One day the land was as it had always been, and the next the elder evil was there.
The violence of the elder evil’s arrival wounded the land in a way that it had never known before. Merely existence in the presence of the elder evil was anathema to the spirit realm. The echoes of its arrival were a blighted wound that devoured everything which came near it. Where there had once been only light and harmony, now there was chaos and death.
“And physically,” Gerard gestured while William watched enraptured. “Physically the land buckled and cracked under the weight of the elder evil’s arrival. The smooth lines of the land and the cities of the first people shattered and crumbled, only to be thrown up once more into what we now call the Stryoss Mountains.”
“Where the Gates of Bardin are!” William shouted, his excitement overriding his earlier fear. But this time Gerard didn’t scold him, instead matching the boy’s enthusiasm with his own.
“Exactly,” he said. “But not yet, that comes later. Much later.”
But though the elder evil caused such devastation on its arrival, it did nothing more than lay at rest in its mountainous cradle after that. As powerful as it was, you see, the elder evil was only a babe. It rested, dormant and hungry, devouring everything that came near it, but nothing more. There were many, both spirit and man, who sought the elder evil out, hoping to learn from it as they had learned from all things before. Those who ventured too close were never seen again, and even those few who turned back were changed by the experience.
The damage of the elder evil had been done, and the golden age of man and spirit had come to an end. The spirits were no longer the carefree generous beings that they had been, the elder evil’s presence had changed them. They were skittish things now, and no longer provided endlessly for those living beneath their watch.
The first people were likewise affected, now both by the elder evil and by the way that the spirits changed. Faced with a new mortality, humanity had to learn to be selfish and cruel. Learning and creation were no longer the favored pastimes, at least not for those who wanted to eat. Working in the fields became the new way of life, the remnants of the first people each looking to ensure that they had enough even if it meant that their neighbors didn’t. The beautiful cities and wide open lands became a thing of the past.
This was the way of things for a long, long time. Humans struggling to survive amidst the ghost of their former glory while the spirits of the land hid themselves away. And this is how it would likely have stayed. But then the Old Masters arrived.
