The Dawn War

In the earliest age of Eldareth, gods still walked beside mortals, and the first civilizations rose beneath their gaze. Settlements became cities, roads crossed lands that had only recently known mortal footsteps, and the peoples of the young world began to establish nations of their own.

That early age of growth was interrupted by the awakening of the four Primordial Titans.

Created by Lyrael and bound to the four elements, the Titans had helped shape Eldareth before entering a long dormancy once their work was complete. When they awoke, they began reshaping the world once again. Why they resumed their ancient work remains unknown.

The Titans wielded power on a scale few beings could withstand. Wherever they passed, settlements were destroyed, armies scattered, forests burned, rivers changed course, and entire regions were reshaped by their passage.

Lyrael eventually confronted her creations herself. As the Elemental Matriarch, she commanded earth, fire, water, and air alike, and fought to halt the destruction spreading across Eldareth. The confrontation ended with Lyrael slain by the beings she had created.

The Fall of the Elemental Matriarch

Lyrael's death was felt far beyond the battlefield. Athael, unable to bear what she had witnessed, destroyed her own sight and would never see again. Yssarel withdrew into silence and, from that day onward, ceased to speak.

Feonar mourned in his own way. Fragments of Lyrael's divine essence had scattered across Eldareth with her death, and he gathered what pieces he could find. Rather than attempting to restore her, he guided portions of that essence elsewhere, uncertain of what might ultimately come from them.

Without Lyrael to oppose them, the Primordial Titans continued reshaping the lands before them. Settlements were abandoned before their arrival, elemental beings were driven from their homes, and regions already damaged by the fighting suffered further destruction.

The Titans showed no loyalty even to one another. Although they continued pursuing the same broad purpose, each followed its own elemental nature and methods, clashing with rival elements as readily as they attacked those who resisted them.

The Rise of the Primarchs

Far from the largest battles, four small elementals had taken refuge near a human village. It was there that fragments of Lyrael's essence, guided by Feonar, finally reached them.

The essence transformed the four, enlarging their forms and granting them far greater command over their respective elements. From that transformation arose Durnathar of Earth, Kyrion of Fire, Nerissa of Water, and Velora of Air, the four beings who would become known as the Primarchs.

Their connection to Lyrael gave them the means to oppose the elemental power of the Titans, but the four understood that they could not win such a war alone. Rather than immediately seeking battle, they began gathering those who had already suffered beneath the Titans' advance.

The Rallying of Eldareth

The Primarchs traveled across Eldareth calling upon its peoples to fight together. Among the first great powers to answer were the dragons, many of whom had already confronted the Titans and suffered losses of their own. Their flight, size, and elemental abilities gave the growing alliance weapons that ordinary armies could not provide.

The giants also joined the cause. Their strength allowed them to meet creatures far larger than most mortal soldiers could face, and they became an important part of the armies forming against the Titans.

The gods continued to oppose the Titans as well, but the conflict extended far beyond the battles fought directly against them. Settlements had to be defended, displaced populations protected, and the elemental creatures drawn into the fighting had to be confronted.

The Primarchs continued among the peoples of Eldareth, gathering humans, orcs, halflings, gnomes, and others whose homes stood in the path of the war. Elemental beings displaced by the Titans joined them as well. Peoples who had once defended their own lands separately now began preparing for the same campaign.

The months that followed were spent preparing for a war unlike any Eldareth had yet seen. The Primarchs shared what they understood of the Titans and the forces they commanded, while smiths and artificers worked alongside dragons, giants, elementals, and mortal craftsmen to arm the alliance.

Forges across Eldareth produced enchanted weapons, armor strengthened with rare metals and magic, and shields fashioned from dragon scales. Elemental power was bound into some of these arms so they could strike creatures that ordinary weapons could scarcely harm.

When the preparations were complete, the gathered armies marched against the Titans.

The War Against the Titans

The war that followed would come to define the age.

Dragons and giants fought at the front of the alliance, meeting the Primordial Titans where few others could survive. Behind and around them marched the armies of Eldareth, while Durnathar, Kyrion, Nerissa, and Velora confronted the Titans with elemental powers capable of countering their own. The gods continued to fight alongside the alliance, weakening and restraining the Titans wherever they could.

The cost was immense. Fortifications vanished beneath earthquakes, fires crossed battlefields and settlements alike, floods swallowed armies, and storms broke formations before they reached their enemy. Many regions touched by the Dawn War would bear its marks for generations.

The Primarchs kept the alliance concentrated, bringing its strength against the Titans rather than allowing its armies to be scattered across Eldareth. Dragons attacked from above, giants held ground below, and mortal forces fought the elemental armies surrounding the Titans, defended important positions, and pressed forward wherever openings could be made.

One by one, the Titans began to fall.

In the final battles of the war, the alliance succeeded in destroying the Titans permanently. The power contained within them survived their deaths, however, and portions of their elemental and divine essence passed into some of those who had fought against them.

The Birth of the Dragon Ascendants

Five of the eldest surviving dragons were changed by the power released from the fallen Titans: Nelashra, Ezavion, Nyladria, Syldaxa, and Yverian.

The transformation altered their forms and greatly increased their power. In time, they became known as the Five Dragon Ascendants.

Three great giant jarls were also affected. Thalkor, Saaktar, and Thorden each received a portion of the power released by the Titans, carrying that inheritance with them into the age that followed.

The destruction of the Primordial Titans brought the Dawn War to an end, but victory did not restore the world that had existed before it. Cities had fallen, populations had been displaced, and mountains, forests, rivers, and coastlines had been altered by the fighting. Lyrael was dead, and her loss had changed the surviving gods as surely as the war had changed Eldareth.

The peoples who had gathered to save the world now returned to what remained of their homes. Beside them, the Primarchs, Dragon Ascendants, giant jarls, and gods began determining what place they would hold in the world that followed.

From the ruins of the Dawn War, Eldareth began again.