Ancient
History
The Mythos of Dafan
The wisest sages
have compiled a somewhat consistent history of the world, based
on the myths of the races. The “best” sources are Bards and Druids
of the Elves. Our oldest records are in the form of sagas, monolith
carvings and magically-preserved papers. The sagas are typically
about great persons; the carvings are often chronological listings
of monarchs, governments, and laws; while scrolls are more personal
summaries of events by clerics and magic users.
In the beginning, there were two deities: Azathoth (the sentience
of all Matter in the Universe), and Yog Sothoth (Time and Space).
As time progressed, new forces developed. Nodens arose as the Element
of Magic; as did the Messengers of the Deities and servant of Azathoth,
Nyarlat-hotep (“the Crawling Chaos” and “Howler in the Dark”).
Matter became four elements: Earth, Air, Fire and Water; and the
Element Deities known as the Great Ones served Azathoth. Water
was Cthulhu, Fire was Cthugha, Air was Hastur and Earth was Shub
Niggurath, who looked after life (as we know it) on the side. As
time went on, more lesser deities formed, as minions to those above.
The ones most mentioned in the sagas as the Other Gods (servants
of Azathoth), the Elder Ones (servants of Nodens), and Mother Hydra
(the ancestor of Dragon Kind). Many well-known deities such as
Corellon and Thor as thought to have been minions at this time also.
All went well for aeons, until rivalry set in. A cataclysmic war
developed between the four Matter Elemental Deities (Cthulhu, Cthugha,
Hastur and Shub Nigurath) and Nodens, the Elemental Deity of Magic.
The Great Old Ones and their servants and worshippers tried to cast
down Nodens. But Nodens and the Elder Ones subdued and imprisoned
the Great Old Ones.
Some manuscripts say that Cthulhu was imprisoned in His beautiful
city of R’lyeh, dead in a crypt with the Elder Sign (Nodens’ magic
holy symbol) on the door:
in his house in R’lyeh dead Cthulhu waits dreaming
Others say
that Cthugha was likewise imprisoned in the star Fomalhaut
and Hastur was imprisoned near Aldebaran
in the Hyades,
near Dafan itself. A strange couplet written in Sumerian (Astaran)
seems to refer to this:
That is not dead which can eternally lie
And with strange aeons even death may die.
On Dafan,
the worshippers of the various combatants also fought a horrendous
war, lasting many centuries. The victors (primarily the Elves)
drove the losers (primarily the Mind Flayers) underground. This
conflict was so drastic that for millennia afterwards most lesser
deities did not attend to Dafan (many were imprisoned anyway). Confusion
set in, races died off, and ice ages occurred. Elves fought Elves,
leading to the creation of a race of evil Elves, the Drow, who were
driven deep underground.
Eventually new minor deities and a few of the surviving deities
who worshipped the Great Ones or their associates arrived in this
part of the Universe, perhaps as refugees or to escape being imprisoned.
Those deities form most of the present pantheons. The Elves arose
again, and joined the Gnomes and Dwarves (and Orcs and Hobgoblins).
Human arose a while later, and the Hobbits. Our oldest written
records date back to this spring.
After
the Battle
After Nodens
and the Elder Ones defeated the Great Old Ones, they weren’t satisfied
with second-place so they decided to go after Azathoth and Yog Sothoth
. Records disagree on who won this battle. Some say that Nodens
and the Elder ones defeated Azathoth, but being unable to destroy
“Her”(?) without destroying all matter, instead used magic to rob
her of her senses, and thus her sanity. No mention is made of the
fate of Yog Sothoth.
Other manuscripts say that Nodens and the Elder ones were subdued
or defeated and lost some of their powers too. This is more likely
to be the case since tales and legends exist of certain time-and-space
travellers, who, using gates and spells, have encountered Yog Sothoth
and received aid and advice. Whether they had the wisdom to use
the advice properly was another matter.
It also seems that Shub Niggurath may have escaped (could She be
Danu/Rillifani?), and rumours have it that Nyarlat-hotep was for
the most part not imprisoned and that He still serves Azathoth.
An aside on Dwarves and Gnomes: these races (of common origin?)
are thought to be possibly as ancient as the Elves, yet seem to
have taken no part in the Old Wars. Dwarvish and Gnomish sources
are at a loss to explain why – possible explanations are an Elvish
ignorance of their aid, their being on the “wrong side,” or that
their deities kept apart from the conflict and their followers for
the most part followed suit.
Notes:
1. Write-up taken verbatum from the Original Blue Book, and written
sometime around 1982-1986 ...
2. Fomalhaut image taken by the Hubble Space Telescope.
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