Second Age

The Second Age: The Age of Wonder

The more fantastical myths stem from the Second Age, when the Elder Races were at their height, the Wyrmbroods were legion, and the gods freely interacted with mortals.

Birth: Through great rifts in the sky, the Ord appear in their flying vessels. They seize an island and raise it into the sky. The Ald emerge from the First Wood, exiled there from another world. The children of the Ald born on Fartherall become the Ald’s mortal legacy races: the elves and gnomes.

Balance: The Elder Races of Fartherall—the Ord, Ald, and Olom—build thriving civilizations and live in general peace with one another. Magic, the language of the universe, is studied and chronicled. War is virtually unknown, and when it does occur, is a curiosity and a limited exercise. It is a mini-age of unparalleled peace and prosperity, a time when the Elder Races achieve great technological, philosophical, and arcane understanding. The Elder Races grow complacent, and the Olom especially ignore their worship of the gods. Meanwhile, in the wild places of the world, the Wyrmbroods grow.

Driven mad by hunger and a lack of space, the Wyrmbroods attack the Olom. Outmatched, outnumbered, and unprepared for war, the Olom make a drastic decision. Trading their offspring’s mortality for focus, the Olom segment their children into five mortal echelons—rulers, warriors, builders, servants, and gardeners—and send them into war against the dragons.

Stymied by the Children of the Olom, the Dragon Monarchs unite their broods into the Wyrmhorde. The horde draws the Ord and Ald into the war. The three Elder Races unite against the Heirs of the Draagan. War blankets the world.

The alliance of Elder Races attempts to bring Death—the great strategist of the second generation of gods—back from the dead to turn against the Wyrmhorde. They harvest a golden apple from the Tree of Life, the roots of which grow through many worlds. But the apple that reaches Death is rotten, and she arises undead—the first being to do so—no ally to those who raised her. Death sees what the world has become, sees that the children of her generation have overthrown her siblings and populated the world crawling, noisy life, and is displeased.

Death whispers to the mortal children of the Olom and turns them against their parents.

Death: The Olom echelons abandon the Olom, their parents. The alliance of the Elder Races shatters. The Wyrmbroods annihilate the Olom, driving them to extinction, and then—as is the way with dragons—turn on and devour one another. The handful of remaining broods return to the wild places of the world, greatly weakened. With their progenitor race gone, the Children of the Olom settle into their roles and branch into the Olom legacy races: the giants, ogres, dwarves, humans, and halflings.

Of note: There is some disagreement among scholars as to what marks the end of the Second Age and the start of the Third. Most put the end of the Age of Wonder at the extermination of the Olom and the rise of its legacy races. A vocal minority would have the Age of Wonder extend until the departure of the Ord and the Ald as well. It really comes down which event one deems more significant: the fall of the Elder Races, or the rise of their successors. In this account, the Age of Wonder with the inception of the Olom’s legacy races.

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