History

Deities and the Creation
There were once three powerful deities wandering the planes of existence alone. Destiny conspired to bring all of them together at the same time when they came to visit the plane of reality. They came across an empty world floating in the plane, desolate and void, and a mutual plan was hatched. They had seen this world on their travels before, but each lacked the power to do with it what they wanted when they were alone. Together, however, they had the power to transform this world into a paradise of sorts, where mortal beings could roam in a happy, static existence. Though there were many disagreements in how the world should be, compromises were made and the three put their power together to transform the world into the one we know today. Their last act was the creation of the three races, the ones of which all our many races now descend.

Demon Lords and the Corruption
All went as the deities had planned for the first few millenniums. The mortal races lived happily at peace and worshiped the deities as their gods. The deities would eventually learn, however, that they had made a terrible mistake. The world they thought was desolate already possessed a form of life, living deep under the surface. Races of great evil existed under there, under the rule of great demon lords. The demon lords became aware of the life on the surface and became jealous of the paradise above them. They bore holes straight to the surface that allowed their influence to seep through. For the first time, the mortal races of Oldand knew evil. The corruption was quick and fierce. Mortal men began to have new desires: power, wealth, influence. They began to fight one another, wage war against each other. They destroyed the beauty of nature in order to bolster their own power. Kingdoms rose and fell in wars for power. Men grew to known crime, wealth, poverty, and fear. And the deities were powerless to do anything but watch their creations go awry.

The demon lords were not satisfied with just that. Once they had gathered enough power they marched on the surface world, determined to set themselves up as the new lords of world and to sever the deities' influence once and for all. The mortal races fought back but they were weakened by so many years of fighting amongst themselves. The deities were gravely weakened from the effort of creating the world and lacked the power to stop the invasion.

Rise of the Dragons
All would have been lost if not for the dragons. The dragons also traveled through the planes and were drawn to our world. The amount of power being put out in the battles made our world shine like a beacon in the dark to the senses of the dragons. They arrived and allied themselves with the mortal races. Together they defeated demon lords and cast their armies back to the darkness from which they came.

As time passed after the war the three dragon martyrs began to take the place of the deities as the center of mortal worship. Eventually worship of the deities all but vanished and the dragon martyrs became the new gods of the world. The dragons guided the mortal races through various advances in civilization. They taught them the ways of magic and enchanting. In exchange the humans worshiped them and offered them tribute.

War of the Dragon Martyrs
The dragon's peace could not last forever. The dragon martyrs grew jealous of one another for the influence each wielded. They began forcing the mortal kings and lords to swear fealty to just one amongst them in desperate power grabs. Tensions grew until eventually the martyrs began to war with one another. They summoned forth powerful beings from the other planes to wage their wars, some leaving great devastation in their wake. But the dragons were evenly matched, none could gain an advantage over the other two with just the powers they possessed. But there was one more factor to be considered: the power of the mortals sworn to them. The dragons called for those who looked up at them as gods to take up arms for their cause. The mortal kingdoms marched to war for their chosen dragon deity. They fought against the armies of the other dragons and their summoned beings. This is how the War of the Martyrs had begun. And these wars have waged for more than a hundred years now.