History of Wildemount

The continent of Wildemount has undergone many ages of discovery, conflict, and renewal. These bygone eras are more than ancient history. Whether the people of Wildemount know it or not, the struggles they face in their daily lives were set in motion by the turbulent events of past ages. This section explores this history and the major figures whose actions shaped the physical and cultural landscape of Wildemount.

Myth of Exandria

Life ever seeks to understand its inception. Every civilization has its own interpretation of where its story began. Even within the world of Exandria, different cultures have creation myths that eventually converge with recorded history, but there is no universally accepted story. Even so, the ancient city of Vasselheim on the distant continent of Othanzia is largely considered to be the oldest surviving city, having endured a terrible war that wiped out most of civilization nearly a thousand years ago. Vasselheim houses the earliest known temples to the gods, as well as the earliest known records of history that survived this catastrophic war.

The most widely accepted tale of the world’s origins is the myth of the Founding. This is the interpretation held and embraced within most of Wildemount, as well as the vast lands of Exandria as a whole.

The Founding

Long ago, this world was one of tumultuous and chaotic forces, naught but unbridled fires and churning, jagged rock. Through the ashen skies of Creation Primordial, the gods came from beyond the ether, new and formless. Looking on this roiling realm, they saw potential for great beauty, great strength, and the chance to learn their own place in creation.

Thus, divine hands birthed the First Children, the elves, who embodied beauty and grace, to walk the verdant Green and know the music of the Blue. A second creation was wrought: the dwarves, a hearty people intent on taming the land, filled with the craft and invention of the divinity beyond the ashen void. A third people were given life: the humans, endowed with hearts of passion that burned as brightly as their spans of life were short, and infused with the need to celebrate and laugh.

Other creations followed as the many races of Exandria were given form from the boundless inspiration the of the protean gods. These Children of Creation walked the land and, as their knowledge grew, attempted to build on it. But the land was fierce and treacherous, and the children were dashed on the rocks and consumed by the elements. Sorrow filled the hearts of the gods as these first races struggled against a land that did not want them, and the children looked to their creators for guidance and protection. Thus, the gods gave to them gifts, lending their own power to their children to create and shape the world around them; these were the first divine magics.

With these magics, the various peoples learned to bend the angry earth to their will: to temper the flames that burst through the ground, to tame the floods that threatened their abundance, and to turn seedling into fruit and beast into meal. Language became commonplace, culture was born, and governance replaced anarchy. The protean creators, the divinity beyond the ashen skies, saw progress and saw that it was good, yet fragile and in need of guardians.

Thus were born the First Protectors: the Dragons Metallic of Exandria, who safeguarded the gentler races. The realm grew quieter, the people multiplied, and new beings were given form and life. As culture grew, and the people further understood the world around them, they also looked up to their creators and gave them worship, gave them form, gave them title and purpose.

But this realm did not wish to be tamed. Quaking cliffs roared in defiance. Seas swelled and swallowed. Flames erupted from the land. Beneath the elements, unknown to the Creators beyond the ashen skies, lived ancient beings who had already claimed this world as their home: the Primordials. These great elemental titans that once dwelt deep within the world now rose from their unseen domain to sunder the land once more. The gods watched as their children, their joy, were flung against the broken rocks or fed to formless terrors unleashed by the destruction. Demonic entities spilled from the umbra of the Abyss to feast on the carnage, called forth by the violence and released to pick the carrion clean.

Some gods were so full of grief and anger that they wished to leave this world behind and start anew. They tried to convince their divine kindred to join with the Primordials, allowing chaos to reclaim the realm. Other gods wished to remain and subdue the Primordials, to tame the land for the sake of their creations. Thus was created a divide among the gods. Celestial sentinels once dedicated to battling the chaotic forces of the Abyss now fell to hate and tyranny, forging new hells under a fallen angel now claiming lordship over all the realms of sulfur and brimstone.

The Creators that remained, wishing to salvage their home, their creations, and their realized selves, were forced to take up arms and learn to protect that which they valued most. They organized their followers and taught them how to draw from the powers of creation on their own: to build, to change, and to destroy, all without the aid of divine power. Mortals learned to defend themselves through practices such as alchemy or by bending the very fabrics of existence, though on a smaller scale than that of their creators.

This gift was the knowledge of arcane magic, which the good children used to drive away their traitorous kin, banish the turned Creators to their own prison-like planes, and ultimately destroy the Primordials, scattering the chaotic elements to their own planes of existence. The world was at peace for the first time since its creation, and the first real civilization took root and grew into a grand city called Vasselheim. The Cradle of Creation. The Dawn City.

Culture developed anew, the races ventured forth to discover and explore their own lands, and great music filled the air to give a name to this world once and for all: Exandria.

Age of Arcanum

Over time, some of the people of Exandria grew arrogant. Seeing their arcane gifts as proof that the gods held no sway over their fate, a belief developed that, with enough understanding, they too could become as powerful as the gods. Many began to shun faith in favor of their own pursuits. Though this hurt and surprised the Creators, they understood the willfulness of their children and endured out of love and hope for redemption.

Great kingdoms sprung up across Exandria. Castles were built in a day, accelerated by the arcanists’ newfound power. Erudite cities hovered and drifted through the skies, shifting under the direction of scholarly magi to wherever their interests took them. Even though magic could be used to complete the most difficult tasks with hitherto unknown speed, magic-users strove always to innovate. As mages practiced and perfected their powers of creation, they soon unlocked the secrets of life itself, giving birth to wondrous, dangerous new creatures and power. Powerful archmages such as Vecna the Whispered One and Halas Lutagran began to carve their paths into history during this era of unbridled magical experimentation.

The advent of the arcane seemed to be the key to a bountiful age of plenty but also proved to threaten it, as prosperity soon gave way to greed. Petty squabbles erupted over resources and wealth among the elite, while the rumor of immortality through perfected arcanum began to drive the greatest mages wild with a lust for unending power. One mortal mage, her name either lost or struck from history, crafted now-forbidden rites to challenge the God of Death, felling him and taking his place among the pantheon, making her the first and only mortal to ascend to godhood. The archmage Vespin Chloras was inspired by this display. Driven by his hunger, he sought the guidance and power of the banished gods, rending open the gates of their prisons and releasing the betrayers into the mortal world.

During their imprisonment, these gods of hatred and despair twisted their prison into their own image, spawning unthinkable horrors that lived only to transform peace into suffering, and righteousness into arrogance and greed. The Nine Hells and the Abyss began to push their way into Creation. The Betrayer Gods and their hateful children discovered a world unspoiled, save for the avarice of mortals. The urge to ruin was now replaced with the desire to dominate, and the Betrayer Gods began by turning on the mage who freed them, making Archmage Vespin their first thrall. This corrupted divinity sought out the remnants of their offspring, scattered across the world, and created a mighty and terrible new kingdom on the plains of Xhorhas, at the far end of the world from Vasselheim—Ghor Dranas.

In this land of evil, where the twisted power of the lower planes seeped into Exandria, the lords of darkness tainted the minds of mortals, hungrily welcoming those who had lost their way, and offering great promises and boons to hearts easily swayed. These poisonous seeds found fertile ground in the hearts of mortals obsessed with the unlimited power of the arcane. With a legion of the damned behind them, the Betrayer Gods soon made their presence known to the world with an assault on Vasselheim itself.

Though much of the city was reduced to rubble, Vasselheim weathered the initial assault, saved by the intervention of the Prime Deities themselves, who descended to trade blows with their former brethren. The battle between divinity and mortals, between heroes and demons, raged ceaselessly for twenty days and nights until the dark forces, their surprise attack thwarted, were finally forced to retreat.

Evil was repulsed momentarily, but with the revelation of such a terrible foe, a dangerous arcane arms race began. Trust was shattered indefinitely: if mortals could fall under the sway of the Betrayer Gods, who was an ally? If ruin like this could be unleashed under the watchful eyes of the gods, how were they relevant? Not trusting any but themselves, the self-interested and singular humans reforged their instruments of celebration into instruments of incredible power—artifacts that could be wielded by worthy heroes. The dwarves’ fascination with rock and earth turned toward isolation as they burrowed deeper into the mountains, using their divine gifts to animate legions of autonomous golems to protect their ancestral halls. Elves used their understanding of creation’s beauty and intricacies to weave spells of unimaginable destructive force, the likes of which Exandria had never seen before.

For the first time since the Primordials were destroyed, the focus of magic was warfare. The gods themselves agreed to join their children on the field of battle, descending from the heavens to take up arms once more for the war now referred to as the Calamity.

The Calamity

The battlefields of the catastrophic showdowns of the Calamity were scattered across Exandria, but it was Wynandir that suffered the full destructive powers of the gods. Divided by the Ashkeeper Peaks, the fields of Wynandir were once home to several powerful ruling houses, squabbling over their own goals before being drawn into either side of the conflict of the gods, or abstaining for their own reasons. The immensity of power wielded by the Prime Deities and Betrayer Gods was enough to wound the landscape for eons, and the irresponsible use of arcane knowledge developed by the mortals ensured the ruin of their own legacy.

Little record remains of the terrible war, but its effects are still felt today. The sheer magnitude of the energies unleashed in the ensuing battles by gods and mortals alike was enough to fray the boundaries holding back the elemental chaos, spilling unbridled destruction into the world. It completely rearranged the known flow of magical ley energy across Exandria. The dark kingdom of Ghor Dranas was reduced to ash, but the conflict devastated Exandria’s peoples, razing entire cities and inspiring in many a desire to flee from this plane of existence entirely. So great was the loss of life during the war that historians believe no more than a third of Exandria’s population survived, leaving only one remaining bastion of civilization: the Dawn City, Vasselheim.

The world entered a long, dark period of regrowth. The Betrayer Gods were banished once more to their realms of deception and hate, but the threat of their return weighed heavily on the world. The Prime Deities felt that their involvement in mortal conflict was to blame for the cataclysmic damage inflicted on Exandria. They knew that while the divine gateways were left open, the prison planes that held the banished Betrayers would remain imperfect and temporary.

Thus, hoping to ensure that such ruin would not befall Exandria again, they left their children to fend for themselves. The Creators returned to their own realms, dragging both Betrayer and abomination with them and sealing the pathways to the mortal realm behind them with the Divine Gate. Only in this way could they prevent their corrupted brethren from physically returning to the material plane. Sadly, for the Prime Deities, this action also carried with it a self-imposed sentence of exile. The Creators would henceforth never be allowed to visit their creation.

The disappearance of the gods is known by many names: the Second Spark for those who study the arcane, and the Penance for those who seek closeness to their gods. The most common name for this time of warfare and divine separation is the Divergence, and it marked the end of the Age of Arcanum.

Much time has passed since, and the world has been reborn once again. The gods still influence and guide from beyond the Divine Gate, bestowing knowledge and power on their worshipers, but the path of mortals is now their own to make. New cities, kingdoms, and cultures have retaken the world, building over the ashes of the old. New songs fill the air, and the hope of a brighter future drives people day after day, while buried ruins and ancient relics remind all people of a darker time of mistakes that should never be repeated.