Chapter 1 - The Age of Legend - Beginnings

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1 | THE AGE OF LEGEND – BEGINNINGS

Many aeons ago, at the very beginning of the Age of Legend, Gaia perceived a threat and was possessed by a need. To sate her new desire, she caused the Amanita to awaken from their slumber in the shadows of the forests, and filled them with purpose. This we know from the Amanita themselves, whom we commonly call Shroomies today.

What none have ever discovered is what the purpose the Great Mother awoke the Shroomies for was. It remains an inscrutable first move in her renewed war with Djall. They appear to search for something, but the few Amanita that will even acknowledge our presence do not seem to understand the question when asked what it is they seek.

Precious little can be said with surety about anything between the awakening of the Amanita, and the awakening of the Treekin many thousands of years later except for one act whose influence continues to be felt today: The creation of Salamanzar, the Protolich, by Lord Djall, a seemingly much more powerful first move than Gaia’s.

 

Salamanzar, the Protolich

The first of what we now know as the Undead was birthed by the darkest of powers in the time before the Beasts arose in the Age of Legend. Salamanzar. His very name inspires dread of the most primal kind, for he and his progeny have been a plague on this Earth since before our kind arose. A surviving fragment of an ancient history written by Al‐Idrisi, one of the fabled eight Mystarchs, says this concerning Salamanzar's birth:

And so it came to pass that Lord Djall saw the creations of the Earthmother, Gaia, and was displeased. He fell to brooding for many days, deep in thought as to what he should do in his dwelling below the surface, in the vast caverns and tunnels of the UnderRealm. The creation of the Amanita seemed a direct challenge to Djall's will to power. That something so momentous should happen outside of his control demanded answer.

As he thought upon what Gaia had done, he became wroth with anger. Thus possessed by rage, he clenched his teeth upon his mighty fist and bit down, rending the very flesh from his hand and spitting it aside. When his blood had cooled and the mad rage had passed, he gazed upon his discarded, still-quivering flesh and saw the answer to his problem. For the flesh had life without blood.

For many days and many nights he labored without pause and with singular purpose. At midnight on the seventh night, he stepped aside and gazed upon the product of his energies. "Go forth," spoke Djall, "and do my bidding. You are he who shall cast this world into darkness in my name, and they shall know you and feel fear. I name thee Salamanzar, and command you thusly." And the world knew Salamanzar.

And the world knew fear.

 

The Treekin

Though Salamanzar now walked the halls of the UnderRealm with footsteps that would echo throughout time, he was yet young in his power, and the world above remained blissfully ignorant of the grave threat below. During this time of innocence, the Treekin, like their distant brethren the Amanita, awoke in the forests of the Earth. Children of Gaia more so than even the Shroomies, the Treekin have walked in the light since their birth, acting as powerful agents for the protection of the forests and jungles of the Earth – the greatest bastions of uncorrupted pure life that we know of.

Djall saw what Gaia created and laughed. The Amanita had done nothing but wander the Earth, appearing to search for something but never finding it. The Treekin mainly kept to the forested swaths of the land, and while they certainly had power, they did not have numbers, nor did they seem to possess the inclination to do aught but protect the forests. These were no match for the might of Salamanzar.

 

The Beasts

Many millennia after the forests first heard the arboreal voices of the Treekin our true history begins, for it is here that our earliest forebears awoke: the first Beasts. Intended as a wild card in the war against Djall, the Taurians, Atavians, Bandicoons, Felines, and all the rest were created by Gaia but granted a nature unlike that of the Shroomies or Treekin, whose fundamental natures are very similar among their kind. Gaia imbued Beasts with a strong will and a questioning nature. The Beasts were born loyal to Gaia but had the freedom to choose their own destinies.

It's unknown how many types of Beasts there were, but many did not survive the Age of Man, and are lost to us forever. No doubt many more are unknown to us, living in foreign lands that we may never see.

 

The Gods

And what of the Gods? There were many more Gods then, in the Age of Legend, than now, for so many fell just a few hundred years ago to the might of the God‐killing Sphinxes. Odin, whose brothers Ve and Vili had perished in the fight against Djall, the leader of the northern Gods. Zeus and Hera, Ra, Marduk, Hades, Curnon, Aegir and many others among the elder Gods. Soon, they had children and multiplied, bringing forth such as Thor and his half‐brother Loki. Apollo and his twin sister Artemis. Bast, Sethis, Ares, Nemesis, Danae, Anubis, Pan, and the many who are no longer with us, from Baldur and Freya to Hephaestus and Aphrodite, to Isis and Horus.

The Gods each gravitated to certain areas of the Earth and the Beasts who lived there began to worship them for the protection they offered from the forces of Djall who, in turn, vowed to work to twist what Gods and Beasts he could to serve his cause. He whispered in Salamazar’s ear and set events in motion.