Long ago there was one world, vast and filled with wonders of nature and artificial constructs coexisting in harmony and filled with power. Five peoples inhabited the world in those days, calling themselves the Salamanders, Sylph, Gnomes, Undine and the Aos Sí. For centuries there was peace between the five peoples who called this world home and their powers over earth, water, fire, air and aether gave rise to marvels so grand that they could bring a hardened man to tears with their beauty. Many of the splendours of this world were made by the land itself which seemed determined to create more wondrous and beautiful things than the Ancient peoples could. Eventually, this spelled doom for the Ancients as they discovered the pinnacle of what the land could create.

Splendid to look on, inextricably linked with nature and holding such power that it could create life itself; they discovered the Dragon. Upon seeing the Dragon, the Ancient peoples were awed by its magnificence and in that awe, something else grew. Desire. They began to desire the power that the Dragon had. At first, they sought to bask in its radiance and learn from its wisdom.

But the Dragon saw the desire in their hearts and knew what they would eventually do if it shared its power and knowledge. So, it shunned them and soon they began trying to trap it, ‘for knowledge’ they said. The Dragon avoided these attempts and so the Ancients came up with more and more elaborate methods to force it to tell them its secrets.

Frustrated by their failure in attempting to capture the Dragon, the Ancients soon fell to fighting amongst themselves. Some claimed that they were worthy of the Dragon's knowledge and others were not. Some believed that only they had the strength to capture the Dragon and force its secrets. Still, others believed that the Dragon should be left alone, its wisdom and knowledge might not be meant for their minds. The disagreements turned to arguments and then to war and the five peoples began building articles of destruction and death. While each of the peoples had their own reasons for fighting, the outcome was the same, a war that consumed the entire world.

For hundreds and hundreds of years, the Ancients fought against each other, turning all the splendours of the world into powerful weapons to be used for slaughter and death. All the power and innovation they each had gone into creating more and more articles of war to be used to annihilate their enemies and ensure that their enemies could not destroy them. They produced horrifying beasts, constructed huge and intimidating fortresses and committed heinous acts against the peoples of their enemies and even their own people in their lust for power.

One of the five peoples, the Aos Sí, had no desire to fight, and so all their effort went into protecting their people from the destruction that the other four were wreaking on themselves and the land they had loved so much. Long after the war began, they perfected their defences to such a degree that their lands vanished completely and so the first of the Realms split from the world. The Dragon had watched these people and saw that they wanted simply to protect the land and the lives of their peoples and so it made its way into their separated realm to pass on some of its secrets to those who had proven themselves worthy of them.

Back in the world, the other four Ancient peoples waged their war. Destruction and death were everywhere. At the beginning of the war, they had all started trying to create their own versions of the Dragon, and so harness the power it held for themselves. Sometime after the Aos Sí vanished, the artificial dragons were unleashed upon the world and the war, already vicious, escalated to new savagery and brutality that it had never taken on before. These new dragons had the power to slaughter entire armies and only when facing each other were they challenged.

The Ancients implanted the qualities they believed most important into their creations and so each of the artificial dragons became symbols of their creators’ philosophy.

The Salamander created the Wyvern, a fearsome dragon with two legs and two wings. The Wyvern embodied the rage of the Salamander who believed that utter domination was key in warfare and desired their wrath to be brought down on any they saw as enemies.

The Undine created the Leviathan, a great sea serpent who protected its lands from any who would enter and harm those in its charge. Its fearless protection showed that while the Undine had the will to fight, They wished for the power to protect what they had.

The Gnomes created the Drake, a dragon with four legs and no wings. The Drake would prowl from battlefield to battlefield on its own initiative and surprise those fighting with ambushes that wiped out entire armies. Believing that war is for the clever, and the clever take any advantage they can and use the land to their benefit, the Gnomes let the Drake make its decisions using these principles.

Lastly, the Sylph created the Amphithere, a winged serpent with incredible speed, it would destroy entire armies before any heard its piercing screech or see its shadow. The Sylph excelled at moving troops long distances quickly and their attacks were lightning fast as shock and speed were prized above all else.

The Ancients had created these powerful creatures but thought of them as simply tools to be used for their own ends. The Dragon, however, saw that the intelligence that had been given to each of the artificial dragons, for them to be effective in battle, had given birth to sentience. The Dragon saw this and the destruction they had been causing on the world around them and so decided to try and contact them and turn them from the chaos of war to help the Dragon in repairing the damage done by the ceaseless conflict.

The Dragon used its power to create a realm of its own where it could bring the minds of the Artificial dragons to try and reason with them. At first, however, the Dragon despaired as each time he brought them together they would begin to attack each other and the Dragon itself.

 

After a time, the Dragon started bringing only one at a time to its realm and at first, they each attacked him until he sent them away but over time their attacks slowed and stopped and they chose to listen.

The Dragon told them of the world before the war and how the Ancients used to live in tune with the land around them and of the beauty that was once abundant. It pleaded with them to stop destroying the wonder of the world they lived in before it was too late and nothing would be able to live there. The dragons slowly began to believe that the way of the Ancients, blood, war and death, was not their desire and so they agreed to join the Dragon and help keep the balance in the world.

With their powerful weapons lost each of the Ancients prepared for the attacks they felt would inevitably come from the others and built up their fortifications. They strived for the perfect defences and so it was that each of their lands was torn from the world, leaving behind great storms, floods, blizzards and other catastrophic upheavals of land.

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And so it was that the Crossworlds were created and the ancients faded into history. Their greed and paranoia and lust for power turning them forever against each other until the Crossworlds were free of their corruption.