The Altori Era [World of Aurius]

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===== The Altori Era =====
The Altori Era was the beginning time, an era where the world had been freshly formed by the spilling of [[pantheons:class:sorya|Soryi]] blood through the acts of [[library:cosmologies:arethari_cosmology|Auroris]] and was rife with and abundant of a wondrous magic and many uncertainties, as this world was not yet stabilized and distinct from the raw energies of magic which it was formed by. The era would see the emergence of a clear distinction and separation of the ancestors of the elven peoples from the primitive and uncomplicated others, these elven ancestors being the first advanced beings of the newly formed worlds of both light and dark. The ancient and developed people of this time would be our progenitors of the [[races:elves:arethara:start|Arethara]], the [[pantheon:class:cephareth|Cephareth]], who were named so because of their primacy and ancestral quality as being the first of our ancestors to fully become, and thus, being the most holy and powerful people. In this forgotten world, the Cephareth ruled over all other life forms, establishing the safety and security of a world and realm from where they would all come to hail from being as they had navigated through the enchanting and unknown terrain of the lands of the worlds in times before. In this time, the raw and pure energies of magic and mana that [[pantheons:deities:caelarkhe|Caelarkhe]] had brought into formulation existed throughout the worlds, and their wellsprings of a pure, powerful mana emerged from the cracks and instabilities of this world such that Caelarkhe’s very essence could be clearly observed and worshipped.\\
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The realm that the Cephareth founded as they attempted to provide some stability and peace among the chaos was named [[planes:aurius:arethayn:start|Arethayn]], the elder land and our sacred nation, which was given order to by the Cephareth and would become a common fixture throughout all of the worlds of creation, the same land which we would come to inherit as the Cephareth’s direct offspring and heirs of the golden light. This nation would become eternal as Arethayn proved to be most resilient and separated among the worlds, the grand towers of the realm providing the eternities of time and genealogy. The fixture would provide a beacon to the other worlds, a basis from which all beings could come to exist outside of and yet, in relation to it, being the first truly divinely channeled and stable realm, all while still retaining its magical and archaic form as a realm of potent divinity. Arethayn is thus considered an effigy of Caelarkhe’s order and stasis, as the force was present and active in this time of incarnating and reincarnating of metaphysical energies that would eventually give life to all.\\
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In the Altori Era, our hallowed ancestors would come to inhabit within the realm they had founded, thereby granting their descendants a golden path with which to better traverse through the worlds of chaos, the other worlds simply existing alongside and beside the golden realm of Arethayn. This realm that the Cephareth inhabited would be cultivated by their potent magic and then harvested in the deeds of a certain creation and manifestation, allowing for its denizens to become one with the realm of tranquil and paradisal peace and mirth, giving a certain kind of sublimity that resembled and contained within itself the golden light of the immortal plane of [[:avaerus|Avaerus]], the realm proving to be a certain hope for the other realms of six that bordered it.\\
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The Cephareth, being beings like gods that inhabited within and throughout the mortal plane, walked among the worlds of creation which they would come to give rise to, and in their footsteps, there arose beings alike to them that since manifested as aspects of the Cephareth, though possessing a disparate consciousness. The aspects were alike to their forefathers in their ways of being and existence, though they inhabited within the mortal plane such that their essences had been fused with it, rather than the Cephareth’s detachment and inhabiting of a crystallized and perfect body. The Cephareth were thus the quintessential example of such terrestrial elements, and, with their ways of perfect incarnation, had helped to allow other spirits to come into existence in this forgotten, primeval world of which was composed of a pure magic and mana.\\
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In the era of crystallized essence as was the Altori Era, the Cephareth were those spirits that had crystallized from the Soryi blood from which the basis of life came, which had been supplanted with their own sense of order as was previously inspired by the cleaving and penultimate force of Caelarkhe. The Cephareth had thus partaken in the acts of creation in their simple deeds of existence, and they took most after the Soryi entities of Avaerus in that they possessed a great ability of procuring a stasis, and with that ability, allowed themselves to come into being and retain the divine shape that they had chosen. Accordingly, the Cephareth are the most sacred of the Auryi beings, those same whose aspects inhabited within mortality and the golden realm of Arethayn. The ancestral shapes of the Cephareth would provide the basis from which all beings of the mortal plane would come to resemble, as the Cephareth and Arethayn had provided inspiration to the other worlds of [[planes:aurius:start|Aurius]].\\
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The Sorya, who the Cephareth most resemble as a result of their trapping of the light within themselves in their incarnation into the mortal plane, were recognized as possessing a divinity that was yet bound to the ineffable Caelarkhe, and from the Sorya, came the shapes of the Cephareth. The forms that the Sorya possessed were perfect though unable to be incarnated and further reincarnated in their being bound to Caelarkhe, and thus, the Cephareth are believed to be the sole and miraculous resemblances to their divine forms, and the Cephareth are thus paragons of divinity which we of the Arethara strive to achieve and resemble. The essence of Caelarkhe is notably preserved by our people, the Arethara, as we are the Cephareth’s chosen heirs and they who were passed the crowns of rule to.\\
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Eventually, the Altori Era, though golden and full of innovative creation it was, would come to a rather swift end by the hands of the chaos that had manifested in [[pantheons:deities:azratha|Azratha]], the shape of death who lay in direct opposition and exclusion to the Cephareth. In the conglomeration of Azratha’s army among the spirits of this world, the realms that bordered Arethayn would finally submit to the laws of the darkness as their connection to the immortal plane of light and stasis was lost and the energies which descended from that plane becoming sparse and separated. The plane of which we now call Aurius was no longer overflowing with Soryi blood, and the pure energies of mana and magic were not plentiful throughout these other worlds such that beings could come into existence but lacking the traits of the divine. Azratha, then, amassed a collection of spirits in his campaign against the Cephareth, seeking to unwind their creation so that he might know its sustenance.\\
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Azratha, who would in time become the archenemy of the Arethari people, sowed his seeds of death and mortality throughout the mortal plane, and led an assault against the light of this mortality such that a cataclysm could be observed among the six other worlds of Aurius. In doing so, he forced the haunting spirits to incarnate, thereby creating humans and other mundane life forms that yet resembled the shapes and aspects of the Cephareth that had earlier walked among the mortal plane. Though the Cephareth had chosen to incarnate and act in their humanoid forms, they did not have a likeness in the six other worlds, and thus, humans were death’s version of the elven peoples whose traits had been selected for and imitated.\\
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The being of death and blight that was Azratha and who continuously challenged the border of Arethayn which the Cephareth had constructed a wall of a pure, white stone against, was thought by some of the Cephareth to be a being to be fought against, and thus, they ventured out of their world of eternal light and sustenance so that the other worlds of creation might be protected against. A pair of these Cephareth were [[:hyala|Luminexia]] and [[:kathael|Marcosia]], who were both capable of great acts of sorcery and the concurrent manipulation of pure mana and essence. In time, Luminexia and Marcosia would form the spearhead and leaders of a group of Cephareth who fought Azratha, thus abandoning their own realm to live amongst the worlds of mortality. Together, Luminexia and Marcosia foresaw the preservation of these worlds of mortality, and they lit up these worlds with a light and enshrined their essences in idols that challenged the darkness.\\
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In time, it was found that Luminexia, Marcosia, and their militia had become weakened by the darkness, and so they sought convention with the Cephareth of Arethayn, who invited them into their walls as their own brethren. Upon their entry into Arethayn, these of the Cephareth noticed that the golden lights were too bright, and that they had inherited some aspect of the darkness by their deeds of commingling with it in their time in the worlds of mortality. Our ancestors then noticed a laming in their perfect immortality, and they found that their brethren had brought this upon them by returning from these worlds. In realizing so, they cast out the bringers of darkness into the worlds of mortality in their weakened state, and these of the Cephareth, because they had returned to the mortal realms, chose to sacrifice themselves to become the laws and elements of all of Aurius, supplanting a stability and existence that was previously lacking. They had granted flesh to the bone that was Aurius, and owing to their great power of creation and godhood, combined the seven worlds of creation into one that was united by flesh rather than just bone.\\
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The war instigated by the darkness and fought by the sacrificial Cephareth necessarily formed the schism amongst the isolationist Cephareth, who are the ancestors of all of elven people of the Arethara and our cousins, the Neiara, and the Cephareth whose essences would find themselves incarnated into other shapes that yet resembled the elves, though becoming bound to mortality through their sacrifice. These shapes are various and dependent on the corresponding element of the Cephareth which they incarnated from. Notably, the most prolific of these elements were overshadowed by the [[races:elves:silvara:start|Silvara, the wild people]], the [[races:elves:undara:start|Undara, the sea people]], and the [[:ayenara|Ayenara, the nomadic people]], who inhabited the worlds of mortality and found a great array of being and shape among each of themselves as they incarnated from the earth, water, and air respectively.\\
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Though the Cephareth now faced death and blight by the hands of Azratha, they instated a caste system which sought to preserve the highest echelon of existence and purity of which the original Cephareth exemplified, and thus, allowing for their descendants to achieve the purity which they had in their lives. In instating the caste system, they allowed their crowns to be passed down to the worthy of Arethayn, thereby forming our elven people of the Arethara who inhabited within Arethayn and which necessarily sought to preserve the old ways of the Cephareth. The worship of those of the Cephareth who were most powerful and influential furthermore became common, and those of the lesser caste were made to worship these spirits despite not descending from them. Eventually, this led to the formation of the [[pantheons:class:elefyr|Elefyr]], who are thought to be the major powers of the Cephareth reincarnated into a more modern shape, thereby lending to their worship and status as the living gods of Arethayn, who rule over the land in their position of ultimate purity.\\
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In accordance to the caste system, Arethayn could then prove to be impenetrable against the darkness of which 
Azratha led, and allowing for Caelarkhe to manifest as they sought to preserve the force’s waning presence throughout the world. Thus, we seek to develop inward, preserving Caelarkhe wherever it may be found such that we retain its great gifts and potent abilities of immortality and an orderly stasis. Though forever we are haunted by the effects of Azratha, we seek to cast off his blight and death so that we might once more achieve apotheosis through virtue and purity as the Elefyr have, and again walk among Aurius as gods of the flesh that were nonetheless born from the Soryi blood of Caelarkhe.