Mortals

Mortals are Living Creatures with a limited life span. They were created variously by the gods of the Second Ennead, the Foundational Divinities and the Highborn (the Giants and the Dragons.)   After Rin the Moundbuilder and Mar the Wavemaker divided the world between the land and the waters, shaping the mountains and the valleys, the rivers and the seas, Teb the Strifebringer loosed the Otherfire to create volcanoes and earthquakes which would reshape the world eternally. By so doing, they created time, and thus the life created from then on was always finite, subject to growth and change.   The first mortal things were the oozes, created by Jeh the Lifegiver as a basic proof of concept, simple of functioon, mindless and instinctual.   Tro the Greenraiser refined this creation in the plants, which had complex forms, but were still without thought.   Next came the beasts, gifted with thoughts - be they ever so simple - and movement. Ahr the Water's Gift created the beasts that swam, and Gen the Wingshaper those that flew. Het the Hoofcraftercreated the land beasts that fed on plants, while Con the Toothsharpener created all that hunted them.   During the War of Fires, the infernal armies of VA tried to storm the world. They were opposed by new creations: The 999,999 celestials, but also the Dragonborn and the Giant-Kin and Giantings.   Once the fiends were driven back into the Ash, life on Galath flourished. Rin grew proud of the Second Ennead's work, boasting that it was better than anything done by their parents. With reckless hubris, he challenged the Foundational Divinities to create something equal to their living things.   In response, Noc, Aku, Tet and Aea created the Firstborn, gifted with intelligence as well as life, and in turn challenged the Second Ennead to produce an equal to that. To their credit, Rin, Mar and Teb were able to create the genies, the sea peoples and the fey, but Rin was willing to swallow his defeat. Teb, however, presented the Foundational Divinities with a long list of the Firstborn's flaws, and challenged them to do better.   The myths of the Firstborn call Teb a liar,who tricked the gods into producing inferior work. Those of the Secondborn say that the second challenge gave the gods the chance to make good on their errors.   This category includes:

• Oozes
• Plants
• Beasts
• Sympatic Lineages
• Jotnar
• Some, but not all, Fae and Gauthics