The History of Emaxus
This article is written from the perspective of Aramoira in 399 AR. As such, it is out of date to the "present" of the world. It still calls the Age of Extant the Age of Extant, it does not discuss the Heliestheos Crisis, and it does not mention the Five of Swords because they were not of repute yet. There is still valuable information here, but it does not chronicle the complete history of Emaxus up to the "present day." Also, this is a ridiculously long article! Don't feel that you have to read this to know the world; however, if you want to know the world's history from an in-world perspective, then this is the place!Though fragmented (and in some places, entirely lost) in the times preceding the Reckoning, Emaxus has a long and storied history and has undergone radical changes, even in the last millennia. This history is composed and lettered as is understood by the scholars of the Arcanul Ordinate, chiefly their most legendary elven scholar, Ilthinaluvar (Camaerath for Archmage) Aramoira.
So, while reading, keep in mind that this is a mortal's work, and is only history as understood by the people of Emaxus (if you want an objective timeline, see the World Chronicle). There are still untold mysteries to the world. How great was the devastation of the Reckoning? What secrets were created and then lost in the Age of Rebirth? As a DM, these are questions you get to answer, and keep in mind their ramifications.
The music below is just something I like to listen to while worldbuilding, so I've left it for you readers to listen to while you peruse!
The History of Emaxus: A Summary
As Composed and Recorded by Ilthinaluvar Aramoira and the Arcanul Ordinate
Foreword
Our planet Emaxus (and her many other names in different tongues) has a long, storied, and confounding history that continues to perplex and intrigue myself, the Arcanul Ordinate, and many learned (and prospective) archaeologists and historians to this day, and will likely continue to do so until life on our planet winks out.
As such, I would like to preface this by saying that, as with all things in the studies of the arcane and the mundane sciences, everything within this book is subject to change. The day after my colleagues and I publish this painstakingly-crafted compendium, some great understanding could come to light that greatly changes our understanding of our world, rendering most of that which is inscribed in this book null and void. And, this idea of ever-changing sciences makes some believe that our work is useless. Why put in so much effort if it could all change with one breakthrough? But to that I say nonsense, as that idea only makes our work more important. If we do not work to understand the circumstances that have lead us to this very moment, we are doomed to repeat our world's gravest mistakes. And, when someone inevitably does repeat these mistakes, the study of our history allows us to be better equipped to stop them.
With that out of the way, allow me to introduce you to: The History of Emaxus, A Summary.
Introduction
The history of Emaxus is a bloody one. Our understanding of it begins in the mythic era known as the Reshaping. Yamma, the Father of the Ten and first God, recruited Alindr, Titan of Order, to his goal of ordering the chaos of existence into a habitable multiverse. Yamma and Alindr slew the Titans (save Laianath, who joined as well), battled back the Elder Evils, and ordered the multiverse into Yophas, the Eternal Design---the Design that largely remains to this day.
Then, they discovered the Obsidian Lords. We know little of this initial discovery, but we know Yamma imprisoned them and built Accorion around their planar cells. Accorion was the final plane to be built, and with its completion, all that remained was for Yamma to create the rest of his Children. The remaining seven of the Ten were born, and this Pantheon seeded mortal life upon Emaxus.
Millennia passed as mortal empires and civilizations began, flourished, and fell in a cycle of ever-growing power. The greatest heights of wealth, power, and knowledge ever seen were achieved during the Age of Rebirth. But the brightest lights cast the darkest shadows.
The Obsidian Lords grew in their prisons, developing into full-fledged gods. They fed on the greed and avarice that developed in the great mortal kingdoms, and at last grew strong enough to break from their bonds. They shattered Accorion, erupting upon Emaxus seeking vengeance and devastation for a crime committed at their birth.
The Children of Yamma descended, and the great god-wars began. The Age of Rebirth came to a cataclysmic end in an event known as the Reckoning. The world was returned to ash, and in the world after, the gods were dead. Entire continents, ruined. Civilizations torn asunder. Few mortals survived, clinging to life in a handful of cities and hovels across Emaxus.
Table of Contents
I. The Reshaping
II. The Age of Rebirth
III. The Reckoning
IV. The Age of Extant
I. The Reshaping
As a scientist, a historian, and an Ilthinaluvar of the Camaerithian Circle, it is my job to separate the fact from the fiction. Many a tales and legends have been spun of the Reshaping, of different tales of Yamma and his undertaking of the insurmountable task of reordering our world after the Obsidian War. But sadly, what is myth and what is material is almost wholly unknown.
To know so little of where our world, races, and cultures truly came from is daunting. Perhaps more information on the Reckoning existed in the Age of Rebirth, but all that remains for us today are legends and myths.
The common trends in all the Reshaping's different myths are these: existence was chaos. Ancient evils roamed a world barren of mortal life, and Yamma banished them. He fought the Elemental Pantheon, recruiting Alindr and Laianath to join his Pantheon and Reshape reality (thus, they came to be known as the Titans Who Became Gods). They slew the other Titans and used their vast essences to create Yophas, the Eternal Design.
After, Yamma discovered the nascent Obsidian Lords and imprisoned them in planar prisons, constructing Accorion to keep them withheld. He then created seven more gods, his Children, who completed the pantheon we now know as the Ten. They repopulated the world with mortal life.
With the planes safe and orderly and the first mortals walking parallel to ancients like Queen Naivara, the Age of Rebirth began.
II. The Age of Rebirth
Due to the Reckoning, I again have to assert that we know dangerously little of the Age of Rebirth. What we have been able to glean from fragmented scrolls and half-charred books is the following:
- Drumis was the center of all mortal culture and technology on Emaxus. Here, unbelievably powerful empires and kingdoms rose, civilizations where magic was in every home and the average human lived for well more than double current lifespans. It looked very different from how it does now, both in literal landmass and geopolitical landscape.
- Aitreas was united under the banner of Riktor the Sorcerer-King, who kept the entire continent peaceful and free of strife even when other continents ebbed and flowed.
- Iotura was the center of religious ceremony and belief. The Children of Yamma were more disposed to partaking in mortal interests and even visited a handful of times. Yamma once had a great citadel in what preceded the Draconic Wastes, though where and why is unknown. It was lost in the Reckoning.
- Magics and technologies reached a point that has never been seen since. Scholars had an understanding of the ways that the world worked, in a mundane and an arcane sense, that was totally unprecedented. We have reason to believe that magic was actually easier to use during the Age of Rebirth, and that the Reckoning quite literally damaged and altered the function and amount of magic in Emaxus.
- At some point, whether in the Reckoning or the Age of Rebirth, Isael created the demigods that constitute the Aasveigan Pantheon. When and why this occurred is not known.
III. The Reckoning
Of all the tragedies to befall Emaxus (in our known history), the Reckoning is easily the most well-known, the most impactful, and the saddest. From what we understand of the God-Wars, the prisons that Yamma entrapped the Obsidian Lords within were either imperfect or could not withstand the strength of the fully-grown gods, who had grown many thousands of times stronger than when they were imprisoned. Whichever is true, the Reckoning brought the Age of Rebirth to a raging, destructive end. So many lives, so many civilizations, so much was lost.
It is believed that the Reckoning began with silence. What few records we have discovered claim that Alindr gathered the Children of Yamma and warned them of a great tide of sorrow and suffering that was soon to arrive. Without this warning, the bloody, hard-fought stalemate that we know might have been a single-sided slaughter. Instead of a massacre, the Reckoning began with a whisper. Entire kingdoms on different continents vanished over night, and their people returned changed and corrupted. The Obsidian Lords rapidly built kingdoms rivalling the greatest mortal designs in history, each god a horrible engine of corruption in their own malignant way. Legends tell of horrible tendrils of corruption (which manifested in every form from black mist to swarms of insects) spreading across entire nations in less than a day, as the Obsidian Lords built the armies they would need for their revenge in a matter of hours and days rather than the years and decades they should have taken.
It is believed each of the Obsidian Lords ruled over a different empire across different continents, and with these new, forcefully conscripted superpowers these insane gods brought war to every inch of our world. Of the events of the Reckoning, these kingdoms are the most robust, for the military records and tales of them were numerous enough for a handful to survive. These kingdoms, which were known collectively as the Empires of Obsidian, are listed below:
- The Xeshurian Empire. What was once a great alliance of kingdoms that spanned much of central Drumis, the Xeshurian Empire was built by Narvox, the great unifier of the Obsidian Lords. Narvox took the many mortals of the kingdoms prior and created the armies he would need for his wars. Legends say that dark elves were created in this way, as were goblinoids and certain monstrous creatures, like the owlbears.
- The Bloodtithers. From the nomads of the Ureret Desert of Aitreas, Marzak created the Bloodtithers. A ravenous horde of mortals and monsters alike, the Bloodtithers laid siege to Ritkor's kingdom, sweeping aside entire cities in a sea of blood.
- The Void. Xael claimed the northwestern quadrant of Iotura as their own, withering the land and corrupting the skies and creating an empire known simply as the Void. The countless inhabitants of the area, mortals and monsters alike, were deformed and drained by Xael's horrible strength. This region would become the Draconic Wastes when Lythaelos broke the hold Xael had over it by giving his own life.
- The Veil. Of the Obsidian Lords, Laaelum corrupted the smallest, but perhaps the most influential, portion of Emaxus, for she created an arcane cabal of some of the greatest Emaxian mages to ever live. In return for her knowledge of the arcane, she created mind-slaves of the mages, rending the secrets of Emaxus and her peoples from their minds for her siblings' use while simultaneously building an unrivalled army of arcanists to do her bidding. And thus was born the Veil.
- The Brood. Ix'kythael's hordes spread across the southwestern coast of Drumis and built the Brood. Mortals became puppets for the Broodmother's horrid creations, and a swarm unrivalled began to spread across Emaxus like a tide of locusts. Their cities were insect warrens, and the ground itself became fecund and infested.
IV. The Age of Extant
As is likely obvious, we know the most about our current age, the Age of Extant. In the some 400 years since the Reckoning, a great many changes and events have befallen a great many cultures and civilizations across our recuperating world, nascent and otherwise. For the sake of clarity, my colleagues and I have decided to split the timeline of our Age into the major events that have befallen each continent. Obviously, certain events are world-shaking, but they shall be relegated to the continent that affected them the most.
These are only the continents we know of. There could, of course, be more landmasses and mysteries awaiting across the unexplored oceans of our world. After all, the Endless Sea didn't get its moniker for nothing. But, for the sake of clarity, I have also inscribed a map of the known world near the Calendar. It is not complete, and some of the areas (especially those in Drumis) are hypothetical and unexplored, but it shows the general features of our world as we understand it, and can help to put events and locations into perspective.
One specific note for those who have perhaps been living in a cave or maybe under a rock: any time the letters AR are placed after a year, that means After the Reckoning, meaning that it is in our current calendar, while BR means Before the Reckoning. I have inscribed the standard Emaxian Calendar at the end of this book, so feel free to reference it when dates are noted.
The Years of Struggle
Before going into each continent's timeline, the first few decades of every Emaxian continent and culture are collectively known as the Years of Struggle. Until roughly 50 AR, the handful of survivors eked out their existence in small villages and towns, with a substantial portion of the population centered in the Shelter Cities: Yathra Silthame, Camaerith, Drakkina, and Theussau.
The gods were completely absent in this time. In the wake of their deaths, they gave no blessings, empowered no followers, and answered no prayers. The first recorded god-interaction did not happen until 37 AR, when Yamma empowered Bakin Kindguard of Yathra Silthame, a paladin who went on to found the Auric Exemplars and help Yathra Silthame conquer the darkness surrounding its walls. And, even though gods began to reempower their followers again---though some took until the early second century AR to do so, like Isael---they did not speak to followers directly until recent decades, and even then, it is largely limited to champions.
There was little development to reclaim what had been lost, as the last vestiges of mortalkind worked day in and day out to ensure they would see another winter. But, after several decades (the exact time varied based on the city), mortals eventually began to think in the long-term, looking ahead months and years instead of days and weeks. The unnatural winters broke and the gods' influence slowly returned. With blessings both divine and natural, people began to expand and grow. Thus, the Age of Extant began in full swing, and we can discuss landmasses in their singularity.
Aasveig
Our records for Aasveigan history are thin, to say the least. Due to the isolation of the Maor people, we have been unable to compile the vast stores of information that we have for other continental histories. As such, we can only detail a handful of major events and periods of the history of the Aasveigan people, the Maor; however, we do know that the Maor worship a different pantheon of gods, the Aasveigan Pantheon, of which Isael is the queen and her various demigod creations (and other demigod-level creatures, if the myths are to be believed) serve as the gods of each clan.
Aldartal ta Friðr (The Age of Peace)
As far as we can tell, the first several centuries of Maor history were referred to as the Age of Peace, or the Aldartal ta Friðr in the Maor language. During this time, the clans rarely fought, seeking instead to establish themselves and claim the territories surrounding their home villages. During this time, the various clans grew steadily into the lands surrounding them. But, much of Maor culture is built on honor and glory, for all Maor people worship Isael chiefly among their gods, and so the peace eventually came to an end.Aldartal ta Strīth (The Age of Strife)
After the Aldartal ta Friðr came to an end, the Aldartal ta Strīth began. As far as we can tell, there is no exact date during which this change occurred. Instead, a general shift towards war occurred during the late third century AR, with almost all clans entering into wars with one another. This age has lasted up to the present day, and the Maor people have been drawn further and further into war. Of these, the wars between Fenryrthal and Björnstir (the largest of the Maor clans) have been the largest, longest, and bloodiest.Dah Veiða ta Vargr/Dah Reiði ta Björn (The Hunt of the Wolves/The Wrath of the Bear)
Around 290 AR, a particularly brutal campaign began between the clans of Fenryrthal and Björnstir, with the former instigating the conflict. Initially, this was known as The Hunt of the Wolves. Fenryrthal pushed hard and fast into Björnstir territories. Indeed, they made it all the way to Bjarnarhofn, Björnstir's capital, and even slew their warchief; however, after the warchief's death, his son Sigemar took up the mantle of warchief and began leading his people's defense. Sagas tell that Sigemar was like an avatar of Bjarnófærr, the Bear of Thunder, one of the Aasveigan gods and patron of Björnstir. Through his leadership and power, Sigemar turned the war around, and the second half became known as The Wrath of the Bear. In less than six months, Björnstir pushed Fenryrthal out of their territory and back into their own lands. In 293 AR, the war came to a close as both sides were desperate to sue for peace and lick their wounds. Since then, a brittle, tense peace has held as the two factions wait for the opportunity to strike, punctuated by incessant skirmishes and even raiding campaigns.Aitreas
Aitreas was resettled in the first century of the Age of Extant by explorers from Yathra Silthame. After the Reckoning, most remnants of Riktor's ancient kingdom had been wiped out, but mortal survivors were scattered across the continent in settlements which were often savaged by ancient horrors and warriors from the Reckoning.
Devastation
Following the Reckoning, Aitreas was in ruins. Before the Reckoning, the virtuous and powerul Riktor, the Sorcerer-King, had united the continent of Aitreas in a powerful, magocratic empire which he ruled from his floating city of Zanizer; however, Riktor allied with the Ten, and so was the subject of a brutal campaign from the Obsidian Lords (most notably the Bloodtithers).
As with all things of the Age of Rebirth, Riktor's empire was decimated. The ruins of Zanizer were never found (see: Krathum the Defiler), and naught else remained of Riktor's once great empire, save for the smattering of disparate peoples who survived. These people were known as the Euxinan, and they would later integrate into Aitrean society and revive the language that was their namesake.
Settlers from Yathra Silthame discovered the ruins of a pre-Reckoning city which they built upon and called Ariminium. This city grew, and its people spread was founded on the ideals of Riktor's empire from the Age of Rebirth, and sought to revive the culture and knowledge of the time before the Reckoning, even going so far as to adopt and speak the language, Euxinan. Civilization slowly spread across Aitreas. Explorers and warriors trekked out from cities to rediscover and reunite towns and villages of survivors---peacefully and otherwise. Over time, civilizations began to rise (including the Ukhaerene Dynasty in the Ureret Desert and Azarraethia in Aeceanata), and order was slowly restored to the devastated continent.
Krathum the Defiler
While the resettlement of Aitreas was not always peaceable, it was accompanied by a rise in nations and population; however, in the year 188 AR, a new armageddon threatened the world, and it began in Aitreas. On Tialin 17, Latharal, 188 AR, the city of Zanizer itself reappeared in a dark vortex of energies over central Aitreas, its shining towers now replaced by dark necropolises and foreboding crypts, the entire city a floating, dark nexus of necromantic energies.
To survive the cataclysm that threatened himself and his people, Riktor, a powerful abjuration wizard, had surrounded his capital in a warding shield and teleported the entire city. We believe it crashed in Nathrivox, and although we do not know the details of Riktor and Zanizer's multi-century stint in the Obsidian Plane, we know the effects: Riktor converted the gleaming city into Zanizer, the Broken City, a floating necropolis and dark towers and horrific labs, and turned his people into an undead army of necromancers and technological horrors. He built a force to conquer Emaxus and purge all remnants of the "dead gods."
By means of a powerful ritual, Krathum the Defiler brought Zanizer back to Emaxus and began a brutal war of expansion that would see all of Aitreas consumed by 197 AR. The various city-states and kingdoms that had risen were felled, and Aitreas was brought under the dark rule of Krathum the Defiler, the Tyrant, the Lich-King.
In their ignorance (and for some, arrogance) the various factions of Iotura failed to aid the people of Aitreas, and Krathum successfully brought the entire continent under his control, in a perverse mirror of Riktor's ancient kingdom.
The Defiled Empire of Krathum
For thirty years, Krathum's dark rule constricted and corrupted Aitreas. Zanizer, the Broken City became the dark throne of power on the continent. Living creatures sweltered under the rule of Krathum and his undead armies, and his necroficy (a fusion of necromancy and artificy) spread across the continent (though one benefit of this artificing is that it lead to the diffusion of the magical study as we know it today). Krathum repressed all worship of the Pantheon and destroyed countless ancient sites of reverence. In fact, Krathum's devastation of the relics of the Age of Rebirth is a huge contributing factor to our woefully small store of knowledge about that ancient era. Many temples were destroyed, and any one even rumored to be worshiping a god was butchered and added to Krathum's dark armies as an abomination, purposely perverted and disgusting to insult the gods. In 229 AR, Krathum moved Zanizer over the northeastern peninsula of Aitreas and issued The Decree of Godhood, an act of such blasphemy and heresy that it would indirectly lead to his downfall. While my colleagues argued against including the Decree in this tome, I believe in total honesty in our history, so as to better inform against repeating our mistakes. The Decree can be seen below.THE DIVINE DECREE, THE DECREE OF GODHOOD
I, Krathum the Defiler, the Unholy, the Tyrant, the Lich-King, have ascended: I, once a mere mortal man, have achieved true immortality. And from it, I shall achieve Godhood. I have already begun the first stages of my Ritual of Ascension. Rejoice, mortals, for soon you shall serve Krathum the God-King, God of Death and the Unholy. In a way, I can thank you all for being the foundation for my great empire. My Defiled Empire.Aitreas is only the beginning. The gods are dead, and I have come to play with the toys they left behind. They were not fit to wield their power. They never were. We, their creations, must take our fates into our own hands. I will be our spearhead. Soon, I will be God on Emaxus.
Krathum's hubris would be his downfall. On 232 AR, enraged by the decree and sympathetic for the people of Aitreas, the legendary Ralla Kindguard arrived with a small army of paladins and clerics from the various churches of Yathra Silthame known as the Auric Exemplars. She instigated widespread rebellion and rallied a divine army against Krathum, beginning the Fragmented War.
The Fragmented War
With the arrival of Ralla and her Auric Exemplars, insurrections became prevalent in major cities throughout Krathum's Defiled Empire, specifically Ariminium. Eventually, tens of thousands of people took up arms against their undead oppressors, and the Defiled Empire collapsed rapidly. What Ralla didn't know was that this was apart of Krathum's plans. The bloodshed that spread across the Eternal Empire's lands was the fuel that Krathum needed. As his Defiled Empire was drenched in gore and violence, Krathum's Ritual of Ascension only grew in power. For seven long years, Ralla Kindguard and the Exemplars fought against Krathum's technologically-enhanced undead hordes, and for seven long years they pushed back the tides of darkness. Their numbers slowly grew as they liberated more and more of Aitreas. Eventually, the strength of Ralla's armies grew beyond what Krathum had accounted for, and he grew desperate. In his desperation, Krathum unleashed powers that had not been seen since the Reckoning, threatening to destroy Aitreas once more. Demons from Ix'akroth were unleashed upon Aitreas, and an order of vampires by the name of the Black Rose arrived to lead Krathum's dark hordes. In 240 AR, Krathum unleashed his greatest weapon: a group of liches, vampire lords, and other horrors known as the Undying. The Undying showed how desperate Krathum truly was, and forced Ralla's hand. In an end-all, be-all push, the Auric Exemplars assaulted the Broken City itself.An End to the Fighting
Ralla and her Auric Exemplars besieged Zaninzer throughout the latter months of 241 AR. They locked the city in place with complex binding magics and assaulted the Broken City. Little details are known of the battle that raged within the Broken City, but rumors abound. Many believe that, in the final hour, Krathum nearly succeeded in his Ritual of Seeding, but one of his lieutenants betrayed him and killed him just before Ralla arrived. Others believe that the Auric Exemplars succeeded, butchering Krathum and his dark mages. What is known is that a battle of epic proportions raged throughout Zanizer, ending with Krathum's death atop his Blighted Throne, and the failure of his Ritual of Ascension. Ralla and many of her forces died that day, but they will forever live on as legends, as Zanizer was destroyed on Vaeril 13, Estilian, 241 AR. The resulting explosion from Zanizer sent magical shockwaves across Aitreas, devastating the northeastern peninsula of the continent and creating the Fragmented Isles. Most of Ralla's forces had been slain, as had most of the Defiled Empire's hordes, but a handful of both still roamed Aitreas. The former either continued under the Auric banner or formed the monster-hunting guild of the Knights of Iron, while the latter scattered to the many dark corners of the continent, terrorizing villages and forming vile little duchies of their own.Chaos and Carnage
Following the fall of the Defiled Empire and the death of those who brought about its end, there was no governing body in Aitreas. For three decades, anarchy overwhelmed the continent. Crime was unbelievably high, and small-time bandit lords, hobgoblin generals, and other vile mortals and monsters cut Aitreas into ever-shifting swaths of territory, ranging in size from a few villages to several cities. Aitreas was a land of violence and war, with far too many things that went bump in the night. This would last until the rise of one Rheomia.A Continent Reunified
Born and raised in Ariminium, Rheomia had a general understanding and acceptance of all kinds of people from an early age, and it was from here that her Imperium began. She manipulated the different houses of Ariminium to consolidate the city's strength under her thumb, and in the year 274 AR, Rheomia rose to become Imperator Supreme of Ariminium, a title that was created for and only been held by her. With the largest city in Aitreas at her back, Rheomia began a conquest of unification that would brought all of Aitreas to heel. She banished and slaughtered the foul creatures that had come to reign over many areas of the land and parlayed with countless warlords and barons, cutting down those who did not join her peacefully. Within a decade, Rheomia's Imperium rimmed the entirety of the Aitrean Sea. Given her austere, militant conquest, things at first seemed grim for the people of Aitreas. It seemed as though they had not been freed from their strife, but rather they had merely changed hands. But, to their relief and often times their adoration, Rheomia was determined to usher in a new age for her lands and her peoples. On 286 AR, the Imperium of Aitreas was founded in Ariminium. Within the Imperium, Imperator Supreme Rheomia sought to ensure the equal protections of all citizens, regardless of their creeds, genders, sexualities, or ideals. Under the Imperium, Rheomia thought, all people were Imperials first, and everything else second, and because of that, all people were equal.Peace and Prosperity
Under Rheomia's rule, the Imperium of Aitreas ushered in a much-needed age of peace. After her death in 304 AR, the position of Imperator Supreme was abolished, and in its place an assembly of elected officials dubbed the Senate was created, to rule alongside an elected Emperor. The former was to run the Imperium, the latter was to be the figurehead. For over a century, a half-dozen Emperors and a great many hundreds of Senators ensured that the Imperium prospered. The wounds of the Defiled Empire at last healed, and an age of culture, wealth, and equality unseen on Aitreas blossomed. Great cities rose from the ashes of past conflicts, a great band of civilization forming around the Aitrean Sea, where anyone could be anything. And Ariminum, the greatest of all cities, capital of the Imperium and home to all Imperials, became the largest and greatest city in the world. At its peak, Ariminum is believed to have been home to over a million citizens. Some believed that the Golden Age of Aitreas would never end. And had things gone differently, perhaps it wouldn't have.The Disaster
Over the course of the Imperium's golden age, a great city had risen apart from those around the Aitrean Sea: Ticinum, technological capital of Emaxus, birthplace of true artificy and the warforged, and home of Aitreas' greatest scholars. In Ticinum, technological and arcane advancement occurred at a rate that harkened back to the Age of Rebirth, even as the Imperium's golden age did as well.On Shenarah 18, Tádariel, 394 AR, an event known as the Disaster occurred. Its cause is still fiercely debated, and the facts are muddled in hearsay and half-truths. What is known is that in the late evening on Shenarah 18, a brilliant light appeared in Ticinum. There were no survivors from the city itself, but reports from as far as Caledonia told of what appeared to be a second, white sun appearing on the western horizon, temporarily outshining the setting sun itself. Reports from cities to the east painted a similar picture, as the light from Ticinum whited out the sky for a full minute. Then, the light winked out, and the earth began to shake. Boats as far as the port of Ariminium sank as the seas roiled and homes as far as Cortona collapsed as the ground buckled and cracked.
In less than ten minutes, Ticinum and a 300-mile-wide stretch of Aitreas had been wiped out. It is believed that an explosion of unbelievable magnitude emanating from Ticinum caused the destruction. Now known as the Dead Scar, only a spattering of islands remain, devoid of life and charred, hanging amidst a sea that sits unnaturally still and dead. In the center of the Dead Scar, where Ticinum once sat as the crown of the southern Imperium, there is only a massive whirlpool, where the dead sea roars and empties into the unknown. And even tens of miles past the ending of where the landmass itself was destroyed, there is a stretch of land on the Meridionali Peninsula and in Aeceanata where the ground is blackened and burned and plants refuse to grow.
Aitreas was devastated. The entire Imperium reeled from this mysterious cataclysm. The destruction rivalled the destruction of Zanizer and the quakes that shook Aitreas revealed the hairline fractures that had formed in the Imperium itself. The Imperium found its foundation torn asunder. And so, with three major cities wiped out and an unbelievable amount of life lost, the Disaster gave way to an Imperium-wide upheaval now referred to as the Collapse.
The Collapse
Fear, rumors, and panic. If fear is the tinder, then rumors are the spark that sends the fear into a wildfire of panic. The Disaster sent shockwaves of fear through the Imperium, shaking it to its core. If something like the Disaster could happen under the protection of the Imperium, what good did it serve? Rumors regarding the Disaster spread, and panic set in fast. First, the territories closest to the Dead Scar seceded from the Imperium, claiming that the golden age of Aitreas had passed, and the Emperor could no longer protect and serve such a large continent. On the Meridionali Peninsula, the city of Caledonia formed the Caledonian Protectorate, subsuming Circesium and Meridionali Island into its borders. In Aeceanata, the cities of Ad Martis, Cortona, and Aballava formed the Aitrean Triumvirate. The Seventh Legion of the Imperium, which defended the Ureret Desert, mutinied and established martial law over Autricum as the many miles of desert collapsed into a wild frontier once more. The entirety of the eastern Meditullium Constituerint collapsed into chaos, dividing up among different city-states. Monsters from the Fragmented Isles began to swarm southward, infesting once peaceful plains and forests. In just 4 years, the Imperium has gone from total hegemony over Aitreas to only controlling Ariminium and a handful of other settlements. The great Legions of the Imperium have largely mutinied, leaving only the First Legion to defend the Imperium's holdings. As the Imperium was the greatest civilization since the Age of Rebirth, so too did it suffer like those great empires of yore: when disaster struck, it all shattered.Today, these events are collectively referred to as "The Collapse," and historians are (hesitantly) dubbing the new age Aitreas is entering the Dark Ages. The future does not look bright for Aitreas, and between the Disaster and the anarchy of the Collapse, the threats to the remnants of the Imperium are abundant. The Theussaun Protectorate has formed a powerful alliance with the remnants of the Imperium, giving them military and financial support; however, some believe their intentions to be less than pure. But, if some great hero or leader were to arise, perhaps the coming dark days could be avoided, and the path of the Aitrean people steered towards light.
Drumis
While all of our world suffered in the destruction of the Reckoning, Drumis was where the majority of the Empires of Obsidian were, and where the greatest fighting took place. To our knowledge, no mortals survived on Drumis, and as such, the history of the continent during the Age of Extant is rather short.
Many Attempts, Many Failures
Drumis has been a place of mysticism and intrigue throughout the Age of Extant. Untold secrets, treasures, and places of ancient history rest across the massive continent, but they are well-guarded. Drumis was made largely alien and inhospitable during the Reckoning, with various regions being totally different from anything else seen on Emaxus on account of the corruption of the Obsidian Lords. And even those locales not directly corrupted by the Empires of Obsidian suffered tremendously during the battles of the Reckoning, and were forever changed because of them.As such, a significant portion of the Age of Extant were spent trying (and failing) to establish a foothold on the many coastlines of Drumis, and from there explore deeper inland. First of these expeditions was that of Ophin Birlond, a Theussaun explorer who took a large military expedition to the southeastern shores of the continent in 189 AR. The fate of that expedition is unknown to this day, but Ophin and his hundreds of soldiers, civilians, and explorers were never heard from again. Even their ships were never found.
In the decades following Ophin's expedition, countless other attempts have been undertaken, from small private expeditions to massive state-sponsored ones akin to Ophin's. And, for decades, they suffered similar fates. Indeed, some never made it across the Obsidian Ocean. Over the years, survivors would occasionally return, telling tales of unbelievable monstrosities (on Drumis and in the ocean), landscapes totally unheard of anywhere else in Emaxus, and the mystique surrounding Drumis continued to grow. It was these first explorers---notably Yaern of Ariminium---who returned with tales of the Taesu Empire (but more on them below).
It wasn't until 299 AR that an Imperial expedition successfully established a settlement on the southeastern peninsula of Drumis, a town that would come to be known as Osedence.
Slow Progress, but Progress Nonetheless
In the century since its founding, Osedence has grown into a small city with a population of several thousand, and from that first foothold, small castles and their settlements have been discovered along the southeastern coast and resettled. They have realized fully the dangers of Drumis, but in spite of these threats, larger and more bold expeditions have been planned further inland. They have yet to press beyond the Istavinion Coast, but they push regardless.
Though the progress has been slow and Drumians still number in the low tens of thousands, the fact that there has been progress at all is a testament to mortal will. And further than that, who knows what marvels and advancements could be uncovered and achieved should we successfully recover even a fraction of what is likely scattered across the continent from the Reckoning. But along those same lines, who knows what ancient threats lie dormant there?
The Collapse
Even if the people of Drumis considered themselves a separate entity from the Imperium, they were still an Imperial colony. And so, when the Disaster occurred, the people of Osedence had a choice: would they stay with the Imperium through this era of strife, or at last declare themselves independent?
Osedence and several other fiefs surrounding it seceded from the Imperium, and now form a city-state of the same name. There was no fighting, nor any backlash from the Imperium. For one, they had bigger problems to worry about, and two, the divisions between the Drumians and the Imperials had been growing larger and larger, so it only made sense for the former to become their own entity.
In the few years since the Collapse, Osedence (and the other, smaller independent Drumian entities) have worked to continue solidifying their hold on the coastline they have settled, and many have begun to look further inland to begin unearthing the mysteries of old.
Iotura
Iotura is known as the Cradle of Civilization. It is the home of all the Shelter Cities, those larger settlements which survived the Reckoning (and leveraged that population share to dominate the Age of Extant). These Shelter Cities---Yathra Silthame, Drakkina, Theussau, and Camaerith---have shaped much of the reclamation and growth of the Age of Extant.
Iotura's various regions progressed and grew in very different ways and at different paces, and so, past the introductory section, shall be divided as such.
A World Without Gods
In the deafening silence that followed the Reckoning, many on Iotura were left confused. The last forests and grasslands of the devastated region soon to be called the Draconic Wastes still burned, their embers and ashes choking the sky over much of western Iotura. In fact, until the forests had at last finished burning, most of the lands west of the Severed Tops were in a form of prolonged winter, the sky choked by the ashes of millions of burning trees and miles upon miles of scorched hills and grasses. Yellowish ashen lightning cracked in the skies, and acid rain seared even the lands that survived without overwhelming devastation. The people of Yathra Silthame, unified under the long-standing Temple-Tribunal, struggled to pick up the pieces of their city. While their home had survived the devastation of the warring gods, much of it was ruined from the assaults of the Obsidian Lords' forces, and they could feel in their souls the emptiness of their now-dead gods' absence. The Reckoning left many of its survivors confused and empty, but Yathra Silthame was hit the hardest; the city's entire existence had been defined by the presence of the Ten, and they were dead. Followers of the gods had to come to terms with the loss of their deities and learn how to move on from a death more potent than that of a parent or sibling. We know little of what existed in the Ioturan Heartland before the Reckoning, although scattered records tell of vast empires and embattled kingdoms, all brought low by each other or the gods. Scattered villages and struggling towns remained in the wake of the battles, each struggling for survival against the countless remnants of the Reckoning surrounding them. Within the scorched lands of the Draconic Wastes, as the sky choked with the dark ash of countless fires, the devout drakkinid followers of Lythaelos built Drakkina in the shadow of the dragon god's daughter, Madreis, who had been created as a shepherd for the drakkinid. Within northeastern Iotura, where the Silver Dawn had waged a lengthy campaign against Narvox and Ix'kythael, the followers of Yamma made their home, calling their new city Theussau. Overlooking the Lake of Eternity, which had been blessed by Yamma before the Reckoning, Theussau was a beacon of hope and survival in an ashen world. In the Arakhor Tathra, Syluru and Valareth created an enormous forest that buried the remnants of the Camaerithian Empire and grew the Wild Heart at its center, an unbelievably massive tree that pulled Camaerith itself into the sky, nestled among its cloud-kissed leaves. With their innumerable divine blessings, the few survivors of the Camaerithian Empire slowly rebuilt their capital and grew strong in their isolation.The Iotruyla River Basin
Within the valley of the Iotruyla River Basin, Yathra Silthame struggled to recover. Parts of the basin had been devastated in the assaults of the Obsidian Lords, and the survivors within the Cradle of Civilization sought to rebuild. The Temple-Tribunal kept peace, and led the people of Yathra Silthame on a spiritual voyage to heal their souls in the wake of the death of the gods. The homes and walls needed to defend and house the citizens of the city were rebuilt, and then the people of Yathra Silthame set about building the Divine District, where they erected temples and shrines to each of the Children of Yamma.Growing Pains
For nearly a hundred years, Yathra Silthame grew and expanded under the careful guidance of the Temple-Tribunal. The various districts of the city were built up and expanded, and the structure of the city was codified as the ashen skies that had choked the light at last faded. The Temple District grew in complexity and opulence, the devout citizens of Yathra Silthame hoping to show to their gods, wherever their nascent spirits were, of their unending belief. Expeditions---many headed by the Auric Exemplars---trekked out into the River Basin, discovering survivors who they brought into Yathra Silthame's fold. Slowly, the Silver City's territory spread across the southern area of the Basin once more, with towns and villages arising among the ruins of Yathra Silthame's pre-Reckoning sprawl. It was Miirphys 11, Tarathel, 127 AR, when Gallo Sterngrace (Laianath's representative within the Temple-Tribunal) was found brutally murdered in her home, with evidence hinting that the assassins were from a cult of Marzak, for Laianath is believed to have been one of the gods who slew the Ragebinder. This prompted the mobilization of a new, unified force to defend Yathra Silthame, and so the Silverguard was formed. This elite, religious military force of paladins, clerics, and templars was to defend Yathra Silthame and her people. The Twilight District was constructed to serve as their base of operations, and so, the city expanded once more. It was also during this time that Yathra Silthame began expanding out and building more farming villages and towns, and the beginnings of the towns of Garthram and Idovale were founded along the Iotruyla River to the northwest. Shortly after this, in 138 AR, Kubrington was founded by a group of adventurous merchants to further expand the burgeoning Silverstream Highway to the west, and provide a gateway to the Ioturan Heartland's vast fields and forests, which were waiting to be claimed.The Discovery of Demtodhir
On Vaeril 3, Neldreth, 153 AR, explorers from Yathra Silthame discovered massive, ancient gates built into the mountains of the Severed Tops, north of the shelter city itself. Upon investigating further, then cross-referencing the location and style of the gates (which were of an ancient dwarven style), the explorers determined that they had uncovered the pre-Reckoning city of Demtodhir. Immediately thence, Brullin Demtodhir, daughter of the ancient Clan Demtodhir who had ruled the city, set forth with an expedition of her people to reclaim the city. Their progress was hard-fought and paid for in blood, but Clan Demtodhir successfully retook their ancient city, and Demtodhir has since flourished into a prosperous dwarven kingdom. How far the ancient city goes into the Severed Tops (and the caverns beneath them) is unknown, but the dwarves of Demtodhir continue to delve into the seemingly endless Lost Halls of Demtodhir.The First Heartland War
For the largest details about this war, look to the Ioturan Heartland section below. This section will only go into the settlements of the Iotruyla River Basin and their involvement in the war to their west. In the decades following Kubrington's founding, Yathra Silthame and the settlements bound to it continued to grow, and mortals continued to spread across the Ioturan Heartland. And as new settlements were founded and new cities rose, the call for blood began to grow as well. Enough time had passed since the Reckoning that the shorter-lived races had already forgotten its suffering (as the longer-lived races are doing presently), and thus they sought the gold and glory of battle. And so, the First Heartland War began. The war lasted three years, beginning in 181 AR and ending in 184 AR. It was chiefly between Kubrington and Thouw Pren, but Eswa came to the aid of the latter a year in. Fighting a war on two fronts, Kubrington likely would have lost and been absorbed into one of its two enemies, but they petitioned Yathra Silthame for help and received it. For the first time, the Dawnguard were deployed beyond Garthram and took part in a full-blown war. The next two years were bloody, and many lives from the River Basin and of those in the Heartland were lost, until a bloody stalemate was declared in the winter of 184 AR. Nothing was gained by either side, and thousands of lives were unnecessarily lost. The Temple-Tribunal spent the next few decades working closely with the leaders of the kingdoms in the Heartland to maintain peace until it grew stable. As such, growth in Yathra Silthame and her bound settlements largely stagnated, and the people within began to turn to other forms of authority.The Day of a Thousand Blades
While the Temple-Tribunal had its attention turned elsewhere, to some of the people of Yathra Silthame it seemed as though the leaders of the city were abandoning them. These disenfranchised people were especially susceptible to the corrupting influences of the Obsidian Lords, and the dark shadows of the King in Black's cults spread like wildfire. The spreading tendrils of the Obsidian Lords in the shadows of Yathra Silthame began to be crushed, as the Temple-Tribunal turned its attentions back to internal affairs. The Dawnguard began to take to the streets, attempting to purge foul corruption wherever they could find them. For several, long years a series of lengthy investigations were undertaken against cults and other shadowy organizations were met with varying success, but the cult influences came to a head in a now infamous event. On Shenarah 8, Tarathel, 192 AR, a powerful cult devoted to Narvox known as the Unending Tyranny orchestrated a series of attacks in the heart of the Temple District. By means of a dark ritual, the Unending Tyranny summoned powerful demons at the steps of the Temple of Kaedo. Over five hundred innocent people were killed as chaos erupted in the center of Yathra Silthame, but a swift and brutal response from the Dawnguard saw the demons and the dozens of cultists who joined it in battle butchered. This day would come to be known as the Day of a Thousand Blades. A memorial was made to the citizens and Dawnguard who lost their lives on the Day of a Thousand Blades in the form of a marble obelisk engraved with the names of everyone who perished, gilded and rimmed with gold. This memorial is well-maintained and stands to this day, at the base of the steps to the Temple of Kaedo, where the demons were summoned.Peace in an Uncertain World
In the centuries since the Day of a Thousand Blades, Yathra Silthame has largely known peace. But even in this peace, the Temple-Tribunal remains watchful. The Day of a Thousand Blades was a grim, violent reminder of the grasp the Obsidian Lords can still have despite their deaths, and how vengeful their followers truly are. And not only do the people of Yathra Silthame remain vigilant against the corrupting influences of the shadows, but they also stand on unsure footing globally. In both the Heartland War and the War Against Orakgra, Yathra Silthame remains happily neutral. And all eyes are on Aitreas, which is still reeling from the Disaster. Many in Yathra Silthame fear the age of peace that they have appreciated for the last few centuries is rapidly drawing to a close, and wish to see where the City of Yamma will stand.The Ioturan Heartland
Today, the idyllic fields and forests of the Ioturan Heartland yield plentiful harvests for their residents, and the powerful city-states and kingdoms of the region appreciate peace. This growth has been hard-fought, and the ruins left from the Reckoning---and the civilizations that called the Heartland home before the Reckoning---are numerous and dangerous.New Settlements
The path to resettling the Ioturan Heartland was paved first by Garthram's settlement and the construction of the first segment of the Silverstream Highway. Several decades later, this would allow a group of settlers funded and led by the Kubring family to settle the fertile plain that would become Kubrington, the "gateway to the Heartland." Within the century, four other soon to be major cities were settled. First was Agrad to the south, when a group of aspiring merchant families made their homes upon the rocky shores of southwest Iotura. After that, a mysterious figure known as the Baron led a large group of settlers around the northern end of the Isututh Timberland to the western area of the Heartland. On the western coast, they settled Cubral. Later, the elves and humans of Eswa would establish their unified city along the eastern border of the Timberland, while the mysterious arcanists of Thouw Pren built their towers just south of the Scattered Fields to the north. Over the course of the decades following, civilization spread from these five hubs, each growing in power as their influence came to hold over the surrounding areas, and eventually, certain city-states would come to butt heads with one another, until Kubrington and Thouw Pren declared war on one another and started the First Heartland War in 181 AR.The First Heartland War
In the decade preceding the official declaration of war, Thouw Pren and Kubrington had been at each others' necks. Kubrington's religious population, who believed in the law of the gods and strict morality, found themselves at odds with the more ambiguous, and sometimes outright cutthroat mages that ruled Thouw Pren. Indeed, a number of smaller skirmishes happened between the cities forces, until Thouw Pren moved to take a village by the name of Farnworth. The village had just been settled by citizens of Kubrington, claiming a then-vital trade route. Thouw Pren did not take kindly to that, and seized the village. Kubrington immediately declared war on their arcanist foes, and the Kubrington Brigade was mobilized for conflict. The following year was bloody, and a number of battles took place near those villages between the two warring cities. Though it was slow-going, it appeared as though Kubrington would claim victory, pushing Thouw Pren back through the strip of the Steldurn Woods that divided the two cities, and seizing several important town. But in Notharel, 182 AR, Eswa joined in the war on the side of Thouw Pren. Having been promised a number of pre-Reckoning relics, and support in exploration of Pre-Reckoning heritage sites, Eswa's joint human-elf army assailed Kubrington from the south, and the city found itself under assault from two fronts. With the war rapidly turning against them, the people of Kubrington petitioned their ancestral home of Yathra Silthame for aid. The Silver City agreed, sending the Dawnguard forth to aid Kubrington. At the same time, the drakkinid of Drakkina moved down from the north, having heard of Thouw Pren's use of dangerous pre-Reckoning relics. Together, the three religious cities battered back Eswa and Thouw Pren, and the war came to a gruesome stalemate in 184 AR. The Treaty of Kubrington was signed on Traeliorn 24, Latharal, 184 AR. The parties involved agreed to return things to the status quo before the war. Any gained territories were returned, and the signatories agreed to peace for a minimum of fifty years. Thankfully, that peace lasted even longer, but it ended, as all peace does.An Unsettled Region
Despite appreciating peace for several centuries, the Heartland grew tempestuous in the late 4th century AR. A damning report from the Baron of Cubral on the mages of Thouw Pren revealed the magocracy was harvesting bounties of pre-Reckoning relics from the Draconic Wastes to the north. Lines were drawn in its wake. Despite revealing the scandal, Cubral took no immediate stance, and Eswa and Agrad joined them in their neutrality; Kubrington, however, was quick to denounce their old enemies, as the wounds of the First Heartland War had never fully healed. In the early 390s AR, calls for a Second Heartland War began to grow louder, but the tension never fully boiled over. Not until a catalyst arose.The Farnworth Event
On Tialin 17, Odarth, 398 AR, something known as the Farnworth Event occurred. Though reports have been varied, the consensus is that in the sleepy village of Farnworth (the same one that caused the First Heartland War), located on the southern edge of the Steldurn Woods in the Ioturan Heartland, a deranged (some believe purposefully corrupted) noble from Thouw Pren by the name of Lady Murel Heartcrown, wielding a blade imbued with planar energy, attempted to open a tear to Xeccamund and summon forth a horde of aberrant creatures. What her goals or motivations for such an act were are still unknown, but thankfully this attempted incursion was halted by a group of heroes who slew Lady Heartcrown and sealed the rift. Sadly, the repercussions of what transpired in Farnworth would echo far beyond the scattered farms of that village. Indeed, the shockwaves that an attempted planar incursion sent across the Heartland were what at last destabilized the peace holding the fragile region together, and less than two weeks later, Kubrington officially declared war on Thouw Pren. Thus began the Second Heartland War.The Second Heartland War
In the final days of Odarth in 398 AR, Kubrington declared war on Thouw Pren, citing the evidence of illicit artifact smuggling from the Draconic Wastes, and the belief that the Farnworth Event that occurred two weeks prior was no accident. The first few weeks of the war were slow going, as the city-states mobilized their militaries and began attempting to forge alliances with the other three cities of the Heartland, as well as foreign powers; however, within two months the war was fully raging. Skirmishes and ambushes involved into several hundred troop battles, and several villages and smaller townships positioned between the two city-states have already been ravaged and turned into battlefields as the two powers grapple for control of the no man’s land between them. Contrary to the First Heartland War, other parties have been quick to pick sides. Though Cubral retains its neutrality, Agrad and Eswa (loath to repeat history) have sided with Kubrington. Smaller, several potent farming towns like Adreka have pledged themselves to Thouw Pren, alleviating what could've been a resource disaster for the magocratic city-state. Several large battles have already taken place, but the war shows no sign of stopping. Indeed, many people (local and otherwise) believe the war will get much, much worse before it gets any better. Thankfully, larger foreign powers like Drakkina and Yathra Silthame have yet to get roped in, but only time will tell if the Second Heartland War eclipses its predecessor in terms of blood spilt.The Theussaun Ridges
To the east of the Severed Tops is a lush and varied set of regions that have had a storied history. Dominating the northeastern quadrant of Iotura, the Theussaun Ridges is a wide and fertile region, and while the Arakhor Tathra and the Saltmeadow Marshes to the south have remained almost entirely unsettled, the Theussaun Protectorate has slowly claimed hegemony over this region. Ruins of the Obsidian Lords' power and the scars of the Reckoning are commonplace here and have, in some ways, shaped the history of this region.The Protectorate is Founded
Legends tell that before Yamma went to his final battles in Drumis, he granted a blessing to his followers in what would come to be known as the Theussaun Ridges. The tears he shed for leaving behind his home coalesced into a body of water now known as the Lake of Eternity, and the Silver Dawn's most devout followers settled upon its shores, on a great ridge overlooking the shining waters. This city of tents would grow to become a city of stone and strength, a city by the name of Theussau. The royal line of Theussau began with King Bumarak Theussau I, who oversaw the foundations of the city and the beginnings of the Theussaun military, the Theussuan Fists. Over the first century AR, the people of Theussau eventually became secure enough in their holdings to branch out into the surrounding region. Seeking to impose their will upon the lands now called the Theussaun Ridges, expeditions departed the city to settle new towns and conquer new lands. In the early years of this expansion, the Theussaun people met the halflings of Alnwick, and the two formed an alliance named the Theussaun Protectorate. Little did they know that they were laying the foundations for the most powerful nation-state of the Age of Extant. After that, the Theussaun Protectorate spent several centuries spreading its influence across the region, claiming thousands of square miles of land as settlements old and new came under their banners.A Spread Corruption
The Theussuan Protectorate would soon discover obstacles to its expansion, great wounds left from the battles of the Reckoning. In the northwest, a vast corruption was slowly spreading from where Yamma and Narvox had made battle, a blasted wasteland pockmarked with the scars of infernal warfare. Demonic and devilish hordes were still at play in this region, and the Protectorate moved with haste to halt the spread of this dark influence. The Theussuan Fists established a perimeter a few miles from the outskirts of the Desolate Foothills, as they were now called, and construction began on an engineering marvel that would come to be known as the First Line, a great wall that would allow the Protectorate to hold back the corruption. After first breaking ground in 202 AR, the First Line was completed in 247 AR, four and a half decades later. Despite its huge cost in resources and manpower, the First Line has been successful thus far. Countless invasions, some consisting of thousands of monstrosities, have battered the great walls of the First Line to no avail, all being broken against Theussau's might. The corruption of the Desolate Foothills has yet to spread farther, and the secured border has even allowed the Protectorate to send expeditions into the wasteland to try and discover a way to purge the taint of the Obsidian Lords. But to the south of Theussau a second, more insidious wound of the Reckoning festers, one that has yet to be dealt with: the ruins of Dergas, a once great citadel of the Obsidian Lords' power. Reduced to rubble by Yamma, the ruins of Dergas are now a haunting cesspool from which monstrosities and aberrations occasionally belch forth. No one knows how to truly deal with Dergas, or what is going on within its depths, but theories abound.The Discovery of Camaerith
While many knew of some great forest spanning the entirety of the southeastern coast of Iotura, it wasn't until the late third century AR that an expedition from the Protectorate revealed the scope of the Arakhor Tathra. It was also this expedition that, at the center of this vast forest, discovered a natural wonder known as the Wild Heart, a tree several miles tall and several miles wide that towered over the lush expanse surrounding it. And upon scaling this tree, the expedition discovered yet another wonder: an entire city housed within the cloud-scraping branches of the Wild Heart, the pre-Reckoning elven city of Camaerith. The expedition was captured and interrogated by the Camaerithian elves, being released and told to send back an emissary when they revealed they were from another nation.The Camaerithian Concord
When Queen Rosho Theussau II arrived to Camaerith in 302 AR, a three week long diplomatic discussion took place between her and the leaders of the elves, the Camaerithian Circle. I myself had the pleasure of sitting in on these talks, and though the Camaerithian Circle could, at times, be harsh and haughty, eventually the two groups struck an accord. The two agreed to not antagonize or instigate conflict against one another, as they both saw it as their duties to defend their own sections of Iotura. This status quo held for years, until the arrival of Orakgra just over two decades ago. With the first preceived invasion of Ioturan soil occurring by the orcs of Orakgra, Theussau and the elves met rapidly, and began deliberating upon an alliance. It took them several years, but on Uldreyin 15, Neldreth, 388 AR, the Camaerithian Concord was born, in which the Theussaun Protectorate and Camaerith would be joined in a defensive pact until the threat of Orakgra was vanquished.The War Against Orakgra
As it takes place there, the majority of the information of this conflict is below, in the Arakhor Tathra section. The Theussaun Protectorate was at war with Orakgra for a little over a decade, ever since the Camaerithian Concord was established. At the behest of current King Usur Theussau III, they committed the Fifth Division, the largest Division of the Theussaun Fists, to the War Against Orakgra. Despite the peace negotiated in 399 AR, the Fifth Division still stands guard along the Forts of the Accord.Supporting the Imperium
After the Collapse struck the Imperium in 394 AR, the Protectorate has slowly established a strong alliance with the remnants of the Imperium through some shrewd maneuvering by King Usur Theussau III. Indeed, he has even gone so far as to send his son, Crown Prince Usur Theussau IV to lead one of two Divisions in Aitreas. This has been part of a larger campaign of militaristic and political support that the Protectorate has been sending to the Imperium since the Collapse began to help them reclaim their lost territory. What exactly his political motivations for this are have been the subject of debate, but no one but the King knows the answer.The Arrival of the Chosen
On Vaeril 3, Tarathel, 398 AR, during the celebrations of Cities' Splendor, the world received shocking news. From the skies above Theussau itself, five angels had descended. Calling themselves the Chosen, these five angels claimed to be agents of Yamma's will, sent by his spirit to aid the Theussaun Protectorate in their righteous ventures. Within two days, an official welcoming ceremony was held for them, and they pledged themselves as allies of King Usur III and those who seek to defend Yamma's people, specifically General Andris of the Aegis Division. Since their arrival, the Chosen have been a topic of fierce debate. Behind closed doors, many scholars and religious circles see two options arrayed before them as it relates to the Chosen. One, they are telling the truth, and Yamma has devoted some of his last remaining creations to the people of the Protectorate. If this is true, then every other political power on Emaxus has something to fear from the Theussaun throne. Or two, the Chosen are lying and something is amiss. If so, then there is far more trickery afoot than it seems.The Followers of the Black Crown
In the later months of the summer of 398 AR, a massive cult by the name of the Followers of the Black Crown revealed themselves to the Theussaun Protectorate in the form of a series of massive terrorist attacks along the four cities of the First Line and in the fortress city of Loria, the latter of which was the largest. The death toll along all five attacks was well over two thousand, and the attack in Loria even created a plague which nearly claimed many hundreds more were it not for an early warning from a group of heroes known as the Five of Swords. This same group received a tip as to the location of the headquarters of the Followers, the ruins of a pre-Reckoning fortress of Narvox known as Dustorn Keep. They trekked out past the First Line (alongside a handful of holy warriors who joined them) and slew the leadership of the Followers and a great many of their rank and file, and the cult has since been inactive; however, in the months since, the Protectorate has been reeling from having their sense of security shattered. Among these reactions has been the official decree from the Theussaun monarchy allowing for the Chosen to be used in warfare and deployed outside of Protectorate lands. This move has many on edge, fearing a coming genocide in Orakgra, and what may come after the orcs there are defeated.The Arakhor Tathra
Sprawling across the southeastern quadrant of Iotura is one of the largest forests in the world. Called a number of names by different peoples, the Arakhor Tathra was a divine blessing from Syluru and Valareth. They created the Arakhor Tathra during the Reckoning, forming a nigh impenetrable natural barrier between the people of Camaerith and the Empires of Obsidian. The Arakhor Tathra kept the nearly-extinct Camaerithians safe, even as it buried the remnants of their ancient empire. To ensure the safety of the Camaerithians, the Wild Heart was created at the center of the forest: the largest tree in the world, standing miles tall and several miles wide, the Wild Heart grew out from under the ancient capital of Camaerith, Camaerith itself, and nestled the city amongst the clouds. Camaerith has remained there to this day, and the geographical isolation of the city has reinforced the social isolation of the Camaerithian people for centuries.Recovering from Extinction
Though our records are incomplete, it is to be believed that the Camaerithian Empire once spread from the southeastern shores of Iotura into the southern portions of the Theussaun Ridges. Survivors of the Reckoning certainly back these broken records up. All of that, and more, was lost in the Reckoning. As with all people, the Camaerithians lost everything in the God-Wars, and only through the divine mercy of Valereth and Syluru were they saved from destruction. The devasted heart of the capital was raised into the Wild Heart, and for the first few centuries of the Age of Extant, our people licked our wounds and tried to make sense of our new, godless world. Camaerith underwent minimal change in the first three centuries of the Age of Extant. We were afraid of the outside world, afraid of what creatures might have survived the God-Wars. The Reckoning was unkind to our people, as it was to all mortals, but near-extinction feels different when your kind can bear no more than three hundred children a century. Our remaining twenty thousand was it. So we waited, and we watched as winter after winter passed. Until a group of humans, and a handful of other races, found us in 302 AR. And, at first, we were not happy.The Discovery of the Outside World
Frankly, we did not treat the Theussaun expedition well. In fact, it took them nearly three weeks to convince us that they were telling the truth, that they were from another society, and not just an outside society, an entire foreign nation. It shook our people to their core. Other people had survived. And they weren't illusions or deceptions from the Obsidian Lords, they were real life mortals, just like us. They were non-elves who had already spread across entire regions and numbered in the hundreds of thousands again, as though the Reckoning had never happened. And when Queen Rosho Theussau II arrived a month later, Camaerith was opened to the outside world. At least, we would've been. In our time of isolation, a great many Camaerithians had grown accustomed to solitude. Some Camaerithians believed that it was right for us to be separated from the world. The reasons were (and still are) varied, but a xenophobic and sometimes outright racist culture had been breeding under the surface of Camaerith. It just hadn't had the chance to rear its ugly head. And so, what should have been an earthshaking discovery for ourselves and the outside world was instead reduced to a slight change in context. We chose to maintain our isolation, and we even sought ways to enforce it. We built a portal to the base of the Wild Heart, so as to more easily control who could and couldn't access our city, and we created the Arms of Mithril to defend our lands. And thus, the status quo was largely maintained for several more decades. When we finally broke out of our shell, it was not out of joy or an explorative spirit. No, we were roused from our den like a great bear is roused by an intruder. Orakgra had arrived on the southeastern peninsula of the Arakhor Tathra, and we could feel the great forest cry out in pain.The Founding of the Camaerithian Concord
In truth, the story of Orakgra is a tragic one. A nation of races deemed "monstrous" by most societies, Orakgra was founded by orcs, goblinoids, minotaurs, and a handful of other races in the hopes of at last finding a permanent home to settle down. While they deforested aggressively and could've handled some things better, their goals were innocent. But Camaerith did not see it that way. And, when consulted, neither did the Theussaun Protectorate. So, beginning in the early 380s, King Usur Theussau III, a relatively new king, and the members of the Camaerithian Circle began meeting to figure out an alliance to crush the "threat of Orakgra." It took nearly five years, but as Orakgra grew in strength and territory, carving farmland and space for cities out of the lush expanse of the Arakhor Tathra, at last the Camaerithian Concord was created. Under the original strictures, the Protectorate would commit to aiding Camaerith militarily and economically in the defense of the Arakhor Tathra and the defeat of Orakgra for the betterment of all eastern Iotura, on the grounds that Camaerith would open the secrets of their city and the Arcanul Ordinate to the priests and mages of the Protectorate. And so, a massive military power was born. But the issue now came: how does one move thousands of troops to fight those defiling the forest without damaging the forest themselves? This question had to be answered rapidly, as within two months of the Concord's founding, on Traeliorn 4, Latharal, 388 AR, word was received that a force was coming out of Orakgra to establish a lumber outpost past the borders of the already cleared forest. Camaerith called for action immediately, somewhat doubting that the Protectorate would honor the Concord (racism has a way of making one perceive others in false ways). To their pleasant surprise, Theussau upheld the bargain and sent the Fifth Division to be stationed in Camaerith.The War Against Orakgra
The first battle of the War Against Orakgra was dubbed the Battle of Broken Limb. Within a week of the Fifth Division's arrival, some four thousand Fists, alongside a thousand auxiliary and supply troops, arrived to Camaerith to be garrisoned there until the war's end. From there five hundred Fists alongside five hundred Arms of Mithril, under the command of Lt. General Neiven Townsend of the Protectorate, mobilized on the location of the outpost being founded. On Taeral 16, Latharal, 388 AR, one thousand Concord troops swept down on two hundred lumberjacks guarded by a garrison of fifty and slaughtered them all. This was followed by the Massacre of Mizozagh. Following the success of the Battle of Broken Limb, Lt. General Townsend received orders to continue pushing and secure the settlement of Mizozagh a few days to the southeast. Marching out of the dense forest and into the open hills that Orakgra had largely deforested, Townsend's forces arrived upon the town three days later. Some two thousand citizens were butchered, protected only by a garrison of some two hundred warriors, at the cost of less than one hundred Concord forces. With Mizozagh "secured," Townsend and his forces bunkered down to await more troops to finish the push to Orakgra and rapidly end the war. Over the next week, an additional one thousand Fists alongside another five hundred Arms of Mithril came to join Lt. General Townsend's offensive. Many would never return home. A bloody, decisive start to a long, drawn-out war. Next came the Disaster at Bleeding Hill, the turning point of the war. On Traeliorn 4, Engarthiel, 388 AR, Lt. General Townsend began his march from the ruins of Mizozagh towards Orakgra, which a day and a half further south. Halfway there, the Concord's army made camp atop a hill, which allowed them vision of the surrounding area and thus defense. From atop the hill, Townsend and his troops could see the lights of Orakgra on the edge of the horizon, and soon, they would be home with glory, honor, and safety for their people. That night, Cashiph Zitih Ironheart herself led a force of a thousand goblins on a stealth mission. In the dark of the night, the force encircled the Concord camp, and picked off the watch. Over the course of the night, some fifteen hundred Fists and four hundred Arms of Mithril were butchered. Just over one thousand men returned home from an army of three thousand, fleeing for their lives as Cashiph Ironheart proclaimed "Now, this Bleeding Hill will forever be a reminder of the weakness of your 'Concord,' and the wrath of those wronged!" When Townsend returned, he was relinquished of his rank. Over the next few months, Orakgra began probing the borders of the forest once more as the Fifth Division's ranks were replenished from the north and the Concord planned their next step forward. Over a decade has passed since the Disaster at Bleeding Hill, and yet little has changed with the war. Dubbed "the Years of Strife," a long and bloody stalemate has ensued between the Concord and Orakgra. Following the Disaster at Bleeding Hill, the Concord decided that a strike at Orakgra would not be possible. With the varied strengths of the "monsters" they faced, any multi-day march would be doomed to fail, either being wiped out before reaching the city or whittled down then butchered. The Concord and Orakgra committed to tactics of guerrilla warfare and strategic strikes, and a war of attrition was initiated. No battle has been as bloody as the first three the Concord took part in, but the body count has slowly been adding up. Luckily, on a homefront perspective, the Concord has been making great strides. The Protectorate has been receiving many rare and exotic goods from Camaerith, and Theussaun mages have begun studying at the arcane colleges of Camaerith. Both parties have learned much of one another's cultures, and their priests and druids have begun mingling and strengthening the bonds between their respective gods' followers. And, the Camaerithian Circle has begun more in-depth trade and military talks with King Usur, seeking to perhaps make the Concord more permanent, even if the war ends soon.
Emaxus © 2018 by Brian Nicholson is licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. All art, unless otherwise credited, is made with Midjourney. Developed by Brian Nicholson.
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