The Zogul Hordes

The Zoguls live in a continent east to Villacia and west to Falahi, Zogulia. They're an intelligent race of humanoids with green, gray or pale skin. The Zoguls are feared by many, as they have destroyed many empires, and have new machines and weaponry that can make the whole world bow to them..

## History

In 14200 BD, the goddess of smiths, Dunél, and the god of masonry, Sagar, started fighting, about whose work is greater. While the other gods were creating the world, these two kept fighting over small things. The god of lightning, Goraik, decided that enough was enough, and the asked both to create their greatest masterpiece. And they worked for many sweaty nights and days, until their masterpieces were done. Dúnel had crafted a beautiful, gleaming sword, like those of the old universe, and Sagar created a great statue, carefully crafted, representing Tindael creating the world. Dunél realised he couldn't win, and made an agreement with Singar, the goddess of the underworld (Dunél was not even a good friend of Singar, but Singar believed Dunél due to the fact that she could lie very well). Singar destroyed Sagar's work, and when Sagar and Dunél finally got to show their masterpieces to the other gods, everyone started laughing at Sagar. Sagar realised that Dunél cheated, and with his power crushed Dunél's sword, making the shards of the sword fly to Overworld. The other gods were angered by him, and Dunél started accusing Sagar about starting the quarrel. Eventually the head of gods, Goraik, heard that all other gods wanted to get rid of Sagar, and he was banished to the Overworld, where he awoke on the empty plains of what would later be known as Zogulia. Many gods joined Sagar, such as Zetríl, the son of Sagar and Idila, the god of deserts, Fistila, the god of mountains, Réverak, god of dark magic and the most powerful of them all (after Sagar), Sërada, the goddess of the undead, sister of Singar.

However, the head of the gods, Goraik, or Odin, Wodan, Wotan, Wuotan or Gaut in Erond, decided to banish them to different continents, which would make their rise to power much harder, so Sagar was stuck in Zogulia.

Sagar wandered the empty lands, until one day, he finally found something. It was the great volcano, which Sagar climbed. On it's peak, Sagar cried: "I will have my revenge, you bastards!" Then a lightning bolt struck 0,5 metres in front of him, and he started backing down, until he fell into the crater. At the bottom, Sagar fell into a cavern, filled with magma. Sagar burned, and suffered, until the lava flowed into an empty cave. Sagar fell to the cave, and was very happy to realise he was not burning anymore, but as he saw a gem, he saw that half of his face had burned away, and his right ribs were visible. Sagar cursed the name of the gods, and realised he'd be stuck there. He started taking the lava to his hand, and modelling it. He modeled it to a humanoid shape, but he realised it would not work without organs or a soul of an intelligent being. Sagar also realised that the lava did not hurt him anymore, and got back to the surface of the earth. Near the volcano, he saw a camp of elves, and he realised that he could capture one of them, and make his creation alive. He sneaked to the camp, and broke into the leader's camp. He struck the chieftain to his head with a chair, and carried his body out of the camp. Sagar only had one problem. The elf's body could be destroyed if he tried going back to his cavern. Sagar decided that he'd have to put some spell on the elf for a brief time, and he the spell of fire on him. When Sagar finally got down to his cave, he started the "ritual". He transferred the vital parts of the elf to the statue, and cursed the statue, and it started living. But Sagar had made one flaw, as the he used an elven soul, he accidentally created a creature with the subjective morals, and intelligence, which meant that his creature could rebel and turn back from his order. Sagar taught these his demon language, which wad modified speech of the gods.

Sagar cloned his creatures, making an army of these creatures, which would eventually be called Zoguls.

Sagar was almost ready to take on the gods, and a had united other evil gods, until one night, a group of 500 Zoguls charged his palace, burned it up and started looking for Sagar. Sagar woke up, and went to see what was happening, and saw 500 Zoguls burning his palace. He shot a fireball to the centre of the group, killing 20. The zoguls then charged him, and Sagar could not do anything, as they overpowered them. Sagar was put in a coffin, and thrown into a portal to an another dimension. So was done with the other gods, and the Zoguls had taken over their own future into their own hands...
The Zoguls started crafting advanced weaponry, and populating their continent. In 8500 BD, zoguls had already created their first chainmail. Nothing particularly interesting happened, but in 1000, Zoguls started raiding their neighbouring continents.
In 993, the first Zoguls landed in Víllacë, and destroyed the city of Víllacë.
In 678 BD, Víllacëans launched an invasion against the Zoguls, but they were defeated after a bloody campaign in 668 BD. They also used cannons for the first time ever in the last battle of the campaign, Siege of Fûghi The cannons were large, complex and expensive to make, but inflicted large casualties on the Villacian troops.

Zoguls spent many centuries creating even more advanced weaponry, but were interrupted by the first king of Villacia Díril V in 59 AD, who, unlike Díril I, went straight for the Great Volcano. Díril sieged it for 8 years, but was killed on an assault to the walls in 67 AD, while trying to rally his troops to take a tower.

The Zoguls and Villacians had started a long feud, and Zoguls went on to their halls, and started testing new weaponry. Smaller and more effective cannons were crafted, as were muskets and arquebuses. Zoguls worked and raised armies for 700 years, and they launched an huge invasion against Villacia in 705 AD.

The Zoguls had almost conquered the whole coastline of whole Villacia, and were swiftly heading to the last port of Villacia, Tol Axap. The Zogul navy had 50 ships against the 4 of Tol Axap's garrison. The Villacian army was obviously going to lose, but a navy was heading east from beyond the western ocean. These men were Erondians, who had already contacts with Guguileandian merchants, but had lost all contacts due to the war in Villacia. Now the Erondian king wanted to reestablish the trade routes between Erond and Villacia, so he sailed to Villacia with his navy. The Zogul army thought these ships were Villacian reinforcements, and went with full speed ahead to destroy the ships. The Erondian ships initially suffered damage from the Zogul cannonballs, but once the Erondians got into close quarters, their ramming and boarding techniques were much more effective than those of Zoguls. The Erondians destroyed the Zogul navy, and quickly Tol-Xop and Fengir were reclaimed. The Zogul efforts to stop Villacian advance was not enough, and by 711 AD, Villacians had reclaimed all of their lost land. Zogulia was forced into peace, and because it had lost most of it's men and if it started a war, it'd also have to deal with Erondians. The Villacians colonised Northern Zogulia, and drove the local Zogul tribes to the wastelands in the south. The wastelands were populated for the first time ever, although it's inhabitants never settled down, but they started being nomads. These Zoguls formed their own clan, the Wastelands Hoarders.

While the Northern Zoguls suffered from Villacian abuse, the Zoguls of the Eastern Coast landed in Falahi, and found the hidden gates of the Dwarven Capital, De-rîk. The Zoguls did not mostly care about the dwarves, until in 967 AD, two Zogul explorers were killed in De-rîk. In 689 AD, Zoguls attacked De-rîk, and assaulted it. The battle was very succesful to the zoguls, until the dwarves lurked the main part of the zoguls into their trap tunnels, which included pouring lava, spikes, and rolling stones down. The dwarves captured some weaponry from zoguls, invented their own design of the standard Zogul long rifled musket, but it was quickly realised that they did not fit very well to the small halls and corridors of the dwarven realm, and the dwarves stopped manufacturing them, even though one gunshop stayed active.

The Zoguls and Villacians uneasily coexisted in the northernmost parts of Zogulia. Trade was forbidden between the two peoples, and many Villacian governors would kill any zogul who crossed the border. Eventually the zoguls got tired in 998 AD, and marched to the Villacian border. However, the zoguls were poorly armed, and the quantity of captured firearms used by Villacians destroyed them. The Villacian troops gunned down the zoguls, and only a very few got out alive, and only one Villacian was wounded, by a friendly stray bullet. The Zoguls realised they'd need other clans to help them with the Villacians. They failed to get the attention of the chieftain, Rêh-tuk.

The Zoguls met with the Endermen in 1000 AD, and their relations quickly turned hostile, as the Endermen and Dwarven forces attacked an zogul army on the lower hills of De-rîk. the zoguls had some problems with dwarven marksmen, but the Zogul gatling fire mowed them down. The melee units charged the zoguls, and some gatlings were destroyed. Zoguls and Endermen met on the top of a hill, and the zogul shock infantry beat the endermen quickly down. Zogul musketeers rallied at a line, and mowed started shooting the dwarves, who in their full plate armors charged towards the zogul soldiers. The bullets had problems trying to penetrate the armors, but a few dwarves fell down.. The Zoguls and dwarves engaged in melee, and the zoguls were slaughtered. The dwarves quickly realised other dwarves had been mostly killed, except a few units, who together were backing from the hordes of enemies. The dwarven and endermen were encircled. The zogul cannons and gatlings had been got back to action, and soon a huge bombardment started. The dwarves tried to desperately pick up Zogul guns from the ground to shoot the crews of cannons and gatling guns. Some guns stopped firing, and the zogul army charged. Their last stand was heroic, and the dwarves stood until their last gasps. Endermen used sorcery to get rid of the zoguls, but as there were just so many more zoguls they were crushed.

However when the chieftain Rêh-tuk died in 1062 AD, his successor Ûrg-Akh decided to help the Wastelands Hoarders, and organised a large army to take over the largest city in Northern Zogulia, Zoig. Zoig was sieged 1063 AD. The besiegers had less men, and even though Villacians had many gunpowder weapons, the new zogul weapons were extremely effective. Zogul cannons destroyed the walls, and the fight continued on the streets. The Villacian civillians were evacuated, but some refused to leave, and even though having no training with weapons, joined the battle. The most famous of them was Damhëg, who was 17 at the time. He was gifted an old musket, and issued to fight the main street. Damhëg killed five zoguls with his musket, but when a gatling gunner next to him was killed, the quickly took it, and stopped a charge of five units, together with his comrades in arms. However, not all of the street defenders were so luckly, and Damhëg with the remaining garrison forces fled to the palace, where their gatlings were placed on the doorway. Ammunition was brought from upstairs, and the Villacian forces resisted until the zoguls brought a cannon, which did not hit Damhëg or his comrades, but rather a pillar, and the building collapsed. Damhëg was knocked unconscious, and he was taken a prisoner. The Zoguls transported him to the southernmost provinces, where he was to be sold to slavers, but he succesfully got into a Dûthian trader ship, and returned to Villacia, where he was promoted to a general.

The Zoguls had now taken over Zoig, and quickly took over abandoned smaller colonies. The Zâ-Akh clan was refounded, and now Zoguls were ready to attack Villacian mainland. The Zoguls attacked Falmeric's peninsula, but were stopped in 1067 AD at Distík, but the Villacian forces were destroyed by famine and disease the next year. The Zoguls quickly marched to Sülik, which was abandoned by Villacian troops. Zoguls quickly took over nearby forts and villages, and sieged Mürha. However, captured Zogul gatlings mowed the first Zoguls down, and zoguls retreated, but still encircled the city. Mürha had way more supplies and skilled defenders than Distík. The Villacians managed to hold the city for the entire war, but not all other fronts had done so well. The whole east coast of Villacia was taken over, except Sardile and the mountains surrounding it. The war became a group of slaughters fought on the same battlefields over and over again. There were 5 battles for Mürha, 9 for Sada, 7 for Víllacë and 6 for Sethl River, along with many places with 4-1 battles.

While the war in Villacia was turning into a stalemate, the western zogul clans mounted a large invasion to Käle and Dûth. However, their navy got lost in a seastorm while sailing north of the dwarven mountains. The armada eventually landed in eastern Falahi, the colonies of Endermen. The Zoguls sieged their capital city, Cyur, but the Endermen kept holding the zoguls out. While sieging Cuyr, the Zoguls also campaigned for a short period of time in Farlands, but they were defeated by king Anmar II in 1467. But the siege of Cuyr had already ended in 1356 as the king Cúras' forces sallied out and destroyed the Zogul besiegers. The defeat was humiliating to Zoguls and most of their chieftains and two chieftains were killed. It was also the defeat in Cuyr that gave Villacians some time to regroup and ability to build border fortresses.

The Zoguls invented terrible steel machines with cannons, both on sea and land. The land versions were usually open topped and primitive, while the ones on sea were far more advanced. However, the magic of Villacians was able to get rid of these machines, even though they caused major casualties. In 1407, the conquered Villacian island of Mürhalana rebelled, and it's men were able to destroy the zogul army, due to the help of the local natives. This quickly inspired the other Villacians to stand up, and the siege of Mürha was broken in a bloody battle at the forest of the stones. The Villacians reclaimed their lost territority and the zoguls made a peace treaty.

But Zoguls would use the time of peace for creating new weaponry while Villacia and Endermen were rebuilding their destroyed settlements. Zoguls next campaign would be directed totally to Farlands, to avenge the slaughters in Cyur and Armina. It was in 1566 when Zoguls launched their greatest campaign ever seen. 40% of Zoguls were given firearms, compared to normal 15%. The rest were issued as heavy infantry and Villacian style cavarly. Some special units also had land ironclads and gatlings. The Zoguls landed in Gemmerl, southeast of Armina. The first month was rather catastrophic for Zoguls due to the large amount of fortifications in the city. The city and surrounding eventually fell, and slowly and surely Zoguls advanced. Armina was reached in Selvata; 1 Dúnelther. Battle of Armina was especially bloody. The Royal Dragon of End almost destroyed the Zogul army, but it's charge to the main to the group of units at the gate was stopped by a perfect cannon shot, and it crashed to the mountain. Armina was taken over by Zoguls, but not all Endermen were doing so bad. Enderman general Muraxes stopped Zogul advance at Sug, and the city of Fardá remained unconquered for the whole war. Zoguls attacked Respendialstan in 1621, after years of succesful campaign. The Zoguls were driven back, and the king Artavarn made a treaty with the Zoguls. The Zoguls now ruled a great empire, and the Kingdom of Endermen had been significantly weakened.

Now Zoguls could finally focus on other lands, and Zoguls attacked Dûth Empire. Dûth Empire was destroyed (Indirectly) at the battle of Vespolis. Dûthians employed scorched earth tactics against zoguls, and turned into dark magic to destroy the Zoguls. However, the Dûth Empire started falling due to the unrest in the southernmost provinces of Dûth, and because the Dûthian army was in north, the southernmost provinces' desert tribes founded their many own kingdoms. The Emperor of Dûth tried to act but realised he could not win a two front war and abandoned his plans. The new clans of Farlands Zoguls and Dûth Zoguls have been made, and while the war is still ongoing between Zoguls and Dûthians, it has calmed down, and some say it is due to that the emperor is planning something...

The peace treaties between Villacia and Farlands were also broken in 1631. The Villacian forces are abandoned in the hour of need by their Erondian friends due to a civil war, and Dûthian southern territories are now independent. Can the Zoguls establish themselves as the lords of the world, and can they even continue to fight against gods?