Preface: The Titans
Ilisara acknowledges the presence of a Storyteller, DM, or Gamemaster in its canon lore. Entities of complete and total omnipotence and universal power are known as titans. Titans can create gods, planets, civilizations, and write history on a whim. They are supreme beings that break the fourth wall of Ilisara. Gods are the only ones who can acknowledge the titans. Most gods know that the titans are where they originated from. Regular mortals in Ilisara have no concept of higher life forms above the deities they worship.
The Gods
Long ago, four cosmic forces were created by the Titans. They were tasked with creating life. The original cosmic forces were:
Life (White): impulse, creation, freedom, adaptability, instinct, change
Death (Black): power, control, opportunism, deceit, pragmatism, sacrifice, results
War (Red): intellect, perseverance, determinism, chivalry, law, morality, honor, order
Peace (Blue): acceptance, community, cooperation, wisdom, indulgence, spiritualism
These primordial entities fought with one another for superiority. To exert their will upon existence was to gain power, and so they brought many worlds into existence and destroyed each others’ creations. They razed entire galaxies and rent apart the fabric of reality.
Eventually, these cosmic powers splintered into personalities known as gods. Gods were lesser beings. Their domains were limited to tangible aspects of creation, such as nature, water, earth, or the sun. Each god had different goals and ambitions. It was only when there were so many gods that none held the power to create life by themselves — the prime directive of their species — that they came together to form a divine pantheon. The pantheon strove to create one perfect world.
Ilisara was born.
At first, the pantheon suffered greatly from old rivalries and newborn naivety amongst its divine members. The gods created and destroyed continents, slaughtered entire species, and used the world as a cosmic playground for their will. Gods were killed. Gods were born. The Veil was created. Reality was torn apart once more. Chaos persevered. Still, their powers were limited to affecting Ilisara, a planet born of their combined power. This period of time is known as the God Wars.
It took centuries for the pantheon to create order. They eventually agreed upon rules of engagement for the world of Ilisara. Gods would not intervene in mortal folly. Gods would not subvert the free will of other gods. Gods would not undo the work of other gods. Centuries more passed before questions were asked by the deities; do we truly have purpose? Are we fulfilling it? Is our presence necessary? Why do we exist? As immortals, they had infinite time, knowledge, and power. The value of their existence was all they had left to ponder.
The pantheon sought a way to answer their questions and decided to enact a grand experiment. They created two crescent-shaped islands in the midst of a massive ocean, then shrouded the rest of the world to leave it untouched by divine influence. The gods vowed that they would compare the progress of life on the twin crescents to the rest of the world after an eon had passed. They would know, then, that their handiwork contributed to something greater than themselves, and that their existence was meaningful and necessary.
Civilizations, continents, magics, cults, technologies, and gods rose and fell throughout the twin crescents’ history. Great and powerful factions advanced from simple stone tools to solar-powered airships. Some mortals became immensely powerful sorcerers capable of bending reality the way the gods did. All of it ebbed and flowed with the gods’ gentle touch. The crescents were alive with a frenzy of activity. A long-lasting cycle of creation and destruction reigned.
Meanwhile, the rest of the world had lost its deities. The remnants of ancient civilizations battered by cosmic forces rebuilt. They slowly evolved, hastened not by divine suggestions but the desire to survive and thrive in Ilisara.
Each god picked a Chosen mortal to represent them in the twin crescents, and influenced the world through them. As new gods were born, the rules of engagement were bent and broken from time to time. Gods occasionally appeared to mortals in the flesh. Others ventured to the crescents in secret and caused incidents that rippled through time and space.
The protective barrier around the crescents prevented the gods from seeing beyond their curated islands. For a time, they simply encouraged the life they’d created to prosper. The secondary role that united them was guarding the Veil to prevent creatures from other universes from flooding into Ilisara.
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