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At the dawn of the First Age the world of Schön was formed by the One True God. The details which followed this act of creation are often debated between Elves, Dwarves, and Men, but His gifts to them are not. To the Dragons He gave the Elemental Domains, to the Elves He gave the Faerie Realm, to the Dwarves He gave the Underworld, and to Man He gave the Mortal Realm.

But though the Creation was right and good, there was a shadow of evil, born of the choices of the created. The Enemy stirred, and his influence festered first in the hearts of Men, who chose their own path and their own wisdom, and evil entered the world. The Enemy gathered an army of dissenters, chief among them the Dark Consortium: Storm Queen, Skeleton King, Swollen Mother, Spider Queen, Fire King, Tree Queen, Ogre Chief, and Dragon King.

It was in the Second Age when dragons, influenced by their king, breached the barrier between the realms. They found the Mortal Realm was rich with food, the Faerie Realm rich in magic, and the Underworld rich with precious metals and gems, which they coveted. An army of elves mobilized into the Mortal Realm to fight against the dragons who ravaged their land. There they found humans who wielded iron and good dragon who had come to their aid. The elves taught humans to forge steel and drove the evil dragons into the mountains and far-off places with their weapons and magic. And while most of the good dragons returned to their own realms, a number remained to guard against their evil brethren.

The war left gaps in the fabric of reality. The Ogre King taught humans living in the God's Wall mountains to tamper with the potent magics of the elemental breeches and corrupted them into giants.

The Faerie Realm was open in the Forest of Dreams. Some elves still sought revenge against the dragons, and in their foolishness taught humans to wield magic not meant for them. These elves entered the mountains and crawled deep into the Underworld, their hearts twisted by hate and ugliness, and they became the goblins. Others remained in the Mortal Realms, convinced by the Tree Queen of their own dissatisfaction—they learned to hate the undeserving mortals and yearned to taste their flesh, and the ugliness of their hearts corrupted them into hags.

In the Third Age an order of human wizards known as the Seekers—unsatisfied with the magics they'd learned from the elves and dragons—learned to draw power from the Gloomward and to practice necromancy. They became the Death Seekers, secretly led by the Skeleton King. They raised an army of the dead and conquered what is now the Plains of Thannon and the Realms of Sothis.

But when the last living humans called on the One True God, He split the God's Wall mountains and showed them the way of escape before closing the pass and crushing half of the Skeleton King's forces. The Celestial Knights, blessed with divine power, guarded God's Wall, holding the line against the forces of darkness and led humanity in a war for Life. They freed the land of the undead curse, vanquishing the Skeleton King and driving him into the Gloomward.

The Fourth Age saw great advancement on the East Coast, beyond God's Wall where nations rose and fell. The greatest of these was Cathia, which, over the course of time, grew into the Cathian Empire.

Dwarves emerged from their mountains, first in Mortaar, and began to trade with the humans and elves. They harbored a deep resentment for the elves, a distaste left on their tongues after centuries of war with the goblins, who they call dark elves.

But in the central lands, where Men had known peace for centuries, evil stirred once more. Dragons returned to plague the land once again, and the Elves returned to stop them. Ten Kings—the Sons of Erithyl—lead their courts and mortal humans against the dragons. They forged mighty weapons to battle the wyrms and drove them from the land. They formed the Sylvan Dominion, a nation that flourished for five-hundred years.

But some humans were dissatisfied with life under the rule of the elves. Forgetting the plight of their ancestors, some number called on the Dark Consortium in secret, and the Dark Consortium answered. They led their forces against the Sylvan Dominion for ten years. Whether by chance, by judgment, or by foul magic, the land grew dry and the vulnerable Great Forest was set ablaze. Tens of thousands perished in fire, and only four of the Elvin Courts remained. Heshirius, King of the Emerald Court, and his son, Erishel, forged the greatest of the dragonslayers, the Ten Teeth. With no trust for the humans, the Elvin Host drove the Dragon King and his followers out. They pursued them to Hargaden, the land of the giants, and banished the Dragon King into the Gloomward.

The Four Courts retreated into the heart of the forest—the Waking Wood—where they remained as a vigil against the return of the dragons.

In the first century of the Sylvan Dominion, the One True God spoke to a man named Maran and told him to leave the land of the Elves and his fathers to settle near the mountains in the land of the giants. He promised Maran that one day that land would belong to his descendants. And Maran believed Him.

It was his grandson Barish, son of Len, who crossed God's Wall. He was taken captive by trolls due to the treachery of his brothers, but managed to convince them not to eat him. He explained that he was far more valuable to them alive. He explained the value of wealth and that his father would reward them handsomely for his return. The trolls decided that he was more valuable alive and took him to the city of Nathes, in Cathia, to sell him. And while Barish became a slave for a time, the One True God didn't forget him. He prospered in Nathes and years later was able to rescue his father and family from the destruction of the Great Dragon-Giant War. The children of Len flourished in Cathia for over a century. But Carish the Great, the Mad Emperor, found them too organized, too numerous, and too powerful and enslaved them.

It was at this time that the archmage Archidemus, who was dwelling in the western Cathian Empire in what is now Etrae, led a dozen of his students over the Ragnar Mountains to escape the wrath of Carish and found Alaria. Five years later the Mad Emperor would die, marking the beginning of the brutal Succession Wars. The Succession Wars lasted for twenty years, ending with a strong and consolidated Eastern Empire and a crumbling Western Empire which would be toppled by the Etreans.

In the Fifth Age, the Marianites followed the prophetess Sothis out of Cathia captivity through God's Wall and into the land promised to Maran centuries prior. She continued west and found the Montegan people, a human remnant of the Sylvan Dominion, living under the tyranny of the Storm Queen who they called Drya. Sothis slew Drya and freed the people, teaching them the Way of the One True God.

Sothis' brother Barid was given the mantle of leadership and named King. He built a city and established an order of knights to defend his people against the dragons and giants who assaulted the land, culminating in the Great Dragon War and the burning of Baridor on High. Barid saved his people from the Great Wyrm Pyre but lost his life. His son Gelid was crowned his successor and faced a new evil. Gaul, Barid's greatest general, desiring vengeance against the dragons and conquest for his army claimed he had seen a vision from God and a command to conquer the lands to the south. But Gelid was warned of Gaul's lies by the prophet Thaniael. Gaul left in anger, taking one-third of Baridor's army with him. He conquered the dragons and giants and in his thirst for blood brought a curse on his new land. He swore vengeance against Baridor, but Thaniael spoke a prophecy which has held to this day, that Baridor and Dargaul will know neither war nor peace for five hundred years—a span of time which is nearly at its end.

These brothers will know neither peace nor war for five-hundred years. Then the ilk of Gaul will ride home, hate in their hearts and blood in their will, and dragons will fill the skies.
~Chronicles of Baridor 24:32-34


History
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