4.Syann age of the first Mortals (MA)

The Age of Mortals 01-15000 (MA) Mortal Age -01 MA: The first kingdoms of the Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and Ghoblyns arise. The Ghoblyns betray the others and are banished into the caverns of the deep earth.   -107 MA: Eecress the First Undead Dragon wages war on the elves, creates the first ghouls and is eventually defeated and her soul trapped but the legacy of undeath forever taints the world. The Sacrifice of an elven druid named Vas in battle with Eecress creates a rare race of sentient plant beings who take his namesake.   -437 MA: The Ghoblyns Return allied to evil giants with strange warbeasts. The races of Orc and Ogre are created as living weapons. Early Humans are enslaved in droves and used as breeding stock and labour. This fosters a deep hatred among the men of the north for Orc, Ghoblyn and Giant Kind.   -438 MA: The Dark Walker Wars are declared and the Elven, Dwarven and Gnomish people find themselves allied against the insurmountable evils of the Ghoblyns, Giants and soon after evil dragon kind joins the conflict as well.   -598 MA: A new race appears of diminutive folk calling themselves Halflings claiming to be escaping a dying world they are quick to join forces against the Ghoblyns in return for lands to call their own. Desperate for aid the Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes all give a share of their empire to the Halflings.   -622 MA: The Tide of the Darkwalker War takes a decisive turn when Halfling Spys lay waste to Ghoblyn Breeding Pits and set scores of human slaves free. It is rumored that the Ghoblyns betrayed their own and set in motion the fall of their own empire. The Ghoblyn empire crumbles and they as a race start to go extinct rapidly soon after leaving the degenerate Goblin subraces we know today as their only living descendents.   -650 MA: The Darkwalker war ends as the evil races who sought to rule the world are driven into distant harsh lands. Many take their human slaves with them and in many cases other humans are seen as untrustworthy savages and banished from the continent of Dothmyrja in numbers beyond measure. Human population on the first continent dwindles to nothing in the following eons. The races of Dothmyrja enter a golden age.   700 MA-Present: Early Human refugees boats take them to Athila, Lumia, The Terrigoth, Rokehara, the Rainbow Archipelago and Kanata & Tchzinitchya. Humanities banishment allows them to spread far and wide shaping the destiny of lands their ancestors set foot upon in a way unforeseen by mortal and immortal alike.   800 MA to 3000 MA (???) -Among the lost races of the Dragon servants only the Serpentfolk manage to rebuild an empire of their own in the lands of the far south. Using their psychic might and temporal magic they build an empire on the backs of early humans. However they find these ape men to stupid to be of great use. Their leaders thus use lost magic to reach through space and time to a distant future and pluck the lost and homeless dregs of a future human population from another world to be their elite slaves. The Serpantfolk augment these humans with great magical and psychic powers and name them The First. The First come to resent their serpent masters and their time-space kidnapping. Unable to return home they overthrow the Serpantfolk forcing the race into a severe decline. The First look down on the native humans of this time and enslave them to sow the seeds of their own empire.   3100 MA-10000 MA: The world stands in a lost hyperborean age The first City a magical floating city where the First rule with magic, psychic prowess and strange technology looms over the savage proto-cultures of humanity as we later come to know them. The Non-Humans of Dothmyrja prepare for a war with the first city fearing it to be a matter of time before The First decide on a path of conquest. The First use lost knowledge stolen from their masters to create races of beastmen, Minotaurs, Gnolls and other countless creatures to fill the ranks of their slave soldiers. All the while The First fearing that the blood of native humans will sully them continue to breed their noble families inward using magic and interbreeding with powerful other planer beings to maintain what they feel is their purity over the common humans. The First City comes to an end when The First attempt to steal the power of the Custodians fails and in a fit of anger the gods of magic turn the power of the first back upon them. The First City is swallowed up into a pocket plane disappearing along with all but handfuls of relics and stories of the First City and its splendors. The First are broken, shattered and scattered around the world. Most go extinct they who survive do so by radically changing or interbreeding with the native humans. The First soon cease as a human subrace. Their beastman slaves now free become feral or more often self governing beings. The Hyperborean age ends as half remembered memories for the race of man and a disaster averted for the older races.   14000 MA-14950 MA: As humanity recovers from the first cities fall terrible events occur among The Older races. Betrayal is rampant, elves and dwarves spill the blood of their own kin. Greed and evil poison the hearts of once noble races and the age of Gold and Silver becomes coated in blood and greed. The conflicts and internal wars see old empires shatter the birth of new nations as dwarf and elf reject their own empires for various reasons. The fall of the Duergar and Drow and their subsequent war to enslave their own kin and defeat are the lowest points either elf or dwarf will ever know it is an age of sorrow, betrayal and paradise lost. An age that ends with a mad and bitter halfling attempting to unleash the very artifacts that destroyed the halfling homeworld.   14975-14999 MA: The Mirrors of the four fiends, an alien set of relics from the dead world the halflings called home are summoned to Syann and activated starting what could be an apocalypse. It is only by luck and skill of a band of adventures that the Mirrors of the Four Fiends are shattered. Aided by the gods themselves and a set of legendary magical tools the heroes of the age manage to save the world from being overrun by the lower planes. However unknown to many at the time a mad gnome inventor not trusting the heroes or gods ability to halt the Mirrors of the Four Fiends activates his own plan to save the world and drive the fiends away. With the pull of a lever and the activation of a machine inspired by divine madness and empowered by the lifeblood of magic itself the Mother Beast roars in pain and her body attempting to ease her suffering shudders and ushers in the Age of Endless Winters.   The First Mortal Age So it would be that the elves, dwarves, gnomes and goblins would inherit the continent of Dothmyr and the remains of the Godsborn empire. All however would not be peaceful, for the elves, dwarves and goblins all felt they should rule. The gnomes who had no wish for great power or to see bloodshed over pride offered a solution fair to all parties. The gnomes said who ever could craft the most beautiful crown would become rightful ruler of the lands. Each race believing they could not fail set forth to the gnomes challenge. After much toil and hard work the dwarves came fourth with a crown of gold and gems, a wondrous work of metal and stones. After much consideration and magic the elves came fourth with a crown of living ivy adorned with ever blooming flowers and sparkling with the magic if life itself. The gnomes then asked the goblins “Where is your crown?” The Goblin's grinned and licked their blades hissing out “We bare no crown! for as you wasted your days forging this trinket we carved weapons from bone and stitched armor from hides! Now we kill you and take it all for ourselves” The goblins surged forth in a wave of blood lust. Gnome, dwarf and elf were forced to defend themselves. Together they stood against the goblins. Dwarven strength, elven cunning and gnomish ingenuity clashed against the greed and hatred of the goblins. In the end the goblins were driven into the deep dark and ugly places of the world.   Wary from battle and with newfound respect for each other the Dwarves and Elves agreed to fairly divide the lands among themselves and with the gnomes. The dwarves would claim the mountains and hills of the rugged north and and east. The Elves would claim the vast forests of the West and south and the Gnomes would claim the glades and hills that were neither wholly dwarven nor elven and keep the peace between them.   -The Elves: The First elves split into two great tribes the Elsa and the Alflar, the Elsa would claim the north and south of the elven lands and Alflar the East and West. It would be from the two great tribes that the elven nations and people would come. The Elsa would soon embrace civilization and high magic while the Alflar would cling to old ways.   The Second great split of the tribes occurred when the first elven king passed from the world. Rather than pass on his crown to one he gave each of his friends a great gift.   To Borda his diplomat he gave a magical seed, to Aquessa who loved to swim he gave the gift of gills, to beautiful Frozlas he blessed never to feel the sting of winter and to Lotanna the cunning he gave the the heart of the jungle, finally to Nytalf his wise and noble son did he give the duty of leading the Elsa. So did each of these elves of legend separate and from the tribes of the Elsa each taking to the lands they felt best suited them.   Meanwhile the Alflar would spread far and wide in their wanderings The woodland nomads becoming the Tera Alflar, The Isa Alflar who claimed the wild north and the Swart Alflar who called the darkest wood's home. And so did the elven peoples grow.   -The Dwarves: Upon seeing their lands the first dwarven king would proclaim! “To each of my son's I grant lands onto, and to each of my sons I give a mighty weapon so long as an oath be made that it never spill dwarven blood” To Dhargar His eldest and most noble son he gave a mighty hammer, to Haargar his youngest yet most guileful son he granted a battle axe, and to Duergar his grim middle son he gave a war pick and he said “To each of you I grant a domain, that our lands all know the hands and workings of the dwarves, Dhargar you and yours shall rule by my side in the mountain halls, Duergar I grant to you the deep dark earth were the metal and gems are plentiful and to you my youngest son Haargar I give the rolling hills where the earth gives rich life and wood for cutting”   So said the first king and so was it done, written in stone and raised high so that all dwarves would know the laws and lands of the dwarven princes and each generation of dwarf would work and live by the laws set down by the first king and the laws passed down by the dwarves who ruled from the mountain halls.   -The Gnomes: As the gnomes of old claimed their lands the elders among them said simply to the others “Where do you wish to live?” Some said they wanted to dwell in the forest hills and live close to their burrowing friends, others said they wanted to live in the cliffs and be close to the metal they used for their tinkering, and lastly a few quiet voices said they wanted to live deep below where they could hear the mother stones sing to them. The Gnome elders decided all were quite agreeable and that they would indeed would do such. So the gnomes would be divided into three peoples the Harneblin of the hills, the Nokneblin of the Cliffs and the Svifneblin of the deep soils.   -The Goblins: The Goblins of long ago were one people known as the Chetharkra, they were tall and lean, terrible and beautiful and they found the dark and ugly places they had been forced to call home repugnant. In dark halls they plotted and grew more hateful with each passing day. As their hate festered they grew twisted, gnarled and even more terrible. Their evil spread and to their side they would gather allies from among the trolls and wicked giants who hungered to continue the wars of long ago. The Chetharkra would work wicked weapons and mail from dark iron and spread an empire of evil. Among the most terrible and legendary of their weapons would be the Orcs.   -The Giants: Without the influence of the Titans the giants soon fell into Civil war with good and evil giants turning on each other, the giants who had been servants of good were strong but their evil kin were many. In the end the evil giants stood the victors and claimed Jutland as their own driving the others into the wilderness to faraway lands. With Jutland their home the evil giants soon made pacts with the Goblins scheming to eventually crush them and claim the world as their own.   -Mankind: Owing their creation to no known god or force the races of mankind were once Many including the, Brutemen, Cavemen and Human, or as scholars would call them Neanderthal, Cro Magnon and Homo Sapiens. These stoneage peoples were regarded as savage and brutal were mostly left to their own devices.   -Mankind, The Orcs & The Ogres: The Orcs have their origins in the wickedness of the Chethakra and one of the ancestors of the race of man. It was among these savage and mostly ignored beings the Goblins would inflict their evils upon. The goblins would capture the most warlike and aggressive of them and drag them into the deep earth as slaves. There in the dark world below they were subject to breeding programs and black magic that would transform the savage Cavemen into what the Chethakra would call the Oraki.   The wicked giants who were allied to the Goblins grew envious of the army of Oraki and in turn they longed for a slave race of their own. So did they take the strongest and most aggressive of the Brutemen and mixed them with with hill giant blood and produced a race of warrior slaves called the Ogre. Both Ogre and Oraki would maintain enough human blood to breed freely with the race of man. Although selective breeding was practiced to keep them both as their masters desired resulting in ugly misshapen forms and degenerate minds being common among their kind.   -Halflings: Another mystery to most are the halflings, they appeared as wanderers in the great grasslands of Dothmyrji and spread far and wide, possessed of a great wanderlust that soon and strangely disappeared and was replaced by primitive agriculture and civilization in a surprisingly short time.   The truth of the matter is the Halflings were refugees from another world or perhaps time that had been savaged by terrible forces. The Halflings who had survived gathered what little they had remaining and left, they never looked back for their world was in ashes and Syann was now their new home.   The Golden Era -The Dark walker War: The Golden era of the old races began with war. The Chetharkra and the giants arose with their armies of Orc, ogre and countless other slaves. Their intent was revenge, greed and glory, their targets were the Elves, Dwarves and Gnomes. Dark Legions washed south across the land spreading over hill and dale like a river of evil and cruelty.   As Dwarven keep and Elven glade fell to the onslaught the cunning goblins set loose their plan to keep the Gnomes out of the war. For they had whispered to the kobolds the forgotten servants of the dragons of the gems and treasures hidden in the homes of the gnomes and so driven by greed and bloodlust the kobolds struck the homes of the gnomes.   Divided and forced to defend against the fecund numbers of their enemies the old races were pushed to the limits of their defenses. The turning point in the losing war would come when a rebellion would erupt among the Chetharkra slaves.   Humans though savage as they were turned on their masters unable to endure their mistreatment any longer. The first uprising was quelled but dissent soon spread, Orc's and men rose against their masters. As men fought for freedom orcs fought to claim what they had conquered for themselves. Wounded the Chetharkra pulled back from the front lines into their dark sheltering caverns. The mighty giants who had been content with the land they stole simply walked away from the war.   Of the race of man the Chetharkra slew as many slaves they could, the giants crushed any human slaves they had as retribution for their races betrayal, the free men distrusted by the old races and fearful of their masters fled across the sea where they could live among others of their kind.   The Orcs who now held much territory rejoiced in freedom and readied themselves for the glorious destruction that would come by their hands.   Unable to call the gnomes to aid, for their war with the Kobolds was terrible and long, the elves and dwarves had to stand together against the might of the Orcs. As the orcs bred and made crude weapons of war they prepared for the extinction of the elves and dwarves at their hands..   The Elves delved into knowledge and the study of magic while the dwarves forged ever finer weapons and armor in preperation for the coming doom.   Yet even with great magic and strong blades they knew that the orcs were too many, so a dangerous gambit was set. They would give the orcs ground to give the elves and dwarves time to gather allies for a final assault.   The dwarves and elves went to the lands outside their own. In the great plains they found the halfling and with offers of friendship earned their aid, in the mountains and deep wood they found the goodly giants who had been cast from Jutland and they were eager to crush the former agents of their dark kin, when they came to the gnomes the dwarven folk were amazed to see the gnomes were winning for they had turned their cunning wits to building ingenious devices and weaving illusions that confounded the Kobolds. It was a simple matter for a final push to drive the scaled folk out of the Gnomeish tunnels. It was with this alliance of Dwarf, Elf, Gnome, Halfling and Giant that marched against the unstoppable orcish forces. This alliance broke the orcish forces down the line, retook the lost lands and drove the orcs to the ugliest and most worthless lands. Victorious were the forces of good yet in the hearts of their enemies revenge festered.   Meanwhile the reverberations of the slave revolt echoed through the Chetharkra and the goblinoids fell upon each other in fits of blame and fury. The civil war was brutal and harsh resulting in the Chetharkra who had tried to maintain the peace growing so bitter and spiteful they laid a terrible curse on their people a curse that warped them and changed them. The Military elite became the Hobgoblins, the commoners became goblins, their assassins became the bugbears and others were warped into other lesser known goblinoids.   The few Chetharka nobles now disgusted with their cursed people abandoned them for the deep earth and were never seen again leaving the goblinoid races to eke out their own places in the world.   -The Bright Times: The forces of darkness pushed back to the edges of the world, the goblin race thrown into disarray and the old races united in friendship so started the Bright Times. This height of the golden age seen innovations in magic and craft that would never been seen again. Of friendship and camaraderie between the old races that gave birth to wonders beyond compare. It was truly a glorious time a golden age of peace and prosperity for the old races.   The era of many Betrayals -The Tarnishing: Yet for all the glory and grandeur of the golden age among the good peoples evil stirred among them. The dark gods who seemingly had abandoned the goblins whispered their vile promises and evil words among the good folk of old. Greed, Lust for power, madness and hate started to stir among the peoples and the tarnishing began.   -The Dwarves: The prince of clan Duergar, Fafrum was a dour and brooding dwarf who looked upon all the other dwarven folk had with lustful eyes. In the grim halls of the deep earth he grew resentful and bitter feeling his people had been denied the sun and forced to slave for his mountain dwelling kin.   -The Elves: The Nytalf Elsa grew strong and spread their leadership over all elves claiming themselves the ideal of elven culture. In protest the nomadic Tera Alflar left the lands of the elves, the Swart Alflar grew jealous, prideful and bitter their disdain fermenting into a desire to take the power of the Nytalf Elsa and take what they felt was their rightful place as the strongest of all elves.   -The Gnomes: While most gnomes were happy industrious folk among them grew a faction of destructive inventors lead by Rharvek a gnome with a genius mind and an absolute lack of morality.   -The Halflings: Ardanus Sunderheart was an old and hateful halfling, he seen his people as being ignored mistreated and pushed aside simply because they were small. Though his infectious bitterness he gained a following of like minded halflings.   Growing Darkness: Had fate not had these dark tidings occur all in the same age then perhaps the world might have been spared the terrible events that followed. However fate rarely acts when is convenient.   Evils poison spread and took hold and soon dark forces began to move, the Swart Alflar and Duergar met in dark places and whispered of plots to each other. Rharvek delved into dark places and found terrible secrets in steel and steam while Ardanus and his rebels gathered to strike from the shadows at their perceived oppressors.   Duergar advisers would propose an edict to the Mountain Crown that would increase their wealth and make the lesser dwarves more manageable. The Haargar of the hills had long worked hard and loyally for the mountain crown but the edict passed by the Dhargar that made any dwarf not born below the mountain to be of common stock sparked an uprising. The dwarven folk were soon embroiled in a short bloody civil war that resulted in the Haargar abandoning the ancestral lands of the dwarves and turning their back on the mountain crown rather than be made servants to it.   Next would come the death of an Nytalf Elsa Ambassador and a Dwarven Prince. The Dhargar and Nytalf Elsa demanded restitution each finding evidence to blame the other. Cooler heads among the Borda Elsa tried to prevail but they were silenced by the cloying suggestions of the Duergar and Swart Alflar. War was declared for the sake of honor and anger, and so dwarf and elf for the first time would met on the field of battle.   Feeling their protests had not been heeded and that the Nytalf Elsa had grown prideful and foolish the Borda Elsa refused to fight in the war and left west across the sea as had the Haargar and the Tera Aflar. This protest was soon mirrored by the elves of the sea who cut off their deep blue domains to keep them pure and the Isa Alflar who retreated into the deep northern forests. The Nytalf Elsa declared all elves who would not join the war as traitors and cowards and marched with the remaining tribes against the dwarves.   The Duergar claimed they would supply the Dhargar with weapons and armor from their great forges below and so the Dhargar eagerly went to war. The war ravaged the north, dwarf and elf blood spilled across lands once that had been protected by both and the gnomes who had otherwise been the middle ground for the two were strangely silent.   The Great elf-dwarf war was more terrible and costly than anything that had ever occurred, blood flowed freely and the Duergar and Swart Alflar used it to cover their true intentions.   All the while as the gnomes battled the designs of a mad inventor and the halflings the rising of a bloodthirsty rebel there was no aid nor voice of wisdom spoken loud enough to be heard.   -The Duergar: Forsaking their long held hatred the Duergar bribed goblins and orcs to fight at their side and form an army that would crush the mountain crown. Lead by king Fafrum armed with the Pick granted the duergar by the first king they marched through darkened caverns and tunnels to the under gates of the Mountain kingdoms ready to strike their kith and kin.   -The Drow: The Swart alflar lead by three whose names have been lost gathered in secret realms and called upon dark fey magics to empower themselves and twist and unleash the power of the fey spirits the Godsborn had used to forge the elves. Dark power flowed through them granting them terrible magics at a price, their skin became night black and in the darkness their eyes burned red. Thus empowered the Swart Alflar turned on their kin. The first to fall was the empires of the Lotanna Elsa, so terrible was the destruction of their cities and the scattering of they who were not taken as slaves and breeding stock the Jungle elves would forsake civilization ever after. The Swarftalflar would spread like wild fire to the north striking the Nytalf Elsa from the rear in conjunction with the Duergar attack on the Dhargar from below.   -The Gnomes: The battles against Rharvek the mad and his followers brought much weariness and stretched the resources of the gnomes thin. Rharvek was cut down but not before he activated his most terrible invention a great and horrid device that made all the world shudder in pain, a device that would start an apocalypse. After his death it is said the faith of his cult caused the Mad one to rise as to godhood.   -The Halflings: As Ardanus felt old age was drawing him closer to death he turned to forbidden and dark magics to the very sources of the destruction of the halfling home world and crafted three terrible mirrors each one capable of summoning terrible evils to ravage the world. So empowered by his own hubris he presumed he could control them and so unleashed the portal mirrors power. Fiends of all manner spilled forth and slew each other. Unable to fight the evils that spread the halfling folk ran in all directions. Ardanus however was empowered by his terrible deed and the energies he had let loose to ravage the world becoming a dark god some say as a gift from Sindra. The world had shuddered in pain, fiends had spilled fourth and dwarf and elf had began to wantonly spill the blood of their own kind. Truly the world had entered its darkest times. The Darkest Hour: It was a time that truly needed heroes a time of terrible evils and great suffering, for all. War dragged on and under Dothmyr as fiends spread from the dark mirrors ravaging the landscape. The world was burning and no one could stop it. Or at least so it seemed.   -The Elf-Dwarf War- Renamed the drow for their trechery the Swarftalflar forces pressed deeper into the lands of the Nytalf Elsa mercilessly conquering their lands and subjugating their people. The Duergar allies below did the same to their mountain dwelling kin. The great places, magic and knowledge of the golden age was washed away in blood and war. It would be in sacrifice the war would end when Balfur Irontongue a dwarven cleric would be the first to give his life. After reading the prophecies of old he sought audience with the king of the Duergar and pushed him, insulted him and stoked the fires of his anger until the king of the Duergar in his fury raised the sacred pick given to his ancestor and used it to strike down the dwarven cleric. As Balfur died he smiled for in his death he brought down the anger of their ancestors. For the first dwarven king had proclaimed that no dwarf shall spill another dwarf's blood with the weapons he had gifted them. Dwarven ancestor spirits rose in anger at Clan Duergars treachery. The army of dead dwarves arose and the duergar fell back. Even their own ancestors shamed by the Duergars actions turned upon them abandoning them and laying on them a terrible curse that their skin would be grey and cold as the ash in their souls, and that the warmth and light of hearth and forge would only bring their eyes pain. Though the lands of the Dhargar were in shambles clan Duergar was cast into the deep earth, their lands lost to them and great gates sealed leaving them trapped in the wilds below to contend with their former goblin allies.   The Nytalf Elsa and Lotana Elsa were in chains all but a handful were being forced to bow on broken knee to their invaders and the fiends that spilled from the mirrors became allies all to easily to the Drow who gave into ever more terrible evils in their goal to conquer all the elven races as their rightful rulers. As the evil of the unbound fiends spread the drow spread with them.   The Fiend Mirrors-The forces of evil pressed to the lands of the west driving all they encountered before them. To the fiends came the orcs, goblins and other dark beings eager to drive their hated enemies into the ground. The Elves and dwarves of the West found themselves pushed to the wilds of the continent of Teragoth along with halflings and gnomes driven out of the their homes by the fiends and drow. The gods themselves who had long attempted to act subtlety in the mortal world grew worried for the fate of their creations and moved to intercede. The forge god Kyron took up his tools and started to work forging a mighty hammer to smash the fiend mirrors, Bordonna the goddess of nature called fourth the fey creatures and spirits of nature to make a stand against the horde of evil that approached, other gods moved and brought their powers to bare both good and ill for if the fiends won all the world and every mortal soul would be stolen to the lower planes.   Among the peoples driven west a band of heroes would emerge, Ethos a warrior of the Borda Elsa, Dornak Ironhand the bold Hargaar Dwarf who had been Granted Kyrons Hammer, Muyrrn the cunning Gnome Druid, and from among the Halflings the Fairgleen siblings Derri and Alanna a paladin and fighter respectively. Together they embarked on a great journey to break each of the three fiend mirrors. Through hardship, trial and great sacrifice the heroes managed to break each of the mirrors and send the legions of fiends back to their home planes. As the fiends fled the forces of the elves and dwarves struck back at the drow driving them into the deep earth and freeing the elves who had been enslaved. The world was in ruin and the elder races had been to the brink of destruction and nearly lost all that they had.   The Shuddering Earth- The peace did not last long, for the device activated by the mad gnome had been subtle as it shifted and changed Syann, so engaged in wars and hardships none had noticed the ever longer winters and harshness of weather. When the unbroken winter started many presumed the gods were punishing them or that the fiends had cursed the land. Unable to end the strange shift in the worlds climate the old races withdrew deep into the hearts of their lands to shelter themselves from the thousand year winter. Leaving the world outside their warded homes to younger races.   The Era of the first City- The first great city of man rose as the age of ice ended, a massive teeming thing of stone and life. Larger and greater than any city the slow breeding older races could make it grew powerful as humanity mastered magic and wrought their own destiny. In less than a century the city had forged a mighty nation rallying much of humanity to their cause. Thus a great city rose, ruled by ten powerful houses who believed humanity was destined for greatness and that the gods and spirits were crutches for the weak. It is said the first city stole magic from dragons, planers and stranger things to fuel the creation of slave races, the most infamous of which were the beastmen, animals made to walk and think like men. Countless were the terrors crafted at the whims of the first city to serve and amuse them. As the first city grew powerful and progressively more and more human-centric they set their eyes on all others as inferior and not worthy to have a place except at their feet. Boldly did the first city proclaim providence over the known world as they poised their legions of Beastmen and horrors to conquer Syann. The decadence and corruption of the high houses became the first cities downfall for in their spitting of the gods and the elitism of the high houses would sow the seeds for rebellion. With their armies and many of the powerful members of the high houses distracted by preparations for war uprisings tore through the first city and its satellites. Lead by followers of the spited gods, members of anti-human supremacy organizations and fueled by the growing distaste for the high houses anarchy erupted overnight. An empire burned and as it did fel magic and divine curses tore the burning husk asunder. Civilization and high magic as humanity had known it was in ruin and the common men and nobles of the first city spread in all directions leaving the wasted remains to be taken by time and nature. While the beastmen and other beings once under the control of the first city became free and fled to the wilds to from their own societies.