Galdor

Close to a thousand years have passed since Lady Serene and her Gravetorn Hosts were pushed back into the Nightlands and locked behind the Signing Stones of the Rose Veil. After six hundred years of brutality, the Long Night had finally come to an end, ushering in an era of exploration, expansion and prosperity. But without an enemy to unify behind, old feuds and prejudices boiled once again to the surface fueling ambition, discord and vengeance. Having lost the most in the Vampiric Wars, with the fall of the Krommeric Empire, the Elven people have once again fractured along old bloodlines and dynasties. Withdrawing from the world and becoming embittered isolationist Kingdoms, obsessed with keeping their culture pure of outside influence.

In their absence the Dwarven Eisarn Empire has grown into the largest and most powerful empire Galdor has ever seen. Having naval supremacy, and control over most oceanborn commerce through the East Iron Trading Companies, the Dwarven Clans have grown powerful. Humans have consolidated their old bloodlines into two major kingdoms and a scattering of cities and townships. Their adaptability has led to the creation of vibrant societies which are melting pots of Galdor’s many races. Halflings, ever drawn by the mix for grand adventure and creature comforts, have maintained their close kinship with human society. While the ever enigmatic Gnomes and Narkin seem content to tinker and experiment, selling their constructs and magical services to any who pay.

The Wyrsi, perhaps driven by guilt over their role in the coming of the Long Night, have withdrawn much like the Elves, becoming barely glimpsed legends and whispers. Even as the Kosani, have grown in prominence as a connection to the dragons of ancient history, becoming heroes and folk legends through their wanderlust. Left to fight tooth and nail to establish their own futures, the younger races of Illaan and J’tar live a maniac existence between acceptance of self and war for identity. The ancient Nimra and Delvarians have cared little for the advance of Galdor’s politics, perhaps understanding most events are an ever turning wheel, and it is just a matter of time before darkness returns. While the youngest of Galdor’s races, the Lithani, have only ever experienced the legends and histories of past wars, being but a handful of generations old.

The Coalition of Deavonworth, the once grand alliance of Elvenborne races that stood against the Gravetorn Hosts, is a shadow of its former strength, stretched to its breaking point. Once relying on the support of noble houses and bloodlines, and the tribes and clans of the Savage Lands, each generation produces fewer and fewer new recruits. While a core of professional military veterans pulled from Deavonworth still serve in the fortresses along the border of the Savage Lands, the majority of fresh recruits are the lowest borne of noble bloodlines, the disgraced or the exiled. With barely enough soldiers to occupy two of the nine fortresses, this token force is constantly at odds with the tribes and clans of the Savage Lands, at one time their allies. Leading to even fewer numbers and more wasted resources. So much has been forgotten that those of the Coalition don’t even know they stand watch in case the Singing Stones fail. While those few tribes who do still hold the secrets of the Signing Stones, knowledge shrinks with each passing generation.

It is an age of exploration and discovery, science and reasoning locked into a struggle with magic and ancient wisdom. Both moving to harness and capitalize on the properties of the raw substance of magic itself, Aether. An age of kingdoms and empires, both creating a tangle of overlapping and seldom agreed upon borders. The perfect environment for the existence of a black markets, criminal enterprises and piracy. It is an age of mercenaries and adventurers, those cut loose from the confines of what culture may have once dictated. Explorers and treasure hunters, bent on discovering then unseen and new, or striving to recover all that has been lost and forgotten. It is an age living in the shadow of a vast darkness, for true monsters are endlessly patient and memory is often fleeting.