History of Mortal Magic - Volume I

Published by the Academy of Mortal Magic, an entity of Andrinor's Trust January 25, 2116

• Contents of this book may not be reproduced for any purposes without the consent of the High Mage Council of Avlis*

HISTORY OF MORTAL MAGIC, VOLUME ONE - THE BIRTH OF THE FOLD OF NINE

The course of Avlissian history has ever been shaped by clashes between light and dark, and between chaos and order. Even the very stories of our creation, as recorded by the dwarves of Galdos, recount this theme (for a more complete account, see Lorewarden N'uquerni-Delothion's Of Gods and Mortals on Avlis, Volume 1: Creation, The Hand of the Supreme).

Avlis was called into being from a swirling nothingness by He who stands above all gods, the Supreme Being who forged and wielded the Eternal Spark of Creation. By His will, Avlis was made an orderly world of skies and stars and earth and seas, and at its very center, He set the Eternal Spark. The Supreme created in this world spirits of nature, who communed in harmony throughout the lands and seas. But paradise was broken by the first coming of evil. From a land beyond the stars, a fiend known as the Negerai traveled to our world. The creature brought with it nine prisoners, warriors, whose names are graven deep in our history: Gorethar, O'Ma, Dru'El, Forian, Maleki, Aarilax, Valok, Toran, and Mikon. The Negerai scattered its prisoners across the face of the world, and summoned from the Abyss hordes of its lesser brethren, tanar'ri, to guard over them. But the demons spilled across the lands, destroying the spirits and the harmony that had been created by the Supreme Being, until finally He was angered.

The Supreme chose the nine warrior prisoners to be his wrath. He granted them each a sword imbued with divine power, attuned to the heart of each warrior, and He bade them to banish the Negerai and tanar'ri. Each of these nine was of a different heart and followed a different philosophy, but they were all allied in that first war to banish the demonic armies from Avlis. The Nine broke free from their prisons, and came upon the Negerai, each turning their Supreme-given weapon upon the fiend. But just as the hearts of the warriors were balanced against each other in good and evil, law and chaos, so too were the swords balanced in power, and not meant to be turned on their foe all at once. The Negerai was spared from destruction by this balancing of each force against the other, and instead, the Negerai was infused with their deific power, becoming of godly might.

In the face of this, the Nine fled from the Negerai, seeking refuge in the great Underdark, to very center of the world, where the Eternal Spark resides. In this place, the nine grasped the Spark, and through its powers, became the Nine Gods of Avlis. With the ascension of the Nine Gods, a war between the divine and fiendish commenced. But the Nine were balanced against the Negerai. None of them, the Nine Gods or the Negerai, was able to vanquish the other. But as is often the case with the tanar'ri, the Negerai was betrayed by one that served it. In secret, a lesser demon came upon another artifact of awesome power: the Black Dagger, a force of destruction as absolute as the Eternal Spark is to creation. Imbued with the power of the Dagger, the lesser demon became more, and wielding the Dagger, it struck the Negerai, destroying the god-fiend utterly. With the death of the Negerai, the Supreme recovered the Black Dagger, and the Nine Gods cleansed Avlis of the remaining tanar'ri, restoring peace to the world.

In the wake of this first war, the Supreme withdrew from the world, but set the warriors as stewards of Avlis, Nine Gods to guard the heavens and hells and all that is between. Eight of the Nine passed to divine realms beyond, while Mikon, alone, was charged by the Supreme to remain among us, guarding against any future threats from outside that seek to break the fragile balance of our world's existence.

At the fighting's end, little remained of what had existed before. Only a few of the nature spirits survived in the northern lands that we now call Tyedu, hidden from the rest of the world. Avlis was largely empty. But in the planes beyond, the Nine Gods communed with other beings, and learned from them the skills of creating life. With this knowledge, each god chose for himself a race to create, which would work for that god's will in the mortal world. Thus, the nine eldest mortal races were created: the dwarves made by Gorethar, the fairykin (also called fey) made by O'Ma, the elves of Dru'El, the changelings of Forian, the ogres and giants (collectively called giantkin) of Maleki, the lizardfolk and sahuagin (together, called scalykind) of Aarilax, the orcs of Valok, the dracon of Toran, and the humans (also called men) of Mikon. Although we know little directly of those ancient times, the creation of the nine races is thought to have occurred roughly five centuries before the Age of Peace, that is, approximately two thousand six hundred years ago.

Under the tutelage of the gods, the races learned of civilization swiftly. Religions venerating the Nine Gods were founded, and mortals were first graced with the favor of divine magic from their creators. The earliest of the holy orders, the Paladins of Gorethar and, just slightly later, the Blackguards of Maleki appeared. The races also learned to touch the arcane magic that permeates our world, just as the nature spirits had before their demise, and each race established an Order to guide the practicing of the arcane arts according to one of the nine philosophies, resulting in the White for Gorethar, Silver for O'Ma, Green for Dru'El, Yellow for Forian, Ebony for Maleki, Violet for Aarilax, Gold for Valok, Blue for Toran, and Gray for Mikon.

These nine became the first Mage Orders, called the Fold of Nine.

-Composed by Lorewarden Hilde Meyldur - Edited by Melonius Mennallin - Proofread by the High Mage Council of Avlis