I am called by some, the god of Neutrality. Others have named me 'Lord of the Sane'. Neither are accurate. For though there are lords many, and gods many, I am not a god; nor am I lord to any, save perhaps myself. Think of me as Boffo the Sane. 'Boffo' because that is my name. Sane because that is what I am. There are very few beings capable of sanity on the level at which I reside. Of those few, fewer still embrace it. They do not dare.
But I am not here to discuss such things as this with such beings as yourself. Rather, I have come to describe the world of Bellicose - what it is, and how it came to be.
In the beginning there were certain gods, you do not know them - but you will. They quarreled. The nature of their disputations, what they quarreled about, you could not understand. Suffice it to say that they fought fiercely. It came to a point that they were about to destroy one another. I, Boffo, placed myself between the gods and convinced them to stop. "Why destroy yourselves?" I said, "This is insanity! This is evil incarnate! Why do you fight and contend personally with each other, when you could get mortal races to fight and destroy each other on your behalf?"
The gods quickly saw the sanity of this plan. They named me as mediator, citing my neutrality as a qualifying merit. I agreed; because it was clear that I was the only one sane enough to do the job. The rules were simple: A new world would be created. Each god would place a colony of their favorite mortal race on this world. They would have 200 years to grow their civilizations (I use this term loosely - we are talking about mortals, after all) unmolested. After that time, anything goes. One caveat: They were not allowed to intercede for their races by way of miracle or manifestation. Only by way of inspiration and certain individuals of each race were allowed to access their gods' powers in very limited amounts by way of magical spells and incantations. The last race of mortals to survive would determine which god would rule the rest.
The gods named their new world 'Bellicose', which means, in the old tongue, 'romantic hamster'. It is because of silliness like this that we don't use the old tongue anymore, except to make cool-sounding names. Some of the gods continue their passionate rivalries to this day. Most of them, however, have so much fun making warfare with their mortals, that they have all but forgotten their original quarrels, being lost in the game.
And so it is that, I, Boffo, bring the rules of this game, and descriptions of the races involved, to every world that I visit. That all who care to might adopt a species to fight their wars. All warfare is insane, but to pretend at warfare is a lesser insanity than to practice it oneself. And I, Boffo, am dedicated to spread what sanity I may, wherever I do roam.
Enjoy...