8600 BCE: The Catastrophe

Mortem, the Power of Death, touched the strings sometime in the last age, and a distantly drifting stone in space began falling to Urthe. As the asteroid grew nearer, it gained momentum. Much smaller than the planet Urthe, the shooting star was immense nonetheless.

As the meteor hit the atmosphere of Urthe, there was a great flash of light. A thunderous boom, and a shockwave, descended instantly to the surface of the Urthe, utterly destroying the land of Knod. Quakes rippled forth throughout the entire globe, and the lands of Urthe fractured and began to drift apart. The Urthe itself begins to spin, and the cycle of day and night as we know it begins.

The massive impact of the moon melted much of the frozen wastes, and raised the oceans and caused an epic event known as “The Great Quake.” Forests died, lakes and rivers dried, and lands turned to desert. The landscape, until then one large continent, has now rent itself from the force of the impact, forming seperate landmasses. The surface of Urthe is torn asunder.

The great stone itself, however, did not crash into the surface of the Urthe, but somehow was repelled, and came to be locked in an orbit around the planet.

Some surviving Orcs began to breed with Goblins, producing the first of the new Hobgoblin species in some matings, and in others, the first of the Kobolds [female goblins and male orcs made kobolds, while female orcs and male goblins made hobgoblins]. Some Ogre tribes, threatened and isolated by flooding, evolved into an aquatic breed known as Merrow. One small Ogre group of elite Ogre kings became isolated on a small island, but rather than turn to the sea as the Merrow had, their descendents remained on land and evolved into the rare breed known as Ogre Magi.

Some of these subterannean Orcs had even evolved into a new species of creature: the first of the Bugbears.

The young Urthe was hit by a primordial celestial body half the size of Mars. The projectile blew the ruinous lump of rock and stone that used to be Knod out into the void. The impacting iron behemoth burrowed deep into the Earth, only to bounce back again.

Yet escape was out of the question. The core of the celestial body, rich in iron, was swallowed by the much heavier Urthe, and sank to its centre. The remainder was flung out to space, together with vast quantities of debris from the land of Knod.

The Force of the Moon appeared, and set the displaced, lifeless ruins of the former Orc lands in safe orbit as the

moon above, relieving the utter blackness that had descended over the land. The Force of Darkness continued to battle both Sun and Moon for control of the world. They still do battle over Urthe, high in the heavens above, where the moon lies lifeless still, barren outside of the Force of Nature’s influence.

The newly-born moon cast a strange spell over some rare individual animals at this time, mutating these wild creatures into the first of the natural Lycanthropes.

During this 2^ndAge, The seas were still rising from The Great Melt of the 1^stAge. The Dwarves felt the quaking of the Urthe, and did not venture out of their caverns, but explored the depths of their mountain homes, as the Elves had explored the surface world before them. The Dwarves eventually found the messages of friendship the Elves had left in the deep caves, and decided to carve their own messages of friendship in the stone, back to the unknown Elves. Meanwhile, the Elves had begun to form permanent cities as they retreated from tumultuous coastal areas, towards high ground. Many Forces were active upon the Urthe, giving rise to new races, and new inspirations. The Elves mastered agricultural principles (though they still rarely ‘farmed’, preferring to let nature run its own course, with their loving assistance), and had domesticated some animals (mainly pigs, goats, and bees) for their products, and some animals for companionship (breeding cooshee, training birds, and teaching a few Hsing-sing apes to walk upright, etc.). Knowledge was still passed down through oral traditions, but the Elves began to write in earnest late in this age, creatings some legendary works of lore that stand as classic tomes to this day.

In this age the Elven line began to diverge into the main distinct ethnicities we know today: the High Elves, Grey Elves, and Wild Elves. While the Grey Elves built walled cities of stone, the Wild Elves focused on the natural land and its creatures, and the High Elves developed crafts and handiworks, advanced pottery, trade, and seafaring during this time. Some of the great ships of this Age are still in use by the Elves today.

Aom looked on…