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| | == History == | | == History == |
| − | The following are in roughly chronological order, although poor record-keeping, the occasional shipment of history books from alternate worlds or dimensions, and the encroachments of Chaos have left history in a slightly confused state. The world has a lot of history, which in general is not worth recounting in detail. There have been a near-infinite number of lesser kingdoms and empires across a geographic space comparable to our own Earth, with all the carnage and comedy that that implies. However, there are a few major eras that will give an overview of world history. | + | The following are in roughly chronological order, although poor record-keeping and the encroachments of Chaos have left history in a slightly confused state. |
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| − | === 0. The Precursor Era === | + | ===The Lizardmen=== |
| | + | Deep in the mists of history, the Lizardmen had a mighty civilization. Little is known of them, as even for those who are proficient with their language find the meaning of their pictograms inscrutable. The Lizardman brain is formed differently from the human one, and communication between the species is often difficult. It is known that they were highly accomplished in certain forms of architecture, as many of their pyramids and ziggurats still stand. They also had some unusual form of magic, or highly-developed psionic power, which relied on great crystalline structures. However, the modern Lizardman is a debased and ignorant creature, uncomprehending of his people's own written language or their history. What might have wrought this change in them is completely unknown. |
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| − | There are occasionally objects or devices, such as the Cidrian Gates or the Sublunar Machinery which seems to correspond to some time or people before the era of the Lizard Kings. Anything that old which is still operational can be presumed to have unimaginable power and sophistication. They may have been built by prior human civilizations or by entities even further removed from our understanding.
| + | ===The Amaranthan Empire=== |
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| − | === 1. Early Human Colonization === | |
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| − | Early Human Colonization. During this period, large numbers of humans arrived on the planet via unknown means, and engaged in widespread terraforming and genetic resequencing of themselves and everything else they could get their hands on. The early colonies “failed,” in that C&C with whoever sent them was lost, and whatever early governments were established collapsed. Humans went through a period of barbaric savagery, and then got it out of their systems.
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| − | === 2. The Lizard Kings ===
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| − | The Lizardmen were for a time the apex sophont on the planet. They built great crystalline devices that ran on psionic rather than technological or magical principles, subjugated humans when they felt the need, and built massive ziggurats. Eventually, humans defeated them via some means unrecorded. The modern Lizardman is a brute beast that cannot even read the hieroglyphs of its ancient ancestors, much less operate the strange science to which it should be heir. The Lizardman brain is formed differently from the human one, and communication between the species is often difficult.
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| − | === 3. The Amaranthan Empire===
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| | [[File:Barlowe_grayinfront.jpg]]<br/> | | [[File:Barlowe_grayinfront.jpg]]<br/> |
| | + | One of the more historically "recent" Great Civilizations, the Amaranthan's were unparalleled masters of sorcery. Their ways were debased and vile, but they crushed kingdoms as a dragon might smite a bugbear. A heavily chaotic race, the Amaranthans eventually rebelled against those beings claiming the status of deityhood. It galled them that any being should arrogate to themselves a higher station than what their Emperor appointed. Thus began the dreadful God-War of the Amaranthan Empire. It raged on for centuries, and the Amaranthans did in fact manage to subjugate the four major elements - to this day the great elementals are unusually susceptible to the antique sorceries to which the Amaranthans bound them. The war did not end, however, and each new year brought more powerful beings into conflict with the unbelievable might of the Amaranthans. The great houses were eventually tempted to rebel against the endless war, and the Empire self-destructed in a decade of blood and fire. The ruins and deep fastnesses of the Amaranthans are still considered to be some of the most valuable and dangerous sites for adventuring; they had vast wealth and had created innumerable artifacts. |
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| − | The Amaranthans arose out of a small but wealthy kingdom by a bay, where innovative magicians laid down the foundation-stones of modern sorcery. It was a darker, cruder magic that they practiced, but they were insatiable for more power. Within a handful of generations, the leaders of the Amaranthan kingdoms had as much magic in their veins as blood, and they conquered the vast majority of the world. Between their spells and pre-Saurian technology and learning they recovered from deep fastnesses, they easily brought to heel the feudal human societies that arose to fill the vacuum left by the Lizard Kings.
| + | It is said that there is somewhere a desert wasteland, at the center of which is a huge black obelisk engraved with the names of all those deities slain during the God-War. |
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| − | Their ways were debased and vile, but they crushed kingdoms as a dragon might smite a bugbear.
| + | ===The Thracian Hegemony=== |
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| − | === 4. The God-War === | |
| − | A heavily chaotic race, the Amaranthans eventually rebelled against those beings claiming the status of deityhood. It galled them that any being should arrogate to themselves a higher station than what their Emperor appointed. Thus began the dreadful God-War of the Amaranthan Empire. It raged on for centuries, and the Amaranthans did in fact manage to subjugate the four major elements - to this day the great elementals are unusually susceptible to the antique sorceries to which the Amaranthans bound them. The war did not end, however, and each new year brought more powerful beings into conflict with the unbelievable might of the Amaranthans. The great houses were eventually tempted to rebel against the endless war, and the Empire self-destructed in a decade of blood and fire. This left the world and humanity at the mercy of all the things they had pissed off. Hint: It was almost everything.
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| − | The ruins and deep fastnesses of the Amaranthans are still considered to be some of the most valuable and dangerous sites for adventuring; they had vast wealth and had created innumerable artifacts. It is said that there is somewhere a desert wasteland, at the center of which is a huge black obelisk engraved with the names of all those deities slain during the God-War.
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| − | === 5. The Long Night. ===
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| − | Little enough of this era is recorded. Vengeful gods and demons and various other potent beings preyed on humanity and dominated their cities. Much awful tribute was extracted, and the lore of the Amaranthans was destroyed whenever it could be found. The tech level at this time was definitely more medieval in character, as humans were lucky if their masters allowed them pointy sticks, in most places.
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| − | === 6. The Thracian Hegemony ===
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| | <br/>[[File:Gated_Community.jpg|left]]<br/> | | <br/>[[File:Gated_Community.jpg|left]]<br/> |
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| − | The Thracians began as a small group of seafaring nations, which eventually conglomerated and combined their efforts. Through a massive conspiracy, they managed to help each other throw off the yokes of their inhuman masters and institute democracy. They revived the pursuits of technology and complex financial instruments, and through a combination of laser-armed airships and disaster capitalism they were able to free most of humanity from the thrall of various Vampire Princes and Demon Cults. They rapidly became masters of the exchange of goods, and proceeded to dominate, incorporate, and subvert every economic entity they could come into contact with. Their complex arrangements of ownership and finance allowed them to trick simpler peoples out of their wealth with impunity. | + | The Thracians began as a small group of seafaring nations, which eventually conglomerated and combined their efforts. They rapidly became masters of the exchange of goods, and proceeded to dominate, incorporate, and subvert every economic entity they could come into contact with. Their complex arrangements of ownership and finance allowed them to trick simpler peoples out of their wealth with impunity. They also reached incredible heights of technical prowess, and mastered the physical realm in a way that had not been seen in millenia. Their hubris was boundless, and it was inevitable that they would begin to have truck with the beings inhabiting the moons, the dark between the stars, and the lands in the hollow world. They had crafted bargains with powers that ought not have been bargained with, and the Hegemony was decapitated in a single blood-soaked night when the account came to be paid. Bereft of leadership, barbarians and lesser kingdoms raided and destroyed the remaining centers of Thracian power. Their society disintegrated, and the lore of operating their great machines and mysterious facilities became lost. |
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| − | They also reached incredible heights of technical prowess, and mastered the physical realm in a way that had not been seen in millenia. While the Thracians disfavored the use of direct sorcery, they did recover and disseminate some of the more orderly Amaranthan works on the subject. They also made advances in the creation of arcane and technological devices. The most notable achievement of the Thracians, though, was that they created a standardized system of coinage which is still nearly universal. | |
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| − | === 7. The Decapitation ===
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| − | The leaders of the Thracian Combines attempted to make treaty with the various Lunar civilizations, just as they had done to the monstrous kingdoms that had existed on the terrestrial sphere. For whatever reason, the negotiations fell through, and ended in several nights of blood and fire. When the smoke cleared, the Thracian civilization came apart at the seams. They had always kept their leadership and industrial base centralized, to maintain their hegemony. Unfortunately, that meant it was all destroyed by the swarm of meteorites that turned their capital city into a morass of smoking, flooded craters. Bereft of leadership, barbarians and lesser kingdoms raided and destroyed the remaining centers of Thracian power. Their society disintegrated, and the lore of operating their great machines and mysterious facilities became lost.
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| − | === 8. The Interregnum ===
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| − | In the aftermath of the Decapitation, a wide variety of wars and disasters destroyed much of what had been built, and the human population of the world was much reduced.
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| − | === 9. The Age of City-States ===
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| − | This is the time during which our campaigns take place. Over much of the world, humanity has reorganized itself into independent and semi-independent city-states. There is trade and communication between the various civilizations, but vast waste-lands full of ruins and ancient roads occupy the space between them. Human civilizations seem to be somewhat drowsy at this time in history, and the people of the world are plagued by hedonism and sybaritic boredom. Greed takes the place of ambition, and everywhere men and women take the low and easy road to comfort. Globe-spanning ambitions are distinctly out of fashion.
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| | == Technology == | | == Technology == |
