Enselonde

Mount Ivos, a distinct landmark of Enselonde and Divine Seal of Ivos.

***“**The Divines were sent to create Enselonde, not to destroy it! Carrying on with this war will ruin everything we have worked towards. You are pathetic!**”***
— Cossyxia

**Enselonde** is considered the main Realm in all of existence. Created by the One and developed by the Divines, Enselonde is home to the living mortal races. The Realm was initially ruled by the Divines, who had total influence over the first Freeholds. However, throughout the course of the First, Second and Third Human Rebellions, they began to turn against each other, sparking the Divine War. After decades of destruction and blatant misuse of their powers, an uneasy truce was settled, and many Divines Withdrew themselves to lick their wounds and regenerate their powers.

In the absence of many of the Divines, the mortal races of Enselonde took over without their assistance. The three oldest races, the Faerians, Hyllidans, and Naerisi, lost most of their power as Humans became increasingly more dominant across the world. Many of the Divines that had Withdrawn have recently broken their Withdrawal during the Great War, mostly due to the God of Storms, Syarus, who has begun killing other Divines at an alarming rate. Now, many mortals question if the Divines will once again take over, or if they will come to terms with a Realm being ruled by mortals.

## History

### Age of Creation (5875-2800 BW)

*Main Article: Age of Creation*

At the first moment in time, there was nothing but darkness. In this endless void was the One, an entity known to exist, yet one that remains shrouded in mystery. The One's first creation came in 5875 BW when he created Cossyxia. Cossyxia created Clia, the first star. Yet, one star is not enough to break through the eternal darkness. Cossyxia split her power, creating many Divine Offspring, each of which created their own star. Stars are magical entities, and the magic of the cosmos, with the influence of the One, began to create new Divines.

Zinnos came first. Things began to move, and time no longer stood still. Lateos came soon after, to lord over the magic flowing throughout the universe. Giraldir came third, the first true thinker. He set out to grant his fellow Divines wisdom. Yet, the fourth Divine to be created this way was uncontent with the eternal darkness separated by only a handful of scattered stars.

Ivos, the God of the Earth, created the first landmasses: rocky, cold, and lifeless sprawls as far as the eye can see. His successor, Sylvir, divided these sprawls with oceans, creating rivers and lakes to accompany them. Dhydos froze some of these waters, creating ice, snow, and cold. Adyana created a barrier between the land and the darkness beyond, becoming the Goddess of the Sky. Syarus created the weather, becoming the God of Storms. Finally, Nyara painted this land green, creating the first plantlife. Yet, she felt as if something was missing. Ultimately, she ended up creating three peoples, Faerians, Naerisi, and finally the Hyllidans. It was the Faerians who named the world Enselonde, translating to "Home of Life" in their language.

### Age of Freeholds (2800-2300 BW)

*Main Article: Age of Freeholds*

The three oldest races of Enselonde began as immortal beings in their own right. They were a subject of fascination for many Divines, and new Divines came into being around them. Zaoru granted them fertility and taught them how to farm, Deslyn granted them the ability to love and be loved, Eitrius granted them the more physical pleasures of life, and Hallione taught them how to cooperate between villages. Yet, as the population grew exponentially, overcrowding became a realistic problem, as cities grew larger and larger. Without explanation, things began happening: people's bodies began to age, they became sick, and some of them began to die. Out of the cosmos descended Ihyll, the Goddess of Death, a necessary evil in her own eyes, yet a hated enemy in the eyes of the mortals. As mortals began to die of natural causes, those with hatred in their hearts had the opportunity to release their anger. In 2691 BW, the first murder took place. At that moment, two Divines were born, the brothers Anir and Onir. Anir set up laws to punish evil, whereas Onir set up the framework for these laws to be broken. The two brothers became rivals, and Onir's chaos spread through the disunited cities.

In an attempt to restore order, Anir began elevating powerful warriors into proper rulers. These rulers earned the loyalties of cities and towns, and slowly the first Freeholds emerged. Under Anir, these Freeholds established internal laws, yet, nothing was stopping them from squabbling with each other. The youngest god at the time, Ildius, taught them how to forge weapons and armor, which was supposed to be used for defense. Yet, when Vixos came into being, he pitted the Freeholds against each other, sparking the War for Enselonde in 2597 BW.

As the soldiers of the Freeholds began to slaughter each other in the tens of thousands, Kymelia came forth from amongst the stars, dedicating herself to healing and saving lives. Yet, it was not enough. The War for Enselonde killed roughly 65% of the world's population at the time. Once the War ended in 2557 BW, the conflict had proven to be largely indecisive, only serving to disunite the Freeholds. Their economies were ruined and there was no workforce to rebuild. To combat the problem, Nyara created the first Humans to serve as laborers in 2540 BW. However, their non-Human masters were rather liberal in their use of the term laborer, and the Humans rapidly turned into slaves, lacking any kind of freedom.

### Age of Fire (2300-400 BW)

*Main Article: Age of Fire*

For the next 2000 years, Enselonde was at a standstill. Freeholds came and went, and yet there was very little progress. The Freeholds, with their Divine right to rule, were at each other's throats constantly. Every time one of them made some progress technologically, politically, or economically, another Freehold would come and ruin it. This constant warring led to this period of history being named the Age of Fire.

Meanwhile, the Human slaves were not sitting idle. They wanted freedom, yet were in no position to take it. Slave revolts were common, yet isolated events that were usually struck down immediately. The only respite came from escaped slaves that managed to flee south. These Human slaves that fled south, past the Marenbach Forests, would end up as the very first Freemen in the "cursed" lands of the south. Here, amongst the other various races that were not one of the three major ruling ones, these Humans would build their homes.

The Freeholds, outraged, petitioned the Divines to destroy either the Humans or the entirety of the South. Yet, they refused. Instead, a compromise was agreed upon: the Marenbach Declaration in 2286 BW. The Marenbach Declaration stated that the North and the Eastland belonged to the three races and their Freeholds, while the rest belonged to the other races. The Freeholds had no right to cross into the South, and in return, Southern Humans were not allowed to form any countries.

The Marenbach Declaration, while a major piece of legislation, has had more violations than one can list. Yet, it was a success in the long term, and Humans fled as far south as they could. The moment they came out of the Marenbach Forests, they would be free men. As a result, the first Old Human societies emerged across the South. While they were not allowed to form countries, they pushed the rules to the absolute limit and utilized every loophole they could, the most notable examples being the Alliance of Human Settlements which essentially acted as a kingdom in all but name, and the Qiu Empire in the Gemstone Islands, whose leader declared himself emperor of a single city, whereas all the surrounding cities became his "allies". Yet, before long, Humans fell prey to the same squabbles as their Freehold counterparts as both the Alliance and the Dynasty fell apart into bickering independent cities.

The Age of Fire has no unified important events, just petty squabbles between mortals as the Divines looked on. It was during the Age of Fire when the last Divine to ever appear, Piqumi, descended upon Enselonde, granting luck to mortals she favored.

### Age of Rebellion (400-50 BW)

*Main Article: Age of Rebellion*

By the 4th century BW, the Freeholds, exhausted after centuries of infighting, began to struggle to contain their Human slaves. The Northern Human population grew much over the years, whereas non-Human numbers stayed mostly the same. Slave revolts weren't uncommon before, but they were beginning to increase in size and frequency,

A slave revolt in the Freehold of Jaeria spiralled out of control in 378 BW, overthrowing the entire Freehold in the same year and being a cause for alarm for every other Freehold. The resulting conflict would become the First Human Rebellion. After two years, the Humans had been defeated mostly due to internal disunity. However, the First Human Rebellion had a legacy that would be felt for centuries to come, as it inspired countless more slave revolts.

Another huge slave revolt broke out in 144 BW, becoming the Second Human Rebellion. The Second Rebellion became impossible to control, and the Divines had to resort to desperate measures to keep the Freeholds from collapsing. Ultimately, it was Lateos who granted the Faerians, Naerisi and Hyllidans the use of magic, which they used to obliterate the Human armies. This drew criticism from mortal and Divine alike, and some cracks began to appear in some of the Gods' loyalties to their Freeholds. The Second Rebellion would last all the way until 106 BW. While the Freeholds would end up victorious, they were all but crippled at this point.

The Second Human Rebellion kept the Divines' attention for long enough that practically every Human city in the South broke the Marenbach Declaration, and the first Human Kingdoms had formed. In 96 BW, only a decade later, the Third Human Rebellion broke out. Finally, some Divines defected and began supporting Humankind over the three races. Ildius granted the Godslayer's Weapons to the Human Kingdom of Sallant's monarch: Yanhi. Yanhi gathered his armies and began to march north. Other kingdoms began to join his march, and Sallant became the Human Kingdom of the South before finally reforming a second time into the Kingdom of Humanity.

The Third Human Rebellion would become a gigantic proxy war for the Divines, who, through the course of the war, became increasingly more desperate to put an end to the conflict or to just kill each other. The Godslayer's Weapons allowed Zaoru to die to Anbu the Godslayer, a Human mortal. Later on, Lyxis the Blind, a Hyllidan archmage, would end up killing Lateos with magic. The Third Human Rebellion was all but forgotten about as it became a theatre of the much larger Divine War.

### Age of Collpase (50-1 BW)

*Main Article: Age of Collapse*

The Age of Collapse is marked by complete destruction in every corner of Enselonde as the Divines began to blatantly misuse their power for evil. Mortals were slaughtered in the millions as the Gods sent their Divine Offspring to fight each other. The Kingdom of Humanity began to buckle under the might of Lyxis' Empire of Nytalyria, who reconquered most of the North. Ultimately a stalemate broke out at the Marenbach Forests, a stalemate that Ivos sought to break by force. Ivos tore the Mainland at Marenbach only to slam it right back into each other. The earthquakes were felt in every corner of the world and killed thousands. The Marenbach Forests had become an inhospitable range of gigantic mountains, henceforth called the Marenbach Mountains. Impossible to march an army through, the land war briefly ended, yet Lyxis the Blind would simply continue her invasion of the Kingdom of Humanity over water.

The Divine War reached its height in the 20s BW, as the slaughter continued on both sides. By the year 10 BW, an estimated 75% of the total world population had been killed, yet there was no end in sight to the conflict. With the total destruction of Enselonde a real possibility, it was Cossyxia who set out to put an end to the conflict. She sent every single one of her Divine Offspring to Enselonde in an event that would later be known as the Starslaughter. The Divine Offspring of Cossyxia killed other Offspring, generals, leaders, and soldiers in the thousands until they put an end to the conflict. The Starslaughter lasted from 9 BW to 4 BW, finally stopping when the Divines agreed to end their war to preserve the world they had created.

In the aftermath of the Divine War, a sense of guilt had gripped most Divines, who were slowly coming to their senses. Cossyxia led the peace negotiations. In the negotiations, a new direction for Enselonde was decided: The Divines should cooperate and live in peace amongst each other, much like the Freeholds and Human kingdoms should. This peace policy would be called Cossyxia's Dream, which was a dream of cooperation instead of warfare. Yet, the Divines would not be the ones enforcing this policy, as the Withdrawal began. Divines began to Withdraw to their Divine Seals to regenerate their spent powers and to reflect. While not all Divines participated in the Withdrawal, the ones that remained also left the mortals to fend for themselves. While this was meant to be an act of granting the mortals freedom and autonomy, the Freeholds felt as if they had been forsaken.

### Age of Abandonment (1-400 AW)

*Main Article: Age of Abandoment*

With the Divines Withdrawn or disinterested, many countries struggled with what to do with their newfound freedom. What remained of the Freeholds had become the so-called "New Freeholds", vassal states under the Empire of Nytalyria. However, Lyxis the Blind took a similar approach in her rulership as the other Divines and left the Freeholds to fend for themselves.

The Age of Abandonment, then, is marked by the aftermath of the Divine War. Political instability, economic ruin, bitter hatred, and demographical collapse are all elements of the Age of Abandonment. Border raids and skirmishes were frequent, as many generals and leaders that survived the Starslaughter became independent warlords.

The New Freeholds in the South collapsed almost immediately, whereas the Northern ones barely clung to life. These too would slowly begin to crack under the pressure of their – usually – larger Human population than their ruling non-Human one. Ultimately, the Freeholds would collapse slowly over the course of centuries, losing tiny bits of territory to new Human statelets in a gradual but lethal process. Of all the Freeholds in the North, only two managed to stabilize themselves: Innyria through granting its Human population autonomy in Whitecrest, and Hykkfjord, through the systematic genocide of every non-Hyllidan within her borders.

Most historians, then, view the Age of Abandonment as a dark age, an intermission between Divine rule and prosperous mortal rule, where the mortals of Enselonde struggled to find their footing.

### Age of Sapphires (400-650 AW)

*Main Article: Age of Sapphire*

In 398 AW, the four-year-old boy-king of Sallant, Ilu, was deposed by a group of nobles. He fled to the Temple Isles with the help of his regent and mentor: Athos. At the age of sixteen, he returned to the Sallanthian mainland where he began King Ilu's War. The young king proved to be a mastermind on the battlefield and defeated the league of nobles that had deposed him in 410 AW despite being heavily outnumbered.

With the Kingdom of Sallant once again ruled by Ilu, he prepared an army as an invasion force. Accompanied by Athos, the two men began a series of conquests that would rival the Kingdom of Humanity of old. Qibiqa, Llendus, Agumia, Da'al Mon, Amagoi, Rytow: none were a match for Ilu, as the Kingdom of Sallant became a regional superpower.

In 436 AW, a failed Daletian assassination attempt on Ilu accidentally killed Athos instead. Ilu, enraged, launched the War of the South, a decade-long conflict that devastated Daletia and brought it firmly under the control of Sallanthia. In 450 AW, a final conquest of the Gemstone Islands was launched. By 451 AW, Ilu had conquered the overwhelming majority of the South. He reformed the Kingdom of Sallant into the Sapphire Empire, a Human state to rival or even surpass the Kingdom of Humanity. Ultimately, Ilu died in 453 AW.

While Ilu's legacy and stories are impressive, his successors would make the Sapphire Empire a global superpower. This is why this period of Enselonde's history is called the Age of Sapphires. Ilu's descendants would turn the Empire into a power that even eclipsed the Nytalyrians under Lyxis the Blind.

What happened in Enselonde was entirely at the whims and wishes of the Empire, as their influence reached every corner of the world through trade routes, diplomacy, and espionage. The Empire was a profound opponent of the remaining Freeholds and funded countless Human separatist groups in the North. Most of these separatists founded their own statelets and would later band together, laying the foundations for the Kingdom of Fühlgart.

Ultimately, a few factors led to the end of the Sapphire Empire's golden age: corruption, incompetence, decentralization, and Nytalyrian sabotage. By 624 AW, a civil war broke out between the Empire and Da'al Mon. With both sides locked in a stalemate, a compromise was made. The Empire would have two emperors: one in Sallant and one in Da'al Mon. While this ended the civil war, it only worsened the Empire's situation in the long term, as any time either of the two emperors died, a power struggle broke out.

By the 650s, the Empire had become so unstable that it lost most of its global power projection, putting an end to the Age of Sapphires. The Empire would cling on for three and a half more centuries, but would only end up more decentralized and more unstable until its rapid and total collapse in 998 AW.

### Age of Kingdoms (650-1000 AW)

*Main Article: Age of Kingdoms*

As the Sapphire Empire began its slow collapse in the South, in the North new Human powers rose up. Almost all Freeholds had fallen at this point, and two new powers had risen up: the Kingdom of Fühlgart and the Kingdom of Wyrsia. These two kingdoms would dominate Northern politics in the coming centuries.

The Fühlgartians focused on expanding their mainland possessions. It had united a large number of Human statelets and would conquer the two remaining Freeholds of Caelar and Iragass by force. By the beginning of the 8th century, Fühlgart spanned from coast to coast and had become an economic and military powerhouse, although it lacked internal unity.

Meanwhile, Wyrsia had united itself violently in the Wars of Wyrsian Unification. Yet, they too sought to expand in any way they could, conquering both Great Skull – causing the Great Skull Migration – as well as the Freehold of Innyria in 746 AW. The Wyrsian-Innyrian War is significant because Fühlgart joined Wyrsia's side in 747 AW. However, this was not a welcome development for Wyrsia, as Fühlgart began taking territory the Wyrsians had planned to conquer for themselves. Ultimately, while the war was a victory, it would be the start of the Nordland Dispute, the cause of a bitter rivalry between the two countries to this very day.

Yet, Fühlgart and Wyrsia were not the only kingdoms that were rising up. Marenbach, was unified in a similar fashion, and the Five Kings' Invasion led to the creation of entirely new kingdoms, such as Avateaux and, later on, Lesterwood. The Age of Kingdoms, therefore, is marked as the pinnacle of feudal society.

Another development during the Age of Kingdoms was the establishment of the Grey Temple under Alwin the Holy. The Kingdom of the One briefly existed in Rosendorf before being reconquered by Marenbach, yet their legacy lives on, as many of the knights didn't die during the Battle of Rosendorf, instead fleeing to the South to regroup. The Grey Temple continues to exist to this day and has even managed to retake some land during the recent Great War, including Rosendorf itself.

### The Darkest Decade (1000-1010 AW)

*Main Article: The Darkest Decade*

The Age of Blood is a period of Enselonde's history that most people prefer to forget. Caused by the Collapse of the Sapphire Empire between 995 and 998 AW, a large number of new states rose up across the South. Most of these were viewed as illegitimate. As the situation worsened in these countries, they needed someone to blame for the fall of the Empire.

In the Sapphire Empire of Da'al Mon, one of the successor states, Emperor Taslona laid the blame solely on the local Dryad population, which he claimed sabotaged and destroyed the Empire. He appointed a former Daletian general, Rahmiero, as the head of the new Sapphire Inquisition in 1000 AW. The Inquisition was tasked with getting rid of the local Dryads, mostly by displacing them, though murder would be overlooked. However, Da'al Mon quickly ran out of Dryads, and the scope of the Inquisition increased to all non-Humans. Their homes were taken, their wealth was stolen, and only then would they be slaughtered.

Other Sapphire successor states would allow the Inquisition into its borders as well, as they faced many of the same problems as Da'al Mon. Before long, the Inquisition spread to cover the Empire's former borders. Then, it expanded even further, through Marenbach into the North and overseas to the Eastland. This would be the start of the Darkest Decade, a period of systematic non-Human genocide throughout the South, Eastland, and parts of the North.

Not all Human states supported the Inquisition, most notably Wyrsia, Redwall, and Avateaux. Yet, it helped little. The Inquisition grew into the size of an unbeatable army and non-Humans were killed in the millions. However, Rahmiero was determined to find some way to attack the hastily assembled alliance between Wyrsia, Western Innyria and Whitecrest. Ultimately, the Inquisition attacked the Green Grove and its largely Faerian population under the protection of the Goddess of Life, Nyara. While successful at first, the Battle of the Green Grove would be a devastating defeat. As the Inquisition approached Nyara's Heart, the Goddess broke her Withdrawal and the whole forest came alive. Of the tens of thousands of Inquisitors that entered the Green Grove, only a handful ever made it out alive. Rahmiero was one of the few survivors, returning to the Da'al Moni capital of Kirisil to rebuild the Inquisition.

Yet, Kirisil was not long for this world. On the 10th of Nyara's Summer, 1009 AW, the skies of Enselonde turned red. The outraged Cossyxia, who had witnessed a repeat of the Third Human Rebellion all over again, utterly destroyed Kirisil in a matter of seconds. Fire from the heavens bathed Enselonde. Besides Kirisil, the overwhelming majority of the Inquisition's field armies were also turned to ash. This annihilation served as a warning to Humankind to end their madness immediately.

To say the Darkest Decade has a mixed legacy would be an understatement. Many in the South who were personally affected by the collapse of the Sapphire Empire see it as a justified payback against presumed traitors, going as far as referring to the event as the Great Genocide. In the North, it is more controversial, with many Humans coming to the defense of non-Humans. Yet, one thing can be said for certain: the Darkest Decade has ruined the reputation of Humanity throughout Enselonde.

### Age of Silence (1010-1200 AW)

*Main Article: Age of Silence*

After the conclusion of the Darkest Decade, the Age of Silence broke out. It's a period of history in which not a whole lot happens. A period of reflection and peace. While tensions remained between Humans and non-Humans – ones that remain to this day – there was no all-out war being fought anymore.

The Age of Silence was a very sober period of history. Generations were born, worked, and then died. There were still occasional wars and rebellions, such is the nature of politics. Yet it was the most peaceful period in history, generally speaking. Marked by economic growth and stability, for many countries, the Age of Silence proved to be somewhat of a golden age.

However, just as people were beginning to dream of a world of peace, that dream was shattered and stomped on through a series of escalating events that would drag all of Enselonde into yet another all-encompassing war.

### Age of Republics (1200 AW-)

*Main Article: Age of Republics*

The God of Storms, Syarus, broke Withdrawal in 1199 AW. He travelled to Fühlgart, where he began manipulating Jan Luftschwert behind the scenes. Jan Luftschwert had grown to hate the corrupt and inefficient monarchy under House von Kalzberg, who ruled Fühlgart at the time. However, he would never launch a rebellion, as it was not in his nature. That was until Syarus told him to. Jan Luftschwert nearly bankrupted Freistadt importing rifles and pistols from Nytalyria in the thousands. Before then, every Human nation followed the idea of Dishonorable Weapons, forbidding the use of gunpowder weaponry except for cannons on naval ships.

When the Fühlgartian Civil War broke out in 1202 AW, Fühlgart split into two, with the Kalzberg-aligned Monarchists and the Freistadt-aligned Republicans. Yet, as the first battles broke out, the Monarchist armies were slaughtered from afar with rifles. The Republicans' flat-out disregard for the Dishonorable Weapons doctrine sent shockwaves around the world, as almost every other Human nation followed, yet, the Republicans had already purchased most of the available Nytalyrian stockpile.

By 1205 AW, the civil war ended with the Luftschwerts and the recently established Republic of Fühlgart as the victors, while the remaining von Kalzbergs were exiled to Frosthaven Island. While many hoped this would usher in a new era of peace and civilian rule in Fühlgart, it did the exact opposite. Syarus continued his manipulations, using Fühlgart as a tool for his own war against the One.

In 1208 AW, Fühlgart launched the Gemstone Wars out of seemingly nowhere with no justification given. The Gemstone Islands were ransacked and burned to the ground by the common soldiery, while Syarus managed to collect the pieces of the Godslayer's Blade that had been hidden there after the Divine War. With this new weapon in tow, Syarus gained the ability to kill other Divines with ease.

In 1211 AW, all hell broke loose in the North, with the start of the Republican-Wyrsian War. Later, an invasion of Frosthaven Island followed, where Syarus killed the Usurper Goddess, Cynda Wintersong. By 1212 AW, the Green Grove stood destroyed, and Syarus killed Nyara. As the Wyrsian mainland fell, a network of alliance-building began in the Eastland and the South. A series of smaller conflicts all balled together into the Great War, as long-buried rivalries and grudges resurfaced as the Human nations of Enselonde began tearing each other apart.

While the mortals fought it out, Syarus continued his own quest, killing Hallione, Vixos, Ildius, Giraldir, and finally, Lyxis the Blind. The Godslayer's Blade allowed him to absorb their power, making the God of Storms one of the most powerful Divines in Enselonde. Yet, the other Divines did not sit still, as an alliance formed against Syarus led by the Goddess of Death, Ihyll.

The Great War ended with the death of Jan Luftschwert in 1227 AW. Lacking central leadership, the Republican alliance all but collapsed. There was no greater conflict anymore, just smaller and isolated wars in the aftermath. Together, these would become the ongoing Epilogue Wars. Syarus is still out there to this day, undoubtedly waiting for an opportune time to kill another Divine. He has abandoned Fühlgart, yet his war against the One still continues.

## Subrealms

*Main Article: Realms*

It is theorized that Enselonde has subrealms, yet nobody has ever managed to enter or even perceive one. Lyxis the Blind spent much time trying to find a subrealm, yet saw no successes. Therefore, it can be assumed that no subrealms exist in Enselonde until proven otherwise.