History

The first two races appearing in the chronicles are Kosaris and Hummish. While the former do appear earlier in the chronicles than the latter, it can be mainly attributed to the fact that the only remaining records are, in fact, of Kosari origin. As such, it is still unclear to this day which race was the first to inhabit the continent of Ordonia. Either way, Kosaris quickly established a large and powerful Ardenian Empire centred around the Grand Sand Sea. From there, they managed to subdue the divided Hummish, claiming control over most of Ordonia. Desperate, those Hummish who refused to accept the rule of the winners had fled the continent, taking to the sea, starting the First Wave of Colonisation.
The Hummish constituted a minority in the empire and were pretty oppressed in it. They were forced to embrace the Kosari religion worshipping God and the Gracious Wind as taught by the First Prophet, and forbidden from settling in the Grand Sand Sea. Moreover, a special system of taxing recruits from Hummish subjects was put in place, and over time most of the army came to consist of Hummish, who had started to rapidly acquire traits of a warrior society. As a result, Hummish generals came to have a lot of power and often fought among themselves for control over the Emperor, or even used the troops under their commands to forcibly change Emperors by backing one pretended or another. However, claiming the throne for themselves always ended up badly due to an immediate backlash from Kosarian nobles.
Soon after, the Second Prophet had emerged, propagating many new rules and rituals for all believers to follow. Those guidances helped bring order to the Empire, turning many of the serious crimes into crimes against God himself. It had also served to modernise the government, centralising the power and oppressing the lower classes in favour of the upper ones. A few centuries later, Kimnans came along from the Forbidden Forest and started to gradually gain more and more rights and privileges. They soon became Empire's best rangers and were given autonomy in the areas near the Forest, tasked with protecting the Empire from any dangers that could come from there. Also around that time, the Third Prophet had emerged, and the organised Church of Three Prophets has been founded, rapidly acquired much power and influence.
As time went, the huge Ardenian Empire was getting more and more corrupt and disorganised, embroiled in civil wars, rebellions and struggle for power. For a few dozen years, the Empire was even split into three separate realms, with all of three emperors fighting each other and rapidly losing their parts of their lands to rebellions. Soon enough, one of the three empires, the one holding most of the Grand Sand Sea, started to recruit additional irregular units from among more numerous Kosarons to compensate for its smaller Hummish population. That empire ultimately won the war, and the formed Kosari regiments remained in active service as personal army of the Emperor, giving him some actual power although still not enough to be able to rule freely.
While the Ardenian Empire was embroiled in its internal conflicts, a new power was rising off the shores of Ordonia. The former Hummish who had previously fled the continent and settled the Wellimbrook Archipelago, have taken to calling themselves Eirish now. Their Kingdom of Eire has been steadily gaining more wealth and power, largely driven by the discovery of the New World and the Second Wave of Colonisation. Numerous colonies were founded, mostly be Eirish, although many of those have failed to survive and the more remote ones barely had any communication with the Old World. But as the Wellimbrook Archipelago kept getting more and more densely populated, the thirst for new lands among Eirish people has been growing accordingly.
As for the Ardenian Empire, the fragile power balance within it was seriously damaged when a large-scale war had suddenly broken out. The Eirish have finally turned their attention back to their ancestral lands. In response to the call for help from a coalition of newly-formed Hummish countries whose population had previously rebelled against the Empire, a large and modern Eirish army was dispatched and landed on Ordonian soil. It happened when firearms were already prominent but not commonplace, and training an old-school professional warrior took a lot of time and effort. Due to extremely high casualties in the first battles, the Empire was in dire need of troops, so the Hummish generals didn't object to the Emperor raising a few new regiments of Kosaris armed with muskets. It was done under the promise of disbanding those regiments after the war is over — which was still a big step forward for the Emperor since the Hummish elites were constantly conspicuous of him gaining more power.
However, when the war ended, the Emperor didn't fulfil his promise. He now had a considerable force of fusiliers under his command, an army that compensated for its lack of training with all the battle experienced it had acquired during the war. Moreover, there were plenty of Kosaris available to replace any losses, unlike the situation with Hummish warriors. A rebellion by one of the Hummish generals got swiftly crushed by this new army, and the balance of power was forever changed. However, Hummish still amounted to a high percentage of Empire's troops, and among the best soldiers at that. With time, however, more and more Hummish regiment started to abandon armour and adopt musquets in their warfare, although there were still plenty of old-style assault regiments among them. At the same time, a new type of ships suited for long-range journeys was invented, called Mitris and starting the Third Wave of Colonisation
That new, modern army and a return of most of the power to the hands of the Emperor woke the Ardenian Empire from its eternal sleep and brought on a new beginning. With it, the influence of the Empire started to rise again, and it began to slowly reconquer the lands lost in the past centuries. Along with that, the interest towards the New World was also spreading among the Empire's noble families, and soon enough the eyes of this awakening giant had turned towards those distant lands. Thus, the Fourth Wave of Colonisation has begun. By this day, the Empire has already established many colonies in the New World or claimed them from others by force, and the situation kept heating up with main battles moving away from the Old World and onto the New one.
The most bloody battles happened for the key island of Sol Meridia. The famous Siege of Sol Meridia, the first Kosari invasion drawn away by the island's militia, created a long-lasting effect due to the signing of the Gollanhad's Pact granting the island much autonomy in return for militia's help. It also increased the role of militia in the New World as opposed to the regular regiments stationed in the colonies. At the meantime, the newly-discovered continent of Etox, also known as the Black Continent, has seen a rapid increase Ardenian Empire's influence, with Ardenian forces managing to conquer a number of its kingdoms and establish their protectorate over many other ones.