Dusty Pages - World History

The world of Dusty Pages has a long history, most of which is made up by people who were never even there to witness any of it, but who know which version of the story is most convenient for them. In this, it's a lot like the real world. The only major differences are:

1. The verified and indubitable existence of magical beings.

2. The nature of the cosmos.

3. Hun warriors riding on magical, flying thunder horses played an important part in the unification of Hungary and several Balkan states, with the exception of Greece, which had a giant laser colossus to keep such things at bay.

The following story is the closest to what the most educated people [or wise, magical beings] of the world of Dusty Pages consider to be true and accurate:

Creation
At the beginning, there was '''Everything. '''The universe existed in a state of absolute, formless chaos: the simultaneous and disorganized presence of everything that could possibly and impossibly be, with no time or space to frame it. Because everything that was possible COULD be, even if for one microscopic fraction of a milisecond, for one moment, order ocurred.

Then order exploded, like a bubble, pushing out the endless chaos and taking form: this is the world of order.

Some arguie that chaos itself was sentient and simply got bored, and decided to allow reality to take shape. But the point is that reality started.

The Many Worlds
Reality can take on many forms, and worlds can be flat, round, geometrical or abstract entirely dependent on the constituting elements or the disposition of a ruler big enough for its creator. By reasons too complex and obscure to explain, reality took the form of a layered universe: the World Tree. At its bottom are the roots, feeding from the waters of the sea of chaos and sending endless potential to the higher parts of the tree.

Above the roots came to be the giants, the embodiments of the most ancient things, which climbed from the massive roots of the tree into their realm. Above that realm came to live the sons and daughters of the giants, the Titans, who lived in a world of raw violence and power. Their children, the gods, soon tired of the oppression of their parents, and left the land of titans to a higher world, closing the way behind to make sure their ancestors would not follow suit.

They came to the world of daemons, who were, in many ways, just like them: powerful beings born from the titans. The daemons were too messy for their liking, but too numerous for the gods to contain, and the gods left to go higher.

They came to the land of dwarves, sharp and skilled craftmen, but found it too dismal and dirty to rule upon, because by this point the gods had decided that they weren't running away from home just to live under someone else's rules.

They found the misty, wistful land above the land of giants, a place of things forgotten and lost, but they also thought it inadequate.

Then they found Midgard, the middle world, and thought that it was good, mostly because there was nothing there: and so, the gods got to pushing back all that Nothing and crafting it into Something.

The Great War of the Unbelonging
When Nothing was turned into Something, it realized that Nobody had asked Nothing permission to be made into Something, and so Nothing was pissed at Everything.

It so happened that the act of creating the world of Midgard did have some detractors: the darkness that the gods had pushed back was made of just the same chaos that waited at the ends of reality. When order was forced upon it, just as it brought up the lands and the seas and the animals that roam the land, so did it - by accident - give form to the formless.

This was the way that Chaos Beasts came to be. They are called the Unbelonging or Abominations by others, while they call themselves "The First Ones." They came in all shapes and forms, both beastly and humanlike, and fought with the gods in what was called the Great War of the Unbelonging, where creation was at stake.

The Golden Age of the Gods
The gods, finding themselves outnumbered by the Unbelonging, made a race of warriors to fight them off. Warriors that would never die and would be strong and adaptible, powerful in magic. These were the first humans. With their help, the Unbelonging were defeated, and the gods rewarded them with immortality - or, at least, eternal youth.

They worshipped the gods for what was called the Golden Age, when everybody got along. That is, until the first humans made babies and realized they weren't gifted with eternal youth also. They demanded the gods would share their gift again, but the gods had no desire to see the world overrun with humans.

The War with the First Humans
The gods and the first humans went to war when the latter decided they had been wronged. Most disturbingly, for the gods, the many, many humans were cleverer than the chaotic enemies they were made to fight, and came very close to winning the war until the gods pushed the proverbial reset button: allowing the primordial waters to roll over the world in a Great Flood.

Some say that a few humans survived this on a giant boat, but that's crazy talk.

The Silver Age
The gods recreated the world, and after a while, they got quite lonely.nd some of them missed humans. So they made humans again, but this time kept them as mortal as they could be.

At this time, they also met other gods: gods who came from higher realms of the tree, born in the kingdoms where, not base instinct, but pure thought and higher emotions ruled. They were strange fellows and the gods regarded them as "freaking weird."

This is the second great era of the gods, and equivalent to classic culture.

Rome
With the coming of human civilization came the idea that, as long as you're going to be civilized, you have to make it big, preferably through the most uncivilized means possible. So rose the great civilization of Rome, and its many enemies, the great civilizations that Rome conquered.

While the gods were first thanked for their contributions to civilization, it came to pass that most people began to lose their original fear of their deities.

The gods throw a huge hissy fit
It came to pass that the gods got really miffed.

However, unlike before, not all of the gods were alright with the idea of pulling the plug on the world. The idea of a war was not as desirable, as some gods - in spite of their pride - had to admit that they had let humans reproduce far too much for them to be sure if they could win. Some gods were in favor of humans altogether, having spent too much time among them.

So the gods that were most offended by humanity's lack of faith said "fine, we're packing our bags and leaving you to fend for yourselves." Most of the gods then left the world, leaving it only barely sustainable against the beasts that lurked at its edge: for the most part because the gods were too proud to let the chaotic vermin 'win' by default.

Nonetheless, their departure happened around the same time that the Roman Empire began to decay, ultimately falling to Ottomans with Airships by the east and Huns with Thunder Horses on the west, and the land fell into a massive disorder that helped feed beings of chaos, whether firguratively or literally, for wars brought on suffering, and suffering brought the rise of demons, and some - usually small - chaotic beasts found demons to be an appetizing food source.

The Nocturnal Reign
One such being was known as the Ostlander, or simply "AHHH." A beast of darkness that would shroud the land into a starless night time. In its competition with other, mighty abominations, he ended up accidently protecting humans - which he regarded with flat indifference - from other beings who thought of humans as particularly tasty. It didn't mean that it was a good time for humans however: the Ostlander's reign brought a rise to the presence of supernatural beings or nocturnal predators through central Europe, which DID prey on humans, and who the Ostlander had no interest in stopping.

The Sun Triumphs
Many heroes tried to bring down the ruler of the night.

It didn't end well.

Except for the one time when it did. Legend has it that a hero bearing the sun as their flag took on the night lord and, by virtue of their most just intentions and the blessing of all the gods, did bring down the Ostlander.

The Rise of the Enlightened and Glorious Southern Empire
Because the Ostlander's reign had covered most of central Europe, effectively preventing the invasion of Huns to Europe, the Roman empire was replaced by a new, small empire, which began to flourish just after the fall of the Ostlander himself. This was the Southern Empire, and would become a great and defining power in the world of Dusty Pages.