Time Before Time
No mortal scholar holds any direct knowledge of the time referred to as the Time Before Time. It was an age of beginnings and it began with the Creator. Whether he had always been or became aware during this age is unknown, but it was when he created the jaaren that the age began.
What little is known is taken from the lost Archives of the Eternal One wherein the Creator names himself as Tyr-Alaxus. “In the beginning”, it is written, “he looked about and was dissatisfied and so he spoke, and there was sound. Yet this was not enough and so he thought, and then there were the jaaren, the godless.”
Not much is known of the jaaren save that they are gods to the gods themselves. Creatures of such immense power that even those divine entities mortals worship are so far beneath them as to be looked upon as ants. The jaaren awoke to an existence without any other life as their creator did not reveal himself to them.
How long they continued in ignorance of His existence cannot be figured, for in this age of immortals time held no meaning. Eventually a jaaren called by the name of Annoch-Anol learned of the Creator and lusted greatly for His power. When his brethren learned of the discovery they too longed for the power of the Creator and so, as one, the jaaren rose in insurrection against their maker. Tyr-Alaxus, in righteous fury, met them in what is called the First War of Powers, when giants made war with one another.
This war was fierce, and many jaaren died, but in the end they were victorious and their maker Tyr-Alaxus was defeated. Not wishing, or perhaps not able, to kill Him, they instead sought to imprison Him. A devious jaaren named Iabulus-Ny gave them the solution when he bored a hole in reality and created the oubliette of Abaddon. Into this pit the Creator was tossed and the jaaren hoped to never hear of Him again.
Their hopes would be in vain for the power of Tyr-Alaxus was great and constantly did He batter against the seals of His prison. The jaaren gathered in council to decide what to do about their maker. Some said they should go to Him and beg forgiveness; others insisted that they should find a way to utterly destroy Him. Iniis-Elan offered a more clever solution however, and one that pleased Annoch-Anol greatly.
The jaaren would create a new form of life to be called mortal. They would instill in mortals a brief time, a life that burned out so fast that before they could even begin to find true ascendancy, they would end. Into this new life the jaaren would then bind the essence of Tyr-Alaxus, and before he could ever learn of his true nature his mortal coil would end and he would perish, only to be reborn anew. And so it was that the jaaren created life and the worlds that would support that life. Tyr-Alaxus was bound to a mortal coil and time sprang into existence as the first creations of the jaaren lived their first lives.
And thus ended the Time Before Time.