According to the ancient Grellist mythos, before the world of Galwyndor or the heavens existed, there was a giant primordial stone called Grellis, which was sentient and wise beyond measure. The stone reside in a great cosmic void, and was timeless.
After many thousands of eons, the stone became restless and began gnawing upon itself out of boredom. It chewed until a piece broke off, which became the world and released magical energies called Soul Stray and Bone Stray into existence. These were both essences of Grellis, from its soul and its bones. When the piece came loose, Grellis cried out in pain, which created the air and released a third essence called Breath Stray. Grellis then bled, which created the seas and released the final essence into existence, Blood Stray. The primordial stone contemplated this event, eventually concluding to make the best of the situation, and there conspired to create things which could benefit from his misery: it then made a great etherwood tree out of Skin Stray to enjoy the earth (surface), a nurlworm out of Bone Stray to enjoy the earth (deep), an espitris out of Breath Stray to enjoy the air, and the flidfish out of Blood Stray to enjoy the sea. At first Grellis was content, but something was still missing, so the stone created the Eldinar, to enjoy the ability to contemplate, and placed them on top of Mount Ulfinai. For the Eldinar, who Grellis favored as its greatest creation, it used pure essence of Soul Stray.
The Gods
Grellis was quite satisfied with its creations until it realized that they each were soon wrought with the same loneliness and restlessness Grellis had experienced. It was then that Grellis created three brother gods after the model of the Eldinar, using a mixture of Soul Stray and the lesser essences to create each of them, along with imbuing them with Outward Ember. Thus, the gods were unable to self-replicate. First was Drend of stone and earth made with Bone Stray, then Orend of air made with Breath Stray, and then Helirend of water made with Blood Stray. Grellis, having given them Outward Ember, commanded them to be wardens of each of their realms, and instructed them to fill their realms with as many creatures as they wanted, which they did. Grellis also gave the gods a piece of its heart, which was called the Emberdel, which enabled them to imbue their creations with Inward Ember so that they could self-replicate. The only stipulation was that it could only be used on their creations.
As a gift to Grellis, the brothers each also created the sun (Drend), the moon (Orend), and the stars (Helirend), but in doing so they inadvertently created the Overlay Realms; the sun gave of itself to the Celestial Lay, the moon gave of itself to the Moon Lay, and the stars were connected with the Ethereal Lay. The Shadow Lay was of pure darkness, and the absence of light.
Over time, Grellis created other gods, and allowed them to choose their dominions, leaving them to their own devices to maintain their collective creations. When the last of the gods was created, Grellis went to sleep to rest, leaving the gods in charge. While it slept, Helirend became enraged when one of Orend's creations ate one of his, and thus began the first altercation among the gods, who have been fighting, negotiating, tricking, plotting, conspiring, and making peace with each other ever since. It is said that when Grellis awakes from its slumber, the gods will be forced to return the world to peace and prosperity.
In total there were 33 gods created by Grellis, with each lesser essence being used on eleven gods so that each essence would have equal power.
The Races
Once turmoil amongst the gods began, the three brothers became envious of the Eldinar, because they were superior to all of their creations, having sentience. They also thought it was unfair that the Eldinar were made from pure Soul Stray while they were not. The final straw came when the Eldinar incensed the gods by creating the palanem out of Skin Stray; this was especially troublesome because the Eldinar were thought by the gods to be incapable of creation in any capacity.
So the three brother-gods each, in turn, created a new sentient race with the intention of making something superior, but they could not achieve anything close to the perfection of the Eldinar. Their initial creations were clumsy, and hideous in comparison with the immortal Eldinar and even the palanem. The first attempt by the brother-gods were considered a failure, and the later races would refer to them as monsters or abominations (they were never mistreated by the Eldinar, however).
- Trolls were made by Drend
- Krakari were made by Helirend
- Ogres and goblins were made by Orend, who was the most desperate to get it right.
These races were placed (minutes the krakari) across the sea in a distant land far from the Elinar. Then the brother-gods contemplated, learning from their errors, growing ever more envious of the Eldinar. It should be noted that in this creation myth, the attitude of the gods toward these creatures is likely a reflection of the peoples to justify their hatred. The gods themselves felt they were inferior. And so each sought to make their next creations better than the Eldinar in some way:
- Drend created the dwarfs to be heartier than the Eldinar, using trolls as the source.
- Helirend created the helimer, or merfolk, which could rule the seas as the others ruled the land, using the krakari as the source.
- Orend, the most astute of the three, created the humans to be more adaptable than Eldinar. However, he used the lungs of the Eldinar as the source, thinking it would give humans some of the Soul Stray, but it did not. (Of all the races, humans were the only ones to be made from the Eldinar, which is why they could interbreed with them, ultimately creating the Meninar.)
After these races came into being, the gods were quite happy with their creations. However, having finally achieved better results, other gods decided to try their hand at this, and three more races were created.
- Iriel, goddess of fire and light, created the attawa.
- Huctis, god of fortitude, created the jrel.
- Kleya, goddess of protection, created the giants to protect nature from the destruction of the other races. The ogres were used as the source for the giants.
To fashion each new creation, a portion of the essences within the creator was passed along. Although these new races were intended to have other traits that the Eldinar did not, the new races had less of the Soul Stray within them, which gave the Eldinar a distinct advantage over the other races. The Eldinar possessed a higher measure of power, as pure essence of Grellis ran through their veins, and they were immortal, whereas the others were not. They could wield and manipulate all types of magical energy -- each essence of Grellis, while the other races could only manipulate lesser essences. Ultimately it was Skulf, the god of chaos, who convinced his mother Sherriva to teach the other races the hidden secrets of wielding and manipulating Soul Stray in addition to the lesser essences, which was within them all, but to a smaller degree. This brought favor from the race-creator gods, who had always been envious of the Eldinar.
The final race, the Meninar, which were mixed Eldinar and humans, were created through interbreeding of their own accord. As a result, the Meninar had a higher degree of Soul Stray, but not as much as the Eldinar. This is why the Meninar died off along with the descendents of the Eldinar, the Inar, during the Great Purge.
Angels
While there are unions among the gods under this system, and many of the deities are children of other deities, these were all created by Grellis and gifted to the gods as it saw fit. Because the gods of Grellis were unable to create new gods, and their unions were simply by choice, they simply remained content to create new species of mortal creatures as they had always done. Eventually, their desire to create new celestial beings was too great, so they fashioned angels, which required omnicrux from at least two deities to come into being.
Things were well until the angel M'ranin stole the Emberdel in order to solely beget seven children, which were called the Fouled Seven. This act angered the other gods, and the three brothers decided to exile M'ranin and her children to the Shadow Lay for all eternity. To ensure that they were trapped there, however, the gods required a significant amount of omnicrux; this posed a problem, as they did not want to use any omnicrux from celestial beings, which would make them weaker than the Eldinar.
They tried to steal pure essence from the Eldinar, but found that they could not, so they sent Fethylden, the angel of deceit, to the Eldinar. Fethylden tricked them into giving up some of their Soul Stray, which made them lose their immortality.