Genesis The Creation of Light and Shadow
The Age of Living Dreams
In the ages that followed their parents’ departure, the Aevari brought forth diverse and intelligent life upon Eldara, the Shimmering Veil’s Material Plane, imbuing the world with beings that reflected their individual natures and dreams. Free from the conflicting influences that had once pulled them in different directions, they discovered a creative freedom they had never known before, and with it came a flowering of life more varied and wondrous than anything they had previously imagined.
Each Aevari crafted distinct forms of life with care and creativity, pouring into their creations not just physical form but the essence of consciousness itself - the spark that would allow these beings to think, to choose, to dream, and to shape their own destinies.
Feron, Aevari of the Earth {TODO: Explain genesis of Feron’s Creatures}
Galeon, Aevari of Air {TODO ”}
Pyrael, Aevari of Fire {TODO ”}
Valora, Aevari of Water {TODO ”}
But perhaps most significant of all was their collaborative creation - the elves. Working together as their parents once had, the four Aevari poured their combined essence into beings who would embody the best of all elements. From Feron came their connection to the living world, from Galeon their grace and freedom, from Pyrael their passion and creativity, from Valora their wisdom and adaptability. The elves became the bridge between all elemental aspects, long-lived enough to accumulate wisdom, graceful enough to move like wind through trees, creative enough to shape beauty from nothing, and wise enough to understand the connections between all living things.
Each race was guided to grow and flourish across mountains, forests, skies, and seas, finding their own paths while carrying within them the essence of their creators’ dreams. The world bloomed with consciousness, with cultures developing their own traditions, with languages that sang of their unique perspectives on existence.
The Shadow of Envy
Yet, as life blossomed across Eldara in forms more beautiful and diverse than ever before, Vorthar, The Dark Weaver watched from the shadows with a growing envy that gnawed at the very core of his being. Bound by the pact he had made with Almariel, unable to directly influence the Material Plane, he found himself reduced to the role of observer in the greatest story ever told - the story of conscious life discovering itself.
From his exile in the depths of possibility, he witnessed the joy of the first elven songs, the laughter of halfling children at harvest festivals, the proud hammer-strikes of dwarven smiths forging their first masterworks. He saw the tritons dancing in ocean currents, the aarakocra painting poetry across the sky with their flight patterns, the dragonborn standing guard over communities that looked to them for protection.
Every moment of happiness, every act of creation, every bond of friendship or love that formed among these new beings felt like a personal rejection to Vorthar. Though he had agreed to relinquish his influence over the Material Plane, his ambition could not be fully contained, and his resentment grew like a cancer in the darkness between worlds.
The pact prevented him from acting directly upon Eldara, but it said nothing about creating new realms entirely. If Almariel’s light-filled world was forever beyond his reach, then he would forge his own domain - a place where his vision of existence could flourish without interference, where the darker truths he believed in could be explored without judgment.
Determined to forge his own path through the unseen corners of reality, Vorthar drew upon the energies of darkness and hatred within himself - not the peaceful, mysterious darkness he had once embodied, but something newer and more corrosive. This was darkness born of exclusion, shadow spawned by resentment, void given purpose by the need to prove that his vision of existence was equally valid.
The Birth of Udugmar
Vorthar cast his will into the depths of possibility itself, reaching beyond the edges of known creation to carve out a space that would be entirely his own. There, in the spaces between dreams and nightmares, he began to shape Udugmar - a realm that would serve as a twisted reflection of creation, one that mirrored his bitterness and resentment while embodying his darkest truths about the nature of existence.
Udugmar came into being as a realm of shifting darkness and malice, but it was not the simple evil that mortals would later imagine. Instead, it was a plane where struggle was the highest virtue, where strength determined worth, where the weak served the strong not out of cruelty but out of natural law. Here, pain was the greatest teacher, conflict the purest form of communication, and dominion the only relationship that mattered.
The landscape of Udugmar defied mortal comprehension - mountains that bled shadow, rivers of liquid darkness that whispered secrets to those who dared drink from them, skies that rained not water but distilled ambition. Cities rose from the bedrock like tumors of crystallized will, their spires reaching toward nothing because in Udugmar, aspiration was its own reward.
This was not a realm of random destruction but of purposeful corruption - a place where Vorthar’s vision of existence through struggle could play out without the interference of Almariel’s gentle guidance. Here, beings would be forced to confront the harsh realities that the Material Plane’s inhabitants were shielded from, and in that confrontation, they would become stronger, more honest, more real.
The plane would forever lurk beneath the visible world, not as a hell but as an alternative - a place where those who found the Material Plane’s emphasis on harmony and growth insufficiently challenging could discover their true potential through adversity.
The Hollow Prince
In this new plane, Vorthar fashioned a deity of his own - Zoroth, the Hollow Prince. Unlike the Aevari, who had been born from love and unity, Zoroth was crafted from pure will and determination, shaped not to create but to rule, not to nurture but to command.
This minor god was lesser than the Aevari in raw power, but cunning and relentless in ways that made him far more dangerous than his creators had ever been. Where the Aevari sought to shape the world through gentle guidance and inspiration, Zoroth understood that true change came only through conflict, that genuine growth required the pressure of opposition.
Zoroth was bound to the Abyssal Plane and granted dominion over its blackened depths, but his authority was not the distant rulership of an absent king. He walked among his subjects, tested them personally, rewarded strength and punished weakness with the impartial precision of natural law itself.
Vorthar whispered to Zoroth of the Material Plane, painting vivid pictures of the light-filled world above that he could never touch directly. He spoke of beings who lived in comfort without earning it, who grew soft under Almariel’s protection, who would never reach their true potential because they were never forced to fight for survival.
“They live in a garden,” Vorthar told his creation, “but gardens produce only pretty flowers. I offer you the chance to create a forge, where truly magnificent weapons can be shaped through fire and pressure.”
Fueled by his father’s bitterness but driven by his own cruel wisdom, Zoroth began to devise ways to bring the harsh truths of Udugmar to those who dwelt in the false paradise above.
The Underdark’s Genesis
Zoroth forged a connection between the Abyss and the mortal realm, crafting secret passageways and dark rivers that wove through stone and shadow like veins of malice through healthy flesh. This was not a simple tunnel or portal, but something far more sophisticated - a realm that existed in the spaces between spaces, in the forgotten corners where light feared to venture.
Thus, The Underdark was born - a labyrinthine domain beneath the land that served as both highway and hunting ground, accessible only through hidden chasms and ancient caverns that opened like mouths into the depths of the world. The Underdark was not merely a place but a philosophy made manifest - the idea that beneath every surface lay hidden truths, that below every foundation lurked the potential for corruption.
The passages of the Underdark followed no earthly logic. They curved through dimensions that had no names, connecting distant regions of the Material Plane through routes that defied geography. A cave entrance in the northern mountains might lead to chambers beneath southern deserts, while a sinkhole in a peaceful meadow might open onto galleries that stretched beneath foreign continents.
Here, in the spaces between Eldara and Udugmar, Zoroth established his true dominion. The Underdark became his laboratory, his recruitment center, his staging ground for the great work of bringing conflict and growth to a world that had grown too comfortable in its harmony. Through these passages, his influence could seep upward like groundwater, touching the roots of surface dweller’s complacency, introducing them to the magnificent struggle that waited in the depths.
The Underdark served as the bridge between the Material Plane and the Abyss - not just physically, but philosophically. Here, surface dwellers could begin their education in the harsh truths that Udugmar had to teach, while beings from the Abyss could test themselves against the soft targets that Eldara provided.
Almariel’s Sorrowful Response
Witnessing Vorthar’s creation from her own exile, Almariel, Lady of Light felt a pang of sorrow that resonated through every ray of starlight, every gentle dawn, every moment of peace that still existed in the cosmos. She had hoped that their separation would end the conflict between them, that distance would allow their different visions to coexist without collision.
But she could see now that Vorthar’s resentment ran deeper than she had imagined. His creation of Udugmar was not just an act of rebellion but a fundamental challenge to everything she believed about the nature of existence. Where she saw the potential for harmony, he had created a realm dedicated to eternal conflict. Where she nurtured growth through love, he offered advancement through struggle.
Yet alongside her sorrow, she felt a resolve to counterbalance his darkness - not through opposition, but through the creation of something so beautiful, so filled with life and magic, that it would serve as an eternal reminder of what existence could be when guided by love rather than driven by ambition.
She shaped a new plane of existence, pouring into it all the dreams she had harbored for the Material Plane before Vorthar’s corruption had forced their separation. This would be a sanctuary where light and beauty could thrive undisturbed, a realm where the gentler aspects of creation could flourish without fear of corruption.
She named it Liralor, the Feywild - a realm of ethereal wonder and perpetual wilds, where time moved differently and magic flowed freely as music flows from a master’s instrument. This was not just a place but a living poem, a realm where every tree sang with its own voice, where every stream told stories of the lands it had touched, where every breeze carried the laughter of beings who had never known sorrow.
Liralor became home to radiant beings of pure joy and wisdom - sprites whose very existence was celebration, dryads who embodied the trees’ ancient patience, pixies who painted rainbows across waterfalls just for the joy of creation. Here dwelt the powerful Fey who guarded the beauty and purity of nature, not through force but through the simple presence of alternatives so beautiful that corruption seemed not just wrong but unnecessary.
The realm existed in perfect counterpoint to Udugmar’s harsh truths - where the Abyss taught that strength came through suffering, the Feywild demonstrated that power could flow from joy. Where Udugmar showed that conflict led to growth, Liralor proved that cooperation could create wonders beyond any individual’s imagination.
Here, Almariel’s essence lived on in a more direct way than the pact had allowed her in the Material Plane - a world of dreams and enchantment that would inspire and protect the natural world from Vorthar’s encroaching shadows. From Liralor, her influence could seep gently into Eldara, not as commands or manipulations but as inspiration, as the whispered promise that beauty and harmony were always possible for those willing to choose them.
The New Cosmic Order
With the creation of the Abyss and Liralor, the universe was set into a delicate balance that would define the nature of existence for all time. The cosmos now consisted of three primary realms, each representing a different approach to the fundamental questions of life and consciousness.
The Material Plane now lay between these two realms, tethered to both the light of the Feywild and the darkness of the Abyss, pulled in different directions by opposing philosophies of existence. This was not the simple balance that had existed before - this was a dynamic tension that would ensure constant change, constant choice, constant growth.
Every being born on Eldara would feel the pull of both extremes: the Feywild’s call to harmony, beauty, and peaceful coexistence, and the Abyss’s invitation to strength, struggle, and self-determination through conflict. The Material Plane became the arena where these philosophies would play out, where conscious beings would choose not just their actions but their fundamental approach to existence itself.
The Aevari, unaware of the full depth of their parents’ continued conflict, continued to shape and tend to the world with the dedication of gardeners caring for a beloved landscape. Their creations grew ever more diverse and wondrous as generations passed, developing cultures, arts, sciences, and philosophies that reflected their own unique perspectives on existence.
But beneath the surface, the machinations of Zoroth and the subtle whispers of influence from both Almariel and Vorthar ensured that the balance of light and darkness, creation and destruction, harmony and conflict, would forever be in motion. The intelligent beings they had crafted began to chart their own destinies across the vast world of Eldara, each choice they made rippling outward to affect the cosmic balance between the three realms.
The age of innocence was ending. The age of choice had begun, and with it came the eternal dance between the Feywild’s dreams and the Abyss’s harsh realities, played out on the stage of the Material Plane by beings who were themselves the children of both light and shadow, inheritors of both harmony and conflict, blessed and cursed with the freedom to choose their own path through the boundless realms of possibility.