Elder Theos
in CosmologyThe Age of Life
And so it came to pass that The Aura for reasons unknown created two lifeforms, and all of reality entered a new age, The Age of Life. Celestial time is different to mortal time, and so to mortals lifetimes passed as these lifeforms simply existed as infants would. They moved, they explored, and they learned what it was to be. As they started they started to grow, they developed feeling for each other. The children of the Aura felt a desire to be with the other. There was a fear in being alone that made the two grow closer and closer together. They explored together. They created together. They spent all their time in comfort and safety, never being alone.
The Void too created life, but the life it created was far less harmonious. These two beings wanted what the other had. Nothing was ever enough, and they spent the early days of their lives fighting, stealing, and bullying the other for dominance. Though they too did not want to be alone, they preferred loneliness to compromise.
Before long, more life joined the first ones. Again, the Aura made beings that desired companionship while the Void made life that desired to dominate. The younger Aura Born joined the firsts. They all had wildly different desires, likes, and dreams, but they all wanted to work to create peace and harmony above all else. The new Void Born were not so lucky. The older of their kin learned that they had grown in size and strength and they used their size to kill or dominate the younger of their kin.
And so reality started to grow. The warmth of the Aura seemed to encourage the beings around it to cooperate, making a society of balance, cooperation, and harmony. The coldness of the Void encouraged societies based on fear and terror.
But this balance would not last, and before long strife and tension would destroy the peace of the Aura and war would consume the beings that started as peaceful and cooperative. Though the corruption of the Void was blamed, the sadder fact remains that peace is difficult to maintain...
The Gods
The gods are the essence of power in the multiverse. They are credited with much of the creation and destruction throughout the realms, but no one seems to know where they came from. Their stories tend to contradict each others, the facts seem more like fabrication. Regardless of if one thinks them to be all powerful gods, or simply the longest lived powers in the multiverse, one thing is for certain: they are the most powerful force known.
Though there are many creation myths, the main ones on Cadilon begin with two forces of primal power: The Aura and The Void. From these powers came the first two gods in each reality, known as the Eldest. They are sometimes considered brother and sister and other times partners, and they are each other's perfect match and complete opposite. As'Meus, now known as the Tyrant, was seen as the force for order in the early days while his opposite Nal'Yea was seen as the force for freedom and chaos. War eventually erupted between As'Meus and Nal'Yea's followers. Though morals is how most of the gods divide themselves today, the first war was not between good and evil, it was between order and chaos.
No one knows for sure what happened to Nal'Yea. Her name is little more than a short mention in ancient holy texts of ancient deities. She has no known churches and grants no clerics or paladins powers. Her disappearance coincided with the end of Divine Wars. It is after these wars that the gods set their sights on a new project: The Mortal Realms.
The Theos
The gods themselves are apart of a race divide into two, the Aura Born and the Void Born. Most gods popular on Cadilon are Aura Born. They are cooperative and made mortals, and thus their connection to mortals and the mortal realms is strong. Outside the Mortal Realms, the gods are treated as more major political entities than metaphysical and mythological beings. They have a lot of power and influence, but are still quite physical and very political.
The gods have many relationships with themselves and the other powers in the outer sphere. Given their long lives and good memories, they have much stronger relationships with their kin, and their loving relationships and hateful grudges can last eons.
The most powerful of the Aura Born and the Void Born are collectively referred to as the Theos, a word that in older mortal tongues literally meant god. Theos to the beings of the outer realms is simply a title of respect and adoration one akin to emperor or king. The Theos have divided themselves into two distinct political ranks, the Elder Theos, which is comprised of the older and most powerful of the gods, and the Younger Rethos which are the younger and less powerful of the most powerful beings out there.