The Era of First Kings

Era beginning/end

Within five hundred cycles of The Era of Wilderness. The more magically attuned creatures of the world had begun to develop minds complex enough to wield simple magic.   Magic allowed them to construct shelters, hold animals and construct systems of worship around the gods granting them additional magic.   These simple communities quickly started to grow. Trade sprouted and suddenly a tribe didn't need to diversify their talents as much and could focus on specializing in certain professions.   As the tribes grew more and more dependant on each other they moved their settlements closer to each other. This gave rise to the prevalence of roaming bands of bandits instead of single thieves.   The tribes decided to band together and build fortifications with the earnings of their collective trading. Having an offensively powerful Wizard in your tribe gave you immense bargaining power and thus the arms race had begun.   But having no way of explaining the seemingly random responses from the gods. Determining responsibility quickly became an issue and a system of a single responsible individual per tribe was soon adopted and called a Shaman.   If the fortifications broke or the wizards failed to make the crops grow, it would surely be the Shaman's fault seeing as his responsibility was to make sure the Wizards had what they needed.   Over the years, these settlements fell or grew, fused and split apart. Until four large factions had formed. The Shaman's of these factions, based on the fact that they'd managed to expand their domain where no other's had managed, were considered to have won the eternal favour of the gods. A new title was invented to describe such a person. King   Thus the Era of First Kings had begun approximately year 5000 but no one knows for sure anymore. The First Kings were:   The Elven King - Sarathar the Wise, Protector of the Realm of Baran'Thal   The King in the Mountain - Thoremar the Steadfast, Protector of the Realm of Harrish   The King of the Plains - Usethar the Brave, Protector of the Realm of Karadath, which entails Charon, Novon, Pernicles and Tar'Veil.   The King of the Deep - Merathar the Great, Supreme ruler of the Seas.   Beneath the Kings quickly a plethora of different ranks were established, military or otherwise. The non-military ranks were as follows, in decending order: