Fall of the New Abrizan Empire

Revolution

From when the Old Capital was destroyed to when the Empire was officially dead.

In 1230, a group of mages officially formed a group that they called the Circle of Mages. This Circle was created to overthrow Kalamzaresh's Empire. They spent much of their time recruiting and training soldiers and spies, and trying to devise ways to kill dragons. Eventually, they developed a poison called Dragonbane. They created Injection Weapons to administer the poison, but realized that they couldn't get close enough to Kalamzaresh to use one on him. Eventually, desperation got the better of them, as they had come perilously close to being discovered a number of times, and they decided to release the poison in a cloud in the capital. Multiple magical bombs were planted at various points in the city, intended to create a wall of the cloud around the perimeter of the city, preventing escape. After the bombs were planted, the mages went to their ritual chamber and prepared a large spell, a combination of a teleportation spell for the poison, a bomb to disperse it across the city, and several wards and counterspells to ensure it’s success. They set off the perimeter bombs, then cast their spell. The plan worked, and no living thing in the city survived. Unfortunately, unbeknownst to the Circle, Kalamzaresh was a lich, so he didn't die. However, the Dragonbane did manage to incapacitate him, and he was believed him to be dead.   Afterwards, the mages and their soldiers took their injection spears and the rest of the poison, and set off to hunt down the remainder of the dragons, who had largely grown complacent in their years of total superiority. Midway through the war, many of the non-dragons in the empire, emboldened by the apparent death of Kalamzaresh, started to believe they could actually have a chance at winning if they fought, and many of them flocked to these mages to join their fight. In the ensuing war, many non-dragons killed any dragon or draconian they could. Eventually, the non-dragons won, although most of the original circle of mages had died, along with countless non-dragons.   Zelunica had a hard time recovering from the war. Law and order were non-existent, most of the population was dead, and the capital city was uninhabitable. Eventually, great leaders arose, and formed groups that turned into villages, villages into city-states, and city-states into kingdoms. Many of these kingdoms are the kingdoms we know today, though a few have since fallen, and others risen in their place.   The cloud that once covered the Old Capital is now gone, but the mages who created it failed to foresee the long-term consequences of their magic, which was supposed to simply dissipate, but instead seeped into the land. As it spread, all of the plants in the area died, and now the Old Capital and the area surrounding it are a wasteland where nothing living can survive. This old magic is now a permanent part of the land, as irremovable as the dirt or the air.