World Building June #4: History of Vulkur
The following text is documented from the Song of Swords, a time containing the written works of many Vul, Aeis, and Midlin historians upon how the world came to be.
ERA 0, THE OBSIDIAN SEA
“In ages untold, long before the first dreams of creation lay the vast Obsidian Sea above us. Forever unchanging and truly devoid of light. At the dawn of our history, all gods drifted as bodiless spirits moved by the currents of the Sea. As fate would have it, the gods of our world met amongst a great field of debris cast amidst the great sea. To create a stable world of their own, they came to agreement upon shaping a world. Our world was dark and shapeless as the gods crafted it and the planes of Earth, Fire, Water, and Air that fed into the shapeless Vulkur and gave it form and stability.”
ERA 1, THE GODLANCE
“the world was taking form, and the gods began to divide the myriad lands between themselves. The Vul deities claimed the plains and hills, the Aeis deities claimed the deserts, the Midlin deity claimed the marshes, the Urk deities claimed the forests, and the giant deities claimed the far north. But as they began to give the world more unique and precise a shape, the Godlance fell from the now star-spotted depths of the Obsidian Sea. It struck the world and nearly cleaved it in two, almost destroying it wholly before it had even began. But the gods, managed to combine their strength and keep the world whole. Even with their power, they did not have the ability to remove the lance, and thus it came to find its home through the heart of Vulkur. The Godlance did not bear our world ill, however, as it’s strange and unique energies began to fill the world with life. Where slivers and shards hovered above, grasses sprouted and trees grew. The lance’s tips froze the poles, but cooled them to create winters and temperate woodlands.”
ERA 2, THE ZAMETH
“A strange and primordial race, mortal beings of godly power we know as the Zameth came unto our young world. The first peoples had not even learned to sow seeds or bake bricks when the Zameth swam from the depths of the Obsidian Sea and constructed grand monuments and cities, with some standing to this day. In the species’s great power they brought many strange and wonderful artifacts that spawned new plant and animal life. And beyond the godly elemental planes, they crafted a fifth. The plane of Technology. A plane made not of elemental essence, but of the raw dreams and thoughts to create and invent. They had a particular interest in the Godlance, perhaps seeing it with some divine calling. It very well could have been something lost to them they sought to reclaim. But quite strangely, centuries before the first people, the Zameth vanished. All they left was their architecture and technology, but not a single remnant form of a deceased Zameth remains. It is unknown if they did not bury their dead or if they all left the world in the blink of an eye.”
ERA 3, PRESENT DAY
“In all our histories and times of ancient times, our time under the many stars of the Obsidian Sea has not been long. We are young and, by a great will, are driven to venture beyond what we no. To seek answers to our world from our gods, our world, and those who came before. We remain in this age with many questions and few answers, and surely we will only wish to learn more with each answer we gain. But truly, can we ever know enough of our world and the many sights that lie even beyond our home?”