Start of it all, Dryad Tale

[3rd Person POV, Few Million Years Later]

Floating inside of a vibrant purple crystal Gaia opens his eyes after his long slumber. Almost instantly the crystal shattered into purple sparks that vanished almost as quickly as they appeared. Stretching, mostly out of habit, he flies down to his throne just below and sits upon its edge. Letting out a light smile he starts to enlarge until he stands nearly six hundred foot tall, now comfortably fitting his throne with ease he begins to check on what has occurred since he began his 'evolution'.

"Fucking hells." Sighing upon realizing how long had passed he starts to look upon the planet Keripher to see how it has been, upon noticing the Primordials in a total state of war he sighed again. Admittedly the creator did intend for a war to occur between them during this process he just didn't think it escalated to the point that Kique had to be sealed into the core of this systems version of Jupiter just to prevent all the system from being destroyed. "Firstly, let's fix this mess."

Realizing his negligence at imposing backup plans for a lengthier than expected slumber, he first checks the other planes, seeing the Divine Plane barren and the Cursed Plane in somewhat stable chaos itself he dismisses them with little thought, the Cursed Plane is meant to be chaotic after all, and focuses at the only true issue at hand. With but a clap of his hands the Primordials each individually, with a second body for Lilith formed which Gaia controls manually, appear atop their respective thrones in their enlarged state. For a moment it seems that Solia is going to attack Sameal, among other conflicts, but upon seeing who was also present they all respectfully sat down and waited there patiently for Gaia to begin.

"First and foremost, I will apologize for taken so long to return, I miscalculated a few things which led to my 'evolution' taking over a hundred times the expected period. " At this the other Primordials each try and comfort him, but they all get cut-off when he continues. "However," Spreading both his gaze and Gaic stored within him, which has increased a millionfold compared to before, he fiercely goes on. "I didn't expect for you to dissolve into all out conflict to THIS extent." A bunch of floating images appear atop the table before the Primordials. "Thirty-six planets destroyed, two of you sealed away by the rest, attempted theft of another's races and countless smaller issues that you all held a part in causing."

Trying to explain their actions a few of them, Solia, Kique and Ceron all stand up and make their cases. Sadly, their pleas fall on deaf ears as Gaia issues his first act as their creator. "As such you ALL will receive extreme restrictions from here on." Checking to see that they all have went back to their seats and are paying attention. "Good. Now there will be three rules imposed upon you all. First: There is to be no direct conflict between Primordials, you can only use lesser races to act out your wills." None complain at this, they all have witness what their direct conflicts can do and as such understand this perfectly. "Secondly: You can only walk among the worlds as Avatars of yourself, these will be severely limited in power, but you can possess multiple though only control a few at any given time." No response at this one either, though the last rule is arguably the worst. "Thirdly: Only upon universal scale catastrophize will your true bodies be allowed to leave this here manor, though others can come here at your wills." Unsurprisingly a lot of them complain at this one as it greatly limits their capabilities to control their regions from so far away. "Also, you all have been dismissed of your Life authority as that stage is now complete."

Upon a few minutes arguing back and forth over the many issues the group has with each other between the group of Primordials Mirosa finally points out Lilith's presence. "Um, I get that everyone is angry and something but there's this other girl here." At that silence falls upon the room before Lilith, controlled by Gaia answers.

"I'm Lilith, Primordial of Nature and Reincarnation. I was made cause' you lot all wrecked everything indiscriminately and practically broke Nature itself, so Gaia made me to fix and manage that." Listing out the excuse they hurriedly came up with for her existence they then just sit there in the tree-stump seat cutely. Considering the minor bombshell dropped almost everyone in the room thought two things in the following order: 'It was THAT bad?' and 'Yes it was'. Uncharacteristically this introduction somehow got the lot of them to quit complaining about each other for once before they all, somehow as a group once again, started touring around the mansion. Led by the maids Ferila and Nyphlim through the building they quickly came across the fact it held an infinite number of rooms, each one fully editable at but a thought for full accessibility, and came to find the place at satisfactory replacement to the chaotic planet of Keripher.

Laughing silently to himself Gaia warps onto the now wrecked Keripher and creates a list full of all the races inhabiting it. Most of them are animals generally found on prehistoric Earth and those that aren't are the ones with the highest populations overall. Going from eldest to youngest the Primordials had each created the following race: Solia made Elementals and helped Sameal in the creation of Derikin race who all are human in appearance with the only differences being their eyes which float around their bodies linked to the partially visible brain by a metallic glass-like substance which also covers the upper half of their skulls and their obvious lack of hair as a result of this. Mirosa made the Demon-races featuring the standard fare of Succubae, Oni, Imps and, somehow, Liches who she managed to snatch from Midowe's Undead line-up. Brinim made the Giants and Dwarves and Aqire Mer-kin including Mermaids, Shark-men and other hybrids between humans and fish. Midowe as mentioned prior rules over the Undead barring certain exceptions which other Primordials stole, he suffered the most of race theft, but he also has the most races under him. Unusually Kique had no races below them, instead they mutated beings of other races who came under her willingly to make them more combat specialized.

Continuing on there was Lori's (AN: Carol is Lori, interchangeable) Pathwalkers who were shapeshifters who absorbed Magic from other races and Ophila's Feys, Sylphs and Ghosts, latter taken from Midowe. Drea, as suited for her authority of Monsters and Animals, made all of the generic animals from Earth and a lot of oversized or magical variants of them. Unexpectedly Ceron ended up making the Elves and their variants and then Flonia ended the list with her incredibly outlandish parasitic Lekiron who appear as humanoid liquid beings that can latch onto and steal the bodies of other beings, taking them as their own.

Satisfied at the results, even despite the slight errors made along the way, Gaia then turns into Lilith and kickstarts the planets Nature to restore it to its former glory. Once the land was at least half green once again she waved her hand and from nothing a few thousand humans are made from Nature itself. Each one of them is unaware of her presence and can only tell that they were placed there by something powerful, whatever they end up making as a result will likely become one of the first gods which is why she left it that way. They also were all given knowledge of what they intuitively know is the Root Tongue which will be instinctively understood by all the beings currently on the world upon their creation.

Gently watching as the first humans all shuffle around awkwardly like curious children she soon realizes that them reaching even Ancient Greek standards, face palming she quickly turns back into Gaia and then slows their own perception of time until a society has properly formed amongst the many races he waits and waits.

What feels like minutes pass but actually a little over a thousand years have passed since then and human society has reached a rudimentary form of stability. Shifting back into their Lilith self, this time garbed with fur clothing commonly found among most 'middle-class' of this society which is a cross between tribal and kingdom in nature. At the moment the majority of the populace all come under the control of the local tribal leaders who controlled generally a dozen small villages at most, this world is in a state of constant conflict with all tribal leaders out against the others barely caring about the other races outside of humans due to their lacking spread across this world. Overall, there is five primary tribes ruling over the most land, the others are in a constant flux but these few have stood for a hundred years now each aiding the others in resources as they each specialize upon their local resources.

First of the five tribes is the Crow tribe, or at least that is the vague translation according to the Root Tongue, who manage a handful of mines specializing in iron tools which are rather crass but functional. Next is the Bear tribe who focus on leather gleamed from their hunting specialties. Coming along at the smallest of the lot is the Snake tribe who actually stumbled across an undead curse left from what the other races call the Ancient War and learnt rudimentary necromancy and poisoning techniques leading them to becoming secretive almost what modern Earthlings would call a Cult considering their worship of Midowe, sneaking into their room at the manor later found that he actually left that curse there in preparation for the humans arrival which they heard from Flonia in passing.

Adding to the threesome were the Rabbit tribe who worked with farms and pastures that covered over twice as much land as the other primary tribes combined. Lastly the Lion tribe specialised in man-on-man combat which they learnt from a small colony of Giants who came from the northern mountains above the fields of pasture were the human tribes reside. Some of the Giants even bred with the tribe leading to fiercely powerful half-giants who could crush entire forests with their bare hands in just a few minutes.

Recently the five primary tribes have entered a period of great expansion with all of them taking down weaker tribes left right and centre, this likely would lead to them growing into pseudo-kingdoms equally dividing the fields of pasture once they reach the western desert, eastern Elven forests and the Southern Ocean running out of room to go further due to their difficult environments and residents. If they're lucky the Elves would declare all out war with the tribal alliance and if not, then they will start infighting between the major tribes. Snapping out of her thoughtful state Lilith drops the presence obscuration effect, though leaves some around her pointed ears to hide that from others and begins to travel from the north-eastern corner of the fields down to the center area where the main tribes reside.

Whilst travelling, by foot and without going past a human walking pace, she passes by a few wooden and hay houses and later small villages dotting the outer edges of the tribes with a few curious looks due to her lighter colored skin compared to most of the current humans. It took a month before trouble came her way, in the form of the Lion tribes scouting party.

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[Kiroth POV, one of the scouting part members]

That day would forever scar me, in more ways than one. Our group at the time consisted of a handful of us third-born, third generation since Giant blood, me and my old friend and brother in arms Loric were leading the seven of us in total through one of the small trails left in some carvings lining the local tribes record rooms walls. Honestly those outer-born bastards should just stay put in their little huts and help spread our pureblood, a blessing for them if they weren't such weaklings.

Along the worn tracks were faint markings indicating the deserters went this way. After taking over the local tribe we always get some, making it a pain to go cut them down afterwards. Thinking back to my wives back home I let out a light chuckle. They always love a good war tale; a little bravery and exaggeration just sweetens the deal. Later on, just as Solia starts to wane on the horizon we begin to set camp for the night. Putting up a light drape around a small cluster of alme wood trees we settle around a small campfire and begin our nightly prayer.

Oh, Kique bless us in the battles to come. Repeating the now second nature prayer a dozen odd times with only the flicker of the fire in the background we finish our ritualistic prayer. Stretching lightly a short, stout sixth-born pulls out our liquid gold from the large ox-fur bag at their side and hands out the drinks to the party. With a light cheer the festivities begin, the night flies by with the golden liquor running through our veins as the night turns into day once again.

Reeling at the camps edges Loric lets out his fourth burst of vigor onto the ground, patting his back slightly in pity at his soft bloodedness I start to order the party to pack everything back up to continue along the trail. Barely a few minutes in we came across the future bane of my life, the girl stood almost as tall as the sixth-born courier behind us. Her green hair and eyes almost captivating in their unnatural shine, wearing some light fur garments wrapping mostly around their legs and torso in thick layers to bear the cold weather up in the northern edges of the tribe. Yet what caught us off guard the most was their pale skin and frail figure which greatly contrasted our own tan and bulk even despite the gender differences.

Immediately grasping our spears, we ask the traveler. "All right missy what is someone like you doing travelling within our lands?"

Clearly giving the question great thought she calmly answers with a slight hint of sarcasm. "Just travelling in a straight line, mostly."

Eyeing the girl with great suspicion we quickly notice her lacking assets, waist, and her not possession arms of any form upon her body. She'd mostly be a waste of space even if we welcomed her into our tribe, she seems somewhat young too which must mean she's likely already someone else's already… Unless she's one of those types, unlikely considering her frailty.

Even then we can't just leave her to head straight into our land, so I order her. "Look here then, we can't just let you into our land. Even if you weren't from an unknown tribe, we can't just let anyone join our tribe. Non-blooded are just a waste of space, and you're definitely lacking usefulness in other areas too." Realizing that she likely was discarded from her tribe for exactly that I feel a tinge of pity before steeling nerves for her reply.

"Hm." Letting out a light grunt in acknowledgement she falls once again into thought for only a moment before she just ignores us and continues onwards. Confused we all just stood there for a moment in shock and questioned this girls' sanity.

Loric recovers first and, blocking her passage with his spear to which she stops, then reinstates what I just said to her. "You realize that this would cause war between your tribe and ours, right? And if you aren't from a tribe then you'd just die here at our hands, none of us want that and I doubt you would too."

"Like that would ever happen." Chuckling slightly to herself she just walks around him and continues, this time with a provocative smile plastering on her face. Barely withholding my anger within me, a result of long training to control our bloods volatile nature to rage.

"Look miss?" Coming across the fact that we don't even know her name.

"Lilith."

"Kiroth of the Lion Tribe." I answer in kind, to which she actually raises an eyebrow, seems she was just unaware of who we were. Now she may finally back down and save themselves from a lot of pain. Or I hoped until she just continued on regardless. Kique be damned why are woman such fickle creatures! "Look! We just are telling you more for your own good than for our own, so just have some- some infinitesimal amounts of common sense here!" Holding back from barely screaming straight into her face I greatly stress each key point to her. To. Which. She. Just. Continues.

Practically tearing out my own hair at this point I finally cave and let out the worst order I ever would let out in my life. "Just deal with her."

After a moment of hesitation at attacking such a weak, frail woman the party begrudgingly goes forth and blocks her path, with spears all pointing directly at her face. To which she does nothing but stand there, staring at us like she's calculating something.

Passing through her thoughts she finally makes her first and last move. Raising her left hand into the air with all of us following it with our eyes like hawks to a prey she then snaps her fingers. A loud bang tears out at that moment sending us all flying meters away, passing through at least a dozen trees before stopping. Somehow not a hair on our head has been damaged by the monstrous blast let out by that woma- no, monster.

By just snapping her fingers together we, a party consisted mostly of fourth-born's was defeated. That wasn't a girl, that was a force of nature itself… During that moment of dizziness, a word comes into my mind from nothing at all Dryad.

Once the follow-up party came across us, we were all uninjured but knocked out by the unknown assailant. I told them of the being we ran into and they at first scoffed our excuses, until they realized that no known beings outside of the Ancient Primordials could've committed such an action. Dismissing that idea as hearsay the word I used to describe that girl, Dryad spread amongst the tribes like wildfire and before long became a being of myth and legends for years to come.

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-Solia:

-> Primordial of Fire, Science and Alchemy.

-> A youthful pale skinned female wearing a dress of pure red flames lined at the

edges with blue along with wild vibrant bright red hair leading down to their

waist and dark red fierce eyes.

-> Stands at five foot three inches tall with flat chest.

-> Tool is a bronze three sided scales often depicted in their left hand.

-> Is cheerful, energetic and often teases others but is reliable in a pinch.