When Aros was young, the Great One gave the True Gods the responsibility of taking care of his creation and looking after their growth. The True Gods embraced Aros as their own and worked towards the greatness of the mortals given under their stewardship.

As the mortals grew they began to prosper and all was as it should be. The Gods began to nurture the land to better serve the mortals and to allow them to thrive. Through this nurturing another manner of being was created. The mortals came to call these new beings elementals, for they sprung from each of the elements: earth, air, fire, and water. The beings were accepted by the Gods and mortals and all lived in peace in the land.

The elementals, through the continued nurturing of the land, soon bloomed into beings well looked upon by the mortals. As the strength of the elementals grew, mortals started to look upon the elementals as a strong race to be treated with respect. Through time though this seemed to be not enough. The elementals were obtaining much power and so the mortals began to worship them as supreme beings.

The Gods inactivity caused the elementals to feel confident in their rising powers and they began to see themselves as more worthy to reign over Aros. As their worshippers grew, so did their confidence until they believed themselves strong enough to challenge the rule of the True Gods and become the shepherds of Aros.

And so began the War of Domination.

The elementals wrath upon the Gods and Aros was devastating. The people of Aros were used as pawns by the elementals to force the Gods to save them so thousands of mortals were sacrificed. Aros itself did not escape the destruction of the elementals either. Volcanoes emerged, earthquakes tore the earth asunder, great floods sank islands and flooded other lands, and great wind storms flew across Aros creating deserts from forests. It was a time of destruction and death for the mortals, the True Gods, and the elementals.

There came a time when the True Gods started to see themselves at a disadvantage. They realized that the Great One would not aid them and his mortal creations would be annihilated if the war continued. A decision was made to use their remaining strength to impart a gift upon the mortals. With great preparation by the True Gods, the mortals were imbued with the power of the Song Magic. The gift drained much of the True Gods strength but did not weaken them so much to render them defenseless. They remained strong enough to battle the elementals long enough to give the mortals time to realize the gift. But becuase they had to save energy to carry on the fight, the gift of the Song Magic was difficult to attain. It took long hours and a special talent to be able to tap into the awesome power of the Song. Once tapped, the Song was an incredible power, and an incredible gift.

Now, most of the mortals understood the folly of their worship of the elementals, but some still believed in the true strength of the elementals and strove with them for the defeat of the True Gods. After some time, some mortals mastered their new gift of song and came unto the knowledge of how to use it to save themselves and the True Gods.

So came the Council of Reparation. Twelve men were chosen among their peers as masters of the new Magic of Song. They called a meeting amongst themselves to plan a rebellion against the elements. They saw, through the True Gods, that the only outcome of the Domination War was their eventual demise. The twelve masters of the Song Magic gathered and developed a plan to rid Aros of the destructive elementals. It would take the dedication of all the races to accomplish the task so a call went out for supporters of the True Gods to gather.

During this time those mortals that supported the elementals also began to grow, for the defeat of the True Gods seemed to be coming near. These elemental worshippers strove for their master’s cause and did all they could to disrupt the plans of the worshippers of the True Gods. In this way there was even war between the mortals, further disrupting the chance of their survival.

The gathering, under the direction of the Song Mages, built a wondrous tower that would later be named the Tower of Tears. It was in this tower that the hope of the True Gods and the survival of the mortals rested for it would be used as the focal point, or a channel, of the mages magic.

Finally, all the preparation was accomplished. The twelve Masters among mages made their way to the Tower of Tears and began their Song Magic. The elementals, too late, realized what the mortals intended. With the power of the True God’s gift, the Song Mages sang for an end to the scourge of the elementals. They sang for the removal of the elementals from Aros to a place where they could cause no damage.

When the song was over and the spell cast, the Tower of Tears laid in ruins. The masters of the Song Magic were found dead where they sang. In each of their places was a small, white gold ring with a multicolored stone embedded in it. These rings were gathered by a council of worshippers of the True Gods and disappeared into history. The elementals that had been plaguing Aros for so long had disappeared. The True Gods that were weak from giving the gift drew themselves away to heal themselves while the stronger ones stayed and were worshipped. What was created by the mages left those that gazed upon it in awe. A huge, dark red ring, almost black, with faint swirls of blue, brown, and white running all through it was found floating amid the rolling hills. The ring's center is a mirrored, cloudy reflection that hurts the eyes to gaze upon. Under the ring was found a large expanse of multicolored sand. This patch of sand is simply called The Sands of the Elements. For each element there is a color sand--Red, for fire, Blue, for water, Brown, for earth, and White, for air.

Some speculate that the elementals were pulled through the ring and entrapped. Other protest and say the ring transformed the elementals into the sand. No person really knows what the ring or sand actually are, whether the ring is a portal to another plane of existence or if the sand itself is a prison, still holding the entrapped elementals now. Scholars and commoners of all walks of life, from all over, journeyed to the ring to gaze upon it’s greatness. Soon a great city rose surrounding the ring and it's sand and it became the greatest city in Aros.

The scholars studied the wall and found that some that touched the sand slowly changed into misshapen beasts. These beasts that the sands created stopped at nothing to kill those around the wall. At the same time others found that after touching the sands they could control the corresponding powers of the elements. Those that survived were always found to be devoted people with a true and honest wish to use the sands. With this discovery more people ventured there and mastered the sands while even more came and failed at the mastering and found themselves becoming murdering beasts. It was soon discovered the sand created creatures were protecting the Sands from others trying to gain control of them.

And so the sands and the great city of Aros remained throughout the Age of Enlightenment. The City of the Sands became a fortress to protect itself from the growing number of beasts that the sand created. The Sand Mages, because of the relative ease of mastering the Sands compared to the Song, came into power causing the decline of the study of the Song Magic. Because of the greed of easy power, even more came to test their fate and more creatures were created by their failing. This increase in attempts to control the powers of the sand caused the amount of beasts protecting the area to be uncontrollable by the cities defenses. The city soon became a fortress to protect themselves from what became known as The Horde. But still more people came to try and take the path of the Sand Mage and still more failed until the fortress that was once the greatest city of Aros was destroyed by the Horde. Now The Horde is strong enough that no person can venture within a hundred miles of the fabled Aros Wall and so the purest of the elemental sands are now unreachable. But the temptations of the Sands were not over. There were those that found that the Sands were being scattered throughout Aros in small patches. These patches were weaker then the pure sands next to the ring but still allowed a user, once pledged, to harness and use the powers. But it also still punished those not worthy and turned them into beasts and gave them a longing to join the horde.

And so it is now. Years have passed and the scholars argue. Are the Sands evil, are they good? Are the sands another gift of the True Gods or are they a last gift of the elementals? Those that gave the gift have not been seen in ages. Is the use of the Sands weakening the prison of the elementals, or is it just using up the gift? Is the Horde protecting the Sands because it is the elementals essence, or are they doing something now that they are alone with it? What was the purpose of the rings found upon the dead bodies of them 12 Master Mages and where are they now? These questions have slowly became more important as events unfold. The only thing for certain is that there are hints of the True Gods returning, and there are also hints of the elementals returning. A new age has become and the truth is, nobody knows what is to come of it..........

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