Canon 15: The Dawning

When the crown of creation was given into the hands of men, they were simple and unlearned. They lived in tribes and were scattered across all Erenth. The Besnir considered them not at all for it seemed to the Second Children that men were as brutes, and incapable of learning.

For the first seven centuries the tribes of man grew in strength and power and gathered into various places on the face of Erenth. Each tribe had a god in those days and as there were tribes without number, so too, there were gods without number. Some of these gods were thought to be petty and cruel, others thought to be powerful and capricious. Many legends were told of them and their exploits. Men found inspiration in them, but these beings, for all their numbers, had no power in the world of men... until the coming of the Pretenders.

In the year 3744ey the Pretenders came to Erenth. Some of them came to each of the Four Lands and were taken to be the gods long worshiped by the tribes of men. These pretenders did not demur. They passed themselves off as the gods, and received the tribute of many. The usurper which came to live in Westrun were particularly prideful and accepted the obeisance of all in that Land. Thereafter, the tribes were guided by those ancient and endless rivals into war and peace, famine and plenty.

Eventually, the Thirty Tribes rose on the graves of many men. Temples and shrines were built in each of their midst, but none were so grand as that which was erected in the Shadow of the Peak of Mt. Oromir. This False Temple became the home of the Deceived Priesthood. Men were held in its sway for the next 11 centuries, until the coming of Worthy Gamasiel and his revelation of the One True Way.

Slowly the hearts of men began to be turned from the usurpers and pretenders. At last, in 5107, the Deceived Priesthood was thrown down and the statues of stone were torn from their temples and shattered during the War of the Gods. So rose the Dawn of the Church of Westrun and the coming of the Age of Light.