Eberron

In the mythic past, the world was one and the Progenitor Dragons, the first and greatest of dragon-kind, ruled all. The three most powerful Siberys, Eberron, and Khyber, ruminated on the Draconic Prophecy. Khyber and Siberys disagreed over the Prophecy and battled with one another. Khyber was victorious over Siberys, and sought to take control of the Prophecy, only to be attacked by Eberron. Eberron wrapped his coils about Khyber, trapping the evil wyrm.   In the end, Siberys' shattered body became the Dragon Above - the glowing ring that surrounds the world. Khyber, still trapped in Eberron's coils, became the Dragon Below and the source for all great evils. Eberron healed the World Between by becoming one with it. Siberys called forth the next generation of Dragons, Eberron created all manner of other living things, and Khyber spat out the fiends.   Over the following eons, Chaos reigned supreme. Khyber's fiendish offspring overrun the surface world, creating a hellish environment for centuries where rakshasas and night hags ruled over all, inflicting horrible torment. Dragons rediscoverd the Prophecy and rose from their primitive state to oppose their demonic overlords. Unable to defeat the demonic hordes of the Dragon Below alone, the Dragons allied with the Couatls, a type of celestial, psionic, shapechanging outsider taking the form of radiant, winged serpents..   The common races, still in primitive states, hid from the godlike combatants and found ways to survive.   Recognizing their cause would otherwise be lost, the Couatls sacrificed most of their number to bind the most powerful of the Demon Lords and the majority of the fiends back to Khyber. The Couatls remained trapped for eternity with the fiends they bind. Victorious, the Dragons retreated to Argonnessen to contemplate the Prophecy, ignoring the "lesser races."   After the Dragon-Fiend War, the Giants rose from the ashes. They established a civilization on the continent of Xen'drik, enslaving the primitive Elves, which had the inadvertent effect of pulling the first of the common races out of their primitive state. The giants mastered the arcane arts, creating wonders unequaled even in the modern day, colossal cities powered by powerful arcane cores, brilliant mechanisms of infinite complexity. The Elves - ignored by their Giant masters - watched and learned.   Thousands of years of the Giant's Empire endured, and they considered themselves unrivalled, growing arrogant. However, in the Plane of Dreams, Dal Quor, evil gathered. The Quori, a race comprised of dreams and nightmares made manifest, invaded Xen'drik overnight. Opening portals that ripped the fabric of reality, they sundered city after city and battled viciously with the Giants for control of what they saw as their birthright. The Quori were formed from the dreams of all of Eberron's races and the Progenitor Dragons themselves, and consider themselves the chosen rulers of Eberron.   After eons of battle, the giants called upon the most powerful magics of the dragons, hidden rituals that the dragons themselves had agreed never to enact, to throw Dal Quor out of planar alignment, forever sealing that plane away from Eberron. The resulting backlash shook Xen'drik to its core and plunged large chunks of the continent beneath the sea. The rituals involved backfired, and reverberated throughout Eberron and the Planar System, bringing the planes into a set formation around Eberron, sealing it off from space.   One thousand years after the end of the Giant-Quori War, Xen'drik still suffered from the magical backlash of disrupting Dal Quor's planar orbit. Horrible curses and plagues ravaged through the land, strange beasts and plants grew in dark coners, and everywhere the Elves studied magic. Their living alongside the Giants for so long and being used as disposable soldiers in a war not of their choosing had turned the Elves bitter, and strong.   A corps of Elves - called the Phiarlan or "Spirit Keepers" used the mayhem and weakness after the war as an opportunity to rebel. They worked as bards, scouts, and couriers during the Elven rebellion against the Giants. These Elves are descended from ones that proved highly adept at magic, prized servants and shock troopers of the giants, and they had absorbed a large amount of the primordial energy following Siberys' death and the Dragon-Fiend War. The Giant-Quori War had tempered them into unforgiving and merciless combatants, and the Giants were surprised to find themselves crumbling to the slaves they had kept imprisoned for so long.   In a desperate attempt to regain control of their slaves and save their dying civilization, the Giants turn again to the most powerful draconic magics. Before they could unleash such destruction a second time, the Dragons attacked Xen'drik and the Giant Empire was reduced to cinders. The Phiarlan spread the word of the Elven prophet Aeren, gathering elves to flee Xen'drik for the sub-continent that would become known as Aerenal. The elves who chose to stay behind in Xen'drik went into hiding, becoming the drow. They are led by Aaravos, a powerful necromancer and dark mage.   After the Age of Giants came the Age of Monsters. The giants reverted to primitive beasts living in the ruins of their shattered civilization as the Dragons returned to their secluded continent and the Elves settled Aerenal and some of Xen'drik, naming it Xadia. Across the sea, the first of the goblinoid kingdoms, Dhakaan, rose in the area that will one day become Breland and Darguun.   Orc nations arose in western Khorvaire to compete with the goblinoid kingdoms. Aerenal Elves spread across the sub-continent of Aerenal, creating clusters of city-states. The Undying Court appeared in Aerenal, claiming to have always been there. They initiate the first skirmish between the Elves and the Dragons, which sets a pattern of long periods of peace punctuated by short, devastating battles every few hundred years.   The goblinoids push the kechuala (lizardfolk) out of the Talenta Plains and into the Endworld Mountains. Many of the lizardfolk that survived the goblin armies die in the mountains. The small remaining fraction make their way into the jungle of what is now Q'barra, settling a new homeland.   The Dhakaani unite the goblinoid nations to create the greatest empire the goblins have ever known. The Dragon Vvaraak, in response to a portion of The Prophecy she had been studying, begins teaching the orcs druidic magic. These orcs become the first Gatekeeper druids, essential for the future of Eberron, but why?   Hundreds of years after Vvaraak's demise, the daelkyr - a race of immensely powerful beings from Xoriat, the Plane of Madness - invade Eberron. Vvaraak foresaw the need and they are eventually defeated by the Gatekeeper druids, who seal the portals to Xoriat and trap the remaining daelkyr below ground, but not before decimating the western reaches of Khorvaire. Weakened by the Daelkyr War, the Dhakaani government collapses to internal power-struggles and civil strife. Goblinoid city-states and smaller nations endure, but lack the political and military cohesion of the earlier empire.   As the Goblin Empire falls, the world breathes a sigh of relief, and somewhere, a Greatpine opens its eyes. Magic floods the world once more, charging races with power and abilities. The Mark of Hospitality appears among halflings of the Talenta Plains. The Mark of Shadow and the Mark of Death appear among the Elves of Aerenal. The dragons watch in awe and horror as the Prophecy begins to unfold among the “lesser” races.   Centuries pass, and Lhazaar leads humans from the continent of Sarlona to the eastern shores of Khorvaire. The humans land in the pre-Galifar Lhazaar Principalities, and have little or no contact with the fractious goblin states. They found the city of Enon by Malleon the Reaver built on top of the ruins of the Dhakaani city of Duur'Shaarat. Dragonmarks begin appearing amongst all lesser races.   Elves & dragons unite to destroy House Vol (which carries the Mark of Death), ending millennia of intermittent warfare between the two species. Lady Vol, Lich Queen of the Dead is created. House Phiarlan leaves Aerenal to relocate among the humans of Khorvaire.   The distinct settlements that will become the Five Nations are cut out of goblin-controlled central Khorvaire. King Breggor of the nation of Wroat orders the city of Enon destroyed due to the descendants of Malleon refusing to bow to his authority. The city of Enoch is built on top of the ruins of the city of Enon by King Breggor. Karrn the Conqueror establishes the nation of Karrnath, defeats the remaining goblinoid settlements, and unsuccessfully attempts to conquer the other four human nations.   Quori begin conquest of Sarlona which brings a second wave of humans to Khorvaire's eastern shores. The dragonmarked houses launch the War of the Mark to end the threat of aberrant and mixed marks. The War of the Mark comes to an end when Lord Tarkanan, the Lady of the Plague, and his other lieutenants - in a last great act of defiance - cause the destruction of the city of Enoch and the believed extinction of the aberrant mark.   Io'vakas is destroyed by the dragons due to a small sect of yuan-ti who sought more power and the deepest mysteries of draconic magic for themselves. Arnaarlasha (the noble gold dragon great wyrm of the Warders) along with a dozen elder dragons shepherd a thousand survivors of Io'vakas to the slopes of Mount Erishnak where they create the city of Io'lokar, the City of Knowledge.   Galifar I is born in the city of Korth in Karrnath. The Border Wars begin, eventually drawing in all five human nations of central Khorvaire. Galifar assumes rulership of Karrnath. Galifar begins his campaign to unite the Five Nations. Galifar makes a deal with the dragonmarked houses, offering them neutral status in exchange for support in his campaign. Galifar I and his five scions - Cyre, Karrn, Thrane, Aundair, and Brey - take control of the Five Nations and establish the Kingdom of Galifar. The Five Nations of Galifar adopt the names of King Galifar's children as their own. The city of Enoch is once again rebuilt on top of the old cities' ruins.   The Kingdom of Galifar, in cooperation with the dragonmarked houses, funds the upgrade of the trade city of Stormreach on the northern peninsula of Xen'drik.The Inquisition to wipe out lycanthropes (aka the Silver Purge) is launched by the Church of the Silver Flame. Over the course of the next 50 years, virtually all Lycanthropes on the continent are slain.   A few generations of royalty later, and Galifar's grandson, King Jarot is on the throne. He begins a public works project to connect all of central Khorvaire via lightning rails. Lightning rail lines connect the Five Nations, Zilargo, the Mror Holds, and the Talenta Plains. Unfortunately when Beloved King Jarot, the last ruler of Galifar dies, Thalin, Kaius, and Wroann reject the succession of Mishann. Wrogar backs his sister's claim, and the Last War begins.   House Cannith perfects the modern-era warforged, living constructs designed to fight the Last War. The first elemental airships go into service for House Lyrandar. Jaela Daran (age 6) assumes the power of the Keeper of the Silver Flame.   Shrouded in mystery, a magical blast of unprecedented power obliterates the nation of Cyre creating the Mournland.   The Treaty of Thronehold officially ends the Last War. The treaty officially recognizes the nations of Aundair, Breland, Thrane, Karrnath, the Talenta Plains, Zilargo, Q'barra, the Lhazaar Principalities, the Mror Holds, the Eldeen Reaches, Darguun, and Valenar. The treaty further commands House Cannith to destroy the creation forges (the devices used to create warforged). Remaining warforged are granted the rights of sentient beings.   The Present: Your Adventure Begins...