The First Era of Vendir

When the humans on either side of the water named their continent they did not yet know the existence of other lands: they thought they were naming the planet. The continent to the North of the water was dubbed ***Twilow***, an ***Affluosan*** word meaning “all there is.” The land to the South of the water was named ***Olgossus***, an **Olgossi** word meaning “Everything.”

On the **Twilow** side it was only *The City Of Voldodicus*, and its connected Farmlands, that prospered- while the rest of the continent was broadly destitute and lawless, save a few small areas such as the city of *Prosperia*. Olgossus was home to an all-the-more ‘united’ and ‘structured’ society- though far more brutal, violent and ritualistic than the civilised ways of The *Affluosa*. Though not at first…

Scattered across **Olgossus** were hordes and hordes of separate tribes, each more aggressive than the last and each willing to do whatever it took to get what they wanted. These tribes lived in tents made from the skin of the men they had killed, propped up with bones from the very same corpses. By the time the tribes came to be aware of one another, there were ten in total:

1. Krt - led by Igg
2. Tdd - led by Jhi
3. Cckij -  led by Gro
4. Pvtt - led by Chu
5. Rkkc - led by Klv
6. Hgg - led by Wre
7. Hkti - led by Nrt
8. Thdk - led by Xch
9. Rrrd - led by Rrt
10. Vprk -  led by Plu

Upon discovering each-other’s existence, their first impulse was to fall into battle against one another. What would come to be known as The War of Many Tribes ignited- and raged on and on for years across all of **Olgossus**. But one tribal leader, Igg of Krt, grew tired of the endless war. He saw no reason for the Ten Tribes of Olgossus to constantly battle and brawl. After a few years of being in the thick of war he convinced the rest of his clansmen that it would be best that they retreat, away into the surrounding mountains, to escape the bloodshed below.

Meanwhile, in **Twilow**, the majority of Twilonians lived similarly to those of Olgossus, living out in the open and in the caves of the mountains. One small subset of Twilownians, led by a man called Emdrodikos Mori, felt they could do better. Breaking free from the others, they made for the land that would come to be known as Voldoddicus- where they set out building the now legendary city from the ground up. The residents here called themselves The Affluosa and even developed their own language, Affluosan, to separate themselves from other Twilonians- for they felt they were better. The City of Voldodicus had grown independently to the rest of Twilow, home to its own society called the Affluosa. The rest of Twilow was mostly barren of structures, the people living a nomadic lifestyle not-too-dissimilar from the Tribes of Olgossus.

Over thousands and thousands of years, the people of Twilow evolved differently. Those inside the city walls became known as the society of The Affluosa. Those outside were merely ‘human’- continuing to live in rudimentary campsites, caves and ramshackle shacks- with no clear sense of community. The land beyond Voldodicus’s walls came to be known as “The Wasted Swathes.” The Affluosa looked out at what lay beyond their city as “a waste” while those who lived in “The Wasted Swathes” would look to *The City of Voldodicus* with jealousy: wishing they could live in such a grand city, while never actually working to try and make their own circumstances any better.

Many of those who lived in The Wasted Swathes came to think of The Affluosa as celebrities or deities, desperate to please them in the hope that they might be invited to join them in The City of Voldodicus one day. Under the leadership of one, a cave-dwelling man called P’alvin Fwit, many of them came together to build the very first stone-structure to ever sit in The Wasted Swathes: a building they called The Beacon of Devotion. Instead of building homes for themselves, The Beacon of Devotion was a grandiose and opulent structure that stood tall and proud, a message to The Affluosa of how loved they were by the other humans. Many would come, from all across The Wasted Swathes, to gather in *The Beacon of Devotion*- where they would pray to one day be welcomed into *The City of Voldodicus,* to join The Affluosa.

They never were…