Born and founded in the Age of Reckoning, the Empire of Mindas fought from its birthplace in the Southlands of the continent Soltas, the lands from the icy north to the great peninsula to the edge of the desert. All were ruled by the High Kings of Ysmier. The elvish people had little freedom under the High Kings of the North, crushed under their boot and treated as second-class citizens, even in their own Vassle State of Keldorn was forced to abide by the Northmen's laws, elves persecuted by man until a human was born to a seemingly unknown elvish couple.
The birth of Casmir Aelfhare was whispered about the state, unheard of for two Elves to give birth to a human, the implications alone of what happened piled high as gossip flew. But the young man lived a happy enough childhood until his home city within Keldorn was attacked, northmen deciding the city had grown enough they road in with torches and blades, killing everyone they saw fit. A Northman rider who would later be known as Bast Wolfeater poised to cut down Casmir, a lad at this time no older than fourteen. At the last minute, a human living among the elves saved him, shielding the boy with his body as he stirred him to flee, buying him time to escape and survive. Upon returning to find his savior, the young man only finds the brutalized corpse, a man who was once a Northman as well but now a scholar living among the elves of Keldorn. Few among his people knew the man, few had cared as he was human after all, but Casmir wasted no time to learn of his savior. Taking charge of the man's body he refused to bury him until he could place a name upon a marking stone, for honor kept him from letting this man be forgotten. After four days of tending the corpse, Casmir learned of the man's name. Mindan Gray, a runaway noble of Ysmier, a man who cast off his name. With that Casmir took on the man's debts and buried him with all elvish honors, a fire in his heart now to change the world.
Thirteen years passed since that day, when Casmir rode back into Keldorn atop a barded horse, a changed man as he brought along several others: Human, Half Orc, Halfing and a wild Elf of the far west. An adventuring party that had discovered old texts forgotten by the first elves of the land and their first empire, the Phoenix Empire. Taking up their standard Casmir proclaimed himself the new Emperor, but he would not claim it as a man or elf, he proclaimed the fires of a dragon boiled in his heart, that the Aelfhare line was the true rulers of the Southlands, all the Southlands, that they could trace their blood back to the kin of the First Empires and more to those of dragons.
And with that the now Crowned Emperor of Keldorn rode forth, an army of fervent elves that quickly swept the Southlands, taking city and village one after another as Casmir lead from the front in each battle. The war raged for nearly twenty years, yet their Emperor did not seem to age all the while, his face still crisp of a young man's which gave further proof to his rights to rule, rumors swirling he made pacts with death gods or he was truly a dragon not a man, but none of that stayed his hand. Until the birth of his sister. Again his parents gave birth, unbeknownst to him but when word reached him he rushed to Keldorn with his closest ally by his side, a human wizard called Rolmir Graysun, the two arrived to see a happy Half Elven girl named Sofia. Not long after their mother passed, the causes unknown. But the war continued, victory after victory as the Northmen sued for peace, but it wasn't peace he wanted, it was a new home, to push the Nords out and to reclaim what glory the elves had before.
Once the war finally ended, Casmir stood over the now dead High King, his Jarls at sword point as he declared his new country free, all ties severed as he forced the Ysmierns north of Helkan Pass, forced back into the tundra of the north as he proclaimed the name of his new empire, under the two headed phoenix of old, the Mindas Empire was born.