History of Concordia

This industrial outpost was founded as a collection center for all the wood chopped from nearby jungle areas. The town mostly consisted of wind-driven mills that powered sawing mechanisms. The trade between Sawmills and Scarroton was very lucrative on both ends, as well as for Tolhuis aan de Nell in between them.

The territory expanded towards the river called Zabala by the Yu Me people, a name which was readily adopted by the common folk. The Flamel group grew exponentially by harvesting magic elements from springs and forests near Tulosa. An offshoot of the Owlketeers attempt to keep watch over the forests and prevent pollution of the natural habitats.

The lightning storm above the Azurdoom ruins, where the Fey Fall originated, had lessened in size and ferocity the past decade, and ceased completely in 71 AFF. New border walls had envelopped the wider region around the ruins, and jungle reclamation efforts closed in around the city.
Local leaders in Scarroton and Tulosa fell into conflict over the ownership of the ruins. Scarroton was responsible for the jungle reclamation, but Tulosa was positioned much closer to the ruins. This is the first inter-territorial conflict to reach a deadly conclusion: the Tulosa Massacre.

Yu Me records show that Shadow Sector Black made use of the conflict as a distraction, to secretly gather ancient knowledge from the ruins of Azurdoom. This knowledge, combined with their earlier assimilation of Soot Elf rituals, allowed Aurillius and his closest confidants to expand their lives beyond their natural lifespans.

As the river Nell was followed to its connection with the sea, Basilford was one of the more well-traversed settlements along the river banks. The first settlers were followers of Basil Hobbs, a human man with legendary healing abilities. Basilford was named after him, although it would be his eldest son, Basil Jr., who became Saint Basil the Paragon of Pariah.

In the newly reclaimed foothills south of Highstern Mountain, where Fullton was being founded, a colony of rainbow rocs was nearly hunted out of existence. This was done partly to protect locral livestock, but also for their valuable large multicolored feathers.
The Keepers, funded by Baron von Hünchmausen and the Tolhuis Estate, tamed the remaining population of rainbow rocs and protected them from extinction. Since then, any rainbow roc is deemed property of the Keepers.

In need of ore and other building materials, more reclamation took place in the Corundes mountain range. Expansion was slow because of the Maashen swamp on the other side of the range. The settlement Treskkant was formed to house the reclaimers and their families, which had to spend many years in the area.
An elf man from St. Aubrey's Orphanage, called 'Crazy' Dio, called for aid in an expedition to retrieve something important from the Maashen, which seemed familiar to him. A few Everlight mercenaries and a Yu Me navigator offered help, despite the baron Von Hünchmausen voicing his opposition to this plan. The expedition braved many dangers, until they stumbled upon a partially submerged building of elven architecture. Dio recovered his target from the inside: a fine old elvish porcelain tea set.

Himmelport was founded on Highstern Mountain as more of the Corundes mountain range was explored, and it's location proved to be the best for creating a docking station for Torenrig's trading skyships. The greatest investor in the construction was the Flamel Group. They were aided by a mysterious woman, Sierra the Seer, who declared the mountains further north should be considered sacred, and therefore welcomed the founding of Himmelport so close to Scarroton.
Exploration of the Corundes proceeded with difficulty. Builders and scouts regularly went missing, often for months on end. The area was accosted with strange storms and aggressive abberrations. The Everlight guild, the Keepers, and the Owlketeers attempted to investigate this phenomenon and rescue any missing people. All they ended up finding was a campsite, abandond safe for one corpse, clutching a map showing a route towards a glacier in the north.

Reclamation was focused on expanding to lands suitable for agriculture. However, despite having relative ease with establishing a wall and starting to remove the jungle from the enclosed area, a specific part of the forest, the Cotanglo, remained highly dangerous. There were sudden magical storms and man-eating trees preventing the destruction of the jungle.
The Owlketeers discovered and killed two hags in this jungle, hoping to end the dangerous magic. However, there was a third to their coven, and she cursed the forest and the surrounding lands. Ever since, half of all infants born in that area would not live more than a year, a markedly higher death rate than in the rest of Concordia. The Keepers offered their guardian bulls as protection for the farmers against the horrors of the jungle, but the Cotanglo Forest remained undisturbed ever since.
Newspapers were establishing in this period, including one founded by the Yu Me clan. Halfling journalist Dena Jakin famously went missing for a few weeks after she published a story about Sierra the Seer being involved with this jungle. She never divulged what happened during her absence, but upon her return she interviewed Sierra, gaining even more notoriety.

The Owlketeers first held their an annual fundraiser, the Summer Benefit, for improving the living conditions of the poorer classes.

Further expansion in the Firshore region revealed ruins of an ancient kingdom (long thought to be named Aurillius, later revealed to be Cannem), now inhabited by soot elves. The YuMe, assisted by famous journalist Dena Jakin, attempted diplomacy and learned from their spirituality and culture. Unfortunately, Owlketeer missionaries for Larral tried to convert this community, which the soot elves met with extreme aggression. They had to be driven back to the unreclaimed jungle to protect local Concordians from their fiery destruction.
Shadow Sector Black was revealed to also adopt many of the soot elves' magical knowledge and prowess, as well as secrets from ancient vaults in the Cauldrim ruins.

Expansion scouts discovered tribes of humanoid shifters, who could take animal characteristics. Olem missionaries from St Aubrey's Orphanage and Larral missionaries from the Owlketeers made attempts to convert and assimilate these shifters into society, gifting hearthfire elementals to the tribes.
The Yu Me clan, aided by the Everlight Guild and the goblin collective, fought to preserve the shifters' autonomy and independence. The shifters eventually returned the hearthfire elementals, which had adopted more free-spiritedness.

The Keepers and their bulettes had thoroughly surrounded the northeastern branch of the Gulch. The Flamel group approached them to aid in collapsing it, offering their alchemical resources. The effort was successfull, making sure the portals were buried and the fiends could not reach the surface anymore. However, in the effort the local grounds were tainted in such a way that they were no longer able to sustain proper agriculture.

With Treskkant now a dead end, Fullton came under siege more heavily than before. It was mostly due to the collaboration of Tolhuis and the Owlketeers, and its superior strategic location on the top of a hill, that the city stayed defended. From here, the Yu Me organized short expeditions into the Gulch to map out portal locations in the local stretch, to better set up defenses.
Sierra the Seer approached a tribe of shifters that set up camp near Fullton, showing her power with a magical storm. Many of them were inspired to learn from her and follow her, and gained similar powers that would prove helpful in the war.

The Everlight Guild protected the freedom of choice for citizens of Herofjord and now also refugees from Basilford, if they did not wish to join the war in whatever way they could. The Guardians of the Sacred Flame saw this as defiance of the greater Concordian effort for survival and mounted a small force to claim Herofjord, denying its status as an independent city state.
Dena Jakin mysteriously knew of this secret attack before the battalion was on the move, and warned the Everlight Guild. Tolhuis demoralized the troops by spreading propaganda of the good deeds of the Everlight Guild. In the end, the conscription didn't stand a chance. A black dragon called Alvaro appeared and attacked the battalion in the field, forcing them to flee before even reaching Herofjord. This however thoroughly damaged the relationship between Herofjord and the rest of Concordia.

Many battles were waged across the battlefront. Fullton was the fiends' main target, despite attempts from Tolhuis and the wizard Nyx to avert their attention. The invasion of Fullton seemed inevitable. Many negotiations were held with Torenrig airship commanders and plans were drawn to strike Fullton from the air and flood the town with acids and gas. The town would become inhospitable, therefor unusable as a strategic stronghold.
Fortunately this plan became unnecessary when combined Concordian forces collapsed another part of the Blackflame Gulch. The goblin collective provided intel of fiendish movements, so the Everlight Guild troops could keep them at bay. The Keepers suffered the greatest losses, nearly all of their trained bulettes perished to succeed in this mission. It would be years before they had enough to mount another such attack.
However, through their success, Fullton could be protected against any remaining fiendish siege attempts, and no aid from Torenrig was needed, leaving lingering resentment with the dwarven airship commanders.

The blue dragon Caerucal sparked panic as soon as he first appeared from the west. He was spotted flying over several settlements before heading towards the ruins of Azurdoom. Immediately the Everlight Guild sent a diplomatic dispatch. They were successful in convincing the blue dragon to not dominate any of the Concordian settlements.
Later that year, the Yu Me clan approached the dragon. Not much is known about what happened during their meeting, but Caerucal unleashed his power on fiendish hordes to drive them back from Sawmills. Then the blue dragon disappeared, without anyone seeing him depart.

Engineers from the Flamel group experimented with mechanical bulettes they called gorgons, hoping to create more durable artificial creatures to fight against the fiends while the population of the Keepers' bulettes recuperated from its loss.
These gorgons were programmed to be capable of learning and choice, so they could autonomously improve and take care of their own survival. However, as the herd of 50 gorgons was about to be rolled out, they broke free from any restraints, seeing the war objectives of the Flamel group as a threat to their existence. They still roam the Westernell countryside, sometimes menacing travellers, at other times protecting local farmers.

The Everlight Guild, wary of the influence the Guardians of the Sacred Flame had on the Concordian government, decided to strengthen their position at the mouth of the Zabala river. They funded a large-scale expansion of Herofjord to the other side of the river. Part of this migration was the construction of a great dam across the fjord. The dam and the resulting lake were named after a historic guild leader, the goliath Lavoy Loweye.