The history of Erdreja is split into two periods by the calender of man. Before the Founding and After the Founding. The Founding refers to the day the new empire of man was formed.
Before The Founding
The elder races lived long and peaceful lives on Erdreja. Elves, Dwarves
and Fairy Folk, all lived in relative peace for millennia. When the younger
races came to the world this peace was shattered. Within a few centuries
of their arrival, the Race Wars began and many thousands of lives were
lost within just a few decades.
During the wars, the younger races developed a device that was powered by the magic of the elder races. Although normally long-lived, the elder races aged quickly and died while they continued to use their incantation magic.
The device was hidden from the elder races. In a desperate attempt to counter it, the elder races performed a mighty ritual, banishing the knowledge of incantation magic from all Erdreja. Only the Dark Elves were unaffected, shielded as they were by the miles of solid rock between their underground home and the surface. They guarded the knowledge of incantation magic against the time when it would be needed again on the surface of Erdreja.
The Founding
The banishing of incantation was one of the last, desperate acts of the
elder races. The Fairy Folk had retreated to the unseen court, the Dwarves
and their kin had fallen back into the far south and only the Elves were
left to fight the younger races. Kingdom by kingdom, the Elves were gradually
overrun and pushed eastwards, where they made a final stand. Over a thousand
years ago, the younger races defeated the last elven army and the few
remaining elven lords took the last of their people into hiding.
The wars were finally over and the younger races stood victorious. Cities were built and a great civilisation was created. Tebron, who was the greatest warlord of the younger races, was declared Emperor and ruled from the great city of Tebronia, that bore his name. The empire of the younger races was founded on the day that Tebron first sat upon his imperial throne and the calendar began anew with the first year AF (After Founding). After Tebron's death the capital was re-named Malkarn and it remained so until its destruction.
The elemental colleges, as guardians of the empire's knowledge,
created a great library in the north, built on the ruins of an elven city
once renowned for its learning. The city of Norhault grew up around this
library, which became the greatest seat of learning in the known world.
The library was formally opened one year to the day after Tebron was crowned;
The first day of January in the year 1 AF. For several centuries the empire
prospered, and peace returned to the lands.
The Cataclysm
Just before 500 AF, a great cataclysm took place. A ritual was being performed
in the capital's great ritual circle to bring rain to the drought stricken
southern farms. It is still not known how this ritual was disrupted, or
by whom, but it seems that the unexpected disturbance released all the
magic within the circle.
This uncontrolled power flowed to every other known ritual circle, shattering many and killing hundreds of people. Violent earthquakes rocked the land, mountains were smashed and the capital Malkarn itself was dragged beneath the waves, as the whole of the Imperial Heartlands sank. The waters of the great seas rushed in to separate forever the northern and southern continents. Albion, cymrja, Erin and Western Norsca (now Orkneyjar) became islands as the land around them disappeared and the seas flooded in. Whole communities died, including the emperor, his family and most of the ruling lords of the empire.
The end of the empire began a period of almost six hundred
years of war between the remaining nobles, over who would rule the new
lands. It soon became apparent that none of them could achieve total victory.
The empire was gone forever and instead the Heartland countries became
small independent nations. They were ruled over by lord generals, who
warred continuously with each other over the borders of the disputed lands.
