This is something i've been kicking around in my head for awhile. There have been many references to "elder races" scattered around various FR supplements and sourcebooks, but the ancient ages of Faerun have never really been detailed. Who came first, the dragons or the Creator Races? When did the titans hold sway over the land? Where did the elves and dwarves come from? What's up with the gnomes?
Anyway, it is with such esoteric thoughts floating in my head that I sat down to write this. It's a little rough, especially around the end, so keep in mind that it is just a rough draft. As always, comments and/or criticisms are welcome.
NOTE: This is merely my interpretation of the pre-history of Faerun. It requires a "one-world" view of the universe that is somewhat incompatible with TSR's Spelljammer material. It also deviates from published material a bit, especially with regards to Troy Denning's "Twilight" story (published in Realms of Infamy), and the account of the Creator Races in FR5 Savage Frontier.
In the beginning were the Elder Gods. They created the universe and the orb called Faerun, upon which they set beings created in their images. These mighty beings were known as Titans, and they were masters of the world. In their arrogance, they thought to challenge the Elder Gods, and as a punishment, the gods cursed the monarch of the titans with fascination, and his brethren with devotion. The powers then dropped a star onto the land. The impact of the fallen star created a huge valley later known as the Sea of Fallen Stars. Slowly picking up speed, the ball rolled through the titan nation and onward to the south.
Unable to contain his curiosity, the titan king ran off after the bouncing sphere, and his devoted followers dutifully followed his tracks. The meteorite rolled on and on until it reached the Great Sea and vanished into the depths. The monarch dove into the sea, and, lemminglike, the entire titan race dove in after him, never to be seen again.
Ashamed at the destruction they had wrought upon their children, the Elder Gods departed the Cosmos, leaving behind the least of their number, the one known as Ao, to watch over the world they had made.
After the titans had gone, their lesser cousins the giant races began to flourish. The mightiest of the giants, Annam the All-Father, ruled over his peoples with a wise and fair hand. All were happy, save for Othea, the wife of the All-Father. She dallied with others, the ones called Ulutiu and Vaprak, and so were born abominations, the firbolgs, verbeegs, formorians, ettins, ogres, and others. Although kin to the true giants, these new races were inferior, both in mind and appearance. Annam was wroth, and he struck down Ulutiu. Before he perished, the Sea King had his vengeance, as his powers worked one last time to turn the realm of the giants into a frozen wasteland. As his spirit left his body, a shimmering fan of colors rose with it, dancing like ghosts in the sky. Thus were the Boreal Lights born.
Seeing that his wife sided with her lovers, and refused to bear his children, Annam departed from the world, never to set foot on it again. For thousands of years his children, the eternal monarchs of the giant peoples held sway, until the final part of Ulutiu's vengeance took root. As the encroaching sheets of ice covered their kingdom, the Children of Annam were undone in an act of passion. Lanaxis, mightiest of the monarchs, poisoned his mother and siblings in a foolish attempt to save the land. With both their gods and their immortal kings gone, the giantish races were doomed to a slow fall into eternal chaos and savagery.
After the decline of the giant races a great shift in the climate of Toril occured. The Great Glacier slowed its' advance, and much of the land became covered in swamp and shallow seas. The valley formed by the Star of the Gods filled with water for the first time. Out of this new world arose the Creator Races, the ancestors of lizard men, yuan-ti, aarakocra, krakens, and others. Deemed to small and insignificant for the giants to notice, these beings quickly evolved into great empires. They were the first to tap the Weave of magical energies surrounding Faerun, and to use these energies for their own purposes. The Creator races built vast empires and soaring cities as they re-shaped the land for their own uses. Unlike the races preceeding them, the Creators fought constant wars of extermination, such was their hatred towards each other.
The stuff of magic was rawer in those days, less refined, more potent. Those ancient peoples experimented endlessly with magics more powerful than can be even imagined today. Like gods, the they played at creating life, wryly choosing to release their monstrous mistakes rather than destroy them. To those who made them, the mistakes were unnatural horrors, unlike anything that walked the land. Most died in the cruel jungles, yet many lived and as though awakened in them they hid themselves from their creators. Thus were born the first dragons, the phaerimm, and others.
When at last the Creator races destroyed themselves, it came as a great cataclysm, greater than anything the world has known since. Faerun was torn asunder, as the skies rained down fire and the very earth screamed in agony. Even lofty Ao, having long watched impartially as the races moved upon the world, was moved near to grief.
In the end, the very being of Faerun cried out, and her grief manifested itself physically. From this act were born the ones known as the Younger Gods. The spirits of nature and growth coalesced into beings of great beauty and compassion, while the spirits of the earth formed into beings of short stature, yet great strength and constitution. So, too, was a third race of beings created, out of the swirling chaos and destruction still ripping at the world. Unlike the other two, these beings were evil and twisted, and filled with nothing but a secret hatred for their brothers.
In time, the chaos settled, and these new gods walked Faerun, wandering and exploring together. In those ages, they walked together in friendship. They viewed the beings the Creator Races had made, and resolved to create their own races in their images. Thus were born the Younger Races, the elves and the dwarves, each inhabiting thier own part of the world. For a time, the gods of the Stout Folk and the Fair Folk even worked together, creating a race not wholly of the woodlands, and yet not entirely of the earth either, and the gnomish race was born.
Such peace was not to last, however. The Dark Gods, the ones born of chaos, revealed their true natures. They sowed the seeds of dissent between the Seldarine and the Dwarven Gods, crafting a distrust that exists to this day. When Gruumsh, king of the Dark Ones, saw the beings that the other gods had created, he grew insane with hatred and jealousy, and corrupted many of their children, warping them into the abominations known today as the derro, the duergar, and the goblinkin. These abominations warred with their cousins, spilling fresh blood upon the surface of Toril.
When Corellon, leader of the Seldarine, saw what Gruumsh had done, he was filled with rage. He gathered his allies among the elven and dwarven gods, and attacked the Dark Ones so that they would work no more evil upon the world. A great battle raged as the sides fought, neither side giving any quarter. At length, Corellon smote Gruumsh with a mighty blow, cleaving out the eye of Gruumsh. The evil god fell back, and as the other Dark Ones saw their leader defeated, they fled the field of battle.
Sick with grief and anger, the Seldarine and their dwarven allies retreated from the the face of Faerun, to the Heavens above. In Arvandor, Corellon tore a piece of the land from the heavens, and cast it down into the blue ocean, where it took root. Calling to his children, he bequeathed the isle to them, naming it Evermeet, and promised them that, when the time came, they should seek sanctuary there.
For many aeons, the races of Faerun lived and died upon the earth. The elves found a home in the depths of the newly-born forests, while the dwarves burrowed deep into the solid mountains. They ruled supreme, creating great kingdoms and working many items of magic.
Sometime during this age, two new races began to arise. It is unknown where they came from, or exactly when, but gradually the halfling and human races came to be noticed by their elder cousins. They spread everywhere, unlike the others which confined themselves to one particular home. The halflings, the more peaceful of the two, moved at a slower pace, while the humans spread throughout the world like fire across an empty plain. The wisest of the elven sages, observing the capability for adaption in these beings, called them the "Inheritor Races," the ones that would rule the world in ages hence.
The humans learned from each of the older races, learning magic from the elves, the art of metalworking and warfare from the dwarves, and the ways of deceit and treachery from the goblinkin. As they had no established pantheons of gods, the humans woshipped the forces of the world, giving them human features; the sun, the growth cycle, death, the Weave. In time, through their devotions, these abstract forces coalesced into actual beings of power, and the first human gods were born. The human tribes grew more advanced and powerful, and for the first time began to make their mark upon Faerun with their own empires and kingdoms.
It was at this time that the great reign of the elves began to ebb. The god Gruumsh had never forgotten his defeat and maiming by Corellon long ago. Indeed, his hatred of the elves had grown even stronger, and he had devised a way to gain his revenge.
For many ages, Gruumsh had been whispering into the ear of one of the Seldarine, the goddess known as Lolth. Her children, the elves known as Ilythiiri, inhabited the jungles and hot forests of southern Faerun. Gruumsh slowly corrupted Lolth and her children, causing them to attack their neighbors, even other elven tribes, something heretofore unheard of. As the cruelties of the Ilythiiri grew greater, the other elves were forced to ally with the humans and dwarves, to put an end to Lolth's abominations.
Defeated in a series of titanic magical battles, the Ilythiiri fled into underground warrens they had earlier discovered. This event, known as "the Descent," marked the end of the great elven age, and the splintering of the elves into two warring groups. As the elves began to wane and Gruumsh set his endless goblin armies against the kingdoms of the Stout Folk, the age that the wisest of elven sages had long predicted, the Age of the Inheritor Races, had begun.