Age of Kingdoms

***Preceded by:** Age of Tribes / **Followed by:** Reign of White Castle*

The Age of Kingdoms is a period of time encompassing the formation of a variety of regional kingdoms as the human tribes advanced technologically. While the race was relatively young, they were able to learn from other existing species and so advanced quickly. This combined with their fecundity was instrumental in this expansion.

**The First Pharaoh**

The great chieftain that had first led humans to Rafiah's northern river valley was said to mingle with divine entities. It was believed by his people that his twin offspring were mothered by one of these Forgotten Gods. One of the twins became great chieftain after their father, the other became the tribe's great shaman. In time the twins built a city, those closest to them mingled with the Forgotten Gods and these became the Noble Raf and the chief their Pharaoh.

**Ancient Rafiah**

For several generations pharaohs came and went. Building cities along the Great Serpent and expanding their kingdom until they were the true power in Rafiah. They used military might and their kinship to the Forgotten Gods to cement their power and influence over the people. As time went on, those without divine blood in their lineage became treated as second class. Other tribes the warriors of Rafiah defeated became slaves. These slaves were forced to build great monuments and pyramids for the pharaohs. Trade flourished along the southern coast.

**Slavery to the Giants**

During this time some of the human tribes braving the Deep Winter travelled as far as the Grey Peaks and banded together, calling themselves norns. They settled there, learning what they could from the dwarves and learned the secrets of ironwork. However, frost and fire giants came from their holds deep in the mountains to pillage these growing settlements. Soon almost every human in the region was made a slave. The giants fell upon the dwarven kingdoms shortly after this, beginning a period of great conflict.

**First Valkyrie of Evangelline**

A norn girl taken a slave by the fire giants grew to great strength, will and intelligence. She showed such ferocity that the giants used her in fights for their entertainment. She eventually escaped using what battle skills she had learned and fled into the mountains. Lost and freezing she had a vision in which Evangelline approached her and offered to help her free her people. The goddess granted her a giant eagle as a mount and sent her to the dwarves to be armed for battle as the first valkyrie.

**Treaty with the Dwarves**

The dwarves that received the valkyrie had suffered greatly from attacks by the giants and were willing to strike back at them. With the valkyrie and her eagle leading the charge they began striking at various giant outposts. At each the slaves they freed joined this growing army. Women that fought especially fiercely joined the ranks of valkyrie. Soon the army took its first settlement from the giants. Seeing this victory, the other dwarven kings allied themselves with this army and as one pushed back the giants to the western reaches of the mountains, to the volcanos and frozen crags. The Grey Peaks as a nation was formed and both norn and dwarf would be allies ever after.

**The Black Vizier**

It came to pass that during the reign of a relatively peaceful pharaoh that a wise man came from the deep deserts. This wise man took up residence in the back alleys of the capital. He became famous for his wisdom and prophetic words. The pharaoh, intrigued, demanded that this wise man be brought before him, and it was done. The pharaoh was impressed with the man and made him vizier. The wise man took the name Nyarlathotep and advised the pharaoh in all things. In time this advice included demanding tribute from all humanoids that dwelt in Rafiah and crushing any that refused. It was over this period that he became known as the Black Vizier, both for his robes and his heart.

**The Great Tribes**

Adrianna's temper had finally cooled and so it was that the Deep Winter was ended, the snow and ice retreating. This became a time of plenty for much of the continent as new life took advantage of this long-awaited spring. The Jongurans built great cities and trade began to extend through them from Rafiah. Humans began to settle in the lands that would one day become the Northern Baronies and across the south in the lands of Tieralto. Kings, chieftains and lords came into power as settlements sprang up. Ironworking spread quickly from the Grey Peaks and trade flourished from the east.

**Formation of the Thieves Guild**

A group of Raf commoners living on the streets of the capital form a cooperative network. This initial form of the Thieves' Guild quickly begins working against the pharaoh's interests. This in turn caused the guild to quickly spread in influence through the common folk across the kingdom. As the reach of the Thieves' Guild grew the pharaoh begins actively seeking out members. This search and the torture and executions involved only harden the people against the throne further. There was a riot during a procession of the pharaoh to the temple of the Forgotten Gods. Nyarlathotep displayed his power and the first recorded use of necromancy by an arcane caster. Undead created by the Black Vizier quell the riot and become the guards of both temple and the palace.

**The Fallen Star**

A star falls in the eastern deserts, fulfilling a prophecy made by the Black Vizier. Nyarlathotep grants a slave who is skilled in magic his freedom. This wizard goes on to invent conjuration. The first recorded solar eclipse occurs, during this event the pharaoh is assassinated and Nyarlathotep takes his place. He becomes known as the Black Pharaoh.

**Rebellion of Slaves**

For thirteen months the Black Pharaoh reigned over the kingdom of Rafiah and each month he reigned was marked by a plague. The most horrific of these was the thirteenth plague, which made the skeletons of the living into undead monsters. As the kingdom fell to ruin Nyarlathotep was not alarmed and had great feasts for the nobles. On the last month of his reign the people could take no more, commoner and slave rose up and slew those within the palace and all those that lived in the mansions of the wealthy. The temples and monuments of the Forgotten Gods were torn down. Nyarlathotep was faced by adventurers in his own tower and believed to have been destroyed.

**The Lost King**

A human warrior of some renown began to gather others about him. In time even a powerful wizard was drawn to his service. In Moorlund he united human and sluagh together into a peaceful kingdom. The other elven houses were angered by the sluagh joining a mortal king, to them it opened old wounds from the War of Houses. The human lords of the region grew jealous. The king’s armies fought off these enemies time and again, but he was human and grew old. Sluagh wizards extended his life as long as they could. But there came a time when the magic was no longer enough. Afraid for his people he asked a powerful witch he had taken as a lover to help him. She created an artifact of great power, and the king was buried with it. Prophecy spoke of a time this would save his people. His kingdom soon fell to aggressors and the elven houses banished the Slaugh to the Plane of Shadows.

**The Great Horde**

It is unknown when the orcs had found their lands beyond the Grey Peaks. Nor is it known how long they flourished there. During the drought of a particularly hot summer the orcs poured out of the mountains from a place forever more called Orcbreast. A single orc chieftain of great intelligence and strength had united the clans and the first Great Horde swept across the land. From the Wild March the horde spread, pillaging as the went and murdering any that stood before them.

**Creation of Arcane Magic**

A group of wizards come together and create the Orrery Spire hidden in Feylan Wood where they study magic. Discovering the various schools of magic, these mages draw pupils from across the Continent.

**The War of the Thorn**

Various leaders of men began to call to themselves warriors to combat the Great Horde. These knighthoods sprang up especially in what would become the North-East Baronies. The orcs thought the northern hills and plains already pacified. This lent itself to the success of these armies as they pushed back against the Horde as far as the Wild March. One knight in particular proved himself an excellent strategist, brave fighter and man of honor. This knight, Sir Terran Thorn drew others to his banner naturally and soon had more loyalty than the Lord he served. Such was his honor that he was even able to gain the respect of the Grey Peaks and many elves.

Terran's soldiers along with the armies of his allies broke apart the Great Horde. The various clans fell before this allied force and one by one fled until only a handful still held fast. The orc Warlord and these last few clans fought their final battle in the Moorlund. The battle raged on for days. No surrender was asked or given, and they died to the very last orc. So much blood was spilled that there are some who believe that this battle cursed Moorlund forever.

**Loraen**

Having no lands in the Northern Baronies, Terran headed south with his most loyal knights. They built a castle there and in time a city formed around it. The city's chief architect was friends with Terran and had followed him on his crusade against the orcs. Because of this he was given the privilege of naming the city. So, the city of Loraen came to be named for the love of an architect, a man whose own name was lost to history.

**Warring Clans**

After the end of the War of the Thorn most knights returned to their varied lands. The Northern Baronies formed as many who returned north with soldiers still following claimed lands for themselves. Some were returned to castles already held, some were rewarded with lands for their service and others would decide they would take land of their own. Thus, it was that the Northern Baronies and its long history of petty battles between minor lords began.

**First High King**

The citizens of the Northern Baronies grew tired of the constant conflict and sent pleas to Terran. He traveled north with his troops and over the next several years fought bandits, goblins, would be warlords and any that would take up the sword against peace. When finally, the various lords of the Baronies were ready to come together in diplomacy they named Terran as their High King. For a time, the land was quiet and peace reigned.

**Tribal Wars**

To the west beyond the Grey Peaks, it was not so. The orc clans returned from the failure of the Great Horde bitter and resentful. With the mightiest clans gone, trolls, giants and other monsters had taken Orcbreast for themselves. Each clan blamed another, and they warred among themselves. For the next few generations, the orcs existed in a constant struggle for survival against each other and the monsters plaguing their lands.

**The Burning of Loraen**

When the High King Terran died the lands fell into a period of mourning. In Loraen it fell to a council of Terran's most trusted friends to determine a new High King. Fearing that without one, the minor lords would fall back to fighting among themselves. It came down to a choice between Terran's son or his loyal second. The convened knights voted for a hereditary transfer of power and believed the young Johnathan Thorn displayed much of his father's noblest traits. Morgion had served by Terran's side first as his squire then as a knight since the beginning and was enraged by the decision. He left the capital and headed east beyond the highlands of Tieralto.

Five years later Morgion returned from the badlands with a wizard garbed in black. This one became known as the Necromancer and spread the Bone Plague throughout the land, giving Morgion an undead army to march on Loraen. The siege of Loraen lasted months. Johnathan and a group of trusted allies were able a way to kill the Necromancer and with him the army of the dead. The band of adventurers were successful, but Morgion's mortal allies had managed to open the gates of the city. With the Necromancer dead and his plague ended, Johnathan returned to a city in flames and his wife dead. He died with Morgion in the crumbling castle and Loraen was no more.

The Necromancer's apprentice is said to have pulled Morgion's bones from the rubble and vanished into the north.