Lord Odran

Lord Odran was a powerful mage who was the first human (and mortal) to ever enter the Rift. Because the Rift touches all things and connects to all worlds, he used the Rift as a gateway to exploring these different worlds. For his transgression into the realm of heroes and gods, the spirits of the Rift destroyed him. When he died, he left many portals to the Rift scattered around many worlds. These portals are what humans use today to access the Rift in the tournament to win the Favor of the Gods.

History
A noble goal

Lord Odran, a great arcanist specializing in the study of temporal distortions, started out with the desire to make a plea to the gods. Like King Doric many centuries before him, he had sought to bring peace to his home land (unknown at this time) by communicating with the Gods. He wanted to undo the Exodus of the Gods and bring back the gods to restore peace and harmony.

In 851 AE, he succeeded through the use of a powerful spell he devised, and through the sacrifice of many mortal souls succeeded in opening a portal to the Rift.

Spiteful Spirits

His arrival in the Rift caused an outrage among the spirits of the mighty fallen heroes who are ensconced in the Hall of Heroes. For a soul to be accepted into the Hall, it has to have done great deeds worthy of the attention of the Gods, but here was this mortal who used trickery to join them in the hall! The spirits of the Rift assaulted the archmage with all their might, but could not harm his physcial body, for it had been centuries since any of them interacted with the physical world, and none of them did so in their shadow form.

Exploration

Lord Odran used his access at first to communicate with the gods, but then used the Rift's connection to all the worlds to travel to the different worlds and investigate them. He left a portal in each world he visited, hidden by powerful wards and enchantments. It is unknown if he abandoned his original quest or if the gods turned him down.

The End

Eventually, the spirits of the Rift were able to figure out how to interact with the physcial realm, and on his last visit to the Rift, Lord Odran's body was shredded viciously by the assaulting spirits. His death caused the wards and enchantments hiding his portals to fail. Ironically, in their wrath to destroy one intruder, the spirits had opened the wany of many more mortal intruders. For while Lord Odran placed the portals in the most treacherous of places, hoping that the fear of death would turn away the meek, humans -with their greed and creativity- were able to find the portals and visit the Rifts.

Today, the spirits who were once so enraged at a single intrusion, now find amusement in the visiting mortals, dividing them into opposing groups and having them fight for sport in the Hall of Heroes.