The Creators concentrated the Source in the Battle Hall, where combatants return to life. The truce did not settle who should have access to immortality. Shared laws of the world.
At first there were two elder peoples: elves and orcs, creations of bored Gods cast down from the heavens so long ago that almost no one remembered them. The Source amplified rage while memories of earlier wars sustained mistrust. This does not define the character of every elf or orc.
Centuries of war changed every corner of the world. Chroniclers lost count of ruined Houses and Communities, while observers from higher realms came to call it Rage World.
Yet the world was beautiful: wild prairies, titanic forests, canyons, seas and the capitals of two mighty realms. In the west rose elven Essentriel, the Sky Home. In the east lay orcish Rondregard, the Immortal Community.
Humans came from the north, hardened by ice, hunger and long clan conflicts. Their capital, Xainstarch, the Snow City, foretold a storm that left a single road to survival: south.
Humans proved numerous, disciplined and better armed than the elder peoples expected. Dwarves, long underground after the War for Peace, found mithril in the north and made a bargain that changed the balance of power.
When dwarves surfaced with mithril armor, war machines and explosive shells, the elder peoples learned that every nation had to be taken seriously. Then orcish Arch-shamans opened the Book of Shadows and brought the undead into the world.
The Dead Ruler founded Norregdar, the Acropolis of Dread. Her subjects call her simply She. War entered a fragile balance, and the First Council Day brought five peoples to one table, though not yet to peace.
The dwarves built their underground capital, Raggadarg, the Unbreakable, after the War for Peace.