Long ago, there was only the Creator.
The Creator, in His infinite wisdom, saw that the universe was empty and not in balance, and as such began to create the Seven Realms. The First Realm he named "Gevoth," meaning "nexus," as from it all of the other Realms would emerge. Then He created the Second Realm and named it "Gosvern," meaning "Heaven," and from here He would govern His creation. But He found it lonely, so He crafted for Himself seven children, each a god or goddess, though they shall be spoken of later. He then created the Third Realm which He named "Ausul," which means "Hell," where those who would threaten creation would be imprisoned. The Fourth Realm would be called "Ma'at," meaning "Judgement," and in the Realm creation would be judged to see to which realm they would be sent upon death. The Fifth Realm he named "Zii," meaning "Spirit," for it was from here he would craft the souls of the first creations and where he would give creations a chance to prove themselves. The Sixth Realm was called "Lein," meaning "Cosmos," and He left it to be place wherein creation would one day grow and expand. And Lastly, the Seventh Realm, which would house all of His mortal creations, He called "Nahlaas," which simply means "Alive."
Now He named His seven children, each given Their duties. The firstborn and the eldest son was the god Prothos, God of Foresight, the Skies, the Moon, and Fires. The second child and firstborn daughter was Althea, Goddess of the Wilds and Earth. Third was another daughter, who He named Ophelia, to govern as Goddess of the Sun, the Muse, and Medicine. Fourth was his second son, Pophis, God of the Seas and the Storm, governing all therein. The Fifth born was another daughter, Milatia, the Goddess of Love, Beauty, Marriage, and Childbirth. Last to be born were the twins, the Goddess of Magic, Wisdom, and Knowledge Lyra and her brother, Crassius, the God of War, Valor, and Great Beasts.
The Creator gave His children authority in all powers allotted to them as well in some universal categories, such as making deals with mortals and coming to their aid. And it was in this time that He had His children began to craft a world filled with life.
They started by taking it slow, using up time to create the Realms and eventually focusing their time solely on Nahlaas. They began by forming the world from rock and bisecting the Realm with Lein, having the two Realms lie within one another. The first life forms they made were the microbial lifeforms, which in turn were followed by plants. From there, they created beasts and animals of the sea, land, and sky, which were shortly followed by sentient beings, namely mortals. However, monsters soon emerged as results of the First Sins, wherein some mortals allied with sealed, forbidden powers and were punished for their crimes.
Regardless, the Twins took a particular interest in the of mortals, at times competing amongst one another and Their siblings to determine the fate of certain mortals. As a result, the Twins became the utmost worshipped gods in the pantheon. And the more They were worshipped, the stronger Their influence and power became.
But, in recent years, Crassius has become hungry and seeks to spread his influence to all of mankind, corrupting himself in the process as he bargained with monsters and beings from the Third Realm to follow him, but their combined presences allowed for the god to corrupt his purpose from merely expanding His influence to subjugating the Creator, forcing his father into a seal within Zii that could only be undone by living human hands.
As such, most of the other gods began to cower in fear of the youngest brother, many of them forcing their followers into alliances with Crassius. Regardless, the other Twin as well as Prothos, Pophis, and Ophelia stood against Their siblings.
Prothos lead his siblings into a heavenly war, wishing to involve the mortals as little as possible. And while this war was mainly fought in the heavens with armies of spirits, Crassius' human followers were order to sabotage the temples and murder the followers of His enemies, ensuring Their power waned and while his power grew.
But, alas to Crassius, Prothos' power escalated as his followers channeled the blessings of the Creator from the Realms, giving Him great powers for a short amount of time as Prothos was able to cast His younger brother into the darkest and deepest levels of Ausul, chaining him with divine power while summoning a human to free the Creator before His enhanced power creased. It was then that the Creator scorned His youngest son, stripping away His aspects and dominions whilst dividing them amongst His loyal children. Ophelia was granted dominion over Great Beasts, the animals of the land coming into Her care. Pophis was given War, as many human conflicts took place upon His seas. Lastly, little Lyra was given valor, as Her meek mages showed great bravery.
And soon, when mortals had all but forsaken Crassius- now called the Dark God- a peace entered the Realms as mortals began to advance.
Knowledge and reason led mortals into an age of growth, wherein mankind constructed temples and palaces, plumbing, and many other advances. Soon enough, there was a revolution in magics as well, and human mages began to ponder the possibility of traveling to another realm. Truly, the mortals wished to see the Sixth Realm, Lein, which had been promised to them. But mankind was not yet ready, and they had erred in their magic.
The first man to travel between the realms found himself not in Gevoth nor Gosvern, but instead the errors in their calculations placed them in Ausul, in the Dark God's prison. This gave the Dark God, who gave Himself by His subjugation of the inhabitants of Ausul the domains of Darkness, Chaos, Deceit, Evil, Monsters, and Demons. With the power taken from the human mage and the power of His demonic followers, Ausul broke free from His prison by imitating the powers of the Creator. Crassius soon made for Himself a throne in Ausul, beginning to plan His return and his vengeance.
It began with alliances, as the Dark God appeared in time to most of His siblings, tricking and turning most of Them, save His Twin, Prothos, and Pophis. The next step was to rebuild his cult among humankind, sending some of his demonic vassals to spread word of his glory to the mortals, having them practice it in the shadows, away from the sight of the Creator. As such, Crassius' power grew exponentially until He made His stand against the Creator.
Crassius returned to Gosvern, standing in the white heavens as they all began to turn black from His mere presence. And while He stood in Gosvern- now called the Black Palace- He drained the Creator's might and crushed the Creator's essence, sealing the Creator within the confines of Ma'at until a human and a god, bonded together, break the seal with divine magic.
However, the three remaining gods would not stand for the actions aforementioned and began to fight, vowing to kill Crassius as He had a mortality within Himself from the Creator's punishment. A mage would be the key to defeating Crassius, one who would be capable of learning divine magics in a school of their choosing. As such, Crassius sought to eliminate and enslave all of his enemies' followers, ensuring that none of them would praise the Twin and none offspring would be born a mage after a few generations.
In this unholy and abominable war Prothos' followers proved themselves to be mighty and sagacious knights and engineers whilst Lyra's were powerful sorcerers and scholars, with the number of sorcerers decreasing each generation as Lyra's cult waned and waned. Prothos' followers, however, were barely able to recruit enough neophytes to maintain the cult's power, all the while followers of Pophis kept superiority of the seas. But alas, Prothos and Pophis soon found Themselves sealed within two of the Dark God's designs, each snared and sealed under similar conditions and forms as the Creator on Nahlaas.
As such, the Realms soon fell under the whip of Their cruel master, with all who still praised the Creator, Prothos, Pophis, and Lyra doing so in secret.
As generations passed, the mages became fewer until there was but one left: a crying, enslaved infant held in the arms of his mother. The boy's mother kept hidden under her tunic a small medallion, which was a silver coin that had a flaming laurel wreath within a heptagram, the mark attributed to the Creator's temples. The infant, who was named Brom, would have brilliant blue eyes and brown hair, as well as a hidden store of magic within him.
When the boy was old enough, he was taken from his mother, who then gave him her medallion, and was sent to receive a minute education that all slaves received. The boy was instructed in rudimentary mathematics and language as well as the "approved" history and rites of the Dark God and His free siblings. Furthermore, the boy learned some basic sciences but did not have the chance to apply them as, shortly after he learned this, he turned twelve years of age and was sent to begin his formal slave labor in building the newest of the monuments dedicated to the Dark God.
After he built a series of monuments, it was deemed necessary that Brom, openly showing more mental capability and mental than some other slaves, be sent to serve in one of the Dark God's temples, wherein he was constantly put to labors far harder than those he had been subjugated to before, beaten and whipped in flagellation and ceremony, and used as a source for blood sacrifice, during all the time his magical talent remained locked away.
But one day, it all changed.
He was part the initial period of slave torture in the eyes of law at the age of twenty-three, and his physical form was well-sculpted from years of laborious tasks while being decently fed. While he still kept the medallion, he kept the coin covered in a small sleeve sewn from animal fur in order to hide the identity of the one it honored. The only clothing Brom was permitted to wear was a simple cloth kilt and a pair of reed sandals, as well as the medallion and any items the High Priest permitted, which was brown cassock when it rained or was especially cold out. His hair, now a bit darker while his skin was a few pigments darker than the priests', went down to his neck but remained slightly about his shoulders, lest he go bald as the only other option.
Being in a temple, the slave was able to learn much, furthering his knowledge far beyond that of most slaves and learning how he could free himself from his slavery, needing only a dagger and to escape. For, in more recent days, he had been able to sneak into a section of the temple's library where usually only the high priest could enter, wherein he had been reading scrolls about ancient storm magic. It was an impressive art, and one that calling about it to the priests would give him enough time to escape. After all, mages were considered valuable and powerful prizes by the lords and high priests that the Dark God had appointed.
As such, when an unpredicted rain came to the sky, the slave called out, yelling that the villagers nearby were saying a storm mage was responsible. As such, the slave had bought himself enough time in order to grab a bunch of random scrolls, coins, and his dagger before running in the opposite direction from all of the commotion as he read and heard about a temple lying in the west. It would be there that he could earn his freedom.
And then, as fate would permit naught else, Brom ran and ran and ran for days on end, eventually losing track of all time as he eventually came across an ancient stone temple not in the Dark One's honor. The cover over his amulet had fallen off, but it mattered not at this point as he ran inside, cutting his palm and writing the word he knew best on the altar: "SANCTUARY." He was now free, but in his recklessness he had exhausted himself as he passed out, the world around him going black.
The fallout from another wave sparkled briefly in the midday sun, a reflection of "captain" Thalia Vermon's chipper mood. Unlike her counterparts amongst the Stormraiders who chuckled and spat upon hearing news of this Aeron's peculiar request, the Flametongue landed herself a job- and her first ever ship to commandeer. A suicide mission, perhaps. But one filled with thrills and valor. Thalia was never one to shrug away at the face of adversity.
