The history of our world is unknown to us. Thus, throughout the shaping of our many cultures, several different myths on how we were created and where we came from have been written. This is a compilation of those myths. — Dr. Arthur Stradwick
At the beginning of everything, there existed only the concepts of Life and Death. Our universe was born of balance between good and evil, and thus must struggle to maintain its own order for the duration of its life. The god and goddess that watch over our world were created from Nothing to help administer the balancing of the scale of creation.
Vytris, the god of Death, balances the Life inherent to the world, ensuring that our population does not grow beyond reason and allow us to expend more resources than the world can provide us with, and granting our lives meaning by giving them an ending.
Daiva, the god of Life, balances the Death in the universe, filling our world with wondrous sights and beautiful reason and purpose. In addition, Daiva is in fact responsible for watching over the Afterlife, granting us a reward for our achievements in life to mitigate the pain of death.
Vytris and Daiva have little control over the world themselves beyond this ensuring of balance. Everything else happens by sheer chance.
At the beginning of everything, there existed only the primeval forces of Good and Evil.
The manifestations of these concepts took on their own forms and names, and they became Dahlia and Vasundhara, the most perfect representations of and the predecessors of angels and demons.
Dahlia and Vasundhara were rivals from the start, and Dahlia was gifted with the power to create, and Vasundhara the power to destroy. Dahlia would create beautiful wonders, and Vasundhara would destroy them, providing an ending to their story and granting meaning to their previous existence.
Dahlia would become distraught at the destruction of her beautiful creations, and would respond by simply creating more, stalwart until the end.
Things were like this for a time, but the force of Evil is greedy, and soon sought more than playing a simple game with Dahlia. Fed up with her persistence, Vasundhara plotted to destroy the concept of Good in its entirety, allowing death and destruction to reign.
However, Dahlia's most prized creations, mankind, rose up against Vasundhara and sealed her away until the end of time. If ever she is to awake again, the world should surely meet its end.
Though not much is known of them, it is said that both Dahlia and Vasundhara had husbands.
Two heads are better than one, as the presence of another person to provide criticism vastly improves the quality of work. While Dahlia created, Mendrion oversaw and suggested additions and changes to her masterpiece.
After it was created, Mendrion would interpret her work, breathing life and meaning into it. Once, he breathed life into Dahlia's work to such a degree that she gave birth to a child, who would become Daiva, the goddess of Life itself.
While Vasundhara destroyed, Pasrehul oversaw and cleaned up any spots she had missed. Furthermore, he would scope out Dahlia's creation and report back to Vasundhara the areas that looked the most vulnerable, or the most fun to destroy.
After they had been enacted, Pasrehul would review her plans, breathing death and destruction into the further plans that Vasundhara concocted in the future. Once, he breathed death into Vasundhara's plans to such a degree that she gave birth to a child, who would become Vytris, the god of Death itself.
The origins of man are a mystery that has baffled scientists for generations.
So far as anyone can tell, at a point approximately 2,050 years ago, mankind simply "appeared" on this world, and claimed it as their own. It is unknown who put us here, nor why they gifted Karnos to us, but man quickly sought to make the most of this gift.
Theists believe that mankind was created and put upon this world by a divine force, for purpose unknown.
Though we do not remember why we are here, nor where we may have come from, man seeks to please whatever deities above have granted them the gift of life, through the enrichment of our culture via the medium of art.
When man was born, he had no natural predators, and quickly dominated the native beasts of this land, with skills he hadn't known he even had. Our minds were a blank slate acting on instinct alone, and soon we began to socialize and developed language and culture.
Our societies developed and fell at a rapid rate, but it is now1 that our society has reached a critical point and has persisted for centuries. With the aid of Blood Witches, mankind has finally adopted a stable lifestyle.
It is said that once upon a time, the skies of Karnos were filled with dazzling bright lights that lit up the world at night. Though no one remembers ever seeing them, everyone seems to know their name and believe that they are "missing."
There is no scientific evidence to prove that there was ever such a thing as "the stars," but science and religion don't often get along.
The theists of Karnos believe that these "stars" were lost in the final battle between Dahlia and Vasundhara. Before her eternal entombment, Vasundhara lashed out to deal one final blow to Dahlia — the most devastating of all.
With her last act, Vasundhara tore the stars from the sky like a tapestry, ruining Dahlia's most beautiful masterpiece.
Dahlia, though distraught, could do nothing to replicate the stars. The original was simply too beautiful for anything to compare. And thus, she gave up on her quest, and the night sky now goes empty, our world lit by the last remaining star — the biggest of them all: our sun.
If ever the stars should return, know that something is severely wrong. It is said that this will be the first sign of Vasundhara's return.
Perhaps even more baffling than the origins of man, is the origin of the Blood Witches.
Shortly after the introduction of mankind to Karnos, man quickly contracted a number of diseases previously unknown to him, caused by sources of any description. One source of disease was the presence of a lime green crystal, that came to be known as Vytrite, that perverted the mind of anyone who came into close contact with it.
It is believed, but not known for sure, that this green crystal was the cause of the Bitter Blood Plague which ruined our world in 13 AR,2 and several diseases that followed.
The world of Karnos faced extinction mere decades after the birth of man, but from the darkness arose our saviors — beings known as Blood Witches, who in every respect seem to be human like us, but are capable of practicing a form of magic and resisting the effects of the Vytrite crystal.
These blood witches have since integrated into our society, and provide many of our medical and hygienic advances.
Their presence is not understood and resented by some, but overall they have been tolerated for the aid they have provided to our society as a whole.