In the beginning, Kote broke the world. With nothing left to fight over, the gods finally ended
their long conflict and joined together to plan a new world based on the six elements of Stone,
Air, Water, Fire, Metal, and Wood, and on six corresponding races of djinn. As the gods prepared
to enact their plan, Nihlous perceived an imbalance: there was no void, or death. Nihlous, who
prefers actions to words, opted to surreptitiously alter the plan to add a seventh element. And
thus the seventh element was created by all of the gods together and infused into everything. The
other gods, of course, perceived this immediately and turned on Nihlous. Kote and god of
divination, however, supported Nihlous and refused to allow the world to be started afresh.
This was the First Betrayal, which seeded new disunity and distrust between the gods, who returned
to their own interests, sometimes in collaboration with a few of the other gods but never with all
of them in concert.
The djinn, also now in seven races, were commanded to build a temple in the Isles of the Sun wherein they must worship the gods incessantly. This they did. Over the next two thousand years, the djinn, with their long lifespans and slow reproduction, gradually expanded their temple complex and extended their settlements across the sea to the continent surrounding the Isles of the Sun. During this time, the gods squabbled and rarely acknowledged the worship of the djinn.
In 2077, the shaitan priest Elsafamab the Heretic denounced the gods on the steps of the First
Temple, castigating them for their pettiness and inaction, and announcing her intention to seek a
new way. Quickly banished from the Isles of the Sun by the establishment, she and her followers
gathered in the town of Babel on the mainland, where they build their own temple around seven
great idols, one for each element, which they named "the Guardians". To these they offered
sacrifice and prayer. The gods made no response and the priestly hierarchy was content to allow
the heresy to continue in a backwater town, so it grew and flourished. Elsafamab was assassinated
in 2243, but by then, the cult was well established and one in ten djinn now bowed to the altars
of the Guardians rather than to those of the First Gods. The Guardians began to stir, but still
the gods ignored them. By 2500, Babel was the largest city in the world and the Guardians walked
among their worshippers, who accounted 60% of the djinn, but still the gods ignored them.
Finally, in 2791, with over 90% of the world worshipping them, the Guardians ascended to full
divinity and raised their hands together to alter the world. This the First Gods could not
ignore. Finally setting aside their differences, they united for the first and only time since
the creation of the world and struck as one. guardian of metal and guardian of wood bore
the brunt of first blow and were destroyed. Seeing themselves unable to stand before the united
wrath of the First Gods, the remaining Guardians fled. Without the Guardians to protect them, the
First Gods turned their anger on their worshippers. They cast down the Temple of the Guardians
and cursed the djinn, turning them into lesser, weaker versions of themselves that must constantly
struggle for existence; only those few djinn that remained in the Isles of the Sun were spared.
This curse effectively created seven new races: the oreads, sylphs, undine, ignans, thanays,
dryants, and metal accursed. They had greatly shortened lifespans and little intrinsic magic
compared to their djinni forebears, but they kept the gift of the Guardians which gave them the
ability to to not only learn from their experiences, but also to strengthen themselves from them.
Most returned to the worship of the First Gods, but worship of the Guardians continued in secret.
From 2791, the Accursed began to spread out from Babel and started establishing new kingdoms by 2850. By 3000, they had already surpassed the achievements of the djinn in scale, though not in grandeur.
The next great upheaval was in 3122 (TKTK: too soon?). On that day, the priesthood of the Isles of the Sun woke up to find that the First Temple now had thirteen chapels, rather than the expected twelve. The mysterious new chapel was fully equipped and adorned for a thirteenth god, who no one seemed to know anything about. Then adding to the confusion, a new high priest arrived to perform morning offerings. There was an uproar not seen since the cursing of the apostates; the establishment made every possible investigation into what had happened. There was no indication that either the First Gods or the Guardians had acted. No mortal magic could possibly have made such changes to the world. The new priests were all found to have been ordinary citizens of the city with no known associations with any heresy or rebellion or past recollection of the new god, but who had inexplicably woken up that morning with knowledge of what they were expected to do as if they'd done it thousands of times before.
The confusion was not limited to the First Temple. All over the world, new shrines, temples, and chapels to the new god, along with their attendant clergy, had appeared. Further, the new god had worshippers, who like the new priests had woken up ready to worship a god who they never heard of. And there actually was a thirteenth god: Orillal. Wherever Orillal had originated and however it had gained its power, it presented a fait accompli to the gods: it was present and established and there was no clear way to get rid of it. Orillal presents itself as if one of the First Gods, but none of the Twelve trust it. Then again, they don't trust each other either; most of them have collaborated with Orillal on something at some point. The Guardians were quick to seek out the mysterious new god as an ally; unlike the Twelve, Orillal has no problem with the Guardians and regularly associates with them as well. The introduction of the worship of Orillal into the world led, over time, to a slight softening in attitudes towards worship of the Guardians.
In 3143, a sylph named Avaret saw lights in the night far away in the Enshrouded Mountains which did not correspond to anything on any available map. Avaret and a few companions spent months travelling across the world and high into the mountains, where they eventually found a city of winged people who called themselves the Valkyr. There was no record of such people anywhere in the world before and if the valkyr knew of their origins, they refused to tell. The valkyr were pacifists and gatherers of knowledge; they would share much with many, but kept were always suspected of keeping some secrets to themselves.