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Primordial

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This article is about elemental titans. For the language of elemental creatures, see the Primordial language.

The Primordials, also known as elemental titans,[1], primordial titans,[3] or simply the titans,[4] were a race of great, ancient elementals that once inhabited Exandria.[1]

History[]

Before the Founding[]

According to the creation myth of the Kryn Dynasty, the Luxon, having noticed a particular lonely planet, began to embrace the world and gave their light to the planet, cracking the surface and giving it fiery life. The elemental chaos gave birth to titans called Primordials, and they erupted and fought each other[6] and the Luxon.[7] Finding no consciousness in the elemental chaos and seeing the Primordials' souls being lost to the darkness beyond as they killed each other, the Luxon broke into scattered Luxon beacons that would enact a cycle of rebirth for those who were bound to their light, in hopes that those beings would gradually learn and mature, and one day something would find and reassemble the Luxon, at which point the Luxon would ask them, "What am I, and what is my purpose?"[6]

By another account, the Luxon only split itself after gods came and created mortal creatures, which would place it after the start of the Founding, and there is no mention of the Luxon being reassembled.[8]

Either way, prior to the arrival of the gods on Exandria, the Primordials claimed the world as their own and dwelt deep beneath its surface. In that time there was elemental chaos in which only entities of the corresponding element could survive in certain regions, although it is conjectured there were also pockets of balance between the four elements where life was possible, under the protection of the eidolons.[9] The Ashari believe the Primordial titans created and guided krakens before the arrival of the gods.[10]

The Founding[]

During what became known as the Founding, the still young and formless gods arrived from another, unknown realm. They immediately encountered the Primordials;[11] legend holds that this took place on Ascendant Bridge Mountain, the tallest point on the planet.[12] The gods created the first mortals, including the first humanoids, but the elemental chaos made life precarious.[13][14]

At some point, however, a malevolent being the gods named Predathos arrived from beyond the world, descending on an island city, creating twisted life forms on Exandria, and devouring two of the gods who came to stop it: Ethedok the Endless Shadow, god of darkness and winter, and Vordo the Fateshaper, god of fate and order. As Predathos resisted their powers, the gods struck a deal with the Primordials, who imprisoned Predathos within a piece of the planet that became its second moon, Ruidus.[15][16]

In time, the gods lent bits of their power to mortals as divine magic to help tame the land, and created the Dragons Metallic to further protect them, and the mortals prospered.[17][14] But the granting of divine magic to the mortals is believed to have upset a previously existing balance, and it infuriated the Primordials.[18] According to the Lord of the Hells, the gods who would be called Prime Deities thus broke a promise to the Primordials.[19] The wrathful Primordials caused the planet itself to rise against the mortals with chaos, earthquake, and fire, to the great sorrow and anger of some of the young gods. The gods split into the Prime Deities, who wanted to subdue the Primordials and protect their creations, and the Betrayer Gods, who sympathized with the Primordials and wished to join in the chaos.[20][14]

Battle ensued. One of the Prime Deities, Corellon the Arch Heart, taught mortals the secrets of making their own arcane magic, which they developed and used to subdue the Primordials, in turn allowing the Prime Deities to overcome the Betrayer Gods. In the end, the Betrayer Gods were individually imprisoned or banished while the Primordials were destroyed and scattered to their own planes.[21][13][22] One popular legend holds that the Prime Deities scattered the essence of the defeated Primordials across Exandria, and that this not only created the Elemental Planes but also gifted many humanoids with magical power to shape the elements; some of these people would become Ashari.[23] According to Keyleth, the death of the Primordial titans itself created the Elemental Planes as they are today, with most of their elemental inhabitants being born or created from the remains of the titans' power.[24]

One of the defeated titans was an earth titan who was violently thrust feet-first into the earth, raising the Zenwick Mountains.[25] Another, the Molten Titan, was felled by elves at the end of the Founding and was subsequently sealed within and consumed by the earth, forming the Daggerbay Mountains of Tal'Dorei.[26]

Two mighty Primordials, Rau'shan the Emperor of Fire and Ka'Mort the Empress of Earth, were laid low and sealed away by the Dawnfather and the Wildmother under Mount Ygora on a continent known as Domunas.[27][28] They were two of the only primordials that were never killed before the Calamity,[29] and the travels of the city of Avalir along the ley lines of Exandria inscribed protective runes upon the world that helped to keep them sealed away.[30]

Age of Arcanum[]

The children of the titans, the elemental eidolons, managed to hide from the gods and came to inhabit different corners of the planet as spirits of the land.[31]

When the Betrayer Gods were unsealed at the start of the Calamity, the Lord of the Hells arranged for the release of Rau'shan and Ka'Mort, which would have tipped the balance against the Prime Deities. Avalir's Ring of Brass foiled this scheme, scattering the two Primordials' essences the moment they were released.[32]

One particular primordial, now remembered as the fractured titan, was destroyed during the Calamity, an a dead shard filled with its vengeful shadow ended up beneath Kurunpa-Mina, a mountain in the Shattered Teeth.[33]

The massive skeletons of three "titans" litter the Calamity-era battlefield of Incanter's Rest.[34]

The Titanstone Knuckles, one of the Vestiges of Divergence, was forged from the heartstone of the earth titan beneath the Zenwick Mountains.[1]

Era of Reclamation[]

During the Icelost Years, Errevon the Rimelord, an ice behemoth believed to be an ancient scion of the Primordials, led an invasion of Tal'Dorei before being resealed in the Frostfell.[35][36]

Circa 793 PD, in Issylra, a charismatic man named Efterin began sermonizing on elemental spirits and the need to restore the Primordials, gathering followers who would eventually settle in Tumilo and become the Hishari.[37]

In 795 PD, the heartstone of a fire titan, called a soul anchor, was attached to Thordak to seal him in the Elemental Plane of Fire.[38]

In 812 PD, the archlich Vecna raised the earth titan from the Zenwick Mountains, placed atop its shoulders his city of Thar Amphala, and marched the reanimated titan into an attack on Vasselheim.[39]

Two weeks later, on a quest to retrieve Grog Strongjaw's soul from Pandemonium, Vox Machina were pursued by and then fought a dust titan referred to as "the rolling danger" and "the thunder that comes".[40]

In the 820s PD, the source of Efterin's power, a "shard of power" given to him by the Great Tree of Atrophy on the island of Kalutha in the Shattered Teeth,[41] became his downfall and led to the destruction of the village. In attempting to channel this extremely powerful source of elemental magic that became the centerpiece of their cult without knowing what it was, they could not control it and there was a massive explosion which destroyed the village and presumably all its inhabitants.[42] One child at this ceremony, Ashton Greymoore, saw a vibrant, glowing gateway, and watched a cataclysmic event rip everything apart, and the next thing he knew he was in the middle of another continent,[43] and years later began to take on a rocky form.[44]

Fan art of '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000042-QINU`"'the legacy of Rau'shan, by '"`UNIQ--nowiki-00000043-QINU`"'

Fan art of the legacy of Rau'shan, by shalizeh7.[art 2]

After the apogee solstice of 843 PD, Ashton and a fellow adventurer, Fearne Calloway, became the wielders of the remaining power of the Empress of Earth and the Emperor of Fire respectively, as part of their mission to save Exandria.[45] During their visit to Vasselheim, Ashton underwent a ritual that allowed him to contact the remnants of the earth titan's consciousness, and through it Ka'Mort's too, having the chance to talk to them and confirming that even if Exandria changed, their own time had ended.[46] Months later, both Ashton and Fearne used their own elemental powers to put what remained of the fractured titan of Evaterena to rest.[47][48]

Titan of blood[]

In rare circumstances a fragment of a primordial titan's power marks a humanoid, transforming them with that power similar to how an elemental's influence would transform a genasi.[49] The only known case is Ashton Greymoore, who acquired a fragment of primordial titan during the accident that killed their family in Hishari. Keyleth of the Air Ashari identified said power, and called the barbarian a "titan of blood".[50]

Ethel Rivergold[]

This particular individual has the body of a cloud goliath, but is actually the personification of the Spirit of Evaterena, one of the islands of the Shattered Teeth, an entity of primordial nature who has protected that area for many centuries, and has a natural connection with the local spirits, whether elemental, undead, or fey. He is also the idol and protector of the people of Yutazo.[51]

Trivia[]

  • So far, of the four elements in the basic forms, only fire and earth titans have been named and/or described.
  • According to Morrigan the Fatestitcher, primordials and fey are considered opposite ends of the magical ancients.[52]
  • Matthew Mercer explained that he started developing the idea of the titan of blood after learning about Ashton's elemental transformation in his backstory, at the beginning of Campaign Three. Coincidentally, a critter also had an earth genasi connected to a titan in their own home campaign, and Matt joked about having watched those sessions for inspiration.[53]

References[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 1.3 1.4 1.5 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 6.
  2. ↑ See "The Ominous March" (1x109).
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 14.
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 54.
  5. ↑ See "Into the Frostweald" (1x48) from 2:15:00 through 2:15:13.
  6. ↑ 6.0 6.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 33.
  7. ↑ See "Critical Role Campaign 2 Wrap Up" (Sx56) at 3:34:16.
  8. ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 41.
  9. ↑ See "The Cradle's Convocation" (3x104) at 1:43:46.
  10. ↑ See "Onward to Vesrah" (1x87) at 3:25:07.
  11. ↑ See "Downfall: Part One" (3x99) at 0:42:09.
  12. ↑ See "Somewhere Out There" (3x59) at 4:03:14.
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 12.
  14. ↑ 14.0 14.1 14.2 See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 13.
  15. ↑ See "Axiom Shaken" (3x43) from 3:03:05 through 3:05:41.
  16. ↑ See "The Cradle's Convocation" (3x104) at 2:25:23.
  17. ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 11.
  18. ↑ See "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02) at 1:56:29.
  19. ↑ See "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02) at 4:16:41.
  20. ↑ See "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02) at 1:56:29.
  21. ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, pp. 5–6.
  22. ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, pp. 13–14.
  23. ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 226.
  24. ↑ See "For The Tempest" (3x68) at 2:52:34.
  25. ↑ See "The Climb Within" (1x110) at 3:37:12.
  26. ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 87.
  27. ↑ See "Excelsior" (E3x01) at 2:22:54.  See also 3:05:10.
  28. ↑ See "Bitterness and Dread" (E3x02) at 3:31:26.
  29. ↑ See "Blood and Shadow" (E3x03) at 5:13:16.
  30. ↑ See "Blood and Shadow" (E3x03) at 5:16:33.
  31. ↑ See "Crisis of Faith" (3x61) at 3:50:28.
  32. ↑ See "Fire and Ruin" (E3x04).
  33. ↑ Beacon logo (tiny) Critical Cooldown - Tag Team At The Teeth: Beyond the Shroud - Melbourne Live Show 2025 at 10:11 (subscription required) (Transcript).
  34. ↑ See Explorer's Guide to Wildemount, p. 154.
  35. ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting, p. 10.
  36. ↑ See Tal'Dorei Campaign Setting Reborn, p. 20.
  37. ↑ See "A Haunted Past" (3x63) at 1:53:29.
  38. ↑ See "Duskmeadow" (1x57) at 3:12:35.
  39. ↑ See "The Ominous March" (1x109).
  40. ↑ See "The Search For Bob" (Sx45) at 2:08:17.
  41. ↑ See "Kindling the Spirits" (3x73) at 0:11:15.
  42. ↑ See "A Haunted Past" (3x63) at 1:57:12.
  43. ↑ See "What Dreams May Come" (3x34) from 2:55:54 through 3:01:54.
  44. ↑ See "Heart-to-Heartmoor" (3x17) at 3:00:53.
  45. ↑ See "The Eve of the Red Moon" (3x81).
  46. ↑ See "In the Shadow of War" (3x110).
  47. ↑ See "Tag Team at the Teeth – The Misty Ascent" (Sx97).
  48. ↑ See "Tag Team at the Teeth – Beyond the Shroud" (Sx98).
  49. ↑ See "For The Tempest" (3x68) at 2:33:54.
  50. ↑ See "For The Tempest" (3x68) at 2:34:12.
  51. ↑ Beacon logo (tiny) Critical Cooldown - Tag Team At The Teeth: Beyond the Shroud - Melbourne Live Show 2025 at 4:32 (subscription required) (Transcript).
  52. ↑ See "To Hurt Is to Heal" (3x79) at 1:36:48.
  53. ↑ See the Rose City Comic Con podcast at 49:38.

Art:

  1. ↑ Official art of four elemental titans, by Kent Davis from "Exandria: An Intimate History" (Sx61) at 1:42. Used with permission.
  2. ↑ Fan art of the legacy of Rau'shan, by shalizeh7 (source). Used with permission.

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