Archived History Local
"Alexandros" itself is an ancient name referring to the ancient kingdom of Alexandros that was destroyed in the take over by Charn some seventy years ago and of which Alexandria was the former capital. Though the kingdom has not been re-established due to the end of the royal line, Alexandria itself has continued on.
Today, its nobility vie with merchants and visitors from other nations and cities. Its landscape is as varied as its markets, with a history that extends into the first age.
The Ancient Landscape
Alexandros rests on ancient land, a region historically rich with diversity, magic, and history. Long ago the domain that lay between the Red Ridge Mountains and the Vast was covered in untamed forests, sprawling mountain peaks and great rivers. Dragonkind of all colors oversaw this treasured place, and beneath them, a race of humankind struggled to grow.
During the First Age, these humans built temples and made offerings to the many ancient gods who still walked the world in flesh. Aside from their ruins and the occasional tales of seers, little is known of these ancient folk.
At some point, this ancient culture built a great and ancient temple, greater than all others in the area at that time. They centered it in an area touched by the visions of the gods, and used it to commune and to worship. This site today is known as the Eidolon Court.
Eventually, scholars know that the dragons left. The War of the Heavens rocked the world and they were called away as sentinels in divine armies. Maugrim tore from His brother, taking with Him His own pride, and the madness and darkness of the Void, and began a struggle that lasts today.
The divine struggles would reach into ancient Alexandros. Together with the conflagration of divine powers and the loss of its great protectors, the old kingdom was laid to waste. Destruction rained down from the hand of Maugrim and the gods of the underworld as they sought to unmake creation, and rip from the world the power of the Source.
Much knowledge was lost, and the kingdoms of old scattered.
The Settling of the Oruch, Sildanyar, and Khazad
The landscape would become the center of wars a millennium later when the sildanyar would settle it. Seeking to create a second, great civilization beyond the borders of Llyranost, they founded the city of Aranthalas within a realm they called Estania. In those days, the magic of the sildanyar and other, ancient races was mightier than is known today, and with this power they crafted some of the greatest wonders that the world has known.
However, dwarves traveling from Khazad Duin soon moved to the area, and fresh on their mind was the treachery of the mul'niessa. They mistook the inhabitants for their twisted brethren, and so began a war that according to some scholars, may have had Deimos' handiwork behind it.
The war raged for years between them, and eventually, the tribes of the oruch found themselves drawn in, either by the draw of blood or from the effort of defending their territories. War soon overtook the landscape, and this three-way conflict threatened to unravel all three civilizations and all they had wrought.
That all was not lost was due to the efforts of a great elven peacemaker by the name of Ra'Tenniel. He would forge the accords known as The Great Meld which established peace and divided the lands. Under Ra'Tenniel's influence, the sildanyar and khazad found peace, and the oruch became guardians of the wood and wild. They turned their mighty strength upon invaders and monstrous forces and the khazad built the great kingdom of Morduzum beneath the earth.
And yet, as peace progressed, the khazad would delve too far. Ignoring the warnings of their clan elders, they dug more deeply into the stone and earth. Eventually, they came to disturb the lair of the great Black Dragon King, one of the primeval ancient dragons that had fought side by side the twisted god Maugrim in the age of wars. Awakened, the cruel behemoth summoned to him his progeny and also trolls ando ther wicked, poisonous creatures.
The combat came to a close through the intervention of golden dragons, but by this time the land was poisoned and its earth soiled. The khazad retreated and offered sanctuary to the oruch for a time, and the sildanyar fled to the forests.
For three generations the oruch and the khazad held their peace beneath the earth, until an ambitious oruch lord by the name of Kotiphar sought to lay waste to the teachings of Adom. He reached back into the history of the oruch-kind, and came across forbidden names and teachings that the oruch had long forgotten. He embraced them, and swore a pact with fiendish powers, and in doing so transformed his clan into the Daemon-Orcs or the Mogareg.
The war that erupted ended the peace between the khazad and oruch in the land known today as Alexandria for some time, as the khazad who were not killed or slain by these daemon-orcs were sold into slavery or forced to flee northward, bearing tales of betrayal and horror. In the wake of the daemon-souled and damage from the ancient Black Dragon King, the mighty kingdom of Morduzum was no more, and its passages litter the land beneath like catacombs.
The Age of Artifice
The weakened state of then-Estania once again set the stage for the surge of humankind. The round-eared children gathered and gripped their spears, and went to war with the sildanyar over lands and resources. The son of the great negotiator Ra'Tenniel, Silvanos, established a haven for his people north of the human lands. He did so because he saw the war against mankind was one that could not be won, and with the sildanyar out of the way, the humans soon drew their city-states together.
For a time there was peace again.
However, this time was the time of Artificers and the time of Kulthus. The lands of then-Estania were considered backwater and expendable by the Kulthian Aristocracy, who stepped forward in conquest.
As the land's newest conqueror, they appointed a Governor who forbid their use of magic and enforced the laws of the Artificer's City. The Governor would then turn to exploit its natural resources and location to build a terrible weapon. This weapon became known as the Spell Cannon.
The Spell Cannon stood larger than men, and possessed the ability to fire a beam of Mana so powerful that it could sunder the very walls between the planes. Such toys were the power of Kulthos, and when they were torn from their throne by the Sundering, the people of the Alexandros landscape were able to step forward and free themselves once again. The Sundering spread from the great Eidolon Court of ages past--that great structure built now by unknown hands. The rippling effects tore into the ley lines and mana fields across the world, and scored Alexandros for years to come as a result of Kulthos' arrogance.
However, freedom was a difficult process, as for years they had been guided by the Governor, and been forbidden even the most basic education in the arcane arts. Because of this, the region recovered slowly and may have lain stagnant for some time if not for the arrival of pilgrims also fleeing the wrath of the Lords of Artifice. Among these groups were wizards, instructors, and other learned folk. Together, this new mixture of people and races began to lay a foundation to rebuild their cities and homes.
Year 0
Such was the destruction of the Eldanar and Kulthos that the achievements of the past were thrown into chaos. The calendar marks "Year 0" as the date when nations began to rebuild themselves, and once again have recorded history. Year 0 also marks the retreat of the elder races into the depths of the world and the emergence of humankind, though this trend would begin to even out one thousand years later with Taara's Rending of the World.
The first few centuries after Year 0 were dedicated to rebuilding, reemergance, and restructuring what was lost. For more on this, see the World History page.
c. 934-983: The Crown Wars
When the Crown Wars erupted, Alexandros stood at first neutral. A recovering nation and of independant mindset, it had no want to get involved. Unfortunately, while some scholars refer to Alexandros as "the world's center," this hubris-filled statement nonetheless contains a grain of truth: the small nation stands at the center, the crossroads of many greater nations.
Too, Alexandros' ideals would draw it in. In the name of the right and good, Alexandros' current king, Regendus Dan'Alexandros, allowed Myrddion to use their territory as a staging ground for confrontations with Charn. However, he placed upon Myrddion stipulations and the nation's own troops remained largely committed to securing their own borders versus wars in distant lands.
During the Year of Ascension, a sacred season for the people of Alexandros, a double tragedy struck the nation. The Great Plague had begun sweeping across all of Arcania. The destruction during the Crown Wars (and some whisper the influence of Gunahkar's laughing maw) checked nations' ability to respond, and the plague swept like wildfire.
Alexandros was not spared, and her cities and towns were filled with the sound of the suffering and those in mourning. It was during this time that the catacombs of Alexandria were first constructed, for the dead were numerous and Thul's occasional influence struck a justifiable fear in the hearts of citizens.
Following on the heels of plague, the War came to Alexandros' very doorstep. The neighboring nation of Celidun fell to Charn, giving them access to ports across the Inner Seas. The Witch Altima, Charn's ally, then struck the nation of Alexandros.
Though Alexandros expected an attack, the nation found itself unprepared for the sheer power and fury of the Sorceress Queen, a creature who wielded magic of unforeseen might and overturned Alexandria's armies with her own assault of beasts, monsters and strange magical-machinery. For two years, Alexandros fought, but eventually they too fell. By Altima's wrath was their king slain, and their nobility of House Alexandros scattered to the four winds.
c. 936-988: The Sorceress Wars
For fifty years, Altima reigned as Charn's general-queen over the region of Alexandros. She scoured it for the secrets of the Old World and the power of the ancient nations of Estania, Morduzum, and even before.
As the civilized world hid or struggled, the darker races allied themselves with Altima...some by choice, others for fear of risk of destruction, such was the fear of her. The sildanyari of the Mythwood shut themselves away and enclosed their magic, yet knew it was only a matter of time before Charn's great Witch came battering at their door. The khazad vanished into the Red Ridge Mountains, and took with them great treasures.
Within Alexandria itself, resistance groups began to form, funded by Myrddion and other nations. In secret, they sent war golems, magic, and soldiers to aid Alexandros' quest for freedom.
However, without a king, the resistance groups lacked leadership. Though they possessed supplies and resources, they lacked cohesion. Eventually, a group named The Scythe rose to fill this need. Named for the farmer's common scythe, they declared themselves a symbol of the common man and the judges of Altima. With them stood the Plalanx Falcis, formed by members of Alexandros' old nobility, which most had believed fled or assasinated.
With such leadership, the forces only needed a time to strike. They found it in the betrayal of Altima.
When Myrddion gained ground against Charn and pushed that empire back, Charn found that its Witch-Queen, their great general, betrayed them. Not for ideals or mercy, Altima took her stand based on some newly acquired power. It is at this time the allied forces struck. The Phalanx Falcis rallied their troops and forged alliances between internal rebel groups and a people's army was formed. Through tactics and force the people of Alexandria threw off the Witch's yolk. History records a great battle between Augustus who slew her in a great battle, which took place in Alexandria's great castle by means of a flaming sword of blazing light.
As Alexandria fought, Myrddion rallied, its troops sweeping inwards into Alexandros's greater regions and destroyed Charn's forces which had for too-long held the land. In this, Alexandros and Myrddion worked together.
Though they had taken heavy military losses, Myrddion routed the remains of her armies and the Sorceress Wars came to an end. Alexandria City was in ruins, however, and the lands of Alexandros bore the scars of machines, magic and warfare. Myrddion would take Alexandros as a liege land for the purpose of rebuilding it, bolstering its defenses and creating a strong unified presence to protect against would be predators in the aftermath of such a terrible series of wars. Augustus Alexandros--he who would have been king--had vanished.
The Year 998: The Game Opens
After ten years of watchful peace following the routing of Altima, the game opened.
999: The Crumbling of Vardama's Temple in Alexandria
Many years ago now, the Temple of Vardama was taken over by Thulians bent on sacrificing the Vardamans to their dark god. This was only possible with the betrayal of the head of the Vardaman church at the time, Barntos, who, as it turned out, had become a vampire. Later, although this part is not common knowledge, Barntos founded the Garnaks, an elite race of vampire priests of Thul, who took over the city-state of Blar. A group of adventurers were able to prevent these priests from bringing an avatar of Thul into the world; as a result, Blar became allied with Alexandria.
1000: Theft of the Sword of Ea
Agents in Charn working in concert with the efforts of a Demon Cult known as the Cult of the Flesh, and it's leader a Balor named Tyrhannix, orchestrated an elaborate theft of the Myrrish artifact known as Einlazer, the Holy Sword of Ea. They believed this weapon was at least partially responsible for the laws that prevented demon kind from freely entering the world and soughtt o corrupt or destroy it. The sword was recovered through the efforts of Dragonier, Myrrish and Adventuring participants from Alexandria though in the process it was discovered that Charn had the capability of creating stealthed airships.
1003: The Merkabah Siege
Ten years passed beyond the Sorcereress Wars, and Alexandros remained under Myrrish guardianship...and control. Unsurprisingly, the people of Alexandros began to clamor for freedom and a return of sovereignty. Their nobility scattered, it looked as though the complaints would come to naught but angry grumbles...until Augustus reappeared. Angrily, the man who would be king denounced Myrddion and their actions. He reinstated the Phalanx Falcis, who were now seen as terrorists.
Augustus' actions ushered in a new era of tension and strife as his and his followers' actions became increasingly angry and desperate. His attempt to overthrow the Myrrish from Alexandrian land resulted in a strain upon his sanity and those around him. Such was the chaos and desperation that the most holy of holies, the Eidolon Court was nearly destroyed...and Myriddion and Alexandros began to view one another as potential enemies.
Events would reach their peak when the late summer and fall of AR 1003 in an event known as the Merkabah Siege. Two events heralded its eruption. First, the Eidolon Court was revealed to be the same fountain of divine energy of the days of ancient Kulthus, an incredible source of power and divinity, and what would mark it a sacred place of pilgrims in years to come. Second its uncovering forced the revealed identity of Lucien Shrike the Myrrish Governor to be in truth Saluven, the last known surviving, high artificer. Saluven proved to have been responsible for much of the tensions and policies that had existed.
His aim was to bring back the age of artifice, and the power within it. During the Merkabah Siege, Saluven's forces raised the floating fortress-city of Merkabah and called upon an ancient army of its constructs, undead, and the cult members of The Illuminated Order to descend upon Alexandria. The assault destroyed much of the city and many lives from the still-tired nation...yet in the end Saluven was defeated and Merkabah crashed into the mountains beyond the city.
His actions weakened the Seal on the Void. He was probably unaware of this. Worse, he was unaware that he was possessed by a powerful daemon of the Void. Every action with which he thought he would restore the great Kulthian empire, he was secretly preparing to hurtle the world into the Void itself.
Eventually, he declared war on Alexandria. Saluven raised Merkebah as a tool during the war.
Afterwards, the combined powers of Daeus, Animus, and Maugrim reached out to reseal the Void with their combined might, having been called to the task by heroes and by the efforts of Highfather Samuel and so many other heroes.
The following winter, during an international summit, Myrddion agreed to restore full sovereignty back into the hands of Alexandros' ruling merchants, guild leaders and remaining nobility and the confederacy known as the Argent League was formed.
Amid these events, Blar would also break from Bludgun, resulting in a quickening change among the Arvek Nar culture. The Arvek celebrate this day, Aestry 6, 1003, as Liberation Day, when they began to stride forward underneath their own banner and emerging culture (see Calendar).
1004: Whitefoot's War
Whitefoot was a ghost who wished for everyone to have immortality. As part of his plan, the city was overrun with undead and constructs so that he could steal Big Ben, the giant war golem, from the Engineer's Enclave. He hoped that he could rip peoples' souls from their bodies and implant them into immortal war golems, freeing people from what he considered to be Vardama's tyranny. However, a group of adventurers were able to free Ben, who then attacked and killed Whitefoot so no one else would have to share his fate. This latter part of the story is not known by many people; all they know is that suddenly the undead and constructs stopped attacking.
1005-1008: The Sendor War, Fall of Animus
The Bludguni warlord Kinnevack strode into Sendor years ago and turned the once-Myrrish land into a place of slavery and domination. She toppled old temples and ruled with an iron fist. The streets of Sendor turned to chaos, and where men fell, ogres and the old goblinkin took their place. Images of Maugrim dominated the Temple Square, and tribal spears ran red with the blood of Kor the Warlord, and drums sang of more to come.
A few years later, Alexandria would join forces with Myriddion, and drive its armies into Sendor. The pull required they withdraw troops from Blar, and that nation fell once again. Yet, Sendor and Myrddion marched with purpose to rescue friends and family. They drove demons from the town of Versis, and then toppled the once-unsurmountable fort of Gettys. Despite losses and the crashing of airships, the gods of Light appeared to bless their efforts.
Except, tragedy struck just the same.
As they lay camped at Versis, the clerics of the Knowing God suddenly went blind. Animus was struck from the world through Taara's hand, and his loss sent magecraft into chaos, and began the unraveling of the nation of Rune. Shortly after His fall, Taara and Eluna's agents went to war over the dominion of magic. And, licking its wounds, the army still marched on--though now they looked over their shoulders, for gone was the Father of Wisdom and magic now bore two mothers, one of Evil and one of Light.
They eventually would fell Kinnevack, and retake Sendor. And as the armies gathered beneath the combined flags of nations, world peace lay on the horizon, despite the fall of a god. The ancient king of Myrddion and the elder king of Bludgun saw much in common with one another, and began, in Alexandria, to reach towards one another with the hand of peace.
Behind the falling of Sendor, the ghost of a whisper suggested that the twisted god of war, Kosomoth, was gone as well. To most at the time, this was at best a worrisome suggestion. Those deeply involved within their faith, however, heatedly debate the correlation between the fall of Bludgun and of the god so many of its people worshiped. They also look to Taara, after the dust between her followers and Eluna's settled, but did not abate. And wonder at the reach of the dark goddess' greed.
In the end, the world had lost two gods and would soon lose two kings.
1008-1013: Vanishing of Alexandria and the Rise of Shadows
With the end of the Sendor War, Alexandria became the center of world events. The weathered kings of two nations, Myrddion and Bludgun, gathered and shook hands over the beginnings of world peace. It was at that time that Alexandria was ripped from the world--though to the world at large, she simply disappeared. She vanished from the world for five years, though Alexandria would not age but days. In the meantime, the world plunged into war and once-proud Rune crumbled.
The former followers of Animus were taken in at various temples. Navos switched from the pantheon of Light to that of Neutral, and absorbed many of them to his own. Others too, went to a war-scarred Eluna, and yet more to other temples. Of Kosomoth's, little is known and many in Ea do not seem to care. At least in public. At least outside of Bludgun.
When Alexandria reappeared, it became a source of hope as well as suspicion. The world wondered why it had vanished amid so much tragedy, and Alexandrians quickly came to find that so had the great kings of Bludgun and Myrddion, who had been on the verge of peace. Its walls were swiftly swarmed with politicians, accusers, ambassadors, hopefuls, and...refugees.
Refugees from near and far fled into Alexandria as a place of sanity in a world gone mad, where food stores had been destroyed or life had just become "uncertain." Politicians held heated talks.
Amid this backdrop, rumors spread of a man and a woman in the Mists, of ancient figures of Alexandria's history coming forth again. The Mists however, faded, and since then, those rumors have been scoffed at. Worse, the kings have as yet not been found. Instead, Alexandria has found its greatest ally, Myrddion, locked in a cold war between two brothers.
The one beacon of hope amidst all this chaos came in the most unexpected of forms. Having just lost two gods and two kings to the world and reeling from chaos, whispers of hope began to surface as a new life in the heavens looked to be born. Serriel, a goddess of righteous war and civilization, stepped forward. Though new, she was swift to adopt the new arvek nar into her fold. Scholars name this a turning point for the troubled arvek, while poets title it the transformation of the Children of Sunset into the Children of the Dawn.
1014: The Fake Mists
Roughly a year after Alexandria's reappearance, the mists returned... They rolled out of the Red Ridge mountains as they did before, crossing over the countryside from east to west. Panic grew as they settled into place and farms shut down. Some people crowded into the city while others fled the area all together for fear of being trapped outside the world again.
Food became more difficult to obtain and crops rotted in the fields, unharvested. Prices on essentials of all kinds rose and the coffers of merchants who sought to exploit the situation swelled.
Slowly, through the diligent work of the city watch and adventurers, it became known that the mists were fake, unlike the ones that had swallowed the city before, and were coming from some place a near the mining town of Denston in the Red Ridge Mountains. It was believed that a Mul'niessa known only as Malik, was behind the growing fear. Many military forces and workers were made to work the farms that had been abandoned to secure the harvest and others still, along with mercenaries, went to work rooting out the source of the mists in the mountains.
Eventually, it was found in the fortress known as Khamon Sotch--an old khazadi fort lost to ages. Small, for khazadi standards, but still formidable. It was there that bold adventurers and city watch men struck a blow against the allies of the Shadow Sorceress by destroying the mist generator and putting an end to the mul'niessan's plans.
Officially, Malik is said to've been killed at the battle of Khamon Sotch, but it is believed that the thwarted bank robbery, on the same day of the assault of the fort, is no coincidence. Many speculate that Malik was killed or captured there, and that the mists were nothing more than a large effort to swell the bank's coffers and then rob it -- nothing more, nothing less.
Either way, Alexandria is again free of the fear that had gripped it and stands strengthened in the views of those who thought it might slip away again.
1014: The Seas of Alexandros
As the khazad and others work to establish the world's trade routes, Alexandria find itself in a unique position of being...mostly intact, and even more than before, it becomes a center of trade. The illegal sorts begin to take notice and Alexandria city is beset by pirates and sabotage. Trade slows to a near-halt.
1015: The Cannibal Queen
In 1015, the Cannibal Queen came to Alexandria. Long thought to be an old child's tale, she nonetheless covered not just the nation of Alexandros, but began spreading to other lands. Her influence began subtly--arguments would quickly spike into brawls, for example. Swiftly though, tales of instability and chaos ran ahead like wildfire. More and more people found themselves under the influence of madness.
Foreign forces moved in to take advantage. Parts of Charn, pirates, and a number of Alexandros' old enemies were swift in their striking.
Alexandria struck back when the executed one of the Queen's chiefs, a man known as the Butcher. Swiftly after, they begin to rally and to work with other nations to gather artifacts. These artifacts were then used to perform a city-wide ritual to banish the Queen from the ether and to wrest her control away from numerous souls and minds across Ea. The Temple of Tarien, in a surprise twist, hosted the ritual with the Daeusites acting as decoys. The Daeusite Temple suffered structural losses, as did much of the city itself.
Note, the Cannibal Queen is also referred to as the Azure Queen, or in more common parlance among the streets, the Blue Bitch.
1016: Onwards!
Past here, we started placing arcs into categories in the wiki. This is not the best system, but it is what we have. :S