Before the beginning the universe was comprised of an infinitely complex

collection of planes. Within these Universal Planes lived (and live) beings of thought and
power, moving as through as though the universe were one large ocean. It was,
however, to change completely all at once.
One entity, a being of such vast boredom that even the infinity of their universe
could not entertain them, decided one day that the Universal Planes needed to be
forever altered. Being of the border between Life and Knowledge, they gathered
material those planes they hoped would create the most interesting side effects. That
the other beings within the Universal Planes did not notice this activity only serves to
illustrate their intense absorption in their own activities. Then, with an effort of will and
a cleverness that the other entities could scarce believe, the being set to work. Thus
began the first work of Mialishe.
First, they crafted a pocket within the planes of existence, pushing and pulling
the intertwined links until a space, tiny in stature but assuredly not meant to exist,
came into being. It was so small, in fact, that most of the other entities in the Universal
Planes failed even to notice it. However, another did, and this entity came to
investigate. However, Mialishe, drawing on a cleverness gained from living so near the
Plane of Knowledge, hide the hole in the Universal Planes. The investigator left then,
none the wiser about what was about to change everything in existence.
You see, Mialishe, still bored, went back to creating and building. This time, they
filled the space with a thousand, thousand burning balls of gas, lighting the entire area
with magnificent radiance. They created patterns in those balls as they saw fit, truly of
a whim, whipping them into whatever caught their fancy at the time. Still their boredom
was not satiated. So it came to be that Mialishe chose one of those balls at random,
and threw other planar material at it. What they had been hoping to happen is anyones
guess, but the resultant explosion left a small area in this tiny hole in the universe with
large rocks orbiting that ball of fire. From here, Mialishe knew what to do.
On one of the rocks, they decided to place the remaining material they had
gathered. On it, they placed the stuff of the Plane of Elemental Water. So it was that
Mialishe found itself surprised that, when the essence touched the rock, it stopped
moving of its own accord. Instead, it seemed beholden to the two smaller rocks that
floated about the larger rock Even before Mialishes very eyes, the water seemed to
carve through the transformed material from the Plane of Essence, forming thin ribbons
across the land, between the peaks and in the deep valleys. Now, while Mialishe knew
of the strange interaction between the borders of the Universal Planes, never before
had they, or any other, seen such transformations as this. Thus, in a final experiment,
Mialishe cast forth essence from his own home, the essence of the Plane of Life.
 The Essence of Life, instead of becoming great monuments within the earth,
spread through all the land, the water, even formed the air of the rock, and with it
came the first blossoming of life on the previously barren rock. Slowly, slowly even for a
being that would live for eternity, the rock became covered in what could only be
described as a primitive, limited form of life. The world took on cycles of seasons, of
rains, and even the land developed a personality. And there, as Mialishe watched, rose
a great swathe of dead lands beside one of the peaks. The water, becoming more and
more caught in a routine cycle, failed to touch this place, which became burned by the
light of the sun which the world orbited. Even the Essence of Life failed to touch the
place, so great were the extremes of hot and cold. This caused Mialishe great sadness,
for everywhere else in the world existed thriving life; grass lands and great forests,
enormous fish within what would come to be known as the sea, even four-legged
animals had started to populate the land. Except there, in the patch of day-scorched,
night-frozen earth. And so Mialishe set off once again, leaving their experiment for a
few thousand years, and collected more of the Essence of Life.
When they returned, they found the world even more alive than before; a
thousand years had allowed the life there to flourish, covering all the land save the
great peaks and the dead swathe with abundant life of all kinds, filling the seas with
creatures great and small, all living within their own cycles and in perfect balance. And
Mialishe, so used to boredom as they were, was struck by the beauty, the complexity,
the simplicity of this balance, of this strange experiment turned universe defying
creation. And for the first time in their existence, they felt awe. And in this rapture, they
took the material they had gathered, and, carefully, they crafted a species that would
survive, even thrive, in the dead land. Though they did not understand this limited life,
they did their best to match the simple elegance and perfect balance the world had
taken on of its own accord. Thus, Mialishe did not create a creature already capable of
ruling the land, but instead they created a tiny speck of life, a creature small and hardy,
capable of thriving within a land with an apparent lack of life-sustaining necessitates.
And then Mialishe simply watched. For thousands upon thousands of years they
watched, never interfering, never touching their experiment, simply watching with rapt
attention and awe at the beauty they had inadvertently created. Sometimes they would
leave to ward other entities from the place, for they feared that others would interfere,
would wish to change this experiment, or worse, destroy it. For a time, they were
successful and their world thrived without interference. It was not to be forever,
however.
There came a time when Mialishe was called away from this small hole in the
universe, for what reason it is not known, but for tens of thousands, perhaps millions of
years, they were gone. When they returned the world was not as they had left it, and
no more was it a secret to the other entities. The life on the planet had changed,
growing more advanced, more sophisticated, and the creatures they had placed in the
dead lands were growing stronger, smarter. Still, the world remained in a harmonious
balance. However, other entities had found the hole, some fascinated by the thing that
defied universal order, others finding it abhorrent, others simply envious of the beings
creation. It was to this that Mialishe returned, watching in horror as other entities
placed creatures within the grasslands, under the mountains, in the great valleys of the
barren plains. Yet what they saw gave them hope, for the other entities had not created
imbalance as they had feared, but simply added creatures and creations much as
Mialishe had, and left them be. However, it was those others, those that were envious
or found the creations abhorrent, that these creators, these True-Gods as they would
become known, now had to fear. For they had discovered this hole, and together,
decided that it must forever be destroyed for fear of the safety of the universe.
Moreover, they planned to seal the hole with the lives of those that had created and
added to it. Thus began the first, and last, war of the Universal Planes.
You see, it was not through a fluke of luck or mere chance that Mialishe had
created the world and molded life, nor those that did so after them. These were beings
of great strength and immense power, as well as the will and the cleverness to wield it.
Though those others that sought the destruction of the hole were greater in number,
the creators were powerful and clever, and fighting for a beauty that no other could
hope to understand. While many of the beings of the universe simply watched, caring
not for either side, the groups clashed in a cosmos shafting conflict. Even still, others of
the Universal Planes, unwilling to involve themselves in the war, but fascinated by the
created world, descended to such. These beings, later known as the Planes-Gods, found
areas which best fit their own homes and personalities, and became keepers of those
places or things, ignoring utterly the mortals. So came to the world such gods as Shal,
Loth, Kalumte, Nimmoth, and many others. So came into being as well, with the arrival
of Kalumte, the dragons of the north, though that is a tale for another time.
With the power of their planes of origin, these beings set at each other, molding
the fabric of reality to their will in an attempt to succeed. But the creators were clever,
and instead of meeting their enemies head on, set a trap for them. For they knew that
their few numbers would eventually be defeated. The creators took to their gifts of will
and thought, and molded the universe to their will for a good cause. They had created
a rift, a rivening in the fabric of the universe, through which they hoped their enemies
would fall. They disguised this as a hole much like that in which the world lay, and
waited. When the time was right, they faced their enemies in great battle, scattering
the forces of the universe to great distances before retreating as though beaten. The
others, tasting victory and destruction, chased after them eagerly. And so the trap was
sprung, the enemies of the creators falling into the rift in the universe, falling to a
reality between the planes they all knew, to a place black and empty and unknown. The
creators sealed the rift after that, expending much of their strength to ensure that their
enemies, and the enemies of the world, would never return. Thus came to be those
known as the Riftfallen, enemies to all mortals, seeking for eternity to corrupt and
malign mortal forces against itself.
The True-Gods returned then, to the world one had shaped and all had molded
and helped protect, exhausted but victorious. What they found inspired such awe and
shock that the Universal Planes shook with it. The world they had left, full of long lived
life as well as the new forms each had added, had changed once more. Where once
was a world ruled by wildlife and plants, now they found their own creations ruling.
Small tribes of people, later to be known as humans, travelled the grasslands hunting
and building small settlements, but never disrupting the balance of the lands. Great
groups of the people of the deep valleys, later to be known as the Pelaanier for the
name that land would be given, had climbed from their warm, fertile valleys to conquer
the unforgiving plains. And they had succeeded, building great cities that protected and
invited others, and always maintaining the balance of the world. Under the great peaks
grew and thrived the people that would become the Dwarves, burrowing and building
deep beneath the earth, forming great tunnels and greater cities to house their entire
people, and always maintaining the balance of the world, while their neighbors, the
Orcs expanded as well, building compounds and training grounds as well as tribal
territories. Those second creatures of Luliander, the Elves, had grown beyond even the
great southern forest, expanding to the coast of the sea in the East. Even there, in the
dead lands the first being had looked upon so sadly, stood the race he had created, the
strong, hardy people that would be the Gnomes had conquered the sands, and built
cities in the heart of the desert, had thrived as a people and found ways to pull
resources from the sand and air itself to survive. Though even from the Gnomes had
come another race, for those that did not wish to remain in the desert had departed,
and after so long a time had changed much from their people of yore, growing to
become Halflings that joined the humans in the great grasslands and the Elves along
the coast. And Tieflings, born of parents touched by the demonic forces of the Lesser
Planes that even now some mortals could touch, settled among the humans and
attempted to live lives of peace and balance, for the most part. So came all of the races
of the world to be and to live in their natural places.
When their creations looked up and saw their creators, the great beings of the
Universal Planes, they each and all rejoiced at the sight and named them True-Gods.
Each in their own tongue and in their own ways knew their creators by sight, and called
upon them with joy. They held great feasts defined by each people and invited the
beings to join them. And in every land that held their creations, the gods came to the
world, finding their forms constrained and restricted by the strange machinations of this
world outside the Universal Planes. There they ate and made merry with their people,
with their creations, and as the sun, for so their people had come to call it, rose, they
left this place to their people, promising to watch over them and ensure their safety
from the rest of the universe, and their people rejoiced. And yet, more gods remained
among the created lands, many unknown to the True-Gods or the mortals, content to
remain among that which most pleased them. But even these Planes-Gods could feel
the hatred of the Riftfallen stretching toward the world, ever seeking its end. Why the
True-Gods failed to notice, or chose to ignore this is unknown to all but the True-Gods
themselves.
In the fullness of time, the final True-God returned to the world. Beleoch, who
had fallen during the Rift War, returned to the people of the world, a changed god.
Whence they had gone and why they returned is for Beleoch to explain, but in their
return, Beleoch brought peace to the death of mortals, becoming lord over the halls of
the dead. It would not be for a thousand and more years until Beleoch disappeared
again, this time without explanation.
Thus came to be the world and all that lives within it, as well as the True-Gods,
their great enemies the Riftfallen, and those gods who care nothing for mortal affairs,
the Planes-Gods.