The Light, And The Dark

The Clash Of Immortals.
Since the dawn of existence on Sanctum, two forces have always clashed, the Darkness and the Light and during the first several millennium a great war was waged over the planet between the arbiters of both these forces. The Angels, champions of the Light and the epitome of all that was righteous fought against the endless Demon Hordes that poured forth from the shadow. This continued on for thousands of years until the war had fought itself to a standstill, leaving in it's wake a level of destruction so immense that it threatened to tear the planet itself apart, seeing this, the Primarchs of the Angels, the three brothers Astaeroth, Azrael and Abbadon were forced to come to an agreement, the conflict had to end, but there was no way of reasoning with Demons. The brothers bickered and argued for days until a decision was made. Abbadon the youngest of the Primarchs shaped third after his brothers went into the land of shadow, there he communed with the Dark Entity that was at it's core and a bargain was struck. The war would end, but the Angel Lord would give himself to the darkness, tainting himself and at the same time placing himself in control of the Demonic hordes. Using his new-found command as all that was light in him dwindled he returned the endless armies back to their own realm, known as the Pit, and sealing the rift that allowed them to pour out into the world.

Post-War.
The Angelic Guardians, along with the help of the Elemental Protectors of the world, who to this point had remained hidden and away from the battling immortals, began to repair the world, and as they went they began to sew the seeds of life, and once all was right and the realm of Sanctum was once again back to it's natural state, they returned to the realm above known as the White City, content to allow the world to linger on with them as their watchful protectors.

Seeds Of Corruption.
And while the war had ended, the corrupted Primarch's work was not done, he alone ventured to the surface, and as his brothers had done began to sew his own seeds, corrupting the purity of what was there and allowing for darkness to develop even among what was to be the mortal races.

Growth Of The Light.
Elves: As the years went on following the conflict, life began to flourish on the world, first the Elves, a race of magically attuned demi-immortals developed, strongly shaped after the Angels themselves they were the first to fully evolve, using their natural skill with Magic to assist their culture's growth immensely, before long they began to establish cities with architecture that would rival the Angels in their sheer beauty and magnitude, they established the first society and they entered their golden age well before any other race had begun to take their true form. Being uncorrupted they were without a doubt the will of the Light itself.

Dwarves: To follow the Elves, soon came the men of the Mountains, having been born in caves their culture developed as such, and although they were created directly by the Elementals of the Earth itself, they were viewed as light-born by the Angels, as they are the ones who planted the seed. Their people were hardy, for many a terror had grown beneath the rock. They thrived in the circumstances they had, being short in nature and some of the finest Smiths in the land, on occasion rivaling even the Elven Masterworks from the spellforges of the golden age. The Dwarves naturally were isolationists, for over a hundred years after establishing their first great stronghold they did not even venture to the surface, as far as they knew there was nothing for them there, only darkness and death. So they created massive underground channels and expanded that way.

Mankind: Of the last of the races to be planted and by far the youngest among the light-born races, Mankind came to be seen as volatile to the other races, war seemed natural to them, where to the Elves and the Dwarves it was an alien concept until the First March of mankind occured, a massive crusade against the Elves. For the humans quickly became jealous, they lived in hovels of dirt and stone where the Elves thrived in cities of marble and gold, thousands of men came crashing down against the Elven defenses, only to be obliterated by the superiority of the warriors they faced. The Elven peoples did not take kindly to this attack, they retaliated swiftly, they reached out and collected the humans, forcing them into service of their Archon's, in hopes of teaching them a better way than the path they started on. But this was not to last, after five hundred years, mankind's rapid expansion continued, even under the yoke of the Elves, an uprising began, human kind had learned the art of war as the Elves waged it, this time a bloody conflict that their adversaries were not prepared for. As the battles raged they neared the coastal lands, further and further back with each battle the Elves were driven until they were cast away from the mainland, their cities destroyed and in ruins. The jealousy of man could not be kept in check it seemed, and so the Elves departed the lands and established themselves on a collection of islands out at sea away from the men, and from this point on, the humans were free of their taskmasters, and began to develop themselves, using what the years of slavery had taught them to make a new home for their kind.

Spread Of Darkness.
Orcs: Likely the most vile of the creatures spawned from the corrupt seeds, the Orcs are savage bloodthirsty humanoids who were created for the purpose of war, naturally strong they are among the fiercest warriors in the World. But while they may be powerful combatants, they have simple minds, a majority of Orcs hate eachother more than they hate the other races in the world. Killing, glory and plundering is all that matters to these savages, as status within their society is only given to the strongest Warrior with the most titles, and of course, the most loot. Male and Female Orcs are not as separated as the gender roles have been shed among this fighting race. Finding natural enemies with Humans, Elves, and Dwarves alike the Orcs will attack anyone without any real provocation, though some cases have been reported of Orcs and other races coexisting, perhaps these others have found a place in the warrior-esque culture of the Orcs.

Dark Elves: The Dark Elves were not so much created by Abbadon's seeds, but rather, corrupted by them, originally they were a part of the High Elven Empire that spanned the continent. exploring the arts of the Arcane among one another until one day a curious artifact was brought to them, found in the frigid tundra in the North, a glowing shard. This shard emanated a power they had never experienced before, they began to work their magics on the piece, seeking to open it and see what this item truly was. And though they did open it, it did not have the effect they had thought, upon cracking the shard it let out a massive burst of energy that hit every Elf within their city, corrupting them with the dark energies that were working within the seed. The blast left them mutated, they felt cut off from their magics as the light was quite literally blasted away from them, and soon the city began to echo with the cries of the severely weakened elves, the release has been too much for their young and as the light was taken from them, so were their lives. Those who survived abandoned their city, venturing South into the Hinterlands away from the cold reminder of what once was. But as they went, they began to discover that though they lost their original power, something new lived within them, the Archons began to experiment and discovered that their magic as they knew it was gone, and something else had taken it's place! They all began to realize this and suddenly, hope was restored, the newly christened Dark Elves set out for a new home, they would rebuild their city in their new image, a place of magic and wonders.

Wildermen: The final race to spawn from the Dark Seeds would be the Wildermen, who share the blood of beast and man, created through mankind's stumbling, the original race that was to be created from the seed merged with the men who discovered it, resulting in a group of men who had the ability to shift through forms of man and beast, they went wild, until eventually a leader emerged from among them. Being dubbed the "Sorcerer King" this man has lived throughout the ages, far longer than any being should, he has established a mental control over his wild subjects and used them to form an army deep in the mountains, though no real conflict has occurred between the Wildermen and the rest of humanity, they do pose a threat.