In the beginning of all things, there was darkness. When Creation was achieved, Alteration soon followed. Through various combinations of elements and cells, all life is born. Through evolution, all life survives. Such was the immutable law of existence on Du Varia.
Du Varia, named by its first sentient inhabitants, was a planet of abundant magic. Its sporadic expulsions of magic eventually turned some of the natural inhabitants of the planet into horrible monsters. Such was the birth of the cyclops, the basilisk, dragons, krakens, phoenixes, and many other beautiful and horrible beasts. These magically altered beasts quickly dominated Du Varia. None of the natural inhabitants could hope to prevail against such terrors.
It was then that Du Varia began channeling its magical energy to grow an enormous tree. When it finally bore fruit, each one contained a sentient life force, born to help fix the plague of monsters upon Du Varia. The beings born from fruit were a single race, but each fruit had two sides.
The inhabitant in the dark side of the fruit would be born with the ability of Alteration. In order to stop the terrible monsters plaguing Du Varia, the ability to change the volatile creatures into stable beasts was necessary. Alteration could magically and passively alter the structure of any living substance on Du Varia.
The light side of the fruit contained an equally useful skill. Creation was the ability to, quite simply, create. Anything that could be conceived of, could become reality. After stabilizing each corrupt race through Alteration, Creation could be used to grow mates for each species to reproduce. With these two gifts given to the first sentient race born on Du Varia, it was believed that they could right the imbalance of the world.
But they were ignorant of their origin, and instead of working together to fix the planet, a divide soon formed. Soon, Creation was being used to make war on those gifted by the Dark. Horrible beasts were born to attack the Dark’s forces. Meanwhile, those gifted by the Darkness used Alteration to change the nature and disposition of each monster.
It didn’t take long for each to use their gifts against the other. Everything the Light created was corrupted by the Dark. Each time the Dark made an Alteration, the Light spawned life to destroy it. As a result, an almost apocalyptic war broke out.
The inhabitants of Du Varia became divided. Some became naturally gifted with the powers of the Light; others received the favor of the Dark. The two schools of magic became segregated.
The divide between the originals grew so great that the two sides named themselves separate from the other. In the Light were the Angels; constantly creating new horrors to unleash on the Dark. In the Dark were the Demons; named for their ability to corrupt all that the Angels create.
On and on the wars went, wreaking havoc on all of Du Varia. The planet was repeatedly damaged in the conflict. The fights grew so large that the sheer volume of magical energy being released around the world threatened to destroy all life on the planet. In a desperate attempt to save itself, Du Varia convened with the higher powers of the universe.
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Chaos giggled, cried, and screamed nonsensically at the request, as was its nature. Gravity regretted that it could do nothing for Du Varia. Space wished to help but was powerless.
It wasn’t until she asked Time for help that any semblance of hope was found. Time convened with Ether, Causality, and Dimension and together the group of Powers chose a hero from the Web of Life to balance the wrongs of Du Varia. They assured her that the hero they chose would fix every injustice and right every wrong.
True to its word, a lone man soon appeared out of a crack in Time. He wielded an unbreakable blade, harnessed the power of both Creation and Alteration, and single handedly subdued the generals of the Angels and the Demons.
For their blasphemy of Du Varia, the hero wove a spell unequalled by any that came before or since. He called upon Creation to construct a safe place to banish all he deemed guilty. Using Alteration, he wove it into the fabric of reality.
A handful were selected among both races, those who had no part in the damages wrought, to maintain the balance of Du Varia as was their original purpose. Those few were banished to what was later referred to as the Neutral Plane to preserve the health of Du Varia forevermore. The rest were tossed into the Banished Planes to grow old and die as observers to the world they were once given.
The hero knew that too much damage had been done to the inhabitants of the planet to simply undo it all. So, he did the only thing that he could do to help. He used his magic once more.
He knew that the smartest creations of the Angels and Demons, such as elves, dwarves, and humans would one day carry on the war on their Creators’ behalf. To stop this, the Divide was made. Du Varia itself became split into two planes.
One plane had every animal, beast, and sentient humanoid even slightly affected by Light magic. The other contained every inhabitant that had been touched by Dark magic. The remainder of unaffected life was split evenly between the two sides.
With such a momentous and insurmountable problem taken care of, the hero was drained and near his end. To ensure the future of Du Varia, the hero then used the remainder of his strength to cast a final spell. He used the last dregs of energy available to him to weave himself into the fabric of the world.
He knew that the divine power of Du Varia would always contain both Light and Dark energy. So, his plan was to limit the expulsions of such energy. The spell he cast was meant to deny the opposing arcane energies of Du Varia. His spirit became the most effective seal ever known.
His own life force went towards sealing the ambient magic of Du Varia, so that no bursts of magic would inadvertently create more disaster. His spell effectively corked the magic inside of the core of Du Varia. As his reserves neared empty, he created several points from which the ambient magic would burst periodically.
He placed strictures on those places which were meant to minimize instances of unworthy recipients to Du Varia’s Blessings. It would also limit how quickly arcane energy could be absorbed by creatures and sentients, lest the power of any individual or group grow too great again. This, he prayed, would ensure the continued survival of Du Varia.
And so, the Wellspring was born.