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Haven | Inferno | Necropolis | Dungeon | Academy | Sylvan | 2 or More |
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The Mythic Age | ||
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Year | Event | Description |
The Void, the Cosmic egg, the birth of the twin Dragons of Order and Chaos. | ||
The Dragon of Order creates the world and gives birth to the Elemental Dragons. | ||
The “Elder” mortal races are created as servants of the Elemental Dragons. | ||
The Dragon of Chaos creates the Demons. | ||
The Mythic Age ends with an all-out war between the Primordial Twins, fought on all levels of reality. The Dragon of Chaos is vanquished but not destroyed. He is jailed in the planet's fiery core, and his monstrous offsprings are cast out of the material world. The Dragon of Order, severely weakened by the conflict, buries herself within the moon to rest and heal. |
The Ancient Age | ||
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Year | Event | Description |
The Angels launch a crusade on the Faceless. The destruction is terrible, and the elder races suffer tremendously. Early Elf civilizations and kingdoms are destroyed. The Primordial Dragons become myths and are slowly forgotten. Only the Elemental Dragons are worshipped. The Demons benefit from the general confusion to establish a foothold in the world. Lurking in uninhabited places, they slowly gather their strength. |
Origins | ||
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Year of the Seventh Dragon | Event | Description |
Sar-Elam the first wizard reaches the conscience of the Dragon of Order who teaches him on the nature of matter and spirit and shows him the higher path of power. Enlightened by his new understanding, Sar-Elam becomes the Seventh Dragon. | ||
Falcon the Great unifies the human kingdoms (founding the empire that will one day become the Haven faction). A prophecy tells that the Falcon line shall endure as long as the world does. | ||
The great wizard Sar-Elam, know as the ‘Seventh Dragon’, sacrifices himself to end the Wars and repel the demon incursion. Sar-Elam and his disciples seal the demons away to prevent their return. Most of the Angels perish during these wars. The survivors take refuge in the Falcon Empire, which is increasingly turned away from the Dragon of Air - Sylath, and toward the Dragon of Light. Until the Wars of Fire, little is known of the elves. It was they, however, who first summoned forth the other races to do battle against the demon armies, and many of the great generals of that war were elves. It is the elves who held the line against the last demon assault as the Seventh Dragon prepared his final spell, not that men remember this now. |
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Founding of the Free Cities of the East Emperor Brian Falcon gives absolute power to the Church of the Dragon of Light. The Human kingdom is renamed "Holy Falcon Empire". Dissent grows among many citizens who resent being forced to abandon their faith in Sylath. Many will leave the Empire's territory to found the Free Cities of the East. | ||
Reconstruction from the Wars of Fire and relatively harmonious relations between the races. Great swaths of the elven forests were burned away by the demons, scarring the land and poisoning the waters. Once the fighting was over, the elves retreated to their wounded land and spent the Years of Healing restoring it, planting new groves, cleansing the waters, and expelling the slightest bit of demon taint from their lands. Thus was created the Elven kingdom of Irollan. |
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A schism (division) occurs within the disciples of Sar-Elam, who can’t agree on the best way to follow the road laid down by the Seventh Dragon. Sar-Antor founds the Blind Brothers, a congregation of healers, seers and embalmers dedicated to the worship of Asha. Sar-Badon founds the Dragon Knights, a martial order disciplined in both body and mind. Schism between the disciples of Sar-Elam, who can’t agree on the best way to follow the road laid down by the Seventh Dragon and, hopefully someday surpass him. The other disciples, led by Sar-Shazzar, the most gifted of them all, leads an exodus of wizards and like-minded humans to found the Seven Cities (the first kingdom of Magic) in the southern deserts. |
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Sar-Shazzar gives the Prophecy of the Demon Messiah, which predicts, among other things, that a half-demon hero will someday shatter the Demon Prison and unleash bloody chaos on the world. | ||
Sar-Shazzar dies in his sleep. When attendants attempt to move his body to the Necropolis for preparation and burial, it crumbles to ashes. | ||
On his deathbed, Sar-Badon commands the Dragon knights to retreat from the world and dedicate themselves to preserve the teachings of the Seventh Dragon, watching against any Demon activity. No longer are the Dragon Knights to be prominent or visible in the world. |
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A total lunar eclipse provokes a massive rupture of the Demon Prison. The Demon Lords force their way out and wreak havoc across the lands. Armies rally to meet them, but, caught by surprise, they are rapidly overwhelmed. The Demons are finally defeated but at a most terrible cost. The Demon Lords are cast down, and the surviving demons banished back to their hellish prison. The Dragon Knights emerge from hiding to repair the prison as best they can, then vanish once again. Called upon for assistance, the wizards of the Seven Cities send their forces into battle. They experiment with demon blood, which they inoculate into human slaves and criminals. The monstrous Orcs are created as a result. Bolstered by the Orc shock troops, the Alliance defeats the Demons. The Demon Lords are cast down, and the surviving demons banished back to their hellish prison. In the wake of this second demon war, Orcs are re-settled in the Falcon Empire as well as the Seven Cities. They are not granted their freedom, but instead serve as indentured troops. |
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Belketh, a disciple of Sar-Shazzar, discovers the path of Necromancy. Necromantic experimentations begin in the Seven Cities. | ||
Orcish rebellion in the Seven Cities, which spreads to Haven. Rejecting their masters and the Dragon Gods, the Orcs declare themselves free. In the Falcon Empire, Crusades are declared against the Orcs – attempts to subjugate them and convert them back to dragon worship. The fighting is brutal, and the Orcs are relentlessly driven back. Eventually, the unrepentant survivors flee wherever they can, including the deserts of the south, the steppes of the north-east and the Barrier Islands of the east, A great storm sinks the Haven fleet that was prepared to follow the Orcs to their island refuge. The Falcon Emperor declares this a sign from the Dragons, and formally ends the Orcish Crusades. | ||
Beast-men (minotaurs, centaurs, harpies…) are created as servants, playthings, and guards in the Seven Cities. Their stated purpose is to replace orcs. | ||
His head turned by a band of flatterers, the third Elf king, Arniel decided that elvish power was too decentralized, and the method of choosing a High King too random. Instead, central power was needed to go with a hereditary monarchy. While many objected to this, only Tuidhana, Queen of a tiny realm which sat on the border with the Falcon Empire, chose to act and declared her independence. | ||
The Knights of the Holy Falcon Empire, for their part, saw an opportunity. They marched in force on Tuidhana’s borders. She appealed to Arniel for assistance, but her messengers were turned away from the High King’s court unheard.
“She stands alone, let her fight alone,” was Arniel’s decree, and it was not until humans had nearly overrun all of Tuidhana’s realm before he finally acted. With Tuidhana sufficiently humbled (or so he thought), Arniel marched his forces to the border and engaged the Human armies in the so-called War of Ashes. Neither side paid much heed to the elves whose lands they fought over. Desperate to protect her people, Tuidhana turned to other allies. As her lands were burned and her subjects killed, she made a pact with one of the few surviving Faceless, rumoured to have long since been driven extinct. If she would turn herself and her people to the worship of Malassa, the Dragon of Darkness, then the Faceless would grant her the power she wanted. Tuidhana made the bargain, and the Dark Elves were thus created from the surviving elves of her kingdom. Both elves and humans were expelled from the contested terrain, and Tuidhana reaffirmed her independence. An uneasy peace settled between Elves and the Dark Elves. The Elves of Irollan and the Human Knights of the Holy Falcon Empire are at war, with Tuidhana's kingdom as the main battlefield. Her territory under attack from both sides, Tuidhana makes a pact with the Faceless for the power to protect her people. Those who follow her are changed by the blessing of Malassa, Dragon of Darkness. From this day on, they will be known as the Dark Elves. With the support of their new allies, they will expel both the Elves and the Humans from their land. |
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The Holy Falcon Empire forfeits any claim to elven lands and makes extensive reparations. The Dark Elf kingdom's independence is recognized – at sword point – by Elves and Humans, but intermittent hostilities persist across the borders. | ||
Total lunar eclipse. This time the Blind Brothers had predicted it, and the Alliance, helped by the Dragon Knights, is quick to react. Only a small band of demons manage to escape into the world. The names of the Demon Lords, Urgash’s first children, are heard no more. Instead, the name of Mal-Beleth, the new and only Demon Sovereign, appears. | ||
A massive fire burns down the Elven capital. The High King Arniel dies in the flames with most of his court. Brythigga, the Mother of Trees, sacred to the Elves, is also consumed by the fire, leaving a blackened scar on the earth where nothing would ever grow again. The loss is devastating. The Dark Elves are blamed and offered exile or death by Arniel's son, Vaniel. Most choose exile; the rest are hunted down and destroyed without mercy. Tuidhana remains with her lands and is killed. The place where Brythigga had stood was stricken from the maps, and to this day no elf will go there. Another Mother of Trees has been consecrated, hidden deep within the forests, but no Elf will speak of her to outsiders. |
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Dragon Knights bring evidence to the Elves that Brythigga’s criminal fire was set by a Demon spy. Emissaries are sent from the forest to the wandering Dark Elves, offering amnesty and inviting them to return home. The offer is refused. |
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The Necromancer presence grows until they are a powerful political force in the Seven Cities. | ||
During a brief lunar eclipse, a band of Demons escapes into the world. They seek out the hidden strongholds of the Dragon Knights and begin a bloody secret war. The outcome of this conflict is unknown to date. |
The Modern Ages | ||
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Year of the Seventh Dragon | Event | Description |
Jealous of the power acquired by the Necromancers, the Wizards of the Seven Cities initiate a large-scale persecution, ranging from the seizing of their properties, to banishment, to the spectacle of public executions A long and gruesome civil war ensues. The ancient cities are destroyed and much of the land is rendered uninhabitable. |
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Vaniel is succeeded by king Alaron, whose eye is turned outward from the forest. Slowly, he re-establishes stronger contacts with the other races. Alaron provided aid to the Wizards of the Silver Cities in their wars against the Necromancers, and encouraged traders to come to the elven borders. |
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Survivors of the Seven Cities establish the Silver League (the second kingdom of Magic) in the lands to the south. Necromancers flee east to the haunted valley of Heresh. | ||
The Necromancers attempt to crush the newborn Silver League but the Wizards gain the upper hand and invade Heresh. The Necromancers are utterly defeated and their kingdom shattered. | ||
A Total eclipse. This time, the Demons storm the capital of the Falcon Empire and massacre the royal house. As soon as the Demons are repelled, fighting breaks out as the various noble houses attempt to claim the throne. Duke Ivan of Griffin conquers the bloody crown. The Empire is renamed the ‘Holy Griffin Empire’. | ||
Demon armies are confronted by a combined force of Haven Knights allied with two other factions. Emperor Alexei Griffin pursues the Demons into the very underworld, and is killed. His soul is rescued by a mysterious and legendary knight known as Tieru, and bound up in an artifact called the Heart of the Griffin. Alexei's son Nicolai, aged 6, ascends the Imperial throne. Alaron leads the Elven armies out of the forest to join the Haven Knights and the Wizards of the Silver-cities in the ill-fated Gray Alliance. The Demon horde is finally defeated, but at a terrible cost for the Alliance. |
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An eclipse not forecast on any calendar grips the Empire in a panic. The Demons emerge in force and march towards Haven's capital. This war will be known as Queen Isabel's War and is the topic of Heroes V's campaign. |
Thanks to ThE_HyDrA for creating and looking after the Heroes 5 section of Age of Heroes!