Convocation of the Gods
During the Age of Mythology, the harmony of many pantheons began to shift. The God Realms grew away from Yggdrasil and instead occupied the realms of Earth itself. Mortal refugees of Ragnarok were beguiled into living forever in these paradise-cities on Earth, free from hunger, danger, and even death.
Competition for harmony and therefore, souls, became more aggressive between the various demesnes of the New Gods. A state of detente lead to a 'cold war', and the primarchs sent their avatars and children into the world to attempt to make as many converts as possible. Soon they escalated to simply stealing mortals back to their realms, and in turn that led to violence. Thousands of mortals perished and the Gods personally did battle all over the World Tree, seeking to conquer new realms or deny them to the other factions. The battles raged across the world. Gaea attempted to intervene, but was unsuccessful in negotiating peace. She then threatened to unleash Atum, the God-Killer. If the gods would not give mortality back to the mortals in their charge, she would ensure that no god would hold one tribe above another with their divine aid.
Realizing how perilously close they had come to annihilation, the Primarchs convened an assembly in 2500 BCE. There they agreed that the warring for the souls of humanity was to cease. No more would the various godheads stride the worlds, careless with their power. No more would paradise be a literal location found atop mountains or under the earth. They would imbue children, or faithful adherents, with the potency and responsibility of their power. Gods could send only guides and escorts for the mortals who had felt the calling for a particular realm while still mortal. Those who had no such destination in their hearts when they perished would enter the mysterious cycle of the Astral Plane, to be reincarnated or to pass on to even higher realms yet. And they pulled their realms back from Earth, until they could be accessed through only isolated locations by the blessed, brave, or foolish.
Still, magic lingered; the places where once the Gods had touched the earth remained sacred spaces for millennia after. To this day there are spots all over the world where humans claim they can feel the presence of lingering divinity.
The Age of Mythology officially concludes in 2500 BCE, but would come to a dwindling end over the course of millennia, terminating roughly in 1400 CE with the Age of Exploration as rationalism and commercialism spread throughout the world.
