The Primordial Age for Shadowdark

And so the Primordial Age ended, and the gods fled. In their place rose mortals, and they scattered the earth with their shining kingdoms and lost ruins…

This is a speculative timeline of the Primordial Age.

Timeline

Relative to the wider multiverse, time in the Shadowdark worlds passes more slowly and more irregularly.

In the greater multiverse the Primordials disappeared 14000 years ago. Within the Shadowdark the Primordial Age ends somewhere around 1500 years before “now”. Thus anything from the wider multiverse may show up.

Historians of the Shadowdark worlds divide time into four ages:

1. The Primordial Age when the Primordials and less nameable things ruled the worlds.
2. The Mythic Age when the Primordials and other Mythic Powers retreated, leaving the worlds for man to explore and exploit.
3. The Legendary Age when great empires rose, Saint Terragnis walked the worlds, and brave adventurers banished the Shadowdark into the deep places of the world.
4. The Twilight Age when the empires fell apart into squabbling city-states and kingdoms, and the Shadowdark crept from its holes to menace mankind.

They predict a fifth “Nightfall” age to begin soon.

The Primordial and Mythic Powers

The following multiversal civilizations impinged upon the Shadowdark worlds. Others touched upon the Shadowdark, but only these seven left their permanent marks.

Ancients / Builders

The Builders, often called the Ancients, left numerous examples of buildings made from a substance almost like stone which does not scratch or weather, numerous artifacts whose purpose we do not fully understand, and a language of Builder Glyphs sages still have not fully deciphered.

The Builders’ most impressive feat, however, remains the Portal Stones. A knowledge of Builder Glyphs, or psychic contact with the Portal Daemon, enables an adventurer to simply walk into another world that has a corresponding Portal Stone. The Portal Stones even adapt the adventurer’s physical abilities to match the average abilities of their new environment.

The distinguishing characteristics of Builder Artifacts are Builder Glyphs and the levers, knobs, and studs which activate the device’s basic functions.

Elysium

A preface to the Elysium Codex which few bother to read describes the city-state, world, or plane of Elysium as a bucolic place where no one every grows ill or old, massive beasts aid farmers in their tasks, and a wise king rules over all with only the force of his own personality. Or so it is said in the Elysium Memoir, a transcription from memory of the Elysium Codex. Without access to the elusive originals it is impossible to say for sure.

A small but loyal group of sages have carefully preserved secondary sources on the Elysian language and speculations about Elysium’s location, nature, culture, history, and government. Most such books are worthless. A few, however, seem to be authentic transcriptions from the Elysium Grimoires.

Only an expert can distinguish true Elysian texts from imitations.

First Ones

In their inscriptions the First Ones claimed to have been the first sapient beings in the multiverse, leaving aside the “Elder Gods”. None can truly evaluate that claim.

First Ones created massive cities of stone, most of which now lie in icy, inhospitable reaches of the Shadowdark Worlds. The largest and best known one, the City At World’s End, lies on a slant, as if the mountains grew under the city over time, knocking it askew. Irresponsible claims that the First Ones' buildings and cities flew have met with derision in most intellectual circles.

First Ones bred beasts and, later, humanoids to serve as unskilled and semi-skilled labor while the First Ones ruled over them like lords. First Ones seem particularly adept at magical or mystical mind control, although they may have bred their servants with a weakness to their control. One of these creatures, an amorphous horror, proved their undoing.

The distinguishing characteristic of First One artifacts is the prevalence of crystals for mystical energy and psychic control or biological organisms created for a specific purpose.

Grigorian Empire

When the great Sky Cities of the Grigori descended on the lands of the Shadowdark, the ferocity of the normally pacifist Builders took them aback. Worse, too, were the creatures of the Shadowdark, who rallied from their dark holes to descend upon any Grigor or soldat who dared touch the soil.

The Grigori care for little but conquest, and the artifacts left behind in those battles pertain to war and conquest: personal weapons and armor, obedience collars, pieces of grigorium hull, the Daemon Engine intelligences that controlled the other machines of the Grigori. One may argue that their true assets were the superhuman soldiers they sent into battle, who are, mercifully, extinct.

Nephilim

Nephilim, Ogres, or Oni appear in several tales of the Grigori. They serve as viceroys for the Grigori; some allege they are sons of Grigori with other humanoids. (No female Nephilim appear in tales.) Always they seem large, loutish, and self-serving to the point of incompetence.

The Labyrinth

Many credible accounts claim the speaker entered a perfectly ordinary door and somehow entered a labyrinth. Within the astonishingly well-lit Labyrinth live not only a few rare monsters but two species often described as “goblins” and “trolls”, but unlike the ones of our world. These “goblins” are friendly – the “trolls” less so – and use doors spread throughout the Labyrinth to travel to other worlds inside and outside the Shadowdark Worlds.

Those who passed through the Labyrinth and lived to tell of it gain remarkable powers: the ability to comprehend all languages, the ability to find mystical doors to the Labyrinth, and the ability to navigate through the Labyrinth to the door of a desired world. Some even allege they became stronger, faster, smarter, and more mystically adept, or gain the ability to impose their will on other beings or reality itself.

Other sages allege such accounts come not from paranormal experiences but mystical herbs.

Many such accounts came from owners and former owners of the Book of Doors, a mysterious volume that, like many magical books, teleports itself away to a distant location. Should one happen upon a mystical door, however, know one’s life will irrevocably change.

Outer Ones

The Outer Ones have traveled the multiverse for millions of years or more, pursuing inscrutable business. They dislike humans who pry into their affairs. If their usual subterfuges do not work, they will respond decisively and lethally.

Outer Ones leave few artifacts, save after their unexpected death. Even then, their works serve little purpose for humanoids: artificial organs for Outer Ones, human brains extracted, still living, and placed in metal cylinders, a few unconventional weapons for creating fog and darkness, and incomprehensible tools for Outer Ones surgeons. Major Outer One bases feature human bodies kept in various states of life and integrity.

Primordials

The most enduring mystery of the Primordial Age remains the Primordials themselves. Were they wizards? Titans? Gods? How do they relate to the Nine Gods and the numerous lesser gods? Can modern wizards one day attain their heights of power, or did they have some knowledge, talent, or artifacts that we of the Twilight Age lack?

Authentic Primordial Artifacts resemble magic items of extraordinary age and craftsmanship, often covered in inscriptions in the Primordial language. Most require either great psychic strength to wield or a mysterious factor known only as Primal Blood that less than one in a thousand humanoids possess. The factor occurs most often in humans, half-elves, and half-orcs, and least often in Dwarfs, orcs, and less common (e.g. monstrous) ancestries.