Aenoch
This land takes its name from the tribe of men who were the dominant inhabitants. It covered most of the Eastern lands in the CRADLE OF CIVILIZATION.
Starting in the North from the INNER SEA, to the SEA OF CHAFF, and finally the GRUNDLICHE MOUNTAINS. On the east it is bound by the DOHEN MOUNTAINS. To the west lies the SHENAL SEA. The south is contained by the Amber Sea.
History
As is told, the Aenochians fell under the charms of NARRHEIT and his paramour. Already the greatest in numbers of all the tribes of men, Narrheit awoke in their leaders a great avarice, and filled them with a lust for knowledge and power. When the GOBLIN-DWARF WARS began they played one side against the other, but avoided coming to blows with either, all the while culling them of their secret knowledge. Their chieftains learned both the dwarven arts of metallurgy and the sorceries of the goblins, and they used these powers to their own ends. Through these machinations, their power spread through the lands of Aenoch, and the Aenochians weathered the long wars with little loss. Though, they seeded a distrust in the dwarves that remained ever after.
In those days, the Aenochians laid the foundations of the first of their cities upon the confluence of the UDINILAY RIVER and the UPHRATES RIVER, in the land of Al-Liosh. There they thrived and grew, though they did suffer under the yoke of IMBRISIUS. When at last they overthrew her, the people of Aenoch began to spread out from those lands, pushing down the banks of the mighty river Udinilay to the sea. They spread north as well, to the RED RIVER and the FLINTLOCK RIVER. Many moved into the distant east and had traffic with other men that settled there in years past. In tribes and bands, the Aenochians spread out and settled the lands. They worked in stone and bronze and worshiped gods of many stripes.
The Aenochians grew in number and power, but to their kindred the Ethrum and ENGALE, they remained a backward people. For Aenoch’s brief concourse with the dwarves of Grundliche-Hohle, paled in comparison to the Ethrum; and the Engale were a great people for it.
During the fourth Goblin-Dwarf War the Aenochian joined the goblins and their arms were seen at the footsteps of GRUNDLICHE-HOHLE. But it availed them little for, when the world was sundered by the sorcery of ONDLUCHE and the ALL FATHER was driven whither he would, they fell back from the wars in dismay. For in those days, strange creatures came to Aihrde, creatures not of the natural order, not of the LANGUAGE OF CREATION. They were beastly things, creatures with the heads of lions and bodies of dragons, flying horses, all manner of combinations that more resembled a mad sorcerer’s nightmares than the All Father’s creations. Some were mistaken for gods, and the Aenochians fled from them or worshiped them as their need dictated.
Here the Aenochians took a wholly different course than all the other peoples of the world. Their worship of gods extended only to their use of them. Idolatry became the order of the day, as men worshiped creatures of all shapes and sizes, and tribes came to call on beasts at their patrons. They adorned their houses, armor, tools, and weapons with the emblems of their patrons. The first chariots came to the world, made by Aenochian smiths, and these bore their princes and lords in battle against all foes. Though in truth, they mostly contested with each other, over domains great and small.
During the STONE WARS, the people of Al-Liosh began to triumph over their neighbors and their domains spread down the long reaches of the river Udinilay. Towns fell to them, and the men of Al-Liosh forced tribute from the conquered. Over many years and the rule of many kings, the whole of the country, from the fertile lands bordering the river, to the sea, lay under their standards. Men called them the Chariot Kings, and none could stop them.
When the dwarves fell, the men of Al-Liosh paid little heed, for those wars had grown distant and the dwarves and goblins were of no consequence. Only an echo of them lingered in the halls of the Chariot Kings, reminding the kings of the goblins and the sorcery they taught them, but this was of little consequence to the kings of Aenoch.
In the years that followed the Red God’s arrival in the lands of Aenoch, the power of the sorcerers rose above all others, even the lords of the Aenochians. They formed a cabal, and they adorned themselves in red cloaks. Men called them the Red Men, and fear presaged their coming. Enamored of NEHABAK, they ordered temples constructed to their bull-headed god. They forced others to worship him and those who balked were driven into exile or slain. The Red Men made sacrifices
to him, for in blood they found him ever more prescient. The seed of Ornduhl’s power flowed through the Aenochian veins.
In those days, the sons of BAETAN and IMBRISIUS still sat the throne of Al-Liosh, for they were divine and bore the blood of the Val Eahrakun, and they lived long lives. It came to pass that even as the Red Men rose to power, that Queen TENTOPT sat on the throne. She saw her power waning in the face of the new god, for even her son, AA, had yielded and fallen under the Red God’s sway.
Queen Tentopt called upon Imbrisius, her ancestor, seeking her aid. Imbrisius turned a deaf ear, however, for she did not care. But her consort, Narrheit, whom the Aenochians named Set, came to the queen’s summons. He laughed away her plight as he bedded her upon the floor before the throne of Al-Liosh. “There! I have given you aid against the Red God who you call Nehabak. Relish what I have given you, for few others have such a gift.” And he got her with child so that soon there-after she gave birth to a daughter.
Eventually, the sorcerers came to Tentopt and bid her yield to the power of Nehabak. And she bid them to summon their god, and if he would bed her daughter and give her a child that she would bow to him. They called Nehabak, and he came as a great bull and there mated with MERYET, daughter of the queen, for she was full grown and could rear a child. But Ornduhl was beguiled, for few held the power to unravel the deceits of Narrheit, and he got Meryet with not one child but many.
The girl gave birth to a host of abominations, and these were named the SONS OF SET, for they were born of the blood of man, but also the blood of Narrheit, Imbrisius, and Ornduhl. And these rose as an army to defend the queen, and the Bull left the halls for he was in doubt and saw the hand of Narrheit in the coupling.
Civil war followed as the sorcerers of Nehabak fought the Sons of Set. In the year 10,376 as the dwarves reckon time, the Aenochians of both sides rose in great numbers, fielding armies of men and chariots. They fought in the open fields until at last the Sons were defeated, fleeing the fields to all the corners of the world, where ever after they caused chaos and discord. The sorcerers came to the throne of the queen and bid her yield to their power. But she refused. She cursed the gods and swore that her line was a line of men, born of the All Father of old, and not corrupted by the Val Eahrakun, but strengthened by it. They slew her then and fed her to the bull upon their altar. Meryet, her daughter, eluded them and fled into the east and was lost. But Aa they set upon the throne and he ruled as king.
Led by their sorcerers, with the Bull at their head, Aa gathered the might of his people and led them to war. He first consolidated his power over the river people, from its headwaters to the sea, and afterwards led his armies to the Red River Valley in the west. With chariots and sorcery he overwhelmed all who stood before him and soon brought all the scattered peoples of the Aenochians under his rule.
Once Aa conquered the Aenochians, he turned his attention to the east and conquered the horse tribes of the MADRIU. He styled himself as greater than a king, and the BULL crowned him GOD-EMPEROR OF AIHRDE and his power spread from the VORALBERG MOUNTAINS in the west to the DOHEN MOUNTAINS in the east; from the Amber Sea in the south to the GRUNDLICHE MOUNTAINS in the north.
His sons and their sons followed in his stead, and their power grew and spread over men of many races. The SOUTHRON DESERT people fell to them, as did the men who dwelt in the ancient forests of the MARL. Here they encountered ORCS for the first time, as that people, born of the All Father’s death, were young and infesting the roots of those mountains. The CHANEL LAKES fell under their sway, even to the BANNING SEA. In the west they crossed the URSAL BRIDGE and scattered the dwarves and men of that country. They built a city there, AVIGNON, and from it they fanned out into the lands of the Ethrum and conquered that people. Though many of the Ethrum resisted them, retreating to the forests of the ETHVOLD and the protection of TEFNUT and the OG AUST. The god-emperors came to rule a vast and powerful empire.
The god-emperors built towns on the rivers, and cities soon thereafter. They built roads between them, so that commerce flowed from the far west to the uttermost east. Their sailors plied the seas like no folk had since the fall of Kingdom of Alanti. Their scholars tracked the stars and knew the heavens. They cataloged the gods of men and the histories of the dwarves and the powers of the GIANTS. They named giants, DEMONS, and DEVILS and found the place of Aihrde in the cosmos.
Wealth poured into Al-Liosh from all corners of the world, and the Aenochians grew drunk upon their might. No people had ever subjected so many, nor controlled utterly so great a space of the world. They styled themselves gods over men, dwarf and goblin. All bowed to them, but for the Great Sorcerers, who, ever after, have plagued the rulers of man. They cut down the trees of MORDIUS, burnt the temples of CORTHAIN, and drove out many of the lesser powers. They became ever more lustful of power and wasted men with tyranny. No lust of a god-emperor was ignored, and as time passed they became ever more perverted in their quests for power and knowledge. It became a saying amongst the Emperors, “for all that is or ever was, is mine.”
And ever were these people the tools of Nehabak, for he saw that with the fall of the dwarves and the power of men, he could rule in Aihrde as no other could. For 500 years and more the god-emperors ruled from Al-Liosh. They were feared and worshiped, loved and loathed.
THE ROUSING OF THE DRAGON
During the reign of ANTEK IV the Aenochians unearthed the HALLS OF FRAFNOG there they hunted the legendary beast in his lair and there hounded that most ancient of beasts. First of dragons, FRAFNOG could not remember the number of years that were his. He slept mostly in those days, scarred as he was from his war with Ornduhl upon the portico. He cared little for the world at large. But when the armed men came to his lair and pestered him, he slew them with a swipe of his huge claw.
But more came, and sorcerers with them. Mighty battles shook the earth as the God Emperor’s forces hounded the dragon in his lair. But they were lost to the dragon’s ire. One alone escaped the den of Frafnog, and after relating his tale, died in Antek’s feasting pits, for he was unforgiving of failure and loved to feast upon the flesh of men above all else. The god-emperor sent more sorcerers and warriors to the dragon’s lair, and in this he acted against Nehabak’s demands, for in truth the Red God feared rousing the dragon, for he came to know that this was indeed his old foe. Antek heeded him not and sent a great host of soldiery, led by the RED MEN, to root out the beast.
First they built a great fortified encampment, and then set to widening the entry halls, for Frafnog kept the caverns narrow, so that he had to crawl and slither to get to the root of his mountain lair. With sorcery, the invaders opened the way and lumbered siege weapons into the dark; ballista, small catapults, wagons of pitch, and other sundry devices. The dragon’s breath burned the air as he growled in the dark, unwilling as yet to reveal himself.
The Red Men grew overly confident, pushing ever deeper and faster, until at last they came to the deeps of the lair and with spells widened the door to Frafnog’s lair. With them came elemental demons, wraiths of the Wretched Plains, and other sundry monsters, as well as men girded in iron and bearing weapons of magical design. Thus armed, they stormed the room.
Beyond the dark, lay the dragon, coiled upon himself, half in a subterranean lake, half upon the cold ground. The first through saw the beast’s eyes, glowing in the dark, its body, the lake and the darker cave around them. But that is all they ever saw.
Frafnog roused himself, springing forward faster than any ever dared suspect, to unleash a gout of flaming breath that washed over the men and their minions in a cataclysm of burning death. Spells, thrown up to ward the flame, disintegrated, and their casters were turned to shadows upon the walls and floors; armor melted away as warriors were burned to death; the elemental demons burned to a hot wind and blasted up the tunnel; and the wraiths ceased to be, blasted into nothingness so that even the Endless Pools were denied them. The sorcerers who remained tried to rally, but before their spells could slow the beast, he crawled into the widened tunnel and fell upon them with fang and talon and his horrid breath.
With ballista, magical arrows, pikes, awls, swords, and axes, the men held their ground, and died. Some few scored wounds, and one poisoned bolt struck Frafnog beneath his eye before he unleashed his breath for a third, and then a fourth time.
When at last Frafnog cleared the tunnel and rose into the cool evening’s air his rage was beyond keeping. His eye grew dim as the poison clouded his vision, and the wounds of the Red God, never truly healed, ached. The first and greatest of the wounds, the one on his neck, opened up, and trickles of blood ran down the beast’s neck and chest. The men of the encampments fell beneath Frafnog, most dying, some fleeing into the wilds. None could stop the dragon.
Frafnog did not pursue those hapless few that escaped. His rage was the fire of a god’s, and he turned north, intent upon vengeance against the god-emperors.
In towers of flame and fire, he fell upon the cities of the Aenochians, and in his anger he cared not whether they were good men or bad. The Red God, Nehabak, fled, as he had no desire as yet to reveal himself. Frafnog scorched the lands of the Red River first, and then turned west and crossed into the lands of the Ethrum. There, hunted all he saw, burning towns and villages, boats on the rivers, men in their fields. Dwarves, elves, whatever creatures came into his view, all perished.
The dragon moved over the Inner Sea, turning north along the mountains and crossing the plains. The beast visited his rage upon the Horse Tribes of Mardiu, and they fled from his wrath, or died on the steppes. He soared into the Channel Lakes to burn and scorch and leave his mark like none other. He passed down the Marl and brought a wave of destruction to the sea, scorching all that sailed its surface.
In the end Frafnog came to the lands of the Long River and Al-Liosh. Coming from the south, he set all to ruin along the Udunilay, burning any and all, plundering, devouring, and slaying all who challenged him. When Al-Liosh at last stood before him, with her long walls of white stone, towers, and temples, he hesitated. He flew slowly over the city looking upon the glory of its majesty. All there could see the weight of him and his size was beyond imagining; four hundred feet long, and half as wide, with wings that blotted out the sun. Frafnog, first born of Inzaa, his eyes emblazoned with his mother’s ire.
When all had seen the dragon, and the stink of his fear soiled the hearts of men, Frafnog fell, plummeting like a mountain into the city. The buffet of his wings tore roofs from buildings, the tail slap brought towers to ruin, his roar broke the hearts of men and drove them mad, and his breath washed over them like the fires of damnation. The dragon raged in Al-Liosh for days, killing and burning. When the wages of his rage were at last paid, Al-Liosh lay in ruins, the Red Men fled to the north, their temples cast down. Frafnog called the god-emperor forth. And Antek IV came, for such was the power of the dragon that none could resist him, and with him came the remains of his court.
Long the dragon looked upon the god-emperor. In his gaze, Antek suffered a fear few could bear, and only the blood of the Val Eahrakun that flowed in his veins kept him sane. In the end Frafnog could look upon the man no more, and with a snap of his mighty tail he tore head from torso and ripped Antek IV in twain. The dragon devoured the god-emperor, grinding his bones to meal.
Even as Frafnog roused himself to lay waste to the last of Al-Liosh, WENAFAR came to him. She interceded on behalf of man and begged him to stay his wrath. She bid him leave off his war and let history unfold. But Frafnog was not so easily dissuaded, even by one of the Val Eahrakun. Long they struggled, the effulgence of Wenafar set against the iron bones of Frafnog, until at last she convinced the drake to return to his lair deep in the earth.
Thus dragon fear was born and after that age all men came to loath them and fear them for Frafnog’s rage had burrowed a fear of dragons in the hearts of men, and ever after only the greatest of those folk could stand against their might, though they knew not why.
Thus ended the days of the god-emperors.
A NEW START
The lands of Aenoch hosted the god-emperors and as such boasted wide roads, walled cities, aqueducts, vast swaths of cultivated farmlands, and all the multitudinous trappings of civilization. As such they suffered far more than any others from the wrath of the dragon. The wealth that had poured into the region from tribute was gone. Those who led them were mostly dead or driven into exile.
Slowly Aenoch recovered, bringing the wilderness under the plow and raising walls around the rebuilt towns. For many years the scattered Aenochians turned inwards, with no central rulers. Families waxed powerful as they fielded retinues of trained soldiery, and these small armies led by powerful lords came to dominate the landscape. They warred with one another, but these were largely small affairs that never saw great loss of life.
This was an age of castle building in Aenoch. The lords relearned the arts of fortification, and they built keeps with walls and towers. These soon dotted the land, springing up on hilltops, at river crossings, along the roads and other defensible places. In their halls, the Lords ruled with iron hands, for no god or state held them back. The commoners gravitated to them, for these years saw the arrival of the orcs from the east, who raided and plundered where they would.
The Aenochians turned again to the sorcerers, but this time they set aside the tributes to the Red God, and returned to the power that always lay within them, that same power that saw them drive out Imbrisius of old. The sorcerers now served their lords, and they commanded magics of a more personal nature, forgetting many of the machinations of the goblin lords and casting off the rule of gods. What temples they did build were small affairs, and the temples did little but intercede with the gods. No one had forgotten the manipulations of Narrheit, Imbrisius, and dread Ornduhl.
So in Aenoch, it came to pass that petty lords, who controlled little beyond their own castles and small towns, ruled the people.
All this while Al-Liosh lay abandoned, a burnt out hulk of the dragon’s wrath. So it was until DONIERT came to the ruins. Doniert was of an ancient house, related (or so the legends say) to Aa, the first of the god-emperors, and steeped in the sorcery of his forefathers. He set to rebuilding Al-Liosh, beginning by making sacrifices to the gods and asking their blessings. These deities skirted Judgment of Corthain, and gave Doniert aid through intermediaries, these were the Val Austerlich. For this he is believed by most to be one of the first priests.
Doniert rebuilt the palace of Al-Liosh, and cleaned the lands of the debris of the dragon’s wrath, and styled himself Lord of the Lakes. Men soon called him their king, for Al-Liosh was a place of great wonder to all the Aenochians, as it was accounted the heart of their people. The city was both beautiful and profound, steeped in the magic of the Val Eahrakun and the god-emperors and all the glory of ages past.
Others Lords came to Doniert and paid him tribute, but they did not yield to him their power. They remembered the days of god-emperors, and would not so easily call him master. So Doniert reigned as the king of Al-Liosh, but the lords and chiefs of the Aenochians kept their power, and thus the king’s power was a shadow of the past, and many princes arose throughout the land with a power they would not relinquish, even after the Winter’s Dark.
THE LANDS OF URSAL
As the memory of the god-emperors and the War of Gods faded, men threw off the yoke of yesteryear. Industry thrived: textiles in the north, around the lands of Avignon, metallurgy in the MASSIFF, and in the east around the Red River country. Food was grown in abundance throughout the lands of Ethrum and Aenoch, and trade along the sea lanes carried the diverse produce from one peoples to the other.
In and around Avignon, and along the coasts of the SEA OF SHENAL and the ISLANDS OF ONWALTIG, the two peoples blended as trade bound them together, as had not happened since the days of their youth around the HARKLING HALLS of MORDIUS THE GREEN.
A common calendar was adopted to help the traffic of goods, and a trade tongue as well. The tongue was an amalgam of Ehtrum and Aenochian, and in time it evolved into its own tongue called the Vulgate. Men learned it readily enough, as did dwarves and giants, for all their tongues shared the same root at the beginning of the world.
In these days ELVES came to the Lands of Ursal as well, wandering out of the far north, curious and hunting. They found men strange, and so they mostly hid in the woods and wilderness, passing them by when they could. In time the elves learned from them all manner of manufacture. Other peoples benefited from contact with men as well, HALFLINGS, GNOMES, and more besides, but as yet these people had no reckoning in the annals. Only the orcs are mentioned, having come to Aenoch after the fall of the god-emperors, grew fat on plunder and wandered further west, crossing the sea, and entering the empty lands
in the GELDERLAND.
THE ISLES OF MARK
In the 92nd year as men record time (11480df), the kings of the two peoples came together in an attempt to bind the two tribes in union. In those days a great stone bridge stretched across the STRAIGHTS OF URSAL. Its span was fully 90 miles, being built upon great pylons in the shallow waters where the two lands were closest. Legends tell of a width that exceeded half a mile. Men simply called it the URSAL BRIDGE, but its true name resided with the Dwarves, who called it ANDSTEIN, which means to “bind an oath through stone.” This bridge was for the dwarves a holy place where the ancient kingdoms established some form of oath, long forgotten. Upon the high span of the Ursal Bridge the kings met. From Aenoch came KING DONETH I, and from Ethrum, THUL-EP. They traveled with many nobles and lords, priests and clerics, and all came together in congress.
As it was in the latter days of those peoples they could find little common ground and they soon came to blows. They could not agree on the rules of law, and as the exchanges grew more heated, old rivalries, and older grievances, came to the fore. The lords quarreled, and in the end each sought to set their own king above the other. Thus were kings given more power in thought and word than they possessed before. Each of the peoples returned to their lands and proclaimed their kings their overlords, and it is for this that men account this meeting the true birth of the twin kingdoms of Aenoch and Ethrum. They mirrored each other in differences, not unlike the Sisters, the sun and moon, but there was no playful rivalry between them.
Thul-Ep returned to his people and called them to task. “We are the river lords, the children of Tefnut, and none stand above us. Now let us build an empire that will cast the shadows of our power upon all the world.” The people of Ethrum set about building towers and castles. They threw up towers upon the high mountains, and roads between. Forums sprang up in the small towns, with statue-lined, columned plazas, each one greater than the next. They built castles with high walls, upon the rivers and overlooking the roads. And they built ever greater temples to the gods, far from the traffic of town and hall. They put effort into expanding their trade fleets and spread their power far and wide. They turned to the forest for its wealth, but ever was it bound to the Og Aust, and those gods were diminished from the Judgment. Their castles showed strength, and their wealth came from trade. But despite all this, they were a scattered people, fiercely independent of all that came to their halls.
The peoples of Aenoch grew in strength and number faster than those of Ethrum. Their people were far more industrious, adapting to the new world and the new races far more readily than their neighbors to the west. Foremost amongst their dealings were the gnomes; a small industrious race. Filled with the merchant’s craft, they soon aided in Aenoch’s economy, so much so that that realm waxed in wealth. Nine clans of the gnomes settled in and around the lands of Aenoch. The clans grew in stature, and benefited by their dealings with Aenoch as well, and in time, their clans split again and again until they numbered 47, each ruled by a THRUSHBEARD, a chieftain.
The kings of Aenoch waxed ever greater in wealth and power. Each king grew wealthier than the last, and they learned to prey upon the pride of the princes of their realm. And the lords of Aenoch, filled with the deceit of Narrheit, fell to the king’s machinations.
Aenoch outstripped its neighbor to the west, and the Aenochians dreamed the dreams of their ancestors and, many foresaw the return of the god-emperors of old. They soon began to seek out new lands. They conquered the peoples in the east, upon the wide PLAINS OF ACHROTHOS, and they absorbed the ISLANDS OF VILSHOFEN. The Aenochians crossed the seas, and put their stamp upon the northern coasts of INKLU as well. Soon they controlled the eastern Lands of Ursal all the way to the Dohmen Mountains, and all the land around the Amber Sea, which they called the Aenochian Pond.
In the 207th year of their recorded history, KING OLIVIER IV of the HOUSE GOLDEN, proclaimed himself emperor. He became Olivier I and he ruled his empire from the stone halls of Al-Liosh. Through cunning and force, he made the princes of Aenoch bow to him. Those who refused were done to death or exiled. Many of whom crossed the Sea of Shenal to the lands of Ethrum, or became brigands on the sea and in the wilds.
In a few years the empire became fabulously wealthy, her nobles as rich as the kings of Ethrum, and the emperor’s wealth was beyond description. The Aenochians derided their neighbors as weak and foolish, until such time as Olivier V, invited Ethrum’s king to come to Al-Liosh and kneel, so that they, too, might enjoy the fruits of the power of the empire. The king sent emissaries to Ethrum with the offer.
The Ethrum king, TULTULUN II OT RUTHAN, ordered the emissaries placed in a tower until such time as he could phrase a response. But his people were unruly at the insult and hatred of Aenoch grew greater than ever it had been since the rule of the god-emperors. For years, the merchant ships had been harassed and the sea lanes crowded with pirates that bore the emperor’s stamp of approval, and the Ethrum suffered most of all the free peoples. Their merchants were harassed when they traveled to Aenoch. Raiders plundered the Ethrum coasts and hid beneath the watchful cloak of Aenoch. These and many more grievances besides served as fuel to feed the flame.
It came to pass that in those days, in the southern lands of Ethrum (what later would be called the Eldwood), the head of a leading noble family of the Eldwood ECBER TARVISH, who had rose to prominence in the fur trade, called for the king in the far off capital of RUTHAN to make ready for war. When the king proved reluctant, Tarvish rose in rebellion. He turned to the Og Aust and the old gods, and called upon their fellows to join him. Seventeen of the most powerful families did and the rebellion spread rapidly throughout the entire realm.
Tultulun II was overthrown in the Bloodless Revolution, and Ecber ascended to the throne. His first act was to execute the emissaries from Aenoch, after which he had their pickled heads sent back to the Emperor in Al-Liosh. Ecber’s rule was short, but his son took the throne after him. The reign of the Tarvish left a greater impression upon the Ethrum than any other. Many called them Emperors, and looked to them in the same manner that they did the Aenochians in the east. The TARVISH EMPERORS ruled in a benign fashion, but nonetheless, made their kingdom ready for war.
Olivier’s son, OLIVIER VI, would not stand for the deaths of his emissaries. The king marshaled all the forces of the empire of Aenoch, gathering them near the western span of the Ursal Bridge. The great host took two years to assemble and included men of many nations: the armored princes of the realm, the knights of the emperor, and the soldiery of the commoners. They banded together with companies of chariots, wild horsemen from the east, stone wielding warriors in wild
garb from Inklu, gnomes in iron shirts, orcs from the north, common brigands, and others who answered the call.
The Tarvish gathered the Ethrum but to no avail. Their people were few in number when compared to the easterners, and they never commanded large armies, but lived in the dying Ethvold, in high-towered castles and small towns.
The war that followed was long and costly, plaguing the Tarvish for many years. The wealth and power of sorcery of the empire destroyed the westerners. The war began with a series of set-piece battles where Olivier VI overwhelmed Avignon and destroyed the Ethrum there. Soon after, they conquered all the lands north of the Massif and even to the BURNEVITSE.
It was during a lull that the Tarvish turned to their friends the STONE GIANTS, enlisting their aid in building a great wall from the northern tips of the Bergrucken to the sea. With a speed that astonished the easterners, the giant wall was constructed, and for fear of the giants the Aenochians did not interfere with its construction.
For years this hemmed the Aenochians in, but eventually the GREAT WALL OF ETHRUM was breached and the Tarvish overthrown. The Aenochians entered the lands of the Ethvold, despoiling all they touched. Using vile sorcery they uprooted trees, burned others, or simply cut them down. Thus the power of the Og Aust was further broken and the Ethvold made lesser still.
Nine great battles followed as the Aenochians slowly conquered Ethrum. These battles men called the ISLES OF MARK, for upon each of the eleven fields where the armies met, a great marking stone was later placed by unknown hands. The unnaturally carved stones were blank, jutting out of the ground several dozen fee, gray monoliths marking the defeats of the Ethrum. These are called the Marking Stones, or the Isles of Mark and the songs about them are many and sorrowful.
When the Tarvish were at last overthrown, the third in their line being beheaded and his head made to adorn the scepter of the Emperor, Olivier VI crowned himself GOD-EMPEROR OF AIHRDE, styling his reign after his ancient predecessors. His smiths and sorcerers forged for him a crown, the CUNAE MUNDUS USQUAM, called in the Vulgate, the Cradle of the World.
A reign of brutal tyranny followed the conquest. The Ethrum lived out their days in servitude to the emperors in Aenoch. On occasion they rose in rebellion, and even for a time some lived under the rule of the descendants of the Tarvish in the south, near the forests of the Eldwood, but these rebellions were forcefully put down, and those in
arms put to death.
THE SECOND EMPIRE
For three centuries the lords of Aenoch ruled a sprawling empire, from the Rhodope Mountains in the west to the Dohmen in the east. They spread further south, from the lands of Inklu, driving back the peoples of NAID. They built colonies in other lands as well and spread their power to the east, following the coast of the Amber Sea. In truth, they did not rule as the god-emperors of years past, for the Second Empire never included many of the other peoples of Aihrde.
No dwarven lands came under their thumb, nor did the elven tribes who lived in the forest deeps and it never extended much beyond the Lands of Ursal and northern Inklu, and failed to conquer all the people of those lands. During the occupation the orcs made constant war from their fortresses in the swamps, hills, and mountains. The horse lords soon shirked the overlordship, and though they paid tribute to the god-emperors, they did so more from habit, than fear. Not until the end of their line did the Emperors of Aenoch bring the world of Aihrde together, and then it was their master, the Horned God, who did so.
During the rule of the Aenochian Emperors, the VAL AUSTERLICH rose in the estimation of all men. Men adopted them as their gods and fell to worshiping them as never before. Others stole away to the forest deeps and worshiped the trees from the Days before Days, returning to the druidic worship of Mordius and the Great Tree. It is said that a sapling, a living remnant of the Trees of the Mordius’ Grove, throve in the Eldwood. This tree, called the GREAT OAK, became a god to many. Others fell to worshipping dark creatures, horrid memories of the All Father. Within the Empire there existed a strange mixture of good and evil,
slavery and dominance, a plethora of powers feeding off the collective imaginings of man. For ever had it been so. From the earliest days of the worship of Mordius to the present, men were superstitious and did not understand the ordering of the world as set down by the All Father upon the forge. The Val Austerlich waxed in strength the more men worshiped them. And men forgot who they were and their place at the feet of the All Father.
The rule of the Emperors of Aenoch was marked by chaos, and so chaos reigned in all of Airhde. And this was the gift of Narrheit to the world, given so many years ago, but whose echo remained.
The magnificence of the empire is marked well in the annals. The Aenochians built magnificent cities and fortresses, and their roads crisscrossed the land. Walled towns and castles sprang up along their length. Trade flowed. Scholars tracked the heavens and studied the flora and fauna of the world. Historians plundered the world’s wealth,
ever in search of knowledge. The sorcerers rose again, leading men in the arts of magic, crafting everything from medicine to metals. They worked in stone, channeled light, and helped build ever greater structures and weapons. They rose too in the councils of the great, even to the Imperial House.
In general, there was peace. The Aenochians waged sporadic wars with the horse tribes further to the east, or with the roving bands of orcs that came from the far east in ever greater frequency. They fought the HOBGOBLINS who enter the tales in these days, and even drew blades against the dwarves of GUNDLICHE HOHLE and NORGORAD KAM. There were occasional rebellions, usually of the Ethrum, but these were put down, and brutally so. Overall, the power of the empire went unchallenged.
Some emperors ruled with a genuine concern for the welfare of their subjects, some ruled with malice and cruelty, and some with indifference. So great was the wealth of the Aenochian Empire in those early days that it mattered not how they ruled, for the Emperors took a piece of it all, and with their great wealth they bought greater power.
It is in these years that the Ethvold, traditional homeland of the Ethrum, fell to ruin, retreating back beyond the Danau River in the west and the coastal EDENFLOW RIVER in the south and east.
During the reign of MARCUS IV, the unbroken line of the Golden House became entwined with wizardry. Marcus styled himself a sorcerer to rival the goblins of yore, and in truth, he waxed more powerful than any sorcerer had for a long age. With his black arts, he exercised ever greater control over his lords and nobles. The traditional independence of the princes had survived all these long centuries, and they balked at his desire for more power. When the princes hinted at rebellion and threatened the emperor’s person, he reacted quickly. He let loose a poisoned wind to smite their houses, and when it fell upon them it killed them in their beds, men, women, and children. There was little they could do, but even before they understood fully the sorcery that befell them the emperor’s assassins fell upon them, slaying many more. The descendants of these lords remembered the days and weeks of slaughter well. They called it the FESTIVAL OF CLOWNS, for the emperor’s assassins covered themselves in masks before stalking their prey.
Marcus lived in fear ever after. He feared for his line and its extermination, for all men hated him. To safeguard the inheritance of his line, he crafted a powerful spell and cast it upon his line: a binding with the throne of Aenoch and the Cunae Mundus Usquam, the crown of his forefathers. It was prophesied that only one which bore the mark of the true house could rule in Aenoch. The mark was seen in Marcus’ own grandchild, Owen, who later ruled as OWEN IV. The mark, borne by all members of that house, consists of a singular vine upon the back, whose tip ends in a point.
After three centuries of rule, the Empire of Aenoch began to crumble. The long wars with the horse tribes grew worse as the tribes, displaced by orcs from the MARL, pushed ever harder against the empire’s eastern frontier. These fierce tribes raided the eastern provinces and drove the imperial troops into the west. Eventually, the emperor could no longer protect those peoples, and they rose up against empire, and thus the east was lost. Worse still came from the NORTHMEN in their long ships. Long ago, after the fall of Mordius the greater part of the peoples of the three tribes, the majority of the Etrhum, ENGALE, and Aenochians left their homelands in the north, but some had stayed. In the long years these groups merged into a singular people, dominated by the Engale, and slowly spread south, east and west. They came to the INNER SEA, where they settled in the HALTLAND and TRONDHEIM. There, they built towns upon the northern fences of the empire and began preying upon the men to the south. Filled with a rage of violence and lust for plunder, they began raiding the lands. These northmen were ever a plague for the twin peoples, even into and beyond the rule of the Winter’s Dark. EMPEROR OWEN VI expended great amounts of wealth to combat these foes, and in so doing, stripped his lands of troops and resources.
It was during the reign of Owen VI that the people of Ethrum rose in revolt, casting off the shackles of the empire. The peasants, long oppressed rose first, throwing off the yoke and slaughtering all that they found, Aenochian or Ethum. They were led by a warrior-cleric of the Eldwood who called for all his people to return to the worship of Tefnut and a return to the old ways. He took up an iron-capped hammer and shield and to defend the failing wood. And he was named a paladin of Tefnut and all those who served his guard as well. Soon the nobles of the Tarvish dynasty joined the revolt and it spread north.
The emperor called on his princes to muster more arms, but before he could gather the strength, his nobles rose against him.
The Wars of Liberation caused much devastation on both sides of the Straights of Ursal. Imperial armies marched to and fro attempting to crush the rebellious subjects, break the armies of the princes, stave off the raids of the Northmen, and the ravages of the horse tribes. The empire’s coffers emptied, and mercenary troops, unpaid, turned on the emperor as often as not, plundering towns and villages, loyal or rebellious. The land burned and her people were despoiled.
At the height of the war, the Tarvish leaders of the Ethrum lay siege to the great fortress city of Avignon. For many long months they starved the city, but when this tactic proved fruitless their commanders led a bloody assault upon the walls, eventually breaching them and bringing the city down in flames. They were led by the PALADINS OF TEFNUT, and when these fell upon the godless people of that city they unleashed a wave of holy slaughter. Much destruction fell upon the folk of Avignon. Hostages were taken from the wealthy, and a great host of lords and ladies were put to death for serving the Emperor in far off Al-Liosh.
After the city fell, the Lord of Tarvish looked to his own defense. His armies were spent and his coffers empty, so he turned to fortifying his conquests. His first order
edifice destroyed so that the easy traffic of armies between the east and west would come to an end. For many months his masons and engineers worked upon the bridge, tearing out many of the supporting foundation stones until at last, that wonder of the ancient world, fell into the sea. And though the war had ground to a halt long ago, this event signaled the end and a peoples
After many long years of intermittent war, EMPEROR MARCUS OWEN I, great grandson of Owen VI, fell at the hands of an assassin's blade, and the line passed into obscurity. of an assassin’s blade, and the line passed into obscurity.
There was a great bloodletting after the fall of Marcus Owen, for the lords of the palace sought to hold power, but failed against the weight of the combined princes of the realm. Many were killed and Al-Liosh burned for the second time. The emperor’s guard revolted, putting most of the house lords to death, and sacked the palace. One of the greatest losses in those days was the crown of the emperor, the Cunae Mundus Usquam. When Marcus Owen was murdered the crown fell upon the throne. There it lay for none would lay a hand upon it.
But Narrheit, who of the Val Eahrakun was named, and unbound by the Judgment, came amongst them, disguised as a simple monk. He roped the crown in a powerful magic and lay his thought upon it. From that day forth the crown bore the taint of madness with it, so that any future claimant who took up the throne must suffer the torment of that Val Eahrakun. It is said that in this Narrheit undid even himself with this trick, for he suffered as much if not more than others in the coming of the Winter Dark. The priests of chaos say it otherwise, for Narrheit fears nothing, not even the GONFOD.
So ended the Second Empire of Aenoch.
Through the chaotic times of the COBBLERS AGE the lands of Aenoch were largely divided among small warring principalities. Many of the old houses destroyed in the last days and fall of the empire.
The Winter Dark found Aenoch again at the center of an Empire, but this one that of UNKLAR.
Today following the end of that empire the Aenochians are again starting out in small states with a loose confederation called NEW AENOCH.
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