THE FIFTH AGE, the Age of Rebuilding, began as an age of Ice.  Huge glaciers of ice covered most of the planet, reshaping the land masses and destroying nearly all of the people and nearly all traces of their existence (due to the horrible nature of their magics, the Angustian ruins were untouched by the glaciers, however a few did fall into the sea).  For at least 800 years, perhaps more, the ices covered the lands.  The glaciers extended from the North Pole down to Indor, and from the South Pole to the tip of the Atlantian landmass.  The Elves magically protected their lands, but the humans moved south toward the equator.   Orcs and Dwarves warred for underground homes during the Ice Age.  The Orcs were driven out and trapped and frozen in huge underground tombs.  Giants (other than the frost and storm giants) made their homes near the equator, not too far south of where the Humans would found Khemt.  During the Ice Age, primitive man had founded the city-states of Koph, which made (or remade) strides in the development of trade, diplomacy, and civic institutions.

            Grindill, secure in the Tower, awoke when the ices began to recede.  He used the power of the Tower to end the Ice Age.  The day of his awakening was the first day of the Fifth Age.  He then began retraining skilled artisans in the varied arts.  Most of the people, except those of Khemt, had fallen into a state of extreme barbarism.  A young Khemian girl fled from her homeland.  Fate gave her wisdom and she recorded the wisdom of Fate on a series of scrolls.  She took the scrolls with her until she finally settled near a river several hundreds of miles south of Khemt.  She named her home Huzuz.

            The rebuilding began when Grindill, Amrax, and Kronos set about to rebuild the continent of Atlantis during the first year of the Age.  Grindill the Arch Mage was still the Master of the Tower.  They restructured the continent's climate and renamed it Inzeladun.  Grindill then brought back Killren, and he aided the reconstruction as well.  Grindill rebuilt the capital city of his old kingdom of Latipac.  People began to gather in the area once known as Indor, for Grindill kept the lands peaceful via magic and a strong military.  Grindill based the society on the civilization that had invaded Inzeladun during the Third Age.  Those people had called themselves "Vikings".  Grindill gave that appellation to the Indorian people and they worshipped the gods of the Norse.

            Klorin the green dragon was hatched during the second month of year 1.  A warrior named Solex was born in Koph during the Ice Age.  He was befriended during his childhood by a Crystal Dragon.  When Solex came of age during the first year of this new Age, he and his dragon hunted down White Dragons.

            Xusa was founded in year 2.  The great cities of Koph had arisen during the Ice Age and began to look to Xusa as a gateway to wealth beyond.

            During year 3, Solex the Dragon Slayer had a son.  He named his son Xelos.  Solex died later that year from a wound sustained during a combat with a very ancient white dragon.

            Near the equator, other Humans gathered.  A man called Kronos began to build a new civilization based on the old Khemian civilization.  A new Khemt was born.  Kronos I became the Pharaoh.  He grew in magical power over the last century of the Ice Age.

           Amrax, a wizard of Goodness, grew up in the icy glaciers of Northern Atlantis.  He longed to see trees.  His magic grew in equal bounds with the evil Kronos I.  He called his icy home "Odhirran".  Anduin the Druid left Indor and traveled to Amrax's fortress called Odhirran.   Anduin took the title of Grand Druid, the highest in rank of all of Inzeladun's druids (not that there were many left after the ice age).   A diplomat in temperament, Anduin strove to serve Nature by negotiating problems between the people, serving as an impartial judge.  The people who had settled the regions around the tower Odhirran began to look to him for advice, both spiritual and secular.  Knowing Grindill's plan did not include druids to look after the world, Anduin began to train those he saw had the interest and inclination.  He found several savage druids amongst the barbarian tribes of this early epoch.  He chose the most powerful of these as his first assistant.  Anduin divided Inzeladun into seven circles.  Several initiates came to him after receiving visions from Nature telling the youngsters to seek out Odhirran Tower and the Grand Druid Anduin. One of these visionaries, Cuthal, rose in power quickly, and in three years was made the Great Druid of forests now surrounding the Tower of Odhirran.  During those three years, Cuthal defended the oak forests and protected the people, helping them to forge a new society, and kept a green dragon from destroying those people.

            The kingdom of Khemt began to grow darker as the religion of Set took a firmer and firmer hold over the populace.  Khemt, despite being the most "civilized" of the Human lands, was becoming a sinkhole of villainy and deceit.  Despite the oppressiveness of the Set cult, the Stygians rediscovered papyrus and engineering skills.  New monuments were built in Kronos' honor and in honor of past kings.  Kronos reintroduced the hieroglyphic writing from an earlier Age of Stygians. To be a scribe in Khemt was to be in the finest of all professions.  Soon literature of all types were being written.  The most famous poem of the Age was an epic poem detailing the Kronos' victory over the barbarian chief Trinok.  A fair amount of moral and didactic literature was written as well.  Kronos also reintroduced crude weapon making techniques lost during the Cataclysm.  These early weapons were mostly of bronze, but were very artistic in design.  Only the Elves and Dwarves maintained the skills for iron and steel weapons.   The Stygians also strongly grew well-versed in mathematics, astronomy, and medicine.  The Khemian method of counting was decimal.  An accurate calendar was also developed.  Keen astronomers, they identified imperishable (circumpolar) stars and the indefatigable stars.  From the latter they chose 36 stars which presided over the ten-day periods (decans) of the annual celestial cycle.  They drew up tables which made it possible to determine the position of each decan at every hour of the night and then be able to determine (at least approximately) the time of night.  The Stygians also determined true north by stellar observation.  They also built shadufs for raising water to irrigate their fields. 

            The druid leaders of the barbarian tribes near Odhirran Tower had taught the hunter-gatherers to live a life of cultivating crops and raising livestock.  By the year 100, farming and cattle-raising communities became dominant and a common language evolved, called Odhirranish.  The druids also taught them bronze- and metalworking techniques learned from Anduin (unfortunately the Grand Druid did not know how steel was made).  These people had a custom of burying the cremated ashes of their dead in pottery urns within large cemeteries.  They produced many bronze goods, from farming and carpentry tools to finely wrought ornaments and even heavy-duty weapons such as arrows, spears, and, again influenced by Anduin, scimitars and scythes.  As the peoples grew more and more affluent, powerful individuals within different tribes came to control the commercial passages.  These warlords were perched atop a series of hilltop strongholds that dominated their trade routes that extended as far as Dagam to the east, Koph to the southeast, and the tribes and lands to south all the way to the gulf.  A heroic society, where the fortunes and status of the leaders were based on their fighting prowess and their ability to recruit a loyal following.  The Odhirranish women were equal to their husbands in stature and courage.  There was no cultural rule of distinction to exclude females from the throne or the command of armies.  In fact many women became prominent druids.

            The crystal dragon that had served Solex came to Solex's son, Xelos, in year 16.  Xelos spent the next three years hunting white dragons with the crystal dragon.  Xelos's reputation as a warrior grew and soon he was joined by many companions.  The last of the white dragons was killed in the first month of the twentieth year of the age, hunted to extinction by Xelos and his henchmen.  The crystal dragon left Xelos for the arctic climates in the north shortly afterward, his task finished.

            In the year 20, the warrior called Xelos and Khasmanen, a priest of Olanigan, forged an army to combat an evil ruler from Koph who had built a small fortress near the shores of Lake Eonnoth.  Over the course of the next three years, Xelos, Khasmanen, and his army fought many campaigns against the Kophian intruders.  Xelos swore to create his own nation made up of his followers, a kingdom where the warriors would not be second class citizens, less than some noble born to his station, an empire where the warrior would be exalted for his own merits and abilities.   In the year 25, the Visitation of Olanigan occured.  Olanigan, the god of war, came to Inzeladun and gave his strategies of war to Khasmanen the High Priest and ordained Xelos as his chosen one.  Xelos and his armies crushed the Kophian lord in their next major confrontation.

            The Kingdoms of Gandhara, Magadha, and Uttar Pradesh were founded on the Isle of Bakari.

            Explorers from Koph discovered the rich, verdant lands far to the south in Year 30.  Trees grew and mountains stood.  Grapes were growing in abundance, as were several kinds of berries.  These Kophians, known as the Vanth, or Wanderers, had found a home.  They had been exiled from Koph during the 700th year of the Ice Age and had wandered til now, looking for paradise.  The lands of the Vanth certainly seemed such at first, but dragons, beholders, trolls, and ogres lived deep within, and the Vanth had to deal with these dangers.  They founded their first town in the Year 31.

            Several Vanth towns had sprung up by Year 90.  Mining was a real interest in most of these towns, especially silver mines, although copper, tin, and gold mines were present as well.  The Vanth became accomplished silver smiths and soon traders from Koph were bustling back and forth between Koph and Vanth.  The Vanth had a very simple, but elegant, art style consisting of stylized trees, plants and natural settings.  The social strata in Vanth was often distinguishable by the number of silver earings one wore.

            To the east of Vanth, a barbarian tribe ruled by a warrior-king called Zamarch, rose to power.  They vanquished the other tribes in the area, subjugating and ruling a small empire of barbarian peoples.  Seperated by a vast mountain chain, Vanth was unconcerned by these barbarians.  The Zamarchi, as they were called, soon discovered bronze and created even better weapons than they had before.  The Zamarchi were approached by Kophian traders and priests, who gave them the "benifits" of civilization.  The Zamarchi learned to write its language via the Kophian alphabet, they codified their laws, and they would unite against common foes, such as the Hill Giants who lived there.  The Zamarchi enjoyed trading with the Kophians, and soon were buying Kophian sea vessels to trade on their own.  Their most frequent trading partner was Vanth.  But Kophian ships were hardly reliable for the long coastal routes and often sank, so the Zamarchi often did not want to travel farther out than Vanth.  The mineral wealth of Vanth attracted the Zamarchi, who became greedy for silver and gold.

            In their wars with the giants, the Zamarchi began building large curtain walls out of stone around their villages and towns.  Soon, after several Zamarchi traders ventured far to the north and found The Tower, most buildings were made of cut stone.   Quarries began to be dug to supply the Zamarchi people with stone.  The mountains of Zamarchi also proved to be supplied with diamonds and other mineral riches.  Yet they had no silver, which they found to be more useful.  Soon they were decorating their silver ornaments with the diamonds and found their trinkets in high demand in foreign markets.

            The Zamarchi search for diamonds and other gemstones led them to awaken several powerful dragons that lived in the mountains there.  This was very unfortunate for the Zamarchi, as well as for the silver digging Vanth, for they could not possibly contend with these terrors.  Zamarchi and Vanth lands were destroyed or held hostage by a seemingly unending host of awakening dragons, mostly of the red variety, although a few ferrous dragons were also encountered.  The Zamarchi and Vanth soon became very subserviant to these massive horrors, sacrificing maidens, and making large tributes of wealth and art to stay alive.

            Drychtnoth was founded early in the first century on the shores of lake Eonnoth and north of the Kargan Mountains.  The first king of Drychtnoth was King Xelos.  He founded the small nation, built a small fortress and established a small town.  The name Drychtnoth meant "Destined for Empire".  Thirteen years later the town and the lands had grown to about 100 square miles.  During those thirteen years iron was first produced by the Drychtnothian smiths as an accidental by-product of copper or lead smelting, proving superior to bronze in  durability, malleability, and strength.  The Drychtnothians learned to crush the ore, layer it with charcoal (to lower the iron's melting point), and intensify the heat with bellows, melting away the impurities and leaving carburized iron.  It didn't take long before Drychtnothian blacksmiths became regarded as having occult powers.  Drychtnoth soon developed alchemists from some of the more intelligent and daring blacksmiths.

            King Xelos, founder of Drychtnoth died of old age in the year 63 and his son, Yoth Koxelos took the reigns.  King Yoth fought wars with several nearby villages and minor chiefs, increasing the lands of Drychtnoth by a multiple of ten.  He died in 82.   His eldest son, Thoez Koxelos became king of the growing nation.  He built a stone tower on the sight of the old wooden fortress of his father and grandfather.  He established the first Baron of Drychtnoth, his second born son, in 91.  Under King Thoez, iron production was mastered.  The metal transformed every area of Drychtnothian life as the metal came into general use.  The metal allowed farmers to put larger tracts of land into production.  In time, the countryside, cleared of trees, began to take on patchwork patterns.  Hammers, chisels, drills, and nails became available.  Iron knives, pots, and roasting spits made for more efficient cooking and food preparation.  Personal weapons became more and more lethal.  King Thoez died in 99, to be replaced by his eldest son, Ixelth Koxelos.

            The Massagetai had organized into a culture of warrior women by year 100 and had made excursions as far south as Xusa.

            Anduin the Grand Druid stepped down from his position, becoming the first heirophant druid of the fifth age.  Vercingetorix, the Great Druid of Odhirran, became the next Grand Druid of Inzeladun.  His reign lasted five years when another was chosen.

            Xusa improved upon the writing system of Koph, and founded the satellite city of Anshan (year 100).  In 120 the armies of Koph conquered Xusa.

            Deep underground in Vanth and in the wilderness north of Vanth were vast caverns and catecombs filled with ice that had endured from the Ice Age that followed the Cataclysm.  This ice had been kept frozen by the whim of Grindill, but now Vanth explorers had ventured into the odd, frozen cave systems.  And in these caves were the frozen bodies of the Orcs, twisted mockeries of Elves, frozen in suspended animation.  The Vanth, ignorant and greedy, released the Orcs from their icy prisons.

            The Magadha, Gandhara, and Deccan peoples of Bakari embraced a new religion, dominated by a priestly class known as the Devnimori.  The practice of "Yoga" was developed and the martial art Kalarippeyat was in practice by the mid-second century.  The Bakaran societies began to split into three classes as the new religion took hold - the Devnimori, Kshatriyes, and Vaishyas (Priests, Warriors, and Merchants & Artisans).

            The metalsmiths under King Ixelth Koxelos of Drychtnoth made better and better weapons and armors of iron. This gave the Drychtnothians a great advantage over their neighbors.  King Ixelth Koxelos abandoned the god Olanigan and made a pact with the demongod Wemusa to exist forever.  Olanigan slew Ixelth for his audacity, then Wemusa honored his agreement and caused him to rise again as a vampire.  Ixelth fled Drychtnoth.  To punish the Drychnothians for abandoning him, Olanigan sent The Dragon.  An adult red dragon, Kuthelex Vralmenex, settled in the mountain range that made the southern border of Drychtnoth.  Kuthelex exacted a yearly bounty from the Drychtnothians to keep him from destroying the budding empire.  To the Drychtnothians, however, the dragon was a sign from Olanigan that they were still his chosen people, as well as a warning to those people of the fate that will befall them if they ever again forget who is their chief god.  The Drychtnothians took the yearly tribute as a sacrfice to their god.  They would also kill any would-be dragon slayers.

            Ixelth's son, Thosan Koxelos, became the king of Drychtnoth in the year 140.  He returned his people to the worship of Olanigan.  A patron of the arts, and a friend of the people, Thosan was a popular king within Drychtnoth, but he was a devil to those who were Drycthnoth's enemies.  Finding tomes on warfare waged in the Fourth Age, he encouraged his smithies to turn out several of the weapons described on those pages.  Without pictures, that was a chore to be done indeed.    The discovery of the iron-to-steel process enabled sword makers to take a great leap forward as blacksmiths learned that when the carbon content of iron is increased, steel is formed.  This technique meant that blacksmiths had to become even more proficient in their art.  Thosan insisted that steel and iron production methods to be kept secret.

            Sandar Koxelos took the throne of his grandfather Thosan in 173.  Sandar granted baronies to several of his nephews and cousins, increasing the holdings of Drychtnoth by several thousand square miles.  King Sandar continued to build a strong military, with an eye on both Koph and Xusa.  He kept the secret of steel from his neighboring kingdoms. 

            The Kingdoms of Dagam, Ionia, and Ekbatah were founded around the 200th year of the Age.  Xusa had developed a powerful cavalry.  The cities of Harafa and Mohenjodara of Ekbatah built water supply and drainage systems unmatched anywhere else.  However, Xusa was nearly destroyed by a red dragon that had settled in the mountains to the north.  They were saved by making tribute to the great silver dragon, Argentum.  Argentum, born during the furious winter of the Ice Age, came to Xusa's rescue, destroying the red dragon in a fearsome battle was sung about for centuries afterward.

            Ekbat the First, a warrior of unparalleled ferocity, attacked nearby settlements, forcing them to acknowledge him as their ruler.   He called all of his conquered people Ekbatai and his nation Ekbatah.  His hardest combat came when he encountered the giants.  The giants lived on some choice land, having lived there since the Ice Age.  Ekbat and his armies eventually defeated the giants, driving them from their homeland.   The giants, in turn, invaded the Dagam and the Massagetai.

            A green dragon attempted to kill some Drychtnothian pioneers for encroaching on his lands.  King Sandar went forth  with his host and killed the dragon, using a sword stolen from the dragon's own hoard.  The sword was not anything like the swords the Drychtnothians had.  King Sandar ordered copies of the weapon made, and so Drychtnoth developed the longsword.

            King Oetzi was the first recorded king of the Dagam.  Little is known of his rule.  He was a very religious man, possibly a priest of some cult of Anu or Marduk, the gods of his nation.  It is known that he successfully held off several invasions by hill giants and mountain giants.  It is believed that the people of the area made him king due to his value and reputation as a protector and defender of the people.

            Ionia was founded by a warrior-priest of the god Banthaln.  Banthaln manifested himself to this warrior-priest, Eolus, as a short, old man the size of a child.  At first, Eolous thought he had encountered the mythical Dwarf (despite the lack of a beard).  He was soon corrected.  The avatar told Eolus the mysteries of life and gave to him the secrets of Divination.  Eolous wrote down all that he heard in three volumes.  The first, the Libram Haruspicini, was a guide to divination via animal entrails, bird flights, and lightning.  The second was the Libram Rituales, which gave detailed instructions on the rituals to be used when cities were founded, temples consecrated, armies organized, and kings coronated, as well as other more daily events.  The third volume was the Libram Acherontici, describing the pathways the dead followed and giving the most accurate account of the various Outer Planes as yet too be seen during the Fifth Age as a religious text. (The Stygians had an accurate account as well, but their rituals date back at least to the Third Age).  These texts, known collectively as the Three Librum, was the basis of most of the Ionian society.  As a result, Ionia had a revealed religion, a faith controlled by intricate rituals and presided over by a powerful priesthood.  This priesthood was very strong in divination, as were the mages of the nation.  But the priesthood had power.   These priests were divided into three factions.  The first divined the will of the gods from the entrails (especially the liver) of sacrificed sheep (and other animals).  The liver was the most important part of the body according to the Ionian priesthoods.  The second division consisted of those that could divine by observing lightning and the progress of storms.  By noting from which of the sixteen sectors of the sky a bolt of lightning came from, and by matching the sector to its god, and deciding whether it was a good or bad omen (being aware that the location of the strike on the ground, the shape and direction of the bolt) these priests could infer the communicated desires of the gods.  The third branch made their divinations by the flight patterns of birds, also noting the kinds of birds, their number, their position as regarding the sector of sky and other variables.  These priests and soothsayers used the Three Librams as their religious texts.  It is well documented that the soothsayers of Ionia were the most accurate of diviners.  And they knew that if a king of Ionia would ever rule for more than 400 years, the downfall of Ionia would be certain.  The Ionians believed that a man could live for 85 useful years and that was that.

            King Sandar of Drychtnoth died in 211.  His great grandson Sandar Koxelos II took the throne.  His rule of nine years was highlighted by the conquering of a boyhood rival's freehold nearby.

            In 220, Xelos Koxelos took the throne of Drychtnoth upon his father's death.

            Unetice became the king of the Dagam in 221.  He had ambitious dreams of an empire, so he began to develop an army and new strategies.  He began conquering his neighboring petty landowners.

            Ekbat the First instituted the national religion of Ekbatah, worship of the god Yogath Hob.   Sacrifices of prisoners and lawbreakers became lawful and sanctified.  He also sanctioned the hunting of pegasi found in the barbaric lands of Odhirran.

            A basilisk, a six-legged lizard whose gaze will turn living flesh to stone, wandered into Dagam in 232.  King Unetice sent many warriors to destroy the beast.  They failed for months.  Finally a mercenary fighter and his magic-user companion subdued and captured the beast.  They presented the deadly reptile to the king that winter.  King Unetice began to use the creature in his military campaigns.

            Briard became king of the Dagam when his father died in 255.  He continued his father's dream, taking more and more land.  He also used the basilisk as a military asset.

            Sandar Koxelos III became the king of Drychtnoth in 260, inheriting from his grandfather a mighty kingdom.  His reign of a month was cut short by a sickness gained while hunting.  His younger brother, Thosan II, became the next king of Drychtnoth.

            Ekbat the Second replaced his great grandfather as the ruler of the Ekbatai.  Ekbat II continued to conquer surrounding territories, adding them to his growing empire.  Those amongst the citizenry he did not to sacrifice to Yogath Hob, he made Ekbatai citizens, giving them all a common language.

            A terrible creature, some sort of lizard with a dozen legs and discharging electricity, came into Drychtnothian lands, destroying an entire village and its militia.  A Drychtnothian mage (who had traveled to The Tower to learn his Art) and his two warrior friends is recorded as having driven off the horrible creature, and then killing it.  They had the creature stuffed and presented it to the king, who displayed it as a trophy signifying the might of the people of Drychtnoth.  As a reward to the service of the mage, King Thosan the Second repealed all laws banning the non-religious use of magic, so long as the mage was one of the mages trained at The Tower and not a witch and did not converse with demons or raise the dead.

            Rudna Glava, King Briard's chief general, became the king of the Dagam in 272 when Briard died.  King Glava was a ruthless warrior and leader.  The lands of the Dagam continued to grow and thrive under his iron glove.  King Glava kept the Dagam basilisk by his side at all times.

            King Thosan Koxelos II died in 277.  His son, Myutho, became the king of Drychtnoth.

            King Glava of the Dagam died in battle in 298.  His chief general, Vinca, became the next king of the Dagam.  Vinca was a warrior with little compassion for the enemy.  Total war was his philosophy.  He was muched helped in his war efforts by the Dagam basilisk.  However, the Dagam did manage to invent their writing system under his rule.

            Kaantar the Dragon was born (in the 300th Year of the Age) on the isle known by the Stygians as Eha Ayshnekht.  It is unknown how the dinosaurs survived the ice age, for the island stood as a jungle amidst glaciers.  It is suspected that Rargad the Red Dragon dwelt here during the Ice Age and kept the entire island warm so that he could survive.  It is unknown how he could have done this, so many sages discount the hypothesis.

            The Barbarians of Vanth, with knowledge of Iron (handed down throughout the Ice Age), lived in small villages of wattle and daub huts, often clustered on hills or other defensible sites.  Their dead were usually cremated.  These barbarians worshipped the griffons and hippogriffs that lived in their lands.

            Grindill (during the 312th year of the Age), in order to help reshape the land, took certain powerful Khemian mage apprentices and made them Geomancers.  Grindill was using the Tower to revitalize the land, and he made the Geomancers non-dependent on the Tower for magic.  The sorcerer-priests known as Geomancers founded the kingdom of Kadar after they toppled the civilizations of Giants found in the Nogaro river valley.  The Nogaro river, a wide, crocodile infested waterway, wound its way through hundreds of twisting miles of jungle south of Khemt.  The Geomancers worshipped Grumbar, Cold God of the Earth.  Their language was called Kadari, and their emblem was the Asfr (a nine spoked wheel with a dark central hub).   The Asfr symbolized the relationship between Fate, Magic, and the World.  Nine was a sacred number to these Geomancers.  In groups of nine, Geomancers could inscribe powerful, permanent symbols of magical power known as Geoglyphs.  The Geomancers became a despotic ruling elite over the kingdom of Kadar.  The most powerful of the Geomancers formed the Nine Council which wielded supreme executive and judicial powers over all.

            Grindill, Amrax, and Kronos gathered the mages that were springing up and forced them to organize into three groups - White, Gray, and Black Robes.  Grindill trained an order of assassin mages to kill those magic-users and illusionists who would not conform.  The Geomancers were allowed to be exceptions and several Khemian cults escaped notice by feigning priestly magic.  Grindill's former henchman, Marlorn the Illusionist, was given control over all Illusionists in Inzeladun.  Saret, a former henchmen of Grindill, was made the head of the Grey Assassins.

            King Vinca of the Dagam was killed in battle against the Ekbatai in 322.  His son, and head general, Gradae, became the next ruler of the Dagam.

            Ekbat the Third became the next ruler of the Ekbatai Empire in 338.  Even more ruthless than both of his predecessors, Ekbat III tripled the size of the kingdom.  The altars of Yogath Hob swam in blood.

            King Myutho Koxelos of Drychtnoth died in 340.  His great-grandson, Cyalth Koxelos, was given the throne after a brief, but heated, period of chaos amongst the great grandsons of the old king.  King Cyalth ruled wisely and well, bringing a period of prosperity to Drychtnoth.  Specialized jobs by this time had taken root in Drychtnothian culture-carpenters, shipbuilders, armorers, et. al.

            King Cyalth died in 361.  His son, Sunxes Koxelos, took the throne, but stepped down when he was exposed as a traitor for selling the secrets of steel to foreign nations.  His brother took the throne as Sandar Koxelos IV later that same year.

            The tribes of Odhirran gained the secrets of iron from the Drychtnothians, a technology that transformed their lives much as it did the Drychtnothians.  A distinctive art style appeared amongst the Odhirranish people (note: while the other nations called these people Odhirranish, they were not a unified nation and called themselves by their individual tribal names.), marked by simple yet strong geometric patterns that they used to embellish weapons, ornaments, and utensils. The culture made its own beer and mead, but they had a thirst for wine.  This thirst for imported wines became a major source of profit for the Dagam, Ekbatai, and Xusans. The culture stopped cremating their leaders upon death, instead burying their chiefs in wooden chambers covered by high mounds of earth.

            Dagam began to forge iron weapons in 362.  King Gradae died in 367.  His successor and son, Val Kamon took the throne.  He fought for and gained the secrets of steel and began to forge steel weapons by 368.  Later that year a beholder, a terrible monster, attacked his primary city, attempting to subdue the people.  Val Kamon sent the Dagam basilisk out to destroy the beholder.  The beholder did not turn to stone when it looked upon the deadly lizard.  The beholder, with one look, disintegrated the beast.  Finally a troop of archers, armed with steel tipped arrows, gathered the courage to attack the dreadful floating eye and drove it away.  Val Kamon sent his best hunters to track and kill the wounded monster.  They chased the creature around the Lake, across the Peryton Mountains, and deep into Massagetai territory, where scholars claim this beholder originated.  There, with the help of Massagetai Amazons, the hunters trapped and killed the eye tyrant.

            Around 370 the Kophian Empire collapsed and in 379 a warrior king, Tapti-Har, took control of Xusa, taking the title Sukkal Mah.

            Grindill, the Lord of the Tower, sent several grey robed mages into Zamarchia to educate them about the usefulness of magic, for they still maintained their barbaric fear of the supernatural, barely allowing their priests to use magic.  This education took quite a bit of time, for they were sorely afraid of anyone wielding such power.  However, when Eldroth Greyrobe destroyed Progkriam the Red Dragon, the Zamarchi were very inclined to accept them as having a role to play in Zamarchi society.

            Ka'ura, a Zamarchian paladin, became an accomplished dragon-slayer, her powers derived from Tyr.  She was also the first known Zamarchian paladin.  Although not any sort of armored paladin as would appear later in Drychtnoth, she fought for law and order in the early years of the Zamarchi culture.  Ka'ura, a beautiful young girl with brown eyes and hair, lived in a small farming village outside a larger community ruled by lord Gadhameous.  Lord Gadhameous was a vile, sinister slug of a man.  He overtaxed his people into near starvation, he enforced strict discipline, and discouraged artistic endeavers.  When Ka'ura's father, the leader in the village and a minor nobleman, spoke out, Lord Gadhameous had the entire village burned and its people impaled.  Ka'ura, now sixteen years old was out singing by a nearby pond and was not in the village at the moment of attack, but she felt something was wrong.  As she watched her people die, she experienced a vision of a giant one-handed warrior.  The warrior told her to fight, so she went down and fought.  She stole a spear from a warrior she felled with a stone and fought off several of the warriors trying to impale a small boy.  She dedicated her life to the one-handed man as she fought, and so Tyr, the god of Law and War, made her a paladin then and there in a flash.   She killed thirty of Gadhameous' ruffians and then she went up to Gadhameous' spacious palace and gave him to the people to judge.  After his execution, Ka'ura left her home to find evil wherever she could find it.  She found it soon afterward in the awesome shape of... a dragon.

            Lothverus the green dragon was the first dragon Ka'ura battled.  This foul beast was infamous for killing hunters and eating livestock, a form of wealth for the people of Zamarchi at this time.  The dragon stole from the people around and demanded tributes of livestock and virgins.  A dream from Tyr led the paladin to a forgotten back entrance to the green dragon's verdant lair.  Coming up from behind the dragon, Ka'ura found a longsword of mithril.  As even iron and steel were unknown to the young warrioress, this sword stunned her, but it was the sword of her prophetic dream.  She didn't know it, but this weapon was Nahtlima, a Dragon-Slayer sword forged and created during the late Third Age.  Although designed as a red dragon slayer, this weapon would still give her an edge against Lothverus.  She also found an ancient set of plate mail, also made of this mithril metal, and a matching shield.  The magical armor molded itself to the shape and form of its new owner.  Newly armed and armored, Ka'ura battled the awesome dragon.  Although she did not leave the battle unscathed, she was successful and destroyed the dragon.  The dragon was trapped in its lair and could not fly, nor use its bulk effectively.  Upon her plea to Tyr, the god granted her the powers of a Dragon-Slayer.

            After her battle with Lothverus, Ka'ura freed a baby unicorn she found deep in the winding paths under the green dragon's lair, a unicorn kept captive by the dragon.  She nursed the small unicorn back to health and restored the colt to the wilderness.

            Ka'ura, while hunting down a dark vampire, travelled north into Orkaladh, and, eventually, into the mighty empire of Drychtnoth (about the year 380).  She destroyed the undead Thing and battled a Werewolf who was haunting a Drychtnothian village.  The Drychtnothians were very impressed with her sword, which surpassed even their best steel swords in keenness and strength.  However, a nearby magic-user learned the secret and went into a year long period of intense research and the spell "Enchant an Item" was rediscovered.

            Via trade, Vanth and Zamarchia gained the secrets of iron and steel.  They were able to create a market for jewel encrusted hilts and scabbards for the markets in the northern empires.

            In 380, a white robed mage (Cham-Inhan), a warrior (Ichti-Kan), and a barbarian shaman (Kael) began the Twilight Gathering in Dagam, an order of adventurers dedicated to destroying the Undead.  They first destroyed the Vampiress T'Chana, then put to rest several ghosts dating back as far as the Third Age.  By 400, the Twilight Gathering numbered as many as twenty-one members.

            Traveling in Dagam, Ka'ura battled shambling mounds in a moldering swamp.  While in this swamp, little historical evidence support the claims of the bards that she killed a mighty nickel dragon, but neither does the evidence denounce the deed sung by the minstrels of the time.  However, it is a matter of historical record that she slew Harythil, an ancient cobalt dragon, during her travels in the lands of the Massagetai.  While amongst the Massagetai, Ka'ura was befriended by Klowind Gartum, a young amazon.  Klowi, as she was called, looked upon Ka'ura as a heroine of mythical proportions.  She devoted herself to Tyr and followed Ka'ura faithfully.

            Word came to Ka'ura of a red dragon in her homeland of Zamarchia, so she travelled south and took a ship to Vanth.  From Vanth, Ka'ura and Klowi travelled to the mountain chain where the Zamarchi minors were troubled by the dragon Garkarus.  During the travel in Vanth, Ka'ura and Klowi dethroned an evil despot bent on despoiling virgin brides, dispelled a minor spirit, and ran a troublesome dryad out of a territory.  She also hired some magical help (based on a vision).  She hired a minor magic-user, fresh from his apprenticeship as a White Robe, named Yuris Unam.  With his help, Ka'ura and Klowi were able to sneak in on Garkarus the Red, get him stuck in a tunnel where he couldn't turn around (the dragon wasn't old enough to merge into stone without a lot of concentration), and slay the troublesome monster.  They were unable, however, to locate its hoard.

            After the battle with Garkarus, Ka'ura met again with the unicorn she had rescued years before.  Now it was the size of a warhorse and the unicorn became her bonded horse, a Paladin's Warhorse.

            Later in that year, Ka'ura and her two henchmen hunted a sea-dragon, but lost the creature in the Sea of Storms, which Ka'ura could not cross.

            Two years later, still wandering the lands of the Zamarchi and Vanth, doing good and fighting evil, Ka'ura and her henchman found themselves in a Vanth swamp, rescuing 10 young virgins, including a young female bard, who were being sacrificed to a pair of evil black dragons known as Kelthim and Jeltha.  The beautiful bard, Thuva, became another of Ka'ura's loyal henchmen after the day long war against the black fiends.

            A priest of the demon Demogorgon began to gain a large following in Zarmarchia.  His pet Tanari'i helped him forge a religion of fear and terror, keeping the local governments in line.  But then Ka'ura wandered into his territory.  She fought the demon and slew it with her sword and then she killed its priestly master.

            During the winter of 384, Ka'ura and her henchmen defeated an evil alchemist bent on reanimating dead tissue.  She stopped him before he activated his golem and disassembled the horrible thing he had almost finished constructing.  She and her henchmen then went on to destroy the machinations of a Black Robed magic-user and his plots against the royal house of a Zamarchi city-state.

            By the spring of 385, Ka'ura and her henchmen were very famous throughout the Zamarchi lands.  During that spring, Ka'ura and her henchmen travelled to Vanth.  In Vanth, Ka'ura and her friends killed Emilth'vrax, a powerful green dragon.  She and her loyal companions remained in Vanth for the next three years, travelling from one Vanth city-state to the next, destroying evil wherever it reared its ugly head.

            Ka'ura the Paladin returned to Zamarchia in the summer of 388.  Yermiliv the Iron Dragon had taken two Zamarchi cities hostage, demanding outrageous sums of treasure for not destroying them.  Ka'ura could not locate the dragon's lair, and so, had to fight the monster out in the open.  She challenged the dragon, summoning it down from the sky.  She and her companions had the toughest fight of their careers.  Klowi the Massagetai was killed in the battle, and Yuris the Wizard was forever blinded.  But the paladin and her friends prevailed in the end and the mighty Yermiliv died, its brain impaled by the sword of the Dragon-Slayer.

            King Sandar IV of Drychtnoth died in 389.  His youngest, and only surviving, son was crowned king that year.  His name was Darthom Koxelos.  He was a psionicist by nature, and a powerful one by training.  He instituted an area of learning and religion for fellow mentalists.

            During the winter of 389, Yuris Unam the Wizard, released from his service with the Paladin Ka'ura, travelled to the Orient via magical means.

            Saret, head of the Grey Robed Assassins, grew old and died in 402.

            Val Kamon of the Dagam died in 402.  His son, Val Fiave, became the king of the Dagam.  Under his rule, scale mail was created.  He began the construction of a huge fortress after his life was nearly taken in a surprise attack.

            Late in the winter of 402, an Illithid wandered out of his underground home into the Drychtnothian college of psionics.  Attracted by the mental activity, the Mind Flayer, as the Drychtnothians called it, attacked the school, killing three before it was killed (It took a month of hunting, as well as an Ionian soothsayer, to find its hiding place).  However, now the Illithids knew that mankind had arisen again to rule the world.  A warrior named Kreath invaded the Illithid territories with a small band of friends and followers and captured a living Illithid.  Only Kreath came out of the underground alive with his captive.

            A small cult dedicated to the worship of dragons began to rise throughout the nations of Dagam, Drychtnoth, Corinthia, Ekbatah, Xusa, and Ionia.  Due in large part to the very apparent presence of dragons, a Dragon Cult arose in Vanth, dedicated to preserving dragon kind, worshipping them as gods.  In time, they hunted down and murdered Ka'ura the Paladin, burning her at the stake for her dragon slaying activities.

            Kynothat, in 408, became the next ruler of the Ekbatai following the death of Ekbat III.  Kynothat attempted to downplay the power of the priests of Yogath Hob.  He was disgusted with the rites and the sacrifices.  The populace was horrified by Kynothat's blasphemous attitude toward the cult. (except for newly conquered folk.  Kynothat was rather popular with them.)  Kynothat refused to allow prisoners of war to be sacrificed.

            Three dragons invaded Ekbatah between the years 408 and 419.  One was red, another green, and the last was black.   The red dragon destroyed a huge area of land and made his home in the mountains that bordered Ekbatah and Massagetah.  The green dragon was slain by adventurers in 415.  The black dragon made its home in a swamp that none dared to enter anyway.

            Several dragons made their home in the lands of Indor.  The Indorians, a violent, barbaric folk, made many attacks on the dragons.  Sometimes they killed the powerful beasts, but, more often than not, the dragons destroyed the brave warriors.  One Indorian group, consisting of a warrior named Hrodmar Berserks-Killer, and his companions, Ulfhedin Runecaster, Aesa Blood-Axe, and Orkning Raevil's Bane, became very successful (and wealthy) dragon slayers.  The tales and songs of the Indorian skalds report the deaths of four dragons by this group of dragon killers.

            The Twilight Gathering hunted a Khemian Mummy that dated from the Third Age during 416.  The mummy had been brought to Drychtnoth early that year by an antiquities collector.  The mummy was embued with unlife and escaped, inflicting at least 34 known cases of mummy rot and killing at least 4 others connected with his exhumation and removal from his homeland before the Twilight Gathering finally put him to rest by destroying his spirit items.

            King Val Fiave was assassinated in 419 and replaced by his tactical advisor Neuchatta.  Neuchatta made overtures of peace toward the Ekbatai.  Kynothat, the ruler of Ekbatah, accepted those overtures and signed a peace agreement with the Dagam.  While the Dagam were pleased, the Ekbatai were not.

            The Odhirranish people learned the secrets of steel, creating better and better tools and weapons.  Warfare amongst them became more and more commonplace as trade slowed down.  Raiding from his hilltop stronghold, the Odhirranish warlord was (until a mightier rival appeared) ruler in his own locality.  His authority derived from his wealth in livestock and from the number of the nobles he could command.  Those nobles determined their status from the number of sworn followers (men bound to them sometimes by debt) they could bring with them into battle.  War and conquest were woven into the Odhirranish economy.  The agricultural labor of the lower classes would supply a subsistence for the rulers, but it could not supply the opulence the nobles required to prove themselves worthy of their status.  Plunder, kidnapping, ransom, and tribute provided further wealth and bolstered reputations.  The warlord was under constant pressure.  His strength depended on the number and loyalty of his warriors, who had to be bought with gifts of cattle and land.  If he did not give these incentives, a rival would.  Thwarted competitors would look beyond current boundaries to new frontiers where they could carve out their own areas of influence.  There was always fierce competition for wealth and power, and each warlord would soon find him or herself threatened by a new generation eager for that wealth and affluence.  The chieftains often found it easier to send these young pretenders away, letting them find their own lands to rule.  Odhirranish expansionism became self-perpetuating in this manner.  Ruthless and reckless, Odhirranish warriors struck terror into the hearts of those under their assault.  They often practiced decapitation, cutting the heads off their fallen foes and displaying them.  Odhirranish society made the single warrior greater than the cooperation of an army, so most battles were fought one on one.  The Dagam often used Odhirranish mercenaries in their battles, for the loyalty of these mercenaries was strictly to the highest bidder.

            In Kadar, the Geomancers stole from the Stygians their engineering and weapon-making techniques and improved upon them.  They made tall temples to their Ice god.  They developed their own methods of writing, but kept the skills to themselves.  The men of Kadar gathered around year 420 to invade Khemt.  The attack failed and Kronos cursed the Kadar survivors to live forever in the cold mountains that separate the two nations as Yak-men.  Kronos then conjured the Black Cloud of Vengeance and sent it to the Geomancer's northernmost city, destroying it utterly. 

            King Neuchatta died in 444.  His son, Clervau Kamon, became the new man on the throne of the Dagam.  Trolls were the first threat he had to put down in his nation.  Trolls that were uprooted as Clervau increased the size of Dagam holdings were only too happy to defend their territories.  Many armies were destroyed before the Dagam learned how to keep the trolls from regenerating.

            Sukkal Mah Tapti-Har died in 449 and the Shutrukid dynasty began in Xusa.

            Drychtnoth introduced the Bastard Sword in 450.  Chainmail was re-invented and flails were again used as weapons by the Drychtnothians.  Their steel and iron weapons gave the Drychtnothians a huge advantage over their neighbors and their bronze armors and weapons in the past, but those neighbors had since gained the knowledge of steel and its manufacture.  The Massegetai used a sword they called the Klewang.  The Ekbatai were fond of the Dusack, a weapon that was all blade and nothing else, a hole in the base substituting for a handle.  The Falx, a scythe bladed sword, was used in Dagam.  The Ionians used the Machaira, a broadbladed scimitar with an inverse blade opposite that of the Odhirranish Scimitar.  The Kassyrians used the Seax, a longsword variant.

            The Twilight Gathering began to acquire political pull in Drychtnoth.  They began several quests for the "Lost Sword" which was Palex Amir, the Holy Avenger wielded by Han Dirgon during the Fourth Age.  The Twilight Gathering attempted research to create their own holy swords dedicated to their cause.

            In 451, King Darthom Koxelos destroyed the school he built for psionicists, killing most of the students and hunting down those who had graduated from the school.  Already 83 years old, and having been king for 62 of those years, King Darthom became violent and deadly with his mental powers.

            The priests of Yogath Hob took Kynothat, ruler of Ekbatah, and sacrificed him to their dark god.  They placed a priest, Rognothat, as ruler of the Empire in 452.  Rognothat began a new campaign, blazing a bloody trail of sacrificed foreigners as he expanded the empire again.

            In the year 470, Kronos the Black was overthrown by his own son (born in 452), Menes.   Menes founded Erday-nefu as the capital of Khemt.  Kronos disappeared into the depths of his city, Demanubti.  In 480, Menes was killed by his court advisor, Khasekhemui, who founded good relations between Khemt and Kadar.  Stygia's second Dynasty was created.

            Larthi Percumsna, daughter of King Vel of Ionia, became that culture's first reigning queen.  Of course, Ionia was well known as a place of both sexual freedom and sexual equality, both of which disgusted the Dagam, the Ekbatai, and the neighboring Corinthians.  Queen Larthi also permitted complete magical freedom.  The other nations still required registration and noble sponsorship for the learning and use of magic.  An unlicensed magic-user or illusionist was often considered a witch and put to death.  The Queen of Ionia did not require licensing or registration.  The Twilight Gathering put pressure on the Queen to at least outlaw or restrict the hideous art of Necromancy, but she would not bend to their requests.

            King Darthom Koxelos of Drychtnoth abandoned his throne for the life of a recluse in 489 at the unthinkable age of 121.  The throne was hotly contested for several months, when a man, claiming to be descended from Ixelth Koxelos, came to Drychtnoth and laid claim to the throne.  All the contestants died shortly thereafter, and this man ascended the throne of Drychtnoth as King Ixelth Koxelos II.  Little did anyone know that Ixelth the second was the vampire Ixelth the first. 

            The Arch-mage Yuris Unam returned from the Orient after 100 years of study.  He founded the monastery of the God-men in 489 on a high mountain top.

            A small kingdom called Byblas was formed on the northern outskirts of Khemt.  Khasekhemui attacked and destroyed Byblas.  Byblas' king was cursed by  Khasekhemui.  Shortly after Khasekhemui put Byblas' king (King Amenophis) to death, he rose again as a Vampire.  He left Khemt for other lands when Khasekhemui nearly managed to kill him (again).           The Elves were attacked by a large Orcish force.  The Shosar War began.

            The king of the Dagam died in 492.  His chief tactical advisor assumed the monarchy.  His name was Thalain.  He attacked Ekbatah in 494.  Rognothat, the ruler of Ekbatah, retaliated in force.  In fact, with much more ferocity than Thalain was expecting.  The Ekbatah-Dagam war lasted for 88 years.  Many Dagam warriors decorated the altars of Yogath Hob, and many of the Ekbatai were enslaved by the Dagam.

            Early on, the Indorians survived via farming and the raising of livestock.    The Indorian society measured wealth in land and animals.  Landowners competed and fought for more land.  Those who did not have land attacked those that did, attempting to gain their land or a portion of it.  All Indorians aspired to be landowners, but only a few could succeed, and, of those few, most had to work for a time as a raider, merchant, or craftsman.  Even in these early times, the Indorian males were very well groomed as compared to the other major societies.  At first they warred amongst themselves, then, later, they would turn their raging battles upon the rest of Western Inzeladun.  Their religion was equally as violent.  Their three major deities were Odin, Thor, and Frey and they often walked among them.   As for the afterlife, for the common folk it would be a dull, if not clearly defined, existence; but for the valiant warriors, they would feast and fight in Valhalla.  The Indorians held a strong Viking code of ethics.  Self-respect, honor, and reputation were held as virtues above all and loyalty to family and friends were at the basis of those virtues.  Indorian leaders had to be courageous, strong, truthful, eloquent, and had to possess a zest for life unequalled and be able to face death with joy on his lips and without trouble in his mind.

            The Indorians had many kings, for they used the term very loosely.  It often applied, in these early years, to any local warchieftain who could afford to maintain a following and hold on to its loyalty by having both income and honor.  The king was forced by honor to lead his troops into battle, and so many Indorian kings died honorably, but young.  The kings had to be three times as large as life.  Even in death, size was important.  The kings were often buried in huge mounds of inconceivable size (only the Stygians built larger tombs).

            The Indorians made a beer that was unequalled amongst the nations and was a popular item imported by the northern nations.  Known as a fierce, bloodthirsty people who cared only for plunder and slaughter, the Indorians also took great pride in art.  Indorian artists embellished almost everything they used with intricate, complicated designs.  Their broadswords, axes, ships, harnesses, tools, brooches, walls, memorial stones, and treasure chests were among the many items they decorated with their nature-inspired carvings and designs.  Their favorite animals to design were dragons and birds of prey.  The prows of their greatest ships, the drakkar, were often carved to resemble the heads of dragons, hence the name "dragonship" that was attached to the mighty vessels.  The Indorian style of art were brilliant, often grotesque or brutal, but always radiated the boldness and barbaric energy of the Indorians themselves.

            In 496, Khasekhemui, Pharaoh of Khemt, commissioned the first true pyramid since the Cataclysm.  In the year 543, Khasekhemui died heirless and was placed in his tomb within the pyramid.  Amenemhat I, one of Khasekhemui's advisors, took the throne and began the third dynasty.  He built a pyramid at Medum.

            Ionia was famous for its diviners.  It was also becoming famous for its sexual freedoms.  Marriages were free and open, as was nearly everything else.  They were also becoming well known for their eating habits.  Ionians were generally regarded as complete gluttons, sexually and culinarily.

            Rognothat died mid-ceremony in 508.  The High Priests of Yogath Hob chose another to rule their nation.  He was Uthat the Dragon Slayer.  Uthat agreed to rule the empire if the priests would build him an elaborate tomb and insure him a place here on this earth forever.  In 520, the Ekbatai had a massive famine, due to the Dagam burning their fields, poisoning their food stores, and killing their cattle, in conjunction with a drought that year.  Marauder groups began to appear, scavenging for food of any type.  Farms in the region produced no income that year, and only a quarter of the income they usually made the following year.  A plague briefly fired up four months into the drought.  The poor starved and the rich suffered.  The Ekbatah-Dagam War became even fiercer as the Ekbatai fought for the food and wealth of the Dagam.  Uthat personally led many of the battles, instilling hope in the starving people.  The priests tripled the rate of sacrifices to their darksome god in hopes of conjuring rain.  Seven months after the drought began, Uthat undertook a journey to the Tower.  Here he bargained with Grindill to use magic to open up the heavens over Ekbatah.  Grindill activated the Tower and rain fell across the land.  He sent Uthat home with a teleport spell that terminated with a stroke of lightning.  The people rejoiced, for they felt that Uthat had traveled to the lands of the gods and defeated Ghaddar, god of rain, and brought an end to the drought.

            King Thalain of the Dagam died during one of the battles of the Ekbatah-Dagam War.  He was succeeded by Val Carera, his chief general, in 528.

            A major earthquake ripped across the lands of the Dagam in 532.  The entire capital of the Dagam burned to the ground, and thousands of people were killed.  King Val Carera was away at battle and upon his return had a huge tomb built on the site of the city, honoring those who died at the whim of the gods.  He built a new capital five miles up the river, as well as a new fortress.

            Uthat's mummy was placed in the tomb prepared for him in 547.  His son, Uthat the Second was ceremoniously given the reins of the kingdom.

            The Twilight Gathering discovered that the king of Drychtnoth, Ixelth II, was one of the Undead, a vampire, early in the year 550.  Ixelth, having killed all of his relatives who might contest the throne, was forced to flee, or be destroyed by the superior might of the Gathering.  The Koxelos dynasty was at an end.  Disputes for the throne became heated and Drychtnoth was close to splitting into nearly sixty lesser kingdoms as the barons fought for control.  Grulth Kosandar, a descendant of King Sandar Koxelos IV, was the strongest baron and assumed the throne by the end of 550.

            Grindill, Amrax, and Marlorn began to train human mages in 560.  A mage named Endrath was trained as one of these early Grey Robes.  Killren began an intensive period of research.

            By 570 polearms had been developed in Drychtnoth, Kassyria, Dagam, and Ekbatah to combat the Xusan cavalries.

            In 577, the Shosar War between the Elves and the Orcs ended with the Orcs being driven out of the Elflands into the Dotaz Gerdak, where the Orcs were slaughtered by the gods therein.

            Endrath ended his apprenticeship in 578 and moved to Xusa.  Endrath joined the Twilight Gathering and hunted a vampire into Drychtnoth (580).  Endrath remained in Drychtnoth.  Endrath had a falling out with the Twilight Gathering sometime early in 585 over his greed for power.  It is recorded that Endrath had stolen several forbidden texts on liches the Gathering had confiscated.  By 590 Endrath was made a Wizard by Grindill and had built a tower in Drychtnoth, becoming a minor noble.  Endrath killed a green dragon that attacked Drychtnoth in 591 and gained its hoard.  In 593 Endrath switched orders, becoming a Black Robe.  Later that year, Endrath killed a rival Black Robe for the secrets to a spell.  Engrossed with his quest for power, Endrath began to research means toward immortality.

            In 579, King Val Carera of the Dagam died in battle.  He was succeeded by his chief tactical advisor Gimbuta.  King Gimbuta and Uthat the Second, the king of Ekbatah, negotiated a peace, ending the Ekbatah-Dagam War.

            King Grulth Kosandar of Drychtnoth died in 582.  His grandson, Kadrus Kosandar, became the reigning monarch of Drychtnoth.  He rebuilt the walls around the royal castle, building them taller and stronger.

            Uthat the Second died in 586.  His mummy was placed in an elaborate stone cut tomb, much as Uthat the First was.  His son, a priest-warrior of Yogath Hob, became the next ruler of the Ekbatai and he took the name Ekbat the Fourth.

            Amenemhat I, Pharaoh of Khemt, died in 589.  He was entombed in his pyramid at Medum.  His son, Amenemhat II, took the throne.  He built his pyramid at Dahshur.

            King Kadrus Kosandar of Drychtnoth died in battle in the middle of 591.  His son, Grulth Kosandar II, became the king of the powerful nation.  He enacted new laws which helped garner more support from the barons than the more recent kings had been able to get.  He began an early form of the codes of Chivalry (based on similar codes from Fouth Age records) and began an early order of Knighthood.  He fully supported the religious cults of Olanigan and their warriors.  The priests supported their king as never before.

            In 600, the Zamarchi people were drawn to the Vanth lands by its vast mineral wealth.  The Zamarchia founded a trading colony, Zobchiswir.  During the next few decades a large number of Zamarchi colonies were established.  A new aristocracy arose in Vanth, crafts became specialized.  Villages began to consolidate into larger towns, which would become the cities of Vanth.

            Ekbat IV, ruler of Ekbatah, and the priests of Yogath Hob, made mummification of all Ekbatai mandatory for spiritual redemption.   The cost of embalmment and the need for more and more embalmers helped rejuvenate the economy of the post-war Ekbatai.

            In 609 Endrath became a Lich.  The Twilight Gathering had sent a warrior to stop him from making the transformation, but Endrath killed him.  As the Undead Slayer died, he pronounced a curse on Endrath, that one of the Twilight Gathering would have the power in his own hands to crush Endrath's phylactary despite any protections or abjurations Endrath would put on the Container of his Soul.

            On Bakari, the three cultures of Magadha, Gandhara, and Deccan are united by a common religion.  The Mudra sign language was fully developed by this period.  The Shudra class (the Untouchables) was created, a caste of disenfranchised serfs.  They were excluded from the rituals of enlightenment and regarded as possessions of the higher classes.  The Devnimori maintained their position at the top of the social ladder by excluding non-devnimori from performance of the rituals, advocating their use in every conceivable circumstance and charging substantial fees for guiding their observance.  The exerted this ritual authority even over the tribal chiefs, siphoned off wealth from the merchant class, and made sure the Shudras remained at the bottom by excluding them from the benefits of ritual observance.  The warrior caste took charge of political and economic matters, while the priests, the Devnimori, maintained control of religious and cultural affairs.  The accumulation of religious and philosophical doctrines formed a code of life called Dharma.  Dharma was a guide to the struggle of each man's soul to realize its essential identity with Devni, the source of all existence, even the source of the gods themselves.  The philosophy of reincarnation, perhaps stolen from the Elves, became incorporated into their religion.  One had to follow the Dharma to achieve the ultimate state of serenity and end the everlasting cycle of rebirths.  No great cities arose on Bakari for when the ruling class works in tandem with the priestly class, and power is exercised through ritual, there is no need for complex civil administration, and the rigid control of wealth eliminated the need for centers of commerce.   Life was centered around villages and centers of religion.

            In 618 an alternate religion began to take root in the Bakaran societies, Shakkulism.  This religion, based on the teachings of Shakkul, showed the way to achieve Nirvana, a perfect state of blessedness that is neither being, nor unbeing, dissociated from the change, suffering, and desires of human life by developing personal morality and wisdom and renouncing false ideas.

            In 619 Chandragonnah Maurya became the ruler of northern Bakari.

            From 619 to 644 Napirishka, fifth of his dynasty, began major building and renovation projects in the kingdom of Xusa.  He built a new town, Untosh, 25 miles southeast of Xusa.  When Napirishka died, Utnash was almost completely deserted.  It would stand for another 600 years before final abandonment.  Ringmail was developed in Xusa.

            The king of Dagam was assassinated in 622.  His son became the next king.  He took the name Gimbuta Kamon.  He instituted a legion of Elite Warriors who had more rights than even landowners.  He also passed laws making necromancy or witchcraft punishable by death.

            King Grulth II died in 633.  The priests of Olanigan gave him an elaborate ceremony and crowned his son, Grulth Kosandar III, as the king of Drychtnoth.  Grulth III continued to support the priests of Olanigan as had his father.

            In 645, King Grulth III of Drychtnoth was killed in a battle.  His son, Grulth Kosandar IV, was given the crown.  The priests of Olanigan began to garner more and more power over the realm.  They became involved in the ceremonies of knighthood, instilling ethics and rules.  The code of chivalry became more solidified.  The knights, once feared by the serfs and commoners, become respected and noble.

            King Grulth IV of Drychtnoth was killed in a jousting accident in 652.  His son, Ixexin Kosandar, became the next king.  He rebuilt much of the king's fortress.  Slowly it assumed the shape of a true castle.

            In 654, Amenemhat II was assassinated by his son Sesostris I.  Sesostris buried his father in an unmarked tomb and claimed his father's pyramid as his own.  Sesostris moved the capital of Khemt to Ithytaui.

            Ekbat IV died in 656.  His mummy was interred in an elaborate stone cut tomb as was a large portion of his worldly wealth.  He had no living heirs, so the High Priests of Yogath Hob made their own religious leader, the High Priest Ithgoyat, the ruler of the Ekbatai.

            Approximately in 660 iron was introduced in Bakari by an unknown civilization - possibly the Stygians or the Kadar.

            Byblas rose again under Yinaten.  Sesostris I ordered an attack on Byblas in 661.  His general, Neferhotep, led the attack victoriously.  Yinaten was enslaved along with his people.  In 666, Sesostris fell ill and died.  His son Amenemhat III took the throne of Khemt.  Amenemhat III buried his father in an elaborate tomb in a valley and reburied his grandfather in the pyramidal tomb that was intended for him years ago.   Amenemhat III built his pyramid at the old capital amidst a huge labyrinth.  He moved the capital again to Erday-Nefu.  His court scribe, Kheti, authored the Treatise of Wisdom.  Amenemhat III finally granted Byblas its independence in 694.  Abichemu became the first legally recognized king of Byblas.

            Ashoka, grandson of Chandragonnah, ascended the throne of Bakari in 669, and died in 729.  The city of Pataliputra, established in 670, was 9 miles long, 2 miles wide, and had a population of 210,000 by 728.  Ashoka converted to Shakkulism eight years after becoming king in remorse at the loss of life in an earlier military campaign.  He urged his subjects to follow the Shakkulistic Codes, which included tenets such as nonviolence to all living creatures, religious tolerance, and support of monastaries.  Hospitals were established throughout Bakari.

            The king of the Dagam died from witchcraft in 673.  His body was stolen the next day, sold to a necromancer.  The crown prince became the next king, taking the name Gimbuta Fiave, and made any type of magic-use illegal.

            In 679 Xusa raided and plundered Drychtnothian and Kassyrian cities and villages.  Both Drychtnoth and Kassyria tried counter assaults, but were thwarted by Xusan mages. 

            In Ionia, its king, Volmunui, fell in love with an Elvish maid, one of the Wild Elves scattered throughout the Odhirranish territory.  She likewise fell for him.  His humanity made him seem exotic to the maiden and she left her people to be with him.  A priestess of Ashanga Hob blessed their union and caused her seed to be compatible with his and a son came from the marriage.  He was named Paola Volmunui.  His mother died at his birth, cursed by her own kind.

            Men from the lands of Indor discovered the secret of steel weapons around 695.

            Seven full centuries soon passed since Grindill had returned.  A warrior from Indor, Wilmanric the Brave, traveled north at the beginning of the 700th year of the Age.  He established a small freehold which he named Corinthia, a name he took from the legends of the Greek invaders of the Third Age.  He built a small castle called Corinth Castle.  He soon began to enlarge his holdings as people from the neighboring lands flocked to his leadership and protection.  He built a massive army to stem the tides of neighboring kingdoms and violent barbarians and to protect those within his border.  Wilmanric soon became known as Werewolf Slayer, for he slew many barbarian lycanthropes during his reign.  He wielded a powerful sword called Thieondrec.

            The knights of Drychtnoth, famed for their deeds of heroism, become more and more famous.  The nations of Corinthia, Dagam, Ionia, and Kassyria begin to start orders of knighthood for themselves.  King Ixexin of Drychtnoth died in 701, and his son, Axdar Kosandar, took the throne.  A powerful knight himself, he made it law that the king must be a knight to assume the throne.

            Made rich by trade, Vanth cities flourished.  Despite a shared culture and history they composed not a country but a loose confederation of city-states, each ruled by its own government.  Their inhabitants became master seafarers.  Vanth minerals were traded for Corinthian, Zamarchi, and Nyandarian goods.  They developed a high quality black pottery called Bucchero and used it to make items traditionally made with metals.  The Zamarchi brought their alphabet to Vanth before the 800th year.  The Vanth adopted Zamarchi mythology and were fortifying their cities with cut stone walls like the Zamarchi.

            The king of the Dagam died in his sleep in 710.  His son, Gimbuta Carera, assumed control of the empire.  He also enforced the Elite Warriors to follow a similar code of honor as the Drychtnothian knights or face mortal death and immortal damnation.

            Paola Volumnui the Half-Elven became the king of Ionia in 711.  This caused severe unrest in the people of the nation, for they did not want to serve as vassals to a half-breed, unsure of the status of his entire being.  Was he spirit, or did he have a soul?  Or was he a magical abomination?  The people didn't know and so they did not respect or trust King Paola.

            Two factions of Geomancers began to fight for control of Kadar.  Finally the kingdom split into two ruling forces.  This was during the 712th year of the Age.

            The Ekbatai conquered Xusa in 720, ruling harshly over the Dagam and Kassyria.  Drychtnoth regained its freedom with Xusa's fall.  Drychtnoth attacked Corinthia.         The Priest-King Ithgoyat died in 720, shortly after he ordered the assault on Xusa.

            The Dagam, conquered by Ekbatah in 718, retaliated late in 720, after the death of Ithgoyat, but before the next ruler had been chosen.  The onslaught was decisive.  The remnants of the Ekbatai fled into the mountains.  Kassyria regained its independence.  The leader of the rebellion was a warlord called Vinca Laingh.  He was crowned king of the Dagam and took the name Vinca Kamon.  He made the society of the Dagam more feudal than before.  The remaining Ekbatai priesthood chose a new leader, Ekbat the Fifth.  The Dagam destroyed many of the temples dedicated to Yogath Hob and built new temples honoring their gods, such as Kalen Hob, Kalendor Hob, Ghaddar, and Dalig Hob.  King Vinca Kamon was a devotee of both Kalen Hob and Dalig Hob.

            King Ashaka died in 728.  The Empire of Bakari would last only a few decades after his death.  When the last of his heirs were assassinated, Bakari broke up into a shifting mosaic of independent kingdoms.

            The Elf Kingdoms had fully recovered from the Ice Age by this time.  They were helped substantially in their recovery by Sha'a the Elf.   Amenemhat III died of old age in 721.  Amenemhat IV succeeded him.  In 728 Amenemhat IV was killed in an accident, and his brother Sesostris II took the throne of Khemt.

            King Axdar of Drychtnoth died in 739, having been subjected to a psionic assassination of the Ekbatai for his refusal to help Ekbat V regain territory from the Dagam.  Axdar's grandson, a knight of over a dozen campaigns, became the next king.  His name was Sir Andar Kosandar.

            The hero Anayrion Nemed founded the Kingdom of Nyandar forty years after Wilmanric built Corinth Castle.  His sword, Scythia, was a frightening weapon.  A sword of flame it was, and it laid low many of his enemies.  Odhirran grew out of an alliance between Amrax and Anduin the Druid.  Odhirran soon became a land of Druids.  Amrax made it illegal to maliciously harm a tree.   King Anayrion of Nyandar would constantly attack Odhirranish villages surrounding his nation, bringing the Odhirranish warlords under his control.

            A portion of Khemt broke off and became Amir, Kingdom of Light, Land of Ra.   Sesostris II violently opposed this and attacked Amir.  He was repelled by the King of Amir, Amentoth I in 749.  Pharaoh Sesostris II died in the attack.  His son, Sesostris III, became the new Pharaoh at age 5.

            Rargad the Red, King of the Red Dragons, left Eha Ayshnekht in 750 to settle in the Indor area.

            The small stronghold of Nyandar continued to grow.  The lord of Nyandar began to organize his barbaric warriors into something resembling the troops of Drychtnoth and Ekbatah.  His training made them even more ferocious and deadly than ever before, but their barbaric nature kept them rather in touch with nature.  Many Nyandarian warriors became rangers.

            In 762, another portion of Khemt broke off.  It was called Avaris and its king was Apophis.  In 779, Apophis attacked Amir.  Avaris was defeated by Amir's general, Kames, who took the throne of Avaris.

            King Andar Kosandar of Drychtnoth died in 777, also killed by Ekbatai psionic assassins.  His grandson, Sir Synrus Kosandar became the king of the growing kingdom.  He granted more power to the barons, allowing them to build more powerful castles.  His own castle became more and more impregnable.

            The king of the Dagam was killed by Drychtnothian assassins for an insult done to Synrus, king of Drychtnoth.  His son, Vinca Fiave, became the king of the Dagam.

            In the south, Kaantar the Dragon, now 480 years old, began to reign in the lands once ruled by Gandalf Grimbrand and his sons.

            Ionia attacked the small budding Nyandarian nation.  The battles were fought to a standstill more often than not, and Ionia eventually withdrew its forces. 

            Endrath the Lich began a campaign to systematically destroy the Twilight Gathering.  Endrath's forces and minions slowly began to drain the Gathering's resources.  The Gathering, at first, did not connect all those thefts and assassinations, but later gathered enough intelligence to realize that a major power was behind everything.   Later, via an Ionian diviner, they discovered that Endrath was that power.

            Wilmanric died and his oldest son, Torak MalWilmanric took the throne.  He was not so kind and helpful as his father had been.  He had a strong warlike streak.  It wasn't long before he attacked the small country of Nyandar.  His forces swept across the budding nation, taking all by surprise.  Within four months, Nyandar was removed from the map, becoming a part of Corinthia.  But Anayrion Nemed would not stand for the annexation.  With a Khemian wizard-priest, Anayrion built a rebel army to fight back.  The rebel army attacked Corintia's supply trains and held the old Nyandarian capital under seige, starving it until the demoralized Corinthian soldiers surrendered 7 months later.       Anayrion Nemed died in 787.  His son Horimon Nemed became the king of Nyandar.  Horimon, a ranger of great skill, set about a policy of building their cities within the trees to give them an advantage over the Corinthians and Ionians.  He continued to absorb nearby Odhirranish settlements into his nation, destroying their ground villages and rebuilding them in the great trees that grew in the area.  Horimon banished the druids and gave the barely civilized citizens of his nation a new religion and a new pantheon of gods.

            Kadar had split into two ruling dynasties by this time and were engaged in a full-fledged war.  Within 5 years Kadar came to be under the rule of one supreme dynasty of Geomancers again.  The third generation of the losing dynasty (the one that had split off from the original 80 years before) were put entirely to death.

            Southern Bakari began to use Black mercenaries from the eastern landmass.

            Endrath's original body was killed by the Twilight Gathering in 788, but they failed to find his phylactery.

            King Synrus Kosandar of Drychtnoth hired three Black Robed mages to kill the ruling priest of Ekbatah early in 790.  These mages, Isuthan, Uxrustrian, and Darezgru were all three ruthless killers, working together as a team for years.

            Ekbat V was killed by magic in 790.  Three months later a new leader of the small group of Ekbatai left was chosen.  He was given the name Uthat the Third.  He tried to regain several lost territories from the Dagam, as well as attacking Xusa secretly with the use of psionic assassins.  Uthat III began an entire order of these psionic assassins.  Uthat III also hired a Grey Robed mage as a court advisor.

            Osgeld, a kingdom of Indor, was under the rule of King Wiglaf.  Osgeld invaded Lindisfame in 793.  Indorians raid the city of Jarrow in 794.  Maamba, another kingdom of Indor was raided by Osgeld in 796.

            Sesostris III built three magnificent cities, beautiful beyond any prior Khemian cities.  He also repulsed the sea people (Black warriors from Bakari) when they invaded.

            Golakius, last of the sons of Aeroth and a follower of Zeus, came from the coastlands of the Zamarchi and founded Ingara north of Zamarchia.  Golakius came from Andarland, an island nation far to the south of Indor and the Hrothgar pennisula.  Andarland was peopled by descendants of the Greek invaders of the Third Age who worshipped the Greek pantheon of deities.  Ingara was also based on this extra-worldly culture.

            In the 800th year of the Age, Amir merged with Avaris.  Hyksos I became the king of the new land.  Hyskos I enslaved a large number of men to build cities.  The enslaved people called themselves the Kadesh.

            Nyandar was slowly becoming quite sizable.  Corinthia and Ionia kept an ey