NO ONE quite knows when or how the world began. The Ecclesiarches of Antia (of which I happen to be one) say it was when Corialstrahz, their primary god, saw and hated the eternal darkness of the cosmos, and created first light, then ground, then finally humans to praise His being. The Wizards of Acizor and Rozica preach that the world formed due to the presence of a nexus of magical energies, and the Nontheists of Neovia say it formed simply by random chance. Nevertheless, despite the disagreement over how it came into being, the world definitely began; and, not very long after its genesis, it brought into being the first of humanity.