Editing Creation of the Multiverse (section)

== Seven: The Gift of Knowledge ==
At this point, all creatures in the Material Plane were still devoid of Souls. They were creations of the titans, with a few exceptions (such as the eladrin, who were created by the Arbiters in the Feywild). They wandered in their worlds like animals, without purpose, goals, dreams, desires, or self-awareness.

But some creatures showed slight signs of intelligence. These creatures were some of the later creations by the titans. They were smart enough to listen to and understand the titans who had fled to their worlds. They showed great reverence for these titans and for the gods, who reigned from above. This reverence was felt by the gods, and kept them alive, from decaying due to entropy. And so the gods decided to imbue a sliver of their divine essence into these creatures to increase their worship, thinking that perhaps enough worship would cure them of their entropic decay.

This is how the beings we know today were created. Humans, dwarves, halflings, gnomes — all were given free will and sentience, the capability of self-awareness and advanced thought. A sliver of the Arbiters’ spirit — literally, a soul.

(Some exceptions: elves, which were created by the Arbiters, and dragonborn, which were created by the dragon gods.)

Beings were given sentience and began to awaken, aside from the eladrin, who were awake in the Feywild for much longer thanks to direct manipulation by the Philosophica. This is why elves are immortal unless killed, and why elves are generally so full of themselves. The gods used this sentience to try to get more and more beings to worship them, thus keeping them alive. It has worked, generally speaking. Some gods, the ones lucky enough to not be affected by Entropy, are known as the Greater Gods, and are often completely unknown to beings, and aloof, as they do not require worship in order to function. The Greater Gods tend to be “the gods of the gods.”

This was the end of the time before time. The gods cemented their place as the rulers of the Material Plane, distant as they may be, as the plane lacked authority. The titans were a shadow of their former selves; smaller and weaker, those who were not killed, captured, or exiled by the gods chose to hide within their worlds and lead relatively normal lives.

The primordials, meanwhile, remain chained within the Elemental Chaos, slowly waiting for their time to break free and rise up once again.