Timeline

# Epoch I: The Distant Times

The beginning of the world is a time that is shrouded in mystery to all, even the most spiritually-attuned and seers of past-times. Much of which occurred in those times has been lost be it because of war, carelessness, or necessity. Much of which is known now is known only because of the telling of stories and the writing of old.

It is said by most that the world was formed from the bodies of the Ancestors - those who had come before those amongst the living. Through much strife and turmoil they lived in the darkness below the moon and stars, their bodies falling on top of each other until they turned to bone and formed the foundations of the world. Their tears formed the rivers, their breath formed the sky, and their hair formed the grass and trees that brought life to the world. After many ages had passed and the world was full of life thanks to their sacrifice, the first Men lived in harmony with nature and the world was good.

This story does not account for the Elves who also existed in the world for a time and who were said to live amongst Men though away from their prying eyes. Many say they came from another place and were not born on Paryllyx like Men were, though there are some who believe that they were indeed born on Paryllyx in a faraway land unseen by Men. Only the Elves themselves can give any clarity to this information, but they were a very secretive and wary race, only revealing themselves when there was no other option left for the salvation of the world.

Regardless of belief, what is known is that the world is a very old place and some well-documented properties. The first of which is the power that flows from the Ancestors, which can be achieved either by directly communing with them in spiritual endeavors, or by tapping into the energies of the spiritual world which radiates magical energy throughout the world and all life within it. In effect, those who are or were a part of the world make up its energy and can manipulate or be manipulated by those who know how to control it. This has led many to pursue spiritual lives or dedicate themselves to the study of the energy that flows through the world through the study of books and nature.

But the world holds many secrets that have yet to be discovered and the true nature of things is known by none who live in the world. As Men and Elves learned more about the world around them they took very different paths to achieve their goals. Elves sought to learn all there was to learn of the world, its creation, and all the life that existed in it. Men sought to shape it in their image, and to create new and better things to help connect them and to help them find meaning and conquer their fear of the unknown. Though the two races existed in tandem, they had differing ideologies that ultimately caused them to grow apart, rather than together - and the truth about the world lay somewhere in the middle of their collective knowledge, remaining always out of reach of either.

# Epoch II: The Time of Darkness

These times are some of the oldest still recorded in history, though the details are something kept only in the most secret and secure of places so that the knowledge of the events that took place may be used only in the most dire of circumstances.

## Concerning Apollyon and the Coming of Corruption

### The Tale of Sir Winter - Part I:

From whence he came and for what purpose remains a mystery to this day, but what is known is that his influence spread through the Old Realm like a plague, killing and destroying everything living in his wake and transforming it all to suit his desires.

It began in the once quiet and beautiful mountain town of Sidonia, where the young Lord Winter was undertaking squire duties by serving as a knight to Lord Ashaler. His would-be title of Lord would be later stripped from him in favor of something more suited to his talents as the war with Apollyon began. As the tale goes, he was sent to investigate smoke coming from a farmer’s field outside of Sidonia and found the ground shaken up and all of the animals killed or scared off. Upon further investigation, he found that the shaking had revealed a nearby cave which led to an ancient ruin built by unknown hands.

It was at the lowest depths of the massive underground ruin that he came across a door, unlike any door that he had seen but a door nonetheless. It was there that he met a dark, ominous being. This being called itself Apollyon and spoke of death and destruction on a massive scale in order to bind the Realm to its will. Instinctively, Sir Winter rushed to attack the vile creature, but just before his blade could reach, it vanished, leaving him alone at the bottom of the ruin as an army of dark creatures emerged from the door. He fled the ruin as quickly as he could and made his way back to Sidonia - but as he arrived he found the creature had already arrived in the throne room and killed Lord Ashaler.

The army began to siege the town, bringing death and destruction on a scale nobody had ever seen nor could have imagined. The Lord’s daughter, Sharie Ashaler, burst into the throne room shortly after the siege began to ensure her father’s safety. When she saw him dead in the throne room with the dark creature standing over his broken body, she became hysterical and ran at it in an attempt to inflict whatever damage she could. Lord Winter stopped her, putting himself between her and Apollyon as the creature laughed cruelly. Lord Winter took up the dead Lord’s sword - an imbued weapon with magical properties - and attacked the creature.

The two inflicted many wounds on each other before the creature, fearing the power that such defiance could mean, fled the city and allowed his forces to overrun and destroy it. Lord Winter, fearing that they were the only ones left alive, took it upon himself to protect Sharie and she led them to a secret passage that allowed them to escape the burning town behind them.

### The Tale of Sir Winter - Part II:

In the weeks and months that followed the fall of Sidonia, Lord Winter - who was now known as Sir Winter after he was conscripted into the Realm’s army - took part in many of the counter-attacks that followed, keeping Lord Ashaler’s blade close as he helped keep Apollyon’s dark forces at bay. Though they were winning battles, it started to become apparent that they could not win the war as Apollyon’s forces swelled as the dead rose to join his forces and supplies began to run short as towns and entire cities were overrun and abandoned or burned to the ground.

It was then decided that the best strategy would be to plan an offensive attack and attempt to find any weakness in Apollyon or his forces. Apollyon had enough time and resources gathered to begin constructing his own dark structures and towers with the help of the dead and his powers. It was the plan of the army’s leaders to attack one of these towers and attempt to take or destroy whatever power or evil relic they’d find there. Sir Winter was among those who would lead the offensive with the rest of the Realm’s armies at his back to guard their retreat one their mission had been completed.

At great cost they stormed the tower, desperately they fought their way through dark corridors filled with horrors only seen in nightmares before that time. Eventually, Sir Winter and the surviving knights broke into the room at the precipice of the tower, where they found Apollyon and a new doorway leading to the dark world that he had come from. It appeared as though the doorway was yet to be completed and Apollyon was surprised to see once again the face of the only man to have confronted him and lived. Enraged, he killed them all - with the exception of Sir Winter - who he then forced to kill them again when he reanimated their bodies by speaking dark words.

Once Sir Winter had re-slain the brave men who had been through so many other battles and won just to die so close to what might have otherwise been a decisive victory for the Realm, he came at Apollyon with all his strength and managed to not only injure him again, but also destroy the portal which had taken a good deal of his energy to create. Nearing exhaustion, Apollyon used his energy to curse Sir Winter, promising him even more pain beyond imagination once he had regained his strength. With that, he used the last of his energy to flee, leaving Sir Winter in the tower alone to mourn the loss of his fellow knights and swear vengeance for them.

### The Tale of Sir Winter - Part III:

Winter had fallen upon the Realm at last, leading to starvation and freezing as thousands had been displaced in the long and bloody war brought upon by Apollyon and the countless dead under his control. But a shimmer of hope gleamed in the eyes of those who saw more and more victories at the hands of the battle-hardened warriors of the Realm and the knowledge of the enemy they had gleaned thanks to the magisters who had studied Apollyon’s dark towers and the artifacts within. Though he was still a deadly and nearly unstoppable force, he was not invincible - and knowledge of this had spread to every corner of the Realm.

But even as this newfound hope burned in the hearts of those who still lived, the war raged on and more towns and cities continued to be lost at a staggering rate. The numbers of the living continued to dwindle and it had become no small secret that if the tides did not change soon that the Realm risked total collapse and all within it would face an agonizing death and rebirth in a sick perversion of life. It was with that in mind that a final plan was drafted with the hope that it would cripple Apollyon and possibly expose him to further attack. But before the plan could be put into action, Apollyon in a great act of trickery, launched an assault on the capital and abducted the masterminds behind the plan and all the knowledge they possessed.

As the Realm began to sink into despair, their final strategy exposed and its leaders either dead or captured, Sir Winter led a daring rescue mission that would see the Realm’s most elite warriors face the worst that Apollyon’s forces had to offer. At this time, Apollyon had established the seat of his power in the most inhospitable places the Realm had to offer as he did not need the things that the living required. With the knowledge he had gained from the first assault of Apollyon’s tower and the skill from countless battles, he led another successful assault into the heart of his power where he would find Apollyon and those he had abducted.

But it was all for naught, as Apollyon twisted them and perverted them into horrible things before his very eyes - including, to his horror, the love of his life Sharie Ashaler who had also been found and taken from her place of hiding. He was again forced to kill them all, including the woman who had been with him from the beginning and every step of the way since then and whom he had fallen in love with. His heart broke as her father’s sword pierced her flesh and the light began to drain from her eyes. In a cruel final act, Apollyon returned the final strands of life that remained in her so that she would speak as true self in her final moments. After she had died in his arms, hopelessness overtook Sir Winter and he attacked blindly, doing no damage to Apollyon who looked on with delight as the Realm’s champion broke before him, a shattered man who had lost the will to fight.

Sir Winter was forced to walk down the tower and through the vast hordes of Apollyon’s forces, who mocked and jeered him as they parted to allow him through unharmed. He returned to the capitol some days later, his feet bloodied, his heart broken, and his will to live all but evaporated like most other life in the Realm would soon be.

### The Tale of Sir Winter - Part IV:

Though Winter’s end is nearly upon the world, no signs of life emerge as the Realm has become a broken and desolate place. Those who remain have gone into hiding and only one final bastion of the Realm remains. To the great relief of those who remained in the capitol before it’s abandonment, a hidden plan was discovered which tasked the greatest stonemasons and builders of the Realm to construct in secret the greatest fortress the Realm had ever seen and summon those who remain amongst the living to take refuge there in an attempt to wait out the final siege.

In the first days before Spring, refugees from all over the Realm had flooded into the newly constructed fortress of Periand and settled on the plains before it. Since the fortress was constructed in secret, on the furthest borders of the Realm it was hoped that since all other strategies had failed them, secrecy would be their greatest ally in their darkest hour. In the end, they would discover that other eyes had been upon them as the war with Apollyon drew to an unsavory end.

To the few who knew of them, the Elves who also dwelt on Paryllyx had shared an uneasy relationship with Men, seeing them as a savage and destructive race who were more like a blight on the world than a thriving part of it. But as they witnessed the death and destruction that had begun spreading outward from the center of the Realm like a plague, they knew that humanity was not the true enemy of nature as they had thought after the first cities had sprung up from what had once been beautiful rivers and woods. They had seen the massive undertaking of the building of Periand and knew that if they did not step in, the humans who simply wanted to survive would surely be killed and then turned upon them to wreak havoc on the rest of the world.

They arrived at the gates of Periand to speak with the inhabitants of the Realm. The men who manned the battlements were afraid of the strange force arrayed before them and stood ready to loose their arrows at a moment's notice, but at their leader’s command they stood down as he approached the gates to greet them. As the gates opened, Sir Winter - Champion of the Realm, greeted them and allowed them inside the high walls to treat with them. As they walked through the dark, stone hallways and saw the sickly and sorrowful people shivering inside they wondered why any person would choose to live in such a cold, lifeless place.

As they neared a large, open chamber where many scarred, iron-clad men stood, a small, dirty child broke away from her mother and ran up to their leader, tugging at his tunic urgently. He turned to face her, his eyes locking with hers as she looked on in wonder, holding her hands behind her back shyly. Before he could turn to walk again, she removed her hands from behind her back revealing a small flower clasped between them.

“For you.” she said, a small smile forming on her lips before skittering away.

It was then that for the first time, they found a commonality between them - a love for the world was in them and they were as much a part of it as they were. It was this understanding that broke down the barriers of mistrust that had existed between them since their first meeting in the early years until this very point; these people had endured so much and yet had never forgotten the beauty of the world that was around them and were fighting for their right to continue living in it.

And so it was that the Elves brought forth their plans to combat death with life - not to return those who had perished to life but to allow them to pass on as nature intended. They would commune with the spirits of the woods and pray for a way to fight this unnatural death. So they did, and the spirits of the woods granted them a weapon that would allow them to finally put the dead to rest and give the Realm a chance to defeat Apollyon’s forces once and for all.

The Elves set to work with nature as their ally to provide bountiful crops inside the city walls and thick foliage outside to further conceal and defend the fortress city. When the day came that Apollyon discovered the fortress at last, he sent forth his legions of the dead and they fell upon them like a cloud of locusts. One by one they fell upon the defenses and were vanquished, the secret weapon of the Elves doing what it was meant to do to great effect. When Apollyon arrived, he sensed the power of the Elves’ weapon and his wrath was terrible.

He waded through his minions and unleashed all his power upon the defenses of Periand, wreaking devastation upon the outer walls and decimating the city. Before he could breach the inner walls, Sir Winter came before the gates and challenged Apollyon, holding up his sword, which had been empowered by the elves. Apollyon, at the height of his rage and power, tore through his ranks and breached the inner courtyard, throwing stone and men high into the air as he directed his wrath towards the man who had been such a thorn in his side despite his efforts. Apollyon quickly closed in on Sir Winter as he retreated to higher ground, failing to see the trap that had been laid for him as he did.

At last Sir Winter’s sword clashed with Apollyon’s and the two fought fiercely for several minutes with no sure victor in sight. But unknown to all but Apollyon, the fight was not meant to end in victory for either, but was simply to delay him long enough for the Elves to open a portal back to the dark place from which Apollyon came and then seal the way shut with their own powers. After several more minutes Sir Winter began to be overcome and exhausted. Even as fellow Men and Elves were swatted aside like insects he continued to withstand Apollyon on even ground.

When he knew the time had come he summoned the last of his energy and began to push Apollyon back, and for the first time he saw something in his eye that he never had before this point; fear. With newfound courage he landed blow after blow as Apollyon desperately fought to do the same. Finally, a dark barb found its way past Sir Winter’s sword and pierced through his breastplate cutting through it like a knife through cheese. The dark being cackled with delight as his foe slowly sank to his knees, defeated at last. It would be a false victory though, as mere moments later the Elves finished their ritual and the dark door opened with overwhelming force, pulling Apollyon in like water down a drain.

He screeched and clawed at the ground, refusing to acknowledge his defeat by those who had proven so easy to defeat before. But alas, his time had come and the darkness that had nearly enveloped the world went with him and was washed away. The dead that he had bound to his service were released and their bodies fell where they stood, littering the battlefield in great numbers. Sir Winter succumbed to his wounds to the great sorrow of the Realm and the Elves who had witnessed his bravery in what would come to be known as "The Last Stand".

In time, the dead were buried and great monuments and tombs would be erected in honor of the brave souls who had perished there and elsewhere in order to ensure that the Realm and the rest of the world lived on, free of Apollyon’s tyranny. Elves and Men lived together for some time but eventually their differences divided them once more and the little girl who offered them a flower was long forgotten. They retreated to their hidden cities deep in the woods and were never seen again. The Realm was built anew and prospered like it never had before, building new cities in new lands and time, as always, flowed ever forward.

# Epoch III: The Time of Wandering

## The Departure of the Elves

After the defeat of Apollyon, much had changed in the world. The Realm - a once beautiful and prosperous place had become a barren and desolate wasteland, full of death, disease and crumbling ruins of what had once been the home of thousands. It was then decided that in order to move forward, the best course of action would be to abandon the home they had known and build anew. So they spread out in every direction, leaving the Old Realm behind them as they sought new lands far away from that which they had lost.

For their final act and as a favor to Men and the rest of the world, the Elves in their wisdom began to grow a new type of tree that could grow in darkness as well as the light, using what they had learned from Apollyon’s dark power. The trees spread quickly throughout the land and, after many years, enveloped all the lands that had come to be known as the Old Realm. The trees grew strong - so strong that no stone could stop their roots and no axe could cut them. Satisfied that their work was done and with blessings from the spirit of the wood, the Elves opened up one last doorway in The Realm and went to a place that their gods had given to them as a reward for helping to save Men. The doorway was then closed behind them and they left the world behind them.

## The Nomadic Times

The decision to break apart to form new kingdoms was bred from the losses they had suffered from living close together in a tightly-packed land. It is unknown exactly how many tribes of men set out from the ashes of the Old Realm, but their desire to live on guided their feet. The years spent in isolation apart from any other peoples had caused their history to become muddied and their belief-systems to fragment. While most of their core values and stories continued to live on, new stories and new heroes arose which gave them new meaning as they laid down the foundations for new civilizations with new culture. Over time the old stories and heroes were forgotten completely and memory of the other tribes was forgotten by all… except the Chosen Few.

The Chosen Few were selected from the lines of soldiers who had survived the Last Stand alongside Sir Winter. Since most of the Realm’s leaders and magistars had been killed, they had become the natural selection for leadership - and if any blood had strength in it, surely it was theirs. The Chosen Few were entrusted with retaining the knowledge of Apollyon and the other tribes, but never to share it with anyone but their most trusted sage who could write it down and inform their next of kin when the time came. But when the new kingdoms began to prosper and the wars that had brought them together were forgotten, people began to slip back into their old ways and began to fight for fleeting things like power, wealth, and respect. Kings came and went, rebellions were quelled or supported, and the rules and systems changed.

Inevitably, as was expected, after thousands of years had passed. The tribes came back into contact with each other as scouts on their ever-expanding borders discovered new lands, peoples, and cities. Though contact was sometimes peaceful, some tribes had taken darker paths and eventually skirmishes and full-fledged wars broke out between them and their conflicting ideologies.

## The Time of Trials

After years of rediscovery, communication, and conflict amongst them, questions began to arise about the origins of their people and the beliefs that connected them. Though many amongst them were driven by their fear of the unknown and the superstitions that had permeated their cultures as a result of the old stories there were a few among them who sought answers, putting their fear aside for the sake of knowledge. It was these first few scholars who began to send expeditions into the Lost Woods, which was what had become of the Old Realm now completely covered with large, indestructible trees left behind by the elves. But the elves, before leaving the world, placed warding spells in order to ensure that the doors they had opened remained closed behind them. Those who attempted to traverse through the woods would often find themselves hopelessly lost, or would often see dark figures moving through the dense foliage around them, drawing them away from the roads to their deaths.

The Elves, in their haste, had been too effective in their methods to mask the evil that had once tainted the lands of the Old Realm and the trees they had created not only absorbed the darkness but reflected it back at any who would seek to disturb that which was not meant to be found. They conjured dark shadows to mislead and confuse those who wandered too far into the woods and ensured that any who entered did not wish to return - or did not return at all. For many years, the woods remained undisturbed - but as the wars raged on the people of the Realm once again grew bolder and as their numbers grew the bravest amongst them attempted to penetrate the woods again.

Then, the first artifacts of the Old Realm began to be recovered and the old stories began to be pieced together. Though the cost of recovering the artifacts was high, the knowledge gained began to bring the people of the Realm closer together and soon, after much blood had been shed, peace treaties were drawn up as the people of the kingdoms began to realize they had all been one people in the long distant past. There were dissenters though - the tribe who had gone to the east found a hot, barren land and their culture became one of savagery and pain. They declared open war with the kingdoms of Eqynor, becoming envious of the fertile lands that had allowed them to prosper while they had suffered in the sands.

Though the art of war was known to all warriors of the kingdoms, none had seen savagery like that of the eastern kingdom who used espionage and brutal tactics to inflict great damage amongst the kingdoms of Eqynor. A blind, seething hatred seized them when the kingdoms refused to cede their coastal cities and ports that now served as centers of trade amongst their prosperous kingdoms. When it was clear that no peace could be reached and no terms would end in a satisfactory outcome for either side, it was decided that an alliance would be formed amongst the kingdoms of Eqynor with the promise that no more wars would take place on the land that had been their home from the distant times.

The Eqynorian Alliance included the first four tribes to come into contact with each other and had seen the most conflict between themselves in the beginning; the Kingdom of Charselor, the Steel Alliance, the Amraphel Dynasty, and Emynent Empire. They united their banners and took up arms together, combining their unique strengths to help them turn the tide of the war. Though the eastern tribe, who had declared themselves the Archyan Usurpers, feared the strength of their alliance and witnessed defeat after defeat at the hands of the alliance, their resolve was never broken and they remained in open war from this time forward, allowing their hate to guide their actions for the rest of their days.

## The Time of Peace

The Eqynorian Alliance strengthened the people of Eqynor and allowed them to finally reunite and form a New Realm to rival the strength of the Old Realm. They grew bold, constructing grand cities, tall monuments, and spread throughout Eqynor to lands that had never been seen before. Eventually, their kingdoms grew to surround the Old Realm and their numbers swelled to rival it by many thousands more. A new era of exploration and expansion had fallen upon them, and much of the fear and stories that had held them back for thousands of years after the arrival of Apollyon had dissipated into intrigue and fairy tales. But even as the Realm prospered as it never had before and it seemed as though nothing was out of reach, dark forces began to re-enter the world and the people of Eqynor stretched too far and became too curious about things that would have been better left unknown…

# Epoch IV: The Second Darkness

## The Time of Whispers

For every life that enters the world, one is taken. For every kingdom that prospers, one falls. For every world that is bathed in light, one falls to darkness. This is the way of things and the balance of nature as it is known to the wisest of beings. When Apollyon first saw the world of Paryllyx through his dark window he saw a young, innocent world like many others he had touched before and delighted in the torment he could bring to it. When he was defeated against all odds, a change began in him. He no longer sought to corrupt in order to ensure that the universe remained balanced, which was the lie he told in order to his inflict devastation - now, a new hatred consumed him. He hated those who had given him a taste of the pain good-natured beings could inflict when it was simply their time to die and he hated the passion which drove them to band together and cast him back into his world of darkness. He would find a way to return to that world and finish what he had started many millennia ago.

As the Realm continued to prosper, the evil relics that had been left behind and forgotten were rediscovered despite the best efforts of the elves and the Chosen Few who were sworn to safeguard their secrets at all costs. But the Chosen Few were long dead or had long forgotten their secrets as the wars between their kingdoms consumed them and their vows were forgotten or broken. The best minds of the Realm had begun to unlock portions of Apollyon’s power and decided to seek out more relics that could help them unravel the mysteries of the universe. It was deep in the Lost Woods that they found it; the secret to the Elves’ departure - the doorway that they had created before they had left the world.

The process of opening the doorway is still largely a mystery to those who were involved in it, but what is known is that Apollyon’s relics made it possible. Many gathered around and performed the ritual with guidance from those who had studied Apollyon’s relics and there, in the dark and haunted woods a light shone through for the first time in countless millennia. But it was not a light as one would expect from a crack in a doorway, but the light of an inferno that had been kept contained for a long time and was just now given air to fuel it once again. It consumed them all, and the knowledge of what they had done died with them - all except for the one whose magic they had used to break the seal left by the Elves.

## The Rift

After so much time had passed, the door to Paryllyx had been cracked open enough for Apollyon to squeeze inside and re-enter the world. As he touched the world for the second time and saw the prosperity of those who lived on it, he was afraid at first - seeing the power of those whom he had failed to crush before. But it was short-lived, as those who had survived had failed to remove all of the influence that he had left behind and some of the corruption had seeped into them, consuming them from within. He knew how he would consume the world, learning from his past defeat and using their corruption to his advantage he would succeed now where he had failed before.

Though the seal of the elves had been cracked, it had not been entirely broken. It would take more time and effort than it had before to break the seal that had been placed on the world, but with the help of those who had already been corrupted through his past influence he would bend them to his will and turn Men against each other, driving them apart so that they could never band together as they had in the past.

So his work began, and slowly he began to open more doorways throughout the world that would allow him to subtly spread his influence to every corner of it until the time came to once again start the process that would lead to the destruction of Paryllyx once and for all. But there was one thing, despite his cleverness, that Apollyon did not account for - because the seal on the world remained cracked but not broken, other forces were able to enter the world. It is here that history ends and the future begins - for through the cracked slipped one who could ultimately bring the destruction Apollyon seeks, or could rise to be its champion like Sir Winter of old. The future remains unwritten...