Areldia

Areldia is a continent that is home to Humans, Elves, Dwarves, and several other less common races. Areldia finds itself in a cycle of societal buildup and collapse. Little is known of the first Collapse, but records remain from the Second Golden Age that dawned as the races of Areldia recovered.   With the recovery from the First Collapse Humanity, in particular, saw its technology (and magic) grow in power and capability. Humanities pursuit of ever more knowledge and dominion over the world eventually allowed the mind-bending horror, Nog'Shaguroth The Aberrant, to emerge into the material plane and wreak havoc on society. The elves and dwarves saw the writing on the wall and pulled away - creating some distance between their societies and the humans. This protected them to an extent in the Second Great Collapse, but all the civilizations of Areldia were brought low.   When things were at their darkest and all hope seemed lost, the Gods uncharacteristically banded together and intervened directly on the material plane. They drove back Nog'Shaguroth, and set the stage for the people of Areldia to push back his undead hordes and reclaim their lands. Over the last several generations Areldia has returned to something resembling Stability. The Elves have kept to the far east in their Vale of Elendil and the dwarves to the north in Kordaldrum. Humanity has rebirthed its self in the west and already once again begun to expand.   Two human powers now exist: The Kingdom of Thane, a monarchy under King Balor Deverell is a society focussed on continuing the campaign to recover lands from the blight left by Nog'Shaguroth. They have seen substantial success in recent generations. The second power is the Sunhold Compact, a confederacy of independent city-states formed to defend themselves from Thanish aggression. The city-states are the center of innovation and discovery in the world, while Thane is the embodiment of human power.   With magic and technology being slowly rediscovered the world is in peril as the lessons of the last collapse are known to very few, and none of these have influence in the world to shape humanities course. Nog'Shaguroth having seen Areldia once, will not stop until he has conquered it permanently. The bonds the gods placed upon him will not last forever.