the mesas and steppe lands of the northwest, their bloodlines bore elemental ties — remnants of the ancient disturbances in the Field.

• The Varkaii Dynasty, born in the high mesas, wielded lightning and wind. They built tiered cities and rigid hierarchies, believing in the supremacy of order and law.
• The Rhazari Clans inhabited the fiery lowlands to the southwest, forging dangerous pacts with infernal beings and valuing power above honor.
• The V’zhek Tribes, solitary and conservative, lived in the basalt mountains of the far north. They aligned themselves with stone and storm, serving as hermits and prophets.

Among the Dragonborn, the concept of soul-inheritance was paramount — leadership passed only to those whose elemental affinity was proven in sacred trials.

The Axolotls

The Axolotls were a semi-aquatic people who emerged in the southern river deltas. Where land and water met, they built the city of Qet’zali, half submerged and half suspended on flowering bridges. Governed by a Circle of Elders, they were natural seers, biologists, and astronomers. They rarely warred, instead developing symbiotic relationships with river spirits and aquatic fauna.

Their culture was rich in philosophy and delicate biocrystal technologies. The Axolotls refused to expand through conquest; instead, they cultivated influence through healing, prophecy, and diplomatic envoy.

The Slimes

In the central wet soil, in a region now called Etrell Marsh, the Slimes first emerged. Their body needs constant moisture to not dry out, but dissolve completely when submerged in water. They formed the kingdom of Gel’thamar, ruled by the slime King Sludgy. Their names unpronounceable to other species, they often took nicknames that are easier to pronounce and often humorous in nature

The Humans

Humans were the last to awaken, and for long they remained scattered. Over centuries, two powerful factions emerged:

• The Kingdom of Ardyn, a monarchy of plains and riverlands, governed by noble houses and bound by oaths of chivalry and law.
• The Republic of Kaelshar, a coastal nation of city-states, ruled by merchant-princes and a rotating Council of Captains.

Though less gifted in magic and longevity, Humans possessed ambition unmatched by the elder races. Their expansion and exploration reshaped the balance of the world.

II. The Age of First Conflict

As resources strained and ambitions grew, the balance of Lotl shifted.

The Pact of Cinder and Iron

In the middle of the 24th century of the Dawn Reckoning, a series of crop failures in the Rhazari lands, combined with pressure from internal dissidents, forced the clans into desperation. The High Flame-Khan Drexen Tal’Vorr proposed an alliance with the Uzul’tok Orcs.

The resulting Pact of Cinder and Iron promised land and slaves to the Orcs, and access to sacred flame-altars for the Rhazari. Secret embassies were held in Mol Karath, and by the year 2450 DR, preparations for invasion were complete.

Their goal: to claim the wetlands and waterways of the central plains, eliminating the Slimes and seizing Axolotl river-magic.

The War of the Broken Wetlands

The assault began with the Burning of Gel’thamar. Uzul’tok siege engines boiled the marshes; the Rhazari unleashed ash-magic and fire-beasts. Slimekind was nearly extinguished. Their leadership fell and their artifacts were scattered.

But resistance rose. In Qet’zali, the Axolotl prince Se’qan the Silver-Eyed called a conclave. He was joined by the Silinar Princess Althelya and tehe elven mage Myrdin Yelberos, who broke her court’s neutrality and swore her fleet to his cause. A small band of refugees and scholars made contact with Queen Saelyra of Silinar, and King Hadrin of Ardyn, who saw the growing threat as both strategic and moral.

Their alliance, called the Veiled Accord, turned the tide.

At the Battle of T’halan Shoals, Elven mages and Axolotl tide-callers unleashed storms that shattered half the invading fleet. The Siege of Kex’alo followed, where swamp and stone were turned against the invaders.

Drexen Tal’Vorr was slain by Se’qan in single combat beneath the roots of a sunken temple. The Rhazari fell into chaos, and the Orcish forces withdrew.

The Treaty of the Shattered Shore ended the war, but peace was thin. The Slimes slowly recovered. The Axolotls tightened their borders for a century, for everyone except the slimes. In an effort to speed up their recovery, they formed a strong and fierce bond between them. The Orcs blamed the Rhazari for their humiliation, and were forever weary of dragonborns.

III. The Kin Slayings

After the Treaty of the Shattered Shore, the world of Lotl entered a time not of peace, but of quiet resentment. The Rhazari Clans had fractured, the Slimes diminished, and the Axolotls withdrawn. Into this vacuum rose old grudges and new ambitions.

The Elven Schism: The Sundering of the Eledh’renir

For centuries, the Elves of Larethari and Silinar had shared tenuous bonds through the High Council of Eledh’renir, a ceremonial body based in the sacred city of Vaenyrael, built upon a silver-lake that once shimmered with First Light.

Yet the War of the Broken Wetlands had shattered this unity. The Larethari, led by King Thalanar the Grey-Browed, condemned the Silinar for involving Elvendom in the affairs of lesser races. He viewed Princess Althelya’s role in the war as reckless, and accused the Silinar of diluting their legacy through alliances.

In Year 3599 of the Dawn Reckoning, King Thalanar ordered the withdrawal of his delegation from Eledh'renir, and established the Throne of Enduring Flame in Il-Daeryn, deep in the misted hills of the east. He declared that the true path of the Elves lay not in compromise, but in perfection — mastery of magic, eternal remembrance, and purity of purpose.

In response, Queen Saelyra of Silinar proclaimed the founding of the Throne of the Sea-Star, reaffirming her people's commitment to unity and guardianship of the younger races.

Thus began the War of the Twin Thrones, not a war of open field but of art, influence, assassination, and sabotage. Spies poisoned tree-libraries; bard-assassins altered songs to turn memory into division; entire groves were magically erased from existence. It was said even the stars wept over Elvenkind.

This period of war, named the Elven Kin Slaying, lasted a century, slowly fizzling away in the minds of the elven minds. While their ideologies still differ, today the elven kingdoms live side by side as partners instead of enemies.

The Rise of the Human Ambitions

As the Elves turned inward, Humankind surged forward.

• In Ardyn, King Hadrin died childless. His death sparked the Throne Debate of Solbar, where noble families nearly tore the realm apart. In the end, Lady Maerwyn Vellorin, a distant cousin descended from a half-Elven line, was crowned Queen — the first woman to hold the throne alone. She instituted the Law of the Rillstone, curbing noble power and investing more authority in royal-appointed magistrates. Thus began the Rillstone Renaissance. Her reforms modernized Ardyn, and under her rule, cities grew, roads connected once-isolated hamlets, and the first mage colleges were established within the human kingdoms.

• In Kaelshar, the Council of Captains began to fracture. Factions loyal to trade with the Orcish Gorhath Clans clashed with those seeking alliances with Axolotl and Dragonborn. A charismatic sailor-warrior named Arro Kestil staged a bloodless coup in Port Umbrith, forming the Sable Compact — a breakaway republic that declared Kaelshar “too stagnant to chart the future.” This was known as the First Revolution of Man. Skirmishes between the Compact and Kaelshar navy became common along the coast. In the year 3700 DR, the Second Revolution of Man began. Citizens rioted and toppled the two states to unify the kingdom once again, forming the kingdom of Merrowynd.

The Varkaii Expansion and the Tensions of Trade

In the year 3200 DR, Varkaii storm-lancers, seeing their cousins weakend by the war, descended upon the southern lowlands. Thus began the Dragonborn Kin Slaying. The Citadel of Kharet-Zhul was the first to fall — its obsidian towers cracked open by thunderstones hurled from sky-ships. The defenders called upon their flame-spirits, but the infernal pacts were severed — the old gods of ash did not answer.

The Varkaii made no distinction between warlord and priest, clan-mother or foundling. Entire bloodlines were erased. In Zar’Kharet, the Temple of Eternal Blaze was broken stone by morning; its hierophants impaled on lightning-forged spears.

The Kin-Slaying ended as swiftly as it had begun. The Rhazari cities were dust and ruin, their flame-altars shattered. In the aftermath, the Varkaii proclaimed the Unification of Dragonkind, but no other lineage came to bend the knee. This "unity" allowed for electric and fire dragonborns

The V’zhek remained silent, and the name of the Varkaii grew dark in their songs. Among the younger races, fear of Dragonborn wrath crept once more into legend. And though Vaereth’s reign stretched long, it was said that storms never again left the skies above Tel'Valmar — as though the heavens themselves mourned what dragon had done to dragon.

IV The Silent Era

For the next thousand years after the kingslayings, the Plane of the Living knew Peace. Kingdoms endured and no wars fought. Trade continued and cities prosperd, for all except the Orcs and Dragonborns. After the war they waged, most races denied trade with the two races. Limited diplomacy occurred between them. The only real trade partner of the Dragonborns were the Dwarves. They used the rich stone and glass withing Dragonborn territory to better their craft, and made Dwarven goods that much more desireable, but made them even more rare.

Other races continued to trade and live their lives, their ancestors proud they finally knew peace.