My office has a lot of printouts in binders regarding the history of the universe (The Mithrilar Cycle) that both Galactic Civilizations and Elemental come from. I once had the opportunity to write a book, Destiny's Embers and that was quite an adventure. My original story was 300 pages but my publisher, Del Rey, wanted it fleshed out and had an editor greatly expand the exposition of it. One of these days, I hope to publish the original manuscript which, I should add, has no references to how charactered dressed or other, in my view, frivolous descriptions.
We have a lot of new content being developed here at Stardock that will be tapping into this lore. To that end, I thought I'd share some of the background today.
Era 1: Of the Mithrilar
Let's start in the past. A past—so distant that “time” scarcely had meaning—the Mithrilar watched over the cosmos from a vantage beyond mortal reckoning. Their charge was the Talananth, an artifact of immeasurable potency. Like a loom weaving threads of destiny, the Talananth gave shape to our three-dimensional universe, lending order to the infinite possibilities of existence.
Among these ancient stewards walked Draginol, a Mithrilar who stood apart from his kin by choice and by temperament. Where others moved serenely through the timeless void, Draginol felt the rhythmic pulse of past, present, and future. Impatient with the slow unfolding of the cosmos, he employed the Talananth to craft a sentient people known collectively as the Arnor. In doing so, he hoped they might hasten the grand design he alone seemed to sense.
Draginol’s vision took two forms. First came the Dred’nir—the “First Ones,” in the Arnorian tongue—endowed with a heightened sense of time and a share of Draginol’s own far-reaching perspective. Second came the Elas’nir—the “Second Ones”—slower to grasp the urgency of fleeting moments. While the Dred’nir varied widely in power—some possessed abilities bordering on godlike, others only marginally beyond that of future humans—the Elas’nir were largely placid, drifting through the ages as though tethered to an eternal present.
Draginol’s Impatience
While many of the Mithrilar seemed content to observe the universe’s natural unfolding, Draginol sensed a storm of trouble on the horizon. He believed the Arnor needed to feel the swift crack of mortality—like the ticking of a clock—to galvanize them into action. Yet most Elas’nir remained detached, drifting across the centuries in tranquil ignorance. Only a rare few, like Tandis and Amandara, developed the keen sense of passing time that Draginol valued. They stood out among their kin, capable of grasping the significance of change.
In time, Draginol’s designs took on a darker edge. He conspired with the more powerful (and often more ambitious) Dred’nir to harness the very essence of the Elas’nir. From their essence he meant to fashion an object—the Orb of Draginol—that would grant him unrivaled dominion over the Talananth. Each harvested Elas’nir increased the Orb’s cosmic potency, bringing Draginol closer to directly shaping reality as he saw fit.
But it was not a quietly kept secret. The culling of their ranks roused the Elas’nir from their habitual placidity, and in their resistance, the seeds of conflict took root.
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Of the Arnor
Though wrought in the same primordial forge, the Arnor were anything but homogeneous. The Dred’nir—Talax, in particular—became legends, known for raw might or cunning. Meanwhile, the Elas’nir shaped the culture, philosophy, and broader civilization of the Arnor. Their societies thrived on knowledge gleaned from eons of observation. It was in these societies that figures like Tandis rose to prominence, forging alliances and offering hope to countless new races springing up across the nascent galaxy.
As rumor of Draginol’s designs spread, the Arnor found themselves divided between loyalty to their creator and rebellion against his twisted project. Once revered like a distant but benevolent deity, Draginol now seemed a tyrant holding the fate of an entire universe in his hands.
This was the beginning of the Dred'nir and Elas'nir wars and where the Dred'nir became referred to as the Dread Lords.
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The Shattering of the Talananth
Believing the Orb of Draginol had absorbed sufficient cosmic essence, Draginol moved to seize the Talananth for himself, presumably to reorder creation to his vision. Yet the raw forces unleashed could not be contained. The Talananth shattered, unleashing a cataclysm that annihilated all but two of the Mithrilar—Draginol and Mascrinthus. Both vanished from known reality, for a long while, taking with them any guiding hand the Arnor might have had.
In the aftermath, the bulk of the Dred’nir and Elas’nir lay broken. The once-proud Arnor teetered on the brink. Those who survived rose from the ashes to fight anew, and the wars between Arnor and the Dread Lords—were waged in earnest.
Arnor / Dread Lord Wars
From this cosmic upheaval emerged an epoch of conflict. The Dread Lords, shaped by the most relentless Dred’nir, carried out Draginol’s dark legacy—though now seemingly without his direct guidance. Their power and wrath knew no bound, a threat to any world that drew their gaze.
Across the stars, the mortal races rose—Iconia, Altaria, and countless others—and became battlefields or pawns in the Dread Lords’ cosmic game. This is the period in which Tandis the Arnorian took up the cause of these younger species. He fought with a measured patience, marshaling the strength of mortals whose wills could not be so easily subsumed. This era of war and uneasy alliances persisted, shaping the fundamental tapestry of galactic history.
It was also during this time that both Mascrinthus and Draginol had their final showdown. A moment witnessed by Tandis on the world of Altaria. In that final battle, Draginol was defeated by a young mortal who had found the Orb, now known as the Bane. Tandis would take the Bane and place it beyond the reach, or so he thought, of mortal beings believing it safe to do so with Draginol now vanquished beyond ever being a threat again.
At length, the Dread Lords were entrapped in a pocket universe, quarantined from reality. Their reign of terror appeared ended. Or so it was told in half-remembered stories among the surviving Arnor and the nascent star-faring species that would come later.
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Deep Time
In the distant future, a human named DL Bradley stumbled across echoes of this primeval conflict. While his full story is yet to be woven in the records available to most, rumors speak of a tragic destiny—how a single mortal life became intertwined with an eternal cosmic loop. The torment of “unlimited time” is said to be both a boon and a curse, an endless burden for any soul truly aware of time’s relentless drumbeat.
Time, after all, is the great predator. It stalks gods and mortals alike, offering no respite to those who can sense its every pulse. Perhaps that is why Draginol feared complacency, or why Tandis and Amandara strove to uphold hope across the stars. Even the mightiest Mithrilar could be undone by the jaws of eternity.
For now, the legacy of the Arnor and Dread Lords stands as a testament to what comes of cosmic ambition and mortal resilience. The tapestry they wove—and tore asunder—enfolds our galaxy still, from the oldest lore of Iconia to the newest ventures of Earth. Indeed, much of that story remains untold, drifting like stardust in the corridors of eternity, awaiting those bold (or foolish) enough to seek it.
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And that is, my friends, a general outline of the story. Of course, this is condensed beyond all reason. But hopefully it helps provide some semblance of sense to the overall story that Galactic Civilizations and Elemental draw from.