Days of Dawn

Introduction

They say the feud between light and dark goes back to the beginning of the world. Before history and people, when the sky was void, the twin goddesses hated each other. Arcana and Nocturn - purity and corruption - circled in eternal contest.

Eventually their hatred grew into war, and that war gave rise to the first mortal races. Goblins, gnomes, elves, orcs, and all manner of creatures awakened to serve their mothers in war. Each generation died in battles like oceans, driving the goddesses' conflict deeper. So absolute was the sisters' feud that they ended up killing each other in a single, apocalyptic duel. All at once the sisters were undone and their war ended.

It took ages for the world to heal. As the goddesses' bodies sank into the world, history outlasted even their contest. Armies became kingdoms. Fortresses settled into homesteads. Even the deepest wounds eventually faded. For the better part of an eon, people lived in peace.

But peace, like war, doesn't last forever. Like a stain in history, there came an era of upheaval known as the Ethereal Night. This age was ruled by mythic dark lords who wrought unspeakable evils. Undead armies. Hellish curses. Genocidal campaigns. No line was left uncrossed, and only an alliance of gods and mortals could hope to bring about salvation. When the Ethereal Night finally ended, its survivors found a world bitter and scarred.

Five hundred years have passed since those dark times. People go about their lives in quiet, remembering tales of how the world almost collapsed on itself. Life is simple with no great evil to speak of, and these years move from the shadow of Ethereal Night.

They belong to the Days of Dawn.