Three hundred years ago the lands were rich in wealth, beauty, and magic. This wasn't always so, however. For several thousand years, before the Alexandria was brought under the rule of one king, wars raged across the entire continent.
Three thousand years ago the first humans began to migrate to the lands that would one day be called the Alexandria. The humans of that time were little better than barbarians held together by the strongest warrior.
Little history survived the first five hundred years of the humans conquest. A few brittle scrolls and charcoal drawings on human skin was all that the scholars were able to use to piece together the bloody wars that ravaged the land of the dwarves, elves, and other creatures that were indigenous to the lands.
Once the humans stopped fighting amongst themselves and their new neighbors a shaky peace
was formed between them and the dwarves and elves. Over the next five hundred years the humanoids
began to trade and coexist, though it could be said that the peace and commerce was not under the most friendly of terms.
Two thousand years ago, during the peace that was found between the races a threat came from the north. Orcs descended upon the continent that was named Corian by the humans – named for the great warrior that led the humans to the quiet times and stopped the endless fighting across the land.
The orc invasion began first among the dwarves who lived on the southern slopes of the dragon mountains where the orcs first crossed through the passes to the 'habitable lands'.
The dwarves, seeing that they were losing this battle sent runners to the lands of the humans and elves asking for help. The elves and humans joined the dwarves in the wars that would last for several hundred years and eventually thin the population of dwarves and elves to near extinction due to their longer lives and lower birthrate.
It was during this war that the first king was chosen to be a leader of the human nation. His name was Alexander, chosen not for his prowess in battle, but for his gift of tactics that had turned the tide and brought the dwarves, elves, and humans to stand together as one and finally broke the onslaught that the orcs had brought to the lands.
For a thousand years after the wars had ended the humans, elves, and dwarves lived and worked together in harmony. The Alexandria spread to the four corners of the continent. The elves and dwarves maintained their hereditary lands and grew over the years, though due to the long lived nature of their races the number of births would never come to rival the speed at which humans
reproduced.
As the kingdom spread out King Sargon found that holding together the kingdom and providing protection to the outlying cities and villages had become all but impossible. So, having five sons decided that he would make each a lord over a portion of his lands. He split the kingdom into five nations and set each of his sons as a lord and protector of each newly created nation.
King Sargon decreed that when his sons died that their eldest would become a lord in their place and take over the ruling of their father's nation and that when he was gone his sons would rule the lands by committee. Each having equal say and pass laws by a majority vote.
For a thousand years the nations of Alexandria knew peace and prosperity. The nations traded and lived as one. Many border villages did not know which nation to which they belonged. In fact, over the years several border villages belonged to one or another nation depending on how the lines had been drawn up during that succession.
In the north, the land flourished and provided half of the food stock for all nations. The southern nation became rich in spices and provided merchant trains and other transportation for the goods and services of the eastern and western nations. The eastern nation worked closely with their dwarven neighbors and provided steel and other metals. They became known for the craftsmanship of the tools and weapons that they crafted. The western nation worked closely with the wood elves to provide wood and livestock . The middle nation found that their land was rich in mineral deposits... especially gold and gems. The people of the middle nation became most noted for being bankers and money lenders.
The greatest achievement of the five nations of Alexandria was the founding of the White
Tower. As one they built a monolith of a tower on the small island north of the land of Alexandria. This tower would be a place of learning; a place of magic. For hundreds of years men and women from all nations human and non-human alike to study history, math, science, and the arcane. The greatest of these scholars was Marcos. Marcos could weave the flows of magic as others could breath. The power that he channeled and the marvels that he created are still studied today. He became the leader of the white tower and eventually, working with the rulers of the five nations, pushed for the island and white tower to not be a part of the five nations, but a place set apart, a place for solace and knowledge. Where anyone no matter their station in society could come to learn... However, after three years they would have a choice to become part of the White Tower, either as a servant or a scholar, or move on.
Over the years, magic was used to enrich the lives of everyone in the five nations. Whether lord, king, or peasant magic became a part of the way of life. Using Marcos' example wizards in training created simple wonders that changed lives. Whether the Relic was a small stone which touched to something broken it would repair it or a rod that could be commanded to bring forth light, the lives of everyone was made simpler and their work less burdensome. Of course, there were those who believed that these objects were sinister causing the young to become lazy. Or, that the Relic itself would some day bring despair to the owner.
So, the days grew into months, months into years, and years into decades until the inevitable happened. As everyone knows, nothing lasts forever. In the year 1711 five kings met to discuss laws and trading agreements between the five nations. However, when the kings left the deliberations only four returned home. King Dorian, lord of the west had been slain. What followed was one hundred years of war more bloody than any conflict that the orcs had hoped to bring.
The wars were brutal and thousands died in the first battles. The men and women of the nations were unequipped to deal with sudden violence and may innocents died next to soldiers as armies marched from one nation to another. This lasted until a most horrifying event took place.
It is believed by some that the nation of bankers commissioned a new kind of magic from those who had access to the White Tower. A kind of magic that was forbidden by Marcos and the kings when they founded the White Tower. That, somehow things that should not have been made, were. And, things that should not have fallen into the hands of evil men, did. Others believe that Marcos himself came back from the dead to punish those who started the war by destroying the wealth of the five nations and the location where the kings gathered to make laws; the place where the war truly began. The strongest belief is that the gods decided that people whom they had blessed with peace and prosperity had gone astray and the gods themselves destroyed those people.
The result, whether act of the gods or man, was a that a large ball of fire erupted in the middle of the nation of bankers. But, buy design or folly, no one to this day knows. The fallout from the terrible explosion left hundreds of miles of destruction. The magic devices which worked so well and brought comfort to so many began to fail. The force that shook the world corrupted not only the blackened land in the center of the five nations but the lives of all who lived in those lands.
For one hundred years after the war, diseases ran rampant across the land, fierce storms brought devastation to the coastal regions of the five nations. Twisted beasts began to creep through fields at night slaughtering any in their path and the human settlements, cities where hundreds of thousands of people once lived became grave markers. Other cities were completely removed from the land as if they had never been.
Today, some believe that they never were...
