A Brief History

In ages past, the elder races spread over Etharis and carved out separate kingdoms for themselves. Then the humans came, and all but annihilated the other races in their relentless drive to multiply and expand.
Today, humans are still the most numerous and powerful race in Etharis. The elder races survive either in isolated remnants of their own domains, or incorporated into larger human kingdoms. But it is an age of crisis, and some see the opportunity to claw back what their ancestors lost.
Though they are reduced in number, members of the elder races are a common sight anywhere in Etharis. Perhaps because they so often live on the fringes of human civilization, they also make up a disproportionate number of its adventurers.
While the elves and the dwarves were the first races to claim lands in the world of Etharis, the versatile race of the humans were the ones to survive and dominate. Humans nowadays can be found from the frozen and inhospitable tundra of the North to the scorched plains of the South. Emerging from the temperate forests of central Etharis, now known as the Bürach, humans were not considered a threat by other races. Left unchecked, their numbers quickly grew. It was their adaptable nature and adventurous mindset that quickly led them to expand beyond their homelands. By the time the great kingdoms of the elves and the mighty thanedoms of the dwarves realized the violence that inevitably follows the humans, it was already too late. The eyes of the human leaders fell greedily on the prosperous lands of the elves and dwarves. The great Era of Expansion, also known as the Great Purge, had begun and humans were here to stay. Different tribal armies marched simultaneously north, south and west; no land was safe. Unable to unite or react in time, the dwarven and elven monarchs watched as human warriors swarmed and usurped their lands. The human race emerged victorious after countless generations of bloodshed that changed Etharis forever.
In victory, they showed little mercy to the elder races. They entirely dismantled the elven kingdoms, pushing them deeper in the forests. They drove dwarves from their homelands, forcing them to hide deep beneath the mountains. The humans would have stopped at nothing, if conflict from within had not forced their armies to a halt. Having exterminated all the other kingdoms, the warlords turned against each other, each claiming the High Throne that would later become the Imperial Throne of Altenheim. This second Great Era, known as the Era of Descent, lost even more lives to its endless carnage. The result was the disintegration of the human race into fractious kingdoms. The Second Era considerably weakened the kingdoms of the humans, allowing the other races to emerge from hiding and re-establish some
principalities in the lands they once ruled. To this day, humans are considered the dominant race across all of Etharis, controlling most of the land and sea. Having shorter lives to live than the other races, their old hatreds have faded, and they are now more receptive to other races. But elves and dwarves live long, and can hold a grudge even longer.