History

## History/Legend/Myths

According to the prevailing creation myth, the Many Races simply materialized into existence all at once across the world of Negrotharl. Neither born nor created, but suddenly existing in a world seemingly created for them. Every individual knew their roles in their countries, community, and homes. Kings appeared in their courts and beggars on their corners. None knew their pasts and all were complacent in their roles. Negrotharl was at peace.

The Age of Change marked a violent change for Negrotharl. The Age of Change is marked by three distinct events whose order has been lost to history. These events were the arrival of the Old Gods, the Many Races discovering magic, and the first Watcher’s receiving *The Invitation.* Sometime during these events the first true wars on Negrotharl broke out. Until roughly 500 years ago these first wars would likely have been blamed on the arrival of the gods, but today magic is frequently met with suspicion and superstition and blamed for everything from missing socks to war and famine. Some take this so far as considering magic and its use as The Many Races greatest foil.

It’s said that the Gods appeared just like the Many Races - with knowledge of the roles they’d play in Negrotharl, but no sense their past. Of course, the legends also say that their egos would have compelled them deny that as preposterous, but whatever truths the Old Gods guarded died with them.

The Watchers were the greatest defenders known to Negrotharl. Watchers were conscripted by a force known as “*The Invitation*” - a kind name given to what was apparently an inescapable compulsion to travel to The Isle of the Watcher’s. There they operated out of Delron’s Keep – or simply The Watcher’s Keep - and inexplicably appeared where and when they were needed most across all of Negrotharl. Some legends also say they worked in the shadows to manipulate events around Negrotharl and prevent some catastrophes from ever starting. Like the Old Gods, The Watchers have perished, and taken many truths with them as well.

Delroth is the name of the first true magical scholar. He founded Delroth’s Academy which would become the epicenter for magic in Negrotharl. It housed nearly all known knowledge of magic amassed from more than 9,000 years of arcane and divine study. It welcomed any and all magic users who truly wished to progress in their field.  In fact, in many countries, an individual practicing magic without a “Guilder” (an amulet given to alumni who reached the rank of Arcanist) was considered an Apostate Mage and would be tried for endangering the public.

Over time the magic of Delroth’s became available for sale to any who could afford it. As with most advances, it was first put to use as a tool for extremely brutal wars and was said to be at the center of many a mysterious plot. Eventually however, even war was made better by the Arcanists at Delroth’s. As advancements were made in binding Outsiders it became less and less necessary to send citizens onto the battlefield. After a time wars became nothing more than games of attrition for leaders who had a desire to throw their nations treasury around. As anyone alive today knows: this would mark the beginning of The Many Races greatest folly.

Nations began to sponsor research centers for Arcanists of Delroth’s to perform R&D and pay for large numbers of Arcanist’s to control bound outsiders in their countries. This ultimately led to the use of the quasi-bound outsiders – a state where they could be physically harmed and manipulated, but if killed outright would return to their home plane and could be bound again - to replace manual laborers, create magic artifacts that would enrich the world, and to fulfill any other whim or fantasy that someone who could afford it might have. The cost of these advancements was taken from the bound Outsiders in the form of flesh, consent, freedoms, and all other forms of dignity.

Some of the artifacts survive today in various stages of function. When the poor gather at a town’s centers to eat from an Allfood, they’re being fed by remnants of magic that used to feed entire cities. When a chef’s cooking utensils clean themselves, they’re feeling a touch of the luxuries even the poorest citizens felt every day. But more has been lost than remains. Every corner of the world was connected by a web of Teleportation Circles that enabled the transport of people and goods to anywhere in the world in a matter of minutes. These advancements meant that even commoners had time for personal advancement and education. From the perspective of the average citizen Negrotharl was at peace.

1000’s of years passed.

Roughly 500 years ago those same Outsiders who had been summoned, killed, and resummoned for millennia to plow fields, perform unspeakable acts of all kinds, and die for the amusement of anyone with the money to hire a summoner mysteriously and suddenly disappeared all at once. Within days waves of outsiders poured into Negrotharl from portals on all continents. They had been united by an unknown figure to wage war on the inhabitants of Negrotharl in what is now known as The Banishing War. Every able-bodied individual from every country was conscripted to fight rank and file next to the Arcanists of Delroth’s beside the largest army of Watchers in the history of Negrotharl.

After years of war The Watchers had been reduced to small strike teams assisted by what few Arcanists that could be spared from trying to find a solution to the portals that continued pour outsiders int Negrotharl. The final blow of the war is believed to have been delivered by Delroth’s Academy. What is known is that a powerful spell unleashed a shockwave that passed over all of Negrotharl and banished every outsider as it passed through them.

Unfortunately, there were terrible, unforeseen, and unexplainable consequences for such a powerful act of magic. Along with all outsiders, nearly two-thirds of all members of the Many Races were banished as well. Some of the Races were affected much more than others, and while some Races escaped banishment, they were affected in other ways.

While the battlefields were now empty, a new battle quickly broke out. The Old Gods were suddenly and violently brought to Negrotharl in physical form - their immortality apparently torn away. With their millennia old rivalries suddenly able to be settled the Old Gods began to slay one-another. The magic they wrought was far more potent than what any mortal had ever seen. Growing to 100’s of feet tall and summoning weapons of pure magic they quickly decimated their divine peers while laying waste to entire cities and large swaths of land. In the end the gods Gozreh and Erastil laid gravely wounded. Weeping at the great losses Gozreh’s final act was removing the bodies and weapons of his fallen compeers, and as his body vanished from Negrotharl a tear fell from his eye and created a massive lake in Eodar. Erastil, pinned to the ground by a colossal sword, used the last of his magic to turn his body into a sanctuary city for the mortals who remained in the frozen wastes of Eodar.

It's said that within hours of Erasti’s death a second shockwave originating at Delroth’s Academy spread across Negrotharl. The meager number of Arcanists who hadn’t returned to Delroth’s Academy quickly attempted to determine the nature of the spell, but most were met with instant regret. All who attempted a simple detect magic spell were immediately and permanently blinded by what they described as a “web” of magical energies speeding across the world. When the explosion reached its end, magic ceased to exist throughout Negrotharl for nearly 400 years.

Those 400 years marked a period of pilgrimage and rebuilding. With only a third of its inhabitants and the failure of all of its magic, Negrotharl was in shambles. Anyone who lived in a civilized land did their best to make their way to a Grand City in hopes of finding lost loved ones, protection, answers, and to escape the sudden solitude. Most cities, towns, and even entire countries were abandoned to ruin.

With no one to explain what caused The Banishment, and the varying degree of effects it had on The Many Races, mistrust grew heavy. Some of the more affected races tried to explain it away, stating that their blood was clearly ancestrally Outsider. However, this didn’t explain why individuals of races thought to contain no known outsider blood were also affected. This mistrust lead to many noble families who had long used sigils or chants to proclaim their outsider bloodlines, to choose to gather what wealth they had and move on before persecution, or worse, began. Luckily for most of them, a large portion of Negrotharl was on the move to find new homes and they were able to blend in and create new lives.

While Grand Cities were the most common destination for most refugees some Grand Cities were abandoned and left in various stages of ruin. They fell to several causes but opportunistic pillagers, disease and famine, and infighting were the most common causes.

Many who fled had to make hard choices on the road and many new towns and villages sprung into existence where travel proved too difficult. Old maps quickly stopped having any meaning. What were once entire nations may now be just a few dozen small towns populated by refugees from neighboring countries.

Over the next several centuries the Grand Cities began to expand again. Trade routes were created, countries began carving into the wilderness that had reappeared with the absence of people, non-magical technologies flourished, and slowly time began to heal Negrotharl.

After more than 400 years Magic returned suddenly and violently. The first signs that magic had returned were the magic storms in Eodar. Appearing suddenly and without warning the storms are capable of drastically changing anything they touch - creating hybrid magical lifeforms, displacing time and space, massive destruction, and a host of other bizarre effects.

Across the world scholars and eccentric collectors of arcane knowledge began to experiment with magic and found that they were able to cast. As word spread what information that had been preserved on magic was quickly gathered by those with power. Some with the intent to use it and others with the intent to prevent its use.

Soon children with magic in their blood were being born again and magical creatures that were assumed extinct began emerging.

## Post Banishment

Several new pantheons of gods have come to be worshiped. Unlike the Old Gods the new gods are exceptionally reclusive. Neither of the two dominant pantheons have yet to directly communicate with the mortals of Negrotharl. Despite their isolation there’s little doubt that they exist, as those with strong ideals and conviction are able to wield divine magic. Orders of paladins have been established and clerics, druids and oracles all work with their churches to execute the will of these deities to the best of their understanding.

There are currently two dominant Pantheons.

The first is simply a worship of primal, elementary, and fundamental concepts of the natural order of the world. There are few official institutions devoted to the teaching and spread of this pantheon, but most villages have at least one priest. Despite the lack of centralization the religion has spread quickly and a host of delegations exist that can differ from even one town to the next.

The second is called The Arcana. Its focus is guiding a soul from ignorance to enlightenment to prepare it for its return to Heaven to become one with The Fountain. It states that all divinity and magic is derived from The Fountain – a literal fountain located in heaven from which everything in all planes was created. The “gods” of The Arcana aren’t beings themselves, but are concepts revered as symbolic to the progress on a souls journey. A religious order, known as The Circle, has formed to better understand and serve The Arcana. Their temples can be found in nearly every city in Eodar, and missionaries have started to appear on most other continents. One of the core tenants of The Arcana is fortune telling. Fortune telling is performed through the use of Tarot decks relating to the various stages of a soul’s journey. Clerics of The Hierophant are the primary source of fortune reading, but most clerics of The Arcana are able to perform readings.

Magic has become a touchy subject. Even those that see its potential for good or view it with awe often approach the magically inclined with some caution. Magic has returned, but pre-Banishment text and knowledge has become a luxury few can afford. Because of these barriers to entry most spellcasters are either self-taught or must travel long distances to find someone who can teach them. Some organizations have sprung up hoping to work together to unlock the secrets of magic, but public fear often means these groups must meet in secret. Some countries have gone so far as to require mages to register themselves and be escorted. Failing to do so makes one an apostate mage and open game for mage hunters. The Refugees of The Promised are a group who specializes in controlling magic populations in city and the capture of apostate mages, and offer their service to any government willing to pay.

In the absence of The Watchers, the world has had to learn to fend for itself. To fill the hole mercenary, monster hunter, adventurer, and many other guilds have been formed. Of course, without the fear of an all-seeing eye, many thieving guilds, assassins, shadow-governments, and other seedy organizations have prospered as well.