History of Archaios

A small settlement is built around the Mithral Spire. One day, this budding little village would become Eodur, one of the most influential cities in the world.

The Illithid (mind flayers, as they're more commonly and horrifyingly known) make an explosive entrance to Archaios and enslave many men, elves, and dwarves in a series of invasions across the land. Many of those they subjugated would be mutated beyond recognition, giving "birth" to races like grimlocks, gith, and duergar.   It takes many centuries, but eventually, the aberrant creatures are forced to retreat deep into the earth to escape the wrath of those they had invaded.

In order to facilitate travel and trade between the various kingdoms of their growing domain without having to deal with such pesky obstacles as going up to the surface where countless giant predators or opportunistic bandits would just love to assail the poor, tiny dwarves, the dwarven folk of Archaios endeavored to create a vast network of interconnected, subterranean tunnels throughout the Underdark.    After generations of dwarven laborers devoted their lives to its construction, the Dwarven Low Ways were completed circa 5,800 AC

Despite their predisposition for emerald forests and lofty mountains, many elven kingdoms were interested in what the unknowable depths of the Underdark had to offer and made many excursions beneath the surface, specifically the vast deposits of the magically attuned substance, mithral, which the dwarves jealously guarded.

The first great, long-standing civilization of men is founded in the province of Lapis Teras. Very little is known of this civilization other than it was called Sahbia and lasted in one form or another for over a millennia before being absorbed into a rival civilization.

After millennia of the primordial Titans being nothing more than a fable to most of the civilizations of mortals, the dragons make an explosive comeback. While the chromatic dragons that had gathered were relatively small in number, they came with a vanguard of half-dragon/half-man humanoids at their command.

The human civilization known as Nuumenia, which flourished in Southern Kentro and Lapis Teras, faces a sudden and unexplained decline at the height of its power.

The Logios Empire, a civilization renowned for their advances in the arcane and situated in western Kentro, reaches the peak of its power and influence.

The Logios Empire, in their pursuit of an extraplanar communication and transportation network, accidently tears open a gaping portal to the lower planes, allowing fiends to spill forth onto the Material Plane.

The Antecean's seized upon The Logios Empire's weakened state following the First Abyssal War in order to seize their land. Antecea had sent significant military aid to the Logians to help repel the fiends, and so they already had a fighting force primed and ready to go.

After a century and a half of painstaking research, development, and implementation, the Nexus is deemed complete; allowing Antecean citizens to travel from the capitol of Coronam (Eodur) to the ancestral city of Orsus (Sigil) to the backwater settlements of the far north and anywhere in between in less than a day. Nothing was off limits. The world was theirs to traverse and conquer. Surely such power would never come back to bite them.

There is very little surviving record of what this tumultuous period of Antecea's history alludes to, but it seems that during this time, the leaders of Antecea "declared war" on their own pantheon. What exactly this entailed is unknown, but what is known is that this was a time of great unrest, as much of the population was more than a bit uneasy about provoking divine retribution.   Despite the pushback, it is known that on the dawning of Antecea's 9th century, the pantheon was officially disbanded and a new arcane-centric mantra was adopted.

Rearing his ugly, serpentine head only a handful of years after his defeat, Cataclysm is back on his shit. He seeks out the long-dormant remnants of Antecea's first civil war and stokes the fire of rebellion once again in their hearts.

Enraged at Tovenaar's betrayal, Benevolence attacked him. In the ensuing chaos, Brynn was struck down attempting to break up the fight and Tovenaar escaped in the confusion. Benevolence took on the name Rapture and quickly lived up to the moniker. She rallied followers to help her reclaim Tovenaar's amulet half with a mission of righteous judgement: kill the evil so the good may flourish.

Humanity's population has slowly recovered from the Antecean Collapse and new, great cities have started to rise from the ashes.

After the fall of Antecea, Requiem became a fractured land of tiny, feudal kingdoms largely keeping to themselves or squabbling over land and resources. It wasn't until the rise of a prominent warlord named Eero Hengellen did the pieces of the shattered heart of Antecea begin to reform.

The city that would one day become Sigil found itself as little more than a husk following Antecea's fall. In the centuries that followed, precious few dared to reclaim the scarred ground of the city's remnants. The ambient magic that still lingered from Antecea's devastation attracted monstrosities and nefarious mages who would twist the magic and the creatures for their own gain.

Alarmed by the growing number of settlers traveling north into Horizon --a land that had been primarily elven-dominated since Antecea's fall-- Aeturnum Elves close off their cities to outsiders and erect the Watchful Towers; a magic gate that would block any wishing to travel the mountain pass into Horizon.

Inspired by Requiem's reunification and humanity's continued growth across Kentro, a campaign arose to reclaim Horizon for the kingdoms of men, led by an influential warrior called Tron Renaran. He led an army of men through the Oran Mountains and used trickery and deceit to bypass the Watchful Towers that blocked the mountain pass.

While the kingdoms of Anhangia vie for political dominance in the region, an ancient relic of the Age of Awakening resurfaces, catching the attention of the disparate powers as a means of cementing their own claim.

Heavily weakened by their blunder with the Second Abyssal War, the elves who occupied Eodur were in little position to defend themselves from a unified attack by the human kingdoms that aided in the demons' defeat, which is exactly what said kingdoms were banking on.

King Merthyron III of Crucible is assassinated by Mikael Creed, who would later be called the Phantom Knight. In so doing, Tron Renaren's line is ousted from Crucible.   The House of Phantoms is founded in the wake of the assassination and becomes one of the most notorious assassins' guild in Archaios.

A powerful sorcerer utilized the Mithral Spire's connection with the other Planes of Existence to pull the city of Eodur into the Shadowfell. His motives were never truly made clear. Some believed he wished to simply hold the city for ransom while others believed he hoped to sacrifice the city to a god.
  Whatever his motives, he was ultimately stopped by a team of adventurers consisting of the wizards Aefaren Thrangur and Christoph Heulen.

After nearly a century of rebuilding, the city of Eodur has effectively recovered from the Twilit War and the lingering effects of its time in the Shadowfell.

The kingdoms of Requiem experience a sudden swing in public opinion towards the practice and application of magic. Previously, it had been regarded as a dangerous tool to be wielded only by a select few. Now, the greater populace had come around to magic's wider utility, which resulted in a great boon of magical innovation.

On the day of King Snowthorne's coronation parade in Crucible, Lazaros invades the city with a horde of giants and orcs at his disposal. They are able to break through two of Crucible's dividing walls before Lazaros was "slain" by Dorian Havik, who was named Champion of Crucible for his efforts.
  During the skirmish however, the idol containing Cataclysm was shattered, and the twisted Fundamental Avatar was free once again.

With the assistance of the adventuring party that would go on to defeat Shepherd, Dorian Havik was able to finally succeed in his deposing of the much disliked King Snowthorne of Crucible.

The Haedian Empire  of Requiem launches exploratory vessels south of Lapis Teras, who discover the islands of Atrus.

The still young Assembly is faced with an existential threat; horrific, spider-like creatures emerged from Kirajud's Abyss and swarmed the Isles like a plague. These creatures, Neogi, were relentless in their onslaught and their numbers appeared limitless as more and more surged out of the Underdark.

In the wake of the Neogi invasion, the orcish warriors, who quickly united under the banner of the Ba'shad people, were granted tithes and land on one of the main islands of the Mach'a Mancha island cluster. However, they quickly grew restless and dissatisfied. They felt the Assembly kingdoms owed them a deep debt for saving them from annihilation. And if the kobolds and elves would not pay it back willingly, then they would take it by force.

An initiative of Archaios explorers largely backed by the Haedian Empire and its corresponding companies launch a cooperative venture to better explore the lands of Sakria. Ultimately, they discover the fringes of the Talhani Isles and the Shimmering Coast of K'allpa and find it to be a huge opportunity for colonization.

Archaios explorers establish a settlement on the island Aldiya in the Talhani Isles and come into contact with the Palaxi Dominion, who had already laid claim to the land unbeknownst to the Archaios settlers. The Palaxi moved to remove the explorers by force, but the skirmish was quickly defused by The Assembly of the Talhani Isles.