Eryia (Air-ee-uh)

The Original Home of the Human Race

Eryia is the name First Wave humans used to refer to their place or origination. It is not certain if the name refers to a continent, national or regional government or city, but the name appears in the earliest ancient inscriptions we see in temples in Portsend the original landing place of the First Wave. Eryia is separated from Arrhynsia by the Ur Hilgarria which is so dangerous as to prohibit travel across the great expanse. No other people, other than the First Wave humans have ever successfully crossed this deadly ocean by water or by air.

Where Humans Thrived...

Early First Wave human writings are rare, as most of these were written on perishable mediums such as parchment or paper, and magic amongst humans was not common amongst early settlers. What we do know comes primarily from the writings of Julius Grey, the leaderof the First Wave humans, and from stories and what can be deduced from the archaelogical remains of First Wave human settlements. First Wave humans spoke of Eryia as a wealthy and prosperous land with high standards of living and convenience for all of it's citizens though with unequal distribution of wealth across the spectrum of social classes. Though magic is not innate in the human species, magic was readily available to the common person through the use of magic items which made life easy. Human civilization in Eryia had major cities, a diverse economic system, and general social equality. Families were valued and people were generally free to live as they pleased, with laws being more restrictive in cities and more permissive in rural areas. Eryia was not without the normal problems that plague groups of sentient beings - disagreements, jealousy, selfishness, and conflicts that often ended in war when such behaviors manifested at the national level. Overall however, Eryia is pictured as an idyllic community and early First Wave human settlers repeatedly lamented leaving their homeland and longed for "the good old days".

...Then Didn't

"First our businesses were forfeited to the government, then the riots began. Our homes and farms were burned, our crops were stolen - even the family food supplies we needed to feed our children. We were a peaceful people, but our men were conscripted and killed when they refused to fight, our women were raped by the gangs. We braved the deadly passage from desperation, seeking what we hoped would be life and a future, for there was nothing but death behind us.*

— Extracted from the journal of Julius Grey

Given the idealized, virtually unbelivable descriptions of Eryia in early human writings that continues in human traditions today - the desperate journey of early human immigrants across the deadly Ur Hilgarria seems to lack motivation. The best understanding we have of that motivation is provided in the writings of Julius Grey. According to Grey, the leylines of Eryia became contaminated and virtually unusable over a period of two years, and the magic which fueled the economies of the nations was in scarce supply. The little usable magic that the leylines still produced was controlled by the intellectual and political elite enforced by the military.

157050050 by Lakeview Images

Societal chaos ensued when nations collapsed as the labor and resources required to produce basic goods and services increased expotentially without magic and there was not enough food to sustain the population. Economies failed as currency suffered from inflation and then hyper-inflation. Governments floundered taking taking property and businesses from private owners, spending money recklessly, eliminating local markets and centralizing planning and control of all aspects of the economy. Predictably, these actions accellerated instead of resolving the economic collapse. Governments lost the backing of the military as they were seen by senior military leaders as being ineffective in dealing with the probems. Warlords rose up - some "good", some "bad" as the military broke into groups and moved to independently secure a base of power and re-establish regions of socio-economic stability. This created conflict as all immediately perceived the strategic need to control the few remaining uncontaminated sources of magic.
Within a year after the disappearance of magic from Eryia, widespread famine had led to rioting, chaos, gang warfare and gross deterioration of any semblance of law and order. The death toll was counted by the millions. The humans who fled this chaos to Arrhynsia did so in secrecy to avoid being killed for the resources they had gathered to make the voyage. Their loved ones who they left behind in Eryia considered them suicidal, and indeed, of the five ships that left Eryia, only two made the deadly crossing intact.
The priceless artwork shown above is the only known credible contemporary representation of Eryia on Arrhynsia and is replicated here by permission of the National Archives of the Stone Throne.  Dating back to the First Wave, it was discovered in the Catacombs of the First Wave in Portsend in the library room, and is signed by Oscar Halfon, one of the original human colonists.
*IRL: this quote is an adaptation of conversations with my husbands aunts, uncles and grandmother, who told me their personal and family experiences of their flight from the Bosheviks and the oppression they suffered under communism for their Mennonite faith. Between 1900-1999 the communist regime in Russia and the Soviet Union killed 70 million of it's own citizens, three times the number killed by the Nazis.