Ilmycra

The decades following the Cataclysm were turbulent and violent. In Airda Minor all semblance of the old Imperial authority broke down. Slaves rose up and slew their masters, Goblins orcs and giants pillaged and conquered, and food was scarce as an ice age overtook the planet. In the chaos, a strange preacher emerged in the forests of Ilmycra, A half-elf druid who taught that the Cataclysm was the natural consequence of turning from the natural cycle of reincarnation and worshiping gods. The druid's name has been lost to history, and she was known simply as the Enlightened One. The Druid was the daughter of a human slave and her elvish master. Rather than see her daughter sold as some elf's plaything, the Enlightened One's mother had given her up to a passing tribe of centaurs. The young half-elf learned from the Centaurian druids about the cycle of life and rebirth, and reverence for the earth-mother and the natural spirits. It is not known when or why she left the centaurs, or how she ended up in Ilmycra, but in the aftermath of disaster she found her purpose.

The Enlightened One's converts were a mix of elves and slaves, all eager for an answer to the devastation around them and for the protection of the druid's magic. The enlightened one decreed that for her people to survive, their could be no divisions among them. She outlawed slavery and arranged for marriages between the elves and humans of her new tribe. As many of the former human slaves had been imported from the ebony skinned desert tribes of the far south, the resulting children of these unions had a chestnut pigmentation that has endured to the modern day. The Enlightened One gathered a cadre of disciples, and her new druid circle led the Ilmycrans through the turbulent centuries after the Cataclysm.

After nearly four centuries, The Enlightened One finally passed away, but her druids continued to guide her people towards survival. The Ilmycran Circle is a order of druids who oversee the spiritual, political, agricultural, and community aspects of Ilmycran life. They pass the laws, sit in judgement, arrange the marriages, bless the harvests, and lead their troops into battle. At least they did until the Sairlander conquest of 1427 AC.

The war was bloody, and the Sairlander troops came to fear the ferocity and tenacity of their foes. Nevertheless, eventually numbers won, and Sairland held all of the major population centers. They declared victory, and installed a provincial governor. The leaders of the Ilmycran circle were either killed or named outlaws, and Sairlander troops occupied the cities and towns. The Ilmycrans were not done fighting however. For over thirty years they waged a guerrilla war from the depths of the forests, led by their druids. In response, the military and the inquisition led a campaign of retribution and suppression that left tens of thousands dead. Despite their best efforts, the rebellion was losing ground and support. All seemed lost until they acquired new allies in their fight for freedom. in 1460 the Khan of the Nasuta Khanate was worried about the expanding power of Sairland. Together with the high king of Minrekea, he recognized the Ilmycran Cirlcle as the legitimate government of Ilmycra and promised military support if Sairland did not abandon their claims to Ilmycra. Unwilling to start such a large war while the Greenblood empire still loomed threateningly to their South and West, the Sairlanders negotiated a peace agreement. in 1461 Ilymycra gained the designation of a semi-autonomous region. Sairland would withdraw its troops and governor and the Circle would be reinstated as the local leadership. Ilmycra would still swear fealty to the crown of Sairland, and would send troops and supplies in times of war.

in 1491 AC the aging King Luis de Mortimer of Sairland accused the Ilmycrans of planning a revolt and reinstated crown authority. Under High Inquisitor Bernard de Nicolai, the inquisition moved quickly and ruthlessly. Hundreds of druids and thousands of Ilmycran civic and military leaders were arrested and executed. The Sairlander Army surged virtually unopposed across the border while the Navy blocked the ports stopping escaping refugees. It was over before it began, and the Khanate and Minkrea did nothing but express their distaste for the violence. A new governor was appointed, and the Ilmycran druidic clergy was outlawed. In the 14 years since the reassertion of Royal authority, their have been several attempts to organize a resistance, but without the leadership of the druids most attempts have quickly fallen apart. While most Ilmycrans chaff under the yoke of the Sairlanders, many of the rising generation see cooperation and assimilation into the larger Sairlander culture as preferable to a life of oppression. This new generation is more likely to seek opportunities in the rest of the realm, work for the government or military, and worship the gods and titans of the new order. Particularly popular among this new wave of Ilmycran youth is the worship of Thundersong, whose druids teach a theology that bears some resemblance to the religion of their ancestors.

In 1503 AC, Ilmycran resistance cells are again growing in activity. A large cache of weapons was stolen by rebels, an Inquisition safe house was attacked killing all inside, and an assissination attempt on the king was foiled by the inquisition.