Monsterfef lore

THE AGE OF TYRANTS

In the Beginning was the Age of Tyrants. The Titans roamed the world - vast monsters, on a scale larger than the mind could comprehend. The Tyrant Worm, Uzogub, chewed his way deep below the earth, sinking cities and villages as his whim decreed. The Ceaseless Ator, Queen of Sand, caused droughts with every step of her infernal dance. Thornblooded Culri haunted the forests, demanding blood sacrifice to sate its desires. Envenomed Craggor, who dripped poison from the hundred cracks in his stone body. Wandering Goar, worst of all, stalked the earth, so vile the sun itself would not shine on its pestilent flesh.

In this age, the Continent was a very different place. Men had not discovered iron, and magic was the domain of the monster races entirely. To the Titans, the lesser races were little more than slaves, or food, or even below notice. Mortals lingered in an endless nightmare...

It ended when the gods themselves appeared, to strike down the Titans and free the tortured peoples of the Continent.

First defeated was Envenomed Craggor, but in the battle the Barrens were tainted with his wretched ichor. The Tyrant Worm was the second slain, and his bones used to build the Spine. From this bastion, the gods struck down the Ceaseless Ator, who's veins leaked the sand that became the Atorian Desert. Thornblooded Culri leapt the wall and fought the gods hand-to-hand, and at last they struck him down, too. From his corpse sprouted the million trees of Culri's Forest. Finally, the gods attacked the Wandering Goar, but even they could not slay it. In the end, they hurled it from the Edge, so it may fall endlessly into the abyss.

Thus ended the Age of Tyrants.

THE AGE OF GODS

The Age of Gods was all-too-brief. They maintained a gentle dominion over all species, rarely taking a direct hand. They healed the land where the Titans had scarred it, cured plagues and settled disputes. Men learned the secrets of iron and magic.

The Izul were a powerful and proud race, greater even than the dragons, and the chosen people of the gods. They had a great city on the island of Izuli, full of wonders unmatched even to this day. The Skyway was built, and the Harpies created to fly it by the Izul. The city that would one day become Paus was raised from the inland sea by them, as a gift to the lesser races, to act as a seat of knowledge and learning.

But time took them in the end, no matter their perfection of form or skill at magic, and the knowledge of their inevitable deaths gnawed away at them.

The Izul conducted a great magic ritual. It must have gone wrong, as the island itself was cracked and cratered. Every single Izul died, souls shorn from their flesh. That wasn't the worst of it, though. Across the land, the dead rose to walk the earth. Plagues bubbled from the land. Earthquakes toppled towns, and giant waves drowned the coasts.

And the gods were banished from the world.

Thus ended the Age of Gods.

THE AGE OF BLADES AND CLAWS

Dark times followed the disappearance of the gods. The mortal races were assailed on all sides - crop failures, undead, plagues and strife, all without the guiding and protective hand of the gods. The Continent descended into madness and anarchy. Brother fought brother. Father slew son. The Skyway crumbled into ruin without the expertise of the Izul, and the great centre of knowledge they built was razed to the ground. The Spiderpeople retreated to the deep forest, and zealously guarded their shadowed clearings.

An outcast tribe of the Vang was forced into the Barrens, where, somehow, they became the Vargr. Perhaps they abandoned their humanity, or the gods heard their prayers. Either way, the Vargr became a terror to their erstwhile countrymen, as packs of great wolves haunted the night.

The Age of Blades and Claws was ended by three ways. Balthe forged the Kingdom of Vang across half the continent, only to be murdered by his son. The Dragons flew from the island of Uzu, and began to conquer the Draconic Empire. And finally, the Lamia and the Sardan united in the Sarian Sultanate. Through these actions, this dark chapter of history was brought to an end.

Thus ended the Age of Blades and Claws.

THE AGE OF DRAGONS

The previous age to the current, lasting three hundred years, showed the dragons conquer their way up the continent. The city of Paus was refounded over the ruins of the last. The Vang were pushed back, losing their western territories. This was also the golden age of the Sarian Sultanate - they remained aloof from the Vang-Dragon war, and this period of peace allowed them to accelerate their studies of culture, science, and reestablish contact - distant and faint though it may be - with the gods, sighting their influence in the stars.

They even funded expeditions to Izul, to recover secrets lost to the undead and worse that still prowled the island, and some even met with success. They brought back the secret of Wyrmslayer weapons, which they secretly passed to the downtrodden Luce.

The Draconic Empire lasted barely more than a dragon's full lifetime, but was the unmistakable master of the era. They had conquered even their way to Balthe's Fall in their war against the Vang, and the Sarian were a tributary. The Empire was highly dragoncentric, with mere humans being little more than labour and soldiers. Eventually, however, the discovery of thunder magic and wyrmslayer weapons allowed the Luce to overthrow the dragons - and establish the Liberty Union. The Vang managed to reconquer some of their lost territory, but the new armies of the Liberty Union fought them to a standstill.

Thus ended the Age of Dragons.

THE AGE OF STEEL

The current age. The current year is A.S 53. Thirty years ago, the Kingdom of Vang fought the Liberty Union and the Sarian Sultanate in a bloody war. While it managed to hold back the Liberty Union through the Siege of Fort Sen and the Sack of Arenni, it lost the city of Yenn's Landing to the Sultanate.

The old King of Vang, Balthe IV, has fallen gravely ill, and has no successor. The undead stir once more, and the omens foretell of bloodshed.