Primordials

The first and greatest creation of the Dreamer before the establishment of the planes. They embodied potentialities and concepts via their True Names, the words at their core. Although to say that they were discrete individuals is...difficult. Each of the primordials was separate and distinct from each other, but the primordials themselves could fragment themselves and be in many places at once, sharing the same consciousness. Although to say that there was "place" and "time" at that point is also difficult. But that's the closest analog for our limited minds.

Eight and One

There were originally eight-and-one (the number one greater than eight is...ill-omened to this day) primordials The Eight were

• Fire (Energies)
• Earth (Solid matter)
• Air (Gasses)
• Water (Liquids)
• Light (Order, Stasis)
• Darkness (Memory, Possibility)
• Life (Organization, Creation)
• Death (Destruction, Decay)

And the one, later called Nameless, was Change (Mediation, Disorder, Adaptation).

The four elemental ones, in cooperation with Life, created matter and gave it wild forms. Death broke down that matter, recycling the unneeded parts down into raw dream-stuff for reuse. Light and Darkness managed to organize and direct the work--Light preserving the structures that worked and Darkness musing about what could change based on the past; Change mediated between the others, acting as the grease in the cogs. Overall, the Dreamer watched and dreamed the plan.

Lesser Concepts

The eight-and-one primordials could not do everything, so they petitioned the Dreamer to give life to fragments of themselves, naming them Concepts. Causality, order, vengeance, happiness, peace, discomfort, all these and more were Concepts brought to life by the Dreamer. Each of these had Names based on parts of the Name of their parent.

Even lesser beings such as elementals and the First Races were created as the Dream progressed, living among the glorious assemblage of matter and energy, all planes mixed into one whole. Each serving a role in creation's design. Unusually, the First Races did not have Names, but did have wills via the sparks granted by the Dreamer.

Fall into Conflict

For an unknown reason, Change rebelled. He abandoned his role as buffer and lubricant and mediator, desiring to shape the newly-born creation to his whim. The others, of course, rejected this usurpation. There was war in the Dream; Concepts were weaponized; some Broke and became the Broken Concepts; others remained intact but diminished. The Nameless, his name and dominion now stripped, warped many of the lesser races into monsters.

Sometime during this conflict, the Oblivion Gate was torn open, releasing jotnar into the Dream. This caused the Dreamer to step in, fearing that the anti-life entities would destroy the dream entire. He cast the Nameless and the Broken Concepts into the Abyss to serve as the plug to contain the gate. The other primordials, wounded and distorted by the conflict, he turned into the planes themselves via their Names. The intelligent followers of each "loyal" Primordial were given the choice to join their prince in the newly-formed plane or descend to the Mortal and take on life there. The proteans, the poor cursed followers of the Nameless, as well as all the living weapons created by that entity, were condemned to the Mortal, to live and die there.

Even with this, the primordials retained some semblance of identity, acting as the will of the planes (to some limited degree).

The Astral was formed from Light's Name dominantly, although fragments of Darkness's Name are spread throughout (as with all planes). The elemental plane was formed from all of the elemental Names (self evidently), although Water also got a large fragment of Darkness's Name. Shadow was formed of Death's Name almost exclusively. The Mortal Plane was formed of Life's Name, although pieces of all the planes were mixed throughout. Darkness, alone of the planes, was fragmented. A part of its Name went to form the Abyss, just like a portion of Light's name went to form the Crystal Sphere.

Cataclysm War's Ending

At the Battle of Acceptance, the 8 and 1 were reunited--the Nameless in the hijacked body of an elven magus, the Eight having been invited in by loyal mortals. There, they all enacted a ritual sacrifice, destroying their hosts and their essences to stabilize reality and allow Change its proper place in reality. Many of the Broken Concepts were healed at that point as well.

However, as multi-valued entities, it is unknown whether all fragments of the primordials were destroyed. It is believed by some scholars that Wayland Smith is actually a pre-Dawn War, loyal fragment of Change itself; if this is the case, there might be others as well.

As of 252 AC, it is confirmed that not all fragments of the Nameless were destroyed--the Adversary (aka Despair Manifest) was a fragment heavily influenced by the Awakener.