Cosmology

Though many are unfamiliar with the whole story, this creation tale is the source of all religion in the material plane. Though the details are lost to thousands of years of history, Xaernes and Gael are still recognized traditionally as the creators of the world. In other parts of the world, different deities are worshiped due to the creation myth being seen as just that: a myth.

History
The material plane was formed thousands upon thousands of years ago. The two primordial forces of change and stasis clashed in the midst of the astral plane. Expelling their energies in destroying one another, their forms became concentrated in the forms of two beings, Xaernes and Gael.

As they strove against one another, the material world coalesced around them in the Starry Heart of the world. When they began to look around, they took notice of their creation. The solidity of its being, along with the ever-changing nature of the lands and seas and life, appealed to both of them. They walked along the world, admiring their construction.

As equals, they journeyed across the whole of the earth, until they had decided that the creation was good, and left the world. The wake of Xaernes formed an ever-changing, brighter version of the material plane, known as the Feywilds, and the wake of Gael left a stagnant land of the Shadowfell.

In their accord and in their place, there rose the Ur Tower, a great stake pinning the material plane to reality, giving shape and physicality to the mortal world. Powered by pieces of their own power, the tower held for thousands of years.

Many other forces attempted to influence the material plane, and in its beginnings, it was assailed from all angles by warring gods from other planes. Before Xaernes and Gael could rest, they birthed Wiran Beloth as a protector of their mutually created realm. He conquered the disparate tribes of ancient times and consolidated power under his benevolent eye. When the Ur Tower was discovered, he traveled west to see it for himself. The stones that had powered the tower were missing, and it had been surrounded by orcish tribes.

Beloth demanded and oversaw the construction of the Neonite Tower by his followers, the Wiranti, to temporarily hold the world fast to reality. Without the stones, Beloth could only use his own power, his own connection to Xaernes and Gael, to cement reality through the tower. Unable to travel back east, his kingdom faltered.

At the Starry Heart, energies from other planes enter the material and spread through the world. Imperator Shey'Zim, an ancient dragonborn wizard, used this power to grow strong and strive against Beloth's power. Now a lich, Shey'Zim only desires power and hopes to tear down the mortal plane entirely in a bid to ascend to godhood.