Welcome to Gaia! ::

1; The Creation

Millenia ago, there was the Void. The Void was all knowing, all seeing, and all powerful. However, the Void was also alone in its own vastness. It created many worlds and many lands, and it knew all that happened in each world. It watched each plane, it listened to the song of each bird, and it memorized.

Eventually the Void wanted to speak as well. So it went to a planet that had not been established by intelligent life yet, and it began to mold and shape the planet. It created deserts, dry and vast. It created forests, both deep and exotic. It created mountains to touch the sky, and valleys to explore the depths of the planet. The plains It created were wide, and to live in these plains, It created a race of beings: humans.

It let the humans begin to develop, but soon the humans began to grow hungry, for It had not created sustenance for the humans to live on. It saw, and It knew, and within seconds, the planet teemed with plants and animals that were edible. These plants it had spawned were delicious, filling, and ripe year round. The animals were tender, juicy and abundant. The humans never knew death, never knew the end of life, because It did not will the death of Its most prized creation.

2; The Destruction

It nurtured this race of humans, until in time they became fat and lazy, looking only to laze about instead of appreciating the life that the Void had given them. The humans built altars, temples, statues to themselves and the greatness they had. They grew cocky, and they knew no regret.

It grew tired of spending Its effort on the human race, and without thought, without warning, and without hesitation, the valleys began to fill with water. The humans climbed to the mountains, in attempts to flee. They crawled into their temples, in attempts to flee. They pled, and cried, and ran. But soon the floodwaters rose high enough to wipe out the human race. However, a pleading voice arose from the waters. A single human had made a raft. Though tiny, the Void, all hearing and all knowing heard the voice. "Please... Though we have sinned, though we have become evil and corrupt, some of us understand the gift we have been given. Allow me to be an apology for the rest of them. I will give up my own life to allow the rest of them to live!"

3; The Recreation

The Void heard, the Void listened, and it allowed this. It churned, and the man was taken into the Void, his very spirit churning with It, weaving into It. Many years passed. To It, time is nothing. It waited. It watched. And it decided. Slowly, the waters lowered. The peaks of the mountains came out of the watery abyss, and descended. It then sent down a beam of light, and it struck the largest of the temples. Four figures stepped from the light,

Each was stood in a circle. The first took the shape of the final savior of mankind. He was called "Sygan, the Maker". The first represented life. When he spoke, his breath brought forth life. His breath allowed plants to bloom, animals to breed, humans to live, and sustenance to flourish.

The second took the shape of a beautiful elf, tall in frame, hair dark as the Void itself. She was called "Gemm-An, the Demolisher". When the second spoke, her words sent out decay. At her will, life would end. At her word, the creatures would end. At her whim, buildings would become rubble.

The third took the shape of a female, wings ablaze with pride and glory. She was called "Ryns'uho, Archon of the Light".As the third spoke, she let out relief. She sent good into the world. She sent the light of the day, the judgement of the holy, and the angels to serve her every whim.

The last took the shape of a cyclopic tenticular mass, writhing with hatred. His name was "Tec'Lunt, the Defiler". When the fourth spoke, his word brought evil. The corrupted rose through the cracks of the earth, the weak became oppressed, and the demons were created to serve every purpose he could muster.

From the middle of the four Gods, two orbs rose into the sky. One shone brightly with the flames of glory and wrath, the sun named Phoenix. The other orb went to the opposite side, and was a pure white, yet giving off a soft light. It was the moon, Sin. These two were the Judgment, who wrought changes on the unworthy.

4; The Divinity

For years the Gods lived among its inhabitants, watching as they grew, involving themselves with the mortals. The Void saw this as It sees all, and wanted the life on the planet to develop on its own. It was curious if the denizens would grow the same, arrogant and lazy and ungrateful. So after centuries of the Gods living on the mortal plane, the Void crafted a realm for the gods themselves, so they may observe, but not involve themselves in the dealings of mortals.

For Sygan, the The Eternal Gardens were created, a land flowing with rich soil, foliage aplenty, and animals roaming far and wide. For Gemm-An, It crafted Necrom, a realm of dead trees and carcasses, and the life in this plane was skeletal, grim and parasitic. For Ryns'uho, Delmarria, a city among the clouds was crafted. The buildings were made of gold, no shadows existed, and angels flew on gilded wings. Tec'Lunt, the Defiler was given a plane of complete darkness, which It named Vacuos. This realm too had creatures, writhing and toxic, crafted in their new master's image.

Over time the population forgot of their gods, and the Gods watched, but could do nothing. The Void looked down to its people and saw that slowly over time, the Sentient Races would decay without some form of leadership. It allowed the four to split their souls into multiple pieces and create their divines to allow indirect leadership. It would let the demigods involve themselves with the Sentients, meddling in the affairs of all of the races, but in return would have to attempt to balance their power.

From each of the four realms came a light that split into seven apiece, encompassing the plane. Each light was the presence of the Divinity, and each Divinity represented its original soul in multiple, varying ways.

5; The Walkers

Over time, the Sentients grew more intelligent and began forming societies, which the Void watched carefully. A problem arose when the Divinities began doing the same; some would kill mortals for no reason at all, while others tried to protect them. It watched over this, and saw that the Divinities also were gaining more power than intended, amassing armies of Sentients and using them to settle disputes among themselves. The Void saw that the Divinities wouldn't attempt to wipe out the Sentient Races, for without subordinates what purpose did they have? The Void knew though as it always does and always has, that something had to even out this power flux.

From this It created the Walkers, Sentients that walked among the mortal races in an attempt to even out power where it sprung up. The Walkers varied in skill, strength, race, and knowledge, but they always arose when one of the Divinities grew too strong. The Void preemptively knew that if a Walker were to know its identity it may choose not to assist against the Divinities, and instead follow its own path. As Walkers were needed, the Void would send them to the world, unknowing of their status or purpose, but would slowly guide them to where they were needed.

6; The Now

Since the creation of the Walkers, the Sentients have lived in the balance. Wars have arisen, sentients died, yet the Divinities remained, balanced in check by the Walkers. And so it will continue, lest the Void lose interest in its creation once again, and decide to demolish all It created, for It was eternal. It could recreate what it wished. And in turn, it could destroy what it wished.

The campaign is gonna take place about 1000-1500 years after the recreation of the world. I haven't decided the timeline, but it's long enough that the only gods that are mentioned hardly at all are the 28 demigods and the 2 neutral ones. The 4 original gods have been near forgotten at this point in history. At this point in time, there are a lot of kingdoms and civilizations, pretty much spread everywhere. A few of note, however, are Elendria, which is a kingdom mainly ruled by humans, but if you can prove yourself, other races are allowed to move up the chain of command. There's Del Bymala, the Elven kingdom, which is north of the mountains north of Elendria, a total of about a week to two weeks' travel if you're at a brisk pace. West/northwest of Elendria is a giant chasm, called the Centennial Scar, which deepens and every 100 years due to weakness from the reforming. There's essentially an underground trench below the scar that just keeps worsening the condition of it. Across the scar is a thick jungle, inhabited by a race I'm including which I haven't decided a name for, but the project name is Chameleids, cause they're lizardfolk based on chameleons, stealth and all. They're semi uncivilized, with no real leader but they're fierce warriors and intelligent. A desert more to the west, which ends up leading to an ocean. South of elendria is a massive cliff, which drops off into the ocean. To the east is a vast plains, with mountains at the end which are the home of the dwarves.

My favorite invention for the story are Daros Towers, which are towers that were found in the continent that Elendria and all these other civilzations are in. They're highly magical, no plants will grow in a radius around them of about 500-750 feet, and cause magical anomalies in an even larger radius. Elendria's Daros Tower was 'normalized' for the first ten floors but there's still undiscovered areas 3-5 floors up that for some reason has no access. Elendria's tower still has its anomaly in that random weather hits Elendria. In the middle of Summer it will start snowing out of nowhere, or random patches of rain, stuff like that. Each tower has different effects, as well.

As for races I'm pretty much putting every race potentially possible for the sake of diversity, but some areas of the planet have more or less common races.

Oh and the concept of the world is 'balance'. Whereas dnd has good and evil, this world looks at it as potentially 'unnecessary good' and 'necessary evil'. I did this so when people make parties, they're capable of having multiple alignments without it really conflicting much with the group or story. Essentially the 'heroes' in any campaign are set up to even out power among the deities. If Vayn(Fear) or even Bayla(Peace) becomes too strong or influential their job is to do whatever is necessary to bring the demigods back to even power with the rest. Which also means that sometimes, you'll be starting wars just to even out Peace, or stuff like that.

Also a little side note, same sex relationships are just as common as straight ones in this world, and no one looks down on people for it.

Organizations, Groups, Cults and Worshippers Wrote:

Ice Drakes: An organization founded several centuries ago, founded around the same time Elendria became a kingdom. Founded by Grakken the Annihalator, a dragonborn with immense magical capabilities, it was a group of spellblades that tore through the tundra far north of Del Bymala, wreaking havoc and slaughtering innocents as they went. The Arg'Dantic Mountain range that seperated the Elendrian plains was where the reign of terror ended however. After recieving word from Del Bymala of the invading force, Elendria sent the Mages of Arg'Danti(see below) and the Golden Raiment(see below) on an assault on the group. In an ambush in the mountains, each of the Ice Drakes were killed one by one, until the only one who stood was Grakken. He killed several mages and paladins alike until he was cornered. Instead of killing him, however, both groups offered a treaty. The treaty was they let him live, and in return, he was to teach them his magic and combat skills in a reformed group of the Ice Drakes, but instead of dragonborn as the only members, he was to teach whoever wished to learn the skills. Their current base is the 3rd-5th floors of the Elendrian Daros Tower. "You slaughter my men, and even after having the chance to kill me as I killed yours, you offer me peace? You're snakes. I don't trust you. I have no reason to trust you after a cowardly move like this. But you've got a deal."-Grakken the Annihalator

Mages of Arg'Danti: A group of mages trained in a variety of magic, from the mountain city of Arg'Danti, far to the east. At one time it was a powerful group; they single handedly normalized and fought off the horrors that dwelled in the Elendrian Daros Tower, and put an end to the reign of Grakken the Annihalator, with the help of the Golden Raiment. However in recent years they've declined; fewer members have joined due to the anomaly of random weather around their own base in Elendria, thus being criticized by both mages and 'normals' alike, as they call those that choose not to use magic. Their base is the lower two floors of the Daros Tower, with the archmage's study on the 6th floor.

Golden Raiment: A group of paladins formed at the founding of Elendria. Their duty is to protect the royal throne of the Elendrian kingdom. They worship Luinyka, the Firesoul of the Meek, demigod of Courage. They serve as an army for the Elendrian kingdom, as well, boasting numbers in the thousands. Their armor is primarily steel engraved and etched with gold, with a small tapestry that hangs from their waist on either side of their body. One side of the tapestry has the symbol of the Elendrian kingdom, the other a golden sun with a fist in the center, the symbol of Luinyka.

The Shadowed Sun: A group of assassins, more later.