The Old Gods

The Old Gods were said to be the creators of all that is known, from the Multiverse and its deities right down to every conceivable element. The Old Gods were physical beings of pure power, their existence and origin shrouded in mystery, and the true extent of their capabilities being unknown. Upon the birth of the world, the first thing created, according to legend, was the world of Abeir-Toril, the center of the Multiverse and a blank canvas waiting for the first brushstroke.

After a cataclysmic disaster when the concept of chaos was created in the mind of one of the Old Gods, the others fashioned together a loose pantheon of deities to fulfill the duties of the Old Gods, and then they vanished from existence, leaving behind the fruits of their labor as well as the artifacts their worshipers possessed.

In total, there were believed to be five Old Gods, each one embodying a different aspect of creation. Some scholars believe that there was a sixth Old God, the one that drove Zephm'ilos to birth chaos itself, as there are ancient artifacts, texts, and images from the time of the Old Gods that can not be explained. Another belief is that the form of Zephm'ilos changed drastically upon the creation of chaos, but there is little proof that the nature of the Old Gods' forms would change.

Yurr'eki'thal
Yurr'eki'thal was the embodiment of the earth, of nature, and of life. Its form was often that of a nondescript insect, scuttling across the ground and burrowing into the earth to create vast cavernous networks. Yurr'eki'thal is known as the creator of most land-based creatures, and is the pioneer of life itself, with the other gods taking inspiration from Yurr'eki'thal's creations to make their own creatures.

Depending on the situation and setting, Yurr'eki'thal could shift its form to that of anything it desired, taking abstract figures and providing the belief that Yurr'eki'thal created creatures in its own visage, as opposed to taking on the visage of the creatures it created.

Kth'zzekk
Kth'zzekk was the embodiment of water, of spirit, and of peace. It appeared as a godly leviathan, emerging from the depths of the oceans to observe its patrons. Kth'zzekk took to the great ravines and canyons of the newly formed Abeir-Toril, and it flooded them in a rather cataclysmic and dramatic wave, drowning all that lay beneath the torrent of water.

Kth'zzekk happily swam alone in the oceans it had created, but it quickly grew bored of the lack of mortals to experiment upon. Having come to a shore, Kth'zzekk saw the creations of Yurr'eki'thal, predators and prey alike. Intrigued by such delicate and sentient creations, Kth'zzekk formed its own, creating life in the sea to populate the vast climates.

Aaro'deno'wei
Aaro'deno'wei was the embodiment of the sky, of darkness, and of terror. It showed itself as a giant, tentacled mass, floating high above the air, invoking terror upon all that lived below it. With societies becoming established under the Old Gods rule, Aaro'deno'wei saw no desire to create its own life in the sky, and so it took to terrorizing the land-beasts.

Aaro'deno'wei soon grew bored of terrorizing the innocents, and so it stole the idea of Yurr'eki'thal and Kth'zzekk, creating its own sky beasts by modifying the assortments of already-existing creatures. Lions and eagles became mighty griffons, sharks were given serpentine bodies and were covered in feathers, and manta rays were gifted the ability to fly. These were the creatures that Aaro'deno'wei would terrorize the innocents on its behalf.

Golgar'axxi
Golgar'axxi was the embodiment of the body, of strength, and of being. It was structured as a humanoid mass of muscle, reinforced with a bony armor plating. Golgar'axxi constantly wandered Abeir-Toril, taking up inspiration from the lowly creatures created by the other gods and instilling them with supernatural strength, changing their shape and evolving them completely. Golgar'axxi is considered to be the creator of the mighty species such as the dinosaurs, the dragons, the krakens, and the giants, or at least the predecessors that existed long before those species came to be.

Golgar'axxi challenged and tested the strength of its creations by pitting them against one another, or partaking in personal combat. When Golgar'axxi defeated one of its creations, it would toss it away to come up with a new one, better evolving and refining it to meet its great expectations.

Zephm'ilos
Zephm'ilos was the embodiment of the mind, of magic, and later, of chaos. It was a crystalline humanoid figure, often appearing to be made from ice, and it covered itself in rags to hide itself. A common belief is that Zephm'ilos' appearance was an illusion the god gave itself, as its true form would break the minds of its patrons and any onlookers.

Zephm'ilos instilled Abeir-Toril with pure thought, and the concept of magic. Magic was not limited to the existence of the arcane, but spread across to the divine and the eldritch. To a god such as Zephm'ilos, all kinds of magic were the same manipulation of existence itself, but it was aware of the capabilities of each one in the hands of individuals.

When the creation of Abeir-Toril had settled, and the Old Gods roamed among their creations, Zephm'ilos formed a thought that manifested into a reality; out of all of the beings in this world, one would be gifted with superior magical powers over the rest, transcending beyond the concepts of the types of magic that existed to become a pure embodiment of all three. Zephm'ilos created the Lord of Time, a godlike entity that manifested in a single sentient creature, granting it the ability to view time as a dimension, perceive it from any perspective at any point in known existence, from the birth of Abeir-Toril, right to abstract visions of the future.

Shortly after the creation of the Lord of Time, the legend of Zephm'ilos splits in multiple directions. By all accounts, and for what is certain, Zephm'ilos lead to the departure of the Old Gods, and the sundering of Abeir-Toril. At some point, either a thought had manifested into its mind, or Zephm'ilos was instilled with the idea of chaos. The visions of chaos and the powers that lay beyond such a thought drove Zephm'ilos mad, and it created chaos in a pure form, warping creatures into dire forms, and generating the essence of absolute evil.

Departure and Aftermath
The Old Gods, after seeing the insanity of Zephm'ilos, had come to the decision to depart from the fruits of their labor to keep it safe from chaos incarnate. The Old Gods sundered Abeir-Toril apart, forever shaping the world in an attempt to quarantine the pure chaos put into it. The world was split into two separate planets, Abeir and Toril, to separate the conflict. Abeir and Toril's time was not in sync, and Abeir was stored in a pocket dimension, some saying deep within Toril's core. After sundering the world, the Old Gods were determined to find new rulers.

Members of mortal races were promoted to a god status, forming a loose pantheon of deities with a signified ruler over certain aspects of the world, some of the gods even being given the power to create new gods. After creating the deities, the Old Gods imprisoned Zephm'ilos and fled from the world in a flash of brilliance, leaving behind those that had worshiped them. Following the abrupt departure of the Old Gods, conflict erupted among the mortal races as they rebelled against their new gods, driving nations into dissent. What ensued was a period of malignancy for the new gods, and not many chose to worship them, believing that the Old Gods that they once endured would return to them some day. Centuries passed, and the mortal races lost hope in the Old Gods return, and so they sought the worship of the new deities, who had been patiently waiting for the mortals to realize they were all that was left.

As time passed, the legends of the Old Gods diminished, and the artifacts and sites devoted to their worship became defiled or lost. Eventually, the memory of the Old Gods and their existence vanished completely, with only few intelligent scholars knowing the existence of the Old Gods. As the age of adventurers rose, the artifacts of the Old Gods emerged once more, and with it, the legends. However, with a society now ingrained in the belief of their new deities, the Old Gods were seen as a myth, and their actual existence has been debated for an eternity.

Tezimeri, the Sixth Old God
Bearing the belief that chaos was not just spontaneously formed in the mind of Zephm'ilos, there are theories and studies that relate to the existence of a lesser-known, sixth Old God, going by Tezimeri. The supposed existence of Tezimeri is noted in ancient texts, images, and artifacts left behind after the departure of the Old Gods, and these items can not be logically explained in the context of the other five Old Gods.

Tezimeri is believed to have been the embodiment of chaos, and little else. Nicknames for Tezimeri included "the Watcher" and "the Frenzied", while little is explored on the contributions the god made to Abeir-Toril, as well as what its personality and appearance were. By some accounts, Tezimeri was the split personality of Zephm'ilos, and it was Tezimeri who instilled the thought of chaos within its twin. Others say that Tezimeri is a myth, and that Zephm'ilos was influenced by the Lord of Time themselves, having been given the power to transcend time, the Lord of Time could have influenced chaos into Zephm'ilos, but this is highly unlikely.

There are some theories that dictate that in their act of departing from the world, while imprisoning Zephm'ilos, the remaining four Old Gods destroyed Tezimeri to ensure that chaos did not spread. The most common evidence to back up this theory is that within the Astral Plane, large chunks of an unexplained organism float consistently in very specific areas within the plane, larger than any other deity or being to exist, with nothing else surpassing its size.