The story of the Time of Creation is told in the Book of Wisdom. The accuracy of this story is not known. There are some who believe it to be a fabrication invented by the Fellowship of Kraylus.

Of the Making of the World

(from the Book of Wisdom)

In the beginning, the world did not yet exist. All that we see here was naught. Where there is land, there was no land. Where there is sea, there was no sea. Where there is sky, there was no sky. The sun, moon and stars did not exist. There was not even darkness yet. There was no place for the world to exist, nor any time for it to ever come into existence. This was before the beginning of time.

Though this world did not exist, the world of the gods did exist and there dwelt Kraylus. In the world of the gods, the gods are as mortals and treat each other so. It is even said among the gods that there is a god of the gods to whom the gods themselves kneel and pray. It is also said that there is more than one god of the gods. The gods themselves are only gods to lesser worlds such as ours. Kraylus had no desire to be a god, but it was his wish to create a lesser world and to make it a place souls would choose to visit and therein dwell, perhaps in happiness, perhaps in strife, but never in tedium.

Kraylus then created a world, and filled it with people. Yet they had no souls. So Kraylus found souls, gave them new forms and let them explore his creation. He had created a world, but it was not this world. Again and again for thirty long ages, Kraylus created countless worlds. He used all the powers and magic then known to him. For a time these worlds satisfied him and the souls who dwelt there were amused. Then other gods created other worlds which attracted many millions of souls. Kraylus wanted to make worlds such as these, but at first, he did not know some of the spells of worldmaking that were needed nor did he have the power to cast such spells.

So Kraylus worked to increase his abilities. Then, when he was ready, he went to the workshop of the Tinker in the land of the ancients and asked for a magical machine to create worlds. He told the Tinker the machine was for one of the ancients, which was true, and the Tinker gave the machine unto Kraylus. The ancients smiled upon Kraylus for they knew he coveted such a machine and since Kraylus paid the price of the machine, they let Kraylus keep the machine though it had been intended for the land of the ancients in the world of the gods.

Night and day for a year, Kraylus worked with the magical machine, creating a world that would be as good as the world of the gods. Alas, the spells of world making were too powerful for the machine. After a year of labor, Kraylus could not cast the spells to bring his world to life as he had intended. For that, he would need a far more powerful magical machine. He called out to the Tinker in the land of the ancients asking for a more powerful machine. The Tinker replied that he had no such machine, nor could he build one. The Tinker told Kraylus he must seek it elsewhere if it were to be found at all.

So Kraylus went to the City of the Queen of Victory. Long had she reigned, even by the reckoning of the gods and far and wide were her domains, all around the world of the gods. She even claimed the lands of the ancients, but the ancients resisted her power and waited until time, ever their ally, put the queen off her throne. Though the Queen of Victory was long dead, her city still stood in the land of the ancients and a new queen had inherited her throne and reigned in her stead. So it was that Kraylus went to the Queen's city in the world of the gods. He brought with him a large treasure of gold. In the Queen's city, among her people, he searched everywhere for a magical machine that could make worlds, a machine of vast power and complexity, a machine that could turn thought into lands, imagination into seas, dreams into reality, the machine known as the Lathe of Heaven.

Among the gods, the legend of the Lathe of Heaven had been told as a myth by the oracle Ursula thirty six ages earlier. From the writings of Ursula, it had been retold again and again through the ages. Though he despaired of ever finding such a machine and he and his family endured many hardships, one day Kraylus found a workshop owned by Gizmo the Geek. Gizmo did not have the Lathe of Heaven, but he knew much of such things. To the woe of Kraylus, the legend of the Lathe of Heaven was only a myth or an unfulfilled prophesy, for the machine did not exist anywhere. But Gizmo coveted the gold Kraylus offered and vowed that he would build such a machine. The skill of Gizmo was so great that before the sun set that day, he had built the Lathe of Heaven, as the legend had spoken of it, whereupon he claimed the gold. Thus was the legend of the Lathe of Heaven made into a prophesy fulfilled. A dreamer sought to remake the world with his dreams. From the power of the dream, a machine was made. The machine was the Lathe of Heaven, a tool of the gods for making and changing worlds.

Kraylus took the Lathe of Heaven to his new hermitage near the shores of the Bay of Jamus on the great island that the Ancients call the Isle of Thi. There he set about to create a world. He soon acquired the spells of world making that he needed and he called to his side his firstborn son, who was called Krellin. Kraylus showed Krellin the Lathe of Heaven and taught him some of the spells of worldmaking and asked him to help create the world.

Krellin said he would and he did. Kraylus continued his work, but soon discovered that though the Lathe of Heaven worked, the spells of world making did not. The spells created a world, but it was small and empty and utterly unlike the world Kraylus had designed. It was nothing more than a desert. Only five souls ever visited it. Seeing that his long quest which should have been at an end was not over, Kraylus waxed exceeding wroth.

Kraylus continued his arcane research and eventually discovered that one of the spells of worldmaking could recreate fragments of a world made earlier by other gods. With the Lathe of Heaven, he cast this spell and recreated as much of the lost world as he could. The fragments that were salvaged from the world of the Elder Gods were the ancient city of the Dwarves, the Dark Lands and a small island called Punkett Island. Along with these fragments, he recovered a map of the whole of the world made by the Elder Gods. That world was gone except for the fragments and the map. In the fragments many things remained including artifacts of all kinds, magic, buildings, many kinds of grasses, trees and animals. Also there were many creatures, some of them good and needing only souls to truly come to life, together with others who were monstrous and terrible to behold. In addition, the fragments brought with them the natural laws of the world of the Elder Gods. These natural laws were different than those of the world of the gods. They were also different from the world that Kraylus had designed so he rejected them.

For a time, Kraylus rejected almost everything he had recovered from the fragments of the world of the Elder Gods. He had wanted to study the world of the Elder Gods and learn from it, not make his world in the image of theirs.

His intent had been to make a world inhabited by humans as the only intelligent race. He did this, but difficulties beset him at every step of the way. He knew that a much easier path led in the direction already trod by the Elder Gods. Finally, he set aside his work on the world of his own design and made this world we live in. This world was made from the fragments of the lost world of the Elder Gods which Kraylus tended like seeds. Thus did this world grow and take form from those fragments.

For Kraylus beheld the design and understood its pattern. He shaped it, but it sprouted ever from the fragments made by the Elder Gods. Those fragments themselves had been infused by a still more ancient magic from a still more ancient god who had created the greatest of the lesser worlds seventy ages ago and more. He, in turn, derived his magic from arcane lore and legends so ancient their age is not known, but it was two thousand ages ago and more. From what source this magic derived originally is so lost in the mists of time that even the gods will never know. Some of that magic grows even now, in this world.

So it was that Kraylus made the world.