History of Eyumel

## The First Era | Era of Deities

The first era is mostly shrouded in mystery and folklore but is believed to be the longest one. According to the ancient oral processions of the Val’Maer, the first era started as the continent was created, its seas were emptied, its mountains rose and the land inhabited by the first beings. This was an era of natural chaos, with only the strongest living to see the dawn. At some point, the earliest incarnations of godly beings decided to embody themselves on the very continent on which we now live. These beings are what we would now describe as the race of men, who quickly rose to conquer the lands. Few landmarks remain of the first era, but those that do are still home to the Star Tribes at the central highlands of the western continent. They are a testimony to the skills in craftsmanship and masonry of the first era.

Sometime near the end of the first era, the first civilizations sprung from the cradle of the southern river deltas of the continent in the region now held by the Grand Duchy of Masselon. Marnon, the capital of the Grand Duchy is believed to be the site of the first city of the continent and the capital of the River Delta Civilization. The first era ended as the second was birthed, with the conquering of the southern continent by the very same civilization.

It is hard to determine the exact dates of events in the first era, but the length of date of the era is believed to span at least several thousands of years.

## The Second Era | The Golden Age

The second era was a testimony to the achievements of men. The River Delta Civilization flourished. Trade-craft and minting were invented, which added to the wealth and success of the region.

It was also during this era, the first men settled the eastern continent, establishing the birth of what would later become the city-states of the east. However, oppression, segregation, and slavery were dominant in this region, and as warring clans fell upon the city-states from the north, many were left to their fate, venturing into the vast steppes and living as nomads always on the move as to avoid the dangers from the north. This is believed to be the foundation of the Steppe Nomads as we know them today.

The River Delta Civilization possessed other crafts and formed the first system of literature and writings. Most of what we know about the second era, we find from the scraps of scorched scrolls of the ruins of libraries around the region. Most of them are scientific writings and testimonies of the great struggles for prosperity. However, those scribes from the present time who has been able to dig deeper into the meaning of the scrolls have found dark secrets of old.

Sometime towards the end of the second era, the River Delta Civilization suddenly collapsed. Rivalry with neighboring states and political infighting had been weakening the region throughout a period spanning a century. Whether it is the presence of powerful necro-mages and their armies or the famine that followed, an estimated 1200 years of prosperity came to an end with the second era.

## The Third Era | Rise of the Battlemages

### **The Beginning**

After the chaotic ending of the Second Era, a new era began.

The first few centuries are marked by the struggle for survival among the various tribes and minor kings attempting to fight off armies of the undead. Battlemages succeeded in containing and harnessing the powers of the elements through what they believe is their just path given to them by their gods in the way of the Val'Maer.

They used this power to defeat the dark forces of the land in northeastern Aldria, but at a terrible price. In the excitement, the battlemages turned on eachother and wrought havoc on the region of Aldria, leaving great craters in their wake. The few accomplishments and technology the people of the Continent had under their belt were destroyed, and the battlemages were nowhere to be seen. A group of humans living in Aldria were forever altered, and their descendants are now known as the Greyfolk.

### **Recovering**

A few decades later, at the turn of the fourth century of the Third Era, battlemages have become a distant memory and the undead an old wive's tale. Favorable climates and the races of the Continent isolated themselves in an attempt to rebuild.

Most of the humans went to Ostendia and the lands surrounding it. Those affected by the terrible consequences of the battlemages, the Greyfolk, stayed in Aldria. The Horndall retreated to their homeland of Utesbken, and the Felkata traveled to the southern areas of Masselon, Le'Tarn, and the Scaly Isles.

While the chaotic nature of the Continent has been decreasing, it is still, for the most part, a lawless and unsettled land, ripe for colonization and the creation of new settlements.

## The Fourth Era | The Dark Ages

### The Early Dark Age:

The Fourth Era was characterized by the rise and fall of kingdoms, city-states, and civilizations. War, plagues, famine, and rampant magics terrorized the people of this era. The rise of the Ostendian Empire began the Fourth era. While traditionally this was foreseen at the time as an entrance of Eyumel into a new golden age; it truly was the beginning of a terrible age of darkness. The Ostendian Empire was beset by conflict after conflict, from the Noxus war, to the war of Sheol. However, it wasn't war that ended the Empire, but plague. The following years following the Empire's collapse were characterized by various attempts to rebuild the Empire—all of which ultimately failed.

This period of time saw the rise of notable nations such as the Vaessan Empire, the Caliphate of Iteru, the Rykujin Monastery, Lonsheior, and Arcanum. It was also during this period that the first contact with the Alyrian continent was reported. Though, much of the history of this period is lost due to the calamity that followed, it is without a doubt that this period of time proved to be the foundation for the remaining era that followed.

### The Great Calamity of Eyumel:

The first calamity to strike Eyumel was the eruption of the Rykujin Isles. In a calamitous explosion, the Monastery was caught unawares, and not until it was too late. While the isles themselves fell into the oceans, a new volcano arose from the depths of the sea, and great waves crashed along the shores of the inner seas. It was told that in this time the Grand Abbot of the Monastery, Ukyo'lro, lamented the event that scattered his people throughout the continent as they watched afar from their vessels fleeing the isles. Tremors erupted across the entirety of the continent, shaking the very foundations of the greatest capitals of Eyumel—from Arcanum to Vaessa and Lonsheior—the world felt the vexation of the Gods.

The great coastal cities of the Rykujin sea saw their nations collapse as none could stand against the fury of the sea. Displacement was inevitable, as the tremors that resulted from the eruption proved to be only the first of the many calamities that followed. With the Scaly Isles being reduced to a volcanic wastes, eruptions became frequent, and the isles great and glorious history was lost to the flames that followed.

This period saw the ultimate fall of notable Kingdoms that called the seas their home. From Krakanis, to the Lacillian states and Searidge. Refugees that flowed from these regions would soon overwhelm the neighboring realms of Arcanum and Vaessa. Stressing food supplies that would soon be sorely needed.

As the fallout from the Eruptions continued to spread, it was the coming winter that proved the harshest of all, and would come to be known as the *Winter of Sorrows*. The biting cold typically quite familiar to the Njord'volk of the North, came bearing down further south than ever before. The bread-basket of the western continent within Ostendia, fell into a harsh famine, devastating the food stores of the entire continent, and pushing nations already struggling from a refugee crisis over the edge.

### The Fall of Civilization:

The first to fall was the Vaessan Empire. A nation that had largely imported its food from abroad as its climate had proved harsh for the cultivation of crops. As hunger and starvation grew, so too did the unrest. The collapse of Vaessa was inevitable, and the first exodus from Eyumel to Alyria had begun.

Next came the fall of the remnants of Arcanum. As quakes continued in frequency following the eruption of the Rykujin isles; the mountain upon which the whole capital of Arcanum was build, collapsed. Its people crushed under the weight of the very mountain they had called home.

A true Dark Age thus ensued. As squabbling warlords arose, fighting for the scraps that remained of the civilized world. Even the heart of the continent, the City-State of Knave wasn't spared. Its armies stretched thin, the Aldian people were forced to seek refuge within their walls. And made desperate decisions that, while prolonging their civilization, proved to be its ultimate downfall. As Knave turned away refugees that came to their borders, they only exacerbated the problems rising in its neighboring regions. While this proved to save the City from the same calamities that befell the other nations. It was also a decision that the people of Eyumel would never forget.

In the decades that followed Eyumel continued its Dark Age, in that time Knave would eventually fall to hosts of brigands and warlords—many of whom being the same refugees that Knave had initially turned away—that targeted the people of Knave when a level of ferocity not given to their other victims. Once Knave fell, the last beacons of civilization were extinguished.

After centuries of frequent eruptions, seismic upheavals, famines, and plagues, the continent began to calm once more. Civilization would once again begin to flourish on the Continent. The center of which proving to be the same city that so many had despised. The city of New Knave. Rising from the despair of the Dark Ages; a new era of Enlightenment ensued, and along with it the founding and invention of new technologies and magics that would come to revolutionize the whole of Eyumel and Alyria.

## The Fifth Era | The Enlightenment

The Fifth Era emerged with the coronation of King Hedrik Remington—a Greyborn, and descendent of the Remington royal family of Old Knave. Upon his ascension to the throne of the rapidly growing city, a missive was sent throughout the still struggling peoples of Eyumel: "come all ye endurers of struggles, a new era is upon us".

The disparate civilized races of the continent answered the call. The Felkata, the Humans, and the Greyfolk, all converged upon the city of betrayal, and thus emerged the great founding of New Knave. A pursuit of lost knowledge characterized the early years of the reign of Hedrik. Lost magics were rediscovered and expounded upon, technologies pursued and invented, and cultures reignited. However, this wasn't the only key even that truly brought enlightenment to Eyumel.

Upon the horizon of New Knave, sails were seen. A ship of construction that had never-before been seen within Eyumel. The lost refugees from the early days of the age of calamities had returned, and contact was once gain established with the land of Alyria.

A new golden age had truly arrived to the continent, and the Dark Ages vanished as new inventions gave rise to the supremacy of the civilized races of Eyumel once more. The enduring chaos of the Fourth Era soon began to fade, and a new Era of Enlightenment was ushered in.