Iwa
The forgotten land where the sun never set.
Iwa… I haven't heard that name in so long… So long.
It was brighter than here. And warmer. The Southern Giant always watching, his stars lighting up the night sky. The battles were intense, the power low. We fought with little magic, having to use our swords and only the most feeble of spells. Nothing what DraKaise has granted this land.
Indeed. It's a name with history, with such bountiful disaster and conflict. So unlike here.
It's been so long since I heard that name… So long.
Tales of the land of Iwa are awash with mystery and legend. Those few ancients that crossed over on the Fourth Fleet a millenia ago have even their memories fogged for finding specifics. But a few do exist, the eldest of Elves, a considerable number of Warforged and a sprinkling of Arctele. With their memories warped by the bands of time and a collection of ancient records wrinkled with intense age and nearly forgotten, one can begin to see the picture of what the glorious land of Iwa truly was.
The Name
Iwa is not, as some have postured, the name of some overarching kingdom that ruled this forgotten continent. No, it was the name of the continent itself. With countless people's breaking from their nation borders nearer to the end to try and consolidate under a single identity. As with most attempts in this manner, the governments violently disagreed.And as they always did, they fought. Battle on Iwa never ceased, it was a military in a constant state of revolution and angst.
The Peoples
The Peoples of Iwa could be said to have been dreadfully affected by the climate and intense presence of The Fire Giant of the South. For with his presence in the night sky, the sun never truly set. His fiery constellation fueling the tides of war and doubling the growth of plants; but obscuring, or driving into the light, countless species that prefer the night.The marches of armies went around the clock, and many peoples napped during the endless day.
The Geography
From the vague maps and descriptions collated and unearthed; Iwa is assumed to have been a colossal set of closely interlinked continents centered around the southernmost point of Arydia. This has lead to many scholars that have worked in this field to proclaim Iwa as a super-continent of sorts. There was plenty of water to traverse, but the island chains and routes were all so closely related that to call it something separate is to say that when the summer floods crest the hills, the peninsulas of the Southern Floodlands are their own lands.The Missing
One of the most interesting factors to many, clarified by records from the Renai Revenge Court, are the fact that the most populous species of Ithungsida is blatantly absent. In truth, the Humans of Iwa were driven to extinction.The specifics of the extinction are lost to the annals of history, but many agree that the Humans were driven to their last breath by a tide of orcs and other species that saw something as an affront to their very nature. There were no survivors of this destruction. At a thousand years before the Fourth Fleet was deposited north of Ithungsida.
The Fleets
The Fleets of Iwa were a strange affair. As previously mentioned, Iwa itself was comprised of countless nations and rulers. With the changes in power being radical and near-constant. However, the Fleets were a newer organization.Comprised of defectors and traitors, fueled by a need to correct the many problems of this land without a night. They struck out constantly, hitting war ports, crushing minor Fleets, hitting hard at threats to the peoples that made up Iwa. They were nearly heroes of legend. Yet they refused to take the lands that they freed, instead returning them to the people and watching as the cycles of war began anew. This caused a sense of dissatisfaction against the Fleet and a growing sense of people that disliked the need or the want of the Fleets themselves.
It was in this political climate that the Fourth Fleet challenged and lost. And was then forcibly relocated from Iwa, to a new land. Far far away.
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