Age of Blood

The beginnings of the age of blood are only possible to be seen in retrospect, no one could have guessed that such mundane events could have led to such destruction. The Blood Swept Council, A faction within the Imperial Senate of the Kingdom of Avadel led by an evil and dark wizard named Anaxxis, carried out a coup against the Good Caesar Cavonus. The Blood Swept Council acted rapidly and massiced all those with royal blood and all Senators who opposed them, all to cement their rule. The cravious actions of the Blood Swept Council did naught but inspired calls justice and rebellion. These foul actions fractured the Kingdom of Avadel, as countless cities and provinces throughout Runedastil and the Seldoria Flatlands, and the War of Reduction, the final Avadel civil war began.
The War of Reduction raged as counter-revolutionaries sought destroy the Blood Swept Council, while other cities declared independence and fought to secure it, with Runia being the greatest example of the latter. The Blood Swept Council struggle for manpower after five years of war, which caused them to sacrifice thousands to create an army of blood golems who marched to quell uprising after uprising. The numbers of golems however, proved insufficient which caused the Blood Swept Council to conduct an even more ambitious ritual in the Ruins of Kirthlath. The Ritual of Kirthlath was a disaster, and had a fundamental impact upon the history of all of Runetalras, it brought down the vail between Runetalras and the other planes of existence, which allowed countless planar terrors to enter into Runetalras. The ritual itself caused the Seldori Range to increase in size which destroyed much of the Kingdom of Avadel proper; the effects of the Runetalras was much more profound. The destruction of the vails between Runetalras and various planes of existence was disatorious; the Atarsid Isles were ravaged by creatures from the Elemental Planes, the ruined Kingdom of Avadel (now the Seldori Range) was overcome by undead and the influence of the Shadowfell, demons, devils, and weave abjurations battled one another and the mortal races throughout Runedastil, Taunas, Talduras, and Undras, while a new threat emerged within the world the necrophages which have troubled the world since.
The various incisions were made worse, as in 13:Blood an elder Elemental burst from the Black Mountain, which came to destroy the Empire of the Ordained Stars, followed by a further three elder elements which did battle throughout the Atarsid Isles during the Age of Blood; this was followed by the emergence of the Avatar of Orcus in 47:Blood, the Avatar of Demogorgon in 70:Blood, and dioblic pit fiends which led legions of devils after 55:Blood; with the emergence of these power fiends a new front in the Blood War opened up on Runetalras to the horror of the mortal races.
For over five hundred years the conflict between demons and devils and humans, destroyed great kingdoms of the world, killed countless millions of the population and devastated much of the landscape (for details on this conflict Arch Donagogue Urrel’s The Blood War Comes to Us is perhaps the best on the subject), while elementals ravaged the Atarsid Isles, and undead attacked all those within the Seldori Range and Wild Isles. The rampant hordes were truly changed until the Siege of Runia where diabolic legions laid siege to the city of Runia, but fell under attack by the Avatar of Orcus and his demonic forces; both, while locked in combat, in turn were attacked by the combined armies of the mortal races. The Siege of Runia should have been the beginning of the end, the Avatar of Orcus and a great many pit fiends were destroyed as were a great many fiendish footmen. The armies broke apart and pursued the rest of the fiendish armies as the fled, killed all pit fiends who were unable to return to the Nine Hells, and slay the Avatar of Demogorgon at the Isle of Tasidor. While the Smoldering Swords and the Order of the Dawn fought their way through the Seldori Flatlands now transformed into Seldori Range and into the Ruins of Krithlath. Their their greatest warriors and leaders were able to undo that which the Blood Swept Council had achieved in their folly, and returned the Veils to Runetalras.
This was merely a moment of hope in a hopeless time, as the darkness in the hearts of the mortal races continued the Age of Blood in earnest, all while the remnants of the demons and devils remain, untold hordes of undead still savage the lands, as did weave abjurations who still haunted any city, town, village, or hamlet that possessed even a single mage. However, the time of earth shattering crisis were over and the remainder of the Age of Blood was dominated by horrific regional crisis.

The Heart of Runedastil

Runedastil was haunted by the weaken of the seems between our plane of existence and the Weave. Magic seemed somehow stronger in the aftermath of the Age of Blood, but so was weave abjuration’s hold over those who used magic. This led to an abundance of blood mages, necromancers, and weave abominations were terribly common and ravaged Runedastil. Many mages, orders of mages, and even kingdoms of foul mages that plagued all the denizens of Runedastil. The Crystal Catalyst proved to be the greatest kingdoms created by mages within the Age of Blood; The Crystal Catalyst began with utopian ideals which were abandoned for the sake of the perpetuation of power, tyranny, and abuse. Within the Age of Blood the Crystal Catalyst turned dark, became expansionist, abused the population, and turned to powerful dark magics, with the leading circle all becoming lichs towards the end of the Age of Blood. It was the destruction of the Crystal Catalyst that began the process that heralded in the end of the Age of Blood, and seemingly repaired a veil between the material plane and the Weave.

The Arm of Runedastil

The arm of Runedastil was not only haunted by weave abjurations, blood mages, and necromancers, but also plagues of undead, necrophages, and shadow creatures. All of the six kingdoms struggled with the undead, planar, and arcane threats, with none of them possess effective control of their borders. While these were disastrous enough, but the emergence of the Kingdom of the Jewelled Skull and its Lich lord only known as the Gilded Skull. The Jewelled Skull was initially a regional power but soon consumed much of the Arm of Runedastil. Undead armies marched throughout the Arm laying was with necromancers, and even a dreaded dracolich Balraxes laying waste to all those within their path. It was only with the mysterious disappearance of both the Gilded Skull and Balraxes. It was only after this that the Jewelled Skull was eventually defeated by the six kingdoms which began to fend off undead and Shadowfell creatures before they quickly fell into conflict with one another again.

Pan-Runedastil

All of Runedastil faced a further endemic problem which was known as the War of Religions which came with the breakup of the Order of the Dawn and came to encompass a great many religious and Religious Orders; which sowed discord, chaos, and destruction throughout all of Runedastil. The south and east of Runedastil were troubled by the hordes of orcs that poured out of the Rugged Pass, with the Kingdom of Selu'Qidar being the worst affected.

Talduras

The continent of Talduras after the Siege of Runia erupted into violence as the kingdoms of the palemen sought to reassert their dominance over the continent and met with little success but a great deal of bloodshed. This violence and conflict was par for the course, what was not was the Cult of the Broken Veil. The Cult of the Broken Veil was a group of mages and cultists who sought to bring the Weave to Runetalras to usher in a new world for mages. They summoned all manner of weave abjurations and caused chaos throughout all of Talduras which led to an explosion in the number of weave abjurations, weave abominations, and those born with innate magical abilities. Only with the expertise of the Smoldering Swords and Cult of the Radiant Lady in fighting the arcane and the leadership of the Kasari and Lekski Kings were the Cult of the Broken Veil dispersed late in the Age of Blood.

Taunas

The continent of Taunas was subject to revanchist Palemen who sought to regain control of all of the continent and met with little success; the Kingdom of Maskeva on the other hand, met with great success in their process of aggrandisement. The worst of the violence came with the Lionors Ichaer a non state actor which possessed resources equal to that of many of the kingdoms of the Velga, Palemen, and Lekski and terrorised them equally; the Lionors Ichaer allied themselves with demons all in an effort to inflict as much harm and damage as possible in anger and lust for vengeance. It was only with the support of the Smoldering Swords and the Cult of the Radiant Lady that the threat of the Lionors Ichaer was brought to an end and the elder races brought low once more.

Wild Isles

With the Siege of Runia the Holy Draconic Empire, the greatest kingdom of the Wild Isles, broke into deep introspection and dabbled with a series of indecisive civil wars. The Draconic Empire suffered and was forced to repeatedly rebuild, with ultimately the tieflings were invited to ascend into their kingdom and renamed the Kingdom the Infernal-Draconic Ascendancy. For both the Dragonborn and tieflings of the Isles The latter half of the Age of Blood was comprised of introspection, conflict, compromise, and the discovery of new neighbours.
For the rest of the Wild Isles The latter half of the Age of Blood was not so pleasant as civil war. The Wild Isles were savaged by wild witches, yuan-ti, and old God cultists, it is also rumoured that some rare dinosaurs of the Isles were somehow altered into powerful and cruel abominations. The humans, dwarves, gnomes, elves, firbolgs, dryads and even lizardmen, kobolds, and tortles relied on one another and magic to survive.

Undras

During the former half of the Age of Blood the Cinder Blood Empire collapsed under the weight of demons, devils, undead, weave abjurations, and internal violence. Within this dark period the Empire of the Night emerged as the dominant power within the region, before it in turn fell, as a result of a gargutian green Dragon Vertharose, and the Most Gracious Kingdom of the Green Rose. As was the case in Undras the Green Rose withered and died, as internal conflict and the mass migration of the Mossada ethnic group caused great disruption.
The east of Undras, the area north of the Arm of Runedastil, was made a mountainous wasteland as a result of the ritual at Kirthlath. The area has proved almost totally uninhabitable to the present day. Throughout the Age of Blood and beyond the area has been blighted, it's land barren and its waters tainted, while undead, weave abjurations, creatures of shadow, monstrosities, and brigands haunt it terrain.

Atarsid Isles

While the initial centuries of the Age of Blood were truly disastrous the worst of the Age of Blood were over by 350:Blood when the elder elements killed one another. Abundant planar portals continued to exist, and even predictable and prominent permanent portals, which allowed for constant trade among the planes. During this period the Atarsid Isles became a hub from trade, not only for those of Runetalras who were saved from the worse of the Age of Blood, but for the denizens of the Elemental Planes. The Atarsid Isles prospered greatly, in all economic, social, and cultural terms. While in the rest of Runetalras rejoiced when Krithlath was breached and the vails restored, the Atarsid Isles experienced a great catastrophe as the planar portals were shut off, not completely but extensively, which destroyed economies and societies. The latter of half of the Age of Blood within does not contain the same negative connotations as they carry to much of the rest of Runetalras; indeed the time periods within the histories of the Atarsid peoples are known as the Planar Age and the Age of Reconstruction. The Age of Reconstruction as it is known in the Isles, was defined by a new search for wealth, with many settling on slavery as it had worked so well for the City of Brass, conflict as powers sought to fill a vacuum, and the physical reconstruction from disaster and wars.

Subterranean World

The subterranean world exists solely as The Kingdom of Aran'Nack, and the former territories of the Orza'Nack , suffered tragedies and unique crisis. Within the latter half of the Age of Blood a number of rediscoveries and discoveries were made within the Darkroads; in The Ages since the Darkquake the Darkroads had come to be connected to the Underdark. With this the Duergar, dwarves of Shal’Rack who were abandoned by Ozar’Nack after the Darkquake, emerged to take their vengeance upon. The Duergar were not the only source of difficulties to subterranean peoples, and the Drow, forsaken elves, derro, and the worst of all the illithids all spent the latter half of the Age of Blood terrorising all who dared to enter deep caves or the subterranean homes of the dwarves and gnomes. It was only with the formation of the Dark Vanguard, an organisation apart from society, that the threats from the Underdark were pushed back into their forsaken homes.