MORE EPELIAN
ENCYCLOPEDIC KNOWLEDGE.

Here, in order perhaps to place what will follow and what has gone before into more of a concrete concept, comes the Epelian theory of 'Worlds' history (remember; a little like the Circles themselves, it gets more hazy and legendary the further away from the centre it is - in other words, most of the starting stuff is mythological half-truth or, indeed, total poppycock. Lots of the later stuff is ill-remembered, but probable.).

THE VOID BATTLES AND THE THREE RACES.
In the Beginning, when the Gods were young, the Worlds were structured under their command. At first, it seems, there were no race like ourselves; the planets were merely 'pleasure gardens', full of trees and water, through which the Gods might walk and wonder at the beauty which they themselves had created. However, when Grell, the Evil One, turned to creating his own despicable creatures in the Void between the Worlds, in order that he might destroy his brother and sister, then Mithion and Ashteral set to work crafting a race of such perfection that it might thwart the minions of the Dark One. These 'First People', we are told, were a 'golden race', who lived and loved much as we do; their powers of magic, however, though far inferior to those of the Gods, were far superior to any of our own. Nonetheless, they were ultimately eradicated as a race by Grell, for they had given much hardship to him. Then Mithion and Ashteral crafted a second race to defend them; these people were silvered and powerful (though not so strong as those of the golden race who had preceded them, for the gods had already used up much of their magic in the creation of the first race). They, too, lived and prospered, but were ultimately brought low through Grell's treachery but, once again, they inflicted much hardship upon him. Finally, Mithion and Ashteral began one last effort to create a third and final people; a people white of skin and red of eye, their magic lesser than that of both the first and second races, but still incredible to modern eyes, and these they sent across the Worlds with instructions once more to live and to love and to best the creatures of Grell at all opportunities. Whether these people in losing more magic had gained more resource, whether Grell, after centuries of conflict, had finally found his strength ebbing away, whatever the reason, it was in the days of the Albino Race that the Dark One was finally thwarted.

THE ERECTION OF THE SPHERES.
When Grell was defeated, and cast away from the company of the Gods, then Mithion and Ashteral erected the Spheres, so that no such conflict should ever occur again. In the Greatest Outer Darkness, there were Grell's surviving monsters bound and, before them, was set a ring of fire and a ring of water which they might never pass beyond. Between these, the gods made habitats for their followers, moving the Worlds into a structured position where once they had been floating in the Void, and commanding their followers to maintain constant vigilance, that the demons of Grell might never again escape their prison to wreak havoc upon the Worlds. This place, where the first Albino Race was placed, is now called by us, the Circle of Air, and though little is known of it directly, some suggest that those who live therein remain vigilant still, fearful lest the Netherlords may once again emerge.

THE SUNDERING OF THE ELDER RACE.
In time, we are told, the Gods begot children and each was assigned a special duty, in order to better maintain the Spheres and the future of the Albino People (whom legends today term the Eldar, or Elder, Race). Truly, the Elder Race prospered, as these younger Gods taught them the skills of healing, of metalworking, of trade and of agriculture (for previously they had been, for all their beauty and power, somewhat barbaric); it was the first time that Glemistra and Lunistra, Sun and Moon, were set to shine upon the Worlds. Yet, in time, as their civilizations grew ever more spectacular and their magics ever more closely honed, as their influence spread across ever more planets that the Gods had purposely left barren (in order that the Eldar might colonise them); dispute arose among them. The truth of the conflict is lost, but many books have said the following (and I choose to relate this): In the era of their prosperity, the male and the female of the Eldar Race were happy; they worked, and taught, and loved together, However,as the centuries passed, it was found that the Eldar children increasingly possessed less inherent magic than their parents (perhaps the Gods had always intended this to happen, for were the Eldar magic to increase ,then might the Elder race not have been a challenge to the Gods themselves?). Finally, both Eldar men and women became sterile - though all Eldar were extraordinarily long-lived by our standards, this meant the race would perish completely in due course (certain theologians hint that such a result was a punishment for some long-forgotten transgression against the Gods; many of a more philosophic bent, such as myself, are inclined to feel that this was a natural accident that, perhaps, even the Gods could not forsee - for why would they have wished to so nurture the Eldar, purely in order to see them die??). In the last days before the Sundering, the Eldar, male and female, split into opposing camps; not only had bitterness over sterility turned the prior love of Eldar for Eldar into rancour, but each side, man and woman, felt they alone might possess the answer to the problem, and neither was willing, in the end, to aid the other. Such was the hatred which grew up between the two sides that war erupted, and much magic was unleashed within the Worlds of Air, spreading to the Spheres beyond. At last, when both sides were exhausted and, according to some sources, once the Gods had intervened in the conflict, the Sundering was forced. The male Eldar were left to die on one World, while the female were placed upon another. It may be that death came to them all in the end (after many, many years) and no trace now remains of these earliest of peoples. However, some say, and it is not, I feel, without justification, that the Worlds of the Albino Dukes and the Matriarchate of the White Women harbour the last remnants of this race. Perhaps they each discovered some method of prolonging their lifespans indefinitely, for no children are said to be born to either. Equally, these people are still known (if obscurely) for their command of magic, their great wisdom and their jealous dislike of one another to this day. Some have felt they retain a guardianship over the rings of fire and water, and the Outer Darknesses beyond. So ,also, I have heard (and it is a tale laughingly vouchsafed by the faery Meymian) that his race of the Fey are descended from the last of the children of the Eldar, those last of the magicians before the Great Sterility, who took no part (and were, therefore, never punished) in the Wars of the Sundering.