intro to Lazuur Avatars

The ezust sarkany (silver dragon) scholars of Zhlaginova, capital of the Republic of Gloridia, have kept thousands of records of The Exodus. Prior to this, dwarves and gnomes who had lived deep underground to the far southeast had times of prosperity for thousands of years since the earlier calamity which brought about the end of the gnomes' ancestral cities with terrible quaking and lavaflows erasing their cities overnight. But a few thousand years later, another calamity came, this time the creeping advance of biting cold. The major river flowing from the surface and down through the gnomish lands froze over for the first time in recorded history... and it never unfroze, limiting their source of water and killing off the magical shrooms — their main food — created by their godlike ancestors. Utilizing the runegates built by those ancestors, most of the gnomes passed through to the city Ruha Kozfal in the dwarven lands to the east -- the site of the initial runegate and the magically-charged rock from which they were crafted.

Having had many years of trade and cultural respect, the dwarves welcomed their despondent allies. It wasn't many decades, however, before the waterways in their lands began to freeze over, too. The accessible areas on the surface of the dwarven lands were populated with gigantic and terrifying beasts, so it seemed as if there was nowhere to turn. But one day, the dwarven Senate was contacted by the apparition of an ezust sarkany wishing to remain anonymous to the annals of history. She explained to the dwarven council that she was aware of the plight of their people and offered to give them a new home. Using her boundless magical ability, the great silver dragon opened a portal through the runegate of Ruha Kozfal, having claimed to have made an agreement with the gnomes' god of Portals, Draaihek, who governed their use.

Family by family, dwarves and gnomes alike had packed up as much as they could conveniently tow and took the one-way trip to the silver dragons' mountains northeast of the Sea of Ales. The gnomes and dwarves were studious and eager to make a new life for themselves under the protective eye of these powerful, benevolent and ancient creatures, and thus the first cities of what would later be known as Gloridia were formed thousands of years ago. The silver dragons had previously had no need of establishing such settlements, but contributed much of their own energy and abilities to these public works and seemed to get much out of helping these needy peoples.

The ezust sarkanys' insistence on a highly codified body of laws, however, made the karboten (tinker gnomes) and some of their zharrgrund (dwarven) friends feel a bit out of place... and so many of these people traveled farther west, down from the high mountains, and formed their own country, Anaptun Abra (named after the famed homeland of the ancient gnomes). The dwergachtig (pious gnomes) were more than happy to remain in Gloridia and great theological debates commenced questioning the role (or lack thereof) of their and the dwarves' gods in the necessity for their evacuation from their underground homes.

Other dragonkin have been busy during these millenia, however, and the great freshwater lake of the Sea of Ales is now oft called the Sea of Ails as tribes of fouler races encroach on the territory of those who would prefer to live in peace and conduct mutual trade.

an artist’s impression of
 the last devout of Draaihek (old gnomish god of Portals) visiting the defunct runegate many millennia ago constructed by the great ezust sarkany (silver dragons)