(I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to teach today, so instead I wrote a new piece for Nacre Then. This may or may not become a more normal thing. We’ll see what the future holds.)

From the writings of Lead Historian of Ancient Affairs, Toreshide, 52.4E

Nacre Then’s origin has been the matter of some debate throughout the history of the Preservers as well as other, less educated researchers. Though now lost to public knowledge, it was generally accepted that the planet began with a god. In some cultures, especially the religions of the Al’Tari, the god of the sun is a great, omnipotent being. He created the first race, known as the Primordials. These people could harness the elemental magics the same way the modern races can, only their source of power was the sun itself. This period in history is often referred to ‘The Was’, in ancient texts. No evidence of the Primordials or a ‘sun god’ has ever been uncovered, and as such is perceived to be largely fanciful nonsense. Some Preservers have speculated that the existence of these beings was conjured up by the Al’Tari in an effort to further subdue humans during the First Era. True or not, these ancient texts describe that the sun god held contempt towards the Primordials, perhaps from misuse of magic, so he cleaved the ancient peoples into the four races we know today, diffusing their power immensely. It is at this point in history that the Preservers have been able to find conclusive evidence for, so the birth of these four races is deemed as the beginning of the ‘First Era’.

The two races on the distant continent of Ithalin are the Rinla Bulvin, brutish porcine monsters who are as massive as they are unintelligent, and the Koh Liir, often referred to as the “bird hive”, for their strong attachments to their home and their numerous kin. The former draws their magical power from the earth itself, though how they harness this power is as of yet unknown, while the latter draw their power from the air, and have the unique ability to permanently affect the environment with their magic touch. One can see evidence of Koh Liiran magic in the floating cities of Calitha, which were old military outposts from their brief foray onto Torreth later in the First Era. Though records have shown only one human has ever ventured onto the shores of Ithalin, secondhand evidence claims that these two races have been at war with each other for millennia.

For obvious reasons, we are far more knowledgeable about the events on our own continent, Torreth. There were humans, (referred to as the Fide Torru in Al’Tari scripts), and the Al’Tari. Humans, it is known, draw power from the stars, and the seven Archons in particular. The Al’Tari draw their own power from the moon, and older records have indicated that they could use that power to create spirits that fight for them. In Al’Tari culture it is believed that these spirits originate in the realm of the moon (one of the three planes of being), but there is no evidence to support the existence of any such plane other than the seemingly sentient spirits themselves. As for the humans, they seemingly have no unique ability to manifest magic the way the other races can, excepting the fact that humans seem to be the most capable of harnessing magic at an individual level, whereas the other races often require several if not hundreds of members of their species in order to use their magic.

For unknown reasons, war broke out almost immediately once the Al’Tari and Fide Torru came into contact with one another. Records indicate that the Al’Tari managed to defeat the humans and crush all resistance in a manner of decades. They used an astronomical phenomenon called ‘The Weave’ to harness an unprecedented power, but little is known about this event or how the Al’Tari used it. After subjugating the entire human population, they used their power to curse the humans, locking their ability to harness magic and ensuring no resistance could be mounted against them. It remained like this for nearly two millennia, until Autlan was born. Even without the use of magic, he rallied the humans under one banner, and rebellions began across the continent. Through strategical mastery and unprecedented leadership capabilities, he overthrew the Al’Tarin Kingdoms, and the birth of the Autlan Empire is chronicled in Preserver calendars as the birth of the ‘Second Era’.