History (Aegir Supplement)
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Aegir is still a rather young world, having sentient races for only a few thousand years. This article will cover the overarching historical events, but the details are left somewhat ambiguous so each DM can bring their own flavor to the world.
While the story of Creation varies from culture to culture, there is one thing on which all agree: the world of Aegir was originally built and populated by the Lady of Light and the Lord of the Land. However, followers of the Lord or Lady each have their own take on this story. In addition, those of the "lesser" races - those other than humans or fey - at times claim it was their own particular deities who brought the world into being.
The Lord and the Lady
The Lady was the first to bring change unto the darkness that was the world, being industrious and full of initiative. She saw that the darkness ached for Light, and created the stars, the moon, and at last the shining sun. These lights did not overtake the darkness, but instead struck a balance against it - evenly sharing the darkness and the light.
Stirred by the Lady's actions, the Lord beheld the darkness and the light. The Lord, being steadfast and strong, sought that there be a solid space to behold the beauty of the sky, and created the Land. He called to the Lady to descend from the skies and join him on the ground.
Here is where the accounts of the tale begin to differ. Some say the Lord gave insult to the Lady, while others claim the Lady was angry with the Lord for challenging her creation with his own. All that is known for certain is that the Lady did not join the Lord. She stayed in the heavens and rained down great waters upon the new world. Vast oceans were created, and soon only a small portion of the land remained, with the Lord upon it.
Stranded, and without his Lady for company, the Lord created trees and plants and all the beauty of the wilderness on the remaining land. He used the creations of the Lady to accomplish this feat, for the plants needed both light and water to survive. Grassland, jungles, forests - he willed them all into being, so that he could walk among the silent plants and feel the presence of other beings. So life was brought to the world. Some interpretations claim that the Lord did this to consume the gifts of the Lady, while other say he sought only to heal his own loneliness.
The Lady saw the plants the Lord had made from her high vantage point in the sky. She saw how it was her light and water which sustained them. Her next act is said by some to be one of vengeance, while others assert she was acting of inspiration after seeing the Lord's creation. Regardless, she chose next to populate the world with animals of all kinds, which fed upon the plants and in turn upon each other.
Beset by beasts, the Lord of the Land knew he must find a way to calm the creatures the Lady had created. So, at last a thinking race was created - the eldest people, the Fey, came into being to preserve harmony in nature. Worshipers of the Lady claim that the Lord sought to control Her creations.
The fey befriended the creatures of the world and lived amongst them, leaving the wild places untouched and the land as it had been since creation. They calmed the beasts' overly violent natures and convinced them to do as they asked. The Lady, angered by this, created her own race: a race of industry and knowledge, of order and change. The humans came into being, these first as small tribes banded together against the hostile world around them, soon to grow into great cities and empires. The fey saw these new creatures and did not trust them, for they were not of what they perceived as the natural order. As the humans began to expand and multiply, the fey became as territorial as the beasts they had calmed, defending fiercely the wilderness they had taken as their home.
Creation of the Lesser Races
All the great magics of the Lord and Lady had not gone unnoticed. Other gods and goddesses began to take interest in the new world.
- Thalysis saw the strong earth and the healthy plants of Aegir, and created a people of her own pleasing: the dwarves dug into the ground and tilled their quiet fields, seeking deep wisdom and troubling no one if they could help it. The dwarves believe themselves to be the oldest children of the world, though the fey and humans also both vie for that title. In dwarven lore, they teach that Thalysis saw the bountiful world of plants, free of animals and thinking races, and sought to create a people who were of the land itself, and thrived in simple ways by tending the earth.
Lizardfolk and Yuan-ti
- Shalrikk observed the deep and wild jungles and the beasts with their secret violent hearts, and willed the lizardfolk into being. They celebrated violence and sought to awaken the deep beasts into murderous rages, creating what are now known as "Dire" creatures. Despite these chaotic and violent tendencies, the lizardfolk built their own civilization and became a power to be reckoned with.
Goblins and Halflings
- Attracted by the industriousness of the humans, the Red God Mabdig added his own creation to the new world. The goblins, his first children, were an attempt to follow in the humans' footsteps. But while human civilization progressed at a breakneck speed, the goblins remained stubbornly locked into tribal society full of violence and superstition. Mabdig still hoped to contend with the other races of the young world, and so created the youngest race of them all: the halflings. Appearing after humans had already built great empires, the halflings had no place to claim as their own. Instead, Mabdig bid them meld into the society of the other races, and get the best of them without ever conquering a bit of land.
The First Empire
As the other races began to appear on Aegir, the early human tribes banded together against what they saw as a hostile world. It was a time of brotherhood between humans, and great cities arose out of this cooperation. This first great civilization of humans had no name - it was simply all there was. It was the human race as a whole.
The humans followed their goddess' will and began to pursue knowledge. A great library and museum was built in the capitol city of Alorkhaz. Wizards created amazing and powerful artifacts, many of which were stored in the capitol. It was a grand center for learning and progress, and the Lady of Light was pleased.
However, by this time a god called Agshasa Muren had grown interested in Aegir. Not content to build his grotesque monsters, he also enjoyed meddling in mortal affairs. As the years passed, the great empire began to see civil tension. It wasn't too long before war broke out, and the utopia was shattered forever. Human fought human, and amidst the chaos of war, the great city of Alorkhaz was destroyed.
Other gods created more creatures, magical beasts and fearsome monsters, or simple meddled in the affairs of the mortals already in existence. At last the Lord and Lady put aside their own conflict and created a Divine Court. They were unhappy that other gods had added their own creations to their world, but they did not want the world to be torn apart by fighting between the young races. The Court was created to resolve disputes and protect the young world.
Many of the gods and immortals agreed to join the Court. However, there were also many dissenters. Chief among them was a dark god known as Agshasa Muren. Agshasa Muren called those who resented the authority of the Lord and Lady together. He bound them with vows of violence and destruction, a dark binding afterward named the Pact of Ruin. There are many accounts of the original conflict between the Court and the Pact, and no one knows for certain who struck the first blow. But strike they did, and it was a blow of such violence as the young world had never seen. Aegir was broken in two: the small Eastern Lands and the larger Western Lands, with the Straights of Krahl to separate them.
The Sundering marked the beginning of Sorastraz, the Divine Battle, between the Court and the Pact.
The Dark Age
The period directly following the Sundering is known as the Dark Age by most scholars. During this time, the lizardfolk rose to power in the east and subjugated much of the old human empire. Most humans were made slaves and sacrifices. Their utopia broken, with enemies at all sides, the humans were a fallen people. There are no records from this time, and the exact duration of the Dark Age is unknown.
It was also during the Dark Age that the dwarves left the eastern continent. The reason for their leaving was mostly religious, with a good dose of common sense added in. The dwarves are a race that seeks to avoid conflict when possible. Though strong warriors when defending themselves and their families, they are not a race made for war. With the lizardfolk growing in power in the east and the seat of the Divine Court in the western lands, it was clear where they ought to be. In this way, the dwarves avoided most of the ill effects of the Dark Ages - though they lost their homes, they preserved their race.
The fey did not escape the Dark Age unchanged either. As the influence of the lizardfolk and the dark gods they followed spread through both the wild and civilized parts of the eastern lands, some of the fey began to change. This time marks the birth of the dark fey, such as the Fomorians. Some were twisted beyond recognition. To this day, there are creatures that lair in the forest, shrouded in deep shadow, that no one goes near, even the other fey.
The New Empire
The Dark Age was ended when Goult, the wizard-king, rose to power and drove off the savage lizard-folk. Goult was born as a slave, but he escaped and studied magic in secret. He eventually banded together with the resistance fighters of the south and drove the lizardfolk back over the eastern mountains.
Goult was learned man, and studied the stories of the old Empire, the great Utopia (as it has come to be called). He sought to create Utopia again. Goult beseeched all men to love each other as brothers, as they were all the children of the Lady of Light. He was an idealistic man, but a very strong and charismatic leader. Under his rulership, the human race thrived again, and rebuilt much of what they had lost. However, their greatest accomplishments still lay buried in Alorkhaz, across the mountains, in the heart of the lizardfolk territory. Though Goult dreamed of reclaiming that city once again, he knew it was most important for his people to rebuild. A fight across the mountains would be extremely difficult, if not impossible, and regaining their freedom had already taxed the humans greatly. It was time to rest.
Goult founded a new society for learning and magic arts, which he called The Arcanum. The masters of the Arcanum were given great clout in the new empire's political system - they were essentially outside the law, ostensibly to serve as advisers to all nobles and policy-makers. It was immediately fashionable for young nobles to be sent to the Arcanum school to learn, though some were distinctly unsuitable for the type of power wizardry imparted.
After Goult's death, his son Chava came into power. Chava was an idealist, like Goult, but he was also a jealous and weak-minded man. He was also not as talented in the wizardly arts as his father. His childhood rival, a man named Jahad, became a powerful sorcerer, without studying as Chava had. Chava declared sorcerery an unclean magic, claiming it used the foul powers of the fey and was a result of fey inbreeding, and banned sorcerers and warlocks from the realm. He created the Inquisition to carry out his order, and used a large portion of the army to fill the Inquisition's ranks. Over time, the Inquisition's tasks came to include most typical army and law enforcement tasks as well, and different branches began to fulfill these roles. The standing army was dissolved, though each province had it's own militia in addition to their Inquisition troops.
Though Chava's jealously gave birth to the tradition of xenophobia and intolerance in the new Empire, he did leave one good legacy. Chava recognized that one large country was largely impractical with the varied cultures that had developed over the long Dark Age. He broke the empire into eight city-states, each of which was mostly autonomous, with the exception of a tax to support the Inquisition troops, and the allowance of these troops and the wizards of the Arcanum to come and go and do as they wished.
It is now the 287th year of the Empire of Goult, and the humans are arguably the most powerful race on Aegir. Their cities are strong, they have relearned much of their ancient magic, and they are as numerous as ever. They are constantly encroaching on the territory of the fey, who they see now as their primary rivals for the dominance of the world. The fey, in return, view the humans as hostile, savage creatures with greed their only motivator. They fight fiercely to protect their territory, and often raid outlying human villages. The lizardfolk have been mostly quiet since the fall of their empire, killing anyone who enters their territory but for the most part leaving other races along. Likewise, the dwarves have stayed in the western lands, where they are the undisputed dominant race, tilling their fields and making fine stone and metalwork. Halflings, who have been conspicuously absent from the great events of history, continue along their own agenda. They have spread themselves amongst all of the major races, and have ears in many high places. Meanwhile, the goblins continue their primitive ways in their mountain tribes.