A Summarized History of Koljorn

Introduction: a Word From the Author

Many of the past events of Koljorn are still very much a mystery, and the ongoing attempts to thaw it's history may reveal much more. This summary is based on what we know now, as of 3400 AoK, based on current mythologies, the most recent discoveries and the histories of Estia and compiled into a single thread. I do not claim perfection or truth, but an effort to increase the understanding of the white world. Fact or fiction is your decision.

The Arcaning

Despite the controversy, the earliest accounts and references to Koljorn, the world beyond the neck make one thing clear: it was not always a frozen land. Cold maybe, but not to the degree we know it today. In fact it was a lush land with fertile ground, hardy plants and lively peoples. The first records we have are sometime within the first few thousand years after the Blending. The changes throughout the land with the introduction of the Neph in the east and the beginnings of magic, drove those who saw magic as evil to the edges of Estia. Two distinct peoples settled in Koljorn early on, the Ijen came from the east and the Fresian from the south. Both peoples initially rejected all things magical, but this did not last forever. While some individual tribes even to this day reject magic, the ruins from the region tell a different story.

The geography of Koljorn, what we see as making it isolated also makes it highly defensible. The only landbridge to the region is mountainous, and it's northern seas entirely protected by the dangerous. The east provides very narrow seas and coastline, and the west coastlines are riddled by storms most of the year. The south is the only realistically penetrable coastline, but even after gaining foothold on the lands armies would need to contend with dense forests and perilous mountains before reaching the plains. The tribes who settled upon the northern lands initially wished to keep magic out. And for a long while they succeeded; rejecting, exiling and punishing anything that dared to touch the arcane arts. But it could not last. The rest of the world grew rich and powerful, and the defenses of Koljorn could not stand forever.

A plague struck the children of the lands. An afflicted child grew pale, lost consciousness and died as though they had lost the will to live. It was named The Heart Sickness because of the mourning of so many parents for their children. The healers of the tribes knew no cure, and many blamed the arcane for the plague but there was nothing the tribes could do. They cursed the 'Plage Magician' and became even more hostile towards outlanders. For ten years the plague wiped out the children in the land, babies were born still and one after another the tribes fell. As the story goes, a single ship landed in one of the largest settlements on the eastern coast, [Settlement Name]. He made no effort to hide his magical nature, but offered the people the single thing they wanted: a cure for the plague. Made desperate and without hope, the people watched as he gave a single drop of a magical tonic to an afflicted child. To the relief of everyone there within minutes the child awoke and asked for water. He offered the tonic to the people with a single request, that he be allowed to set up a magicians order within Koljorn. The people agreed to this request, and he took a drop of his tonic and dropped it into a barrel of water. They were told to wait one hour, and the water would become as potent as the tonic in his bottle, then bottle it up and send it to every tribe in the land. He also told the women to drink when they became pregnant, and their babies would live. The magician was a Neph by the name of Amarazak, and everything he said came to pass.

Amarazak waited a few days for the arrival of his mistress, and then set off across the planes of Koljorn to found his order. All tribes who were offered the tonic of Amarazak were told the story. Some tribes rejected the tonic, but most did not. The tribes that rejected the tonic of course died out within a century though, leaving no dissenters to Amarazak's cure. The effect on these tribes was great, and even the Kumâian word for cure being 'amar' harkens back to the story of the first magician to be accepted in Koljorn.

Amarazak traveled to the heart of Koljorn, where he founded The First Order. It is believed this was also the founding of Cajak'nanr̀u, a city famed for it's deep connection to the arcane arts and craft. There Amarazak and his mistress had children, who also became powerful magicians. The First Order was just that, a precursor to many orders to follow. With the banishment on magic broken, the tribes began accepting more and more of it. Their prejudice against it began to fail. But other problems began to plague the lands.

The Freezing

While the Orders of Amarazak and his kin were strict about the magics that they practiced, not all were so. Orders were being created all over Koljorn, like a frontier to be magically conquered. Outlanders began practicing more and more dangerous arcane arts, not just enchatments but active casting, planar doors, summoning rituals and the practice of black magics. This took its toll upon the land, but even more there were creatures appearing upon the plains that had never before been seen in Estia muchless Koljorn. Beasts and monsters that devoured and destroyed recklessly. Tribes went to war with one another over dwindling resources, allied and made war with the beasts, and the Orders played chestmasters across the board of Koljorn.

In the west of Koljorn, a particularly infamous battle ended brutally with the allied beasts of both sides turning in and wiping out the armies of men. A boy, Tjumaw, studying at a lowly order was from the southern tribe and his entire family was slaughtered in the battle. Stricken with grief and seeing no end to the bloodshed plagueing the land, he sought out Amarazak once again for a cure to this plague as well. He travelled to Cajak'nanr̀u, and tricked Amarazak into taking an audience by pretending to be the head of his order. Once the trick was revealed, Tjumaw beseached Amarazak, begging him to do something about the unending wars and horrid beasts in the land. Amarazak agreed, but under the condition that Tjumaw prove himself as a magician within his order first.

Decades later, Amarazak was held to his promise, and with Tjumaw and the heads of many other orders, they travelled to the east of Koljorn, and there outside the watch of any prying eyes, Amarazak led a summoning of all summonings. He promised to bring forth the warender, the death of all beasts. The summoning created a deep pit, from within an ancient white dragon emerged. Zylbron. The magicians staggered back in fear, looking to Amarazak for guidance. But Amarazak nodded to the dragon, who turned and began consuming each magician in turn. Only Tjumaw possessed enough wisdom to render himself invisible and flee once the dragon appeared.

Zylbron was indeed the warender and the death of all beasts. But he brought forth beasts of his own. Dragonborn, kobolds, wyrmlings and dracolings. Dragonnels, dracoshells, spellscales and dracofells. There was none who could stand against Zylbron, those who dared were frozen with his breath, crushed under his great tail or ended by his underlings. He bore loyalty to only one, and even that seemed at time contentious but Amarazak would have no less. The peoples fled, and died, the bled and cried for any under the eye of Zylbron were ensalved to him or fodder for his kin.

An unknown amount of time passed under Zylbron's tyranny. But whispers began in the west. Whispers of the R̀aj̀an or the rescuer. Prophecy may be too strong a word, but hope was there. Zylbron was not blind to this however, and mockingly required any who spoke of the R̀aj̀an to be brought to him, so that their rescue might be expedited. Challengers called themselves the R̀aj̀an, and died to the ice flamed of Zylbron as a result. The same story repeated, over and over again. One of these however, was not the same. A man was presented before Zylbron as were the others, but Zylbron could not look upon him for all he saw was a blinding white light. The true R̀aj̀an, had come to free the peoples of Koljorn. Zylbron did not go quietly however. He was ordered back into the pit from where he was summoned, but instead fled north. R̀aj̀an followed him, and caught up to him, striking him down to the earth and opened a portal that pulled him from this world. But Zylbron released his essence in one last fit, and from the pit sprang a freeze so deep it continues to hold the whole of Koljorn, the whole of Zylbron's old domain.