The Zosin Alliance

Phadria, before the story begins (2500-2000)
Phadria long ago was a unified land. In the beginning as with many of the virgin grounds of Caelos the gods made it their mission to create their new home; to truly make it theirs. What made Phadria special were its 4 Rivers, which met in the heart of the continent. These Rivers were named after the 4 founding houses of Phadrus:
• Occidensa (West to East) • Oriensa (East to West) • Austerensa (South to North) • Boreansa (North to South)
Some 2500 years ago the gods, Melora, Kord, Lolth and Corellon made their home in these lands. Corellon took to the west, Lolth to the North, Melora to the East, and Kord to the South. For 500 years there was peace, there was hope, life and love in the land of four rivers. It was to this place that Corellon brought his affectionate followers, the Eternal Elves, his Eladrin from his home of The Feywilds. He wanted them to embrace the beauty and difficulty of what it meant to make something of their own, and after having spent millennia in The Feywilds, he thought it time for them to make this wish a reality. Lolth being Corellon’s closest friend and lover, asked if she could take some of his children and have them do the same in the north, and of course he obliged her, trusting her intentions to be pure. This was the last decision Corellon made in the mortal realms that would reflect such love or desire to cooperate, as it nearly became his undoing.
While Kord and Merlora had brought their own followers, Half-Elves, Dwarves, Humans and the like, Corellon urged his children to move closer with them and to collaborate in the hopes that united they could fashion a world unlike that which has ever been. This, though initially tense, Kord and Melora urged their followers to accept the Eladrin despite their eccentricities. Unbeknownst to them all, Lolth had begun her machinations in the deep north of Phadria (Auron on the map) beyond the Traitor’s Expanse (The small bit of land separating Auron and Phadria). It was her plan all along to come with Corellon to this new land and to corrupt and break everything he sought out to create, for she was jealous. She was jealous of all the love and attention he poured on these “contemptable little things” and she referred to his Eladrin. And so it was her will and mission to take the segment of the population she did and to twist, torture, and mold them into her worshippers that they might one day break this new world and she could at last be all that was left for her lover to witness. Out of these generations of perversion and torture arose the first Drow of Caelos, truly a dark day for all. Eventually, Corellon came to find out what his lover had been up to in the northern wilds of Phadria, but it was too late to stop what she had done. It was during a festival that was celebrated on the day of each solar cycle when the elves came from The Feywilds, that Lolth thought it most appropriate to make her treachery known. As Corellon began to speak and the crowds of his children crowded around the amphitheater to listen to their creator, from the ground rose great spiders, larger than even a horse and atop those spiders were a twisted visage of the Eladrin, their skin black as pitch and their eyes dark as the torture their souls endured under The Treacherous One. Blood was shed, curses hurled along with magic that devastated the land and its denizens. If not for Melora and Kord The Lady of Treason would have struck Corellon down and she’d have won. Through their combined efforts, the Drow were pushed north and Lolth was dragged back to the Astral Sea where she underwent judgement and sentencing to the Abyss where she resides still now.
This battle shattered parts of the world and caused such great misery and death that the 3 gods decided it best for them to leave this world freer of their influence, and they also returned to their domains. Many of the surviving Eladrin returned to their native home of the Feywilds but 4 families, those named after the 4 rivers, chose to remain. Though breeding between other races has essentially diminished their blood greatly, to this day the descendants of one of these 4 great families sit upon the throne of Phadria, and the Drow still oppose them, having made a “Dark Union” in the north at that very time, when they aren’t fighting amongst themselves.
Phadria, the Empire of 4 rivers (2000-1397)
For the next 600 years, the battles between these factions waged on, The Twilight Union building black fortresses across the sea and sending incursions both above ground and underground at their foes, The Sangquinas Corellas, the 4 royal families of Phadrus. As every one of these attempts was buffeted, a member of the Blood Court (The Twilight Union’s governing body) Sylvis Xiltria created a group that focused less on fighting and more on infiltration. Though initially rebuffed as a coward and weakling, an aspect of Lolth was in attendance and made herself known. The aspect claimed Sylvis as her new mortal form and in this new body, she reaffirmed Sylvis’ initial ideas as she reminded them of how she had nearly overthrown her previous lover in the ancient days. Thus began the downfall of the Empire of 4 rivers. Through years of infighting caused by the deception and trickery of the Moré Kambâ (Black Hand in Undercommon), the 4 families found themselves having a tremendous amount of division about how to rule this empire of theirs:
• The Occidensa moved to the west annexing their lands, and eventually becoming what is today The Zosin Alliance (1397). • The Oriensa (1362) moved east annexing their lands and becoming the Kingdom of Acoria themselves. • The Austernesa (1348) took their people moving southwest and founding the Kingdom of Aestrux. • The peoples of Kord that still live mostly in these lands moved to the southern peninsula of Phadria and founded several city-states, governing by rule of The Council of Three, or the three leaders of the three city-states. This hundred years of falling out significantly weakened the unity of the people and left them vulnerable to the attacks of what was unknown to them until now, as The Vogall Dominion.
Zosin Occidensa, King of the Sea (1397-994)
Zosin Occidensa, current head of the Occidensa family decided that it would be best for his family name and their people if he broke with the current emperor of Phadria. In order to make this move happen, he needed more than just the Occidensa line and their resources, though they were vast. At that time in Phadria, there was a cultural renaissance that began about 20 years prior. Traders from The Glistening Isles had sent an expedition 25 years ago that found land on the Shimmering Coast, the western coast of Phadria. This is about the time humans, gnomes, halflings, and the like found their way into the serene markets of what made of Phadria at the time. Zosin used that opportunity building relationships with these new races over the course of 20 or so years, until it came time to break free from what they perceived as “an unhealthy cycle that will result in oblivion”, a famous quote from he spoke on the citadel floor in front of the other families at the time. A human named Tannick Omriaso, who was a merchant prince who resided on the northern island of The Glistening Isles, convinced Zosin that he could bring them the funding they’d need to complete his families move westward. They came to an agreement known as The Zosin Accords and Tannick’s only real request was that Zosin’s daughter would marry his son, and that union of their families would rule the coast together.
Zosennattia was Zosin’s daughter and the namesake of his people’s new capital city. She was beautiful, brilliant and a natural leader. In the century that came, Zosin lived for another 75 years, before his daughter became queen. Tannick had not really considered the fact that Eladrin live an extremely long time, much more than the average human. When the time came for Zosennattia to become queen of her city, her husband had passed away from old age. Their children, some of the first half-elves to ever be born, would carry on his name sake however and the agreement that was struck so long ago is still upheld to this day. Her first son, Halavor Omridensa took up the charge of creating the Cerulean Fleet, establishing The Cerulean Academy. Still the greatest naval and military academy on the continent today, this academy is an important staple of the Zosin Alliance’s trade and reputation around Caelos.
Zosin Occidensa, King of the Sea (994-500)
As with all good things however, they must come to an end. In 994, Zosennattia passed away and her son Halavor took the throne, leaving behind a policy of peace for one of destiny. With his new fleet, the new king of Zosennattia felt that there was an opportunity for wealth and power to come their way. He made plans to assert his kingdom’s dominance over the sea, and to leverage their more advanced and long-lived soldiers to force The Glistening Isles to bend to their will. So began the 42-year conflict that caused great ruin to both of the kingdom’s economies and unwittingly allowed for The Twilight Union to gain some foothold around the realm, having the normally united front of the Zosin Alliance and Glistening Isles at each other’s throats, people trafficking, and smuggling ran amok. This conflict was only halted due to the incursions from the east that struck Phadria seemingly out of nowhere. Iashix had been a land previously unknown to all the peoples of Phadria as they’d been so focused on each other’s land rather than the wider world available to them. Foolishly, the Phadrian Empire built no defenses along the eastern coast imagining they would never be assailed from such a place, and they paid dearly for their overconfidence and lack of foresight. Fortunately, the Zosin Alliance and their people were positioned on the opposite side of the initial point of attacks, but the creatures that did make it across the continent were powerful and they carved a bloody path.
One such creature made it as far west as what is now known as The Walker’s Woods. The generations of fighting which consumed the land and people of Phadria only ever saw a handful of beings who truly threatened their way of life and made them question if it was worth fighting for. The Moonwalker ..\Creatures\King Moonwalker.jpg (artists depiction) was one such creature. From the texts that recounted the battles, this being only appeared in the night, and when it did he drove his foes mad, causing them to thrust their weapons at each other rather than the hordes that made war upon them. The stories also speak of beasts called Dreadshades ..\Creatures\Dread Shade.jpg who would speak in thundering tones, and could possess entire groups of soldiers, breaking their wills one-by-one until they all moved with uniform ferocity and purpose. King Halavor Omridensa thought it fit that the leader should be there at the greatest moments of importance, and that happened to be the battle of Kerou’s Keep in 916 in the heart of The Walker’s Woods. The soldiers tell the tale of this great, slender creature and King Halavor fighting atop the ramparts of the great keep. As the battle waged below them, Halavor utilizing his blood-borne magic channeled his scimitar Lunitor (Moon Breaker) with elvish fire-light and carved its way through the Moon King’s chest, catapulting him off the top of the keep. The story goes that as he fell, Halavor began exclaiming his victory and turned his back a moment too soon, as the Moon King’s curved and jagged axe caught him in the side, dragging the overconfident king off the keep to his demise as well. Some say that the body of this malevolent force of nature began to stir moments after it hit the ground and they had to chop it up into several pieces to keep it from returning, but that is just a tale to tell children so they finish their vegetables I’m sure.
When the conflict was over, and the world began to heal the scars of the invasion, Coranielle Omridensa, Halavor’s daughter, was exactly what the burgeoning kingdom needed in a leader. She was more like her grandmother who she cherished greatly, than her father who in the end was more of a war monger than she’d like to admit. Having lost both her parents in the conflict, she knew greatly about what loss was, and was determined to right the wrongs she felt her father had committed against the people of Phadria and The Glistening Isles. Despite these feelings of regret and shame she felt, she couldn’t let her father’s pride and glory, The Cerulean Academy go to waste. She established a new standard of what it meant to be Zosennian and began The Cerulean Order to safeguard those ideals. This new order would be a group of knights who were sworn to loftier ideals than the blood thirsty manifest destiny that her father had sought out. She felt if she could get this right, she could redeem her father’s mistakes and show the people what he truly wanted for them and for the world at large. The creation of this order began a new era for the Zosin Alliance in how their people were governed. The Knight Commander of The Cerulean Order was leader of the land military, as well as led the knights and directed them for special operations. The Lord Admiral of The Cerulean Academy was to be the leader of the royal navy and leader of the maritime military. Lastly, Lord/Lady Chancellor of Zosennattia would be the civic and political leader of the kingdom. This action brought much derision and criticism from neighboring powers, but in time it has proven to have been a very prudent decision. To this day, Coranielle is lauded as one of the greatest rulers that ever was, not because of the authority or will she exercised, but the fact that she was willing to give up power for the betterment of the people.
It was also during this time that the town of Gildenpoint was founded. During the war between Iashix and the Phadrians it was discovered that there were large deposits of both gold and silver in the near the southwestern basin of the Savage Peaks. One of the benefits of cutting back the investment into the military aspects of Zosin culture (Cerulean Knights not withstanding), there came the resources to invest in other industries, namely mining. One of the Alliances’ main exports is silver and gold to their partner nation of The Glistening Isles. Though in recent times, there has been a push for a further push into the mountains as the reserves have been drying up as of late; there have been whispers of the foreman at the Gildenpoint mines having some “pushback”, whatever that means.
The Cerulean Knights and the cost of honor (500-Present)
Nerivara Ostiana was a young woman when she joined The Cerulean Order. Their training grounds being located at The Cerulean Academy meant she could no longer stay in her childhood home of Emberhill. She knew in the years since it had been started by Lady Chancellor Coranielle their activities had been kept mostly secret, aside from appearing at some public functions as a show of nobility and honor for the kingdom. She had been spent most of her life roaming the northwestern Red Burrow Plains and was always warned to stay out of The Walker’s Wood because it was cursed, though she didn’t pay much heed to these ancient tales of Moon King and his Elves. One morning she thought it’d be fun to play a game with a friend and crush of her, Niklis Chaeran and she told him that if he could catch her, then they would marry. Full of what must have thought was love and youthful virility he chased after her as fast as he could, right into The Walker’s Woods, a day neither of them would ever forget.
The sun shone through the foliage above them, onto the forest floor, lighting the way for Nerivara’s heavy footfalls as she raced her way through the brush. Niklis finally catching the hem of her dress and wheezing, fell to a knee and asked for her hand. A mischievous smirk broke across her face, and it broke his heart, “another of your jokes, I see…” he sighed. Her smirk persisted while she twirled her hair around a finger, “Perhaps the third time will be the charm then?” as she made her way back toward the town. She knew that they must have only been five minutes into the brush, but after 15 minutes of walking past the same trees, panic began to set in. She knew the stories, the tales of children who’d go running off into the forest to never come back. That the Moonwalker’s little elves would sing them songs and they’d fall asleep to never wake again. Just children’s tales to scare them into doing what they’re told, she was sure of it; until she heard that song:

Two walked in, the games begin, with running across the ground One climbed up, the other fell down, a game was played but not won His heart on his sleeve, a smirk on her face, Nerivara had the fun But poor ol’ Nik, tired of this schtick, did not know his last day had come

As the rhyme began, the light of the day around them seemed to rapidly vanish, the colors twisting from pale yellows, to soft oranges, settling into an impossible blue hue. Her breath was visible as she exhaled, but it wasn’t end of harvest season, how could that be? Niklis kept asking her if she heard the rhyme, and Nerivara kept saying she didn’t hear anything and that they’d better return soon otherwise their parents would be cross. That’s when she caught the first glimpse of the Wendigo ..\Creatures\Wendigo Spooky Forest Monster.jpg. That voice couldn’t have been right, her pulse racing and her mind stunted, she tried to call out to Niklis but it was too fast and she was too weak. It snatched him up into its arms, as a spider does with a fly caught in its web; one thing they never prepare you for is the screaming and the blood; that can’t be taught anywhere. After it had run its hand through his chest and Niklis’ beating heart disappeared into where its face was, her vision blurred and overcome with fear, her head hit the soft, wet ground of the forest floor. When she awoke, she was at the foot of the forest, outside of it. Her wrist burned and it ached and when she inspected it she found a symbol; she found the symbol. It is experiences like these that make the best soldiers, and the worst citizens. Nerivara had been weak then, but she wasn’t weak now, and whatever evil lurked in that forest was to be put down.

Additional Character Options from this Region
• Cerulean Knight (Fighting Style): You are a member of the Cerulean Knights, and part of your training there gives you a unique advantage in combat. When an ally within 5 feet of you is attacked, you can move yourself in front of the attack, taking it instead (attack is made against you, hitting or missing).
• Mariner (Fighting Style): You’ve trained to fight underwater being a member of the Cerulean Navy at one point. You do not have disadvantage on attack rolls with weapons that do not have the two-handed property, and you gain a swimming speed equal to 30-ft.