History

***World of Atrila***
*"Atrila has a long and complicated history that has had many chapters. Our current period is only another page in the book of history."*
*- H.K*

## The Creation

Atrila began with The Creators, something of the unknown who formed the Material Plane and brought life to the world that would be later known as Atrila. These unknown being also crafted the other Planes and spawned the deities who would be placed in each plane. Deities acted as watchers and guardians of each plane. Of course some planes nature was darker than others so to keep the balance of light and dark, death and life, evil deities were brought into the world to make sure a balance was kept.

Millenniums passed before the creation of the material plane. With the creation of this plane it formed the last needed link that would chain all the planes together. Travel between planes became possible now and the deities curiously ventured outside their realms for the first time. Quickly the opposite nature of the deities turned into violence and scheming. Usually whichever deities had a better connection to the plane was stronger and in turn would win the encounter. The only place where deities were equal and neither had an advantage was the Material Plane. Thus the Material Plane became a battle grounds for deities, constant warfare ravaged the Plane with entire worlds being destroyed. All these worlds were lifeless, but many say that pieces of all these destroyed worlds came together to form the world of Atrila.

These constant battles caused ripples in space, time, and reality causing the link the Material Plane had formed to break. While the link itself was gone and to travel between the planes became immeasurable difficult they were still connected. Because of this it was possible for the deities to influence the other planes still. Those ripples did more as well, they caused the fraction of most of the past planes. These pieces split and formed off into their own planes which are the ones we know today. As well the deities themselves were cast out and forced to materialize smaller domains for themselves. Not only that, but the damages from the constant wars caused the deities to be weakened to a state they could never recover from.

### The First Breath

With the deities no longer directly interfering in each plane new life was formed in the void they left. This life would form in all the planes with each taking on the traits and adapting to their own worlds. Though the plane that would form what most consider the true children of The Creators would be the Material Plane. A once ravaged plane the pieces of destroyed waste would be the soil that would grow a new world that we would call Atrila.

The world began shaping over millions of years slowly being filled with basic creatures. Over time the world saw the rise of it's first intelligent races. Reptilian, amphibian, and avian races used their growing intelligence to form empires. These races were considered the First Children of the Creators. These empires expanded all over the world. With their enormous power these empires shaped the world and started practicing magic. These races ruled for millenniums while growing their control over magic till they had powers beyond what the people could imagine now.

Though all that's left is ruins and lizardfolk, bullywug, and aarakocra, barbaric decedents of those once great empires that ruled over the entire world. It's unknown what really happened that caused these empires to be destroyed. Some think that they got so powerful they followed in the footsteps of the deities causing their own self destruction. Others think they tapped into forbidden forces that lead to the downfall of their empires. What ever it was in the end they just up and vanished.

### The Second Children

The Second Children came about a few thousand years after the end of the First Children. Now the Second Children are the elves and dwarves. They would be also known as the proud children because of their personality. These races grouped up with their kin and formed capitals away from each other. Though both sides had to contend with a rising orc population that started to spread across the lands.

Both races isolated themselves and spent their long lifespans working on their craft. The elves worked on magic and uncovered some of what was left by the First Children. While the dwarves worked on crafting and engineering so that they could build creations others could only dream of.

Though fighting with the orcs wasn't the only war. The elves over time had inner conflict and this conflict lead to full on civil war. The war was bloody and had lasting impact on the race as a whole. It forever damaged the population of the elves which would end up being devastating to the race because of its low birth rate. Also it caused the creation of the drow.

### Rise of Humanity

Around ten thousand years after the proud children made their own on Atrila humanity would follow suit. Quickly spreading across the land humans started to seize land all across the world. Humanity or humans would be called the Third Children as they would be the third major race to cross Atrila.

Though humans only had a chance to spread so easily because of the issues that the other races were having. The elven empire went stagnate because of the elves personality and isolationism meant they were slow to act against the humans. As well they were still recovering from their civil war. The dwarven empire actually went into a decline because they required certain terrain to apply their trade. Though this land was now contested so the dwarves were fighting constant wars with drow and goblins.

Also humanity had some features going for them. While they had a short life span this meant that they made good use of it and would pass on what they learned for the next generation. They also had a high birth rate which gave them a lot of numbers to expand with. Humans also were very adaptable, they picked up skills of both the elves, dwarves, and other races and applied it to themselves. The elves and druids taught them the basics of magic and humanity built off that. Dwarves taught humans the basics of crafting and building and again humanity built off that. The one thing humanity taught everyone else was the art of war. The humans with their short life spans and high birth rates had countless wars and would go on to perfect the art.

## Spell Plague

Magic and history have always been an unknown with many questions such as who created the deities or what is magic? Their have been many explainable things throughout Atrilas history. One of the largest event was the Spell Plague. Magic has always been a powerful and unknown force. While it has great powers it's also dangerous. Many have theories that great destruction has come about because of going to deep into magic. With events like the vanishing of the First Children as a prime example.

Around five hundred years after the rise of humanity humans and the other races use of magic grew and grew. Magic became so used almost every city had multiple wizards and used countless inventions that applied magic. It's said that their was a floating city powered entirely by magic with creations brought to life using magic. Feats such as these were easily possible back than. Though it all came to an end when the Spell Plague began.

The Spell Plague was an unknown phenomenon. Many theories point to the deities as an indirect cause of it. What it the Spell Plague did was almost drive magic itself crazy. Countless magic devices just stopped working while others went haywire and crazy. The magic devices that stopped working were the lucky ones in some cases. Most of the magic devices that went crazy turned on their user causing massive damage or they just straight up exploded all together.

Places such as the floating city that lived off magic were completely destroyed. The city itself shutdown and crashed into the earth while countless devices all across it went up in explosions. The automation born by magic went crazy and turned on the population of the city killing anything living in the city. Rumors say this city lays untouched and filled with legendary magic items to this day. Though few search for it because it's said that the city is still guarded by mad creations.

It didn't just affect the devices and objects. Mages and magic itself were hit. Magic became unpredictable and just attempting to use it could cause unknown results. While wizards, sorcerers, and countless other magic users were driven mad. many turned on the world and were killed because of it. The next three hundred years would be known as the Magic Purge.

### The Magic Purge

The three hundred years following the Spell Plague would be known as the Magic Purge because of what was to come. Due to many of the magic devices going wild and mixed with the fact that countless mages went crazy and killed a lot of people and destroyed numerous amounts of villages caused the people to turn against magic. Many thought that once again we had went to far with magic and in fear that things would only get worse the people demanded that all progress with magic be stopped and practitioners be punished. Many leaders agreed with the demands of the people and so the great Magic Purge began.

It started with rules and regulations being placed so that the practice of magic was banned and punishable by death. As well magical items were gathered up and either locked away or destroyed. Countless treasures of history were lost or destroyed because of this time period. Though most of the Magic Purge was carried out by humans. Elves, dwarves and other magic focused races became more isolated and kept to themselves. Though the people were not appeased enough by these acts they wished vengeance for their family members who were lost. So many human kingdoms ended up going to war with the magically adept races.

Most of the mages had only a few choices going forwards. Many gave up practicing magic and turned to a normal life. Others went underground or hid themselves away from the world as to be able to keep practicing and studying.

## Invasion of Faith

Since the deities were cast out from the Material Plane few had the power to even materialize a version of them self on the plane. After the birth of the Second Children some of the gods made contact with Atrila, more specifically the dwarves, elves, and druids. These dieties who made contact used whispers and signs that they had a basic power to influence the Material Plane. After this contact these races started showing signs of belief and faith in the deities.

Deities may be all powerful in their own domain, but after the great ripples from their battles they were locked away from being able to move their true bodies into other planes. The major deities who have enormous amounts of power were able to materialize a false body in other planes and these bodies acted as vessels that they could control. Possession was also an option, a deity through force or the host acceptance could possess and manipulate an already living body though these bodies are known to break down due to the great power deities posses. As well the more powerful deities could use their power to influence other planes either by sending minions to do their biding, sending gifts through planes, or even directly manipulating the world. Different actions require so much power.

Most deities were not able to do anything more than send whispers across planes. Though when the Second Children were born some of the deities whispered to them out of curiosity. After a few examples of power small groups started to come together to worship these gods and goddesses. The deities who were being worshiped noticed their power and ability to influence other planes increasing. This news quickly spread among the deities and they rushed to gain worship from the subjects of mainly the Material Plane and specifically Atrila.

Many of the deities used their defining qualities to convince people who shared these beliefs to believe in them and start worshiping. In the beginning only a few races worshiped deities, the first and largest were the elves with the dwarves close behind. As time went on smaller groups from other races started to adopt faith as well.

It wasn't until the Spell Plague that many in fear of the constant attacks by wizard and failure of other magical devices that they turned to faith for help. Clergy started to form to help those in need after the destruction that the wizards caused. As well paladin orders who were warriors of faith started to come in and rescue villages from death, this would start driving people to seek aid from the deities.

Though the deities of good and justice were not the only once growing in support. Towards the end of the Spell Plague and beginning of the Magic Purge many out of anger and hate turned to darker forces to get revenge for their lost loved ones.

Slowly towards the end of the Magic Purge many had accepted deities as a part of society. Most regions adopted a set view on different gods. Faith even started to become a major part of the upper class not only the lower class who used faith as a reason to keep pushing forwards.

## Demons Maw

Atrila had seen many wars since the first records of the Second Children, but none like the Demons Maw. It came out of no where at a time where peace was just on the rise with the surging of faith, but soon the world would see a march of Demons like never before. Few know how they formed a bridge between the Material Plane and the plane of the Abyss strong enough to march legions through, but it happened and with it summoned the generals who would lead the Demon hordes. Those generals were known as the Generals of Sin and went by the names; Gosur, Kubal, Visir, Sidzor, Pixon, Vedun, and Sharin. Once they had a foothold on the Material Plane they marched legions of Demons into the World of Atrila.

Each General of Sin represented one of the Seven Deadly Sins, with Gosur being the embodiment of Pride, Kubal matching Wrath, Visir being Greed, Sidzor acting as Sloth, Pixon the true Lust, Vedun the only Gluttony, and Sharin with all the Envy. All of the Generals controlled their very own armies and each went on rampages in their own fashion and conquered countless lands. The events of what has been deemed The Demons Maw happened at a time when order was abundant and prosperity was strong this was all thanks to the fact that Zestaria was ruled by a sole entity a Kingdom that ruled with power and fairness, it also had connections to all the other continents of Atrila. This Kingdom was known as Sandheden or The True, and expanded farther then the mind could perceive at the time. Though even with such size and force Sandheden couldn't handle the Demons as they were something new, creatures that were truly to be feared.

Soon enough all the forces and general took control of all of the land leaving behind the old residence as slaves. The last stronghold was Yggdrasil the Capital of Sandheden, even with the overwhelming power of the Demons Yggdrasil was the birth of the true heroes and they had the power to combat the Demons. Before long the Generals of Sins took notice of this and gathered their forces outside Yggdrasil, but the heroes were smart they had helped countless people and gained the support of many.

These heroes used the Sin of each general against them and tricked the generals to fight among each other. The generals attacked each other turning the outside of Yggdrasil into a battle ground. One by one the heroes took down each general of sin and drove their armies into chaos. Out of panic the armies attack Yggdrasil, but that city stood the test of time. Some say Yggdrasil had been a major stronghold since the First Children and it showed its fortitude during the assault. Not a single wall breached as the disorganized Demons attacked. Slowly the races of Zestaria pushed back the invades and the Demons fled back to the Abyss. Peace would hold for some time after this.

## Rise of the Dead

Unlike the Demons Maw this period of history has been highly debated about whether it was good or bad for North West part of Zestaria. Also unlike the Demons Maw it was short ending in only fifteen years. It all started with the Kingdoms at the time; the Caldarius, Vorian, Storm Tide, Taldarus, and the Plains Domain. Each one of these factions did what they needed and over time took control of the land be it alliances or war, and after a while they each grew into major powers holding sizable amounts of land each with their own specialties. The individual histories are long, but none of them foresaw what would happen. With recent feuds the Storm Tide Kingdom and the Vorian went to war, but little did the Storm Tides know that the Vorian had made a recent secret alliance with the Taldarus Kingdom. War raged on with the two on one battle turning out how most envisioned it with the Storm Tide Kingdom on the run, though soon they would have a game changing event.

It took longer than it should have for the surrounding kingdoms to learn that the Taldarus were fighting a second war to the East, but none of them new the enemies as the Taldarus were keeping it tightly wrapped and the war was pretty far away. Though once the opposing force got closer and closer it didn’t take long for the other kingdoms to realize that what they were facing was a horde of undead with abominations mixed in. By the time the others had learned it was too late and the Taldarus’s pride had already doomed them all by feeding the endless sea of undead. Sucking up what pride the Taldarus held they requested assistance from the other kingdoms and soon they all banded together on the Eastern border to stop the impending invasion of undead. When the undead reached the wall of forces that expanded the Eastern Border of the Taldarus Kingdom they hesitated for a moment and the two sides clashed with force and just as the Coalition of Kingdoms thought they were winning the undead played their trump card.

Highly skilled generals had been brought back from the dead and put in command of the forces on the border and soon the undead had the advantage, with aid also from undead supporters that were beyond the border inside the Taldarus Kingdom itself. Soon the undead pushed past the Eastern Border and the once largest kingdom was left on one leg scrambling to maintain whatever they could get their hand on. The undead moved onto the next target hitting the Vorian Border and attempting to cross the massive mountains to the Storm Tide Kingdoms land. It was at this point that all the kingdoms broke apart and started fighting for themselves. The Taldarus were left with almost nothing since they were the front of the undead invasion, the Caldarius fled to their Island to the West in an attempt to isolate themself which worked in a way, the Plain’s Domain was lucky that they didn’t have packed cities to keep feeding the incoming undead, so they used their speed and mobility to stay on the move and avoid undead as best they could, the Vorian was the new front and was taking undead a hard beating due to their lack of defenses, and the Storm Tide Kingdom set up defenses all along it’s borders. Though it was a surprise when the undead started to cross the High Vale Mountain Range that split the Storm Tide and Taldarus land.

The mountain range was expansive massive in size, but it was also extremely harsh and very tough to travel across and come out alive. It was more effective to march armies around than across during war times. This was of little concern to the undead who marched horde after horde across with generals in command of each horde. The undead swarmed the forts that watched along the mountain and the Storm Tide sprung into action sending mass amounts of soldiers to the mountain range to hold back the incoming threat. Slowly the undead made progress and using their massive numbers and the best generals of history they pushed across the High Vale Mountain Range flooding the Storm Tide Kingdoms lands taking control of everything in sight.

It wasn’t surprising that the greatest generals of history in command of endless armies could one by one take down each kingdom with only the Caldarius left stand by the time the mainland had fallen. The last major offensive against the undead by the remaining forces of the mainland was the Battle of Broken Wills. All the last knights of the kingdoms of the living gathered and made an offensive assault. It was shattered in less than half an hour. The survivors fled and the undead took over the remaining mainland.

During the time of the war once the undead had claimed land they never lost it and all communication was lost beyond the front line of the undead so it was assumed that anyone who was left was killed and turned into more soldiers, with the land itself being destroyed so nothing could ever return. It was surprising once the entire mainland fell under undead control and everyone saw the truth.

For those who were conquered life wasn’t actually as bad as assumed. During the end of the war what the kingdoms of the living didn’t know was that the undead were keeping the living alive. Changing around the government and installing their own rulers with some new rules of course, but other then that life stayed almost the same if not a little better. Less crime more trade and protection for cities and the roads. Society was prospering the only downside was people had to make sure not to step out of line or they would instantly and severely be punished. Not to mention the occasional people who would, “just go missing.” Some saw them still as invaders holding their lands and rose up here and there with some knights to keep the war going strong on the mainland for another 100 years. Though not everyone was against the undead after they saw what they could get out of it or how life could be better. Loyalist started showing up, people actually loyal to the undead treating them like any other ruler, some even calling them blessing and Gods. With more and more Loyalists joining the cause be every passing month and most of the population was to scared to fight back.

The revolutionaries were slowly wiped out within the next 50 years. It didn’t take long before the Undead sought to make sure everything was under their undead fist. Attacking the [[|Iroth|large island to the West]] was their first mistake in a long time. The island to the West is a large one and fully under the control of the Caldarius Kingdom who after leaving their allies to meet their own fate isolated themselves and stayed strong. They had been stockpiling weapons and preparing to stop the undead in the Sea where they were at their weakest. That was the Battle of Red Waters, the undead were massacred and forced to retreat. Though once again another mistake was made, but this time by the Caldarius Kingdom because they got greedy and rushed in after them sending fleets of men over to start claiming territory in the mainland. Little did they know undead were waiting. They fought and died for another 100 years. The Caldarius Kingdom still stood, but weakened over the years of fighting. In the mainland slowly rebels rose once again, but only as freedom fighters and less as a revolution as a whole.

With the support of the people the undead began terraforming the land causing mass changes and movements in the land. Sometimes this would wipe out entire cities or destroy entire provinces, but the undead were smart and used propaganda and charm to win over the people and shift the blame showing the people only what they wanted to see. Life was still pretty good for the common person as long as you stayed out of the way of the undead's plans. With those who died still adding to the undead army and those who choose to support the new regime joining as living soldiers called Loyalists the undead were as strong as always.

The official end to the events known as the Rise of the Dead came about not by an ending of a war, but by the start of another. With more and more enemies creeping up from within the undead's borders it didn’t take long for another war to creeps its ugly head around.

## The Great Sundering

Some don’t see The Great War as a major event of history as it was pretty straight forward. The undead had claimed solid control of the entire mainland and had been attempting to take the island to the west held by the Caldarius Kingdom for quite some time. The freedom fighters of the time used the struggle to gather people to the cause and slowly small rebellions were taking place all over the undead's territories. Though it wasn’t just the core races of Dwarves, Elves, Humans fighting back. In the territory named Utos a darker force formed its own allies in an attempt to rise back from the ashes.

The undead had used many different forces in their original conquest. The bulk of the force was undead, but they also used creatures like abominations as heavy support, demons as elite troops who could secure objectives with undead meat shields, and countless other darker forces. After the mainland was fully taken under control and the war slowed way down almost to a halt the forces that all joined together to claim such a massive victory soon broke apart, but they didn’t go to war they played a different game a game of political battle.

With each faction creating councils and and sides becoming blurred soon it went from a battle of war to a battle of politics with everyone stabbing each other and forming shady alliances all in an attempt to get ahead of the competition. Some may say that this battle of politics was almost as bloody as the war that came before it, but what was for sure was that many allies who helped to claim the mainland were cheated and removed from the endgame. One of those such forces were a powerful group of Vampires who were betrayed and had their entire forces destroyed and left to die. These forces used the increasing numbers of freedom fighters and rebellions to return and attempt to seize power.

With so many factions on the rise the undead couldn’t maintain order and fell apart without its old allies to reinforce what they had created. Countless secret activities were committed on all side and soon the rising forces started claiming their own land and claiming they were a kingdom and set up their own borders. Soon enough after people could see that all you needed to get land was have an army and take territory and say it was yours, and for the most part this worked. It didn’t take long before new kingdoms started flooding in and borders were being thrown around always changing it. With the confusing border and people not knowing who was truly in control or not the questions were solved with wars and battles to define who control what.

Those who had larger armies or who outsmarted their opponent claimed more land and had more power. The Great Wars came to a bloody end as the undead’s land had been ripped apart and new Lords and Kings were all over the place. There were many factors that lead to the end of the Great Wars, but a small group of heroes were a large part. Also it got to the point where the remaining people in power were pretty content with what they had, so sure enough everything settled down and the aftermath was almost what had been left before the formation of the major kingdoms.

## The Unseen War

The War of Conquest is the current time period. Like always there is those who must have more and use war or other methods to claim more power. The small battles and tricks that go on between kingdoms is nothing compared to the past. The problem isn’t the scale that it holds now, but the problem is what it could turn into.

What most fear is that it is just an endless cycle and that what is soon to come is a large scale war where people battle to form larger major kingdoms just as what happened in the past. Still their are a lot of people out there who are actively trying to prevent another such event.