The Third Age

## The Fog Wars

With the fogs cutting all communication outside Aeonia and the vestiges of the imperium consuming itself on this side of the barrier the uneasy alliances made for survival quickly devolved to a brawl for magical artifacts, pieces of engines of war, mythical seer vaults and even the lost Gateway itself. For the next 14 years various factions waged war in the countryside, fuelled by the ruins of a bygone era to control instead of understanding the fogs.

Fog manipulation remained out of reach at the time. Those who tried to cross it found themselves turned back and no amount of skill in navigation, knowledge in magic or sheer persistence made any difference. All known attempts at serious interaction resulted in catastrophic aberrations that consumed the mage.

By 1112 the gales of magic had calmed, most of the magical remnants of the war rendered useless one way or another and a unification effort to form a common kingdom that stretched from fog to fog began.

## The Golden Era of the Dwarven Halls

A connected trade network and the Imperium’s constant demand for metals, minerals and artisanship served the dwarves of the Aeonian mountains well for hundreds of years allowing them to build and maintain a strong underground kingdom. This dwarven kingdom of the 3 Kilns, the 12 mountains and the hill beyond the sea survived mostly unscathed the Mage and Fog Wars and exerted its influence by providing the raw materials manpower and resources to the surviving and newborn nations in exchange for arcane knowledge. Millions of books lined the dwarven halls and most magical artifacts from this era were constructed in dwarven forges. Mages flocked to work in the magical workshops and dwarven enchanting techniques became the standard on which the art was built.

## The Reconstruction Period

With the dwarven stockpile of resources and the ever-present need for trade, Aeonia saw an unprecedented amount of rebuilding with entire cities built within decades to house the recovering population. The oldest towers of all the major cities standing today were built during this era.

Rural life was not so easy to restart, aberrations and monsters of unknown origin along with  the fog manifestations made the countryside perilous to tread, let alone settle. It took over a century for brave adventurers and organized militias to restore the villages and cleanse the land from the final remnants of the Fog wars.

Aeonia was re-organized into city and island states struggling between progress and starvation with a ruling body of mages serving ,upon request by the city to The Mage Guild, as governors and administrators. The Temple-Cities became cultural and trade centers while mage towers answered to no king.

## The 30 Winters War & The 12 Hearths Treaty

The City states of the reconstruction period declared war on one another but all out warfare remained a logistical impossibility. For thirty winters the cities and the mage guild negotiated while no trade was conducted and armies were on patrol. Mass unrest caused multiple rebellions that spilled over into militia wars.

In 1276 DC a coalition of generals conducted a secret meeting in which they conspired to depose all but 12 local rulers who resolved all outstanding external disputes in what is now known as the Treaty of the 12 Hearths, the oldest still recognized treaty.

## The Second Conclave

With the dissolution of the Mage guild in 1276 DC as part of the 12 Hearths Treaty the mages found themselves fractured and intertwined in local politics with no central authority. Two hermetic mage towers took this opportunity to break with tradition and experiment with blood magic, soon finding themselves addicted and obsessed with harnessing the full potential of the technique. The Tower of the crimson star was the epicenter of this vile and bloody affair with hundreds of souls finding tragic ends at the hands of blood-tainted hermetics.

In 1279 DC a conclave was called for the members of the tower to answer for their crimes. It is unknown what exactly transpired during the conclave but it ended with the death of all Tradition heads with the exception of archdruid Timoleon, the hunchback who led the assault on the two rogue mage towers in 1280 DC and called a new Conclave two years prior to his death. The second conclave was finally conducted in 1284 DC.

## The Half-Prince Rebelion

During the reconstruction era and the time since, the entanglement between elven and human bloodlines grew stronger with half-elves and elven blooded humans consolidating power in the human realms. In 1365 DC a Half elf with the name Frielnar Thesmothetis marched an army from his city of Actium to Kyrthomir demanding a seat at the table of the elven princes. He was denied and a brief siege of the striding city ensued. The elves immediately sought to expel all human influences from their territories which resulted in a civil war between the purists and human-sympathizers. The rebellion was a success with Thesmothetis claiming the crown of winter. To this day he remains the only man with mixed ancestry to be named a prince of Kyrthomir

## The Search for the Astral Gate

In 1532 DC unrest in the city of Heptapyrgion gave rise to a movement led by prominent mages and scholars of the time who sought to end the isolation of Aeonia by way of the Gateways, in which the seers used to travel the million planes. The leader of the movement Lady Cyriothel was convinced the gate was hidden by Draquelien somewhere in the isle of Vassiliko and sponsored numerous expeditions into ruins, caverns and the sea itself to locate the ancient artifact. The search,even though it proved fruitless, elevated the southern Island into a beacon of civilization, culture and knowledge attracting scholars and mages from the rest of Aeonia and paving the way for a cultural hegemony originating from the city of Light.

## Aenos The first King of Aeonia

In 1664 DC The Principality of Vassiliko was controlling trade in most of the Aeonian Archipelago and counted various territories of Morias and Roumeli among their vassals. Aenos was born in September of that year to the sister of then prince Achios of Vassiliko. The child was said to be a gift of the gods to the land of Aeonia, destined to forge and wear the crown to which all the lords would bow to. He was instructed in the arts of diplomacy, war and stewardship by the best tutors of his time and wasted no time upon his uncle’s death to begin a campaign of expansion with the goal of uniting Aeonia. By 1694 he had managed to annex, occupy or raze every major city on the realm and lay claim in all the islands, mountains and plains encircled by the Fog save for the Free North who, while occupied, kept resisting his troops and garrisons with local rebellions springing up faster than they could be put down. In 1698 He personally led one last campaign forcing the decimated Jarls and Clans of the free north to bend the knee and accept the law of the crown of Aeonia. Aenos moved the capital to the City of Winds and crowned himself the first king of Aeonia in 1700.