Time of Darkness

The ravages of the God War exacted a terrible toll on the world, shifting the balance of power between the mortal races forevermore. Vast armies marched at the behest of the Shining Ones and Wicked Ones. Cities fell; fire rained from the skies; magic ran wild. It was a time of death and madness. Entire fleets were wrecked by the roiling seas and terrible storms, as god-like beings wielded unimaginable power in their duels for supremacy. Few remember the fates of those brave souls who now lie at the bottom of the oceans, so cheap were the lives of mortal servants in the eyes of their masters.Only scant legends remain: of great dwarf-built steamships evacuating cities, in what is now Basilea, as meteorites smote their homes; of sentient warships crewed by demons bombarding the lost elven city of Nevishir, only to be capsized by the fledgling aquatic race called the Nereticans; of a fleet from Primovantor still fighting to their last ballista bolt even as they spiralled into the eye of a maelstrom; of how the cursed Ahmunites raised the dead of the Khopacati Swamplands and sailed south upon ships of bone, only to be destroyed by the fireblooded salamanders. All mighty deeds, all now lost to time.
The God War ended much as it had begun – with an act of violence and destruction that would be felt for millennia. When Domivar used the Black Axe to create the Abyss, the Wicked Ones were banished, at least temporarily, but at a cost to the security of the world forevermore.  
The corrupting influence of the Abyss tore apart the beleaguered dwarfs, as many abandoned their holds and flocked to the land of Tragar, lured by promises of power and immortality. The High Sea of Bari became a battlefield, as engineers sent out their latest ironclad warships to engage their former kin in punishing naval duels. Never before had the dwarfs held sea-power with such importance, but now innovation became key both to gaining supremacy for their holds, and restoring pride in their ingenuity.
Dwarven vessels became larger, stronger, faster and more elaborate, bristling with cannon, and powered by steam. The confines of the High Sea of Bari made manoeuvrability of secondary importance to the dwarfs; a limitation that remains to this day, much to the relief of their enemies.
South of the Dwarf holds, across the Mountains of Abkhazla, the Ophidians took full advantage of the power vacuum left by the God War. They erected powerful defence towers along the banks of the River Ophid, making the great waterway impassable to even the most determined foe. Now they alone controlled the passages east to west – everything from exotic spices to alchemical ingredients, from precious ores to intoxicating drugs, passed first through Ophidia.
Through control of this vital waterway, the Ophidians became the puppet masters of the world, and the foundations of the secretive League of Infamy were laid.
The war had taken its toll on the elves perhaps more than any would ever know. Their fleets no longer sailed the seas, looking outward in hope and magnanimity. Now what remained of them sailed the coasts in defence of their lands. The elven sea-captains became competitive and warlike, daring each other to ever greater feats of seamanship, from racing their craft through dangerous rapids, to hunting the most ferocious sea creatures. Something within the elven psyche had changed during the God War, and these naval rivalries occasionally spilled over into very real skirmishes, perhaps foreshadowing the great schism that would imminently result in the secretive Twilight Kindred finally eschewing their fellow elves once and for all.  
Category:Timeline