Age of Glory

Buried beneath the tower of Therennia Adar, in chambers protected by powerful wards, are records of the elves from that distant time. Of the great majesty of their magic and art, the long reach of their exploration as they walked amongst the stars themselves and captured their very essence. Mighty cities of such beauty that mortal men wept at their very sight were raised across the whole of their Western domains.
Fleets of ships majestically sailed to each corner of the world, mapping every coastline, inlet and island. It was said that at its height, the elven Empire’s collective expeditionary fleets could have stretched around the globe, and allowed a man to walk the circumference without once getting his feet wet. Their energies were also bent to the arts. The elves created wondrous sculptures so exacting in detail that they could drive mortal minds to extremes of love. 
More than one account exists of men and even dwarfs being so entranced by an elven statue as to fall instantly in love and stand transfixed forever more until they wasted away. Their paintings of this period were so vivid they almost seemed as windows to the scenes they depicted, every brush stroke meticulously hidden, every colour hauntingly vivid. In music, they devised ballads that could crush their audience with grief in one verse, then lift the heart to the highest ecstasy in the next. And in magic, they became accomplished masters, taking to the mystic arts with the same sense of wonder and discipline as they did all things. It is no coincidence that, to this very day, the mightiest mages in all of Pannithor hail from the elven race.
In every way, the elves excelled, mastering all they turned their hand to in ways which made their previous achievements seem as childish play, and all along they were encouraged by the Celestians, to whom they believed themselves - in their vanity - to be equals.
That vanity would eventually cost the elves - and the rest of the world - dearly, but for a time, there was nothing that they could not accomplish. The realm of the elves grew and sprawled outward, its cities vast monuments to perfection.
The Grand Republic of Primovantor covered much of the globe, and represented the very apex of humanity’s existence on Pannithor, rivalling even the ancient realm of the elves for size. Driven by their ever-present knowledge of their own mortality, humans sought the power of magic for their own ends. Art and literature were all well and good, but humanity sought dominion over life and death itself.
However, for a time, the empires of man and elf grew together in harmony, and the realm of Primovantor - the greatest empire of men ever known in the history of the world – grew ever outwards, covering a large proportion of the globe.
Beneath the sprawl of cities and towns composing this mighty empire lay the realm of the dwarfs.
Dwarfs by their nature are an insular people, and this was ever the case, even during this golden time of plenty. Though they lived in harmony beneath the feet of humans and elves, and treated regularly with both, they did so guardedly. Some theorise that this mistrust of outsiders springs from their creation myths, which they take more seriously than any other of the noble races. Indeed, though the dwarfs respected the Celestians and were known to make great friends of some, they never really recognised them as gods, with the exception of Fulgria. For the dwarfs, Dianek was the only ancient god of note, the one who gave them life and the one to whom they pray and still give quiet obeisance to this day. Fulgria is recognised as the Goddess of Fire, worshipped by certain factions within dwarfen society, but no other deity approaches the Goddess of the Underworld in the affections of her children.
Thus, the dwarfs traded with the other noble races, growing their empire beneath those of men and elves who had little reason to complain, having no need or use for the land beneath their feet. The more bitter-spirited of dwarf kind maintained then and to this day that the other noble races looked on them with disdain, seeing them as no better than the spoil and waste they threw beneath the ground. For their part, the dwarfs made good use of their freedom, their empire sprawling out for many leagues.
They mined precious rocks and minerals, created huge subterranean cities and profited from providing some of their innovations to their neighbours. Many cities in Primovantor and beyond benefited from dwarfen plumbing, sewers, and other innovations. Always the dwarfs held back though, largely refusing to involve themselves in the politics and affairs of the other races, and mostly treating the Celestians with cautious respect.
The dwarfs never approved of intermarriage between races.
The tendency of humans and elves to freely intermix, though not common, was often enough to draw the quiet disgust of the dwarfs. To them, the thought of mixing blood in this way is abhorrent.
Category:Timeline