The World of Rhean

The Origin and Nature of the World
It is said by many, including the Elves and Yarrins, that there are three primal forces, identified as: the physical, or elemental; the mental, which is mind and memory; and the spiritual, which has will and passion. The Elves hold that the cosmos is as a balance of mind, with spirit at one end and physic at the other. Our world, then, occupies the fulcrum and is the balance. Many beings of mostly spirit are known to the inhabitants of Rhean, including gods and demons; likewise there are powers of the elements as well. Here some beings have more spirit, such as the faeries and even the Elves; some have more of the physical, such as dwarves and giants; and some seem well balanced, such as Men. There are also antiforces: antispirit, antimind, antielements; which could be the ruin of all.

It is said that when the world was young, the elemental powers ruled it and shaped it; for although spiritual beings existed they at this time had no interest in the physical. But as time passed, beings made of the physical but with cores of spirit, active in mind, arose on the young world; and these the gods and other spirits took great interest in. Among the first to be noticed were the elves, very spiritual creatures; some great spirits came and dwelt with them, as is told in The Majesty of Elves. These became their gods, and protected and cared for the elves; and the elves believe their spirits go to join these gods when they die.

The elven deities had to contend with the elemental powers to protect their people, but they were aided in this by the gods of the dwarves, who also came to Rhean. These gods did not seek out highly spiritual creatures like the elves, but instead loved the dwarves, who were highly physical and closely in accord with the elements of the world. As is told in The Labors of Dwarves, the dwarven gods helped awaken the spirit within the dwarves, although the elves believe this is all they did; while the dwarves believe that their gods actually created them.

Many other spirits came to the world then, to marvel at this strange thing, spirit in body. Many were fascinated by Men, for humans seem to have a balance within them that they can sway to some degree by choice; but this balance seemed an extension of the balance of the world and was therefore of great interest to the gods.

The gods soon realized that the elemental powers represented a threat to the mortals of the world, which were fragile physically. So they made war upon the elemental powers, to stop their struggles to shape the world. Long and terrible was this war, but the gods united at last succeeded. After this, the gods dwelt with their people for a long period.

Eventually, the gods began to grow jealous of each other, and to plot ways to increase their influence at cost to their brethren. Many in fact began to war amongst themselves. The elemental powers took advantage of this to once more seek to enter the world. Seeing this, some of the gods realized that the world and its creatures would never be safe so long as mighty powers could contend over it. They convinced many of their brethren of this as well, and set a barrier over the world, forcing all gods to depart. Indeed, the barrier is strongest against the most powerful of the spirits and elementals, and lesser against the lesser forms. Thus it is that no gods have dwelt here for ages, and the world's destiny lies in mortal hands.