The First Epoch: Prehistory, The Beginnings of Civilizations, and The First Calamity

Known history begins with the waning of the Pre-Infestation civilization, dominated by the kingdoms or city-states of Asthëoth, Eöthrin, Gaelthrin, Paelrin, Zaelrin, and Raëoth. These peoples spoke a similar language, arguing a common origin. There were other kingdoms, equally civilized, but inhabited by different races, Many human, but sometimes strange and apparently older races. The barbarians of that age were the Vost, who lived along the edges of the great forests and the slopes of the ranges of highlands that defined and restricted the frozen wastes and glaciers that dominated lands further Nordt (north), the Shauroth who roamed the edges of the great deserts and savannahs in the Sount (south), and the Nunna, and Annish who were in the valleys of the great rivers, and the strings of lakes that divided the Erizt (east) from the Wenzt (west).

Most of the world as of yet was unexplored by men, and the several kingdoms of that time occupied mostly fertile lands between the frozen lands of the Nordt, the wild savannahs of the Sount, and the dangerous lowlands in the Erizt. Aside from this, there were also significant kingdoms ruled by elves, dwarves, and other strange races. These kingdoms occupied lands less congenial to humans; dwarves in the mountainous regions, elves in the thick untamed forests, and so on.

Gaelthrin was the Nordternmost of the kingdoms of Eövrisath (For that is what the peoples of that time called the land). Zaerin, whose people were more culturally primitive than their kindred kingdoms, was the kingdom farthest to the Sount and Erizt. Beyond it to the Sount lay the drier plains that heralded the deserts beyond, and to the Erizt the bogs and swamps that eventually coalesce into several bodies of water, some salten, some sweet. Among the more hospitable places in these forlorn wastes live the scattered nomadic savages and tribes of Shauroth, Nunna, and Annish who were cannibalistic.

Beyond these, along the shores of the many inland seas was another strange ancient culture, unrelated to the Eövrisath kingdoms and wholly inhuman, which tribes of Annish or Nunna would occasionally fall prey to. It is thought they may have been some aquatic race, or to at least have had their origin in those primordial seas. So too in the remote Wenzt of the world was another similarly alien and ruthless bestial race called the Kûrneses.

The Eövrisath civilizations were crumbling; their armies were composed largely of barbarian mercenaries. Shauroth, Nunna, and Vost were their generals, their statesmen, often their kings. Of the squabbling of the kingdoms, and the wars between Eöthrin, Gaelthrin, and Paelrin, as well as the conquests by which the Shauroth established a claim among the lands of the other kingdoms of the region, there are more legends than accurate history.

The Kûrneses were far older than the human races, even older, possibly than the elves. They had masteries of magic, as well as many sciences and arts that are now lost. They worshipped strange and obscene gods, and in their lands they erected great colossal statues and idols of carven stone. They were fond of keeping slaves, and they were cruel and haughty. However, much like the other human races of Eövrisath, they were also falling to ruin, the golden ages of their empire and technology had long passed though their prowess in the mysticism was still potent. When they could no longer subjugate the other races, they used their magic to resolve their needs, bringing the malevolent and disfigured race of Reocs into Eövrisath. They are a loathsome race of humanoids with red eyes and grey-green skin covered with coarse hair. Reocs are misshapen with a slightly stooped posture, and a snout instead of a nose. But the Kûrneses could not control these creatures. They began to escape, and soon the wilds were thick with their evil kind. They often plundered the human villages, killing all whom they would encounter. They are ever vile, and poisoning the lands wherever they wander.

The barbarian tribes were decimated from their meager and savage lives in the fringes of habitable lands. They were driven further into the wilds, or to raid the human kingdoms out of desperation. Many of the Vost were driven further Nordt into the edges of the frozen wastes where they encountered other races of humanoids that had grown to immense proportion. The Gaelthrin were likewise driven further to the Erizt, displacing the Annish tribes. The Eöthrin were devastated, as invasions, either from the alien Reocs, or the unnumbered barbarians broke their cities. Refugees from the Eöthrin escaped where they could to take refuge, mostly among the Paelrin and Asthëoth, but even so far as the Zaelrin, and the Raëoth. Most of these refugees only found slavery and servitude in these new lands.

Such was the world when the whole of Eövrisath convulsed with a great calamity. The old proto-continent of Eövrisath was beginning to shift and break to form new landmasses. Much of the arid desert lands in the Sount-Wenzt gave way and sank suddenly into a great sea. The empire of the Kûrneses was fractured, and fully half of it was overcome in a great deluge. The great barrier between the warmer lands of the Sount and the Nordtern frozen lands expanded as a string of volcanoes broke from the frozen Nordt. Great earthquakes shook the shining cities to their foundations everywhere. Whole nations were obliterated. In the farther Erizt, the low swamplands and broken seas encountered new and powerful sources to their waters which flooded the nearby swamps and bogs covering the ruins of crumbling cities, and connecting the many smaller lakes into larger seas, and farther to the Sount a small ocean. The foul aquatic humanoids gained power as the seas they inhabited consumed more territory. These races were not content with the new territories the waters brought them, but continued to terrorize the lands, and to war among each other for dominance. From these now flooding jungles and swamps swarmed savages and beasts, apes and ape-men of every description. As the cannibalistic Annish, who were just beginning to learn the arts of civilization and the Vosh were forced to migrate to the Nordt, their tribes clashed in violent confrontations. The two races were once again reduced to the elemental savagery they had begun to leave as they competed for the same resources of food, and shelter. The Vost reverted to the skills in working stone as their ancestors once did, but they lost nothing of the artistic skills they expressed in their creations. The Annish were not so refined in artistic expression. They were a cruder race, and though they fell back to working stone, and their previous cannibalistic tendencies, they advanced still in weapons mastery. They were the more practical, and more prolific of the two races. They left no ivory carvings, or painted pottery as the Vost would. Both races left weapons of flint in plenty.

The titans of the Nordt were not spared either. Their frozen realm was now becoming uninhabitable. Many of the towering plateaus that they occupied were thrown down by the volcanic activity that was reshaping the world. Those who survived were forced to seek new homes farther into the Nordt, and also to the Erizt and the Wenzt as they needed. Some found suitable places in isolated great peaks that remained frozen in spite of the eruptions. Forced now into different and isolated pockets, their single primitive species began to fracture and adapt to their new environs much like the other primitive tribes.

Of the ancient city-state kingdoms little remains. The Wenztern world is seen to be a wild country of jungles and lakes and torrential rivers fed still by the diminishing glacial fields of the distant Nordt. Among the forest-covered hills of the NordtWenzt exist wandering bands of ape-men, without fire, implements, tools or even human speech. They are the descendants of the Gaelthrin, sunk back into the squalling chaos of jungle-bestiality from which ages ago their ancestors so laboriously crawled. To the SountWenzt dwell scattered clans whose speech is of the most primitive form, yet they still retain the name of Asthëoth. It is their only link with their former stage. Now merely a term to distinguish them from the true beasts with which they contend for life and food. Neither the squalid Asthëoth nor the apish Gaelthrin have any contact with other tribes or peoples.

Far to the Erizt, the Eöthrin, leveled almost to a bestial plane themselves by the brutishness of their slavery to the Paelrin, were able to take advantage of the chaos after the great calamity. They rose and destroyed he Paelrin. They are savages stalking among the ruins of a wrecked civilization. The survivors of Paelrin, who have escaped the fury of their slaves, have come Sountward. They fall upon that mysterious kingdom of Shauroth in the Sount and overthrow it, substituting their own culture, modified by contact with the older one. Some few bands of the Shauroth, however, escaped this purge, fleeing far to the Wenzt, they discovered the ruins of a strange civilization; the Kûrneses, now wholly abandoned. Though ages had passed, remnants of the older nation seemed to have survived. The Shauroth adapted these things into their own culture, even adapting the Kûrneses as new gods, replacing gods who had fallen from favor, and mixing the rest into the pantheon of their savage gods. In these lands, the Shauroth would begin to unravel the mystic arts and the secrets of magic.

The lands of the Zaelrin now stand desolate and forsaken. The forces of the strange races who dwelt in the seas in the Erizt overtook the Zaelrin. They overran the land and cities even as the ever rising tide of the new seas inevitably advanced. The Raëoth, dwelling in lands farther from the sea, and in the highland foothills of a low mountain range, were spared the floods that destroyed the Zaelrin as well as the violent eruptions that destroyed lands further Nordt. Slowly, in spite of the savagery and brutality around them, the Raëoth culture continued to advance and grow. They were now the most advanced and civilized (though considerably less advanced than the current age) of the human cultures. The distant Shauroth would be considered savage in comparison. The threat of the Reocs continued unabated, raiding and pillaging all lands, tribes, clans, and peoples with equal brutality wherever they were found.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:37, Tue 24 Aug 2021.

The Second Epoch: Early History, The Foundations of Races, and The Second Calamity

This is an account of those peoples that survived the first calamity, and the scouring of the Reocs. A little more is known of this age because of the advent of written records but there is still much that has been lost to Crothos (the god of time).

The tribes of the Raëoth, much spared from the worst of the tragedies of the first calamity were now freed from much of the external conflicts that defined their existence until this time. In the space of a few hundred years, the villages and tribes of the Raëoth has culminated in a broad empire of city-states, encompassing much of the land that lay between the seas in the Erizt, the desert lands in the Sount, and the low mountain ranges to their Nordt, though they did not occupy the valleys between that range, and the greater range that define the frozen lands of the utter Nordt. Raëoth continued to rule their extensive territories as a hegemony of loosely allied city states, each holding dominion over a limited territory. Their arts and culture flourished, reaching greater achievements than any other culture of the time. Among their cities rose many grand temples to their gods, and theaters carved in marble. In addition to a pantheon of deities, most cities also had at least one patron deity who was believed to watch over and protect the city. These loosely allied city-states were mostly peaceful among each other. Though conflicts were rare, when they did occur they were brutal.
The Raëoth territories would eventually be united by a foreign born Einir king whose conquests would reach the distant Sountern lands of the Paelrin.

In the Nordtern valley, between the highlands claimed by the Raëoth, and the Eriztern ranges of the Aldamisder mountains, two new races of peoples have arisen; the Bor, and the Einir. They are bright of eye, with golden hair and powerful in stature, unlike the Raëoth to the Sount. They are the final amalgam of melding the Vost and the Annish with the savage apish creatures who roamed the far Nordt mountainous Aldamisder lands. These new races are similar in many ways, now being cousin races, but they are clearly distinct from each other as well. They still exist largely as small groups of clans and tribal families. Fifteen hundred years in the north country have made the Bor a tall, tawny-haired, grey-eyed race, vigorous and warlike, and already exhibiting a well-de-fined artistry and poetism of nature. Their counterparts, the Einir are not typically so tall. They have green eyes, and flaxen hair. Both races still live mostly by the hunt, but the southern tribes have been raising cattle for some centuries.

Wenzt of those lands occupied by those two still savage races, separated by a spur of the Aldamisder mountains the tribes of peoples once known as the Asthëoth and the Gaelthrin have degenerated almost to a bestial status. For centuries, they resisted time, neither advancing nor declining too much further. Their previous existence and cultures have been entirely obliterated, and now they know nothing except the continual conflict and the challenges of their environment. After nearly 600 years, both races have now wholly merged, and lost any resemblance to their forbears, becoming the race of the Erdritch. finally the ties that bound them to their savage past begin to break, and they have formed myriad of small chiefdoms throughout the lands, gradually codifying a new culture. Bands of raiders from these tribes occasionally set to raiding the edges of the another new race, the C'rlyh.

In the distant Wenzt, the refugees of the Shauroth discovered the ruined and abandoned cities of the Kûrneses, and they established their own cities in those lands, and they called themselves the C'rlyh. Even now, some few individuals of that wicked race remained, for they were a long lived race. And this was their final destruction. But the Shauroth didn't wholly dispose of the Kûrneses' advancements. Instead weaving the previous regions inhabitants into legend and myth creating a new and diverse pantheon. With the abandoned knowledge of the Kûrneses, they soon rivaled the Raëoth far to the Erizt and they would establish the first true empire after the first calamity. The C'rlyh empire was the most powerful empire in the world for over 2,000 years. The C'rlyh Empire created art in many forms, including large, carved stone statues, bass relief panoramas cut into cliffs or adorning the walls of their cities, temples and strongholds. Though the empire of the C'rlyh had great advantages from the Kûrneses' mystical technologies, constant military conquest eventually destroyed the reserves of their power, and the empire fell to ruin.

The Paelrin who originally occupied lower plateaus in territories Sount and Wenzt of the Raëoth, were driven farther to the Sount by the first calamity. In these lands dwelt primitives, the Khesian peoples, who consisted of smaller familial tribes, never numbering more than a few dozens. This foreign people used a language uncouth to the Paelrin, and any concept of rulership or authority was alien to them. Though the lands were mostly arid savannah, there was a series of lowlands and marshes along the sea coast that the Paelrin were able to exploit to raise crops, and they settled in these areas. As their settlements flourished, they came into more common contact with the Khesian, who began to rely on them for sustenance during times of drought or other hardship, eventually forming a symbiotic relationship between the two cultures.
They also began to explore the sea to the Wenzt. It was about this time that a new ruler of the Paelrin appeared who established the first Paelrin Dynasty. Under his rule, the Paelrin made great advances in architecture, astronomy and the domestication of beasts for meat. Though there were no sources for iron, they were able to alloy copper into a bronze that was of similar strength. This also marked the beginning of the Paelrin practice of building great temples to deify their rulers after their death. The kingdom of the Paelrin became wealthy and powerful under the rulership of the Paelrin dynasties, and they took tribute from many various and sundry lands that occupied the continent to the south, as well as occupied islands in the Wenztern seas. The empire now occupied all of the lands from these islands in the Wenztern seas through the barren deserts to the coastal areas of the hostile Eriztern waters. The Paelrin dominion was eventually subdued for a time by invaders from the Raëoth, and their ancient religions became corrupt and depraved. Eventually human sacrifice became common, first as a punishment for criminal offence, but as the population and needs of the society grew, it became more common as a method to appease the ancient gods and deified rulers.

It was in this time, nearly 3,000 years since the First Calamity that the continents of Evorisath were once again shaken and moved. This would set them very nearly into the present day arrangement, though small shifts continued to occur for several centuries. The lands of the C'rlyh were split by two new mountain ranges. The Wenztern seas expanded as the lands between the C'rlyh empire were split from the more Eriztern parts of the continent and a great torrent of water filled the gaps, which reached nearly to the Aldamisder ranges creating the (names) seas. The plateaued highlands occupied by the Raëoth were pushed higher, and most of the peoples in those places were doomed, but there were several kingdoms along the Wenztern edge of those lands that were spared both the deluge that occurred to the Wenzt, and the upheavals in the Erizt.
The lands of the Paelrin began to sink into the sea, and a great multitude of refugees were forced to escape to the Erizt. While yet farther to the Erizt, the many seas were finally united into a great ocean, that would remain unexplored for many ages.
The Bor and the Einir who occupied the most the Nordt-Eriztern mountains, were spared the worst of the calamity, but those closer to the Raëoth were destroyed by the deluge that combined the seas in the Erizt. Most of them would now occupy a mountainous peninsula, well isolated from the rest of the continent, though some tribes would remain along the mountains that rim the Wenztern edges of the Nordtern parts of Evisath Sea.
Likewise the Erdritch tribes would be fortunate. The more treacherous of the territories they claimed were destabilized by these convulsions, and though many tribes were obliterated in the ensuing landslides, those that survived discovered the mountains had been brought low, and many more pastoral lands remained instead.
This message was last edited by the GM at 03:38, Tue 24 Aug 2021.