History of Sihiri

Depending how long your character's been alive, you might not have to know any of this stuff. We put it up here for kicks and giggles. Grab a very strong cup of coffee...

## 1000 years ago

### **The Coven Dragons discovered a new kind of magic.**

At that time, the Coven Dragons were just a group of loners who'd come together for protection. They lived in the Wilds, in the North, and had not discovered Cipher. Between them they found a new kind of magic. It seemed to be seeking someone to complete it, a particular bloodline, and the Coven knew they could rule the entire world if they could just find that person to key the magic to.

The magic would enable a person to do many unheard-of things. One was the ability to take over the body of someone else within the same bloodline, meaning whoever was keyed to the magic could live forever -- they'd just take over the body of their own child. It would necessarily kill the child's original soul, but it would enable the Coven Dragons to maintain a relationship with the same being over millions of years, allowing them to continue developing the strain of magic without needing to recap.

### **Faerie split into two courts.**

The discovery was kept entirely secret. Because the Coven Dragons had no way of finding the particular person their magic required, they had to approach the Fair Folk and ask for help. The Folk took two opposing stances. One set was put off by the concept of harming a child just to facilitate work, and they didn't like the notion of such powerful magics resting in a single set of hands. The other group saw an opportunity to ally with what would soon be the most powerful beings on the planet, and believed if they didn't help the Coven Dragons, someone else would (leaving Faerie to suffer).

The issue split Faerie into two courts. History named the nicer-to-children group the Seelie, while the others were called Unseelie. The Unseelie suggested that the Dragons travel to Cipher. There were plenty of people on Cipher who wouldn't be missed.

### **The Coven Dragons took over Cipher.**

At that time, Cipher was totally unknown to Sihiri except as a legend. The only people on it were avarians, and they'd never heard of Sihiri except as a legend. The Coven Dragons were thrilled. They considered the avarians a completely clean group of subjects to test out their magics, and they knew if things went wrong they could always just abandon the island and fly away.

They chose one avarian to key their magics to. The rest were used as test subjects to see how powerful and versatile their spells could be. Many, many avarians died badly. The key subject wound up psychotic, very dark and crazy, but the tests were considered a success: the magics really could be attached to someone, and they could be tested and improved even with an imperfect key. The Coven Dragons set up shop on Cipher. They started a University as a cover to recruit grunts who'd help with research and development. The key avarian eventually escaped Cipher. While the Coven Dragons still maintain a ridiculously-large bounty on him, it's unlikely he'll ever show his face in Sihiri again.

## 900 years ago

### **The Dragons tested their magics on the Hart.**

A hundred years' research came and went. At last the Coven decided to run another test, this one on mainland Sihiri. They wanted to find a key who was perfect, controllable, innocent, and clean, someone who wouldn't be corrupted the same way the avarians had been. So they sought out the Hart.

At that time the Hart was a perfectly pure being. She represented all things good. She was in love with the Forest Beast, chastely, and had never been harmed or wronged in her entire life. When the Dragons kidnapped her the Beast had no idea where she'd gone. She was taken far from the Forest, up to the Wilds in the North, and grafted to the Coven's magic against her will.

The test was a failure. The magics destroyed the Hart, corrupting everything that was good in her. They turned her into the evil Black Hart, a creature that cared for no one and found no joy in anything. The Coven Dragons could not kill her -- her new magics wouldn't allow it -- but they could seal her away forever if they found another, better, more pliable host, so they sought out someone who'd obey their will.

### **The Isily Family attempted to imprison the Hart at Howling Stones.**

The Isily Family were humans who lived at Nicoli's Keep, then a functioning castle. When the Coven Dragons approached their young new ruler, he agreed to accept their ultimate power and immortality in exchange for imprisoning the Hart. As long as Isily Family existed, the seal would be unbreakable.

A shifter servant overheard the deal being made. Soon enough the news had reached the Forest Beast, who had been searching frantically for his lover for months. He knew traveling to the North would be a breach of territory, something unthinkable for a Beast, and that his Honour Guard would be killed if they came along, so he tricked them into staying back. By the time they finally slipped into the North it was too late. The Forest Beast had taken the Hart's place underground, the seal had been cast, and Nicoli's Keep was cold and empty. The Isily Family had gone.

### **The Seelie Court intervened.**

The Seelie had closely monitored everything since the split. They knew the Hart could break the seal over the Forest Beast -- she was the only one who could, since her magics were the same as the seal's creator's. So rather than letting the Coven kill her, they ensorceled her to love someone else. She became completely devoted to a man they called her "Lock." The Coven agreed to let her live, but their eye remains on her to this day.

The Honour Guard was handled by the Dark Beast, who rules the North. As the guardians of another Beast they were permitted to live. However, they were cursed to remain in wolf form (made unable to shift) and forbidden to travel more than a few miles from the site of their master's prison. To this day they take turns sitting beside his buried jail, howling to remind him he's not alone.

## 800 years ago

### **New Allies and Debts.**

The Seelie became worried that Isily would try to attack the Hart (to secure a monopoly on the special magics).  The Isily Family had to go into hiding.  The Silver Fox helped them escape, offering them a place in the Slums in exchange for fealty.

Avarian refugees from Cipher began pouring in to Southard and King's Rise about this time.  The Silver Fox made them the same deal as the Isily had received, and Southard and King's Rise accepted.  This is why Isily, Southard, and King's Rise all pay tribute taxes to Capital City today.

The Silver Fox approached the elves, asking for a barrier spell that could keep all Fair Folk and dragons out of the Slums.  The elves repeatedly ignored the request.

### **The Great Barrier's Creation.**

During this era, the rivalry between dwarves and elves began.  The dwarves at Skarrenruff came across a vein of mithril, which they promised to sell to the elves for armour.  However, an Unseelie delegation offered the dwarves a far better price for the mithril.  Of course the dwarves accepted, shorting the elves.

It wouldn't have been so bad except that shortly thereafter the elves engaged the drow in battle.  As it turned out, the drow and Unseelie Court had formed an alliance, and when the Unseelie came to back up the drow that mithril armour cost the elves many, many lives.  Shortly thereafter the elves accepted the Silver Fox's request for a barrier.  It's said that an identical barrier was placed around the Sun Elf city.

The barrier came at a terrible cost.  One of the ingredients was lythari blood.  In order to cover the entire Slums, the Silver Fox would have to acquire thousands of gallons of the stuff, which meant ordering a wholesale slaughter.  While the Fox was debating this, the Seelie court found the Isilys and made an attack on the Slums.  With elven help the Fox was able to drive them off.  The next day found thousands of Slumrats out combing the hills for lythari.  It didn't take long.

## 700 years ago

### **The Silence.**

After the barrier was put up, the Slums were shrouded in peace for two hundred years.  This period is called the Silence.  Most other nations around the world were experiencing internal struggles, and there was little conflict between the races.

During this time Madalin and Lefko saw fit to bring humans into the world.  They saw the goodness in humans and recognised it as necessary.  The fact that humans were mortal made them live spectacular lives, despite their shortness.  The Beasts saw the resilience in humans and brought them to Sihiri.

### **The Human's Greed.**

At the end of the Silence, the Unseelie began taking an interest in humans.  They gave the humans a tiny bit of territory.  Immediately the humans began grappling for more.  They felt as though all other races were preventing them from surviving, and they began fighting against all non-humans, killing many of them.  They discovered that some of them had gained magical abilities over time, and some could use stones, and some could steal magic from other races and from human castors.

Finally humans began to make peace with certain other races.  They came together to create the Magic Council, promising to mentor and protect those that could potentially rise to power and defeat the Coven Dragons.

## 600 years ago

### **Vampires and Werecreatures.**

During this time, what are called the "lesser" creatures remained silent. They did not care to involve themselves in the ways of the world and often dwealt underground, living out their various forms of immortality's curse year after year. But like all things, there was eventually an underground feud between the two races. The alpha's mate's daughter, an unborned child, happened to pass away on her way out, and the werecreatures blamed the vampires as a response, claiming that they had somehow sabatoged the child's birth.

As an attempt to end this feud, the vampire's fled before battle could occur between them and the werecreatures. They fled to the Southwest, where Lefko welcomed them and allowed them to settle the land along with the residents that already lived there. They did so happily for many years, until the birth of the Benedictus vampires. The Benedictus rose up to be very powerful vampires, but their father despised their brother, a bastard that became the first hybrid, a mix between vampire and werewolf. For many years, he chased them, trying to kill this brother, before they sought respite with Lefko, and Lefko honored their desperate please by giving them rule of the Southwest and killing their father. Though if they should fail their duties, Lefko has promised to return the Benedictus father to the lands. As of yet, the Benedictus have not failed, but there are rumours of rebellion throughout the Southwestern lands, and unification easily dies.

## 500 years ago

### The Beginnings of War.

As tensions grew, so did the restlessness of the Seelie. In an effort to berid of the Dragons forever, they crossed to the island under the cover of night and brutally attacked. Many of the dragons recovered and were able to inflict their casualties upon the Seelie, yet many more died. The Dragon King mourned the loss of several of his own brothren, along with hundreds of his kind, and swore vengeance upon the Seelie and those who had sided with them.

For 500 years, Dragons and their allies fought against the Seelie and theirs. The battle raged throughout Sihiri, no one was safe. Even the Slums was under attack, for the barrier had not been made against all. The war was fought long and hard against the Dragons. Many were lost, and eventually the Dragons retreated to Cipher, where they isolated themselves from the world of Sihiri...never to be seen again.

## 100 years ago

### **Humans joined the war.**

In the last century of the war, humans joined. They saw it as an advantage to finally be noticed in a world where they were often taken for granted, underestimated. It was an advantage for them to gain more land, more respect. And in the end, they did. They gained the entire West, where they then banned any and all creatures that were not human. Any who enter there forfeit their lives.

The war ended fifty years after the humans became involved, though tensions still exist.

## Present day

-The Benedictus Family rules the Southwest

-The Dwarves reside in the North

-The Slums are ruled by the Silver Fox

-The West is ruled by humans

-Fogland is ruled by the Crowned Dieties.

The Crowned Dieties are under threat by the Sigils.

-Cipher is ruled by the Dragons under the leadership of Knight