World History

No one knows how long ago it has been since the birth of the peoples, the only immutable fact long having been that once they did not live and then one day, by the hand of the gods themselves, they did. Though their has been no end of speculation as to why the gods created life, be it for power, out of loneliness or some warped kind of love, it's likely that none will ever know the full truth of it, save perhaps for the legendary heroes who faced the Gods themselves.

Shepherded by their creators, life flourished across the planet in this time where the Gods lived in harmony among their creations. Though there are none alive today that lived in these days, stories survive across the realms passed down through family lines of their grandeur and bliss. It is said that these times were nothing less than paradise. That there was peace between the Gods and peoples alike, that there was no disease, no hunger, and that none ever needed fear the loss of their life, even from the ravages of time itself.

Though it is commonly accepted that during this time the agelessness of the peoples today was a universal trait shared by all, including humans, little is known of how that trait came to be lost in humans and orcs alone.

No one remembers how or why the Godswar began, only that what began at first as a series of small battles between conflicting groups of the faithful soon escalated into the longest and bloodiest conflict the world would ever know. As the Gods and their followers fought for power and control the fires of war raged across the world and soon there were precious few places left untouched by the conflict and even fewer people, devoted as they were to the beings who many considered to be greater than their mothers and fathers.

Centuries after the first battles of the Godswar were waged, the constant war and bloodshed that had been left in its wake had become a simple fact of life for those who lived amongst its strife. Whole kingdoms and societies had been shaped around the war's constant tides and, even despite the long-livedness of most of the peoples or the realms, precious few souls remained that even remembered the days of prosperity and peace that had come before. To those who dwelled amongst it, the war seemed eternal, unchanging, a fate to which their lives would always ben consigned, that is, until the Seven Heroes appeared.

The tales tell of a small band of adventures, born scattered across the realms and thrown together by chance, and that though their origins and reasons couldn't be more different they stood united by one singular goal; to bring down the Gods that had ruined both their own and so many other lives. In their quest they made no declarations, sought no alliance or aid outside of their own band. In fact, their mark upon history is traced only through rumor and good deeds done for those who claim to have had encounters with them first-hand. It is said that they sought to storm the halls of the Gods themselves and challenge their dominion over their children's fate, all for the sake of bringing their wars to an end. Impossible as it may seem to those who had long ago given up hope of ever seeing an end to the bloodshed, the fact remains that not long after rumors of the Hero's appearance began circulating the Gods simply disappeared from the realms and with them the reason behind the Godswar. Their work done, the Heroes vanished from the pages of history and their identities have remained shrouded in mystery to this day. Even so, their actions would bring immeasurable change to both the face and fate of the realms.

While the identity of the Seven Heroes, or even the truth of their existence, may never be known, they are commonly known of in tales as follows:

The Swordsman

The Witch

The Hunter

The Sorceress

The Duelist

The Moontouched

The Protector

Following the disappearance of the Gods and with them the driving purpose of countless individuals and societies alike, the kingdoms of the land were thrown into chaos. Though few would now say that the abrupt removal of what had been a fundamental driving force for so many lives wasn't ultimately for the benefit of everyone, not a soul would claim that it was an easy transition. Across the lands battles still raged, now aimlessly, a habit more than a necessity. Coups were staged as the greedy sought to fill the vacuum of power, cities and homes splintered without the ties of their purpose to bind them, and it seemed at first despite the God's absence little would change in the fate of this war-torn world. The, the storms came.

It began slowly, with scattered endless rains and biting winds but quickly the storms grew into something that could only be described as apocalyptic. No place was left untouched by the waters as, across the world, lakes and rivers flooded from the torrential rains, ripped further from their beds by the winds so strong as to create raging waves in even the stillest waters. Huddled in whatever shelters they could find from the storms, people watched as the waters rose higher and higher, as the winds beat against their homes, and in that cacophony of sounds another came to be heard. Cracking.

At first, delicate like shattering glass, unheard by most amidst that raging storm, but quickly the cracking grew in volume and violence until even the storm was drowned out by it's sounds. As it grew, so too did the trembling brought with it and quickly it seemed as if the whole world threatened to tear itself asunder. Then, as the storms and quakes reached such a strength that it seemed impossible to bear, a single bolt of lightning struck, it's flash seen by all across the world who still had the ability to watch, and with it, a peal of thunder clear as a bell. As the lightning struck, the earth and skies quieted. Flood waters retreated impossibly fast and soon the survivors began to emerge from their shelters, shaken, but alive. But the world that they emerged into was not the one which they had left.

The world around them had been changed irrevocably. Lands had shifted, cities had been sundered and rearranged, ecosystems severed and stitched back together in sometimes nonsensical ways. Strangest of all though, it appeared at first the vast swathes of the world had simply disappeared and that what remained had been closed off in some fashion, becoming a looping landscape where before it had been simply a piece of a greater whole. And so it was that the Realms were born, though it would be some years before those who lived inside of them would come to understand them as such.

Decades after the Shattering ripped the world into its now fractured state, most who occupied these new Realms remained fully focused on the slow rebuilding of their societies; with many among them unaware that traveling outside of their boundaries was even an option any more. But while most's minds were understandably turned inward, there were those amongst the Realms who refused to accept that the old lands were lost to them and ever sought ways to transcend the rifts between the Realms. One of these seekers was the Lady Kalista Debrujar, a sorceress of great renown and a former princess of Telaar. Kalista renounced her position in the Telaarii court shortly before the Shattering and vanished from the public eye, only to suddenly reappear decades later bearing what was to some unbelievable news.

She claimed that not only had she discovered a means to reliably travel between the Realms, but that in doing so she had stumbled across and entirely new land that seemed not to have been taken from the world before as all the other Realms had. Though she was at first met with skepticism, any disbelief was quickly dispelled as Kalista invited community leaders from across the Realms to visit this new Realm and see it with their own eyes. They found there a great city of molded stone nested in the peak of an enormous mountaintop, unfamiliar to all who now beheld it. But it was not the strangeness of the city which stunned the visitors, despite its oddness, but rather the massive Gates scattered across the city and the mountainside each one of which lead to a new world. As she concluded her tour, Kalista bade them all to return to their homes and spread the word. That in one years time, the gates of the city would be thrown open to all and that all would be welcome to gather here, be it for trade, travel, or the reunion of separated souls, each one under her protection.

Over the next year Kalista, alongside her eventual husband Coal Wolfsblood, would travel the Realms, aiding in the construction of the Gates there as well as recruiting individuals who would be needed to ensure the city's future operation. So it was then when a year passed and what had become to be known as The Hub was opened, the city was near immediately flooded with visitors and so too were the Realms it connected, as for the fist time in many years people were able to travel the worlds freely once more.

As the years passed, The Hub quickly rose into a position of prominence and authority amongst the Realms under the even-handed guidance of Kalista and Coal, who came eventually to be known as simply the Lady and Lord respectively. Leveraging the Hub's position as the literal crossroads between the Realms, the pair have scrupulously maintained a position of neutrality and diplomacy, eager to serve as a tempering force between whatever old grudges and tensions may linger between the peoples of the Realms. While the Lord and Lady have maintained that The Hub and it's inhabitants are under their governance and protection, they have endeavored to meddle in the affairs of the other Realms as little as possible outside of serving as a neutral ground where those in conflict with one another may meet and negotiate in safety. In service of this ideal, The Realm Council was founded several years after the opening of the Hub, an organization which, though it was not their idea, the Lady and Lord of The Hub were only too happy to host.

To this day, The Hub remains the center of commerce and culture of the Realms and it's population has grown to reflect that, even more so as Realms thought to be lost have been reconnected to the city in recent years.

In the years following the Hub's founding, the city would come to host more and more Realms as Gates were discovered and made usable, leading to a greater exchange of culture and trade between the Realms than had perhaps ever occurred in their war-torn history. For many, this period would be the first time in their memory that they were able travel the lands freely, which would lead to and explosion of discovery and prosperity that would last for years across the Realms. As the Hub grew, so too did the Realms it connected, moving forward together into a long over due era of peace across the lands.

Many decades had passed since the opening of the Hub and the era of peace and prosperity it had ushered in with it, and the Realms had come to settle into a kind of comfortable routine, used to at last the new would they had found themselves thrust into many years ago. Though things were far from perfect, none in either the Hub or beyond had any reason to suspect that things would soon be anything other than the stable peace that they had all enjoyed for years hence. That is until, without an trace of reason or warning, the Lord and Lady of the Hub simply vanished.

No effort was spared by those loyal to their leadership to discover where they had gone but, despite and extensive search of the city and beyond, no trace of them was ever discovered and with their sudden absence a vacuum of power was created, which those both well-intentioned and otherwise rushed to fill.

Lacking the former Lady and Lord of The Hub's unifying prescence and with suspicions still brewing as to who or what was to blame for their disappearance and the strife that followed, many of the Realms began to turn inward a newfound distrust for their neighbors brewing within them. Shocked at the sudden act of violence after what had been a long era of peace many nations turned to rebuilding both armies and other lines of defense that had long since been left to fade in the years since The Shattering and across all the known realms prosperity began to diminish as resources were turned more and more towards funding their military efforts.

Though not all realms responded to this tension with the sharpening of knives, some simply to step away from the international stage entirely, such as Avwyn and The Great Forest who relinquished their seats on The Realm Council and turned their attentions wholly on their own peoples and lands, greatly reducing or restricting travel and trade from their Realms in the process.