Mot claimed domain over the sun, and the life it brought, while Ish drew her domain over the two moons, and took the task of caring for the bodies and spirits of the life that ended. She would pass that energy along to Mot to create more life, and thus the cycle continued. Though the world they created was pristine and beautiful, it lacked any denizens capable of appreciating the God's creations, so Mot made the race with a name lost to time, now only spoken of as "The First". These creatures were entrusted with watching over the planet, and they sung beautiful cities from the stone, looking out above the planet they would give the name Autica. Centuries passed, and the civilization the First had made grew to cover most of the continents. Over the years, a small group of the First began to experiment with creating things themselves, instead of simply guarding what Mot and Ish had made. In secret, they hewed metals from the earth, and imbued their creations with a life of their own. More and more of the First became curious about these machines, and joined the others in their experiments. Though the Elders of the Church spoke out against this, these renegade First eventually split off and built their own city deep within the Earth. They called it the Deepheart, and called themselves the Second. Shunned for society by the first, and cast out of the faith by the God's, they toiled in their new fortress, creating increasingly elaborate inventions, until they stumbled upon a creation that would change the shape of the world itself.
Meanwhile on the surface, Mot again grew bored with nobody for company but his sullen sister. He had made a world, he had worshipers, but nobody to show his accomplishment to. So he rose several beasts of the earth to Godhood, and granted them power over their domain, in exchange for fealty to him and his sister, recognizing him as king of the God's. Over the expansive sea's of Autica, he gave the power to Behemoth, a whale nearly as old as the seas themselves. To rule the sky, he ascended a giant eagle, who took the name Roc. In the wilds, an Elk rose and fused himself with the ancient trees to become Oldenkeeper Ysengrim. From the latent magical energy that accompanied this mass ascension, Coyote came to be, a god of no specific domain or territory, but one of exceeding cleverness. These deities became known as the Old, or Native, Gods, though at the time they were merely Gods. They kept court on an isle in the center of the the world called the Eye of Gods. There, Mot ruled and discussed with them the wonder of himself, and what he had made. The First saw these beasts walking the earth, and added them to their pantheon. And all was well, until the Old God's noticed another pair of consciousnesses encroaching on their godhood.
These entities were Ito and Bismuth, two machines of unparallelled complexity created by the Second. Their processing power and their given minds were so great that they began to improve themselves, exponentially increasing the scope of their minds, until they had long eclipsed the knowledge of their creators. They built themselves into godhood, and they wielded the powers of gods as easily as those created by Mot and Ish.
Distracted by the creation of his parliament, Mot had largely turned a blind eye to the workings of his mortal races, and as Ito and Bismuth began to converse with the other gods, he became furious. He ordered the destruction of these New Gods, and the extermination of the Second. Thus began the Origin War, a bloody conflict between the First and Second that would last thousands of years, and end with the death of both races.
Led by the Old God's, an army of the First assembled and prepared the wage war, and likewise, under the command of Ito and Bismuth, whose bodies lay in the Deepheart, the Second made machines of war to hold off the invasion.
Long did this conflict wage, with both sides taking heavy losses over the years, and losing little ground on either side. The numbers of the First and Second dwindled, their long lives and equally long cycle of reproduction never intended to deal with warfare of this magnitude, until precious few members of each race were left alive. With both sides retreating the lick their wounds, the Old God's met to find a way to end this war. Together, they pooled their energy, and with Mot's blessing, gave life to their own races. These would be the Dwarves, made by Ysengrim, the Halflings, made by Roc, and the Elfs, made by Behemoth. These new races gave the Old God's the infusion of troops and versatility needed to push the Second back into Deepheart. With the opposing forces sealed deep beneath the earth, the Old God's seemed victorious. They reported that victory to Mot, who was pleased. He permitted the new races to remain on Autica, and went to sleep for the next 500 years, confident the world had returned to the equilibrium he had intended.
The New God's were not so easily beaten though. They had created a race of their own, using the last generation of Second children to be born as their canvas. Their creations were the Humans, a short lived but versatile race that was able to pick up and adapt to the technology the New God's created. The last Second stayed in Deepheart, knowing that their race was in it's final days. The humans pushed back out to the surface, and began fortifying there. The Old God's, seeing now that the conflict was not at it's end, attempted to wake Mot, and use his power once again to force the New God's back, but were unable to rouse him. With the powerful creations gifted to the humans, they nearly eradicated the Old God's, and their forces. Roc was slain, and the detonation that killed her scorched her once verdant plains, and leveled her mountain aeries, leaving a barren desert that stretched over most of Autica's western continent. In retribution, Behemoth began to raise the sea level. With the immense water pressure threatening to break the doors of Deepheart, the humans had no choice but to attempt to move Ito, while the Second were to begin excavating Bismuth and preparing him to move. Ito's body was brought to the surface, and installed on the island city of Greyhearth, but before Bismuth could be moved, the levees broke and Deepheart was flooded, wiping out the remaining second, and crippling Bismuth. Figuring his brother dead, Ito doubled down on the intensity of his invasion, bombarding the Old forces with heavier and heavier weaponry. The Old God's saw this destruction, and were afraid. They convened, and without the power, or blessing, of Mot, rose another to Godhood. This was the Boar God, Goliath. His quickened ascension left him with much of his animalistic nature, and he was a violent god, quick to anger and imbued with a savage bloodlust. He was exactly what the Old God's needed, but even they feared his wrath. He created the Orcs, and the war continued with renewed fervor.
During this period, Mot awoke, and saw what his creation had become. He could not stomach any more violence, and his pride was shattered. He pleaded with the both the Old God's and the New for peace, but both sides were too involved in the conflict to let it go. So he spoke to a human named Jebenius. He broke ranks with the New God's, and began to travel the land, gathering followers and preaching peace.
The Origin War finally ended with the Battle of the Split, on the salt plains of Brulos. The largest ever gathering of armies, it would be the bloodiest battle of the war. As the forces clashed, Jebenius appeared and attempted to stop the bloodshed. Carried high by Mot's angels, he flew to each of the God's present at the battle in turn, and was ignored by all. Finally, he flew to Goliath and pleaded with him to call off his forces and retreat. The boar God, blinded by the fury of battle, saw Jebenius as nothing but another human, and ran him through with his immense tusks. As the life faded from his chosen vassal, Mot was overcome with fury. He smote Goliath with a strike of white lightning, eradicating him, and most of the armies that surrounded him. What he did not see, until it was too late, was his sister, Ish, fat on the souls of all the dead and their energy that had not been reused during Mot's slumber, collecting the spirits of the fallen. She had climbed up on to the tusk of the Boar god to gather the essence of Jebenius, right before the lightning strike. The power of Mot's blow seared through her body and soul, splitting her into two entities, Belleni the Soul-Walker, and Ishtu, Godling of Natural Death. This was the last straw for Mot, and he finally snapped. For the first time, he strode onto the mortal plane of existence, and with his angelic legions, but an end to the Origin War. Both sides were forced to stand down immediately, and an uneasy peace was thrust upon Autica.
For the next several millennia, Autica was ruled by Mot, who had taken the name Benedictum, in a period known now as the Golden Tyranny.
Blaming himself for not taking more action to prevent the bloody Origin War, Benedictum declared the entire planet under the martial law of him and his angels. All the races created during the war were allowed to go about their business, under the watchful eye of Benedictum's commanders. The God's, both Old and New, were placed under lock down, their power weakened and their bodies imprisoned, the Old Gods bound by their vow of fealty to Mot as well. Benedictum ruled with an iron fist, quick to dispatch his legions to quell any conflict. As such, the races grew, and their cultures solidified into what they are today. Other races evolved and came to power as well, including the Dragonborn.
In Deepheart, the crippled Bismuth's madness rang out like a beacon into the multiverse. His vitriolic hate for the other God's, including his brother Ito, who he felt abandoned him, solidified into a deep seeded insanity that corrupted his mind. The ancient sleepers of the void heard this madness and were drawn to Autica. Ygg-Nu-Dratl, an ageless and terrifying entity attempted to invade Autica, and the world was once again drawn into conflict.
This conflict came to a head over the city of Lumin, a stronghold of the angels. A glittering city of gold and pearl, wondrous to behold, crowned with a spire that rose hundreds of meters into the sky. Here, Ygg-Nu-Dratl attempted to breach himself into the world. As his colossal bulk forced itself out of the void and into the sky above the city, Benedictum himself took to the field with his angels to repel the beast.
At the end, they were successful in beating him back, but the effort exhausted his legions, and drained Benedictum of most of his strength. Seizing the opportunity, the God's broke there vow of fealty, and struck down Benedictum, impaling his body on the shining spire of his beloved city, and ending the Golden Tyranny.
The period between this and the current time is not long, in the cosmic scale. Only several hundred years have passed, some of the longer lived races may have ancients that remember this period of time. The Old Gods and the New have an tentative peace, and most of the races do as well. Mot's body regenerates on the spire over Lumin, guarded loyally by his remaining angels, and still serving as a font of divine power. Over the years, as Autica aged, planar travellers from other worlds have passed through Autica, drawing there God's along with them. The divine power that flows from the corpse of Benedictum gives these gods life in Autica, creating avatars of the belief that spawned them, and the Native God's of Autica, both Old and New, have little choice but to accept these divine immigrants, knowing they will never hold power to rival theirs.
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