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## History

### Elven Prehistory

In the earliest days were the elves, they existed way before humans, like a million years before. Their appearance was alien to ours, kind of like long tall grey man aliens except either white or pink or purple skinned. Skulls were hella weird. They lived all over the world but their main cocnentration was in two places: Marzath, especially eastern Marzath, and Southern Vargelia. They are the progenitors of magic.

Magic is not going to ever be completely illuminated but there are several theories as to what it is and why it is not more common. The first theory, which comes from modern scientific study, is that magic accesses alternate universes' physics and pulls from these realities. The key to using these different kind of physics in this world is a combination of willpower and ritual signs, which supposedly mimic the signs in another reality. There are also sympathetic rules for magic between objects in this world, which will not be made fully clear. Certain species or races have a greater ability to access these powers than others, due to a number of reasons. One is that they were originally from the other universe and have somehow made it to this one. Another is that they are the result of magical experiments themselves. Another theory is that the discovery of magical signs and rituals is a study much like science, and traits for magic can be selected naturally or through breeding, though this method is tricky since magical ability is not necessarily genetically inherited. Another theory is that some races or species have an inherent ethereal nature which makes shifting through reality easier than others. The last is that reality is constructed around beliefs and paradigms present in the world, so that while magicians and mages require an innate ability to channel magic to begin with, a world or area of the world that believes magic works will host a greater ability for others to perform magic within them. The true answer is likely a combination of all these theories but it doesn't matter.

Elves were the eldest race and the first one on Eurf to create a functional civilization. There is no understanding of where elves "came from" other than natural evolution from some other progenitor species. The common ancestor of elves and other humanoid races has never been exactly pinpointed, but the best estimate right now is that humans and elves shared a common ancestor about 5-7 million years ago. Elven skeletons overtime have been shown to exhibit convergent evolution with humans; skulls become shorter and more rounded, eye sockets become rounded and less angular, limbs remain longer in proportion to humans on average, but fingers and toes become shorter and fatter. Elves during their peak would have looked very alien compared to how they do today. By the way, elves still exist, especially in the Jungle Kingdoms of Northern Vargelia and Western Orosilas, though they now can be found in almost every major city. But we'll get back to that little detail later.

Anyway, elves founded the first civilization and the first cities, mostly scattered throughout the wooded areas of Marzath and the Vargelian mountains. The reasons for this are obvious, elves love woods, and they needed resources to build their cities. Due to the glacial cycles, the peak of elven civilization occupied a very similar period to our own; very little to no glacial ice caps, wide plains in Southern Vargelia and Northern Marzath which would be taiga or tundra in different cycles were semi-arid grasslands or wetlands instead. Seasonally changes were still often extreme in those climes, but the winters did not last long, much like today. The elves built a lot of their cities in ways which can not be replicated today, with materials and alloys which we in these modern times can not replicate. They had several writing systems, the oldest translated of which is called Marevic, which was used in Southern Vargelia from 100,000 to 60,000 B.C., and compared to our own societies, remained relatively stable in their technological development. We do not know a lot about these cities but what we do know is that elves were responsible for the distribution of early humanoid specimens, particularly humans.

### Human Prehistory

The earliest skeletons that we can identify as human come from the bridge between Jadwin and the main Lamaran continent, approximately 1,000,000 B.C. Based on genetic tracing we know that humans didn't leave this area for a very, very long time. By the time 80,000 B.C. rolled around, humans had remained in the area of Jadwin to Eastern Lamara and had evolved from small jungle scavengers to plains hunters and elephant stalkers. However, around 80,000 B.C. we know there was a massive explosion of humans to all corners of the world within a span of less than 2000 years. The reason for this expansion is unknown, and the distribution of genetic and physical traits can not be explained solely by natural means. For instance, dark skin can be observed in the Lamaran continent, the Jadwini and Mukhalian pennisula, and the central plains of Vargelia. This is easy enough to explain away as natural selection favouring increased melanin production in areas with a higher UV index. However, look to the distribution of monolids or epicanthal folds. Epicanthal folds are present throughout Southern Vargelia except for the Zurkalian pennisula and the Parnavan Pennisula; present throughout all of Eastern Marzath except for the areas rimming the Mesicanthan Sea, present throughout the conquered and free tribesmen of central Vargelia, present in southern Lamara, especially among the locals of Cap Lamar and Baruba, and is present in the most northern tribesmen of Smolekia, Zaborna, and Jurgenreg. Assuming that either each of these places independently developed monolids, or non-monolid tribesmen developed elsewhere and managed to spread from one central location to other parts of the world, somehow dodging past monolid possessing tribes and not integrating with them at all, is not a reasonable assumption. There is no wonder then that knowing the power and sophistication of the elves in ages past, one might assume that humans were spread by them haphazardly, at various times, depending on the whims of the elven kings, or by the economic needs of the time. One might also assume, based on the convergent evolution of elves toward humanesque forms, that interbreeding was commonplace between them, though we would not even hazard a guess at what state these half-breeds might occupy in society. Certainly, half elves can be observed in society today, though not much different from either their human or elven ancestors, certainly in the past their appearance would have been much more striking when compared with either society.

Suffice to say, there was more than humans lurking around in the shadows of the elves glory. Numerous humanoid races were also known to be stalking the planet, though the vast majority did not survive to the modern day. Due to the scarcity by which skeletons of these races are observed, and the incompleteness of their specimens, we can only hazard the distribution of them. For our knowledge, there were once goblins, gnomes, brownies, fairies, and fae of all sorts, some living in the woods near to elven settlements, some dwelling in the hills away from civilization. And these were only the civlized of the humanoids. We know stories of the hideous trolls that once stalked the Spinal Mountains and preyed upon elvish caravans, or the soul eaters of what is now the Simbals in Marzath, or the Djinn of the Guritan deserts. Some still remain in deep pockets of the world, though it is hard to hide in a world which such surveillance as ours. Nevertheless, the most prominent race of humanoids other than humans and elves were the Dwarves, or the Shenhai in their tongue. And as the legends say, they dwelt in the iron rich mountains and hills, digging deeply and greedily. Some scholars today have proposed that if the elves were responsible for the distribution of races in the world, and if they were doing such a thing through genetic manipulation, then dwarves would have been a race developed solely for mining and crafting. There are no living dwarves now, though their genetics can be found easily enough in humans, especially in the mountains of central Vargelia and the Marzathi hills. The last remaining humanoid race, the Ogres, are descendants of giantkin, who's history runs ancient and parallel to that of the elves, though their magic seems to have operated differently; less reliably, but no less potent.

Suffice to say, the elves maintained their mastery over the world for tens of millenia. Society with the elven cities changed slowly, as the elves were a much longer live race back then then they are now. Cities such as Mareveen in Southern Vargelia, remained relatively unchanged from 20,000 years, and populations remained relatively stable. However, a number of factors, one of which can definitively be said to have been climate change, as well as some unknown change to elven magic itself, caused the rapid collapse of Elven civilization. Elves disappeared from most of Eurf, and until recently could only be found in the Jungles of Western Orosilas and Northern Vargelia, or speckled throughout the old Androsian Empire in Western Marzath. The world cooled rapidly, grasslands turned to taiga and then turned to tundra, and the habitable zone of Eurf shrunk to a ring around the great Central Ocean. Humans somehow survived, and dwarves slunk down to their hidden halls deep within the earth. Goblins and gnomes also slunk down to the deep corners of the world, but most other humanoids did not survive the cataclysm. No trace of human civilization could be detected for millenia, all that remained were stone tools, bone detritus, and burnt post holes from huts and tents.

It wasn't until 15,000 B.C that we see the remnants of civilzation beginning to reappear. Two temples located on either side of the earth, Dzerjik in the Zabornan wasteland, and Gaud-hin in the southern grasslands of Colchesia, mark the first reappearance of solid stone structures. Curiously, both of these temples would have been located at the farthest limits of habitable land, for as of about 20,000 B.C., the ice caps had begun their slow retreat back to the poles, where they would eventually almost completely disappear. Both of these structures are built out of megaliths, huge rough hewn chunks of granite and basalt, spread out in concretic circles over half a mile in radius. These circles are often stacked ontop of one another, almost as though one circle was completely buried and another built right over top. No evidence for permanent cities remains around either of these temples, nor would permanent villages even be invented for another 3,000 years! Nevertheless, recent archaeological work has done much to show that while no settlement may have been built around the temple, the land surrounding both, newly freed from it's icy prison, would've had enough free forage and game to support tribal populations in the low thousands. Lastly, and the most grisly fact of all, is that amongst the ruins of both temples, each of the rings is coated liberally in skeletal remains, many of which were human, many of which were children. Archaeologists, upon discovering this fact, were quick to point out that child mortality rates were always quite high, and these temples might constitute the first human cemetaries. However, the similarity between the two structures, located at polar opposite sides of Eurf, combined with the sheer volume of human skeletons lead many of the more maverick researchers to claim some other force (perhaps the elves) were behind this sudden upwell in civilization.

## Aberrations

Abberations fall into one of several categories, which will be discussed further. According to the guiding ideology that companies like L.A.R.S. and D.A.V.E. ascribe to, all aberrations are considered a pest at best and an existential threat to humankind's continued survival at worst. These categories are hotly contested, especially by more progressive schools in Western Marzath, and non-Orosilian societies also have differing definitions of what Abberations may be classified as. Some cultures have different ideas of what constitutes an aberration: for instance, nowhere in Marzath, especially in the West, will you ever seen a Mage or Wizard described as an aberration. However, in most of Vargelia and Orosilas, the practice of magic is seen as a curious anomaly *at best*. The categories used, as such, are the same as the internal ones used in the L.A.R.S. database, and are not so different from the ones stol-I mean used by D.A.V.E. employees.

The logic used for separating aberrations from the normal world is quite simple. Beings within the "normal world" are fully bound and contained by the laws of natural physics. These laws are tested and confirmed physical interactions which have survived multiple rounds of testing in double blind and triple blind experiments. The basic principles of these physics are taught to and then tested again by first year university students around the world and *if not interferred with* yield expected results every time. Creatures bound by natural physics will also evolve according to it's daughter disciplines, natural chemistry and natural biology. While not as predictable as natural physics, natural biology and natural chemistry are also relatively easy to test, verify, and explain in mathematical and mechanical terms. The understanding of these laws in all three disciplines forms the basis for modern technology. Technology operates in a predictable manner because the laws of physics behave in a predictable manner, and our human society is built off of and thrives off of the operation of technology. Thus, we can say that any beings which are exclusively following the same natural laws which run this universe can be classified as *natural*. Aberrations are the opposite of this.

Aberrations are beings which are not wholy explainable by natural laws of physics, chemistry, or biology. The most common reason, at least in the past, for a being, creature, plant, or *thing* to be classified as an *aberration* was because we did not have the means to fully explain this creature's existence, mode of life, or abilities. In the past, before the industrialization of the world and the rise of Positive Thought and Scientific Reason, a great deal of modern devices we use everyday, such as an electric stove, a phone, or a car, would have been classified as *aberrations*. However, as scientific and rational beings, we are capable of making a distinction between those things which we know we will likely be able to expain using natural science in the future, as our understanding of the universe grows, and those things which *we will never be able to fully explain.* The reason for this inexplicability is almost always magical in nature, and requires utilizing a different paradigm to study it's inner workings. Thus we say, *any being, item, person, creature, or plant which requires an explanation using paradigms other than the natural sciences is classified as any aberration, and the effects of those classes on the natural world is classified as aberrational*. Note, very closely, that societies are not included in these classes, nor are thoughts, ideas, politics, or anything within the realm of metaphysics. We can not talk of *aberrational societies*, like some more extreme political pundits might talk of the nations of Western Marzath or the Elven Forest Republics of Northern Vargelia, only *aberrational individuals*.

### Mythic Creatures

So called "mythic creatures" can be safely traced back the same era as the elves over 100,000 years ago. Most of what we would call mythic creatures fall into several distinct categories. The first is "humanoids" these include creatures such as gnomes, elves, fairies and all other fae-kin, goblins, orcs, trolls, and giantkin. These creatures vary from being relatively benign in nature, such as the wood gnomes who occupy an incredibly small portion of the global forests and have seen their population and habitat shrink drastically since industrialization occurred at the turn of the 18th century, to the neutral but dangerous, such as the goblins within their goblin holds deep in the Spinal Mountains, who only now run into regular interactions with Garthinian, Azurgan, Galrosian, and Arach humans, to the outwardly aggressive, that is those who would actively prey upon humans. Elves, humans, and dwarves also fit into this category, as all these races share a common ancestor from at most 15 million years ago. However, due to matters of convention, as well as a little bit of racism, these races are not often demoted to the status of "humanoid" and are instead classified as "the civilized races". Nevermind that there hasn't been a pure blooded dwarf in over 10,000 years, or that the majority of elves now look closer to their human neighbours than their ancient kin.

The other common trait these beings share is that their populations and habitats are all endangered and much diminished from their heyday. Based on documents obtained from the Old Elven Cities in Central Vargelia, we know that the forest once teemed with all manner of sentient fae and forest folk, that the treetops and the rotten boughs of the woods were once layered with rope bridges and clothesline craftily sewn by clever gnomes and faefolk. We know from skeletal remains that orcs and trolls used to prey upon the early humans, following the great Ice Age, and they in turn were hunted by larger groups of men once the human populations began increasing. We can confidently say that by the end of the Prehistoric era, where the oral histories of most humans begin, that there were no sentient races on the planet more numerous than humans, and that there were no mythic creatures who were not on the verge of extinction. Why this extinction occurred, or why no race was able to counter the rise of humankind, is an unanswerable question. The fact remains that even relatively benign creatures, such as the gnomes, brownies, pixies, and fae, were almost completely wiped out before the first human city had ever been built, and by that time, almost all of these creatures had retreated from their natural habitats to the far reaches of the wilderness, always making sure to stay as far away as possible from any human interaction. In fact, especially among the benign races, an in built fear of humans is almost a given and based on their population crash, likely due as much to in bred instinct as much as cultural practices. Nevertheless, despite these creatures being classified as *aberrations*, gnomes, brownies, and other faefolk are rarely targeted for mediation by L.A.R.S specialists, and a number of countries have instituted laws protecting them with the same weight as the regulations protecting endangered species.

The last and most important trait defining mythic creatures as that some part of them is enfused with magic. Whether that magic is actively utilized by individuals (as is the case with the gnomes' invisiblity or the natural magical abilities of the fae in general) or is an integral part of their ability to function (dragonflight, goblin and orcs' ability to survive in low oxygen underground environments, eat basically any meat, and handle blows which would kill any other creature), or beings for whom magic emanates naturally from them and is detectable by other magic users (this being the most complete and accurate way of testing for mythic creatures), all are considered *aberrational*. These creatures are magical *by nature*. (Note, all of these traits also describe elves and dwarves).

Common mythic creatures which L.A.R.S. personnel will come up against include: orcs, ogres, goblins, trolls, merfolk, murlocks, gnolls, goblins, and dragons (though most of these are now considered protected by the nations they dwell within).

### Magic Users

Magic users are the most troublesome of all categories of aberrations because, by and large, their members are generally comrpised of the "civilized races" and are afforded protections *as persons* and not just as *protected species*. As stated before, a number of mythic creatures are capable of actively using magic, both in their daily lives or as an offensive action. However, magic users are generally defined as sentient individuals who through a combination of latent skill, proper training, or access to magic devices, are capable of wielding magic. The type of magic which an individual wields is often a result of their knowledge and training, though many sorcerors are only truly capable of utilizing one form of magic even with extra training. Certain civlized races, such as elves, are considered to be more capable of magic than others, however skilled and powerful magic users of all races have existed throughout recorded history, and currently the highest ranking Archmages of most nations in Marzath are human, not elven.

Magic users are generally classifed into one of a number of categories based on how they utilize their will and mind to perform magic. The first, and lowest, are archanists or enchanters. These magic users are capable only of embuing and using magic through the use of magic devices. Some are able to cast a wide range of spells using something such as wand or a rod, which funnels their energy or stores it for specific uses, while others are only capable of embuing devices with select spells, and activating those devices in order to achieve their effect. Some of these archanists also dabble into technology, developing mixed magical and technological marvels, which while promising to behold, only bare their effect in the hands of a capable magic user. The next type of magic user is the Sorceror. The sorceror utilizes magic solely through the power of their will and thus can only utilize what power is within their personal ability to summon. Because of this, sorcerors are often unable to utilize more than one magical paradigm, and stick to a select area of magic for most of their spells, becoming specialists. Some sorcerors can become incredibly powerful, especially if their personality is strong enough to summon intense magical strength. However, most sorcerors gravitate towards becoming speciality users and are not often the most threatening type of magic user you will meet. Warlocks are a type of magic user which derives their power through summoning other beings from realms beyond this one to do their binding. Their main form of magic use is warping the natural laws of this world to trap or coerce beings from a different world into doing their bidding. Very rarely are these magic users of the friendly sort, and the familars (as those beings trapped by warlocks are often called) are rarely beautiful or calming to look upon. Because their magic use is always done by proxy, these magic users are often limited by what magic they can perform with what familiar. Some warlocks maintain the same familiar for so long that these beings often become an extension of the warlock, essentially functioning as an other half of a personality. Necromancers are mages which specifically deal with the energies surrounding entropy, which is a law common to all universes. These beings pervert the natural flow of nature and raise corpses from the dead, trap or harvest spirits within bodies, or steal souls from still living creatures. Their power is derived from a force which most other magic users can not define, but which necromancers say is the power which lurks beyond the edges of reality. Because of the volatile nature of their magic, and the often malicious nature of its practioners, necromancy is banned from every country on Eurf, including the Magical Nations of Western Marzath. This ban has existed informally for centuries, with necromancers being routinely culled from magical covens. However, after the Necromancer Wars of the 1980s through to the 2000s, necromancy has become regarded as an existential threat, and many nations have given mediation firms like L.A.R.S. and D.A.V.E carte blanche to deal with any necromancers they find. The last type of magic user is the Mage. The mage is the rare type of magic user who is able to not only utilize their magic through their own willpower like sorcerors, but enhances this power through the use of mind and ritual. Much in the same way an archanist might use a wand to cast a spell, a mage uses a ritual, a locus, or an object to enhance the power of the spell, which emerges from their center of will. Mages spend countless decades learning rituals at academies and covens specifically so as to enhance their own power, and the most powerful mages, who eventually ascend to the rank of Archmage, are capable of inventing new rituals through careful exploration of not only the physics of this realm but through the melding of physics from parallel realms, often creating new demiplanes in the process. These magic users are generally the most powerful and the most rare, since such individuals require both natural ability and careful instruction to reach their full potential. Due to the power of these rituals, mages are often secretive and sparse in the information that they give to outsiders, and information about powerful spells may be discovered and lost many times over, since the learned sage who finds the spell may not feel it wise to leave it in the hands of his less scrupulous comrades. This distaste for spreading knowledge is often postulated as to why the Western Marzathi realms also seem to gravitate towards feudalism, as the relationships between Archmages and their pupils often mirrors that between kings and their feudal subjects.

### Magically Altered Creatures

The last category, and in many ways the most broad, is that of creatures which have been altered by magic. These interactions may have been intentions, as in the case of golems and magical defences, or unintentional, such as with mystroot growing near the sites of magical ley lines. The type and extent of magical contamination can vary dramatically across many different types of creatures but they are generally categorized along the following lines. Magical Artefices, such as golems, animated armor, or cursed weapons, are inanimate objects given animus by magic. The extent to which these objects are given free movement can vary from an automatic response which bares little difference to a switch activated by a machine, to a fully autonomous *embued* object which can be said to possess a *soul,* or at least a portion of the divine spark, which makes it similar to a sentient being. The second category are Contaminated Beings, These include any living creature or plant which has become infected and altered by exposure to magi. The most common types of aberrational beings include changelings, hags, mystroot plants, carnivorous vines, blight spread, or generally cursed or malformed humans. While there have been instances of stable creatures living long lives with this type of contamination, most creatures of this type live miserable and accursed lives, and are almost always mediated whenever found. The last, and worst category, is the *Reanimated*, or for lack of a better word, the undead. These are often divided between corporeal and non-corporeal undead, and intelligent and unintelligent beings. This is generally the result of necromantic magic performed by a necromancer, though many undead, especially of the non-corporeal type, emerge spontaneously, either due to a strong will which binds them to this world, or a curse which inflicts a fate worse than death on these poor creatures. Some types of corporeal undead, such as vampires, ghouls, or specific breeds of zombies, are capable of spreading their aberration without needing further input necromantic input, and as such are extremely dangerous to all living creatures. While most types of undead are automatically slated for mediation, L.A.R.S understands that many active undead are victims themselves, and should a benign undead interact with a mediator, specifically for the purposes of laying them to rest peacefully.