Cosmology
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Age of the Four Epochs
The First Gods arose after the defeat of the primordials with the imprisonment of the Fell Storm. During the Age of the Primordials creatures considered alien such as aboleths and beholders thrived building and shattering great empires in their wake. During this period the forms of creatures were less uniform and distinct.
The primordials arose during the throes of the universe's birth. The world of the primordials was chaotic, alien, and hostile subsumed by raw elemental energy. Its inhabitants spent much of their eternal existence fighting one another for control. Eventually, the primordials were destroyed or imprisoned. The first god Elegrim defeated the most powerful of the primordials, The Fell Storm, at the end of the Age of the Four Epochs, ushering in the Age of Union or Age of Mortals.
By mortal standards, the primordials were utterly alien and uncaring. In terms of power, they were direct rivals to the First Gods, but were not true gods themselves, though some deluded individuals, even in the present, have been known to worship them and are even granted boons by them.
First Gods
It's surmised that the First Gods may not have always been as they are. Apocryphal sources state that Elegrim was once a member of the primordials who ascended to the level of a true deity at the founding of or just before the Age of Union. Commonly accepted beliefs, however, place him as always being such.
Elegrim gave order to the universe and created mortals. However, he was divorced from creation, being the "first" of his kind. He possessed power unfathomable to the deities of the last category. In some ways he seemed like primordials, as Elegrim was known to seem distant from mortals, nor was he reliant upon their worship.
Elegrim abandoned the empyreans, his chosen people during the Age of Union, once they turned away from him in their hubris. He empowered the "lesser beings" to topple the empyreans.
Scholars believe this category of divinities also includes Erithniu, who shared a similar existence as the Elegrim. In general, it is theorized that there may been more First Gods, but they have all since been lost to time if they did exist.