History
In ages past there was an empire that spanned the whole continent. There are no written records of those ancient days and only some of the eldest dragons can remember them anymore. The empire was ruled by a race of innately magical creaures who are now known by the name elflings. They were short, slender and resembled somewhat modern day elves. The historians have speculated that both halflings and gnomes descent from these ancient masters of arcane. What little is known is that their empire fell to a civil war and never recovered.
This gave rise to the former slaves of these elflings. Humans and goblinkin. Also at these times the elves came from their distant lands and settled areas along the coast. As the human civilization rised the elves met them and taught them to write and to work iron.
During the next millenia the elven houses began anew the war that had caused them to leave their homelands. It finally ceased when, with the help from humans, the dark-elves were banished underground and sealed there with high-magic. This age also saw the birth of the first half-elves.
Humans spread across the continent and small kingdoms rose and fell. It was finally the Dranians, with their pact with dragons that sparked the formation of the first human empire. The Order of the Dragon, a religious knightly order who rode their dragonic allies to battle ensured that peace was kept across the empire.
But as always, it could not last, and finally for jealousy over love, a war broke out once again. The empire fractured and Drania was once again just one kingdom amidst many. Shee, the westernmost nation of the continent looked upon Drania and hoped to conguer the rich land. But they had no hope against the might of the Dragonriders and so they made a pact with higher powers. They became Fae, humans instilled with powers beyond mortal dream. And this new elite caste of Shee warriors finally had chance to subjugate the Dragonriders. In desperation the Dranians prayed day and night to the Progenitor Dragons for salvation, and as some of them exhausted themselves in prayer, they suddenly burst in flames and in the piles of ashes lay large eggs. From these eggs hatched the first of Drajaari, also called Dragonborn, and so the powers of Fae-Shee and Drania were again in stalemate.
After another century of warfare it was the Fae-Shee that had the upper hand. Once the might of whole continent, Drania was reduced to just the capital city high up on the Spine Mountains with enemy closing in on all directions. They held the city by sheer spite for another decade when they finally ran out of time. The mightiest human empire of all times was no more. The few living knights of the Order of the Dragon were banished to the Desert of Eternal Scorch. It was as good as torturous death-sentence, for no-one had ever returned from the desert. The dragons that remained left the known world, they were seen flying off, down to south and for over a millenia no-one saw a true dragon again.
The peace ensued across the Fae-Shee empire, though it was a peace of terror. The Fae became a ruling caste and their bargain with powers they did not understand proved fatefull. They instigated a new religion that worshipped these mysterious powers. Over time the empire had become a theocrasy where even minor crimes were punishable by death and humans worked in submission for their Fae lords. Centuries went by but eventually the eastern provinces, where Fae influence was minimal, ceceded from the empire and formed an alliance to keep their new independence. The alliance was named after the former governor of Thae Province, Aran the Deathless. The leaders took grandeus titles and renamed their provinces as they saw fit. Arandon Alliance was born.
It wasn't easy keeping the empire from overrunning them, but the Alliance kept their ground. Over time the battles became more and more infrequent when finally it seemed that Fae-Shee just let them go. The empire cut off all connections to the east and there was peace again.
Time went by, and at some point the Order of the Dragon emerged again. It wasn't until Drajaari started emerging from the desert that it was confirmed to be the same Order which was believed to be lost and forgotten. Apparantly few of the banished had found a mythical city in the heart of the desert and kept their religion alive. Later some dragons had found them and aided the humans of the order to leave the desert. They came to an island in the Celmanthor Ocean where they founded New Drania. The Drajaari however were content on living in the desert.
A thousand years passed. There were small skirmishes from time to time between the nations of the alliance but the memory of Fae-Shee kept all out war from breaking out. But as time went by, the memory faded, untill the threat of Fae was just a children's story. For the last generation it was only the personal charisma of the last Great King of Taran that kept the alliance together.
It was a cold winter night when King Taranis 14th died. It was rumoured that someone had actually sneaked to the palace and murdered him in sleep but officially he had died of natural causes. And only two months later his great diplomatic skills would have been needed. But because he wasn't there to help, a minor disagreement between Laradin and Crondah escalated into a war. Soon the other nations joined in to help their closer neighbour and the whole Alliance was in war. After a year the loyalties had changed over a dozen times and by then all the nations were fighting against everyone else. Then came the Red Plague. It killed off even more people than the fighting did as the healers were unable to find a cure. The former Alliance was soon decimated. Time passed, the plague wore itself out and those that remained were no longer interested in the wars, but instead tried just live in a world where kings and armies were no more.
The roads fell into disrepair. Wilderness enroached the abandoned villages, cities and fortresses and monsters infested the lands that used to be patrolled by alliance soldiers. And finally preachers have come from west, telling of salvation by the Truth. The broken down people are desperate for hope, and so these priests are gaining a foothold. It is almost as if the whole war was secretly instigated by Fae-Shee, to once again subjugate the whole world.
