The Golden War

## The final war

A brutal war which nearly ended all civilization at the hand of a group of sorcerers and demons which called themselves The Umbral Lords, had it not been for The Summoning of Four, which opened a gate to allow a trinity of gods to cross into the material plane and intervene. Bringing with them knowledge, magic and artifacts of great power, the three rallied the remaining vestiges of civilization and launched a counter offensive against ,and ultimately defeating, the Umbral lords. The united survivors of the war crowned the trinity, renaming them The God King and beginning the Elyrian Dynasty.

## The Age of a Thousand Kings

In the age which proceeded the start of the Golden War, it was said that there were countless kingdoms and countless kings, all warring each other for land and power. During this time, there is evidence that there was not one year in a thousand where there was not some sort of battle for succession or territory somewhere in the world.

It was behind this veil of endless bloodshed, and during a particularly brutal series of wars between the Kingdom of Thay, their allies, and the Dwarves of Rivengar, that the umbral lords were able to slip amongst the various kingdoms unnoticed. Shapeshifting and deceiving, the first years of the golden war were hidden behind the fog of the countless mortal wars of kings. During which time several natural disasters, plagues, and catastrophes caused an increase of chaos and lack of communication between allies and enemies

## The Fall of Thay

The Kingdom of Thay, the most powerful single kingdom at the time- known for its scholars, sorcerers, and slaves- was said to have been the first to discover the coordinated plans of the Umbral Lords, and spread word amongst the remaining kingdoms of their hidden deceptions. Drawing them out into the open, the King of Thay marched his entire army against a horde of Demonic soldiers that had been summoned in secret. Planning to destroy them once in for all, he coordinated His most powerful cult of sorcerers, called the Red Sorcerers of Thay, to strike against he Umbral army at the same time as his soldiers. To help them in their strike, He gave them a catalyst of blood, a cup filled with the blood of a god. Who visited him in a dream with a warning- to use but one drop of blood and not a drop more. The Sorcerers were greedy, however, and wanted to see how far their powers could stretch, so they used the entire cup, causing an explosion of magic so great it destroyed the entire army of Thay, killing the king and the rest of the kingdom, and causing a massive upheaval to the majority of the continent, transforming it into an uninhabitable desert, now called The Endless.

## The Darkness

The rest of the war was marked by destruction, as one by one every major kingdom fell. Entire continents were swallowed into the sea or burned into ash. Every attempt to unite the remaining forces were quickly unraveled by in-fighting, suspicion and deception. It was hard to say which kingdoms were infected by Umbral lord imposters, and which were just too paranoid to trust each other. The final blow occurred when the sun was blocked from the sky, sending the world into an ice age which killed nearly the entire remaining population.