Before time existed and before reality possessed shape or meaning, there was only the Umbral Realm — the endless spiritual sea where all souls once dwelled, currently dwell, and will someday return.

Among the countless souls drifting within the Otherworld, the strongest were those of overwhelming emotional attunement. These became the Titans. There were twelve in total, one for each element.

Yet another group of souls rivaled their strength — souls fueled entirely by rage, dominance, and destruction. These would become the Dragons.

War erupted between the two powers upon a battlefield beyond mortal understanding. Reality itself had not yet formed, and the conflict existed outside the concepts of space, time, or physical law. The Dragons proved victorious. One by one, the Titans fell. And when they did, everything changed.

The defeated Titan souls became separated from the greater Umbral Realm, forming a new existence entirely. The Material Realm.

The Dragons attempted to pursue their enemies, but some invisible force blocked their passage. Unable to breach this divide, they named it The Barrier.

As the Titans fell through the Barrier, their souls shattered and merged with the newborn realm itself. The first to fall was the Titan of Time, whose fractured soul became the march of time as mortals now understand it. Then came Gravity, Umbral, and Space, whose souls formed the foundation of reality itself. Earth, Fire, Air, and Water followed, their souls becoming the physical matter from which the world was shaped. Then came Body and Mind, planting the earliest seeds of future life throughout creation.

Within the Umbral Realm, the Dragons began witnessing strange flashes of energy surrounding the Barrier. Sometimes souls slipped through during these flashes. Sometimes nothing happened at all. Eventually the Dragons realized the flashes were caused by magic itself. Through long observation, they learned how to force passage through the Barrier.

The twelve strongest Dragons entered the Material Realm.

Powerful draconic bodies formed around them as they crossed into physical existence for the first time. Through mortal eyes they witnessed a chaotic world of fire, oceans, stone, storms, and endless untamed wilderness. The Dragons began experimenting with the laws of this new realm. Magic revealed itself to them.

After ages passed, the Titans of Radiance and Necrotic finally entered the Material Realm as well. Because the Umbral Realm does not experience time the same way as the Material Realm, they arrived long after the others despite falling in the same ancient war.

Unlike the earlier Titans, these two retained fragments of life and awareness. Titanic bodies formed around their wounded souls, and together they fought against the Dragons in what became the final battle of Titans and Dragons.

The Titans ultimately failed. The Dragons retained both their magical mastery and memories of the Umbral Realm, while the Titans had lost much of their understanding after crossing the Barrier. One final defeat ended the war forever.

As the last Titans died, the Dragons witnessed their souls drifting back toward the Barrier. Refusing to allow them escape, the Dragons attacked the souls directly. The Titan souls shattered into radiant fragments of pure spiritual energy. Soulshards.

The elder Umbral Dragon realized these fragments could be shaped into artifacts of immense power. Using the remains of the fallen Titans, it forged the legendary Radiant and Necrotic Orbs. Meanwhile, the Titan bodies dissolved into the land itself, forever influencing the nature of life that would emerge afterward.

The Dragons soon divided the world amongst themselves. Each claimed territory and guarded magical discoveries jealously from the others. Over time, they learned to pull lesser souls directly from the Umbral Realm and grant them bodies within the Material Realm. These souls became worshipers and servants. The Dragons intentionally crafted weaker forms for them in order to maintain control. These servants became the first Kobolds.

Still, conflict never ceased. The Dragons warred endlessly for territory, magical dominance, and possession of the Orbs of Power. Entire regions were reshaped through their battles. Mountains rose. Oceans shifted. Forests burned. Plains split apart beneath magical devastation.

During this age of unstable magic, strange souls occasionally slipped through the Barrier unintentionally. Their bodies reflected the chaotic magical turbulence surrounding their births. These became the first Shifters. The Dragons attempted to hunt them, but the creatures proved elusive and unpredictable.

Two souls entered the Material Realm unlike any before them. The first emerged deep beneath the earth through a massive fissure created during the Titan War. Upon reaching the surface, the soul formed a small but powerful body with membranous wings. The first Demon. It felt a pull. And hated it.

The second soul descended from within the heart of the sun itself. It streaked across the sky before forming a similar body with feathered wings. The first Angel. It too felt the pull. But where the Demon felt hatred, the Angel felt compassion. Love.

The elder Dragons eventually realized their worshipers could become threats themselves. Rebellions erupted. Most failed quickly, crushed beneath overwhelming draconic power. Fearful of future uprisings, the elder Dragons altered future servants to possess less raw strength in exchange for greater dexterity and intelligence. These became the true Kobold races known throughout history.

Still, not all Dragons remained beneath elder control. A pair of lesser Fire Dragons — one male and one female — rose together and successfully slew the elder Fire Dragon. They established a powerful lineage atop a volcano formed through the Orb of Fire itself. For thousands of years they endured. Until age finally claimed them.

The male Dragon died without battle. No wound. No magic. His body simply failed.

In grief, the female Dragon shattered his departing soul to keep it from returning to the Umbral Realm without her. She offered little resistance when the Angel arrived. It wept as it slew her and released the stolen Soulshards. Together, both Dragon souls returned to the Umbral Realm.

Elsewhere, the elder Umbral Dragon amassed enormous wealth and Soulshard power. Then the Demon came.

Though mortally wounded in the process, the Demon succeeded in slaying the elder Dragon before falling beneath the assault of lesser Dragons. The enormous flood of gathered soul energy poured violently back into the Umbral Realm.

As ages passed, more Dragons began dying of old age. For the first time, the surviving elders experienced fear. They searched desperately for immortality. Some briefly managed to reenter the Umbral Realm, only to be violently cast back into random locations within the Material Realm.

More Angels and Demons continued appearing over time, each guided by the mysterious force they called the pull. The Angels constructed seven golden cities within the skies. The Demons descended into the great fissure that birthed their kind — a place later known by many names: The Scar. The Chasm. The Void Gate.

Some wandering souls entered untouched wilderness and formed bodies resembling the surrounding land itself. These became the Flora. Quiet. Ancient. Often unnoticed.

Thousands upon thousands of years passed. The world slowly stabilized, though Dragon wars never truly ended. Only a handful of elder Dragons remained alive. Most notable among them were the Time Dragon, whose power slowed the ravages of age, and the Mind Dragon, imprisoned deep beneath the earth by the Angels within an eternal sleep.