HISTORY OF THE KNOWN WORLD
This page details a brief history of the world as it is known by people from Southern Highdonia, the region in which most stories are set.
Ante Mortem Draconum (AM) - Before the Death of Dragons
Anno Divinorum (AD) - The Era of the Gods
ANCIENT ANTIQUITY (900 AM - 1 AM)
Bronze
For nearly all of Ancient Antiquity, the metal used by mankind for its weapons, tools and armour was bronze.
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The Dragon Wars (379 - 1 AM)
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In the age of ancient antiquity, great dragons once ruled the world, cruelly subjugating those that lived in it. The gods were not so powerful back then, and the dragons tempted mankind to betray them by giving them the ability to use a powerful force known as magic. Loyal to their gods, mankind united and fought back against the great dragons in a bitter conflict known as the Dragon Wars.​
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Fallen Angels
Not all angels supported the war on dragons, with some seeing it beneath them and simply refusing to risk their near-eternal lives for the “lesser” beings. As punishment, these angels were banished to the realm they detested, cursed such that if Sol's gaze ever touched them they would turn into a pillar of salt. These fallen were forced into a life of hiding underground, where their now black wings were useless and with no allies on the surface or the heavens. Very few fallen live to this day, known as wretched creatures of the underground and detested by all those that live above them.
Lesser Dragons
With so many angels cast out of the heavens, the Dragons seemed to be winning the war. Humanity had been pushed to the brink of nearly losing. To bolster their numbers, Dragons magically bred with local wildlife, creating beings known as lesser dragons. These creatures were not sentient and acted like any wild animal would, creating a divide between the dragons. Some saw them as nuisances and pests, while others cherished them as their own children. This caused a conflict within the dragon faction, with two of the strongest dragons fighting each other and sealing themselves within the earth.
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Turning the Tide
Humanity took advantage of this draconic in-fighting, launching multiple surprise attacks and raids to eliminate the fighting dragons at their weakest. In a great stroke of luck, Humanity caught a great dragon leader, known as Kyrath, the Dragon of Mana, as he was struggling to fight off his treasonous subordinates. They forged a great sword named Myoscardara and magically sealed the soul of Kyrath in the blade. With the dragon's soul bound to the weapon, it was cast down to the depths of the earth and hidden away within a dungeon so dangerous that death herself would not dare enter.
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Iron
Seeing that humanity was now winning the Dragon Wars, the gods rewarded them with the knowledge of a new and wonderful metal known as iron. Forging tools, weaponry and armour of this material gave humanity the last great advantage it needed to fight the dragons, as it was stronger and more resilient, capable wedging itself into the scales of the draconic creatures to kill them once and for all. The greatest of these dragon killing weapons was the lance. Mounted on horseback, lances gave mankind the ability to punch directly through the tough armoured scales of dragons' bodies.
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The Death of Dragons and the Absence of Gods.
After 379 years of bitter conflict, humanity finally hunted down and killed or sealed the souls of every dragon, eliminating them from existence. With the draconic threat gone, the gods soon became recluse, seeing no need to meddle in the affairs of men. Seeing mankind was capable of controlling its own fate, they left humanity to its own devices, only occasionally revealing their presence to select groups or individuals of great faith.
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The Zeitgeist
The bestowal of magic upon humanity by the Great Dragons was not without its consequences, and even though not everybody knew how to harness and wield it, their subconsciousness still used it. The bestowal of magic was more than just a few neat tricks certain people could use, it was a mark on the the collective souls of all mankind. This mark, this stain that is the force of magic, gave power to the collective consciousness of mankind, giving them the subconscious, innate ability to alter the world around them without them even knowing. This ability is known as the zeitgeist, and is the collective belief, will and consciousness of mankind, humanity and all sentient beings, a powerful force that has the ability to manifest things into being.
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The Manifestation of Monsters
Long have there been tales of creatures in the night and horrible monstrosities that mankind have used to explain the unexplained. A major consequence of the zeitgeist are the manifestation of these monsters from the conscious and subconscious fears of mankind. Because people believe they are real, they become so. They are created from fear, and manifest into real and tangible beings of malice with a hunger for anything with a living soul. Monsters are essentially made of magic, and are very difficult to kill with traditional weaponry.
ANTIQUITY (0 AD - 532 AD)
The Iron Empire (27 AM - 532 AD)
A great Empire rose in the waning years of the Dragon Wars and cemented its place in the annals of history as valiant heroes who vanquished the dragons. This Empire was forged of Iron and Blood in its struggle against draconic evil and marched hand-in-hand with the Gods to victory. Yet, its thirst for conquest was unquenchable, and its attention turned to the central Highdonian sub-continent of Middegar. With shield, pilum, and spatha the Empire conquered and defeated the “barbarian” inhabitants of Middegar, subjugating them as provinces over the course of 500 years of bloody conflict. From the corpses of dead dragons rose the greatest empire mankind had ever known, spanning over 2 million square miles of territory under one rule of law for 559 years.
Endless Fog
Compounding the widespread crisis that had sprouted across Oddegar was a strange fog that rolled over the seas. Its origins are debated but no one truly knows where it came from, but tales of a great monster that lurks far out at sea seemed the most likely answer. The thick, choking fog was erratic in its appearance, surrounding entire continents one day and the sea being seemingly clear the next. This blinding aura proved useful for an opportunistic animal, the bat and led to the problem worsening. As their vision relied on echolocation bats were not hindered in the slightest by the fog, and anything caught inside was an easy meal for the swarms which formed over the ocean and traveled with the fog. This made seafaring particularly difficult, sometimes impossible, as detailed equipment was needed to navigate while enveloped by the fog and constant swarms of sea bats threatened to devour the very wood of the ship itself. This crippled supply lines and trade between continents, as well as completely isolating small nations and islands from the mainland. For hundreds of years, this fog lingered, and the trapping nature of it caused many internal wars to break out in nations across Oddegar. The most notable of these wars fractured the once powerful Iron Empire, a faction that had been rising in power since the great Dragon Wars, into mere remnants of its former glory and created a new caste of wanderers, mercenaries, and bandits from its citizens. The fog was finally conquered only recently with the creation of powerful lighthouses, which could prevent the fog from drawing near to wherever they were created.
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A Divided World
The empire had many races and creeds under its banner, but though they lived in the same nation they were far from a unified people. Once separated their differences became insurmountable and the seeds for the intense fear, loathing, and bigotry were planted. The head of this hatred came from an ancient organization formerly known as “The Horn”, which catalyzed the start of a massive prosecution within the empire to create a caste where some people were considered lesser beings and marked for eradication and subjugation. This group of extremists would eventually become known as The Catalysts, Human supremacists who consider the differences between the races of Oddegar too vast of a rift to live united. While they were eventually ousted from the empire, the damage was done, and the faction still seeks to create a homeland for the humans and seek removal of other sentient beings from their sacred land of Highdonia, the heart of Middegar and the heart of humanity. This will come by blood and conquest, and led by a near-immortal leader who will not stop until humans reclaim Oddegar.
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The Fall of the Iron Empire (517-532 AD)
With the Great Fog covering the world and the division it created, eventually, as all things do, the Iron Empire collapsed. It crumbled from within as if diseased, and despite its leadership desperately clinging for control, it fractured like shattered pottery into hundreds of broken provinces and rump states, each vying to fill the vacuum of power.
In an attempt to control and unify the population of the Empire, the last Emperor declared that the practice of Panopleism, the worship of the gods of Ancient Antiquity, was outlawed. He declared that there was only one God and that God was Odis. This forced mandate of monotheism was met with heavy resistance by the people from the land now known as the Kingdom of Chauncey, devout followers of Sol and Luna who had worshipped the twin goddesses before those were even their names, eons before the Iron Empire had conquered their lands. These worshippers of the sun and moon formed a movement, known at the time as “Solisians,” that were heavily persecuted for their beliefs and brutally martyred by imperial authorities.
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The last Emperor thought if everyone worshipped the same god it would unify the fracturing provinces. It in fact had the opposite effect. This mandated monotheism was the straw that broke the back of the Empire, causing its collapse and the chaos which ensued for decades after.
The Death of Angels (517-532 AD)
The Emperor's mandated monotheism left most of the gods without worshippers, and their power withered. Igniel, the Lord of hell and master of all evil, took this opportunity to strike, raising a grand host from hell to invade heaven’s gates and strike a heavy blow to the weakened gods. In a long and bitter war, Ignil’s forces of evil hunted and struck down every single angel, completely eradicating them from existence. Seeing their defeat, the archangel Aelithiel ordered the angelic host to cast down their holy bells into the hands of mankind as their final act of defiance, so that man may take up the torch and bear the responsibility of releasing the souls of the dead.
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Many hundreds and thousands of these bells fell to the earth, bloodied by the dying hands that cast them down. Some were captured by Ignil’s army and destroyed, others were lost to time and never found again, and fewer still were collected by mankind and melted down into mighty bells known as Celestial Bells. Angelic hand bells are sought after and recovered to this day, crafted into various religious or magical implements, or fashioned into larger church bells to populate the bell towers of the thousands of churches that dot the landscape.​
Igniel's demonic host battles the Angels in the heavens above.
Twisting Magic
During this period of little oversight by the Gods, the nature of magic began to twist as old tales of its origin grew warped with time. Arguments arose over whether magic was a gift from the Gods, or a latent power of all humans since non-worshipping men could still harness most of it. During this period the relevance of magic waxed and waned across Oddegar, with some areas relying heavily on magic artifacts and spells in everyday life as well as warfare, while others shunned magic as a mysterious yet dangerous power. This rift also created new factions such as the Way of Light who saw that the Gods seemed to only place limits on their holy spells and miracles, labeling all other magic as heresy. A major development to come from these changing times is the emergence of new types of magic, never seen before. Now not limited by the Gods' vision for magic, multiple new forms of incantations and sorcery arose. Soul magic, the form which lies closest to the true nature of magic, naturally developed in those practicing wizardry to supplement their spells as well as those seeking to limit others' power. Primal tribes with little academic or religious knowledge of magic created new spells, focused on nature and warping their physical bodies. A critical discovery in magic also was created in the form of runes, the written form of a spell. Their creation allowed spells to be passed down in universities rather than through long apprenticeships, as well as documented for archival and selling. This newfound ease of access to learning new magic both served to bolster the power of mages across Oddegar, as well as feed an increasing fear that this new control over magic may lead to the creation of something horrible.​​
The Undead Plague (502 AD - Present Day)
Suddenly, and without warning, the dead began to rise. These walking corpses wandered aimlessly and stopped at nothing to feast on living flesh to ease their pain. The spread was at first attributed to some form of plague, but talented scholars discovered signs that mysterious magic had been cast upon these corpses. They theorized that a self-replicating spell was created that could spread like a disease. The origin of this magical plague is unknown, but it is theorized whoever made it was attempting to create a method of immortality, in which once killed any man who bore the spell would stand back up as nothing happened. The magic tricked the soul into being released as if an angel’s hand bell had tolled, then snatched the soul back and bound it to the body once more. This method kicks the body back into life by brute force, and according to scholars, could actually work if done correctly. The issue lies in how poorly the soul binding process had been achieved. Sure, the soul was bound back to the corpse, but the corpse continued to decay. This process of rot is excruciatingly painful to the afflicted, as one’s flesh withers and rots off of their bones. It seems the only way to sate one's pain is to consume the flesh of the living, which drives the undead mad with desire for living flesh just for those fleeting moments of painlessness. The brain is severely damaged in this state of undeath, and most undead only know how to perform simple tasks, like using melee weaponry. Some undead retain the knowledge of how to use the weapon they trained with in life, though that memory doesn’t last long and things such as reloading crossbows or firearms are often too difficult a task to complete.
The Birth of Kingdoms (532 - 724 AD)
When the Iron Empire fell, it fractured into hundreds of smaller provinces and states, all vying for power within the vacuum left. Kingdoms rose and fell within this period, but only the strong survived. The following is a list of some, but not all of the realms which have survived from their birth into the period in which Lament takes place. These kingdoms and empires have their own dedicated chapters for lore, so this will simply act as a brief introduction.
The Imperial Sovereignty of Castegleón
The first of these kingdoms to establish itself in the annals of history was Castegleón. According to their calendar, this was 1532 years ago.
The Holy Imperial Gottesreich
A nation that wholeheartedly accepted the Imperial mandate of monotheistic worship of Odis, who they now call GOD. The Gottesreich, or Kingdom of GOD, became a powerhouse of central Middegard 1522 years ago and has evolved into a strong Empire known as the Holy Imperial Gottesreich today.
The Kingdoms of Albany and Beaugencie
Albia and Bogia were once provinces of the Iron Empire, subjugated by force in the days of its imperial expansion. These two provinces were quick to split from the fracturing Empire, due to heavy persecution for their worship of Soleil and Luna instead of the mandated worship of Odis. War broke out between the two provinces, and they didn’t officially become Kingdoms until 1394 years ago. They have only just recently come together as the Kingdom of Chauncey, after a brutal 70-year war that saw Albany conquer Beaugencie and subjugate the kingdom as a vassal state.
Valeria, the Iron Empire Reborn
Some stragglers of the empire refused its fate, claiming that the other kingdoms were traitors and usurpers unworthy of recognition. In their eyes, the empire never fell, but rather it gained new enemies. These few rebuilt a new empire, under a green banner of the lion, chanting “valorem in unitate”, and Valaria was born. Small at first, it quickly gained steam in its quest to reclaim the ancestral lands using a system of governance that rewards loyalty to the empire, as well as traitors to opposing nations. The nation would have surely fallen without the wisdom of the nation's emperor, a dictator hand-chosen by the previous who was raised from a young age with all the knowledge of the past mistakes and successes to navigate the complex new political climate.