The Corruption and the End of the First Age
Even the most ardently secular scholar among us does not dispute that there were other races before man. The reasons for their disappearance, as well as the legends regarding their powers, are the main areas of debate. According to the beliefs of the Cult of Rankar, the first people to gain sentience in the Maat were the Theodoti, who were erroneously referred to as the Gods in many heretical texts. Certainly they were a powerful people; in their veins flowed ichor, and they lived lives far longer than creatures today. Some sources claim that they were of a gigantic stature, and that they possessed magic surpassing that of even the most powerful wizard of our days. It is surmised that they discovered more than one piece of Rankar, which would explain their semi-divine status (though the Cult will bristle at my choice of words). After eons, the civilization of the Theodoti collapsed during a civil war. The Corruption, as it would later be called, is thought to have originated during these mythical days. The reason for the war is unknown, but the Corruption was the result of a defilement of one of the pieces of Rankar, for from the pieces the Theodoti drew their power. The Corruption spread to all the pieces of God that the Theodoti had in their possession, and their powers lessened, and many of them died, and those that survived retired to the deep places of the world, becoming monsters and lesser things. The vicious Barbarian God Prax is hypothesized to have been a fallen Theodoti, or at least based upon one such individual. All of this is speculation and relies upon sources that may as well be apocryphal. What truly happened in the early days of the world is lost. What is known is that the Corruption survived the First Age, and that it ended the Second Age as well. Who knows what will happen in the last days of our world?
From Tales and Legends of Set
No comments:
Post a Comment