The History of Avlis - Volume IV

• Published by the Academy of Mortal Magic, an Entity of Andrinor's Trust. Information within this book may not be used without the permission of the High Mage Council of Avlis*

VOLUME 4 - The Age of Peace, the Age of Immortals, Revised Edition

(years 1 to 1000)

The withdrawal of the dragons sapped much of the strength of the armies who fought the Great War, forcing a truce on all the parties. This marked the beginning of what was a thousand years of relative quiet, what we call the Age of Peace.

• • • The rise of Immortals and the younger races. ***

The Age of Peace has also been called the Age of Immortals, for it was a time of growth not just among the peoples of the world, but also among the gods in their realms above and below. As the nine races healed their wounds and rebuilt their nations, the Nine Gods watched them, and found among them mortals that they favored and befriended. From time to time, these favored mortals were elevated, bringing into the world the immortals. The immortals were not yet gods, but no longer one of our kind. They were and are (for many surely remain among us) undying in that though they might be slain, they did not age or succumb to disease. A few such immortals gathered followers of their own and truly joined the gods. Others remained simply immortal, but joined the Nine as wives, bearing children who in turn joined their fathers as gods and goddesses of Avlis. As their parents before them, many of these younger gods and goddesses created new peoples of their own, such Mikon¡¦s son Balgar, who created the wemics, and Berryn and Fegall, who, as described below, created the halflings and gnomes, respectively. With the end of the Great War, as many of the old civilizations were rebuilt, many new nations arose under the patronage of these new immortals and gods.

• • • The Kurathene Empire. ***

The final evocation that ended the Great War occurred during the rule of Joral Kuras, the last of the line of Kuras rulers of the Kurathene Republic. Many records have been lost from that time, but it is generally held that Joral disliked the government of the old Republic, seeing joint rule with the Kurathene Council as an impediment to maintaining order. The disaster of the final evocation had several effects on his rule. Many of the council members were slain in the disaster, effectively eliminating the Council. However, their death caused the Republic to slip toward anarchy. Exacerbating this, many of the people of the Republic blamed Joral Kuras for the disaster, which they felt might have been prevented if the Republic had entered the Great War against the orcs. In a short time, Kuras' rule was reduced to the lands immediately surrounding the city of Centerpoint.

Joral Kuras set about the task of rebuilding the Kurathene nation. He was aided in great part by the dracon, for as a people they desired order to be restored. Joral adopted Toran the Disciplined, the dracon's creator, as the patron of the lands he held. This move is seen now as pivotal to Joral's winning the support of the dracon as well as many humans, who felt that the philosophy of Mikon was at fault for letting the Great War reach the point that it did. With his leadership around Centerpoint secured, Joral renamed the city Kuras, and designated it to be the capitol of the Kurathene nation.

Over fifteen years, Joral led armies of dracon and humans to reclaim the former provinces of the Republic. However, he did not reestablish the Kurathene Council, but gave control to vassals who swore fealty directly to him. Under the patronage of Toran, Kuras assumed the mantle of immortality, and declared himself Emperor, giving birth to the Kurathene Empire. The positions of the vassals of the provinces became hereditary, establishing noble families that served their immortal Emperor and persist to this day. The Empire grew wealthy through trade, while the disciplined Kurathene army kept the nation safe from its enemies. For nearly two thousand years, the Emperor Kuras ruled over arguably the mightiest nation of Avlis.

• • • Jechran. ***

The land of Dobrekon also changed greatly during and after the Great War. The Final Evocation rendered much of Dobrekon a barren wasteland, but in the north, many villages remained. Even with the orcs driven from the lands, the remaining populations of humans and elves had already suffered from the fighting, with nearly all able-bodied human and elf males having been slain by the orc armies, leaving the widows to take up the tasks normally given to their husbands: to hunt, build, and soldier. A young goddess, Dre'Ana, the daughter of O'Ma, took pity on them. She adopted the former Dobrekonians as her own, and taught the women the skills they needed to survive the harsh wooded lands. Her guidance changed the face of their society, such that even as their population recovered its males, the females retained positions of dominance in their semi-tribal culture. Over time, the people of Dre'Ana formed the loosely organized nation of Jechran.

• • • Ferrell. ***

The history of Ferrell can be summarized by saying it is a peaceful collection of villages inhabited by the halfling people. During the Age of Immortals, Gorethar took as a bride the immortal druidess Kitanya Meygle. Their daughter was Berryn, the Goddess of the Morning and Spring. In a small area of land with rolling hills, Berryn made a simple people of good heart, the folk we call halflings. From that time, near 200 years after the dawning of the Age of Peace, the halflings have remained in the gentle land of Ferrell.

• • • Dubunat. ***

While the remnants of the Dobrekan military held the lands around Brekon, another poorly organized horde of orcs and giantkin survived the Great War just to the south. For a time, the Brekon military also claimed these lands, but in fact the area was largely left to bands of robbers and bandits. Among these groups, one rose to prominence under the orcish bandit king, The'ton. Through tactics designed to inspire fear and intimidation, The'ton's forces gained control of the trade routes linking the Kurathene Empire to the north with the nations to the south, forcing merchants to pay tribute and greatly enriching The'ton's band. The'ton's successful rulership gained him devout followers, granting him the gift of immortality.

Over five more centuries, The'ton unified the orcs of the land through conquest of rival bands, establishing the nation of Dubunat, which fittingly means "Righteous through strength." In so doing, he received the blessing of divinity, ascending to godhood at Valok's right hand. To this day, Dubunat remains a monarchy descended from the line of The'ton, God of Fear and Intimidation.

• • • Deglos. ***

The nation of Galdos today retains less than half the area that the hereditary monarchy held at the time of the Great War. Like the elves and fairies, the dwarves fought in the war against the orcs. Among the many heroes recorded in history, one who rose to great prominence near the end of the Great War was Fegall. Having first honed his skills in defending Deglos during the Demonspawn Wars, Fegall is credited with helping close the Great War through not only military skill, but also inventiveness, developing novel stratagems and battle-related contraptions that helped turn the tide of the fighting.

With the end of the Great War, Fegall gained a following of dwarves interested in learning from his talents. He and his disciples traveled to the southern reaches of Galdos to study in earnest the art of invention. Over time his following grew greatly, and Fegall gained immortality and godhood. With Fegall's ascension as God of Crafting, his most devout followers began to change physically in subtle ways. They became slight of build but large of nose compared to their kin, and their minds became more attuned to crafting, both magic and mundane, so that by the end of the first millennium of the Age of Peace, the gnomish race had come to be.

This changing of the gnomes and the dwarves that were settled with them in southern Galdos is considered to be the reason for the eventual splitting of Galdos. The southern dwarves and gnomes opened a robust trade with the neighboring lands, and their society became less constrained compared to their northern kinsmen. This cultural rift spread through all levels of Galdosian life, dividing the powerful trade guilds, the governing bureaucracies, and even the royal family. Rather than face civil war, the ruling King of Galdos allowed the southern dwarves and gnomes independence by granting his younger son, who himself was married to a gnome, monarchy over the new southern nation of Deglos. The King of Deglos, in homage to the philosophy of Fegall, promptly dissolved the monarchy and transferred control of the nation to the crafting guilds, which established the Governing Council of Guilds that still governs Deglos.

• • • The Age of Darkness. (year ~1000) ***

Little is known to us of this period in time. All we have are rumors, which suggest that after a millennium of relative peace in the world, the Black Dagger of Destruction was again found, and that a god was slain by it, sparking a devastating war between the gods and mortals. Perhaps future research will reveal what events of this time took place.

By Hilde Meyldur