The Gods, Celes, and The World-Beast
At the dawn of time, when the world was yet unborn, the Gods existed together as children in the garden of the cosmos. They had no purpose, and knew no history, so they created these things for themselves, as Gods are wont to. In the endless expanse of the cosmos they grew, made love and friendship and hatred and war and philosophy and all the things Man knows today. A timeless epoch passed, for time had no meaning in those days, and then the Gods were children no more.
They were blessed to not be children, for the World-Mother had come, a Beast of endless terror and ferocity, to consume them and give birth to a new generation of worlds. The Gods had been raised and fattened as lambs to be slaughtered and consumed. These Gods were no longer lambs, though- for their times of peace had taught them not only art, but science and architecture, and their times of hatred honed not just their words but their fists. And so when the World-Beast came to consume its livestock, it found them armed, furious, and for the first time united. The Gods set aside their squabbles and fought against the World-Beast.
The battle raged for another timeless epoch, for time had no meaning those days. We know little of what happened in that furious melee, but we know that it was brutal and bloody. Celes died, and as she died she sunk her blade deep into the heart of the World-Beast. The blood of the World-Beast leaked out and became the oceans, and the body of the beast collapsed, died, and became the land. The Gods gathered around the World-Beast, and in their anger cast it down into the Material Realm, a land without Divinity, governed only by Physical Law and that Magic you could manifest yourself. The corpse would never rise again to haunt them.
A grand funeral was held in honor of Celes, and for a few moments longer the Gods put aside their petty disputes. However, even at the funeral the old wounds were raw and chafing, and the fighting broke out again. It was disgusting and bloody and terrible to behold- Celes herself became splattered with the blood of Gods. Pelor, her lover, could bear it no longer- he cast himself out of the heavens, eternally banishing himself and her body from the godly planes. He rebuilt her pyre and lit it high in the sky, and let it burn until it ran down. Every night he goes to gather more wood to light it again, a memorial to the love of his life. Celes always shines down on Earth, except for when Pelor's grief is too great and his tears blot out the sky and bring rain.
Life on Earth
In time, some Gods found their amusement in creating life on the World-Beast. To a God, you see, nothing is a challenge- in their Outer Planes they can reshape matter to their will. Life is tremendously boring. For those who did not make as much a pastime of fighting each other, their only cure to boredom was challenge. And on the Material Plane, where their power was weak and distant, creating life was challenging indeed.
Obad-hai was the great innovator, and with his mighty powers he sprung plants from the earth, poured fungus into the caves, streamed kelp into the oceans and struck mighty trees into the ground. Finding this life fascinating, he created for it a counterpart, an enemy to stem its tide- the oceans filled with fish and whales, the earth with worms and insects, the surface with rodents and dogs and birds and lizards and all manner of life. Obad-hai was never a big-picture man. Every tiny creature fascinated him and filled him with joy and love. It never occurred to him to make monsters, or intelligent life. Nature was all he ever wanted.
The Gods saw Obad-hai's work and grew jealous. They had not the attention to small detail of Obad-hai, so they created great creatures, monsters, and most of all, intelligent life. First were the Elves, Ehlonna's children. She fashioned them in the nature of Gods as she saw them- long-lived, free-willed and intelligent. She sent them to live among Obad-hai's children on the surface, where they thrived. Moradin's try was clumsier but no less effective- Dwarves he fashioned after the Gods as well, but he wanted to represent what he thought the greater values of the Gods to be. They valued closeness and order, and lived beneath the earth in tightly bound family groups.
With the surface and the earth occupied, all that was left was the oceans, and so were fashioned Merfolk by Yuraern- those poor, doomed creatures. Air-breathing water folk, they lived among the dolphins and had no worries. Little did the gods know, in the eons that passed as they brought their creations into existence, sapient life had come to be on its own- Man. How had they escaped the watchful eyes of Ehlonna, Yuraern and Moradin? Well, Obad-Hai had always been a man of detail, and built into his life forms the possibility for variety and self-improvement. In time, one life form changed into many, and nature itself culled the unworthy, until the few species became many. Where a leg of the World-Beast had fallen and left ignored by the Gods, Obad-hai, ever attentive, planted life. There it had grown Orcs and Men, who did battle for many generations. Eventually, the Kingdom of Man was driven to the sea. In their final years, the Men crafted mighty boats and set oar westwards- their seers told them they could find land beyond the sea. They left Kutan and sailed West.
The Journey of Man
Many Men were left behind, of course- they were simply vassals and slaves of the Orcs. And the merging of the Leg into a single political unit under Orcs did not last long. Bereft of an external enemy, the Kingdom of Orcs shuddered apart violently. Claims to the throne, revolutions, separatists, Orc supremacists who wanted to kill all Men- the Orc Council could not hold the continent together against foes such as these. Eventually, the Orcs spread across the sea as well, and the Men of Kutan reclaimed power. To this day, Kutan is a mess of warring cities and states, though a central King of Kutan is recognized by all the nobles.
The Kingdom of Man would not have lasted long at Sea were it not for Yuraern and the Merfolk. The Merfolk found the Men and Yuraern took pity on them- he gave them sails and iron, and blessed them with astronomy and an innate power of great learning. He decreed that these pitiful creatures would be his children as much as the Merfolk, and he would shepherd them all through the eons. The Merfolk took them in to their own island homes, and prepared to make room for their new neighbors. The hearts of Men are ever filled with darkness, however, and they took their Iron and Sails and made horrible war on the Merfolk. The poor creatures knew nothing of War- and Man, having been tempered by constant battle with the Orcs, slaughtered the Yuraern's children relentlessly. Somehow, Yuraern was deaf for many weeks to the prayers of his Merfolk.
Finally hearing the cries of his children, Yuraern bent down to intercede, and cried in horror as not monsters or weather, but his own adopted children slaughtered his created ones. He brought mighty storms and lightning upon Man, shattering many of his boats and slaying his soldiers. Soon he found his attacks halted, though- for another God stood in his way. Man had taken Vecna, the God of Secrets and Deception, into his heart. It was through Vecna that they had hidden the contents of their hearts, and through him they had taken everything from Yuraern- his secrets, his technology, and now his children. Vecna was too strong for him, and he could only look on helplessly as his Merfolk prayed for guidance and heard nothing, as they fled and screamed and forsook their God in their dying breaths. Few made it away alive, and though Yuraern sent mighty storms against it, the Kingdom of Man made it across The Great Sea and settled safely.
With nothing left to protect, Yuraern fell into despair, and The Great Sea churned with his anger and sadness as he cast about for some way of bringing Retribution on Vecna and those hideous Men. Vecna laughed and kept his hand tightly grasped around the hearts of Man. So keen was he on his new worshipers that he did not notice the Secrets among them. He did not notice The Great Sea go calm, and he was blind as St Cuthbert, fueled by the whispered knowledge of Yuraern, who knew humans all too well, grew a congregation, then a church, then a whole religion. St Cuthbert promised Yuraern he would get Retribution, and it was well-delivered. His priests and paladins rose up, and the Kingdom of Man was wracked with civil war and was sundered in two- and the Church of Vecna was shattered with the wholeness of the Kingdom, as secrets die easily in war.
In time, other races made their way out of the mud and stone, and the land between The Worldspine and The Great Sea was populated by all manner of folk. Kobolds and Goblins and Halflings, all small things, small and light enough to lift themselves to civilization, spread throughout the land. War and Politics and Religion destroyed and reformed nations- Humans and more Orcs came across The Great Sea, and even some Elves and Dwarves went east to Kutan. New Gods, Gods of the small creatures, were raised by the power of worship alone, and found their place among the Old Gods- and great tales of all sort came to pass, wars and adventures and magic was wielded that might rival the Gods themselves, but that is a story for another day.