Before time and space, life and death, light and darkness, and order and chaos, there was only the One. The one traveled the limitless void that was yet was not, facing no challenge. Growing tired of the endless journey, The one first made the land to rest upon. Once the land had been shaped, the stars,burning with fire and light, burst into existence to heat the land while the water, darkness, and air formed to cool it. Seeing the beauty of creation, the one began to build more and more, forging solar systems and nebulae, mysteries and wonders, beauties and terrors.
When everything imaginable had been built, the One grew lonely, tired of endlessly travelling a beautiful world with none to share it. Gathering all her remaining powers of creation, the one made the 13 Novum, living gods endowed with the powers of creation, and the seed of life, a single source of life for one planet in the universe. With her powers spent, the One gave the Novum a single task: cultivate the seed, and spread its life among the stars.
Taking council amongst themselves, the Novum quickly took their own forms and dividing the powers of the universe between them. Arghan, the eldest, chose the sun and light, Meiko, his wife, chose the moon and shadow. Terum, Vern, Pyran, and Avos moved down upon the planet and ruled the Earth, Wind, Fire, and Water respectively. Merac followed Terrum and took Metal, Legh, the fastest of the Novum, took lightning while Fyrick chose Ice and Lerrin ruled magic. Elae, the most tenderhearted, chose to govern life and nurture the seed while Moran, the most protective, chose to rule Death and guard his wife’s beings even past their end.
Finally, abandoned by the rest of the Novum, was the youngest, Zerren. With all the powers of the world being taken, he left and flew out into the void to take space itself as his seat of power. From there, he could not touch or affect the living world: leaving him only the ability to watch as the ages unfolded below.
First came the Age of Creation. The 12 Novum worked together to protect and harness life on the world. First, the oceans were filled. Teaming schools of fish danced between giant forests of kelp and fortresses made by coral. Sharks and dolphins hunted while on a much smaller level, trillions of microbes fought constant battles for survival. Then out of the land rose the plants and animals. Jungles and forests covered the one continent as animals roamed freely. This primordial world was beautiful, but only eleven of the twelve novum contributed to it. When it came time for Lerrin to unveil his creation, a new age was born.
Lerrin’s work was twofold. Firstly, massive lines of mana grew into each element dispersing pure power into every last molecule of the planet. Then secondly, he gave life the ability to use this power: he created intelligence. His first intelligent creation took aspects from each element. Weak and clumsy, it satisfied him as a first attempt for a magic wielding race, but it was nowhere near perfect. Giving each of the other novum a few of these beings, humans as he called them, he dropped the rest onto the untamed world and left them to fend for themselves.
Each of the Novum built a race to suit their own ideals, Arghan created the proud, mighty dragons, Meiko the elegant angels, Terrum the hardy Dwarves, Vern the flighty Elves, Pyran the passionate Infernals, Avos the mysterious Mer, Merac the brawny giants, Legh the stealthy halflings, Fyrick the Honorable Weres, Elae the joyful faeries, Moran the guardian Shades, and finally he himself made the Elementals, beings of pure mana that attuned to different elements.
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Releasing these beings onto the world, the Novum brought civilization. Each race built its own empire, even, rather surprisingly, the unfinished humans. For a while, there was peace as the young races worked in harmony to tame their world. But of course, as with all life competition led to conflict, and the races descended into war, bringing the Novum with them.
Mountains fell into the oceans as storms raged and fires blazed. Of the races only two, the dragons and angels remained neutral. The wars dragged on for decades as the Novum would dash armies aside with the wave of a hand and ravage the world. All of of this, Zerran watched, and remembered.
Once the world reached the brink of collapse, Arghan and Meiko intervened. Stopping the other 10 tired Novum, they ended the war into 1 day and set their children as the rulers of the world. This gave rise to the second great age of peace, although it could just as aptly been called an age of slavery. The eleven warring races worked under the two ruling races as a penance for destroying the world they had worked to build. Of course, even this time could not last forever.
The dragons grew tired of sharing power with the haughty angels. Taking matters into their own hands, they struck a surprise blow against the citadel of the moon. Arghan, not knowing of the plan until it was far too late, was pulled into war against his own beloved wife. This time, the Novum took sides: Vern, Pyran, Legh, and Lerrin sided with Arghan as Terrum, Avos, Merac, and Fyrick sided with Meiko. Elae and Moran, horrified by the loss of life remained apart from the battle.
The second great War was far deadlier than the first. Whereas before, the inexperienced gods had only slaughtered armies and brought upheaval to the world, now they fought each other and brought ruination. Every blow reverberated throughout their element, and the planet itself began to come apart. Seeing that the war could continue no longer, Arghan himself called a council on the Plains of Twilight.
Asking his wife to see reason, he apologized for the behavior of his dragons. However, Meiko was not satisfied. Tens of thousands of her angels had passed on to Moran, and their lost lives demanded retribution. Breaking the truce, she moved to strike down Arghan her husband from time immemorial. Then, just in time to save her eldest’s life,, the One returned. Stopping Meiko easily, she subdued all 12 of the Novum in an instant. Ashamed of the way her children acted, she then threw back to their thrones with a burst of strength.
To make sure that no war of the Novum ever occurred again, she created a disc inscribed with the nature of all 13 Novum and planted it at the center of the continent, in the Twilight plains. There each Novum could choose champions to be blessed with their power. Only one champion could be chosen per year for each Novum, and in exchange, the Novum could no longer walk upon the physical world.
Sealed away in their palaces, the Novum led the shattered remains of their races to begin rebuilding their empires. Champions pushed out into the wild, fighting back against the wild monsters and having occasional skirmishes between the races. Of course, one race did not have this advantage. Abandoned by the Novum, humans were pushed out from the fertile lands and onto the desolate Plains to eke out a miserable existence.
Slowly, but surely the other races rebuilt, and once they each had around a million members, conflicts began to arise again. Champion clashed with champion and the world again trembled in anticipation of war. The humans, hit hardest by all of the previous wars, wept with sorrow and turned their eyes to the heavens for aid. They believed that this would be another great War just like the previous two. Another brutal brawl between gods as the races got caught once mar, in the middle.
They were wrong. For this time, something was different. As they looked pleadingly to the stars, the stars themselves looked back upon them and found something worth protecting, something worth nurturing. This time The Watcher Zerran, forgotten thirteenth member of the Novum has decided to intervene.