04/May/2009
The history of the world referred to as "Rast of the Five Planes", is split into three Ages. The First Age or "Age of Magic" is an almost unknown time, which ended more than three thousand years ago, and was when the physical world was created, with the power of magic reining supreme. The Second Age or "Age of Dragons" is most of known history, ended a few decades ago, and was when races other than dragons came into existence. The Third Age or "Age of Man" started a few decades ago, with the Turn of the Age, and its nature is not yet clear.
Ancient and obscure lore suggests that in the Beginning there was just the Divine/Infinite Plane, which had no differentiated intelligence, no time, no space, no nothing. From this intelligence descended to form the Astral Plane, and the Outer Planes formed between these two. Later, though given the nature of time on the astral this is a dubious distinction, intelligence descended from the astral to form the Physical/Material Plane, and the Inner Planes formed between this and the astral. It is speculated that in each case the descent occured so as to give a wider range of possibilities.
The first intelligences are usually called the Faery, creatures of intellect and will, to whom physical shape was a mere detail. Their nature is magic, and was not compatible with the physical. Some became dragons, some gave up almost all of their power, some seemed to just fade away. Towards the end of the Second Age almost all faery seem to have settled on a fragile winged humanoid shape as their default.
The second intelligences were the Dragons, firmly rooted in the physical but with great powers of magic. However, they desired to manipulate physical things more directly, and created other races, starting with the so-called Ur Lizardmen, so as to do this for them. Somewhere in this age dragons became differentiated and tied to various material aspects, like colours and metals, loosing a lot of their power. Humans were one of the final races that dragons made. Some other races were created, in more-or-less of a hurry, for military purposes.
The third intelligences are the Gods, Demons and Elementals, which variously inhabit the outer and inner planes. Their origin is unclear, and in some cases seems to be at least partly from other worlds. The faery and dragon claim that originally they did not exist, though magical forces on occasion showed a sort of intelligence. One idea is that they came into existence towards the end of the Second Age, between a thousand and two thousand years ago, as influences from the physical propagated up into the higher planes, as there is no physical evidence that they existed before then.
Influences from other worlds seem almost certain to have affected History. Possibly of more concern, at least to some scholars, is that there are hints that the past has been changed, maybe by time travel, possibly by attacks from other-worldly beings. Some are particularly suspicious about the ancient dragon lord Mandragon, who supposed came from the stars, the Lord Constructor, once-mortal saviour of the Koshir people, and most recently the mysterious so-called Dungeonmaster Under Rast, suggesting that they must have come from other worlds. The being known as 'Jeanie' might know...