Oerth is known as the home world of Orcs, Elves and Dwarves. Here their creator Gods Gruumsh, Muradin and Corellon gifted the breath of life to their children, passed on their beliefs and set them to subdue the untamed world.

Origin of Man

Genesis and Abandonment

It was the lawful evil god Zarus who introduced humanity to Oerth. Zarus engendered humanity with zeal, a desire to evolve into something greater than the sum of its parts. He took wisps from the magic of elves, the ferocity of orcs, the industry of dwarves, and molded his own people. It was Zarus' intention to create perfection through industry, study, and domination. Humanities god-given drive helped them quickly establish a foothold in the lush coasts. The first human empire, Sulm, was founded on the worship and philosophy of Zarus.

Sulm enslaved other races, created thralls and castes that would handle lesser tasks so they could focus on their various pursuits of perfections. Shattados the last king of the Sulm empire believed that disunity and free-will was the final obstacle to human perfection. He spent vast resources toward this problem, subjecting slaves to horrific experiments. Ultimately his high-priest received a strange vision where in he saw the king achieve is goal by participating in a ritual with an something called the Scorpion's Crown. With the power of the crown he could link and dominate the minds of his subjects to create a single human conscienceless, perfect unity. Tharizdun, the destroyer of all, provided both the vision and eventually the crown.

After sufficient preparation the ritual commenced and succeeded, but the results were catastrophic. Shattados merged with the dark artifact gaining vast psionic powers, but king's perfect human form was twisted into the shape of the crowns namesake, a giant scorpion. His empire, now permanently linked with their king gradually morphed into human-scorpion hybrids, even the land around them started to change.

Shattados prepared sacrifices to Zarus to plead for help in restoring his people to their true forms but when the god looked down on his progeny he no longer saw his perfect children but twisted monsters. Zarus ultimately abandoned the empire and all humanity as a failed experiment, believing mortals naturally corruptible.

With his empire in ruin and his people corrupted Shattados mind broke and he committed suicide, kill most of his people in the process. Only a few of the strange hybrid humans exist in the deserts to this day.

Salvation

But there were other small pockets of humans living throughout Oerth. The last vestiges of human culture lay to the north-west in Velverdyva Valley with the human bandit lords. They lived in squalor, raping and killing, a blight on the otherwise beautiful and balanced lands. Humanity suffered, lost and directionless seeing generations of wars and raids without progress or hope.

It was The Dawn Father who ultimately had compassion on humanity. Pelor sent a drought among the human tribes eliminating the hunting and foraging they used for sustenance. The god of the Sun would see humanity learn to cultivate and cooperate or die. Within five years, wars and raiding amongst the tribes had left few alive with hardly any resources. Erathis, a widow of the war who lost husband and four sons, saw the end approach and negotiated a peace. Her words convinced the remnants to divide what little food was available to eat one last time and die.

That night Pelor came in the guise of a decrepit child. He stole into the tents to take the remaining morsels and test their resolve, one last time. He was caught and brought before Erathis to be judged and killed. She called again for the end of killing and the mob eventually dispersed.

Once she and the child were alone Erathis handed her last meal, a bruised and wilted yellow apple, to the child who ate hungrily. He consumed every last piece as she looked on. His meal complete he dug a small furrow into the parched soil and handed her the seeds from the apple. Erathis thought the gesture useless. But the child looked at her with such hope that she soon relented and dropped the seeds into the ground and covered them.

She was shaken awake the next morning to see the child was gone and in his place stood a beautiful tree, miraculously both in bloom and bearing ripe golden fruit. Enough to sustain the vestiges of humanity, the golden tree became the symbol of human cooperation for centuries to come.

The Dawn Father returned to discuss the plight of humanity with his allies Moradin, Bahamut and Ioun. The Knowing Mistress suggested that humanity had lost its way when they were abandoned by Zarus and needed a positive role-model to demonstrate what they can become.

Pelor convinced each deity to bless humanity with a portion of their essence to create an exemplar. With luck their combined blessing would cleanse humanity of the corruption to which it succumbed so easily.

Pelor returned to the tent of the widow Erathis in the guise of the wretched child and told her that she would give birth to a baby that would be a king, a priest, and a savior of humanity. He would lead the people in establishing peace, cooperation and order if the they would follow. Nine months later she gave birth to a son. She called him Pholtus.

Age of Enlightenment

Pholtus exceeded every expectation. In his 80 years among humanity he established a dynasty of order and the foundations of the grand city of Fleeth. A new age of cooperation began. For the first time in human history the races began to trade and mingle. Alliances and agreements were created that lasted generations. Worship of evil gods was outlawed, including witchcraft and many arcane practitioners went under ground or fled.

Humanity entered a golden age of education, industry and prosperity as the gifts of the Gods took root in their minds and hearts.

When his mother, Erathis, began to wither with age, Pholtus gathered his people together and consecrated successors from among his progeny, an emperor and a high-priest together would lead his people. After many tearful goodbyes a shimmering doorway of pure light appeared and he and his mother passed through; out of history and into legend.

The reverence of Pholtus gradually turned to worship. Spreading first within the city of Fleeth, missionaries preached order and goodness to the reaches of the known world and became renowned for their tenacity and inflexibility.