As the ending of the Age of Creation slipped past like water from a cupped hand, the world of Einarth entered a new epoch. No longer content to dwell solely within the gentle cradle of the Valley of the Creator, the Firstborn races felt the stirrings of a deeper call—the irresistible urge to roam, to discover, and to shape the unknown.
This was the beginning of the Age of Exploration, an era that would span more than a millennium. Forests were parted, rivers traversed, and borders once soft as the dawn’s mist grew increasingly defined, drawn, argued over, and sometimes fought for. What began as simple curiosity soon blossomed into ambition.
Each of the races, propelled by their distinct desires and needs, departed from the cradle of the Valley of the Creator out into wild lands ripe with potential and peril.
The Restless Spirit of the Races
This was the beginning of the Age of Exploration, an era that would span more than a millennium. Forests were parted, rivers traversed, and borders once soft as the dawn’s mist grew increasingly defined, drawn, argued, and sometimes fought for. What began as simple curiosity soon blossomed into ambition.
Records set down in carved Dwarven stelae and woven into Elven epic poems tell of the earliest expeditions—bands who set off “for the love of wind upon the cheek, and the gleam of the unknown upon the path.”
For the earliest explorers, the land’s newness was a promise. In every direction, the landscape offered different boons. The Dwarves, their hands itching for stone and ore, dreamed of mountains whose hearts were untouched by tool or fire. The Humans saw the sweep of wide plains and imagined fields, villages, and markets bustling with possibility. The Elves looked to far groves, seeking the quiet shelter of the majestic trees. The Rith’yar turned to the tangled jungles and deep rivers of the Jungaran Peninsula.
Thus did the restless spirit awaken in the hearts of all four races, drawing them outward from the valley that had nurtured them. Exploration had begun.
What new horizons will the Age of Exploration reveal? The tales continue next week with the bold march of the Humans.