Zavan, the God of Aspiration
The Dwarves were the first people to be given magic, as they were jealous of the elves and their millennia of life. They became fierce guardians of this new power, which they used to create great feats of architecture and technology. Once their towering dwarven halls could be made no more magnificent, they set about shaping the world.
Centuries of dominance made many of the dwarves as selfish and petty as the gods. The elves eventually grew tired of their constant warring and stole the secrets of magic from them, teaching the knowledge to the other races to restore balance. Enraged, the dwarves declared themselves the enemy of all races of people, and the Hundred Years War began. As death and turmoil spread across the land without intervention, humanity grew distant from the gods. The great human city of Ani rapidly expanded as more and more people fled behind the walls of the capital to seek reprieve from constant violence. The city prospered, a shining light in the darkness that threatened to consume all. People began to idolize human creations over the divinity of the gods. When the millionth person was born inside Ani’s sprawling slums, humanity also birthed its first god; a brave and noble human warrior known as Zavan. Now an omnipotent being blessed with the practicality and impatience of a mortal, Zavan immediately set about improving Ani, raising towering walls that carried magically purified water along the tops of its ivory embattlements. He dug a great canal that brought this water into the heart of the city, blessing its inhabitants with good health and bountiful crops.
With the capital in order, Zavan set about ending the Hundred Years War and unifying the five kingdoms under his rule. In just over a decade he brought the races and cities under a single banner, forging the most powerful empire the world had ever seen. The speed at which the God of Aspiration worked, combined with the ease at which he wielded his new divinities within his realm, terrified the old gods and goaded them into swift action (swift for immortal beings, at any rate). A pact formed from an unlikely cabal of Siforr, Xunos, Vodon, Vistrix, Voara, and Barros. On the first day of the sixteenth year of Zavan, they attacked at once, intent on killing the God of Aspiration with a single strike. What they had not planned on was the God of Death finally taking a lover. They had certainly not expected how fiercely he would fight to protect him. The titanic conflict that ensued quickly spilled across the entire pantheon as each deity was forced to chose a side. The Great Godswar had begun. It would barely last an hour.
The Breaking of the World
As the gods battled for control over the mortal realm, they tore the planet asunder. Millions of creatures perished within minutes as divine energies not seen since the creation of the universe were harnessed as sword and shield.
In the final moments of the hour-long war, Zavan gave his life defending the five nations. Siforr struck at him again and again, sundering the land with earthquakes and volcanos. To save the city of Ani, Zavan sacrificed a third of Kadar and much of the countryside surrounding the capital city as it sank beneath of the waters of a new inland sea. In his dying moments, Zavan flooded the Bridge and linked with every citizen of his empire, desperately searching for an heir. He found Jakub Kladivo, a simple farmer from southern Kadar.
Zavan willed his waning divinity into his arms, armor, and equipment and then bestowed these artifacts to Jakub, anointing him as the Godking of the Five Kingdoms.
As the storm that had engulfed the entire world bore down on the Five Kingdoms, Zavan gathered the raging magical forces and used them to form a permanent barrier, shielding the ravaged nations from total annihilation. The staggered survivors set about extinguishing fires, clearing sodden fields and rebuilding what they could of their former lives.
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