History:

The world of Shem was created by a band of deities seeking a home, long, long ago. They and their families took on aspects and fashioned a vast and beautiful world, crafting a realm in the planes about this world.

Rangaru spun the world from the fabric of the universe. His wife, Ashariel, breathed life into it. Gaule set it spinning in the vastness of space, and Hurshul began counting its time.

The solid earth of the world was then shaped by Baurkhan, and its waters by Keserel. The heart of flame was ignited by Praithur, and the atmosphere around it was filled by Yandui. Vangarad then swirled these together to create the weather patterns.

Then, the moons were set in place by Mysana, and the sun's warmth spread via Zephidia. The animals and plants were awakened by Jarikir and Felesia.

The natural world, more or less, was complete.

Meanwhile, in anticipation of the peoples of the world, Sallyra created a place in the heavenly realms, called the Promised Land. Her rival, Deserel, crafted an infernal area called the Hells. Ulune made sure to create the channels to each, shaping both the Havens and the Catacombs and giving them over to other deities.

Jerenel created the dream realm, and then populated the world with fungi, while Venair fashioned diseases and maladies to fill the world. Thereken and Avagen began creating decay and entropy, while Isyrca and Osaru created vibrancy and ordered systems to keep the world in balance.

Sound filled the world at Laurelin's word, and Derexir quieted it with silence. Sanzue and Gerrys infused it with magic, and Quaigor infused it with void.

Then, Eklem and Nogal began to argue over the world's course, and the Arbiter stepped in and decided to form a compromise between them. Both chance and fate would pull on the world. Wysalia saw to it its systems were in accord, and Haurkan created the conflicts that drove the systems. Nomus, meanwhile, recorded everything. Yakhut saw to it all things would have endings.

Krennar imbued the world with its inherent majesty, and Pomelia crafted its first truths--more of the laws that governed it. Then, the emotive gods began filling it with their forces: Egutu crafted hatred, Thamia crafted love, Xephthar crafted despair, and Carolia crafted hope. Banner drunkenly spilled mirth here and there, and Mandor fought the ails of the world with his health and compassion.

The earliest peoples were now sentient and imbued with souls, alive for the first time. At this time, Quilia stepped into the world, and she corrupted it. Finally, the Arbiter, most powerful of the gods, Balanced it for the first time, and the First Age of First Shem began.

This was the only time all the gods worked together. They then forged artifacts for their favorite servants. These artifacts, the Gifts of the Gods, allowed the mortals to wield the full strength of the gods. The first bearers of Gifts often found power in their Bloodlines, and heroes and villains began to crop up with consistency from these Bloodlines. Other sources for Divine power in Mortal blood also arose, but even unto the present, none has truly discovered the means for creating a Savant-bearing Bloodline.

Thousands of years passed, the gods began to bicker and war. Mortals took a hand, sealing them away, but they always found a way back. Two deities died: Avagen, the Many-Eyed God, was slain by the Messiah of Hope, as he had broken the many laws of the Arbiter, and his mother Deserel, the Serpent Goddess, was slain by the Lost Hero for her own crimes. Avagen was eventually replaced by the Mad God Zhao, from beyond, and Deserel was eventually replaced by Greneja, the Blood Goddess, a mortal sorceress.

At this time, the first Prophecy of the Final Sword enters the world. It states that when a mortal forges a sword more powerful than any Gifted Sword could ever be, the world will enter a golden age to rival heaven itself. The Arbiter began to worry, for this did not fit into his plan. Given that such a prospect seemed unlikely, he ignored it for a false prophecy.

Within a few Ages, new gods appeared, born of the gods of Shem, and began to take on aspects that were not fully handled--Wateni became master of commerce and resource; Zegara took up the mantle of envy and obsession; Celeanna commanded art, inspiration, vision, and spectrum; Fysala's frigid grip held onto to winter and apathy; Iero's swift feet gathered movement and travel; Lua's shell encompassed home, hearth, and community; Oriem ever changed; and Radalgo took up the skeptic's route--science, logic, experiments, math.

The new gods made their own aspects known and created new alliances, but the Arbiter did not like the crossing of pantheons he began to see amongst some. He allowed the gods to once more be sealed, but his powers did not account for the tenacity of mortals. Though the Goddess of Lesser Magic was slain, she was revived, in accordance with his will. Still, magic was split into four aspects ever after.

Later, the gods were once more freed, and they once more went to war. This new war saw Greneja die, and the Webweaver, Raithev Sris, replaced her. For the first time, the Arbiter's Plan was truly defeated--a spider appeared where none was expected. He felt fear. But the Arbiter did nothing to curb the Webweaver's power-building. He merely sought to balance it, allowing Carolia to earn power, and Ulune as well. The three Pantheons he envisioned, he felt, were balanced. But again, he did not account for mortality, and their power grew ever quicker.

An intruder god appeared during this time, and the Arbiter drew upon the power of the gods to seal it away. A'Onjandu, or On'jandu, depending on how he felt like answering, the Contradiction Divine, was sealed away in the planes.

Then, another mortal slew one of the gods. This time, Egutu was slain by the Queen of Cats, but his slayer did not take up his mantle. Instead, one of her companions, a mortal avenger named Anshe, did. And again, the Arbiter's will was thwarted, this time again by the Webweaver, who fathered a child with Keserel, this one named Undagaine. Keserel, though, feared the Arbiter, and slew the child before it was born. By the Age of Miracles, mortality had begun to rival the gods. Some had even begun to be greater even than the Gifts they wielded. The Arbiter looked and saw that the Gifts of the world had become so plentiful that apocalypse was imminent due to all the power there. Further, he feared mortals might soon forge the Final Sword. He set about a new Plan, and created the Champions.

At this time, he allowed first the Black Pantheon to choose its Champions, and they would have their time as masters of the world. This system worked well, until the Era of Destruction began, and the mortals broke the chains of the Balance, creating a new breed of Champions for the other two Pantheons. Xracao ordered the end to First Shem.

The ensuing war saw Yakhut's fall, and replacement by Arcadian, the Ruiner. It saw the return of a true Messiah, and the Webweaver's masterstroke on First Shem--which ultimately lead to his apparent loss in the war. The world ended, and the Arbiter declared a time of rest.

Soon, however, the gods and surviving mortals sued for a new Shem, and the Arbiter relented. This time, however, he insisted to the gods that they adhere to his plan of Ages. They agreed, and thus began the building of Second Shem. The Arbiter's new laws ensured only twenty Gifts per divine, though some found ways to cheat that.

Second Shem's creation was fraught with arguments. None wanted to work together again, and it took all the will of the Arbiter to get the world recreated. Echoes began to appear as the world evolved and was slowly shaped into the proper Second Shem. The first Age declared after the formation was complete was the Age of Peace, and so it was.

But when it came time for the next Age, the Champion of War balked. He refused to rule a world of conflict. Shamed, the WAR GOD banished his own Champion, selected a Warden to handle the affairs, then cursed the world to eternal war until a single empire could hold peace for 1000 years. This brought on intense and horrible wars for thousand and thousands of years, and several changes to the Arbiter's Plan, much to his chagrin.

The Plague God died at the hands of a mortal, the Heartsinger, because of a complicated scheme driven by the Champion of Pestilence, who replaced his god and became the Rat God.

The Lost Gods arrived, and because of a member of the Court of Thorn's attempts to usurp power, they were allowed into the Pantheon by way of a divine and mortal vote. The Chained God chose mortality, and was replaced by Resh, the Crowned God. The new gods took or came with the aspects of wisdom and strategy (Minerva), metal and smithing (Dallion), might and power (Gargu), mischief and chicanery (Poh), connection and bridges (Shona), the hunt and determination (Vyarrah), insight and self (Ym), middle magic (Bast), skill and learning (Haino), family and relationships (Ketren), stories and adventure (Quothar), forces (Ur), and fear and nightmares (Xanar). The goddess of discord, Eris, went missing, the god Janus went mad, and the Never was banished before they could become part of the Pantheons.

During this time, the Arbiter's system became more clear to the Gods, and some began to try to exploit it. The non-new Shemmish gods, unbeknownst to the Arbiter, gave a mortal of box of paradox and sent it to the Other World, Ruiz, planning to expand their territory eventually. One of the mortals living there, however, found the box.

In the planes, some mortals released the now suicidal Contradiction Divine, and it walked through the open Gates of Mortality. This was the first time the Arbiter became aware of the opened Gates, which he had ruled to be sealed forever. Unable to close them, all gods now have the option to become mortal.

Then, a Manifestation of the WAR GOD's Curse took up the mantle of the One True God, and became unusually powerful for thousands of years, dominating the world. Only mortal heroes were able to stop it. Finally, one of those mortal heroes broke the curse, and a new Age began. The Arbiter took this time to redefine the Pantheons and reforge his Plan.

He made the Black Pantheon split in two, to more or less follow the two major factions: the Pantheon of the Sable Night and the Pantheon of the Obsidian Obelisk. The White Pantheon became the Pantheon of the Platinum Rose and the Pantheon of the Alabster Shield, and the Red-Green Pantheon became the Pantheon of the Vermilion Sword, the Pantheon of the Violet Mantle, and the Pantheon of the Viridian Pillars. Finally, he took all else into his own Pantheon, the Pantheon of the Sienna Scales.

For each Pantheon, he chose one Gift to mark as the Token of the Pantheon: the Sword of Sable Night (nee Darkness), the Mark of the Obsidian Obelisk, the Cross of the Platinum Rose, the Alabaster Shield of the Most Reverend, the Vermilion Sword (nee Sword of Swords), the Violet Mantle, and the Heart of the Viridian Pillars. The mortals who bore these Gifts would become the Standard-Bearers in the new Hierarchies the Arbiter was imposing.

At this time, a new prophecy arose: the Prophecy of the Book of Names. This prophecy stated simply that an artifact called the Book of Names had come into existence sometime in the Broken Ages (Age of Empires/Decline) that bore in it mastery of all Shem, for it was the key to perfect actualization of the individual identity, and the identity of all things. The Arbiter's view of this is unknown, though many suspect he created the Prophecy.

As this was newly declared, the Arbiter then commanded the next Age to begin... and it didn't.

to be continued

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The world of Shem is dominated by the Arbiter's Plan. His will dictates the general outline of the story of the world, though due to his own decree of chance and fate having weight here, his Plan often has to be adapted.

A normal, common person on Shem will generally not dedicate him or herself to one god, but have a general view of the holy Pantheons as worthy, the neutral ones as important, and the dark ones as dangerous and to be avoided. Variants on this are abundant (in Vesturia, for instance, it is reversed).

The heroes of legend are revered, and anyone who knows the stories will notice that some names crop up more often than others--Jericho, Tove, Lovell, Toddbrook, Loufburrow, Bumfuzzle, and so on. The villains of legend are feared, and again, certain names crop up--Sris, Theuwissen, Laird, Cuniaid, LaCendre, Green, and so on.