Legends and Traditions
Below are the stories and legends that should be familiar to most of the inhabitants of the world.
Legend of The Paragons
This is the official version of the legend, sanctioned by the Church of Tempest.
Long, long time ago, before the fall of the Dwarven empires, and before the age of men begun the world was ruled by magical beings known as Paragons. Modern clerics insist that they were servants of the gods, created in their image in order to lead and guide the lesser races in the early days of the creation. In the oldest songs however, Paragons are much older than that, and they have walked the world long before the Gods arrived.
The legends agree that while Paragons were ageless, peerless and immune to disease and common ailments they were mortal, and could be killed by a sudden calamity or violence. Death among them was a rare occurrence however, because they were beings of immense power, and magical skill. They had no natural enemies and thus they only things that could threaten their life would be wrath of gods, or that of another paragon.
The Paragons were very few in numbers. The oldest surviving Elven sagas speak of twelve, while other, more popular songs put the number closer to twenty. Those, however most likely also include their mixed race children which were beings of lesser power. The original Paragons rarely married among themselves, and when they did, such unions almost never produced offspring. Some scholars say that there was simply not enough magic in the world to support any more of them, and thus they were unable to conceive with beings of equal power. It is equally likely that they simply did not want to create future competitors who would grow up to lay claim on their domains. They did however breed with the lesser races, and children that cane from such unions inherited only a fraction of the Paragon powers. It is said that all modern day Sorcerers can trace their lineage back to the Paragons, and it is the blood of these ancient beings that gives them their magical powers.
In the early days of the world the Paragons quarreled among themselves often, and when they did, the world would be plunged into chaos. Mountains would be leveled, oceans would dry up, continents would break asunder and entire kingdoms would perish in horrific cataclysms caused by the Paragon magic slap fights over trivial matters. Worse yet, some of the Paragons grew wicked and decadent and stated taking pleasure in lording over and tormenting lesser races.
The gods grew weary of the constant pleas for help from the mortal worshipers and intervening on their behalf. They have decreed that Paragons were not above mortal laws, and that they should be held accountable for any crimes they commit against the lesser races of the world. They chose twelve of the most just and pious mortals and gave them weapons of immense divine power. This power was divided equally among them, so that no single mortal man or elf could claim power equal to that of a Paragon, but acting in unison they could overpower any of them.
From that point on, whenever any of Paragons would some terrible atrocity against the mortal men, the bearers of the divine artifacts would convene as The Council of Twelve, and pass judgment. To condemn a Paragon they required a simple quorum: seven or more votes. And thus, Paragons were beholden to the Will of the Seven.
In it's early days, the Council was just and benevolent and judged fairly. But as the centuries went by, and the councilors changed, so did the Paragon tactics. Instead of world shattering duels, they started waging secret wars, manipulating entire nations and using political intrigue to influence the decisions of the Council. Instead of being judges, the Councilors became pawns in a game played by the ageless, eternal Paragons. Many of them lost this game, and their numbers dwindled down to only four. But instead of dying down, the conflict between them only escalated.
Eventually the mortals grew tired of being pawns, and joined the game, in order to win their freedom back. Few wars, several assassinations and betrayals later, the Council had a quorum of just and pious men. The Will of Seven was that remaining Paragons were to be purged from the world.
After the last of the Paragons was judged, and executed, the Council was disbanded, and the divine weapons were hidden away.
Most religious writings portrays the Purge in positive light, framing it as a triumph of mortals, empowered by the will of the gods, against wicked oppressors and tormentors. The names of the individual paragons have been stricken from the records to prevent people from worshiping them as gods, or from trying to use magic to bring them back to life.
Sylvan Apocrypha
There is a number of old Elven sagas that deal with the age of Paragons, and some of them differ from the more popular legends preserved in church writings. They are mostly preserved via oral tradition in elvish languages, and written transcripts in Common are very hard to get, and typically suppressed by the Church of Tempest because they mention names of the Paragons and portray gods as absentee figures not involved in the Purge.
Similarly, not all Paragons are portrayed as wicked, decadent tyrants. Some are described as Promethean type figures, teaching Elves to harness magic, and protecting the lesser races against the excesses of the lesser races. The weapons used by the Council are described as not of divine origin, but rather made by Paragon Yôm the Enkindler.
The purge is portrayed as a betrayal in which the mortal Councilors turn against their Paragon allies.
