When the song of creation ended, with their final notes the gods sung the First People into existence, a race that, according to legend, warred among each other for the world with the very fabric of creation.  The songs, unhappy, sang a different song to give them harmony, splitting them into Second People.  The surface they gave to the fae, creatures of light and life; the earth they gave to the elementals, creatures of pure element.  Over the eons, the two groups fashioned their own creations, races we would come to know as the elves and dwarves, the Third People.  Not quite slave races to these Second People, but as the Third People multiplied and grew, the Second People began to withdraw from the world, having learned songs to allow them to truly create their own.  But the song lingered still and in the echoes of its dying tune man was created in the distance reaches, far beyond civilization.  By this dawn, the fae had left for their Realms of the Wild and the elementals to their Realms of the Elements.

Mankind was an oddity, something the Third People studied with purely academic interest, hoping to learn the secrets of the Songs of Creation.  But something dark stirred in the Third Peoples and the ways that consumed the First People consumed their hearts as well.  The elves and dwarves waged war on each other, the dwarves straining to reach the sun and the elves plumbing the depths of the world.  Over countless millennia, the war waged and took their toll on the Third People.  Dwarves that lived on the surface for all those years, waging constant warfare began to change, becoming the orcs that we know today, having hardness discordant notes of Creation for warfare, ultimately warping their nature.  The elves, however, could not take such a direct approach and instead resorted to intrigue and subterfuge, using those same discordant notes themselves, ultimately twisting their own nature and become the Drow we fear today.

The war reduced them to a fraction of the glories that they had reached before, providing the opening that would allow mankind to become the dominant force in the world.  When it was unified itself.  The Great Empire of Man, it was called, dominated the world not through the use of the Song of Creation, but sheer cunning and power.  Their armies, not as meticulously trained as the elves or as sturdy as the dwarves, not as fierce as the orcs or cunning as the drow, were instead persistant, fighting battle after battle until they had conquered all of civilization, pressing the Third People into chains.  But even that empire did not last, survive a few hundred years before splintering into successor states that constantly warred for control, subjugating humans into bondage as well.

As these new states finally settled on borders, a new order emerged, extremely ritualistic and caste-based, solidifying the power of the rich and powerful, dooming slaves and their children to a lifetime of servitude.  But a thousand years into this order and it is beginning to break down.  People have begun to cry out for voice and freedom and a new song rises…

Thomas had never thought he would be one of the people leading the song.  A half-elf, making him a member of one of the lowest castes possible, he had been given a slightly better life when he was found to be capable of magic.  Trained and accomplished, that better life was his – a comfortable life with political power to improve it more, so long as he hid his racial background.  But it was a single visit back to his family that created the spark that he had never intended to light.  Back home, he didn’t feel the need to hide his heritage and, when roughed up by a guard for trying to leave, his castemates came to his defense.  He survived, but many of them were slaughtered.  Word spread fast and suddenly the castes began an uprising, challenging the very foundation of the order that had preserved piece for so long.  Cutting across all castes, some joined the revolution, remembering their own origins.  And with Thomas as their unwittingly leader, leading them into a world that they all long to see.

He had spent most of his life in the city.  Occasionally he’d travel a few days away with his father’s caravans and even once sailed on a ship.  But really, the city was his home and he couldn’t have dreamed he’d ever leave.  But this his father was double crossed on a business deal and suddenly what had been a comfortable life was upended.  His father had fought in the courts to get what he was owed, but to no avail.  Even when he was called to testify before the ministers, he knew the decision was settled.  Usually they were before the trial even started in his hometown.  But he did have a trick up his sleeve.  He on his own was on his way to being a respected member of the city, given he was an accomplished (TBD).  So when he was called up to testify, he actually ended up preaching.  To the shock of everyone, he condemned the entire process and proceeded to tell them, in hot so gentle terms, to go engaged in coitus with themselves.  And that day he left his hometown to make himself a new home, out in the wilds and on the edges of civilization.  While his family might be broke, he had enough funds to purchase the supplies.  But out on the edges of civilization, new dangers lurked…

It doesn’t really matter if she was really guilty, she knew she was set up because she crossed the wrong people.  Like the mob kind of wrong people.  Wrong place, wrong time.  Pretty much everything that could go wrong, had.  She knew it was foolish, but she had jumped bail and was on the run, living on the lamb, pick your phrase.  Luckily she had some less than scrupulous skills that could help her survive, but her immediate concerns were not getting caught.  She had a safehouse, more or less, and an under-the-table job that would make sure she would stay out of sight and under the radar.  She was going to prove herself innocent.  And the only way to do that would to get some payback in the first place.

She had signed up to be a colonist on the most recent wave of settlements, but this is not where they were supposed to be.  The astrogation console was more or less busted, but she could tell that something happened with the transit drive and they were far, far off course.  At least they had managed to bail from the ship near a habitable planet.  But now she was stuck on some unknown planet with only a handful of people.  Maybe they’d find a way home, but surviving was the first goal.  And who knew what this world held for them.