The History of Mitraspera

The First Age

The Age of Creation

In the beginning there was NOTHING. And from NOTHING came Order – Ordo – and Chaos.

From the interplay of these forces came the four elements: fire, water, air, and earth. Partly their powers are opposite to each other, and therefore they were unable to create something that lasts. So Chaos reigned over creation.

Due to chaos, nothing could change and there was a halt – or „total stagnation“– for the first time. This stagnation caused the wish for change. And from this wish, in turn, came time and change, for nothing can develop and change without time.

Due to this change four rudimentary consciousnesses or ideas were created, who we now know as Kral’Urien. In some ancient texts they are called „the Souls of Change“, „The Timeless“ or „the primal flows“. Today we often talk of them as the Elements. With them there came wishes, dreams, emotions and similar things.

The Kral’Urien, within them, carried the wish to create new things. So, they created, each separately, a place – if one likes to put it that way. These „places“ are now known as the elemental planes. But these places were so different from each other that again nothing new could arise from them. Only after they had managed to create something that connected these places, they were able to let Mitraspera emerge. This connection was the balance between the contrasts of the Kral’Urien.

From the Kral’Urien there also came a common soul, the Soul of the Land. Today we call it the Primal Soul or Kral’Quihenya. It enables life on Mitraspera. But it could not exist by itself, therefore the Nechaton was created at the same time. The Nechaton is the opposite of life on Mitraspera. Without the Nechaton neither Primal Soul nor life would be possible on Mitraspera.

Each Kral’Urien created their own tribe, the Quihen’Assil, which are also known in ancient texts as “The Eternal” or the “World Children”. These tribes today are known to us as the Red Jade Masters (Fire, Ignis), the Crystal Lords (Air, Aeris), the Lords of the Deep (Water, Aqua) and the Emerald Singers (Earth, Terra). These tribes were initially incompatible, but then four of the Quihen’Assil, one of each element, decided that together they could achieve greater things than they could on their own. The fusion of the four Quihen’Assil created the Quin of Fusion, the first child of the Golden Dream.

In some sources it is said that the four Kral’Urien together created a fifth tribe, which consisted of all four.

The fusion was the moment when magic entered the world; also known as “the birth of Magica”

Through this fifth, connecting element, the other four elements could be interconnected. Slowly, like streaming tides towards each other, the elements combined with the help of magic, at first in rather rudimentary ways, but later in increasingly complex forms, into highly peculiar combinations and shapes. Mitraspera emerged in its original form with all it’s flora and fauna. So it were the Quihen’Assil, not the Kral’Urien, who created the world as we know it.

 The Second Age

 The Age of the Ancient Rulers

The Quihen’Assil formed the world and created mortal beings. Over time, they left the world and withdrew to entrust Mitraspera to the mortal races, and they chose to no longer intervene. The Red Jade Masters withdrew to the Golden Chariot, the Sun, the Emerald Singers did so to the Silver Chariot, the Moon. The Lords of the Deep went into the depths of the seas and the Crystal Lords into time. The children of the Golden Dream we can see today are the stars in the sky.

The mortal races, created by the Quihen'Assil, are known to us as the ancient rulers of Mitraspera. They would look different to us today in their appearance; depending on the tribe, they resembled large birds, ice dragons, octopuses, fire lizards or even walking forests. They were mortal, but by our standards they reached a very long lifespan.

For many of the Ancient Rulers, the existence of the Quihen’Assil and their power was commonplace. Hardly any of them had to ensure their regard or consent for their actions. Those who did it anyway were considered backward and ridiculed. Nevertheless, all were united in their fundamental belief in the elements, even if this varied greatly in the respective interpretations.

This and other disagreements led to disputes among the Ancient Rulers, which grew stronger and stronger. The Quihen’Assil noticed these quarrels and raised their most faithful priestesses and lords of the field as Nyames and Archons to settle them. They gave them the circlets and staffs of power as insignia of their might.

Over time, the Ancient Rulers became more and more powerful, eventually reaching the might of the Quihen’Assil to shape the world to their liking and create new life. So they emulated their creators, the Quihen’Assil, and created their own tribes; depending on the text, these are referred to as “primordial tribes”, “servant tribes”, “elementary tribes” or simply “the young tribes”.

In the creation of new tribes, the Ancient Rulers were limited, as they could not create anything completely new. They took themselves as a model for their creations and for every new created tribe an Ancestral Mark, which was won from the individual Ancient Rulers, was necessary. Unlike the Quihen’Assil, they did not create these new tribes to populate the world, but to be utilized as servants, tools, and weapons for the Ancient Rulers.

The Ancient Rulers who followed the Golden Path gained their power through the worship of their servants. The Ancient Rulers quickly realized that their creations were evolving faster and differently than they had intended. The first of these created Tribes, the Narech’Tuloch, elemental people of the earth, even went so far as to oppose their Creator, taking up arms. Even the first people of the Naldar became more and more powerful and they soon seemed to surpass the power of their rulers. The Ancient Rulers decided to quell the rebellions, wipe out the first Elemental Tribes, or otherwise rob them of their power. To prevent such conditions, they built a fallback in their subsequent creations. It was to prevent rebellion against the Ancient Rulers. This fallback is known to us as the “servant’s command” or “servant’s impulse”.

But at some point the Ancient Rulers reached the limit in their work of what the Quihen’Assil had layed upon them. This divided the Ancient Rulers. Some held fast to their belief that they should live within the limits and in accordance with the will of the Quihen’Assil. The others, however, doubted these boundaries and turned away from the Elements. They began to search for new things outside the borders and beyond the blessings of the elements.

This moment can be described as the birth of the basic idea of the Ratio.

First, only research was made on the foundations and principles of the world, transgressions of limits of the Quihen’Assil existed only as theories, as considerations for what would be possible if they exceeded these limits. These first doubters are today known as Primodial Sceptics and it was their students who brought this research into practice and implemented the theoretical possibilities. This led, among other things, to the creation of the Forsaken.

Based on the ideas of Khor’Zuhl the black ice was created. It was later Khor’Zuhl-Et4, who managed to split souls and to obtain the universal material. These were initially designed to improve the servants, but was later used to create something else, the Black Ice. Sephistikos is the creator of the Black Ice.

The Void was created with the help of Ar’Nathan Gilmfridd´s research. From Khor’Zuhl´s lessons he had learned and took these teachings as a basis for his own contemplation on how to break the laws of the world and extract all Existence from something. His research led to his aspiration to destroy everything that is, to generate a complete standstill, an absolute emptiness.

In other places research was conducted on how to evade the circle of Terra and to decide for oneself when one`s life should end, and also the life of others. That research led to the creation of the Undead Flesh. The most renown of those scientists is probably Gerchow Pariwal.

Other Ancient Rulers attempted to remove all diseases from the fabric of reality, but their ritual failed. It did not eliminate the disease from the pattern but formed the Oily Pestilence as a result. The Pestilence can be described as a collection of diseases, equipped with a consciousness and the wish for continuous reproduction. Larog Tal, then greatest doctor of Mitraspera, was substantially involved in that creation.

So the Forsaken came into existence, and they settled where they found their opposite: where Ignis was giving warmth to the land, the Black Ice spread it’s cold perfection; where Terra carried the circle of life within her, the Undead strove to live forever; where Aqua was purity and healing, the Pestilence brought plagues and diseases; where Aeris was standing for movement, the Void sought absolute stagnation.

All those creations, made by the Sceptics without the blessing of the elements, are carrying no souls, or only corrupted souls. Hence they are often called the „Soulless“.

In those times of unimpeded creation, the Ancient Rulers formed different opinions about future life on Mitraspera. On one side there were the Adamants, determined to follow a certain path that was envisaged to lead to a life in accordance with the limits and intentions of the elements. On the other side there were the Sceptics, marked by the ideas of the Ratio, which drove them to create more and beyond the given limits. And there was a third position, that of the Silver ones. It can be considered as opposite view to the Golden Path as it has been described above. The Silver ones tried to do the same as their creators, the Quihen’Assil: They wanted to leave the land and entrust it to the new, young elemental tribes.

In the beginning there were only discussions and political disputes amongst the different groups. In the end it was the order of the Tivar Khar’Assil who took up arms first, striving to solve this conflict. Initially the Ancient Rulers did not fight themselves but let their elemental tribes wage war against each other. They even went so far as to create and destroy some new tribes only for that war.

 The Hub of the World and the Worldforge

It is the place known as the Hub of the World or „Weltennabel“, located today on the island Dan Tumnur in the Southwest of Mitraspera. In the beginning this had been a place where one could be especially close to the elements and use their powers more easily. Some texts describe it as the place where the elemental powers are flowing into the world.

At the Hub of the World the Ancient Rulers were creating and implementing their ideas. Over time, envy grew amongst the Ancient Rulers and some of them started to obstruct access to the Worldforge, later preventing it completely. For that they built a construct around the Hub of the World, to control but also restrict the powers within this place. As far as we know, the Primordial Sceptics´ activities were limited to the research of basic laws of the world and to theories about the manipulation and breaking of these laws. But their students sought to probe many of these theories in practice. As their practical research went too far in the eyes of their masters - the Primordial Sceptics- , some of them limited their access to the Worldforge. Nor-Na, one of the greatest creators, changed the construct in a way that left only eight Primordial Sceptics to access the Worldforge and it’s powers. Those eight wanted to ensure that there would be no future creations in contradiction to their moral and ethical ideas. They also established a pact that from this time on they would only create together. Today the term `Primordial Sceptics´ is mainly used to refer to these eight Primordial Sceptics.

 The Pact of the Nine and the First Seal

After a while the students of the Primordial Sceptics offered the Adamants a pact with the purpose to ban the Ratio. These students had previously created the Forsaken and turned their back to their masters, the Primordial Sceptics. Together they made this pact, called the Pact of the Nine, to create a Seal and confine the Ratio beneath it. With this, new ideas were to be prevented from entering Mitraspera and from being implemented by means of the Worldforge. The Pact created a camp at Siegelstatt, hidden from the eyes of the elements and kept secret from the followers of the Ratio. At Siegelstatt they created an army of Kan and Rikan, using not only the elemental powers but also the powers of the Forsaken. The Kan were made as strong and enduring workers and the Rikan were necessary to manage and command the Kan who were emotional and difficult to control. Later, the Kan were sent as soldiers, the Rikan as their commanders, to wage war against the Ratio. Then something unexpected happened: The Rikan realized they were nothing but cheap soldiers created for this war, having no future outside of it. So they accepted the offer made by the Ratio, to live in freedom as the tribe of Ratio, and with them went the Kan. The Blemish of Doubt spread over the Kan and Rikan, reinforcing the Doubt about their creators, and in the end they turned against them during the war.

Due to this betrayal the Primordial Sceptics came to know about Siegelstatt. They realized that a weapon was built there to close the source of their own power. As the Pact of the Nine animated the last Xerikan and sent him on his way to the Worldforge, to set the capstone onto the Seal Pyramid, very few options to survive were left to the Primordial Sceptics: They would be banned with the Worldforge beneath the Seal, where they would have to hold on in stasis. Or they could create their own world as a retreat. They chose the latter path and so the Kelriothar came into existence, the Mirror World.

Closing the Seal with the help of the Xerikan would not only affect the Worldforge. At the same time a sort of mist was created to surround Mitraspera, preventing foreign gods to have an impact on Mitraspera. To this present day the mist and the shells around Mitraspera are hindering foreign gods to directly influence the continent. In the same way as the Forsaken are prevented from leaving this land.

 The Mirror World

The Mirror World, also referred to as Kelriothar, was planned as retreat for the Primordial Sceptics, to escape prosecution by the Pact of the Nine as well as preventing certain death. It should have been a perfect, independent world, thriving beyond the rules, laws and powers of the elements. But this proved to be impossible. So by order of the Primordial Sceptics the Mirror Lords created a world which was founded on the basic principles of the elements. They used power from the Worldforge for a new homeland somewhere in the NOTHING. The power was thereby led through so called Mirror- and Shardpoints into the new world, creating and sustaining it.

When the last Xerikan was marching towards the Worldforge, the Primordial Sceptics understood that they would not be able to stop it. It had been animated with the soul of an innocent child, so the thoughts of the Ratio could not manipulate it. Finally the Xerikan arrived at the Worldforge and started to finalise the work. However, the Mirror World had not yet been completed, but the Primordial Sceptics concluded that they were neither ready to lie motionless beneath the Seal Pyramid nor to become persecuted on Mitraspera. And so they fled into the unfinished Kelriothar.

The Xerikan closed the pyramid, breaking the bond between the Worldforge and the Mirrorworld. The Primordial Sceptics and their servants were left with a resource poor and unfinished Mirrorworld in which nothing new could come into existence. The problems of the unfinished world were recognized and the Primordial Sceptics arranged it so that a society was formed and the necessary resources were preserved. The hardest part was, that no new life could come into existence there. Thus, the Primordial Sceptics resorted to a drastic solution: The Primordial Sceptic Exar Charon was sacrificed to create an artificial Nechaton and an artificial primal soul. This allowed the existing souls to be collected and reused. However, the souls were unable to find their way to the artificial primal soul themselves, so they needed to create a network across the Kelriothar, the Batodd-Senegator-Network.

After being trapped in the Mirrorworld by the seal, a conflict broke out between the original interests of the Primordial Sceptics and the will of their servants to survive. The Primordial Sceptics tried to enforce their interests through the Rikan and their Kan. Everything within this new world revolved around power and the use of the scarce resources. However, both sides realized that this conflict had to be resolved in order to survive.

Due to the incompleteness of the Kelriothar, repeatedly cracks appeared at the boundaries to the NOTHING, through which it could enter. The NOTHING threatened the entire mirror world. With the knowledge that Ahat Decyrmiron, one of the most important and powerful sceptics, had about the Void and the NOTHING, he tried to fight the cracks. He created the Negators, who had the task to monitor the cracks and to contain the spread of the NOTHING. There was another benefit to the Negators: They could eradicate new and unwanted ideas that could have consumed too many valuable resources.

Over time, the Primordial Sceptics withdrew, leaving the Rikan to continue shaping and guiding the society of the Mirrorworld. Under their leadership, the society consolidated and was optimized. Despite this optimization, there was no further development, but rather stagnation or even regression. Houses had formed, groups within the society. These constantly competed for the available resources, but in a way that was more akin to a sporting competition. Shortly after they were sealed away, they wanted to bring about a quick end to their exile, but the longer it lasted, the less they believed in an end to this imprisonment.

 The Great War

The first seal was closed, Siegelstatt was lost and fell into oblivion.

In the fight against the Ratio, the supporters of the elements and those of the Forsaken made many sacrifices and so both sides needed to recover. The Weaponmasters were created to solve the disputes between the Forsaken and the supporters of the Elements, without whole villages, cities or populace having to die. However, this attempt to facilitate a common life together failed as Mellesan, Weaponmaster of Aeris', broke the rules of the Arena of Weaponmasters, after which Ar'Nathan did not accept the resulting judgement. He was the leader of the Void and used this incident as reason to implement his previously long-prepared plans to corrupt the White Portals of Aeris, which let the void flow to Mitraspera. The continent faltered and winter came over the lands. Only the Crystal Lords and their followers were able to defend themselves against this. They defeated the void and ended the first winter Mitraspera had ever experienced.

As the Black Ice consumed it’s own creators and developed it’s own consciousness, the Quihen'Assil sent their avatars into the world to aid the Ancient Rulers in their fight against the Forsaken. During this time, the objectives of the Forsaken changed. The Black Ice realized that Mitraspera could only achieve peace through it’s perfection, and therefore would have to be absorbed into the Essence.

The Undead Flesh took control of the entire South at this time. The Plan to seal the Tunnels of Terra succeeded just in time, so that they could not invade the rest of the continent.

The Forsaken were no longer under the control of their creators and were a threat to the Followers of the Elements. The Ancient Rulers of the Forsaken planned to reopen Siegelstatt and create seals there, which were able to banish the Kral'Urien themselves. In response to this plan, the Archons and Nyames called for war against the Forsaken. The Forsaken had already begun to build the seals but could not complete them. They did activate the seals nonetheless, which resulted in only the Avatars being sealed beneath them.

The ensuing war between the Peoples of the Elements and the Forsaken was cruel and savage. It dragged a large part of the continent into chaos and devastated the world. Eventually, some of the Rulers of the Forsaken recognized that this war would destroy Mitraspera, and so they released the Avatars. They hoped that Mitraspera could still be saved.

 The Third Age

 The Worldfire and the Exile

The liberated avatars saw that the war was almost lost for the Ancient Rulers of the Elements and only one option remained. They showed them a way to call upon the Quihen'Assil directly. The Quihen’Assil descended from their exile and began a raid against the Forsaken. But their presence alone changed the face of Mitraspera. After completing their raid, the Quihen'Assil banished the Ancient Rulers of the Forsaken, along with their followers, under four major seals. They gave the land time to recover.

The Quihen'Assil joined the banners of power with the seal pyramids to provide them with the power of the land and thus kept them shut. Originally these banners served to provide the power of Mitraspera to each respective region. By binding them to the seal pyramids, the banners today determine the boundaries of the Realms (therefore also known as Seals).

The Ancient Rulers, who were faithful to the elements, were banished from Mitraspera by the Quihen'Assil for a thousand generations. This was the punishment for having contributed to the devastation of Mitraspera. It was not until after that time, that the descendants of the Ancient Rulers were allowed to return and prove themselves worthy of their legacy. And so it is that we rediscovered this continent just over a decade ago. Now it is up to us, if we can follow our legacy and prove ourselves worthy.

Note from Librarian Tovak: History is changing at the moment. Especially the First Age does not seem to have happened as it is written here.