The First People

Overview

The First People were the earliest humans. They existed before recorded time, during the Age of Splendor when the Old Gods ruled the hearts of all beings. They were the first civilization of people. The world belonged to them in a way it would never belong to anyone again.

The First People existed in a two-tier society. There were those who were called plebeians. And there were those called simpletons. The distinction between them is lost to time. What remains is the knowledge that their society was divided.

Life and Culture

The First People lived humble lives within the earth. They did not build great cities. They dug into the ground and made their homes in holes and caves. They were constant travellers. Their lives were a tapestry of travel and simplicity. They roamed the vast expanse of Valaron. They did not stay in one place.

Their reverence for the gods was manifest in scattered temples throughout the land. They built shrines to the Old Gods wherever they went. These temples and shrines were monuments to their unwavering devotion. Worship was woven into every part of their existence.

Settlements

Much of where the First People resided has been lost to time. The Great Fragmentation scattered the continents and buried many traces of their civilization. But some remnants remain.

Ancient runes with etchings of their sacred places have been discovered. These depict settlements that scholars have attempted to identify. Simpletopia is one such place, though its exact location and purpose remain unclear. Everwinter is another, generally regarded by modern scholars to correspond with what is now known as Skyreach Peak. Holbeck is the third, generally understood to have been located around the north of Solaris Isle.

The connection is not exact. The world has changed too much. Continents have drifted. Mountains have shifted. What was once here may now be there. The First People's world and the modern world are not the same. But these names persist in the ancient runes. They are echoes of places that once mattered deeply to a people who are now forgotten.

Legacy

The First People left little behind. No great monuments. No records that survived. They existed in the before-time. In the age when the gods still walked and the world was whole.

When The Great Fragmentation came and Valaron broke apart, the First People faded from history. New civilizations rose. The old ways were forgotten except in fragments and echoes. But somewhere in the deep past, they lived. They travelled. They worshipped. And they left the world slightly different than they found it.

Mahol was once one of them. His continued existence suggests The First People were far more than mere wanderers. The secrets they carried, and what Mahol saw during those ancient days, remain a mystery. He speaks little, and even less about where he came from.