The Age of Man
The Age Of Man
After the gods departed the world became a wild and chaotic place. The lesser races were scattered to the winds and their ultimate fates were left to chance. Many of the semi-sentient species that had flourished under the direct care of the gods now withered in their absence. Some were driven mad and became truly bestial, others simply dwindled and died but most just faded into obscurity, living on the edges of society, surviving as best they could, becoming legends, myths and monsters in their own right.The three elder races fared somewhat better but were no less free of struggles and conflict.
The elven people, claiming a moral superiority based on their birthright as the first-born mortal race, attempted to form a single nation with them as the ruling class but were ultimately unsuccessful. The saurial of the time were more interested in following Ogham’s precepts of collecting all knowledge and would’ve happily let the elves rule so long as they were allowed to continue in their work in peace, but the elves demanded complete control and the saurial took umbrage. Humanity was also opposed to the idea and the five major tribes fought viciously with Helos’ words of freedom still ringing in their ears.
The elven idea, and the conflicts it spawned, persisted on and off for several generations before it was ultimately discarded. The conflict brought to light certain internal differences in the elven people, and they began to divide into the three modern tribes that we know today, each tribe favouring a different aspect of their triumvirate of Goddesses. There are rumours and fragmentary stories that suggest that the elves actually separated into four tribes with the fourth tribe forsaking all ties to the others and fleeing deep into shadow. There is no proof to substantiate these rumours and the elves themselves no longer know the truth as much of their early knowledge was lost during the plague years. If a fourth tribe did exist at one time, it is assumed that because they haven’t been seen or heard from in the past eight-thousand years, they have long since perished.
The three tribes that we know the elves separated into are the Tribe of the Sky, the Tribe of the Sea and the Tribe of the Plains. The fourth tribe, if it did exist, has been referred to as the Tribe of Shadow.
The Tribe of the Sky, commonly known as Sky elves, had been the most vocal supporters of the idea of an elven nation despite being the smallest contingent of elves. When that idea failed, they retreated to their high mountain enclaves where they had limited contact with outsiders. There they studied the heavens and communed with the goddess Selinah. In time, Sky elven art and architecture was sought after the world over and the elves themselves were revered as great sages and diplomats.
The Tribe of the Sea comprised of those elves that listened most closely to Aliah’s siren song and cared little for land or nations. They quickly distanced themselves from the Sky elven dream and were its most ardent opposition. While the others were still discussing the idea, they forsook the land en masse and took to the waves in small, barely seaworthy vessels and used them to explore the uncharted waters. Many died on the journey, for Aliah is a fickle mistress, but in time they learned to read her whims in the waves and listen to her song on the wind and they flourished. Eventually they migrated to the temperate coastlines and the more remote island chains where they would ironically found a fledgling elven nation. In time, they would become known as the best sailors and navigators on the world.
After the Sea elves departed and the Sky elven dream died, those elves that remained listened to the wisdom of Dhara, the Earthmother, and migrated to the vast fertile plains. They forsook the idea of kings or leadership and formed loose familial alliances whose interests lay in the wealth of the land rather than the land itself. The Tribe of the Plains became a nation in all but name and followed a semi-nomadic lifestyle in the fertile grasslands revolving around the vast cattle and horse herds that would become the basis of their wealth. They were a fiercely independent people and cared more for their herds than they did for the world that was forming around them. In time, Plains elven horses were prized for their agility, intelligence and stamina.
Saurial scholars have recorded only the barest fragments of fragments of tales that are left regarding the Tribe of Shadow. It is said that they sided with the sky elves and when they were unsuccessful that turned their backs on their people completely and followed the whispers of Korvanah, the Raven Queen, and stepped deep into the shadows to explore secret mysteries yet untold.
Whereas the elves were created on a whim, the Saurial race was created with a purpose. They were imbued with Ogham’s love of knowledge and diligently continued to follow in his footsteps after his departure. After rebuking the elves’ attempts to rule, they laid claim to a swath of warm, fertile plains in the middle of the continent where they established themselves and their fledgling nation. Nestled in the foothills of the Sentinel Mountains they founded the first city, called Phared. It was there that they housed the great library and began the Book of Ages, a repository for all the knowledge of the world.
Early in their quest for knowledge the saurial discovered the latent mana field that encompassed the planet and were subsequently the first to tap into it and use it to accomplish feats that only the gods had previously been capable of. Fearing the elves would use this knowledge in another bid for power, they withheld the secrets for a number of years. It was only after rumours of the wonders they were capable of became so commonplace that they could no longer deny them that they agreed to share the knowledge.
At the time of the gods departure, the elves and saurial (and dragons) had all spent time with them and had been given tutelage in language, governance and the rudiments of society. Humanity had no such luxuries, coming into existence just as the gods departed and were a savage and feral lot, little better than the semi-sentient animals driven mad after the gods departed. They were not expected to survive for long. Despite this, or perhaps in spite of this, humanity was quick to learn and proved to be highly adaptable, more so than the other two races – most likely due to their shorter lives allowing for a quicker response to environmental changes.
The humans grouped themselves into tight-knit familial clans divided along five distinct tribal lines. These five early tribes were the Kell, the Ankar, the Bhandar, the Merad, and the Kerast. All five tribes were clustered primarily in the central part of the continent (what is now modern day Khedris) with their territory overlapping both the saurial to the south and the plains elves to the north. This brought them into direct conflict with the other two races. Initially the three coexisted fairly well but as the human population increased and they started to expand their borders, so did the conflict.
What initially started out as a few small border conflicts eventually spread to an all-out war with the five human tribes on one side and the elves (primarily the plains elves but with many sky elves as well – there are no records that the sea elves participated in this conflict) and saurial on the other.
While the humans had numerical superiority, they possessed only the most basic tactics and were outclassed by both the elven cavalry and saurial spellweavers. Despite these factors, the humans were determined to survive and fought with tenacious ferocity. The war finally ended after the humans suffered a great defeat on the Plains of Kelliad. Two whole tribes of humanity, the Kell and the Ankar, had been all but completely wiped out and despite winning the war the elven and saurial people didn’t fare much better. The remaining three tribes sued for peace and a brief summit was held. While many of the specific details have been lost to time, some facts are still remembered. It is known that the elves acceded to the fact that humanity would eventually expand and overrun them, and they allowed this on the stipulation that they would remain autonomous, subject only to their herds and their people. The elves were adamant and had this not been accepted they were willing to wage a war of mutual extinction. It was accepted however and to this day plains and sky elves, while nominal citizens of the various nations of the world, are subject only to themselves. The other, and some say more important, aspect of the Kellian Accords that is still recognized today was that the saurial would take the remaining human tribes under their wing and enlighten them as they themselves had been enlightened by the gods. The saurial hoped that such knowledge would prevent future conflicts. Though some say time has long given lie to that belief.
The three tribes that the Saurial tutored were the Merad, the Bhandar and the Kerast. The remnants of the other two tribes were absorbed into the other three (the Kell into the Merad and the Ankar into the Kerast) though each remained as distinct subcultures within the greater whole.
The Kerast were naturally great mystics and sages and benefited the most from the Saurial teachings on those subjects. They were the first to leave, claiming some unseen force was calling to them, and migrated to the south. There, among the vast jungles of the southern part of the continent they would eventually form the nation of Kerastem. The Ankar were still an identifiable culture despite their drastically reduced number and, along with a number of more adventurous Kerast, travelled even further still to an island far in the Southern Ocean. There they would found the island nation of Akkad where the fabled Rhûn Men come from.
The Bhandar tribe were the most warlike, aggressive and fiercely independent of the tribes and were never comfortable with their defeat. They chafed under saurial tutelage but grudgingly accepted it. They focused their efforts on learning tactics, survival and warcraft as well as the more mundane tasks. Shortly after the Kerast left, they too struck camp and headed north fracturing into three sub-groups as they went. The Ilsar remained south of the Dragonspine Mountains and controlled the territory between the Veil River and Lake Khed while the Bhan and the Jotunar travelled north beyond the mountains. The Jotunar followed the eastern coast northwards and when the land ended, they took to the sea and crossed it to establish the various kingdoms of the Jotunlands. The Bhan turned west after passing through the mountains and expanded across the vast wilds of the northern continent.
The Merad tribe lingered longest with the saurial and benefited the most from their teachings. They learned the arts of statecraft and politics and over time came to usurp the government from the saurial. For their part, the saurial didn’t make much fuss and some say they actively encouraged this transfer of power as the tedium of governance interfered with their studies. They were happy enough to hand off the reigns and return to their task. Thus, the seeds of the Meradassian Empire were born.
The Golden Age
After the transfer of government was complete and the saurial had been relegated to mostly advisory positions, the new Meradassian nation began to slowly expand its borders. The remaining Kellian peoples interbred with the Merad while retaining a moderately distinctive culture of their own. They occupied the northern half of Merad, from the cliffs of Dharraken to the border with the Ilsar and became the precursor to the modern Khedrin peoples. The Merad tribe itself occupied what is now modern day Phaeros, sharing the territory equally with the saurial.The Merad were a diplomatic people but were passionate and never forgot a slight. The Kerastemi sent a diplomat to Phared to open trade relations with the newborn nation of Meradassia but he ended up insulting the Meradassian King, Leto Merad I. In retaliation, the Meradassians invaded Kerastem. They sent an army south over the Sentinel Mountains and after a short but bloody campaign, brought the nation of Kerastem to its knees. The formation of the Kerast Province is noted by most historians as the beginning of the Meradassian Empire. The distances and the relative inexperience of the Meradassian navy prevented the Empire’s expansion to Akkad, which has remained sovereign through until this very day.
After Kerast, the empire then turned its eyes west and north. In the west, they expanded across the gulf and found rich and fertile vinelands along the Sun coast. They shipped many Kerastemi slaves to work the newly formed plantations and named the area Baras Province. It would be the empire’s only overseas territory.
As they expanded north, they came into direct conflict with the Ilsar and had a much more difficult time with them. For many years the area was under a state of near constant war, but the Meradassian numbers and superior tactics slowly drove the Ilsar back and eventually overwhelmed them. Even after they were defeated, the Ilsaran people remained unruly and independent, and the area perpetually seethed with a low level of rebellion. The empire was forced to take measures and after failing to drive them out, they then tried to breed them out. The northern Meradassian lords interbred with the Ilsarans, creating a ruling class that was distinct from both tribes. This would become the Shiaren tribe and they were moderately successful, having inherited the fierceness of the Ilsar as well as the political acumen and loyalty of the Merad. The empire also divided the Ilsaran lands in two, ceding the southern half of their territory to the Khedrani so they would act as a buffer province between the Ilsar and Merad proper. The western half of the lands they gave to the Shiaren lordlings. Even with these measures being moderately successful in placating the population the Ilsaran people proved a constant thorn in the Empire’s side and were ever resentful of its rule.
With the Ilsaran problem moderately contained, the Empire turned its hungry eyes north. They crossed over the mountains in force to suppress the Bhanate city states. The Bhan were the most savage and primal of the original Bhandar tribe and fought even more viciously than the Ilsarans had. The Ilsar, while fearsome warriors had always fought with a sense of honour. The Bhan had no such concepts, and the Empire was forced to deal with them brutally and mercilessly. After a long and equally bloody campaign, the Bhanate lords were eventually brought to heel.
Prior to the Empire’s occupation, the Bhan had existed only as individual city states, each lord only controlling a few hundred square miles of territory at most with many miles of wild and untamed land between pockets of civilization. The empire’s arrival changed that. They established the Bhan Province and imposed law and order across the whole area. The Bhan, while more warlike (and superficially) more unruly than the Ilsar, were much less stubborn and more pragmatic. They accepted the Empire because it managed to unite them as one, which was something they had been unable to accomplish on their own.
After the formation of the Bhan Province, the Empire foolishly embarked on a two front campaign that eventually led to the end of Imperial growth. The Shiare province had been the primary source of troops and supplies during the Bhanate campaign and to meet the demand for both, had begun to slowly encompass most of the western half of the continent. The Empire had long forgotten the Kellian Accords and as it expanded west, came into contact with the plains elves living there. The empire attempted to bring them into the fold, seeing their vast herds of cattle and horses as a source of immeasurable wealth.
The Empire were completely unprepared for the mobile, hit-and-run tactics of the elven cavalry and were outclassed at every meeting, despite almost always having numerical superiority. The Elves had no capital and their nomadic lifestyle allowed them to melt away quickly from the Empire’s advances, only to subsequently encircle the advancing troops, cut them off and slaughter them to a man. After several decisive victories, the Elves quickly and forcibly reminded the Empire why the Kellian Accords granted them autonomy. During the peace negotiations after the war, the elves demanded reparations from the Empire. They ceded some of their territory to the north and west but kept the most fertile central grasslands for their herds. The Shiarens expanded west and founded the Province of Perra along the far coast.
While the Empire was expanding west, they also attempted to cross the Sea of Storms into the Jotunlands in the far north. The Jotun tribe had not been idle since they migrated north long ago. The land they came to call home was an unforgiving wintery landscape filled with savage beasts and harsh climate. This landscape honed and shaped the Jotun people, creating fearsome warriors who loved the land and their kin. There was no single king that ruled everything, but every village had a chief and every chief had a voice. The Jotun and their longships harried the Empire’s ill-equipped navy. The Empire suffered a number of decisive losses at sea to the hardy Jotun warriors. As most of their forces were committed to the Western Campaign, the Imperial command felt that they needed to concentrate there and eventually gave up on the idea and turned their eyes elsewhere. Jotun remained, along with Akkad, the only sovereign territories not under the Empire’s rule and with the failure to conquer the north, the Empire’s thousand year long period of expansion ground to a halt.
Once the seven provinces had been established, the Empire turned its resources inwards and began a period of growth, development and innovation that has never been equalled since. A great college of magical learning was founded in Phared and many wondrous creations were developed from research there: such as the great skyships – ships that defied gravity and were held aloft only by the sorcerous wind magics embedded in their hulls. along with more mundane creations that were no less impressive such as suspension bridges and intricate clockwork automata.
It was during this period that the Imperial Magi began researching two technologies that put them at odds with the saurial. The first was Gate travel, where they attempted to pierce Helos’ Veil and the second was magical manipulation of the genetic structure of life itself. The saurial vocally opposed both ideas and brought them into increasing conflict with Imperial politics. They argued that the Veil was in place for a very specific reason and that breaching it would bring about no end of trouble, though when pressed, they could not say what that trouble was. Their opposition to genetic manipulation was based on the religious belief that only the gods had the right to play with the stuff of life. Over the long years the saurial had been shunted to the side-lines and no longer held much political power in the empire and so were unable to do much more than protest vocally. Their cries fell on deaf ears however and after a time they officially withdrew the bulk of their remaining support from the Empire and removed themselves from governmental and scholarly positions across the empire in protest. In later times, the Meradassian scholars refer to this as The Great Migration
With the help of the Sky elves living in the Sentinel Mountains south of Phared, they invoked a great spell and secretly moved the contents of Great Library to some unknown location. Some say that they raised an entire city into the sky and floated away but most scholars discount these stories as mad-touched tales. Wherever it went, the library and the Book of Ages remain hidden to this day. The saurial took up a nomadic lifestyle and while most remained within Merad itself, many travelled to the plains of eastern Kerast or to Baras province on the Saraethan subcontinent and the vast island chains southwest of the Worldbreach mountains.
This was the height of the Empire. Peace and prosperity reigned. Other than an occasional Ilsaran uprising and infrequent Jotun raids along the coast, there was little conflict.
Roughly three thousand years after the Empire was founded, and about five hundred after research had started, two mages known as Hanshad and Maldenaris successfully pierce The Veil and establish a stable Planar gate1 . The Phared gate exited on a large uninhabited island in a pleasant temperate sea on a planet that shared very similar characteristics. An expedition of imperial explorers travelled through to the island and founded a city called Al Tanis. Many scholars, explorers and adventurers travelled through to this new world and began to make contact with the indigenous peoples, who bore an uncanny resemblance to the early humans on Tarsere. Religious philosophers and scholars alike debated the significance of this for many years to come. Some speculated that the humanoid shape was the perfect form and others were convinced that there had been previous contact between the worlds and that the Magi were covering it up.
The new world was much less mana-rich than Tarsere and only the most powerful magics and magicians could operate there. Because of this, the study of magic declined in Al Tanis and a new field, called science, was born.
After the success with the Al Tanis gate, magi across the empire all rushed to duplicate the results but had little luck. Most other types of magical research were abandoned during this time, including the genetics experiments, in favour of Portal technology. While the magi had little luck in duplicating the success of the original gate, they did manage to make great strides in the field of teleportation magics and large, focused teleport pads were built in many of the major cities as a way to connect the far-flung provinces.
Roughly a hundred years after the Al Tanis gate was found, an Ilsaran born mage named Glaston and his assistant Calgrum were working in the city of Ter Galas (modern day Glaston’s Tor) and successfully managed to create a Veilgate that reached a beautiful if somewhat alien landscape. At first it was assumed that this was another portal to Earth but it was soon discovered to be a wholly different world seemingly dictated by seasonal change. This land was inhabited by a number of species, the predominant among them being a humanoid race bearing a vague similarity to Tarseran elves but having vastly different natures and quicksilver demeanours. These beings alternately introduced themselves as both the Sael and the An’sael of the Fae Court but were unwilling to elaborate on the nuances of such distinctions. They were warily intrigued by the explorers at first but for some reason lost to time, they quickly turned hostile and declared war on the exploration party and subsequently on the Empire itself.
The then current Emperor, Halsin Cleothenaes VI, had only recently ascended the throne and was both politically inexperienced and a weak ruler – and also mentally unbalanced. When he was presented with the option of closing the gate, he became blinded by his own ego and imperial majesty and declared an ill-advised war on the Fae, demanding that his generals bring him the head of the Fae queen and to put their whole race to the sword. This event became known as Halsin’s Folly and is noted by many scholars as the defining event of the beginning of the Empire’s decline.
The war was short lived with both sides claiming victory. The empire hadn’t fought a proper war in many generations and having only dealt with an occasional Ilsaran uprising and infrequent Jotun raids, they were ill prepared for the Emperor’s aggressive campaign. Despite their vulnerability to cold iron and their small numbers, the Fae were easily victorious in their own realm as they were able to magically manipulate the very world itself against the invaders. On Tarsere the battles turned in favour of the Empire. Despite its inexperience they were numerically superior to the Fae and the lack of malleability of Tarsere worked against their foe.
After a bloody, eight-year conflict, both sides went willingly to the peace table and a treaty was signed in blood and stone, oak and ash. The Empire initially came away from the talks with a great sense of satisfaction and accomplishment but when they examined the treaty afterwards, they could make little sense of the document. It seemed to be filled with numerous contradictory articles and labyrinthine stipulations. The study of it still perplexes scholars to this day as the wording seemingly changes when under a full moon or during a solstice. While the exact wording of the treaty remains transitory, both sides agreed that their realms would remain inviolate though limited travel would be permitted between the two during the solstices (and those travelling through the wilds of Faerie must adhere to the Accords).
The gates were not designed to be closed, having more in common with a rip in a piece of fabric than an actual doorway but the Fae wove a spell that managed to partial seal the rip and closed the gate (at least until the solstices).
Once the Fae gate had been sealed, the Empire’s magi returned their focus to discovering other gates and other worlds. They met with limited success, only managing to open temporary portals to the outer planes that never stayed open long due to the strength of Helos’ Veil. There was a tale that circulated for some time after the Fae war that Glaston’s assistant, Calgrum, had taken his master’s research and successfully used it to open another portal, this time to a City of Doors. While the portal (and the truth of the tale) was never discovered, Calgrum himself disappeared shortly after the war and was never heard from again.
With the lack of quantifiable success, overall political support for the idea waned within the Empire as the political moderates saw little benefit in continuing the project when they already had a stable gate and the resources it provided. The Empire’s focus shifted towards supporting the existing Al Tanis gate and the colonization of the surrounding lands on Earth.
The Oncoming Darkness
During the growth of the Empire, divine contact was rare and the gods themselves were relatively quiet. They granted succour and direction through visions, signs and prophetic dreams and only seldom did they take direct action within the mortal realm.The goddess Dhara was most connected to the world and would often explore the wild places despite her father’s edicts against it. During one of these times, Dhara had taken the form of a pure white hart as she wandered through the wild and untamed forest. She crossed paths with a hunter of the wild, the hermit named Herne, who was somewhat wise in woodcraft but cared little for the land itself. For him, the hunt was all.
Dhara sensed something in him that she had not seen before in a mortal and was intrigued by his focus but disapproved of his arrogance. She decided to test him and see who he really was or might become. She appeared on the path before him. When he saw the white hart, he had to claim her as his prize and vowed to chase her down. Dhara led him on a long and arduous trek. It lasted days and roamed through vast tracts of primordial forest that no mortal had walked in centuries.
At first, Herne was forced to hack his way through the undergrowth and fight for every step, but as the chase progressed, he learned to listen to the forest, and it became easier. After the first day it became less troublesome and by the end of the first week, it became a dance between them as both hunter and hunted flitted and flew through the forest with equal ease. As he hunted, Herne began to understand that there was more to life than just the hunt and several times he paused, almost giving up. Still, he was tenacious and would not give up his quest.
Eventually after many weeks and as many miles, he came to find his quarry standing silently in a forest glade as if waiting for him. Swiftly drawing an arrow to his cheek, he took aim and was about to let loose but found he was unable to do so. He stared into the eyes of the hart and finally saw the Goddess within.
Something awoke inside and he dropped his bow and reverently stepped into the glade to kneel before her. He was overcome with awe and fear for what he had been about to do. The hart bent forward and touched his forehead to calm him and when he looked up the hart was gone and the Goddess herself stood before him in simple homespun with a gentle smile. They spoke quietly together for some time and Dhara was pleased with her new disciple. Herne felt changes happening within as they spoke.
Dhara charged him to protect these wild spaces and the creatures within. She imbued him with some of her essence so as he could accomplish his task and then stepped back to her father’s court behind the sun. Herne stayed in the world and came into his power as the Demigod of Hunters and the Forest.
While Dhara and the other gods excursions into the world were “secret”, Dhamoc made no pretence to following the rules. Having never been bound and always one to mock Helos’ edicts, he freely meddled in the world, sowing chaos and dissent where he could but mainly concentrated on his own dark goal of returning to the greater universe.
Dhamoc watched the planar experiments of man with great interest and rejoiced when the Veil was successfully pierced. Helos’ very own creations had provided him with a way to escape his prison. He savoured the irony with fervour and set into motion a plan that had long been brewing in his dark and twisted mind.
Using Helos’ own idea of binding as the basis of his scheme, he seeded a great asteroid with part of his chaotic and corrupt essence. Whereas Helos had wanted to bind him, Dhamoc had a much more sinister idea in mind. He made some very exact calculations and when he was ready, set the plague-ridden rock spinning through space on a long and inevitable collision course with Dhara’s fertile planet and then waited patiently for his plan to blossom.
Dhamoc set the asteroid on a long and slow arc towards the planet in an effort to cloak it from both mortal and divine eyes until it was too late. Fortunately, it was discovered by chance by Sky elven astronomers who calculated its movements and eventually came to realise that it would collide with the planet is just over one hundred years’ time. The astronomers name it Dhamoc’s Eye, as much for the baleful green glow that surrounded it as for the dire threat it implied.
The gods were finally alerted to its presence by the prayers of the faithful and they combined their wills and attempted to destroy it before it reached the planet. Dhamoc had long since taken their reaction into account in his calculations and as they attempted to destroy the asteroid, Dhamoc’s magic paralyzed them, and they watched powerlessly as the rock hurtled to destroy the planet and their followers.
The mortal races were left to fend for themselves.
The gods were silent and so the Sky elves, in a rare break in character, invited outsiders into their realms and held a great summit in the city of Araban in the Dragonspine Mountains. The summit was open to all and the greatest minds and magi of the three races gathered to discuss their options. After long arbitration it was decided that if the gods themselves couldn’t destroy it, they would have little chance in doing the same themselves. Instead, they planned an attempt that would shift the course of the asteroid before it reached them.
All the Empire’s resources and energies were directed towards solving the problem and after a number of years with the three races working in relative harmony, they believed they had come up with a workable solution. They couldn’t destroy the rock, but they could deflect it. Unfortunately, the spell they had devised could not be cast over such a vast distance and they would have to wait until the asteroid was much dangerously closer. So close that if they failed, they would not get a second chance.
When the asteroid was five years away it’s baleful green glow could easily be seen in the night sky and many citizens were overwhelmed in fear and panic, claiming the end of the world was nigh. The imperial magi along with the greatest saurial and elven spellweavers gathered in Araban to begin the most intricate and powerful spell the world had ever seen. The ritual lasted non-stop for a gruelling four years and many mages burned themselves out and gave their lives in the effort but even as one fell, another replaced him. Mt. Araban itself seethed with power and was a blazing beacon halfway around the world.
The spell was released in a titanic rush and a trail of incandescent fire raced through the sky towards the asteroid. The world watched for the inevitable impact between the two and when they finally connected a second sun briefly blazed in the day. It flared for an instant and when it finally dimmed, the world cheered as the asteroid was seemingly deflected harmlessly away.
The celebrations were short lived however and lasted only a scant few months before large shards and fragments of the asteroid, accelerated by the spell, began to bombard the planet. The meteors were bad enough by themselves, causing massive devastation wherever they hit, but the true horror became apparent only after these rocks touched Dhara’s fertile soil and twisted and perverted everything they encountered.
Dhamoc’s Plague, as it became known, was born.
Whole species died out almost instantly, poisoned as their food supplies became tainted and others were mutated into wholly new species almost overnight. The precursors to many of the younger races were born during this time and struggled to survive in the chaos.
In the western imperial province of Perra, two races were born in the chaos. One was a short humanoid race with blue-green skin and bulbous features. They called themselves Goblins and were avaricious and territorial. The other came to be known as the Fauns. They too were humanoid but looked much like a cross between a goat and man with furred legs and cloven hooves below a human torso. Small vestigial horns sprouted from the Fauns heads as well. They were savage and wild but kept to themselves so long as they weren’t disturbed.
In Kerast, the semi-sentient and peaceful bull-men known as the Tau'rhos were deeply affected. They were driven mad and degenerated into vicious animals with a taste for blood and flesh. Their whole culture was ripped apart and the peaceful tribes of the plains became warlike and sadistic. Some headed into the mountains in search of territory while the bulk of the tribes initially migrated to the grasslands of eastern Kerast where they came in conflict and competed with the Leonar, one of the three tribes of humanoid, cat-people in the area. The other tribes , the Tabaxi and Benghar, were spotted in great numbers in the southern jungles and waged war on the Kerastemi eventually carving out their own culture.
In far off Akkad, only rumours exist of how (or even if) the plague affected them. The flightless raven-folk known as Kenku are said to have originated there, but no one knows for certain.
In the Island chains to the southwest of Dhabara, the asteroid shards caused such great tectonic upheaval that shards of earth and rock were flung into the sky... and stayed there. These motes of floating earth defied all natural laws of gravity even once the plague subsided. While the plague was predominantly prone towards spewing chaos like what was seen in the northern territories, it also occasionally created something as wondrous as the floating earthmotes and the various species that lived on them. Two of the more prolific species that came into sentience there were the Gnomes and the Firbolg. The Gnomes evolved from one of the semi-sentient species living on these floating rocks (Some scholars believe they were originally a species of monkey). They were naturally inquisitive and as they began to understand the world that birthed them, they grew to passionately hate chaos. They embraced order and law wholeheartedly and grew into a structured caste-based society that would eventually go on to create the sentient clockwork automata known as the Forgeborn to defend their lands and protect their ideals.
The second species living in the islands were the Firbolg. Originally, they were classified as an off-shoot of the Giantkin, (one of Dracos’, early discarded experiments). During the plague they became enlightened, they turned away from the violence inherent in their forebearers and embraced the land and the natural chaos around them. While the gnomes built several sprawling cities across the islands and attempted to bring order to the land, the FIrbolg accepted their place in the harmony of the land. They lived in small communities that grew in agreement with the land around them.
The northern part of the world, The Jotunlands and the Bhan province, were the hardest hit areas with the plague spawning monsters there in greater numbers than anywhere else. A large shard of the asteroid, some suspect the largest shard, destroyed the city of Ahn-Dar, sinking it and a vast swath of land around it beneath the waves to form the Bay of Tears. The fallout from this impact polluted the air and sea in great concentrations for hundreds of miles and devastated the population.
The true scope of Dhamoc’s plague was witnessed as many of the people, along with the semi-sentient creatures that had existed since the dawn times, were warped and twisted beyond belief. They physically became cruel mockeries of their former selves and mentally were turned to evil and wickedness. Collectively they become the Bhanjax and Ghrym species, both with specific evolutions and subspecies of their own. They openly revered Dhamoc for setting them free and revelled in the freedom of their new forms.
Not only did the plague physically change some of the elder races into new species, it also subtly twisted everything, even the ones that weren’t directly affected. Those elves that weren’t mutated into horrors found that their immortally long lives were drastically shortened and as a result they were now capable of interbreeding with humanity. These half-breeds, called Halflen, were generally shunned by the elves and would always be thought of as outsiders.
Humanity seemed to weather the plague relatively unscathed, but they lost vast numbers of their population to the changes as well as the famine that followed the plague. It would be a long while before they would come close to their pre-plague population.
Of all the Elder races, it was the saurial that were hit hardest. The plague weakened their immune systems and lowered their birth rate dramatically. They had never been a populous species and the plague pushed them to the brink of extinction. It also drove many of them mad, much like the Tau’rhos, making them almost savage and more prone to violence than before. To this day, those saurial who walk Ogham’s path of knowledge try to shepherd those wayward Saurial drawn to violence back to their faith.
Chaos reigned across the world and nowhere was safe. Society started to collapse inwards as famine and xenophobia gripped the world. Once the initial wave of plague born chaos subsided, the survivors struggled to make sense of the new world.
In the aftermath of The Plague, the Empire was beset on all sides and began to lose hold on its territory. The province of Kerast suffered some of the fewest physical impacts from the asteroids but was no less affected by the changes that the plague brought. However, in the empire’s eyes the damage was mostly superficial and despite the increased raids of the cat-like Bhastani and Tau'rhos the Empire stripped many of the garrisons and forts across the province to support the more heavily effected outbreaks to the north. The native Kerastemi protests were ignored, and they were left to fend for themselves. When no help was forthcoming from the Empire, the Kerastemi isolated themselves.
While they managed to bring the Bhastani and Tau’rhos to a tentative peace talk, they soon broke down and the province of Kerast fragmented into three separate areas, the imperial remnants clung to the cities along the eastern coast, the bhastani primarily kept to the jungle and the northern savanahs and the tau'rhos retreated to the mountains, driven mad by the plague.
The province of Perra was in open revolt ever since the Plague. The goblins and fauns had formed a loose alliance and had quickly overwhelmed many of the imperial outposts and the provincial capitol of Snowdon and slowly pushed outwards, establishing their own borders.
In Bhan province the situation was much worse. The newly formed race of Bhanjax openly worshiped Dhamoc and Dracos as their gods and encouraged the wholesale slaughter of all that opposed them during their initial conquests.
Perra was on the far edge of the Empire, and it was decided to cede the territory to these newcomers and focus on the greater problem to the north. The empire was of the politically overconfident mind that the territory could always be retaken at their leisure when the Bhanjax crisis had been dealt with. Many of the empire’s citizens were displaced into the western parts of the Shiare as the Goblins and Fauns took power. The newcomers met with token resistance from the Imperial troops left behind and after several small skirmishes they declared themselves an autonomous country. They named their country Perran, after the former imperial province and based their government on the Meradassian style for it was all they had known.
Within the first few years of its founding, while the rest of the world was fighting the war with the Bhanjax, the Goblins and Fauns faced their first internal crisis. Shortly after founding the nation, the alliance between the goblins and fauns deteriorated and they collapsed into a brief internal civil war. The more organized goblins eventually overwhelmed the fauns and enslaved them, using similar methods as their former Meradassian masters. Those fauns not under Goblin rule dispersed to the forests of Perran (and elsewhere) where they formed their own tight-knit communities. To this day there is animosity between the Goblin and Faun peoples.
While Perra became Perran and the goblins and fauns struggled amongst themselves, the empire was focused wholly on the Bhan province and the threat it contained. The Bhanjax, as a rule, were a savage and chaotic force but once they rallied behind a strong leader, they became an extremely formidable foe. They conscripted the Ghrym (another plague-born offshoot of the Giantkin) and various other monstrosities as massive attack beasts in their seemingly unstoppable army.
Once again, the empire was ill prepared for war. Almost all its resources had been directed towards the Great Spell and the last war it had fought had been three hundred years prior against the Fae. They fought a losing battle and slowly, grudgingly retreated, ceding territory to the Bhanjax as they went. Eventually they lost all the territory north of the Dragonspine and were forced to retreat through the mountainous valley known as Hadrian’s Gap.
The Empire began to see its own end and in a desperate attempt to stop that they turned once more to the Imperial Magi for a solution. The magi were divided and scattered, many were being used as front-line battle mages as often as not and were of little help at first. Eventually a significant number of them managed to gather and come up with some solutions that they hoped would work. They revived the long-discarded research into magical genetic manipulation and began devising a way to create a super soldier that would be capable of defeating the seemingly unbeatable Bhanjax army.
They toiled for several years as Dhamoc’s army continued to creep south and it was only after the Bhanjax had driven the front to the shores of Lake Khed that the magi managed to devise what they hoped was a viable solution. One of the magi, a man named Lyr devised a spell that, if successful, would tap into the very chaos of the plague itself to create soldiers that would be both physically be a match for the Bhanjax and possessing a martial prowess that would be unmatched. Lyr’s brother, Khiale, was a young commander of one of the Imperial Legions and he volunteered himself and his men to be the first test subjects. With the Empire losing badly, they had little time to debate the morality and sanity of harnessing the plague to create these soldiers. Lyr and his colleagues successfully invoked the spell and the whole legion was transformed at the most basic level. Outwardly they retained the same physical appearance and characteristics, but they were faster, stronger, more resilient to damage and had gained an instinctive martial prowess that far outstripped that of regular troops.
They renamed themselves the Legion of the Blade and were immediately thrust into battle to test their mettle and see if it was worthwhile to create more. Khiale and his troops gave the empire their first resounding victories, driving back the Bhanjax horde for a time but while they were superior in skill and ability, they were severely outnumbered. After the victory the empire ordered that all the Legions be converted. As the legions were prepared to receive the spell it was discovered that the side effect of it was that it completely drained the mana in a 50-mile radius around the site to nothing. Subsequently only six more of the thirty original legions were converted for fear of draining too much mana from the area. To this day, there is a large swath of land nearly 250 miles wide in central Khed that is completely drained of mana and shows no signs of recovery.
The Bladeknight legions were assembled and with the remaining imperial legions acting as auxiliaries, they finally managed to hold the Bhanjax along a stable front for a time. The empire knew that the Bhanjax were poised to strike at their heart, but they were unable to deduce exactly why. The general assumption was that this was a genocidal war of extinction but many of the military leaders and tacticians believed that there was a deeper motive that they just couldn’t see. It wasn’t until a seer by the name of Bacchanus claimed that he had seen the future that the truth became clear. In his bleak vision the Bhanjax ruled not one, but two worlds under the chaotic grip of their dark lord.
At first the seer’s words were dismissed as he was well known to be a drunken liar and misanthrope, but he persisted despite the ridicule and continued to preach of the end of the world. Eventually his words reached the ears of the Legion’s tactical command and they listened and found his words held truth. The enemy’s ultimate goal was the gate at Phared. It was the only answer that made sense as the Bhanjax had passed numerous targets of tactical or strategic importance on their march south. The tacticians, with the help of the priests and magi, surmised that their goal was to secure the gate and prepare it for Dhamoc’s return.
It took some time convincing the political leaders of the necessity but ultimately it was decided that the Phared gate would be sealed to prevent Dhamoc’s escape.
While the empire debated the problem, the Bhanjax offensive surged once more, and the front collapsed. The empire feared for its life as it faced the thought of extinction, and in an attempt to salvage whatever it could began ferrying huge numbers through the Phared gate to Al Tanis with the hope that at least some remnant would survive to rebuild the empire on Earth.
The Great Exodus lasted for approximately five years and ferried several hundred thousand imperial citizens though to Al Tanis (and points beyond). Few of the non-human races agreed to cross. The saurial, scattered and still reeling from their plague inflicted wounds, would not abandon their god or his quest. The goblins were too fixated on securing their own borders far in the west and cared for little else. Seeing the gate as an escape from goblin tyranny, several fauns families crossed over, eventually becoming legends and myths to the early Greeks. The elves stayed for the most part, though several of the more adventurous slipped through and incorporated themselves into various earth cultures.
Despite the Empire’s opposition to the idea, and with the Bhanjax army on the very doorstep, the Bladeknights send two of their legions through the gate as well as a last line of defence in case the Bhanjax reached Al Tanis. The remaining four legions, led by Khiale (who had become their de facto commander), prepared to go on the offensive for the first time in the war. They planned to strike back into the heart of the Bhanjax army hoping to give the Imperial Magi enough time to close the Gate.
Using the Imperial network of teleport pads, the Bladeknights executed a series of lightning-fast raids that struck deep behind Bhanjax lines. They disrupted communications and supply trains while and took out the Bhanjax military command centers with equal efficiency. The remaining legions, now a fearsome veteran force, held the brunt of the Bhanjax offensive. The Bhan outnumbered the legions by at least a factor of four and would have overwhelmed them in time had it not been for the Bladeknight raids against their command structure. The Bhan relied on strong leadership to keep the unruly chaotic horde that made up the bulk of the army in check. Without their commanders, they were ill-equipped to come up with a tactic more complex than brute force and overwhelming numbers. They often fell in to in-fighting and internal squabbles even when the legions were just over the next hill. With their leaders gone, the Bhan offensive slowed somewhat, giving the Imperial Magi the time needed to close the Gate.
Khiale, along with his personal cohort, struck deepest into the Bhanjax ranks, and ranged farther still causing havoc and chaos behind the enemy’s lines. On the morning the Gate was closed, they came to the city where Dhaim Acales, the Mage-Priest of the Bhanjax and Dhamoc’s primary disciple was summoning his dark lord to aid the floundering army. Seizing the opportunity, Khiale’s force struck at the Mage-Priest and a fierce battle raged against Dhamoc’s Inner circle of priests and commanders
Khiale sought out the Mage-Priest and eventually he came face to face with the embodiment of evil. He was about to strike down his foe and sever the metaphorical head of the Bhan army when he was betrayed by his second in command, Arath Gael, and was himself struck down from behind. The knights surged forward to save their commander but it was too late. Khiale died in his friend’s arms. The Mage-Priest was beaten and wounded and managed to escape in the confusion. While the cost was enormous to the knights, they were successful in disrupting the Mage-Priest’s plans. The Bhanjax offensive broke and the Legion pushed back their forces. Over the coming months and years, they would harry their foe back to the fringes of the map.
While the offensive was breaking the Magi successfully managed to close the Gate but the cost was beyond measure.
Unlike the Fae gate that the Sael & An’Sael had helped weave shut, the magi closing the gate at Phared had no idea what they were attempting. Simply put, it had never been designed to be closed and they miscalculated the forces that were at play. When they severed the spell and closed the gate, the magical backlash was immense, and the blast devastated both worlds catastrophically.
On Earth, the island was ripped apart at a planar level and became tectonically unstable, sinking rapidly beneath the waves leaving only a memory and a myth. What became of the refugees of that world is long since lost to history.
On Tarsere the devastation was much greater. The blast from the collapsing gate destroyed vast swaths of land in all directions. The fire and destruction destroyed Phared and its people in an instant. Many more cities were destroyed and turned to dust as the blast radiated outwards in all directions. Even the mountains to the south did not survive unscathed. The ash and dust covered the land and created a vast desert hundreds of miles across. This became known as the Sea of Dust and today only the Saurial and a few foolish treasure seekers brave the dunes in search of lost fragments of the past.
The destruction of of the Gate was the nail in the coffin of the Meradassian Empire. In the aftermath of the War the provinces balkanised and reorganised loosely along their original tribal borders.
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