History

Before recorded history in Zalbroch there were only stories told among groups of people. These old spoken words told stories about great heroes and gods. Often times the stories were told over a fire to the tribes and other groups of people. Until the Falling no one thought to write down history, it changed everything.

Year One
Directly after the Falling everything was chaos. No one had ever heard of rock falling from the sky. Not only had it fallen from the sky, but it also broke up into four pieces. The largest piece created the rift in the mountains. Three other pieces fell onto 3 separate corners of Zalbroch. It is believed that the biggest piece is what created magic in Zalbroch, and that the three smaller pieces only harness it to create specific magic.

The piece of the Wild landed in what is now known as Merdia. It caused all of the humans living there to change into something very different. They now call themselves Hybeasts. The piece of the Wild also allows people to shift their form if they perform specific rituals.

The piece of the Soul landed in what is now known as Asteil. It's effects were not seen for sometime as the piece of the Soul specifically calls out to select people so that they may learn its ways. These people have the choice to ignore it or to follow it. Those who follow it are able to use very powerful soul magic, however it came at a cost.

The piece of the Light landed is what is now known as Lumuxia. Its effects were not seen for a few months. During the lunar eclipse many people found their pupils glowed. After that they were able to perform simple magic. Some took a lot of time to practice and found they could eventually perform very powerful luso magic.

Year Fifty
After years of arguing and fighting over the pieces from the Falling, leaders eventually rose up and created the three nations around them. Around this time the Three Nations came to be. However the creation of the three nations did not mean peace for Zalbroch. It took time to establish towns, villages, and cities. Time to establish structure and laws.

Although there were reports of sighting of magical beasts none were recorded.

Year Two Hundred and Seventy Three
By this point the nations were well established. However, the hunger for more power caused the land inbetween major cities to become war torn and inhabitable. Three nations fought over the Rift. Being near the Rift strengthened magic and lessened the cost of it. Thus making it incredibly valuable to magic users of all kinds.

All of this suffering and anger fed the demonic beasts so that they could become stronger.

Year Six Hundred and Twenty Five
Hundreds of years of war left Zalbroch a hard place to live. With most resources used to help with the War of the Rift many smaller villages came to an end. Famine and disease caused growing populations to diminish within the past decade. At this point in the war many factions in all of the cities were just fighting for peace. A peace that would save their children from the horrors that hundreds of years of their ancestors had experienced.

Year Six Hundred and Thirty One
The peace that so many had wanted finally came. At least for the time being. Merdia, Asteil, and Lumuxia had finally came to an understanding. If they could not individually have control over the Rift, no one could have control over it. In the treaty it was said that everyone was forbidden from going near the Rift. Those who did not follow this law were sentenced to a most horrible death.

The people were told that it was the source of great evil, although the leaders suspected otherwise. They believed that the Rift had a mind of its own, and althought it was the source of evil, it was also the source of good. This led them to believe that it was neutral, but in order to keep the peace they had to tell this lie.

Year Seven Hundred and Fourty Two
With over 100 years of peace Zalbroch was able to recover from the centuries of war. The three nations Flourished, there was no hunger and very little suffering. The demons in the world grew weaker and weaker with every passing peaceful year.

Unfortunately peace doesn't last forever. Virus, a very strong soul mage broke that peace. His actions caused so much bloodshed that it disrupted the balance. This sent the three nations spiraling into war yet again.

Year One Thousand and Ninety Four
Chaos enveloped the land again for over four hundred years, with advancing technology the death toll was great. At the height of their power the demons began hunting down all of humanity.

Year One Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty
Being pushed to the edges of Zalbroch the people of the land were forced to stop their own fighting and hide from the horrible evil. The nations had all but fallen. With the balance completely thrown off nature and supernatural started to fight back. Catemmais, a strong and powerful aegis, was willed by the gods and was bestowed with the gods power to fend off the demons. In the long and horrible battle she came out victorious and the demons were sent back to hide in the shadows. However, she succumbed to her many wounds and died surrounded by people thanking her for the gift she had given them. As a part of their thanks she was buried without her precious skin being removed. From her body grew a large grove, it was name the Grove of Aegis. Hunting aegis for their skin in these sacred lands is greatly frowned upon, although that does not stop everyone.

It is said that she now resides with the gods, playing with and protecting them. Even to the present day people use her name to help ward off demons, as some of them still fear it.

Year One Thousand Four Hundred and Three
Almost two hundred years after the demon uprising, normal civilization was finally on a track towards recovery. Thanks to the newly established and much needed adventurers guilds, everyone was able to begin rebuilding in peace.

Year One Thousand Seven Hundred and Fifty Two
Civilization is finally back on track, the nations are bustling with excitement. Peace and prosperity for all.

Year One Thousand Eight Hundred
The nation Asteil begins capturing tourists in secret and making them slaves. Tensions rise with Lumuxia due to a faction not agreeing with this. The faction began performing night raids on the city of Stonefist and liberating slaves, making tensions even worse.

Year One Thousand Nine Hundred and Ninety-Four
Full blown war broke out between the faction and Asteil forcing the nation to demand the Lumuxia take charge of their faction and cease their actions. Several parts of the nation were destroyed by the slaves before the uprising came under control. Tensions lower as Lumuxia anounces that it had no involvement with the organization.

Year Two Thousand Two Hundred and Sixty Eight
Now god of war Virus, grows bored up in the pantheon and decides it's time to cause some havok amongst the three nations. He uses his godly powers to create a sleeping creature in the desert. This demon was something to be truly feared amongst all nations. It was capable of destroying something by swiping it's hand and it was the size of a medium sized village, and it was completely ablazed in molten rock and fire. He called it Ignis, it was to be a nearly unstopable creature. However it needed time to form, centuries if it needed be. So virus created a cult, influencing rageful minds to follow him. The cult started to sacrafice people in the Tomb of Ignis to fuel the rage of Ignis' core and rebirth him.

Year Two Thousand Six Hundred
Nearly four hundred years later the cult of Virus sacraficed over six thousand people to the Core of Ignis and finally the beast awoke, only to consume many of the cult members and eventually wander out into the desert. The nations get wind of this event and send an adventure party out to fight the beast. The part of sixty adventurers cornered the beast in Fodienda, which it promptly burned to the ground. They proceeded to have a battle of epic proportions that lasted for three days until they finally destroyed the beast leaving only it's core, which mysteriously vanished back into the Tomb of Ignis. Of the party, only seven members survived the long battle.

Year Two Thousand Nine hundred and Ninety Nine
The new millennium has the people of Zalbroch afraid for the future of their lives and the land. Various cults went around for the past decade spreading word of some sort of end of times. In the last month of the year people began preparing for the worst. Spread out families came together and said their last goodbyes. In ways this cause a sort of chaos in the land. Many people prayed to the gods to spare their lives. As the end of the year came fear increased.

Year Three Thousand
Everyone woke the morning of the new millennium and they remained alive. However something was very different. As the first day of the new year passed many noticed a bright star in the blue sky. It turns out it was not a star but comet that would orbit their planet for the entire year.

This comet had one odd side effect. It stripped the land of magic for the whole time it remained in the sky. Everyone including the magical beasts lost all magic. The Rift became a hole in the ground. No one knew if magic would return to their world. However some thought it was a blessing as it meant that the demons could not attack them. They hoped their would would stay like this.

Some, like the Hybeasts were not as fortunate during this year. The absence of magic cause them to revert back to their animal souls. Which temporarily left their civilization nonexistent. The other nations wondered why they did not hear from the Hybeasts during this time, none of the guessed that this fate had fallen them.

Overall this year was relatively peaceful, the absence of magic meant daily life became harder however it was also safer.

Year Three Thousand and One
After the comet left the sky the Rift opened up again. This caused magic to be present in Zalbroch once more. The Hybeasts went back to their form of half human half beast. All other magic users suddenly found themselves with their powers back. Magical beasts and demons also had their original strength back. The world had gone back to normal for better or for worse.

The comet in the sky was named the Comet of Naught. Elders believe that one day the comet will return to Zalbroch and will once again strip the land of magic. They do not know when this will happen again.

Year Four Thousand One Hundred and Eighty Four
Over one thousand years of peace followed the Comet of Naught. All and the war and destruction in the past made people believe that war was senseless and should be avoided.

However, peace can only last for so long and the God Virus orchestrated the largest and most destructive war to come.

Year Four Thousand Seven Hundred and Ninety
Six Hundred years of war later and Zalbroch is in complete disarray. Hallax fell to Asteil and many of the established villages in all nations were destroyed. Virus came out extremely successful. The only reason the war ended is because the gods bestowed one Celestie, Samara, with the intelligence she needed to convince the three nations to stop the madness.

When the leaders came together it wasn't hard for Samara to get them to agree on peace. They believed her when she said she was sent from the gods as Celesties are known for their stupidity and inability to speak.

The three nations also wondered what had caused them to start fighting, and when they thought about it they couldn't think of a reason. None of their ancestors wrote down the reason why the War of Madness had started.

This was the beginning of the great peace. Samara was allowed to keep her intelligence, but she was not allowed to return to her kind. So she remained in Asteil for the rest of her long life and wrote great stories about other Celesties. To this day many people still read her stories about the great Celesties.

Year Five Thousand Two Hundred and Twenty Four
Peace swept over Zalbroch and the Nations are back to where they once were. Everything is prosperous and many are happy to be alive.

Tensions between the nations are starting become apparent, but the current leaders are doing everything in their power to keep the peace. No one wants another war.

This is the current year.