11 Mar 2008 at 00:05 - 32
Warning: Excessively long, non-canon, whatever-the-heck-I-feel-like lore to go behind my idea of the evil villain. Scroll to the bottom for a quick summary of the idea.
Some time before time began, the six Gods, Dwayna, Melandru, Dhuum, Abbadon, Melchior, and Lyssa began an incredible work for an unknowable reason. They sculpted the world together from the void that "existed" then. It was a new thing, a place of solidity, reason, and energy. They had no name for it then; it seemed unimportant.
Then, they began another task of nearly matching complexity: they began to create life. They made big, small, intelligent, simple, land-dwelling, sea-swimming, and all imaginable forms of life. But that was not their masterwork. They then created other creatures, unlike the others. These creatures had a bit of the Six's own power, a bit of the otherworldy energy that was used to create worlds. They created two such races, and then watched their creation work.
They did not get what they had hoped. A few centuries after the Six left the world itself to watch from afar, the two ascendant races began to build tension among each other. They simply could not understand each other, and soon they began to wage war on each other, using the power of creation to destroy, wrecking the world the Six had worked so hard to create, exterminating of enslaving the creatures they were meant to lead. The Six could not believe what they were seeing. It is said that Melchior, the God of Peace, died of grief from the sight.
The now Five could not stand the failure of their world and the loss of Melchior. So, they left it, extracting all of their remaining energy from it to try again, perhaps to truly meet their goals. The forests died, the rivers stopped, the creatures perished, and the world was lifeless. However, the ascendant races survived, still holding onto the power given to them by the gods. Rather than realizing their mistake, they cursed the Six, hateful of their imperfect creation, and their abandonment. They now had a name for their world: "Forsaken."
The gods eventually created a new world, "Tyria," where they would try to avoid their past mistakes. However, they quarreled among themselves, endlessly in disagreement as to how to proceed. The land itself was made similar, and the common creatures were created again. But, this time, no creatures were given the power of the gods directly. The creatures would have to attain it for themselves, or appeal to the gods for it. Wantonly giving it to all was what had caused the catastrophe of the old world.
Eventually, the composition of the gods changed, and eons passed in Tyria. Forsaken was forgotten, its existance unhinted at through history, and the gods did not even notice as a small contingent of the old ascendents broke free. Some 200 of one race and 6 of the other had been brought through the void into Tyria when Dhuum, embittered at his banishment by the other gods, had attacked them in anguish. The weakness in unreality had been just enough to create a gateway, for a few moments.
The 200 began to enjoy their new home, and the 6 as well, but as in the past, they disagreed with each other. Soon, the 6 dwindeled to 2, exiled into the mountains to escape annihilation. They were made known to a few of the beings of Tyria as ones who could see the future, dubbed "Seers."
The other 200 ascendants made their home deep in the recesses of the wilderness. By chance, they encountered an exile named Saul D'Alessio, from whom they learned of the inhabitants of the world of Tyria. In return for the information they recovered from him, they decided to help Saul and his people against an invasion of beasts called the Charr. They donned names fitting of the world they were in and a name of their species which, they believed, would be the true gods of these people: the Mursaat.
The Mursaat, like the Seers, had some level of prescience, and when the Flameseeker Prophecy was given, they understood it. From that point on, they acted for their survival, protecting the Ring of Fire from outsiders to keep the Door of Komalie sealed. However, they were overwhelmed by the old heroes of Tyria, and the Titans broke free, killing the remaining Mursaat. The only ascendants remaining in Tyria were the two Seers.
The ascendants back in Forsaken, however, have continued to live on, not only surviving, but thriving; building up their power such that they may bridge the gap into Tyria and take revenge upon the unaware gods. A few even did cross into Tyria momentarily, bound in will by the magic of the Asura. The ascendant races have forged an alliance, if only a temporary one, as they now have the power to affect the events of Tyria.
I know these forgotten things because they have taken over my waking world. I am only myself for scarce minutes every day now. I don't know what is going on. The Canthan people fear me, call me tyrant, and are beaten and whipped by people who claim to be my guards. I hear rumors of monstrous dragons taking over the rest of the world, leaving only Cantha in peace. I have somehow ordered the construction of some massive stone monolith, and I am terrified. Soon, the ascendants will be here, and I fear the worst for Tyria.
-Memoirs of Rakai the Tyrant, Emperor of Cantha
Condensed Version
Evil Mursaat and Seers from a forgotten world invading the new one, Tyria, by driving the tyrant of Cantha insane forcing him to enslave all the Canthans to create a giant magical gate.
Nothing more satisfying than slaying some huge monster.
