Solandrin

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Approximately 20 years before our story begins, a rift opened in The Sylvaranth Empire's capital city of Enlas Anore, flooding the region with fiends from the Nine Hells and sapped life from the surrounding lands. It is said that a warlock, Shautha, was promised ultimate power if she opened a gate to the Nine Hells for the armies of Asmodeus, the evil god of tyranny.  

Recently, The Cluehbridge Six learned that this was not the case. The Sylvaranth Empire attempted to summon an entity known as "The Answer" and bind it in a Warforged body. That failed, and the avatar of the Answer opened the rift that sundered the land.

    For two years, the people of Solandrin banded together to save their world from annihilation. The Warforged served their purpose, fighting and dying on the front lines to contain the invading hordes.   With the Warforged army’s sacrifice, the other races were able to muster enough of their own armies to drive back the invasion. On 10 Rains 1005, the 100 warriors of Leshanna's Legion and the archmage Erevan of House Galloborne infiltrated the city. Erevan and his mages closed the rift, with only a handful of the Legionaires escaping the city.  

The Six recently learned that there was no rift: Grog Giants-bane watched Erevan stop time in a sphere around himself and a massive warforged construct called The Avatar.

    While the people celebrated victory, all was not safe, nor has it remained so. The scourge left much of the eastern continent fallow, dead, and volatile. Small rifts and gates still appear in The Wastes that still cover much of the land, leaking more enemies from other planes.   The younger races then gave the empire an ultimatum: release us, or be destroyed. The empire relented, abandoning all of their outposts and isolating themselves in the remnants of their homeland as the Kingdom of Sylvaranth, on the south eastern edge of the continent.   The Wastes are now slowly being reclaimed through cleansing of the lands from north by the Order of the Seraphs, while Sylvaranth and the Ilafya work together to push from the south. It is known that the high elves are working towards reclaiming their old capitol, but have denied having any interest in re-establishing the empire. The inhospitable land still tears open brief gates to other planes where fiends and other enemies cross to the Material Plane. Gouts of ash from fissures blacken the sky and poison the air, and surges of wild magic make spellcasting dangerous.   While the vast majority of the high elves remain in Sylvaranth, some leave to lend their knowledge and expertise in other kingdoms, but do so quietly, as the people of Solandrin have mixed opinions of the empire. Some resent the empire for its throttling of progress, some are apathetic, and yet others forgive them entirely for their transgression.   The army of tens of thousands of Warforged now are a fraction of their number. Their corpses still can be found on the old battlefields, their metal bodies fused by fire now are statues that remind those who see them of their sacrifice. Those Warforged that remain have mostly found new calling and reject violence. Free to express themselves beyond a number, they have adopted new identities, augmenting themselves to present themselves as both Warforged and the race they identify with most.   The younger races, now free from their oppressors, split the lands into countries that were former High Elf kingdoms within the empire.