The History of Scarn - Part 19
The Slarecian War
At the beginning of the world, when Kadum created the continents out of the waves, the Ancient Ones came. They were once ethereal beings, journeying freely throughout the Outer Plains. It is unknown exactly what brought them, perhaps curiosity regarding the new world being formed. But now there made solid by Kadum’s power. And now they were trapped, encased within the flesh of the newly formed land known as Scarn.
For eons upon eons they slept, lost far beneath the surface of the world, unknown to even Thulkas, in his Fiery Core. But in time they woke, stirred by the sounds of new life upon the surface of the world. Seeing how the Titans created these creatures, the Ancient Ones created creatures of their own, but mockeries of true life. For the Ancient Ones did not have the gift of Golthain, and could not create souls for their creations.
In time, children of the Ancient Ones visited the surface, curious what this world offered. But what they perceived was horrific to them, a cycle beyond their understanding of birth, death, and rebirth. They soon returned to their subterranean homes, disgusted by the surface dwellers. But they could not hide from the surface dwellers forever, as those above eventually came below, discovering their homes, and driving the Ancient Ones and their creations ever deeper. Eventually the surface creatures returned to their former demesnes, and the Ancient Ones watched them. At first the surface creatures were primitive and stupid, using crude tools to survive and tame their environment. But in time, the surface creatures grew in power, showing talents and abilities strange to the Ancient Ones. Instead of using their minds, they obtained powers outside of themselves, which they then channeled in ways that mimic the abilities of the Ancient Ones and their creations. So they continued to watch, and in time some of the servants learned to use these powers.
And then, something amazing happened, and the cycle of the surface dwellers started to change. Instead of continuing the cycle of birth, death, and rebirth, something new was starting to happen. Creatures were no longer being reborn, but going somewhere else when they died. They appeared to be escaping the land, and the Ancient Ones wanted to know how.
So, they started to investigate. It seemed that only some of the surface dwellers could do this, the ones who gave tribute to the entities they called gods. The Ancient Ones sent their servants out to learn more about these gods and those that followed them.
The servants created a vast network underground, just below the surface of the land. From this they could easily capture surface dwellers for study and servitude. They also learned that other surface creatures wanted to destroy those that paid tribute to gods. So the servants began to protect the god worshipers in secret. They influenced the surface dwellers, and encouraged more of them to follow these gods. And they watched and learned all they could. And they learned that the power to escape came directly from these gods.
The Ancient Ones build devices to aid with their studies. They developed a plan. Then, through guile and trickery, they captured a young god for study. However, the god proved to be weak, and the Ancient Ones killed it in their ignorance. So they tried it again, capturing another, only this time they extracted the power from the god, allowing them to keep the god alive for further study. But, in the extraction of this power, one of the Ancient Ones was sundered and turned mad. The other Ancient Ones contained him, before he could ruin the plan.
But, before the plan could be complete, the gods attacked the servants. The gods had joined with the titans, including the terrible Kadum, and they all sought to destroy the Ancient Ones and their servants. Many of the servants fled. The Ancient Ones were afraid, but even more they were patient. Before they were captured, they hid themselves away where they could not be taken and destroyed by the gods. But in doing so, they also isolated themselves from those they studied, and could no longer work on the plan to escape. They relied on their escaped servants to someday free them from their self imprisonment. They also realized that the only way they could truly escape would be to sunder the world itself, utterly destroying all that is corporeal, so only the ethereal would remain.