Iliosgy
The Xulgath empire reached its peak about 15000 years ago. At this point the empire stretched from the Tågbaf Mountains to the Nakatsukuni Sea. It began its gradual decline. In the wake of its collapse which was complete about 8000 years ago, the various races enslaved by the Xulgath fled to different regions. The dwarves to the mountains, the elves to the forests and the humans to the plains.
Approximately a century after that a human civilization arose, the Iliosgy as they are known now. Their own name for themselves was Ypérochoi. Their empire spread to encompass most of the are now known as the frontier lands. Numerous cities of the Ypérochoi dotted the land and they traded with both the eastern lands as well as Shahrzareen to the far west.
The Empire started from the city of Agaue and spread absorbing one city after the other. However, these weren’t conquests rather trade agreements. Led by Agaue and its rulers the Policarp family, Agaue became an economic powerhouse. Other cities joined the alliance to get in on the rich trade opportunities. After 500 years the alliance became an empire when the northern barbarians uninterested in trade began attacking the northernmost cities. Great armies were raised to watch the northern frontier and to protect from raiding orcs from the Tågbaf mountains and goblinoids from the Ethicter forest. Gradually the Policarps changed from merchant kings to sorcerer kings specializing in divination to protect their far-flung holdings.
The empire stood for roughly fifteen hundred years before its fall. In the last few generations before the fall of the empire a pall had settled on the Policarp family. Some whispered that a curse was on the family. The last heir to the family, Pancratios, was killed by an assassin only to rise again as a powerful lich. The other cities refused the rule of a Lich and declared independence. Pancratios revealed a huge army of undead, legions of skeletons, zombies, and even more fell creatures marched forth from Agaue. The war lasted for five years with neither the cities of the living nor the charnel houses ruled by Pancratios getting a clear advantage.
Finally, in desperation one of the leaders of the living broke taboo and summoned fiends from the lower planes to fight. Pancratios retaliated in kind followed by the other living rulers. In the span of a month the armies of both sides were destroyed, and all the cities of the empire laid ruin. Those few who survived fled to the rural areas, but that was not the end. The powerful magics unleashed had more in store. Earhquakes shook the ground, volcanos erupted spewing clouds of ash, violent storms swept across the land. Pestilence ran unchecked killing the livestock and many of the people. What few crops were planted were devoured by plagues of locusts before they could ripen. The few survivors called it The Year of Ruin.
Those near enough to the southern coast fled on the remaining ships to far away lands. The remainder of the people fled to the northern barbarians seeking succor. Their tales of The Year of Ruin made its way into the lore of the barbarian people who avoided the region to this day.
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