A scroll is unfurled before you and you discover one of the lost writings of the oracle of Gabbad:
In the beginning, there was only Time, in the great void before the birthing of the Ageless Ones. One of His earliest acts of creation was the inception of Earth, birthed from the fountainhead of Life, and imbued with the Magic and Wisdom to contain every note of the Creation Song and tolerate the presence of man.
The Earth is parent, guardian, witness and oft-times participant in the inconceivable narrative of the world stage: from the formation of the smallest kernel of new life, to the rise and fall of civilisations as Man grasps vainglorioiusly in his ceaseless quest for dominion.
Who can understand the vastness of the Earth? To ascend its celestial heights or explore its fathomless depths? The Earth touches upon all of existence, from the turning back of the great tides along its borders to the unscaled ramparts penetrating the heavens. Few know its true expanse.
Those who would wish to comprehend the depths of His will must first acknowledge the Earth in all its forms, from benefactor to tyrant, heedless of favouritism, birth or rank. The Earth can be as far from the concerns of man as the most distant of virgin lands encircling the unexplored ends of the wine-dark ocean, and yet - when their travails interfere with His realm - there is no force more closely linked nor more feared should His wrath be incurred.
From "The Idylls of Creation" by Al'hazaam, the sufi of Gabbad, 200 bDW.
