The Dawn of Mortals.

It was from the spare few who remained on Finiens after the War of the Courts ended that mortal-kind would in time be crafted. Using their previous creations as a template, the Aspects and the Avatars began their work anew, crafting and forging life to refill the emptied world. Alongside their creations were the offspring of Echidna, monsters and beasts and stranger things, which in turn produced more of their own kind, spreading their bizarre progeny into the wilds of the earth. Animals and beasts were made first, the mundane and the fantastic, creatures of all shapes and sizes. But after them they turned their attentions once again to  sapient life. Life that was made in the image the Aspects had desired from the first, but could compete - intellectually - with the enlightened children of Echidna’s spawn.

In the aftermath of the Lost War, the lands of Finiens had been cleaved apart, shoved away, relocated, combined, and otherwise shifted about and reorganized from their original, intended designs. Five distinct lands, five continents; to each, three lives were given.

To the northernmost, Stormwind, was given the nomadic prides of the Leoni, the industrious mountaineer tribes of the Kobolds, and the boisterous barbarian packs of the Orcs.

To its neighbor, Senkaku, came the cunning and noble clans of the Naga, the clever and curious flocks of Tengu, and the populous hordes of miniscule Nezumi.

To the south, the jungles and mounts of Paziou became home to the hardy and reckless Dwarves, the nimble and resourceful Halflings, and the ambitious and efficient Humans.

Further south yet, the broad and vast continent of Wachara now housed the mighty Giants, the resolute Fenrin, and the unfathomable Dragons, the mightiest of Echidna’s brood.

And last of all, furthest south, the remote land of Teremvor hosted the sturdy Lizardfolk, the persevering Gnolls, and the tyrannical Hobgoblins.

At the last the Aspects stood and looked over their creation, and pronounced it almost complete. But there was one thing left to do. None knows which of the Aspects made the suggestion or initiated the final creation, nor why such a terrible thing was suggested, but whatever the reason, the others acceded in short order and the last craft began.

Taking the mightiest of all their remaining resources from which they would create, the Aspects forged eight new beings of wonder and terror, mighty engines of destruction beyond anything before made or born. Once created they were scattered throughout the world, placed in deep slumber and hidden away in remote parts of the world.

Firbohlg, giant of giants. Tiamat, serpent from the sea. Tarrasque, beast to end all beasts. Orochi, the living island. Ahmmut, devourer of domains. Fenrisúlfr, the fangs of flame. Tsemeques, the frozen titan. And Ziz, scourge of the sky.

These Children of Perdition, sealed in their concealed places, were locked away for a time in the future where they would be needed for a task unspoken. Theories range everywhere from the ultimate time of Finiens’s unmaking to a failsafe should Nidhoggar break free of his deep prison and seek once more to devour the earth. But the Aspects are silent on such things, and have always been.

And for a time, the world knew not of them, hidden away and forgotten by mortal men, spoken of only as legends and dreams in the earliest days of life.