For two and a half millenia, the Gods walked the Earth and ruled over it.

This
we know from those few of their surviving testaments which we have been able to
translate. It is written that, in the First Age, the Gods wore flesh much like
our own. They filled the world, it is said, with their glory and their power, t
housands of millions of them inhabiting every quarter of the Earth. Then, two t
housand years ago, they left.
Thus far, we have found no record explaining their departure. We know only that
they left behind their children - our ancestors, albeit dozens of generations r
emoved - and many millions of artifacts. It is largely for the sake of these ta
lismans that our Order exists at all. For we devote ourselves to the task of di
scovering and retrieving such holy wonders, preserving and cataloguing them, and
- where possible - divining their purpose and the secrets of their use. Alongs
ide this role, we have taken it upon ourselves to study and document every facet
of the world the Gods left for us, in the hope that by studying their handiwork
we might one day divine something of their purpose.
It must be admitted that we have, thus far, made little progress toward this goa
l. It is certainly true that our Order has collected and catalogued many, many
thousands of ancient talismans, and - largely through the work of a few of our m
ost gifted Sages - we have learned to make use of most of these artifacts. But
in terms of understanding the magic which powers such miracles, we have barely e
ven begun.