Editing New Jhelom (section)

===Prehistory===
; Creation : In the very beginning, There was but Earth and Sky.
: Each of the Maiden Goddesses gave birth to two children. One son and one daughter each.
: Earth birthed Lady Stone and Lord Flame, while Sky birthed Master Air and Mistress Water, and for a time, these were the only six beings upon the surface of the world.
: Then Water married Fire, and Stone wed Air, and soon each of them had their own firstborns. To Water and Fire, was born Blood, and to Air and Stone, was born Flesh, and while each of these pairs had many more children, often who held multiple mates, it is known that Blood and Flesh had eyes only for one another, and their romance was passionate beyond all reason, the courtship lasting nearly a full century by our time before they finally wed and mated.
: And from their union, was born Mortality, and to their horror, and the horror of their large family of all the elementals, it was learned that Mortality aged, he would die, and for the first time, the progenitors of this world would know death.
: Mortality didn’t see this as a curse, but instead, as a chance at something new and for the young to grow up without having to live in the shadows of the elders.  Thus Mortality studied with all of their family to learn everything they could about the elements, the arts and crafts. They descended to the land and built a city made of marble, glittering like a jewel nestled in the vibrant fields with a river that ran nearby with sparkling clear water all residing upon the Maiden Goddess, Earth. After finishing lovingly crafting the city to perfection, Mortality did the unheard of and took his own life. Springing forth from his body came the first mortals, who were not like any of the current races and were named Mortals after their progenitor name. Within each individual exists a mortal soul, blessed with one of the talents or learning that Mortality had learned from his family. The city would come to be known as Birth and the islands surrounding it as the Isles of Origin.


; The First Murder and Second Murders : Though Mortals died, it was only through Time or Disease or other misfortune at first. Mortals did not kill each other, for to do so would destroy something created by those greater than they.
: But one day, a Man grew jealous of the affections of a Woman and he killed her, becoming the First Assassin. After this First Murder, he became enamored with killing, inventing every way to kill someone, it was said. And he then began to train others, so once he passed, his art would not vanish. But the Second Assassin, began to see people despair as the people they loved were taken and he saw the wrongness of this. So he performed the Second Murder, slaying the First Assassin. But it was too late - murder had already been introduced into the world. To this day, it is said the secretive Assassins pledge themselves to either the First or Second Assassins. It is also said that the Woman who died, died with child, and from her corpse came the children of the First Assassin - Chasatha and the Perched. It is also said that the First Assassin, after an age of torment, rose as the first Undead - so eager was he to learn of Death in the Mortal World. A third child was born as well, the Barghest, as her screams were so terrible, rending through the ears of all that heard, that the beasts of the field and forest did rend themselves into spirits of ash and air, ever seeking words to give voice to their pain.

* Some small cults claim that this is a false history, that the truth is that the First Assassin never died, and that he killed another man in the second murder, blaming him for the first, and in so doing, told the First Lie as well, and that all mortal justice since, which is almost universally Eye for an Eye, Tooth for a Tooth, was founded on this madman's twisted ideology. 

; The First War : For a time, there was an uneasy peace, enforced by the bringer of the Second Assassin and those that followed his creed of "Justice". Eye for an Eye, Tooth for a Tooth became the standard, until the First Assassin returned from his grave, and gathered his outcast children to him. Others joined him, tired of the tyrannical iron-fisted rule of "Justice" at the hands of the Second Assassin. And so, the First War was sparked in the Isles of Origin, and all that was Mortal burned in its fires.
: Never before had the world seen such cruelty and death, and even their distant cousins, the Elemental-Folk began to take an interest in what was happening. As those who tried to escape the bloodshed and madness took to ships to flee the only home they had ever known, they found themselves guided by wind and current, by beings of living glass and wet sea bed sand. And so Mortals spread to all corners of the world. 
: The Isles of Origin, the battleground of the First War, stacked up so many bodies, that the final victors, the First Assassin and his children, were all that remained. And so they burned the corpses. The Isles of Origin became the Isles of Pyres, and this is known for they were referred to as such when their fires still smoldered in the very beginnings of Mortal History.

* But many Assassins tell of the Second Murder - where one who learned under the First Assassin the ways of killing, realized the sin of taking the lives of others. And so the Second Assassin killed the First Assassin. And so Assassins are still divided into those who kill for themselves, and those who kill for others.

;The Long Decline : At some point, the Serpent Behind the Wall of Stars devoured The Goddesses of Earth and Sky. It is not known if the Goddesses were destroyed, or rendered dreaming, or imprisoned. But this marked the end of the age of creation. Mortals divided into the races they are today. The Elementals took over control of the Earth, but it was a lesser control. And so things went. What is known as "Recorded History" began some centuries after this point, when Old Jhelom was first founded and the Nails of Earth and Sky were first plunged into the Surface.
: But the world has become unhinged. The disappearance of its caretakers has undone the natural law of the world. Demon Dragons skulk in forgotten places, the Murder Born grown in numbers like never before. The very stars plunge and pitch as the Serpent Behind the Wall of Stars stirs in his slumber. Men and women go mad as their souls are malformed at birth, or later, and more and more only the most depraved keep their wits.

*Some suggest that Goddesses are harder to kill than mortals. Do the Maiden Goddesses only slumber within the Serpent Behind the Wall of Stars? Is there a way to awake and free them, to turn back the slow spiral of madness?
*:None can say - but if one travels to the White Sands of Alianar, and climbs the Red Tower there, one will find a small room, engraved with the writing of a madman with strange insight. And it says that "Freedom must come from this side of the Wall. Gods cannot rouse Gods. Mortals are another, more peculiar matter."