Aeldin

(Some of these tales are only in character belief and nothing here is to be considered fully true. The Continent itself exists, but some of the facts listed here are rumours.)

Aeldin is a documented continent thought to be the largest continent ever to exist in history. At an estimated 19km2 including adjacent islands, it covers the largest landmass compared to Athera.The continent itself is surrounded by the at least five seas to west, and the shattered sea to the southeast. Aeldin includes the Golden Shore and various archipelago which mainly occur in the south-east. Over the historical period there have been many events that have divided or reunified the continent, for example the Imperial Age or the Third Era. Many events for Humans, Elves and Orcs have been told to occurred in Aeldin, but despite most of the population of the continent being mainly Human, there are other races scattered across the land, some including Orcs and Elves. The same applies for other races, such as Dwarves which are rare due to their civilization being closed in. Over time when the Exodus occurred, it sparked more damage towards the non-human races of Aeldin as many racist and large scaled military campaigns came, with land destroyed and annexed by the more predominant Empire of the time, the Imperium. Even before the Exodus, Humans from Anthos traveled to Aeldin via boat to fight in conflicts that erupted between races and nations, as it regularly did. Notable events include the closing of the Dwarven mountain, or the genocide of the Orcish War parties in the steppes which saw over five thousand non-orcish citizen casualties, with ten and a half thousand non-orcish troops also slaughtered. Unlike Human dominance in other continents, Aeldin faced many years under Elven oppression over the other races.

History (Tale)

The Tribal Era

The races of Aeldin are a primitive people, barely able to fashion tools made of copper. At this time, kingdoms and government were hardly even thoughts in the uncivilized lifestyles of the races. Primitive villages or roaming nomads ruled; discoveries like irrigation and animal husbandry are new in the eyes of the tribal races, and any form of recorded history is passed on orally, making the Era a time of myth and mystery. Evidence of structures such as causewayed enclosures, castles and megalithic tombs suggest that a sense of culture was developing, but no literature of scripture has been found that would date to this Era, pondering the minds of modern day histrorians of Aeldin.

The First Era

Map of East Aeldin, found after the Atheran Imperium's fall

The nomadic lifestyles that had once been commonplace in Aeldin were dwindling now. The humans were the first to abandon it, settling upon rivers and creating walled-off towns with a governing body capable of a communal survival. Some Humans started to form what would be an early grasp of feudalism, but it would take many years to perfect. The elves preferred the freer lifestyle of the nomad, and kept to the forests and great plains where foraging materials were easily accessible. They also developed their own Elvish language, called Aeldinic Elf, which would be the main language for elves in Aeldin for many generations to come. The dwarves, who even in the Tribal Era had b een viewed as advanced, had begun to become more and more reclusive, preferring the quiet solitude of their mountains and refusing the other racial merchants into their carved grandeur halls and cities. Having long dwelled in their mountain and underground cities, the dwarves of Aeldin decided finally to close their stone doors for the first and last time, shutting themselves off from the outside world. Expanding their cities to support their new isolation, the dwarves soon discovered other tunnelways and halls, as archaic as the mountains themselves. Dwarven expeditions into these seemingly endless carved paths and tunnels lead to the discovery of ancient creatures, or the Aelmons. These creatures, who looked more like demons and monsters rather than sentient beings, awakened and began the millennia long war with the dwarves of the mountains. These underground wars are almost entirely forgotten, barely a trace remaining of the millions lost fighting against these foul creatures. The frequent wars between the humans and elves of Aeldin came to a peak as the elven conglomeration of tribes, known as the Goya’tael, besieged the city of Sareilla-upon-Galxos. The technological differences of the two sides showed itself when the normally nomadic tribes of the elves attempted to assault the walls. The numbers were well on the elves’ side, but the primitive way in which they lived left little room for intellectual thought and advancement. As a result, the primitive siege ladders and other engines were highly ineffective, the human defenders showing their technological superiority and routing the Goya’tael from the city. The retreating elves left behind their attempts at siege engines, which can still be see today sunken at the bottom of the river Galxos.