DnD: An Introduction

Once upon a time, a new race of creatures was born from out of the earth, a race known as man.  This race walked upright, and  had thoughts, and stared back in on itself in contemplation, and contemplated that contemplation.
And when this bright light was lit, it threw flickers of light out into the shadows, and saw echoes of itself there, spirits walking in the dark. Spirits of the earth and water and sky.  And the spirits, who had always been there, stared back at man, contemplating its contemplation.  Then the spirits came and walked with man, and took man's form, or some form of man.
The spirits of the earth took the form of dwarves.  The spirits of the air took the form of elves.  The spirits that walked between them became gnomes. But there was darkness and chaos in the spirits of the world as well, and some took the form of goblins and drow, and other things besides.
Other spirits took other forms, and others remained spirits, but the ones who walked with man took to the mundane world lived and bred and died.
And so it has been, for countless generations.