The Second Age

''As the hills came to a point, they weaved warm fields with rich soil upon dark earth, and from there, the sea took over like blue gems made liquid. Vibrant and furious like the sword and heart of a warrior. This is where we shall build our home, this is the place we pin our short lives to celebrate them in immortality with banners of gold and purple blazing the air we breathe, hanging from spears and pillars lifting the very heavens of our father the Sun''.
-Zenith of Utopia, when Eos founded Elysium.

The four great Dragon Lords of Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Copper, pledge their allegiance to Eos, affirming her divine right to rule as daughter of the Sun, and acknowledging the start of a new age. They are asked to serve as protectors of the realm and are rewarded with kingdoms of their own, forming what would be known as the Heartlands around Elysium.

The birth of the Riverlands came in the wake of the era of conquests, proving the laws of the First Pillar of man against beast. The orcish tribes and withering giant nations were forced to bend or flee from the might of the Ellisiat armies led by the Dormæus.
They founded the Riverlands of Versille and Virmia, becoming a defensive fist against any attempted retaliation, slowly blossoming under the Sun's warmth and power.

The Great Dwarven houses appealed to Eos when they began to feel the draw of their Father, Ydranor, speaking to them. With her blessing, a separation saw a large group of dwarves migrate as pilgrims to the North and the East guided by the booming tones of the Earth and the gentle whispers of the Wind. There they journeyed until they found the Stoney Bells of the High Rung and the hidden depths beneath it. They proclaimed it a holy land, forming the Kingdoms of Pendalla and Pandomine.
'' It was told that from the winds facing the harsh stones above, tunnels carried the voice into the heart beneath, creating howling whispers and the ever-present sound of distant bells... And so the Dwarven King Geivar proclaimed it Pandemonium...''
- Writ in Stone, the cronicles of Dwarven Heritage.

The Dragon Lords scattered to the winds, when news of Eos' death reached them, their pledge and power lost. Only Raphaél, the Gold Dragon, stayed to guard Eos' pride and body for 50 years within the bounds of the palace, but soon also he sought to claim a different destiny.

The Bronze Dragon Lord, Zeprhem, dissapeared into the east. There upon the purple dunes he claimed a new home from the primitive bandits and mercenaries who dwelled there. It was said, that he forced them to worship him like a God, and from them he raised a handful of trusted heralds, who would become kings. He raised a spire, torn by chains, and upon it he founded Argon.

Gaia, the Mother of Earth and Nature, and her lover Astraeus, King of Twilight and Lord of Change, had quintuplets. 4 sisters, one more beautiful and serene than the next. They were named Eiar, Theros, Phtinoporon, and Kheimon. Spring, Summer, Autumn, and Winter. She gave them to the four winds, North, East, West, and South. A corner of the world each, that they could call home. Throughout the year they would altercate in power, and give the face of their mother even more nuances and variations, creating the seasons, and the winds of change.

In response to the Ethereum Pact, The Oath-Breakers of the Shattered Isles embraced their curse, and officially found a new free nation of raiders, pirates, and warriors within the Eye of Defiance, branding themselves an enemy of the Altar and heralds of the Eternal Free Spirit.

A third continent is discovered in the west across the Manishran Ocean by a group of adventures gnomes, believed to have been lead by renowned explorer Oopal Jashvard. It is named Sheol for its dark and rigid mountains, harsh landscapes and shadowed forests.
-Public Records of Discoveries, Circa 291 AD.

'' With a people burned and bloodied, the light of the Lord shall punish the wicked, and through us inact sweet retribution... For though we shout the same name in praise of victory, we alone know the truth of its meaning!''
- Cry of the Ellisiats, on the Eve of Revolution
  Though it took 100 years, the sons and daughters of the true Sun, emerged to form the revolution against the heinous acts of the Blackflame and its keepers within the golden walls of Elysium. They named themselves the Bleeding Sons, and they colored the streets red with their own in rivers of unending violence, for generations had known nothing else.

With the Elysian people starved for proper leadership, and the controlled regions of the empire fragmenting into ill-advised autonomy, a singular man of noble blood from a relatively unknown house, stood favored by the desperate clergy.
'' How curious it is, that misguided freedom so often wills itself to Tyranny...''
- A muse of freedom in Paradox, Genillia of Haywall
  Backed by a multitude of great houses, and wrapped in mythical tales spun by the clergy, that placed him as a Champion of the Golden Dragon Lord of old, the noblemen were eager to place him on the throne and end the 20 years of instability and anarchy. And so on another dark day of Elysium, its rebellious leadership was hung from the walls or burned in the streets, when Penthos marched the few tall steps to the throne, beginning a reign of terror that would make the Heretical Prosecutions look like childsplay.

Penthos dug deeply into the flesh of the throne, ladened with corpses and dark history... There, he embued his cold heart and black soul to enrapture the essence of all that was golden. The veins of royalty darkened with plague, and from that cursed richness, he minted wealth, sickness, and disparity upon the already weakened people. This Blackgold would haunt the ages and strengthen his hold, like rotten roots, far after his death.
  ''The abstract nature of evil and its influence and affection toward life, is very much akin to the shadow of a river, or the flesh of wind... It travels with the invisible, and it touches with unempided precidence. To stand against its hold, is to figh an enemy already within your walls - It is to fight yourself. And though you might win, that victory is always a loss.''
-Lionel Zeslim, on the paradox of fighting evil.

Veins of Blackgold tainted the soil of the empire after the reign of Penthos through many decades of strife... The very coin that traded hands between nobles and merchants of the realms, minted from these veins, was engrossed by corrupted tendrils. The gold itself decaying the minds of weaker men.
Atheon took action to banish this filth from the light of the sun and his empire, not only seeking out the gold itself, soiled by blood, but also the infamous Nevorian-Wing Battle Companies - especially their generals and commanders - that claimed alligence to the Veins of Black and the teint of Penthos. This took decades of effort, with many hardened veterans of the three flame war lost, and yet not all was uncovered...

From the far East, beyond the Misleaden Seas, the Jade Dragon Jáarl Khan and his horde of Drakelords tamed for the first time in history the stream of voices that divided Nadir from the Far-Eastern world. From there, they began tearing through the rich deserts of Nadir, collapsing kingdoms and sacking cities, giving rise to a foreign legend that would spike fear in the hearts of all Westerners.
20.000 sundering hooves created the echo of terror as they burned and razed everything in their thundering wake, with no one prepared to stop or hinder them.

At the famed city of Yasol, the great armies of the West faced the unstoppable might of the East and, by skill, cunning, and precision, persevered.
On that fateful day, the Drakelords and their Jade Dragon were vanquished. Whether by divine intervention or mortal might would become a debate for the ages. But from the ashes of the battle, lifting the scales of jade, a new leader arose.

Two years into the reign of Pellos of the Pallisiat, he enacted a reform to solidify his rule and to further the prosperity of his dynasty and realm. He invoked the right of primogeniture and gave out titles to his closest allies and loyal advisors. He minted a new coin of gold, with his face on one side and that of Helios on the other. Most of the high-ranking generals from his armies were granted fiefs of their own, as a reward for their service. And slowly the clergymen and bishops of the altar became a separate entity from the rulership. The Aristocratic society and the different diplomatic factions of the people were still allowed a voice in the matter of empirical politics, but now there existed no doubt that the emperor had the final say.
According to most modern historians, this is the move that would begin the slow segregation of church and state in the cultural eye of the coming generations.

When the Giants reached Yasol, nothing could stand in their wake, and so the grand archmage of the Array summoned something from below that broke the ground beneath the great city and swallowed all signs of life in the area, forever leaving it cursed. With it, he might have saved some secrets, though he made the Giants forever extinct...

An important artifact was once stolen from the vaults below Argon, taken from the great Sultanate of Nadir.
For many decades, it remained a mystery as to what happened to it until it was discovered in the hands of the Prismatic Array of Venizlev. Sultan Tariq and his youngest son Hamid marched in the footsteps of the chained rebellions, with thousands of men behind them, to force the return of their family secrets.
At those famous walls, the might of the sultan arose, only to be greeted by a humble envoy, who without hesitation gave back this stolen relic. Unbeknownst to them at the time, this presumed misunderstanding would cascade into something much more grim...

Under the rulership of the Rinn Dynasty, the Empire of Pallisia was never truly stable, resulting in two different revolts. The first of which came as a direct consequence of reinstating the Blackflame Initiative at the behest of the high clergy at the time. Meaning that no one who stood away from the light of the Altar could feel safe. All races, except humans, suddenly fell under heavy scrutiny and oppression.
No less than two months after their reinstatement, the people rose under a half-elven man named Kanis the Bright, who took reign of the people and led them against the Blackflame.
After two years, the Emperor, Rinn II, surrendered and greatly diminished the Blackflame, giving him the loving name of The Weak Flame.