Valeria

Autumn, 803 CA

It has been more than fifty generations since the first men set foot in Valeria (481 BA as the Church of the Celestial now calls it), a broad river valley bordered in the East by the Antuil Mountains and the West by the Storm Mountains. The River Vale winds its way North through the valley from the Great Solderan Sea and into the North Sea along the Salt Coast. The men came from Drovir far to the North and in another place, driven South by salted winds, war, famine, and an existential horror which is now only a vague memory passed down through time. The sagas of men described how their Gods had forsaken them, their lands were engulfed in flames, and their armies crushed by unspeakable horrors which spilled from the earth.   The first men arrived ragged, weary, and desperate, and settled along the wild coasts of what is now the Duchy of Flyrbjorn, at first unnoticed by the indigenous races of the lands. There was peace then, for the first men, and rest, but more men came and, in greater numbers, they dispersed along the coasts and rivers of Valeria where they encountered strange folk: fair skinned and slightly built men with pointed ears who spoke languages of songs unfamiliar, short and stout men the height of children, but with the build and visage of warriors, small folk who fled before them and hid in thickets and boroughs beneath the hills.   It has been said that for every ship that arrived on the Salt Coast in those days, a new kingdom was founded. The first men, were accustomed to war. Their lands had certainly been ravaged by it, though no written language survived their migrations across the frigid North Sea. As they settled, these petty kingdoms warred with one another, each vying for power, but they also warred against the fair folk, the previous masters of the land. The men called them elves, after a mythical race from their homelands. The "elves" called themselves Solderi or the race of the Sun, the Solder.   The Solderi had ruled over a near continent spanning empire for millennia, but the same calamity that drove the men from their homelands had befallen their realms. Scholars now refer to it as the War of the Gods, when the skies split and burst in flames, when the sea swallowed up lands mountains and thrust the depths to the heavens. For the Solderi, or High Elves as they are now known in the common tongue of Valeria, a large portion of their population was overtaken by a "darkness". The Solderan Empire was split in twain from the bottom to the top, the peoples they had subjugated rose up against them while they fought amongst themselves. The introduction of men to their northern frontier was too much for the struggling nation, and it collapsed inward and southward to the great inland sea.   In its place men came and power was centralized into a series of warring kingdoms. The first kingdoms of men came to be known as the Northern Realms, though such naming conventions suggest a political unity that was far removed from reality. So it was as kingdoms of men were formed in the south, or as the region is known now, The River Lands. These kingdoms engaged in petty squabbles for centuries, while subjugating the remaining High Elves, their wild cousins, (known to men as Wood Elves) the Sylveri (the race of the moon), the Dwarves (or Saxumi), and the halflings.   Four hundred eighty-one years after the first men arrived in Valeria. The Holy Speaker of the Fire, leader of a little know religious sect who had denounced the Old Gods known as the Cult of the Celestial, converted King Magnas I of the Kingdom of Flyrbjorn to "The One True Faith". Thus, in the records of men began the first year of the Celestial Ascension. King Magnas and The Holy Speaker assembled a great host and converted the Northern Realms by the sword when necessary. The Holy Speaker decreed that King Magnas was the divine ruler of Valeria by right and by the year 12 CA the Northern Realms had all sworn fealty to the anointed crown.   A grand army was assembled in Tyrfelas and marched on the kingdoms of the River Lands in a fervent holy crusade. At great cost in both blood and treasure, one by one the pagan lords fell or surrendered.Tthe Wood Elves of the Sylveran Realms capitulated without ever facing the army of the north in open battle. On the summer Solstice of the year 19 CA, the host of King Magnas was met by a mighty High Elven army, at Valeria Linduil, the northernmost city of the Solderan kingdom still in Elven hands. A ruinous battle waged, first on the North of the river Linduil, then through the shining streets of the city itself. After four days of bloodshed, the armies of King Magnas made a final assault against the citadel of Valeria Linduil, and took the city at tremendous cost.   As the smoke settled, the robes and affects of the Holy Speaker were found upon the battlements, but the Speaker himself was nowhere to be found. It was as though he had vanished from this plane of existence. The Church of the Celestial declared that the Speaker had succeeded in fulfilling his holy mission, and had been returned to the One True God in paradise. His robes, jewlery, and crown were divided up among the twelve great houses of the Northern Realms and the River Lands to preserve the hard won unity, and King Magnas I was declared the undisputed lord of the newly formed Kingdom of Valeria.   The line of King Magnas continued for 784 years and maintained, with some difficulty, the integrity of the realm... until, the autumn equinox of 803 CA, when King Hrovir Magnas III died under mysterious circumstances leaving no direct heir to the throne, and ending the Magnas line. A moot was called amongst the various dukes of the Valeria, excepting the Sylveran Realms naturally, and a great debate took place. Some houses argued for the dissolution of the Kingdom, others sought the crown for themselves, but the Church of the Celestial exercised its great influence and backed the claim of King Harold of Valen. In order to encourage cooperation among the great houses, a small council was formed of a number of the most powerful, and King Harold I was crowned King of Valeria.   All is not well in the Kingdom. Rumblings in the South allege that the Sylveran elves, never truly loyal and enraged at increased timber exploitation in what was once their lands, seek independence. The dwarven Ironfoot Kingdom to the West has long since severed all diplomatic ties, and no expedition into those lands has returned in decades. Meanwhile rumors have trickled in from the East of dark hosts descending from the Storm Mountains in the night and inflicting horrors upon the far flung camps and villages of the wilds.