A Short History of the World: The Formation of the Eladrian Empire

A note on calendars:
The founding of the Eladrian Empire begins the calendar at EE 00, which approximately equates to the previous human calendar of Era of the Cassangrecan Republic as ECR 1250 or thereabouts. This dates back to the 00 ECR with the fall of the human Lyssian Empire. This equates to approximately 745 LE, in the Lyssian Empire calendar. Before that, even in the Elderling histories no calendric records have been successfully translated or interpreted. It is suggested that the Great War of the Dwarves occurred some 500 years before LE 00, and the Eladrin Wars some 2000 years before that, the Overthrow of the Dragons even earlier, some 6000 years before that and perhaps the creation of the world potentially 5000-10000 years before that. Though this is all conjecture.

Date Event
BLE 2000 Elven Schism
BLE 500 Dwarven Great War
BLE 358 Undying Council of Mortarion is Founded
BLE 247 Fall of Thaur
BLE 200~ Formation of Empire of the Sea
BLE 164 Ascendancy of Muri'Makax to Immortal Dragon Emperor of the 2nd Dynasty
LE 00 Lyssian Conclave, Formation of the Lyssian Empire
LE 85 Foundation of the Lyssian Church of Dragar
LE 280 Conquest of Baronia and Conquest of Vargaria
LE 300~ Foundation of Cassangreca
LE 400~ Kracian Anahethi Purges
LE 745~ Fall of Lyssia in the first recorded outbreak of Spellplague
ECR 300~ Accord of the Tantric Pact
ECR 750~ Sacking of Cassangreca
Ecr 1000 The Mestrian Crusades
ECR 1250 End of the Cassangrecan Era, finalisation of the Treaty of Satraps
EE 00 Founding of the Empire
EE 300 First Tartarian Campaign
EE 450 Logyn the Wanderer, blessed of Alazi circum navigates the world on foot.
EE 700~ Birth of Princess Tayrasi
EE 750 First siege of Midgard
EE 900 Castellan Azrael Skyfrost is chosen as satrap of Syveria
EE 1100~ Death of Empress Aelasi the Magnificent and Ascension of Tayrasi to Empress

The Fall of the Gods

In the beginning there was only the emptiness, the void, rock that makes up the world and the celestials, the stars, the moons and the sun. It is from this interplay of the cosmic forces that the Gods were born. Xortivar, the platinum Dragon, God of Order, was first and mightiest to flow out of the earth, called Gaia or Maya, followed by his clever and beautiful sister Viella the Daemonqueen, Godess of Chaos. Xortivar and Viella were alike as the sun and the moons that hung in the sky, and instantly went to war on one another. Their battle is the one between order and chaos, the fundamental conflict in all life that continues to this day. Their strikes at each other were so mighty that it warped the ground on which they stood, and threw up the mountains and the gouged out the valleys. Xortivar trying to defeat his sister breathed mighty gout of flame at her, but missed, givening rise to the air and sky, as the gases from his breath rose to the heavens and their energy giving rise to the seasons and the winds. Viella then using the heavens to her advantage, let out a primal scream to invoke the sky into flood her fiery opponent. And so it was that water flooded the earth and threatened to drown them both. It is said that they came to an accord then, as they were both threatened by the growing waters. They decided to stop their internecine conflict, and combined their might to throwback the rising seas.

Stopping the rising water, the twin gods found themselves lonely, and desiring companionship went about creating companions for them in their loneliness. Viella used some of the stars to create the clever Cifyre, God of Death and Magic. Xortivar shaping the earth gave form to Mighty Dragar, God of Battle and Storms. Combining their efforts they then used the sky and water to give form to and beautiful Aerin, Goddess of Nature and Fire. From the five Gods then stem the mortal races. Xortivar gave birth to the first dragons with his breath and Viella birthed from her loins all spirits, Djiin and Daemons. Aerin breathed the forests, plants and animals into life and from two droplets of her blood created the Summer and Winter Queens, the matriarchs of the Elven peoples, who then gave birth to their entire race. Dragar from his blood created the dwarves, humans and giant-kin. Cifyre instead gave the world magic using the dust of crushed stars.

All things crumble in time however, and after a period of peace Viella and Xortivar once more were at each other’s throats, each proclaiming their progeny the mightier. Tempers enraged they each set their children against the others to determine which was mightier. Their dragons and daemons swept across the land massacring each other as well as enslaving and destroying the fledgling civilizations of dwarf, man, elf and giant.

The three other gods Cifyre, Aerin and Dragar watched on as their progeny and the world itself were threatened by the cataclysmic powers wielded by the dragons and daemons. Aerin and Dragar, war gods as they are, rushed to enter the battle to protect their creations. Clever Cifyre however worked alone, and pooling his magic created the Astral Plane, a place of formlessness forever removed from the Material Plane. Opening portal to the plane, Cifyre found Aerin locked in combat with Viella. Knowing what he would try to do, Aerin sacrificed her own connection to the Earth, and grabbed Viella tumbling into the Astral with her. Clever Cifyre still on Earth knew that Viella would eventually escape back into the world and make war again, despite his sister’s strength. So it was that he went to find Xortivar who he knew would keep Viella occupied in the Astral Sea. Finding Xortivar locked in combat with Dragar he opened the portal again, right under Xortivar. Dragar realising Cifyre’s plans at the last moment grabbed Xortivar before the great dragon could wrench himself free of the spell, and they both fell through into the Astral. Cifyre, though sad to be separated from his siblings, had thought this would have stopped the fighting, but he could only watch on in disgust as Viella’s daemons and Xortivar’s dragons continued to battle each other. Seeing only one solution to save the rest of the world and mortal races he consoled himself to either the utter destruction or removal of the dragons or the daemons. Thus he studied, so as to pick wisely, for he knew he could only pick one of the two warring parties, and it would cost him his existence in the Material. In time he came to realise that whilst the dragons were powerful they did not wantonly destroy like the daemonspawn of Viella, and thus he decided. Enacting his great ritual Cifyre opened the portal and pulled the Daemons through with him.

Thus it was that the Gods were forever severed from the Material Plane. They look on and heed our prayers though, existing in the Astral. They are ever trapped behind the Veil, for whilst sorcerers are mighty enough to sunder the Veil to call forth daemons, no mortal could ever hope to sunder it enough to bring forth a true God, such as they.

The Primordial Times

It is immediately after the Fall of the Gods that the races were left to themselves. In this time the battle between order and chaos continued with the powerful dragons still fighting against what remained of the daemon hordes of Viella, lead by the mighty Daemon Princes. Whilst Cifyre had dragged the majority of the Daemons into the Astral with him, many were left behind, though he had tied them all permanently to the Astral Plane.

The elven tales go back as far as this time, to the warring of the dragons and daemons. They scraped a society out where they could, enslaved by daemons or subjugated by the dragons. Those subjugated by dragons in the mountains and northern lands became the Eladrin and those who were the playthings of the Daemon Kings in the vast deserts became the Drow. Those elves who grovelled and hid in the jungles and forests became the Wood Elves and Wild Elves of the forests.

It was in this world that only war and turmoil were known by the elves. After centuries fighting the Dragon Lords won over the Daemon Princes banishing or trapping them for eternity. The Drow, their daemon masters defeated, fled into the deserts from whence they had come and into the dark bowels of the earth to become feared as raiders and slavers, forever worshipping their dark Daemon-mother.

Little is known still about this era, but after centuries of dragon civilization it is said that the Eladrin rose up to cast down their dragons. Using powerful magicks they combined the blood of daemons, giants and primitive humans to breed the orkoid and goblinoid races. They developed Necyrmancy in addition to this Carnymancy and bolstered their slave armies with the first undead. Thus they took battle to the dragons with huge numbers, and with their hordes of soldiers, they threw down the dragons. This is the reason it is said why so many dragons deeply slumber today, as these were the dragons who foresaw their fall.

After the war the Eladrin expanded across the earth, their twin Queens of Summer and Winter ruling until their eventual deaths. It was into this world that the dwarven tales first stretch. Seeing the mighty empires of the elves they retreated back into their caves and learning of metal and mining carving out empires in the stone. It was at this early time that the greatest works of dwarven art and Tychnomancy were created, many of which are now destroyed, lost or forgotten. Eventually a war broke out amongst Eladrin, though little is known of why. Suffice to say the Eladrin were split into separate kingdoms by the conflict. The dwarves watched on as their surface dwelling cousins committed horrible atrocities against each other, and destroyed their once mighty societies with terrible magicks and created the great deserts, tundra expanses and blighted parts of the planet were nothing would grow from harmful magical over-saturation. It is said that at this time Dragar was first worshipped amongst the Dwarves in order to strengthen themselves to weather any storm of magic or battle.

It was after this terrible period in history the tales of men begin. The dwarves had no desire to leave their cavernous cities in the mountains wishing to avoid the atrocities of the elves, believing the power of magic to too strongly taint the minds of those who walk under the stars and sun. So it was that man established societies in the void left by the shattered Eladrin. The dwarves grew even mightier under the earth as man learnt and grew on the surface worshipping their pagan gods and forming ancient cultures. The Eladrin were forced by the rapid encroaching of the human race into the most remote parts of the world as the fast breeding and learning humans quickly encroached, and conquered there lands. Wherever humans went they would cast down ancient cities and raise their own, their rapid breeding wearing down the other races through attrition. From these early conflicts the Eladrin gained a reputation as ruthless warriors, wielders of dark magicks and Necyrmany. The elves of the forests kept largely kept to themselves during this time, and become seen as aloof, cunning and ruthless, be likened to the fey spirits of the old forests. The Drow on the other hand became raiders and slavers feared by men and dwarf alike.

Eventually though, the prosperous underground dwarven Empires came to war. Known as the Great War, it ripped apart east and western dwarven society for a hundred years. It is said that such was the cunning of the dwarven Technomancers and Artificers that they created the most powerful engines of war and destruction ever seen. Hundreds of thousands of dwarves died, and eventually the war ground to a halt. With the once fraternal dwarves fractured into clan holds and their unity ever severed. It was quite soon after the ending of the Great War that dwarven kingdoms began to trade with the many human kingdoms that surrounded them, and the reclusive elves in order to restore themselves to strength. Thus it was that the common dwarven tongue that the dwarves had once used to trade between themselves was adopted by many cultures as a trade language. It is at this time that the dwarves also spread the Word of Dragar to many of the pagan humans.

It was approximately five hundred years after the ending of this Great War that the Lyssian Empire was formed out of the early human kingdoms of Lysia, Kysios, Taros and Licresse, in Mestria. It spanned the Zire River and the Telysios Desert in the south, to the blighted earth of the Tantric Wastes east of the Bluds Mountains. The Lyssian Empire sprawled over two thousand miles both north and south, its capital being Darmissia.

It is during this era that the vast armies of and powerful war-mages of Lyssia conquered the northern human nations. Records show they established communication with the elves of Sviofalva and even traded with them. They founded the cliff city of Cassangreca on an ancient Dwarven city, uninhabited since the end of the Great War. The greatest achievement of Lyssia though was the knowledge its mages learnt of magic, advancing the art much further than Humans thought possible, stealing and reinterpreting many arcane marvels of the Eladrin and Elf cities they sacked. After the fall of the Lyssian Empire the Cassangrecan Republic was formed, and the humans split into various smaller kingdoms. These included the powerful Empire of the Sea that ruled most of the Trade Sea and further south the Kracian Empire, conquering Eladria, Tantaria and Kracia.

The Reclamation

Some thousand years ago and some two thousand years after the fall of the Lyssian Empire a catastrophe struck the world, and entire civilisations were irrevocably changed. This event is known as the Shardfall. An arcane and divine event on an unprecedented scale, it was caused impact of a comet into the deserts of Kracia. The mighty impact tore through the very fabric of the material plane and sent ripples of astral energy through the cosmos. It is said that the ripples broke apart binding spells, animated the dead in vast quantities, sent out seismic tremors that destroyed mountains and maddened thousands of casters who continued the destruction.

It was of course the Eladrin, the greatest of the Elderling races who recovered first. Their diviners and arcanists divined that there was an object of great power hidden in the Telysios desert where the comet had struck that would alter the future of the earth for the benefit of the Eladri. And so it was that the Eladrin set out expeditions to find this powersource.

While the Eladri nations banded together locate the powersource the other races were less focused. The dwarves were still taking stock of their situation. They held the first conclave of all the dwarf holds since the Dwarven Great war as the dwarves tried to assess the situation that had destroyed much of the Technomancy they had worked to recover. The human nations, particularly of Mestria blamed the catastrophe on the elves and on magic itself. They executed mages in their thousands and readied great crusades against the Elderlings for the catastrophe. Such executions though only served to destabilise the Veil however, and Daemonic incursions were frequent as the human nations swept forth massacring Dwarf, Human, Eladrin, Drow and Elf alike.

The Eladri of the ancient elven homelands struck out into the deserts and finally after years of searching, found what they were looking for. What the Eladrin recovered would come to be known as the Shard, a great astrally-resonant crystal of immense power. Carrying the crystal back to Eladria and the few cities of the Elves, now recovering from the turmoil and taking stock of the human threat, the wizards and clerics of the Eladri probed the huge Shard. Eventually they discerned through experiments and divinations the potential for this object. It could permanently tame the Astral sea, and make the use of magic reliable for all. It was thus that the human threat was countered.

It is then recorded that in one of the quickest Eladri political decisions of all history, taking only a century to debate, the Undying Council of Mortarion ordered the creation of the Weave as it had come to be known, the strengthening of the veil between the Astral and the Material, and the calming of its currents.

And it was done. Eight giant spires went in the far reaches of the earth whilst the Eladrin and Elf armies marshalled to hold the humans at bay. One was created for each school of magic and each contained a part of the Shard. Then in the middle of the Spires, in the once human city of Mirz the greatest wizards from all of the Eladri cities completed the Weaving, and forever altered the nature of magic.

Magic was no longer an incredibly chaotic force to be wielded with caution and at the peril of daemonic incursions or possession. The Eladrin were quickly able to counter the human invasions and destruction with supreme and reliable magic. They pushed back the humans and cleansed their unholy tread from the ancient lands they had conquered.

Thus it was that the Silver Empire of Eladria was founded on the back of this conquest. In a few centuries more of conquest most of the earth had been reclaimed by the Eladri. Where once humanity had been a force that was set to ravage the earth, it was countered by the mighty magicks of the Eladri people.

The Time Since

The Silver Empire of the Eladrin has prospered in the two thousand years since its founding, expanding its territory in every direction from its capital, Mortarion the City of the Dead. It reaches from the Wood Elf nations in Mestria to the Eladrin cities in Syveria down to the City of Zuldir on the edge of Zyndria and the Dragonlands, and of course in the Eladrin and Drow heartlands of Eladria and Kracia.
Since the Weaving, magic has saturated the world, and many have been able to pick up the capacity to use magic. Unlike before the Weaving those that were too weak to master he arcane arts no longer went insane and died. As such commerce has become enmeshed with magic in never before seen ways. No longer is it a requirement that trade caravans march down dusty roads between cities, instead with the correct ritual and reagents, merchants can open a portal to the city of their desire and step through with their goods. Any blacksmith can invoke rituals to enchant their produce, and a new class of worker has risen to prominence, the mage-wright who uses cantrips and minor incantations to create and repair objects for a fee. As such with reliable and safe magic the commercial and financial institutions of the world have grown along with the growing industrialisation of magic.

The Empire is not all good things though. Indeed many the losers of the Reclamation, the humans, do not see the best parts of the Empire. The Eladrian Empire is fond of slaves and every race including Eladrin themselves can easily find themselves forced to work in the Mage-Forges as a slave to one of the thirteen great Eladrin Houses. In particular human and orc slaves are the norm, as they breed quickly and the Eladrin disdain to let them run free.

It is a time of magic, of the vast Empire of the Eladrin and of dark marvels.

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