History of Pardal
From Myth-Wiki
Contents |
Known History
The remembered history of Pardal goes back thousands of years. It starts shortly after the first Great War.
The First Great War
The first great war was fought between the humans and the non-humans, but not all at once. The humans first fought a war against the elves. The reason given now a days is that the elves refused to bow to the supremacy of the "True God", having their own infernal, pagan deities. No one else came to aid the elves, as the elves were typically aloof and standoffish, or so the history says. Next it was the gnomes, then halflings, and then finally the dwarves. The dwarfs held out the longest and most are still convinced the dwarfs were never exterminated but simply retreated far underground. In any event, the First Great War saw humanity wipe all the good-aligned non-humans from the continent and declare themselves rulers of all the land. There are a few clans of half-breeds which have some how breed true through these thousands of years and are generally looked down upon as inferior.
The Abyssal War
Several hundred years after the First Great War was the Abyssal War. This saw an invasion of the empire by demonic foes. After several years of fighting, the Demons were smote by the Immortal-Emperor himself. As the final demon lord was smote and cast from this plane, he unleashed a demonic plague on humanity which killed all it touched and was almost completely immune to magical healing. All but the most powerful clerical healing worked. Hundreds of thousands died from the plague. This lead to the ban on Arcane magic, for the Emperor knew this to be the work of Wizards. As such, Wizardry was banned throughout the land. Wizards and Sorcerer's died in pyres, were drown, or torn apart on the rack. Arcane magic all but disappeared in a generation. As such, any item which duplicates Arcane magic is both outlawed and extremely valuable.
The Farm Wars
This oddly named War was is by most considered to be the worst war fought since the Great War. The Farm War was the war against the Druids and devastated the Empire for hundreds of years. Many suspect the Druids knew what was coming based on the Empires history and were ready for it. When the Immortal-Emperor declared Druidic Circles illegal and banned them, the Druids struck first. Near every major city, the Druids had one of their most powerful druids in hiding and waiting. Almost in unison, they struck. They unleashed Earthquakes, Storms of Vengeance, Creeping Dooms, Fire Storms, and more on the major cities of the Empire. Bridges were collapsed across the Empire, river banks swelled, Farms were overrun by the animals who turned on their owners, and more. The Immortal-Emperor expected the Druids to cower like the others did before them, and in doing so, dramatically underestimated them. Whatever the Immortal-Emperor had planned was put on hold as he now had to deal with being on the defensive instead of the offensive. But for all the Druids did, they then retreated, confident they would now be left alone. They were wrong. When the Empire had begun to recover, it attacked with a vengeance. It was a brutal war which produced starvation on a grand scale, as the Druids fought a scorched earth battle. Livestock fought soldiers, stalks of corn assailed the farmers, forests turned on loggers. In the end, the Immortal-Emperor declared victory, parading the body of the High Druid through the Holy City. For decades afterwords though, the Empire had problems from the remaining druids. Stories were told of lone men and women appearing, reading from a piece of parchment and horrible beings appearing, killing and destroying all within the area and then disappearing. The worst one happened forty years ago, when a man appeared on the docks of the Holy City, read from a scroll and then 4 sperm whales appeared in the bay and destroyed over two dozen ships.
The Schism War
About two hundred years ago, several of the kingdom's in the Empire decided they wanted their independence. This did not go over well with the Immortal-Emperor. In what became called the Schism War, the Church declared those rebelling Kingdoms to be under Interdict and rallied their military to crush them. And crush them they did, but not without great cost to themselves.
Death of an Immortal
No one knows what happened or even how it happened, but one day not too long ago, there was a great explosion in the Emperor's palace. Fire rolled out and down the corridors, burning alive everyone in it's way. Dark clouds gathered over the palace and lightning struck the palace again and again. Those still alive in the palace fled from it, fearful for their lives. Chunks of ice and stone began to pelt the palace area and the last to flee the palace say they could hear the Immortal-Emperor's voice echoes throughout the palace hallways in challenge. The ground itself shook and parts of the palace collapsed in on itself. Within the span of thirty minutes though, it was all over. A pale beam of yellow light shot up from the palace into the sky and then faded without a sound. It took days to find the body of the Immortal-Emperor, his body drawn and quartered like a common criminal, with his bodiless head placed upon the seat of his throne, lifeless eyes staring out at nothing.
What followed
Shortly after the death of the Immortal-Emperor, great calamities truck the seven lords, killing the lords and their immediate families and heirs. The first one everyone thought was a freak accident. The second was suspicious. After the third, everyone knew someone, or something, was killing the seven lords. With the death of the Seventh and final lord, the Empire began to shatter. Some began to claim their independence, free from what they saw as the shackles of the Immortal-Emperor. Others, for whatever their reason, attempted to hold the Empire together, convinced that their divine patron(s) would aid them. Now is a time of War.
