The Cthoni

Beliefs

The Cthoni believe that they were the first race to be created, and that their Creator, Ur, was the first God to be born from The Void Before. Ur is a Crafter God, a deity of Making. Though other races tell the tale differently, the Cthoni believe that Ur forged the other Gods out of raw Nothing in the Great Making. These Gods went on to create their servitor races, but not until after Ur had created the Cthoni from the dross and scrap from which he had fashioned the others, in The Second Making. Thus, they were superior to other races, for while not Gods themselves, they are not the creations of creations.

During the Days of the Gods, The Grandcrafter Ur directed the Workings of the Cthoni directly, through his High Priests and Engineers, who were possessed of The Forge-grace. The workings of the Cthoni were mighty, whether in art, architecture, poetry, the sciences... their head start, their divine intervention, and the fruits of previous Makings led to many victories in the contests the Gods waged for power. As spoils, the Cthoni took members of the other races as laborers, that their condition might be bettered.

Settlement

The Cthoni did not travel far from the ruins of Aten, which Ur had built.

Time after Ur

Sadly, the Cthoni did not fare well after the passing of Ur and the end of the time of the Gods. Without Ur to guide the High Priests and Engineers, they were reduced to a vegetative state from which they never recovered. Without the Priests to orchestrate the prayer wheels and cornucopia devices, the Cthoni suffered sudden starvation before they learned more primitive means of food production. Scarcity was sudden, and terrifying.

The children of the other Gods, long jealous of the semi-divine Cthoni and under-appreciative of the many benefits of superiority to a superior race, gathered together to strike them down with weapons they had not earned, weapons which had been passed along from their now-departed divine patrons and others which had been stolen from the Cthoni.

Finally, the remaining Cthoni Wizards and lesser Engineers gathered together to work the Great Inversion. Life was a struggle... but in undeath, their greatness would endure forever... perhaps even until the return of Ur.

Appearance

The Cthoni are squat, anthropomorphic, mesomorphic skeletons wreathed in multi-hued flames. Turn 2