History of the World

What is here is an amaglamation of evidence, myth, and good guesses. It might be true...or the truth may be even stranger.

Before the Beginning
All that exists is the Hedge. The creatures known as True Fae come into and out of existance, maintaining themselves only by their connections to each other, in a savage conflict they call "play." Time has no clear meaning, nor does direction in space. Bardos wink in and out of existance at the whim of the fae.

A Discovery is Made
While playing at Ocean, one of the True Fae makes a discovery. Like the surface of the ocean, the realm she lives in goes through wave after wave of changes -- but there is something in the world, like the water of the ocean, that maintains coherence and constancy. She begins to try to understand and gather this "thing," and, in a world where solitude is death, she keeps it a secret.

Gathering more and more, Tiamat (ancestor of the Leviathans) uses this material to begin to solidify the watery realm of her play, and uses a blade of it to partially split herself into parts, each tied to one of the fundamental principles of the realm -- the Vices -- and with a specific tasks to help her create the world. The labor is difficult, and often boring, but slowly the beginnings of the Real World are constructed, and the beginning work on Humanity creates the first Promethians.

The Origin of Humanity
Tiamat perfects her greatest creation: Humanity. The human spirit can take the toxicly still substance and carry it without destruction, and their presence stabilizes the Real World to that it persists without dissolving or collapsing into the core of material that Tiamat has learned to work with. And they're so much fun to hunt and play with. Tiamat's parts begin to reproduce with humans, and their blood enters the human stream. Human souls also make much of the duable infrastructure of the world. The other True Fae notice Tiamat's efforts, and the delicious humanity it contains, but cannot break in to steal them, as the world is toxicly stable to them. The five Humors come into existance.

The Creation of the Dreaming, the Origin of Nobility and the First War
But the true fae are nothing if not devious. Humans "dream," sleeping and producing tiny realms around themselves outside of the world. These are generally too small for any signifigant action, but some of the True Fae begin to weave these together, taking the hopes and fears of humanity and using them to cobble together a realm that they can live in and interact with humanity. They do not have the patience or skill of Tiamat, but they are many, and their work is impressive...so impressive that it creates an unexpected problem.

The hopes of humanity combine and allow eight Virtues to arise. Some extraordinary mortals find a way to use the hopes and fears of humanity to empower themselves as heroes, and take on a Royal mantle. We call the greatest (though not the first) of these Marduk -- he (or she) may have been an Atol, and learned how to use both hope and despair for power. Marduk slew Tiamat, creating the Tempest. Some claim that the the Rift is Tiamat's corpse.

The Royals also drive out the True Fae and create kingdoms in the Real World and the Dreaming. The True Fae and the Leviathan ancestors are Not Pleased, and the destruction is terrible.

The Betrayal and the Loss of the Light, and the Second War
But the True Fae were not defeated so easily. They corrupted and converted Nobles to their cause, and wormed their way into the hearts of men. They continued to abduct and warp mortals, creating Changelings as their emissaries into a world they could not tread. Eventually, they were victorious:  Nobles became trapped in the dreaming, fooled into believing they were continuing with the cycle of reincarnation and protecting their world.

A side project (perhaps another front) in an effort to tear apart the world and infect it with Fae essence remains. Without easy access to the Light of the Royals, many whose strength and humors would allow them to become Royalty do not -- instead of the light, when they break through, they discover Illumination. Instead of a Calling, they find Inspiration. Geniuses are born.

Time distortion may have allowed some of the Leviathans to control Geniuses, called Lemurians, in their war to retake their home from the Fae and from Humanity. Time distortions eventually lead to their defeat. Even Inspiration turns to a weapon against the Fae in humanity's hands.

The Moon Landing and the Third War, the War of Hope
But this changes when mankind lands on the moon. The surge of hope and wonder in the beliegered world brings the Queens to their senses and the Royals begin to return, as well as draw new ennobled souls into their ranks. This is the world as we know it now: bold and strange, riddles with holes and trauma and darkness, but still full of possibility.

The World to Come
Will it be a glorious age, a terror, or both? Will there be a place for you in it?