Codex Paedelos

"*Know when to kneel in the presence of your betters, these Lesser Gods, monsters of steel and hatred. Know when to lift your head and rip their throat out with your teeth, for this little courtesy is all that their misbegotten kind deserve. Who are they to act like they are the Divine, these beasts of blood and cloth?*"
—Balog Jakhan, Coldblade King of Bones, the Suneater

Paedelos was once a grand place. It held vaunted halls of crystal thrones, of men dressed in extravagant garbs of silk and bearing crowns of iron and gold - and while that remains, not as many of them do. Across the eras of history, the world has shrunk. Paedelos once made up the lands of Aea, Rzia, Esan, Ovispron, Arotir, Dokaal and Emistyereon; the Godswar brought many of these lands to heel, forcing them to kneel and accept petty oblivion. Rzia fell beneath a wave of blood and gore, shattered by bolts of light from the heavens, ravaged by diseases unleashed by Aenfirdas - it's armies shattered and fell in on themselves in civil war, clashing with or fighting alongside the Esani.

Rzia's final breath was felt when the lands were eviscerated in a great explosion of meteorites from the heavens, reducing Zheyyunin to little more than a field of glass. Famously, the last Immortal Master of Emistyereon, Ahrad avin Yivakprovos, was said to have cursed Aenfirdas from the foot of his palace before being struck down by lightning and fire. Ovispron is said to be clouded in fog and smoke, it's final breaths not recorded by any known Scholar. Many still believe it to be alive, that great island off of the coast of Aea, but Ovispron has been silent for a long time. Perhaps some other sort of relic of the Godswar, much like the Scorch or the eternal blizzards of the Farnorth? And to the Southeast the lands of Arotir were scalded in magma and blood, when volcanoes rose from the ground and burned entire Legions in their iron plate. Cities swept away by rising ocean tides created another Kasura there, where people are still rumored to live.

Dokaal, much like Rzia, was mostly reduced to cinders, it's people scattered to the winds. Many of the people from Dokaal early in the war fled to the lands of Rzia, to find succor and receive none in the wartorn lands. War had scarred Dokaal early, with cultist Magi running amok in such a way that entire cities were burnt overnight, and armies reduced to piles of twisted corpses. And, lastly, the lands of Emistyereon are shrouded in mystery much like the fog-covered Isle of Ovispron. Emistyereon saw much of the heavy fighting of the East like Rzia, but the lands there were already torn apart by internecine conflict and civil war, which did not bring positive benefits to the population when the Godswar began.

Populations were eviscerated and cities emptied overnight, and soon Emistyereon was little more than the campgrounds of a millions-strong army which planned to march on Esan or the other states nearby them. These plans never came to fruition, as by the time Emistyereon was stable enough to finally march from it's homelands, their Immortal Master was incinerated following the firestorms that swallowed Rzia, the capital city of Kovirmai turned to glass like much of the east. Following this, the Godswar had come to a close and the final magic of the war was cast prior to the duel of Ator and Aenfirdas - a shroud much like Ovispron, was cast over Emistyereon alongside a rain of fire. Without their Immortal Master, the legions fell into dismay, and as their lands were enshrouded in fog and ash they turned on one another. While there may still be survivors, they live in a hellscape like much of the East. A sadly common theme for the East, indeed.

No matter what has transpired over the eons, Paedelos remains much the same. Trade continues, swords lock, and armies march. The Godswar was millennia ago, the Sorcerer-Kings millennia as well. Ancient history, myths much believed to not be real. Many modern scholars even discredit the idea that many of these things happen, which leads to protests from the more learned nobility of the realms to 'simply look out of their towers and to the East for evidence of the past'. No matter what occurs, Paedelos endures.