Unified Creation Theory
This refers to the "Belegarth Monsters Unified Creation Theory" that pushes a vision where all Belegarth monster lore is interconnected. It encourages loremasters to create stories where all our gods and stories are real and they all interact in the same universe.
Loremasters among the Goblyns, Ogres, Orcs, Gnolls, Khajiit, and others have pushed this movement.
Ogre-Goblyn Connections
By Shaman Ghanima
As more and more races popped up, and older fighters started to retire, many of the old stories were being lost. As a way to help remember and tie the stories together Kazi and I started working on an overarching theory of how the different races’ deities were interconnected. We were only partially successful, focusing on the largest represented races at the time: the Goblyns, Ogres, Bugbears, Hat Trolls, and Kobolds. Orcs were also included to a lesser extent, but little of their official lore was known, so they are mentioned in Kazi’s stories but that is about it.
Theoretically there is space in this “universe” so to speak for any number of races and deities, but that has just not been fleshed out. A lot of my and Kazi’s work has been creating kind of a unified theory between the monster races. Each race of course has their own spin on things, but that there is this overarching history.
It was an interesting thought experiment to be sure, as we of course had competing goals. Mine was the exemplification of Ogres, and his the superiority of goblyns. In the end we settled on a creation framework which was flexible enough to allow the other races to have their own creation stories, but still have this connection to a “Belegarth Universe” and relationships between the races. Kazi gets most of the credit for this, as my goal really only included the Ogres and he is the one who created what I call in my mind the “unified creation theory”.
The bare basics of what Kazi and I have worked on is that Melashekhaad, the goblyn god of creation, was the first god and all other gods other than Marjack were created by him in his attempts to create mortal beings. Marjack according to the goblyns was created of the same stuff as Melashekhaad but was significantly weaker. Melashekhaad’s first creation according to the goblyns was Uron, and as the first, was essentially perfect. (Thus representing the first three large races within the sport. This notably neglects the Orcs who actually were of course first in-game, but without knowing much of their lore Kazi did not really include them).
The closest Melashekhaad got to creating mortal beings directly was through the creation of “minor deities”. Nearly all of these deities hate their creator and consider themselves to be at the very least on the same level as Melashekhaad if not superior to him. To get around his seeming inability to create a mortal race, he infused his ability into the goddess Pissran and she became the “mother” of goblyns. These goblyns were considered true goblins. Uron was intrigued by the goblyns and what he considered to be an imperfect prototype. Uron decided that rather than try and create flesh and life directly from himself he would build a race from the earth itself and infuse his life force into this creation. He and Melashekhaad had a wager on whose race would be superior. The other gods also wanted to have creations made in their own image, but the True Goblyns proved too great and the creations of the other gods had trouble thriving. The gods came up with a way through the cannibal Baulk to curse and diminish the true goblins. This is when Uron was slain. In the great war and betrayal by the other gods, goblyns became diminished. They are no longer true, as part of their soul is eaten before birth by Baulk the Betrayer. Particularly strong goblyns are ones who had less of their soul eaten. Once the gods had accomplished this, then all of the other gods exploded on the earth and created their own races.
(Now obviously you can see the prejudices in this “unified theory” i.e. goblyns were perfect, Melashekhaad was first, Uron was also “first” yadda yadda yadda.)
But in my mind what this did, was create a reason for monsters to know lore of the other races, but maintain the freedom to expand their own histories and explanations. IE the creation story as told thus far has been really from the goblyn and ogre perspective but it would be interesting to know the bugbear take on it for example. It was the first time the gods existed outside of individual bubbles and were part of an expanded universe of sorts. I love that this is starting to be explored such as at Beltaine this year with the Khajiit’s version of Pissran.
I want to be clear that this does not mean other races must acknowledge Melashekhaad as first, or even the supreme creator, but as far as Ogres are concerned, he probably was first. However, we do not care as we are completely separate from him. Our god existed separately from him, our creation was influenced by him only in as much as Uron wanted to make something better than goblyns. The Ogres do not believe that Melashekhaad created Uron even though the goblyns do.
Having ties between the lore of other races adds a lot of depth in my opinion. It is nice to see the different takes the races have on it while keeping some of the “truths.” This is similar to how so many ancient cultures in our own world have great flood myths, sun deities, etc.
Combined Ogre and Goblyn Timeline
1. Melashekhaad awakens
3. According to the goblyns, Marjack forms from the same stuff as Melashekhaad and Uron/the world is created
4. According to the ogres Uron/the world awaken and Melashekhaad creates Marjack
5. The Uónd instinctivly splits and sends out aspects of itself which we know as the spirits. They create plants and animals.
6. Melashekhaad creates the other great and minor deities and Uron becomes aware of Melashekhaad
7. Uron becomes annoyed at the other deities messing up the place
8. Melashekhaad takes Pissran and creates the first True Goblyns
9. Uron makes a bet that he can create better mortal creations than Melashekhaad
10. The 5 great goblyns are born/created (Baulk, Neb, Reth, Sifu and Skribbit)
11. The garad are created, the prototype ogres if you will. D’zono is among these
12. Uron works on refining his creation, the other gods want to create their own races, D’zono rebels and hides in the mysts becoming an abomination
13. Uron continues to refine his creation, the other god’s creations do not fare well amongst the goblyns
14. The other gods begin a war with the goblyns, but are held back by 4 of the 5 great goblyns
15. Marjack and the other gods conceive of the plan to use Baulk to diminish the goblyns
16. The other gods try to bring Uron in on the plan, but he becomes angry at the thought of the other gods using the earth as well. ( I see in my mind the Marjack looked up to/ was jealous of Uron and wanted his approval)
17. The gods betray Uron and kill him, the godless schism occurs
18. The 4 Urungnar are created and the ogres are shielded from the war due to the great mountainside Uron’s body creates
19. Baulk is cursed, Neb is killed by monstrous creations of the other gods, Sifu is cursed to be the goddess of the Underworld, and Skrybitt ascends to godhood.
20. With only Reth remaining, the goblyn war is lost. Reth is taken up to sit with Melashekhaad, and the gods' physical bodies are destroyed in the process. Goblyns are born untrue. Thus began what the Goblyns call the Age of Retreat.
21. Other races begin to flood and fill the Earth
22. The ogres remain secluded, the only enemies being the godless at this time
23. The 4 start to venture out and gain wisdom/control over their innate abilities
24. The 4 and the remaining Garad ogres begin to encounter the other races
25. The ascension of Ugangi and Ucronos occurs, the Ucronos supporters split off
26. Utezni creates the Utiek along with the spirit of the Forest
27. Una goes missing for a year, bears Marbanog
28. Utezni rallies the tribe and returns order, Una returns
29. Una and Utezni co lead the tribe for 100 years, Utezni and Una have a daughter named Onna.
30. Una commits suicide in order to ascend and save the tribe, some blame Ucronos. Onna inherits the staff of the Utiek
31. The drotskum gain strength and create the 3rd great schism
32. Utezni leads the ogres out of the protected area and they become nomadic
33. Utezni defeats D’Zono and fathers Ulv
34. Much later Utezni encounters the thunder spirit, after winning a test of his wisdom, Utezni fathers Kra’nock
35. After living for 1000 years Utezni disappears.
36. Somewhere during all this, Neb's soul is reborn intact as King Neb. His actions usher in the Age of Nezzar, where Goblyns find their strength again after being scattered for generations.
37. During King Neb's battles to establish and maintain Nezzar, they clash with the most prominent Elf Kingdom of the time, and utterly annihilate them. It is believed that most Elves were either killed or fled to other worlds shortly after the defeat, which explains the severe decline in their organization and numbers in modern times.
38. After a short time, Nezzar is destroyed, but Goblyns have found courage again, and thus began the Age of Tribes.
39. Monsters struggle with telling time, but all monsters can agree that everything changed when the High General Izareth began his march across the world, gathering monsters of all types for his Horde. The Goblyns refer to our current time as the Age of Unification.