Editing History (section)

= Before The Ice =

Since the dawn of time and beyond there have been five elements: Fire, Water, Earth, Air and Magic. Each of these elements occupied one "plane of existence", lacking a better explanation. Each plane was inhabited by elemental gods, who warred upon each other across elemental rifts in space (and still do, for all we know).

At one point of time, a long time ago, the elemental planes suddenly clashed together for a tiny instant, causing a cosmic cataclysm of hitherto unwitnessed proportions. The product of this clash was a sixth plane, a plane containing traces of all elements. This plane took the shape of an endless universe, teeming with galaxies, star constellations, solar systems and planets. In the early beginning of this sixth material plane, the elements 
were like stormy seas intermixing; at times, parts of the plane could be totally dominated by one element and so forth. After a while, though, the elements settled down in a quite even mix all over the plane.

The planet Aegic (Icesus is situated upon this planet) is but one of many planets in this plane, but it was somehow chosen to be the place where life was to be born for the first time. Dozens of races were born out of the raw force of the five elements. Some races absorbed more of one element than others, much depending on the place of their birth, and the time of it. Most race births occured during the period of time when the elements were in disorder; therefore, a race could be born solely of one element if that element dominated the place and time of the birth of the race. Some of the early races have died out, while others have managed to survive and reproduce. Still others have divided to two or more branches that are somewhat alike, but still quite different.

Meanwhile, on the five other planes, elemental gods discovered the new, sixth plane and ventured to it, curious and hungry. One god of each element came to Aegic, where they picked up their age-old battles. And when elemental gods do battle, they mean business; mountain ranges rose and were smashed to dust, earthquakes ripped the ground apart and hurricanes tore through the atmosphere. The elemental gods didn't care much for the living life of Aegic either, it was below them. 

All in all, Aegic wasn't that friendly a place for mortals. They endured for centuries, but finally some courageous individuals stepped forward to challenge the elemental gods themselves, and demand justice. These individuals were the ancestors of the priests of today. 

The mortal races begged on their knees and offered the elemental gods vast gifts. They also promised to be faithful believers and worshippers for all time; this prospect was new to the gods, as they hadn't had any worshippers before. They grew curious and finally accepted the mortals' offer. They forgot their internal differences for some time, being occupied with the mortals. Meanwhile, the priests who had convinced the gods to leave Aegic in relative peace grew to become revered individuals among the mortals. 

This went well for a number of centuries. The mortals relaxed and built kingdoms and empires, ruled by great kings and queens. Even though racial differences grew during this time, in some cases to outright hatred between races, it wasn't as bad as it had been. As it always has been in history, though, life wasn't so bright for everyone; some mortals, mostly chaotically minded, had opposed the priests' plans of making peace with the gods. These individuals
saw peace as a form of stagnation that had to be avoided at all costs. After the peace had been made - and they had lost - they went underground to bide their time, lurking in the shadows. After a few centuries, however, they again rose in opposition of the establishedmortal races. They were loosely organized in a group called The Red Wind, led by a former snakeman priest. This group, though small at first, gained in numbers as those unhappy with the present rule joined their orders. They plundered, ravaged and sacked all they came across. The rulers of the established kingdoms were unable to do much; the followers of the Red Wind were like berserks, fighting for the sake of war alone. The rulers called upon the priests to ask for their help.

The priests were more than willing to help, since they had received most profitable positions in society during the past few centuries, and were none to keen to see society turned to ashes by these villains. In order to thwart the Red Wind, they decided to form an army of holy knights called the Templars. By swearing a holy oath on the Elica Stone - a priceless gem which contained equal amount of energy drawn from all five elements - the Templars could draw power from all of the elements. The Elica Stone was guarded by five priests at all times, one for each element. The stone had never been used and would never again be used for anything else than the iniating of Templars, since its usage required the consent of all five patriarchs. The Templars, after being initiated, then recieved training from priests of all five elements, and thus they were able to cast spells of all elements. While it is thought that one could train a Templar without the holy oath and the Elica Stone, it is certain that they would be much less powerful in all elements.

The Templars became the perfect weapon against the followers of the Red Wind; with their fighting skill and spell-casting capabilities they were almost unbeatable, and crushed the Red Wind group in a matter of months.

So, another threat removed. The mortals settled back and daydreamed for a few centuries more, and forgot about both the terrible time before the peace with the gods had been made and the ravagings of the followers of the Red Wind. The gods were slower to forget their internal quarrels, though. The old war between the god of Water and the goddess of Fire came up to the surface again when the god of Water allied himself with the god of Magic and waged a war against Fire. Fire was at this time considerably stronger than both the others, though; the god of Magic was utterly destroyed while the goddess of Fire was weakened to the point of banishment: she returned to the plane of Fire to regenerate her strength. The god of Water suffered too, though not as much as the two others. Throughout this intermezzo, the gods of Earth and Air stayed neutral.

The destruction of an elemental god causes a massive discharge of energy, and when this happened to the god of Magic a massive rift was torn open in the very fabric of space. The god of Water used this rift to channel power from the plane of Water to regenerate the powers he had lost in his war against Fire. He was successful and opened an aqueduct from the plane of Water to himself. Along with the raw elemental power transferred through this channel came massive amounts of water to the planet of Aegic, slowly at first but later with ever increasing speed. 

Since the goddess of Fire had withdrawn from Aegic, the very element of Fire was weakened too, and Aegic cooled down. The mean temperature sank by so much in a few years that the stream of water from the elemental plane of Water turned into a glacier creeping across the surface of the planet. 

The mortals, of which most had built up great empires and cities teeming with life, were forced to hastily pack up their belongings and flee to the equatorial regions of the planet. They knew, however, that they would be doomed sooner or later; nothing seemed to stop the onrush of the ice. They banded together, racial differences - even hateful feelings between races - were put aside as they sought some means of survival.
 
The mortal races reached a vast plain with the ice right on their heels. They decided that here was the place to make a stand if anywhere. The priests of Fire came up with a grand scheme; they would, in conjunction with the priests of Earth, raise a great mountain range around the plain, and on the plain itself create volcanos to heat it to a pleasant temperature. A barrier screen would be put up above the plain, to serve as a greenhouse of sorts. The volcanos, their effect largely increased by the greenhouse effect, would also melt the ice nearest to the mountain barrier, thus preventing the ice from slowly grinding the mountains to dust. With a great amount of help from the elemental god of Earth they managed to do it; they were saved, at least for the time being.