Campaign Prologue

Several thousands of years ago in the history if your world, a magical artifact was created by seven wise wizards. This artifact is known as the "Staff of Dreams". This history is ancient, and mostly forgotten, but here is what you do know. Long ago, the staff of dreams was created as a fail safe for the folly and greed of Men, Elves, Dwarves, and the other creatures of the realm. The world was dying, oceans were being emptied of life, forests were being destroyed, mountains were crumbling. Entire races, cultures, and species were beginning to disappear. The practices of the races of Ereglast had become unsustainable, and the end of the Realm, was surely at hand.
In a last ditch effort to save the Realm, seven wise wizards known as the "Seven Sultans", banded together with awesome power to create "The Staff of Dreams." They spoke with the leaders of the races of Ereglast and explained to them that if Ereglast was to see another thousand years, it would need time for regrowth. Regrowth of clean water and fish in the sea, regrowth of the ancient forests, renewal of the minerals and precious stones in the mountains. They explained that they would use the staff to put all the inhabitants of the realm accept for the flora, and fauna into a dream like state, a 1000 year sleep. Those under the spell would be protected from harm, but none would wake for 1000 years, and when the inhabitants of Ereglast would awake, the world around them would be rejuvenated again.
The lords agreed, and the realm was placed into a dream like state for 1000 years. So Ereglast, the once dying world, was renamed in later millennium, "Ereglast, The Realm of Dreams".
Several of these sleep like states have taken place, and six of the seven sultans have passed away, and with them, their knowledge of the past. Few remember the first eras of Ereglast, but one man still does remember. Barad Olon, the keeper of the staff of dreams and the last living member of the Seven Sultans. -------------------------------------------------
The Last "Awakening" lets call it, was four hundred years ago, and so such a ritual seems strange and distant to you. You have no personal connection to the ritual, so it almost seems like legend, and because it will be six hundred more years until the ritual happens again, you are living in a relatively lush world, closer to the beginning of this era than the end, the world is full of animals, the waters are clean, and for the most part, the Realm is doing well. As you go about your every day life, you begin to hear rumors and stirrings of political problems within the Realm. You gather that someone of importance has died, and that it is sending tendrils of doubt and dread far and wide. As you walk through your local community, a strong breeze blows a newspaper across the street, it falls with divine intent at your feet. Stooping down you read the first page.
Barod Olon, the last of the seven sultans has died, with his passing, so has passed the power within the artifact he kept. Despite multiple attempts from our best court wizards and sorcerers, no one can recharge the staff. The future of our realm is now uncertain. Lord Thislebane Oakhealm, the ruler of Wyeheath is summoning all available adventurers to his court to investigate possible leads into the death of Barod Olon and possible avenues of recharging the staff of dreams.
With the future of the realm hanging in the balance, be it for wealth, glory, religious doctrine, or love of the realm you live in. You pack up your adventuring equipment, saddle your mount of choice, tell your loved ones goodbye, and head towards the city of Wyeheath.