mongst most elven religions, there exists the notion of beings far greater and powerful than one can possibly fathom – forces of nature in the shape of living beings, who laid foundation to the many aspects of the universe.

The elves of Qualior referred to them as Our Ancestors, the wood-elves of Mundus call them Gods, whilst the high-elves of Alímar call them the Old Ones. And though these days these beings are not worshipped any more, they still remain an essential part to the world's cosmic-history.

Unlike the religions and faiths of mankind though, elven religions aren't a static set of beliefs and gods. For the qualis, religion is a way of making sense of the world around them.

As such, elven religions are a fusion of philosophy, cosmology and science, certain aspects of it changing every moment with recent discoveries to accommodate facts and logic. In the matters of science and cosmology, the high-elves have the upper hand, with their society greatly promoting the study of physics and mathematics.

The wood-elves on the other hand tend to focus mostly on earthly matters like establishing a relationship with nature, although their contribution to biology and chemistry can't be denied either, especially in the case of the sand-elves.

In this section, we'll be dealing with the creation myth, some of the more popular gods, some general philosophical concepts, and the ways arcane and chaos energies work.

Since the laws of physics of this world are almost entirely similar to the one humans live in, we'll omit the unnecessary parts, as well as skip some concepts that humans haven't yet fully understood (like Dark Energy), since that'll require a lot of pretext.

o point in drawing out long introductions, this section concerns the cosmology and creation myths of the elves of Mundus. Though my research still remains incomplete, I'll write down what I have learned about these peoples, leaving out the parts I don't know about.

There is Kaal, the Great Ouroboros, within whom the cycles of time exist. He is Omnipresent and Everlasting; there was no time when He did not exist, for He is Time Itself. And within His mouth lay a venom called Morthaur: the personification of Chaos, the characteristic of Kaal.

And within Morthaur's body, ever-changing and chaotic, there sometimes rise small bubbles of order that are soon popped, and by 'soon' I mean in several trillion trillion years.

One of such mere bubbles is our universe: Alcyone, formed from the abode of Morthaur when a primal seed erupted out of the seas of chaos called Isa, from whom by the power of desire and intense heat the universe took shape, for those who would come within it this was the beginning of time.

The first beings to awaken in this new world, formed by the accumulation of gaseous nebulae, were the Alcyur, whom we may refer to as gods. The first came several hundred million years after the beginning, and many others followed, and the universe was lit up by beings of light and heat and seminal energies.

Of these Alcyur, a spare few far more powerful than others stood out; whom we now call the Lidraal – the titans, who took the mantle of rulers of this world, owing to their superior intelligence and wisdom.

But this was not to last, though what happened then is unknown. Sages call it the First Heavenly War, though nobody knows if it was really a war or not, nor did we know why it happened, nor who took part in it. All we know is by the end of it, the Alcyur now ruled over the universe, whilst the Lidraal were no more.

And thus began the second epoch of the universe, where the Alcyur and their subordinates were the most powerful, but though the Lidraal were gone, their bodies still remained.

Sped up by the force of gravity and dark matter, their bodies accumulated together in one great pile of gleaming raw energy called the Aoroth. And seeing it the Alcyur were seduced, lured into jumping in out of sheer hunger for power, only to discover the trade-offs: those who once entered the Aoroth, could never leave, nor keep their sanity intact. Thus the first daemons came into being, mad gods as many elves call them.

But those who remained hatched a plan for a safe consumption. Elinor, Leader of the Alcyur, crafted with his comrades a unique plane of existence through which the energies of the Aoroth could be channelled through and into the upper realms.

This plane was Mundus: a vessel, a cup placed into the sea that is Aoroth, so that energies could be picked up and consumed in little amounts over a large period of time.

As the plan was drawn, a great many Alcyur entered Aoroth with the rough shape of Mundus in hand, and set it to place, labouring for millions of years. Many an Alcyur died trying to give it shape, and yet many more were lost, but at last the plane was created.

The dead bodies of the Lidraal, each of which had broken and mingled together to form the barren planets of Mundus, were now walked by the spirits of the Alcyur who remained behind, for they had sworn to look after it, until its end when they may come out and be as powerful as ever.

These Alcyur who gave up their immortal essences, devolved then into what we call today life: the lesser ones of them faded entirely into this realm, evolving into the first cells and (by evolution) animals and plants, whilst the greater ones took the shape of Wild Forest Gods to rule over swathes of their ancient subjects as rulers of wilderness.

Thus the world was founded, and the story of Qualior follows. Anyway, a couple notes before I finish:

Firstly, it is not known what exactly the First Heavenly War was, and although many claim it to be a war between the Alcyur and the Lidraal, others claim the Alcyur had no part in it. It was instead because the Lidraal had gained too much knowledge, and couldn't cope with their existence, and thus they collapsed.

Secondly, these definitions make it sound like Mundus is a specific part of the universe where mortal life exists, which is untrue; Mundus is a plane of its own, not constrained by physical space, and oft-times it may intersect with other planes.

For example in the Solar System, Earth, Mars, Titan, and Europa are in Mundus and thus capable of harbouring life, whilst Venus, Mercury, and Neptune are in the Aoroth, thus home to daemons but not mortals. And Sun is an Alcyur outside the Aoroth entirely, feasting on Earth's energies from its own place.

Thirdly, aye: the Alcyur are a symbolic representation for stars, whilst Lidraal signify bigger stars. The story of how the bodies of the Lidraal formed the planets is eerily similar to how our own planets are formed from the stellar remains of ancient stars.

Fourthly, a lot of people may be confused by the fact that there are two entities named Morthaur. It is not a mistake, but rather because the Morthaur who interacts with Mundus is an avatar of the real Morthaur, within whom we all exist. Also, because Morthaur is simply 'chaos', there are multiple entities named Morthaur, not just two.

Fifthly, it is unknown if the existence of Mundus feeds the gods and life is just a side-effect of the energy wasted, or if life itself is what feeds the gods. If it's the latter, that would explain the somewhat benevolent nature of most of the gods, and also why they are so keen on keeping it safe and stable.

Anyway, so that's all I can think of right now. If I come up with more facts, I'll keep adding them.

ontrary to popular belief, the vast majority of Alcyur to have ever existed are still around today, and will remain for billions or trillions of years, and yet there are many still unborn. On that note, the Alcyur can be classified into five categories.

The first are the Light Gods or Sane Gods: the gods who aided in the creation of Mundus either directly or indirectly, and as a result were rewarded with a planet or two in the plane to feast from. Their subordinates are called angels, who get a fraction of their respective gods' powers. Though they are benevolent and act caring, most of them are weak and in a permanent state of slumber, talking to their faithful mortals through the medium of telepathy.

Then are the Chaos Gods or Mad Gods: gods who were exposed to the Aoroth for long periods of time, and thus were driven insane. They do not have physical forms nor planets (since they do not rely on life for energy, and can instead drink straight from the Aoroth), but instead each of them has their own plane of existence in the Aoroth, all of which are connected by a great desert called Ngaath. Their subordinates are called daemons, of whom there are kinds lesser and greater. From time to time, these daemons enter Mundus (often without will), usually when there is a hole in the fabric that separates it from the Aoroth, which tends to happen if there is a high concentration of order or if ordered by a warlock.

Thirdly there are the Wild Gods: gods who once were Sane, but died during the creation of Mundus and were revived through it. Of these gods, the greatest managed to retain their individuality, becoming nature or elemental gods of localised environments (like forests or oceans), whilst the lesser ones upon death lost their individuality, and from their genetic blueprint the first living cells and the process of evolution came about, eventually evolving into life as we know it.

Fourthly there come the Iron Gods: once Sane Gods who had come to Mundus to aid in its creation, but midway through strayed from the path and instead chose to opt for other methods, some using worship whilst others building obelisks. They are quite similar to the Wild Gods, save for that they have no domains, and instead of being nature oriented, almost all of them have bodies of iron or nickel, encased in which lay a star. They are loathed by mortals and immortals alike.

Lastly there are The Unwilling: Alcyur who were never seduced by the Aoroth, probably due to their small sizes and meagre desires. They are a sub-class of the Sane Gods (since they are sane and exist outside of the Aoroth), but they do not desire to take part in this game of power, and instead want to merely exist and perhaps gain power the same way the Lidraal did, if they even want it in the first place. They do not have planets, and appear to our eyes as lonely red stars, wandering aimlessly through the galaxy, sometimes in pairs.

Anyway, in regards to the pantheon: the wood-elves more often than not tend to worship their respective wild gods, which is why their religions can be incredibly diverse but usually nature-based. On the other hand, the high-elves of yore had twelve gods in their pantheon: six Sane and six Insane, all of which they considered the 'main gods', with all the other gods their subordinates or lesser gods.

The six Sane Gods go as follows.

Elinor: Feathered Serpent, Firstborn, Patron of Engineering, Lord of Light and Wind, Creator of the Blueprint of Mundus, looked after by the Fire Angels.

Azir: Warrior-Poet, Patron of Song and Strategy, Finest of Arms in all of Alcyone. Those who die bravely in battle are honoured by him in his Halls of Valour.

Aayur: Keeper of the Ankh, Bringer of Life, the Golden Harpy, Patron of Health and Fertility. She was the one who brought life to Mundus out of her own heart.

Zen-Ti: Provider of Ease and Commerce. He was the one who built The Warp, so that mortals could travel from one planet to another without difficulty.

Kaal-Ei: Father of Dragons, God of Time and Space, Avatar of Kaal, the Illusionist. He looks over the souls of the dead, temporarily housing them ere they reincarnate.

Mithral: Protector and Defender, Guardian of Mundus. Ever since its creation, he has been protecting it from daemons, and will continue to do so until The End.

And then we have the six Mad Gods, who go as follows.

Morthaur: King of the Gods, Dark Dragon, Harvester, Sower and Reaper of Life. By invading Mundus from time to time, he maintains balance within the realm.

Sithur: Bloodlust Personified, ex-Champion of Azir. He was once a mortal, but since long has he abandoned his mortality, maddened by his lust for violence.

Emmui-Xil: Lord of Vampires, Queen of Ngaath, Seducer. He is the personification of Excess, and his realm is not one of dark and death but pure carnal pleasure.

Kaisendor: Betrayed One, Lord of Fungus, Plaguebringer, Swamp Terror. He was supposed to be the one to bring life to the world, but he was betrayed by Aayur.

Arcanite: Perfect One, Lord of Order, Crystal Terror, Obsessed One. He was Elinor's brother once, consumed by his lust for perfection. His realm is one of dark crystals.

Terranoi: Guardian of Secrets, Haunter in the Dark. He is the god of fear. When you think there is nobody in the darkness, Terranoi is there, and he is watching you.

Together, these twelve gods comprise the pantheon of the First Elves, and although today few elves worship them, they still remain as a relic of the past. Other than that, there are also other popular gods followed by other tribes.

Dren and Wren: Equal and Opposite forces on either sides of the universe, who together keep the universe stable. Dren is action, heat, and light; Wren is inaction, cold, and darkness.

Sothoth: The Knower of All. Originally the seventh god of the First Elves, but later relegated to a very powerful mortal. He is known to harbour knowledge about everything.

Murad: The Weaver of Fate. Originally the eighth god of the First Elves, but later omitted. She is depicted as an old lady who sits on a spindle and weaves the fate of the world.

Irol-Izir: Arcane Lord. Yet another god of the First Elves, he was supposed to have created The Warp, until that honour was finally relegated to Zen-Ti.

The Machine: A popular god amongst the industrialists: a giant machine that came from a different dimension to create and destroy, greater than any of the other gods.

Hermit King: A somewhat mysterious god who seems to be a cross of a Wild God and a Sane God, incredibly merciful yet with a rage that can bring down mountains.

On the other hand, there are too many Wild and Iron Gods to talk about, and an unknown number of Unwilling. Also a point to note is: Wild Gods are more along the lines of 'collective consciousness' rather than their own thing. Instead of being guardians of a forest, these gods are the forest itself, and every avatar you see of them is mere manifestation of the forest as a whole.

hough the laws of physics of this world are far similar to the one humans live in, there's one difference: there's a fifth fundamental force in play, a force called arcanum. This is not magic, just physics.

Like how a magnet has two poles and the energy of the magnet flows from one pole to the other, Alcyone too has two poles: Aetherius and Niflheim, made up of exotic kinds of particles called alpha and omega generators respectively. From the abode of Aetherius and into Niflheim flows arcanum – arcane lines of force.

As arcanum passes through firmaments of space populated by arcane-sensitive materials, it generates mana within them – an unstable form of energy which can be converted to any other energy form at the whim of the user, or even be used to entangle the arcanum at two different points (thus allowing for teleportation and psychic spells).

In normal condition this generated mana is wasted away in the form of meagre heat energy, but water has the ability to store this mana in its unstable form, and so living beings whose bodies are comprised mostly of water, can store mana within them until it reaches a point called saturation point, which is the entity's maximum mana capacity. Furthermore, the total amount of arcanum flowing through a certain being is called arcane flux, and it can be informally considered their mana regeneration rate.

Though most mortals (humans included) have low arcane flux and thus cannot interact with the arcane field, those with high arcane flux and saturation points (i.e. mages) can cast a variety of spells by either converting their mana to other forms of energy, or by simply entangling arcanum at two different points (although this too requires mana as there is a lot of entangling involved).

The most common forms of spells regarding mana conversion include meagre spells like electric strike or fireball, although the possibilities are nearly limitless.

But conversion based spells are just one aspect of this force, so meagre and wasteful that elves these days seldom use such spells save for games or hasty defence; the main use of it is in the form of teleportation and psionic powers, which involves entanglement.

Regarding teleportation: suppose you are at Point A and need to go to Point B, provided the two points have approximately equal arcane flux. So you cast a warp spell, which works something like this: are arcanum at Point A reads your physical information and sends it over to Point B so the arcanum there can reconstruct your physical form (alongside anything you might be carrying).

Since as per quantum mechanics, you cannot read the states of particles without destroying them, your previous figure ceases to exist.

However, this method is slow and can take well over a quarter of a second, the low and high pressures formed at Points A and B respectively can often result in audible whooshes, there is a significant amount of mana consumed in entangling the arcanum at both points, and worst of all it only functions within a small radius of 5-10 metres.

A solution to the last problem is to create pylons: obelisks which can set the arcane flux of a defined radius around itself to a certain value, such that when two pylons have the same arcane flux set to themselves, mages can teleport hundreds of miles in a single warp. These pylons also cause mages to recover their mana faster, and cast stronger spells with ease.

However, neither of these work for interdimensional or interplanetary travel. For that instead, one must rely on warpgates: great portals that connect two parts of the mortal plane through an intermediate realm called The Warp.

Anyway, this entangling of arcanum is also how telepathy and telekinesis are made to work, as well as other more powerful spells like arcane healing, speed, or even psionic storms.

Thus we conclude the nature of arcanum, save for one feature: how is arcanum ever undone, thus leading to the natural death of the universe? The answer lies in a sixth (not exactly, but otherwise I'll have to explain a ton of space-time concepts) fundamental force: chaos energy.

Somewhat akin to arcanum but the exact opposite, chaos energy disintegrates whatever it passes through. Instead of creating, leading to the decay of all things until entropy is at its maximum and the universe returns to primordial chaos.

There are no poles for chaos, for it flows from outside the universe, generating chaotic energies within those with high chaotic flux, similar to arcanum it too has a saturation point, which dictates the powers of the warlock in question.