Like many stories, it all begins in darkness, there was nothing, and with that nothing was potential. Back in the mortal realms, time was just beginning, they were awakening, and many creatures moved up from just being animals and gained true sentience. Like with many stories of evolution, there were many steps over the millennia that no single person would be able to witness in their lifetime. Rises and falls of kingdoms are far too numerous to ever catalog, but with those they also brought belief, and from what we know so far, that is where the true power of the afterlife comes from.

For our story, we will refer to all walks of life as humanity, and this is not in reference to humans specifically, it is the humaneness and benevolence, the learning, the arts, the history since that is what truly separates us from the creatures of the wilds. Before many people find religion, they find a much more simple belief, usually in reverence to spirits, these take many forms, from plants, animals, forces of nature, and eventually ideals, but with all of these sprouted one of the most powerful things in the unknown universe, belief. Every living thing that could believe provided a small amount that made its way to an empty realm, gathering, being a formless collection for the longest of times, this power sat in a state of growth but nothing to bind or shape it.

Looking back at some of the oldest of the 'races' we see many that we could never imagine, fantastical races that took the shapes of humans, but would never be seen as such, and many that never took the forms one would recognize. Take for example, the dragon, they have been one of the oldest races, but they never looked at themselves as 'human' always seeing themselves as more, higher, as if they were deserving of reverence similar to that of what one would see as the worship of gods. While in many places through the cosmos, they did achieve this, they were not seen as such as a whole, but because of this belief they gained power, not anything that they could use, but it still gathered in our emptiness. Forming and shaping what powers we had collected, influencing the connected universes that all had dragons together by a thin tether. Binding the shared beliefs together was one of the first steps that could be taken, akin to connecting a computer to the internet, the power and belief spread, this shared knowledge is how places that knew nothing of dragons knew of dragons, the beliefs tainting their dreams, telling them the stories of these powerful winged creatures that when angered would breath fire and destroy, as well as of their greed, but this is not all that our story is.

Death was a powerful thing, fear, revered, respected, and even challenged, it is one of the universal constants, everything dies, and as humanity made its deal with death, many tried thinking of what lay beyond, what was passed the veil, on the other side of the shroud, what lied beyond the pale, there are many ways of saying the same thing, but this question sought an answer. What lies passed death? Is it a happier place? A haven for us to see those we once lost, or was it a hell, where we were to be punished for our failings and transgressions of our life? What happens there? Was this life just the first step of many to lead us to where we truly are meant to be? And this, this is where our story truly begins, with the first dawning of the first soul that had the belief held tight to its center.

The world was dark, not unseeing darkness, but too dark to make anything out from, but this sparked much in this nothingness full of power, the belief almost instantly warping the space, reflecting upon what that soul held dear. Memories taking shape, forming the land, building the light, all of the power shaped by this one soul, but it wasn’t alone for long, with this space taking form, the reach of it and the beliefs that built it were incomparable to the others of the cosmos, the floodgates were open and this once shapeless nothingness took form, and the Afterlife was made, a place for souls that held belief in it would go once their mortal flame was snuffed. Each soul that entered this new plane shaped it, adding, changing, and shaping what was the truth of this place, eventually, this made the lands, the seas, and life spread, plants grew, animals popped in from nowhere, and the first few souls took their first steps, their reformed bodies reflecting that of what they held in life, but they were alive, they were again able to walk upon the ground they had come to know so well. The afterlife, even with all of its power was still small, a few days walk from side to side at best, but that was the extent of most soul's knowledge of their homes, a few places overlapping, similar people ending up near one another, and as a result, panic was the initial response, many seeing beings that they didn’t recognize and sought to protect themselves from these would-be invaders.

The first war was nothing small, spreading to all edges of this new world, the part that made things different was that by the next day, those that had died found themselves right back where they started, remembering every instance from up until they died. While brutal, there were no true casualties or none that anyone could tell, this eventually did lead to attempts at peace, since they were gaining nothing from this. Peace was not an easy thing, since there were little to no sides, and no one had anything to gain, but it was still sought, since dying still hurt, and that was a plight many would end just to not have to deal with it again. The language was another barrier, since so few shared a single language, and many did, the languages still having similar backbones to build from, but it was still a trial, which eventually lead to the first unified language, giving them a way to communicate. Peace was rocky since so many different peoples ended up in such a small place all at once, but they eventually established one of the first towns, many still preferred to live in the wilds among their people, but the town was now a place of growth and expansion.

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New arrivals were a daily experience, stepping into the world as they passed through a door, with similar hostility to those that first arrived, eventually needing the creation of a new group, this group sought out newcomers and would bring them into town, and would teach them of what they knew, making them new members of this growing populace. Each soul that came to reside here in the afterlife added to the power that was held in this place, the belief shaping the energy, expanding, shifting, and carving the landscape. With the ever-changing nature of this world, the peace didn’t last long, but the peace wasn't interrupted by the dwelling souls that have come to call this place home, it came from their own beliefs, the fears, and from the things they have come to know from their past.

Fears, are another aspect of belief, bringing with them some of the darkest aspects of what we know, fears of death, illness, and those things that go bump in the night. Nightmarish creatures started stalking those that wandered too far from the centers of humanity, but no one knew what they were at first since they would come with the darkness, one of the first fears that most people share the unknown in the dark, and the dangerous creatures that lurk there. The first victims had no answers when they were asked, not being able to describe what it could have been, some of the dwellers going as far as to think it was someone taking vengeance for some misdeed, these events almost leading to a second war, till one of the newer arrivals heard the stories… And Shadow Lurker was born, the stories of the beast made of darkness that stalked those foolish enough to brave the wilds.

The hunting party was formed, these individuals that held combat or hunting as their primary skills took up arms, and the hunting began in earnest. Tracking a creature made of shadow wasn't easy, the ones that knew of them were the greatest resource, providing as much information as they could, some going as far to offer themselves up as bait, under the logic that they would easily be its preferred targets. Clubs and spears weren't the most effective weapons against a creature composed almost completely of shadow, but they were able to eventually take it down, it shattering and dissipating into dust… which was immediately absorbed by all of those present. The influx of power to these individuals was mind-blowing, they felt far stronger than they did the day before, substantially so. The correlation between slaying the things and gaining strength wasn’t immediate, but it wasn't long before it was figured out, and the first adventurers stepped into the world, individuals that sought to slay those creatures that were made from the fears and beliefs of the things that went bump in the night.

A new war began, but this one unified those that lived in this world against the things made of superstitions and nightmares, but as a result, new beliefs sparked, these specific to this afterlife, translating the strength that they gained into something more real than it had ever been in the worlds they knew. They weren't what we call classes now, no they were far more basic, much more primal, but they were the answer to the problem that they had created. Warriors and hunters being among the first, relying on their own strength and skill to take these creatures down, they protected the blossoming towns that has started to spread from the original, some taking up locations near where the souls of their people commonly wandered into the afterlife. With this, they were safe again, or safer, now that there were unknown threats, no one was truly safe any longer.

Much time passed, and the afterlife continued to grow, expanding in both size and population and with it new things came in with the people as time went by, the first mage that walked into the afterlife turned it all on its head. Mages were new, no one from before had known of such marvelous powers, their own knowledge limited from their time in their own worlds, but magic changed all of it. Magic can be viewed as one of the cosmic constants, it in many worlds was part of the baseline, holding them together, not all were so lucky, some of the power was so minor that there wasn’t enough to use to do what it could, because, with this, the afterlife gained its first. A burst of new wielders of this magic began popping up, some from what some would consider the founders, but they were all untrained, and wild, and it showed, the backlash from this caused much destruction, with almost no one to hold them in check, a new war was almost bursting forth, but this time it would be with magic. Most mages wanted to continue and aid the warriors and hunters, but some wished for more, wishing to use this new power for gains that were well beyond their means, thinking that they were deserving since they could protect the towns just as well as the others.

Like with the creation of the Shadow Lurker, magic brought its own fears and beliefs, and they were far beyond what anyone else was prepared for, some of these new creatures just simply being the manifestation of pure anger, while others warped those that came into contact with them, changing them forever, and not always for the best. Real monsters now walked the afterlife, many far more dangerous than anyone ever thought possible. Strongholds started to speckle the landscape, these forts were stronger and more protective than any of the structures that had been built before, but they were needed. With far more at stake, those that came from worlds with magic began training those with an aptitude for it, many of the others following suit, training those that came after them, making some of the baseline groups that we are familiar with.