What follows is a record of the world as the Galadwen tell it, gathered from the leaves of the Heartgrove Willows and the songs that travelers carry from one fire to the next. Begin where you like, the willows have time.
The origin story of the world, told as the willows remember it.
In the beginning there was only Caedhriel, the spirit of the Aether. From its heart sprang Tathann, the First Willow, and beneath its boughs the mortal races opened their eyes to the world.
The Ages of Caedhraeth - Part OneAn age of confidence. Roads cut through the wilderness, willow cuttings shelter the waystations, and the trade between mountain, river, and forge builds a civilization that stretches across Caedhraeth.
The Ages of Caedhraeth - Part TwoIt did not come as a war. The willows began to fail, the spirits turned, and what mortals had built across two hundred and sixty Turnings was unmade in forty.
The Ages of Caedhraeth - Part ThreeThe first decade after the Withering was a time of counting what remained. From what was left beneath the surviving willows, the present age of Caedhraeth began to take shape.
The Ages of Caedhraeth - Part FourSix peoples woke beneath Tathann's first branches, each shaped from an aspect of Caedhriel: breath, blood, bone, laughter, heart, and the combined essence of them all. Two more stand apart: the Liravell, spirits of the Aether who were never born at all, and the Valenra, who came much later. What follows is a record of who they are, and what each still carries.
Common knowledge - texts pressed into every young Valenra's hands.
