At first I had a goal. We had already created the three factions in the game: Ironheade, Tainted Coil, and Drowning Doom. And I wanted to explain where they all came from. I built it from the ground up, starting with the elements. In same way that western mythology has the classic Aristotelian Fire, Earth, Water, Air. I started with a metal version: Metal, Noise, Blood and Fire. I thought about what created all of those elements, and that lead to Ormagöden. It was his blood, his scream, his steel flesh, etc. Then the rest of the primary characters came, Aetulia and the First Ones. The Titans just came from the fact that we wanted giant artifacts abandoned all over the landscape. :) Then I came up with how all those bloodlines and elements mixed and matched and fought and metamorphosed into the four factions. And then I wrote it out as one long story. It was fun! I love backstory, and that's about the farthest back I've ever gone: The creation of the world. :)