The earliest records of Arsencia date back to the years immediately after the whatever cataclysmic event served as the crucible in which the lands we know today were formed. (As a basic timeline, nearly four thousand winters have passed since the Fall.) Prior to that, we have only vague recollections, myths and wild guesswork upon which to base our impressions. One thing is for sure, however: the world that was, the countries that stood proud before the birth of Arsencia, brought about their own destruction through the mighty technologies that pervaded their society. Such is known as fact due to the final warning left buried within the vaulted chambers of Hallowed Earth, the enigmatic sanctum dug from the living stone of the central mountains, within the city that now plays host to the dwarven kingdom of Helvensi. The text reads as follows:
To whomever might discover this,
We fear we may be the last survivors of a world that God has forsaken, doomed to pass on our grim message to whatever pitiable denizens the future deems fit to grant the curse of life. Humanity is fallen, weak and broken, brought to its knees by the might of our own hubris. Should sentience and sanity survive this tribulation, heed these words: peace will set you free. Through war comes only death, never the liberty we so valiantly proclaim.
The drumming grows ever louder as we near the end, so cry havoc, poor reader, and pray for forgiveness.
There are many interpretations of the meaning of this letter, most of which focus on the imprecision of the final lines. ‘The drumming’ is generally thought to be with reference to the madness which had come upon mankind in its final days, that being a common enough symptom of insanity even today. The phrase ‘cry havoc’ perplexes interpreters still. For a full and clear view of the meaning of these lines see Notting’s On Understanding.
It is believed that the lingering side-effects of the Fall are what gave rise to the massive variety of life in Arsencia. Certainly, the earliest records of the elven harrows date back similarly as far as man’s, as do the more primeval runic inscriptions of Helvensi, Oster and the Burn, the three most ancient dwarven strongholds. Humanity was, at this stage, sparse and few in number, though our greater breeding potential quickly returned our race to the position of most populous.
The first problem to face mankind was administrative; where the harrows and strongholds of elf and dwarf were clearly defined, human territories were decided by strength of arms and natural barriers. The realm of Envael, the same as that which thrives today, first arose in this troubled time as a minor duchy vying for power with the countless other petty nobility who had set up as claimants to a throne as yet unmade. The first pretender to a crown was Tomas, Baron of Tyburn, a growing and prosperous land on the northern coast, populated mainly by descendants of those who had fled the northerly isle of the Vyre after the Fall. His reign lasted nearly twenty years (623-642 A.F., common calendar) until his death, in which time he unified the northern reaches of Arsencia, founded a new capital at Aldabrasia, the famed City of the Five Hills, and created the Convocation of Princes, a parliament of nobility come together with the intention of strengthening their individual realms and fighting off the southerners that so often came nipping at the heels of the border duchies. Tyburn itself became a haven of learning and a sanctuary for all those fleeing whatever strife troubled their homelands, and thus grew rapidly and without restraint under Tomas’ leadership.
Tomas’ successor was Telbar, self-proclaimed King of the Meres, the flatlands to the northeasternmost reaches of the kingdom, perhaps the largest of the minor realms and duchies that united became Tyburn. Telbar was a great deal more military in his approach to ruling, which tended to put him in good stead with the nobility. He successfully annexed large portions of the forests on Tyburn’s eastern border and cut a large swathe of land out of the independent states, almost reaching the Inner Sea before he fell in battle (648 A.F.), he and his men trapped against the raging midwinter torrent of an unknown river, suggested to be either the Peri or the Mane, both of which flow south from Aldabrasia to the Inner Sea. After his death, Tyburn receded, unable to keep hold of the lands Telbar had claimed without his expert military guidance.
For the next four hundred years Tyburn existed as the sole major kingdom of Arsencia and independent states sprung up all around the Inner Sea and to the beaches of the Great Ocean, and even to the north and east in what would later be claimed as Minotaur lands. It was not until 1053 A.F. that a challenger to Tyburn’s undisputed superiority arose from the mire: Gottir. The Gotti were a tribe from the forest lands, just beyond those which Telbar had conquered. They were ferocious in battle and neither showed nor expected mercy, and in this fashion were able to drive a wedge into the eastern reaches of Tyburn, pillaging and sacking the towns and cities of the Meres and at one stage almost making their way clean through to Aldabrasia, though stubborn resistance from the then King, Varin, forced them back, eventually succeeding in ridding Tyburn of the Gotti, who turned south to easier prey.
With a new chief at their head, a terrifying brute by the name of Grayn, the Gotti massacred the people of Valenti, a trader city on the coast of the Inner Sea. The local militias were cut to shreds by the Gotti, their heads removed and displayed atop the palisades. From Valenti, the Gotti battled their way across vast swathes of southern Arsencia, eventually being stopped at the mountains that border the Miledan Peninsula to the southwest, just outside the town of Maugor, largely thanks to the efforts of Varin of Tyburn to bring about an alliance against them, led by Samos of Chellynia and Therio of Ganymede. This was the last act of the Ganymedians, as Therio was killed in the battle and his men subsumed by Tyron of Bithynus who was granted dominion of the realm upon his triumphant return. When battle was done, the Gotti still laid claim to most of the northern coast of Inner Sea and held firm in Valenti, though their numbers were greatly reduced. Grayn was held to account for the deaths in keeping with Gotti tradition and offered his life in return, becoming a willing sacrifice upon the vandalised altar of Marduk the Sun God. (Incidentally, Marduk is thought to be one of the few remnants to have survived the Fall. See Marcon of Bithynus’ Deities of the Ancient World.)
Gottir, as a kingdom, survived for nearly three hundred years with no more than minor skirmishes along the borders shared with Tyburn and the fledgling kingdom of Chellynia, born out of the reputation of Samos, despite his death less than a year after the Battle of Maugor from yellow fever and the subsequent dissection of his kingdom among his three sons, the best known among whom was Nemeth the Valiant. Nemeth later seceded from the union and volunteered his realm of Erinor as a duchy in liege to Tyburn and was formally accepted by the Convocation of Princes in 1059 A.F. Chellynia and Tarracum, the other two realms forged by the dissolution of old Chellynia, fought a brief but bloody war in which Brideth of Tarracum was defeated and exiled and Mordeth of Chellynia became undisputed ruler of what remained of his father’s lands. Over the next few centuries the line was uncorrupted and unchallenged, eventually siring Voriax the Merciless (born 1321 A.F.) Voriax took the throne at the age of 14 and immediately embarked upon a campaign of conquest against the less powerful duchies and kingdoms surrounding Chellynian territory, expanding his holdings threefold in the first year. His success continued unabated through to the twelfth year of his reign when, having annexed the majority of the accessible lands around Chellynia, Voriax set forth on a mission of conquest against Tyburn, then united under King Tremiane the Provident, the furthest thing from a military man. Under Tremiane’s jurisdiction, Tyburn had developed a coherent and effective legal and administrative system, a high standard of living for all parts of society and a hugely profitable trading empire. With the financial might of Tyburn turned against him, Voriax found himself unable to cope with the colossal numbers of mercenaries Tyburn could bring to bear. This campaign also marks the first known use of Minotaurs, at this stage still kept as slaves and beasts of burden for the most part. Voriax himself was killed at the Battle of Antoris (1348 A.F.) when he and his household cavalry were surrounded by Minotaurs fighting for the promise of freedom or the release of death. There were one hundred and seventy-seven Minotaurs survived the battle, and true to his word, Tremiane granted them all their freedom, sending them off east to seek out new lands to call their own. These few are likely the common ancestors of the thousands of Minotaur currently living in Arsencia.
With Voriax dead, the southeastern reaches of Chellynia quickly fell to the opportunist Gotti and several former duchies were re-established, forcing Chellynia to retract and regroup with little more than the lands they had held at Voriax’s birth. By this stage, Gottir had become a civilised land sharing much common sentiment with Tyburn: theatres, arenas, apothecaries, libraries and gardens were all built with funding from the royal treasury, as was the colossal lighthouse at Valenti, reckoned to be one of the great engineering marvels of the age, though most suspect magic was used in its construction. This is a point of contention as the first recorded instance of magic-aided construction is not to be found for nearly a millennium after the demise of Gottir, with the foundation of the Maughold atop the ancient town of Maugor. Opponents of the common view protest that Tabarayn, the first of the truly powerful mages of Arsencia, lived around this time in Valenti, though the exact dates of his birth and death are unknown. Either way, the lighthouse stood taller than any other building in Valenti and Arsencia entire, the tip of the spire being raised to more than a thousand feet above the ground. During the construction process, many alterations were made, the most notable among which is the addition of six floors of library, designed by King Shakayn of the Gotti to be large enough to hold every text and tome in existence and usher in a golden age of enlightenment and understanding. Sadly, the library remained empty for nearly six hundred years after the collapse of Gottir.
In 1353 A.F., exactly three hundred years after the arrival of the Gotti in Arsencia, King Shakayn was murdered in his bed and six claimants to the throne arose. Four were quickly despatched or stepped down, their names lost to the mists of time, but Abalayn and Minayr, the two remaining candidates, found themselves unable to break the deadlock. After a pitched battle in the streets of Valenti, during which vast swathes of the city were burned to the ground, Abalayn fled first to Chellynia and then Tyburn in search of assistance in his war, with promises of rewards when his throne was secure, but neither kingdom would accept his empty promises. Eventually obtaining an army from the small kingdoms of Cair Palicar and Alima, Abalayn returned to Gottir, only to find that in his absence Minayr had been unable to return order to the kingdom and had let slip the power of the throne. With a small detachment of professional soldiers and a hefty militia force, Minayr rode out to face Abalayn, who was then betrayed by the Palicaris and Alimae, and handed over to Minayr in return for concessions of wealth and land in the west of Gottir. After less than two years in power, Minayr was betrayed and murdered by his own men. The kingdom then slowly fell apart.
East of Valenti, and south onto the shallow peninsula below the dwarven mountain ranges, Tabarayn the Mage established the only kingdom to be ruled by magic in Arsencia’s history. Such was the terror inspired by Tabarayn and his wild experiments with an unknown power source, so high the casualties, that all mankind accepted as a given that, in future, no wizard would be allowed dominion over any but their own self. However, Tabarayn was so immensely powerful that no other could hope to bring him down and, had he not suffered from the wizardly vice of wearying with overuse of magic, would likely have done his level best to conquer the world, and may even have succeeded. Little is known of Tabarayn as a man, though much is known of him as a leader. The record-keepers of Tyburn have him outliving five kings and eventually disappearing into the hinterlands of the east when he grew bored with ruling. (For a more detailed history of Tabarayn, see Cadavok’s Magic in Gottir.*)
Little changed in Arsencia over the next six hundred years until the arrival of the Furya (1985 A.F.) at the southern tip of the Miledan peninsula, having crossed from the southern continent in search of greener pastures. They were granted a home and farmlands by Choro of Aldaluse in return for their allegiance and whatever aid they could lend. However, when it emerged that the Furya were deeply magical beings, Choro bade his people refuse them shelter and aid in misplaced fear of magic, still widely unknown and largely feared at this time, as no other mages of renown had emerged since Tabarayn. The Furya retreated south once more, disappearing virtually overnight. Choro, assuming the situation was resolved, instructed his people to return to life as normal. Six months later the Furya returned in strength, in the form that has since been regarded as the standard image of a Furyan: wings spread wide, talons outstretched, clad in armour black as the deepest night and bearing swords and polearms of gold and flame. Aldaluse was put to fire and the sword, its people slaughtered and the land claimed for the Furya nation. Choro escaped north to Sairacuse, a city-state in the middle of the plains. He was handed over to the Furya in exchange for clemency, and they considered the insult avenged. After the brief foray into Sairacuse territory, the Furya retreated to Aldaluse where they set up a new home and restored the towns to fit a Furyan.
At around the same time (circa 1980-90 A.F.) expeditions were mounted by King Laeoces the Intrepid of Tyburn to the east, passing through the forests and heading out to the plains beyond, whereupon the expeditionaries found a widespread and numerous Minotaur presence, the descendants of those set free by Tremiane the Provident centuries earlier. When the Intrepid passed away (1993 A.F.) he was succeeded by his son Laeoces the Seafarer, whose seaborne journeys took him all around the isle of the wild and rabid Vyre and north to the frozen isles of the arctic lands, even discovering a large and uninhabited volcanic island in the middle of the Great Ocean, in the far north. A colony was established successfully, though it became disconnected from the kingdom after Tyburn fell into ruin later on. It is also widely accepted that the Seafarer sent colonists to cross the Great Ocean and make Tyburn a power across the sea, though whether or not they ever arrived, survived or even found anything is unknown.
The last contemporary references to Chellynia are also from this time (1991 A.F., The World As We Know It, Laeoces the Intrepid). Their king at the time was called Darax, and his early death in a hunting accident (1995 A.F.) set the Chellynian dominions quarrelling and eventually led to their dissolution as a union, leaving Tyburn once again as the sole great power of Arsencia. Little is known about this time due to the chaotic nature of Chellynia’s collapse. Over the next two centuries several kingdoms grew into the vacuum left by the collapse of Chellynia, including Envael, growing for the first time into a power to be recognised, expanding to both sides of the land bridge to the Miledan peninsula, effectively controlling trade between the peninsula and the rest of Arsencia and growing fat on the riches of every other region.
In what had once been Gotti lands, three kingdoms had been firmly established and were trading happily with each other and with the dwarven strongholds in the mountains, introducing high-quality metalwork to the wider world. It was through this union that Jaim the Trivante, ruler of the kingdom of the same name, was able to establish the first phalanxes and thus, with a professional, well-armed and disciplined military force, was able to quickly conquer and subdue his neighbours without a great deal of bloodshed, so the vast majority of folks were happy simply to let him have the thrones. Once he was firmly in power, Jaim set about making Trivante into a kingdom to rival Tyburn. Now the only trader nation with access to dwarven metalwork, Trivante was able to set the price and stimulate supply and demand as they wished, massively increasing the wealth of the kingdom. With the newfound riches Jaim set about rebuilding the imperial majesty of Gottir, and when Valenti acceded to his union (2144 A.F.) he continued with Shakayn’s plan to collect the world’s wealth of knowledge in the lighthouse.
When Jaim died (2159 A.F.) he was succeeded by his third son Blaise, the choice accepted and even praised by his six other sons. The brothers then set about creating a new empire, greater than any that had come before. Caine, the eldest, took his share of the phalanxes and the cavalry and headed east, accompanied by Shaide, the fifth son, and Vaile, sixth. (Their expedition is recounted in the scribe Calliaine’s Journeys.) Traive, second, and Raine, seventh, took their share of the military and headed south across the Inner Sea to explore the southern coast and seek what treasures they could find. (Their journeys are recounted in Maidraine’s Voyage to Lands Unknown and Solvaide’s Exploration.) Graime, the fourth son, remained with Blaise in Trivandor, the renamed capital city of the kingdom, to act as regent in Blaise’s absence and advisor when necessary.
Trivante grew in wealth and influence throughout the dynasty of Jaim the Trivante, and when his line eventually died out with Bolveng (2714 A.F.) the kingdom died with them, though by that stage many would argue the world that Jaim the Trivante had sought to create was obsolete, rendered out of its time by technological and magical advances: the gnomish engineers arrived in Arsencian mainstream culture, as did the elves and their superior woodworking abilities. Both of these races, along with the dwarven smiths and human mages, were employed by the growing kingdom of Envael to aid with the construction of the Maughold, (2325-43 A.F.) the mighty fortress city built along the only easily accessible path through the mountains from the mainland to the Miledan peninsula. Legend has it that the gnomes secretly constructed a miniature city beneath the open streets of the town, allowing them to come and go as they pleased without drawing the attention of the humans, many of whom never fully trusted the other races of Arsencia.
It was during this time that the Furya incursion took place. (2326 A.F.) King Cervantes of Envael, having commissioned the Maughold, was seen to be cutting off the Miledan peninsula from the mainland in order to establish his full dominion over the whole land, something to which the Furya did not take kindly. In vast numbers they swarmed north, burning villages to the ground and salting the earth, slaughtering any and all that got in their way. Knowing that his forces were too weak to resist the might of the powerfully magical Furya, Cervantes requested aid from both Trivante and Tyburn, also sending emissaries to the other races and minor kingdoms of man. The elves, dwarves and Minotaur all responded with troops, recognising the threat the Furya represented. The coalition forces faced down the Furya on the plains south of the Maughold, preventing the spread of the war beyond the Peninsula. (For a full account of the political situation, the battle and the consequences, see Tavernar’s The Great Alliance or Mustaen’s Fury.) This was the only occasion upon which the Minotaur became involved in the affairs of Arsencia, though after this war the elves and dwarves felt they had a worthy claim to life outside the strongholds and harrows and set up colonies all across Arsencia, although most dwarves still preferred the dim light of their hidden caverns.
In 2390 A.F. the balance of power in Arsencia shifted once more. King Dravin the Noble, later acclaimed as the Reckless, led the long-standing kingdom of Tyburn to destruction through a series of wars against petty fiefdoms on the borders, the campaigns led by members of his cabinet, fey and unrepentant folks entirely unconcerned with the business of everyday life in Tyburn. The first campaign, against the Duchy of Edwal, failed dramatically, the local lordling and his few men vanquishing the might of Tyburn’s forces. They were aided, it is thought, by at least one mage, though any names have escaped history’s discerning glare. Once Edwal had declared himself victorious and the incursion removed, he sent despatches to all the duchies and fiefs bordering Tyburn, bringing them together in a loose alliance against the oppression of the larger power. The second campaign, led by Rautha of Bandir, met with stubborn resistance at the palisades of Myrdras, a roadside town in the Barony of Harkenn, where they were soon encircled by the promised armies of Edwal, Valinos, Ithyca, Uruni and Raminis. Rautha and his army were utterly destroyed, and his head returned to Aldabrasia tied to a horse. Such was Dravin’s fury at this outrage that he moved the entire military might of Tyburn to Harkenn, only to find that the Barony had upped sticks and retreated to Edwal land while the combined troops of the fiefdoms marched on Aldabrasia and forcibly removed the Reckless from office, banishing him from Arsencia on pain of beheading. After this complete abandonment of military and financial sense, Tyburn was unable to recover, especially as Dravin had not considered it necessary to name a successor. The Convocation of Princes, Tyburn’s governing body, each returned to their own land and most declared independence, with some banding together to form small kingdoms, none significant enough to challenge for power.
Over the next three hundred years, Trivante and Envael challenged one another for status as the leading power in Arsencia, though neither was ever able to definitively claim success. Only one major conflict ever took place between the two great nations, with an indeterminate conclusion. In 2514 A.F. Tavrus of Trivante embarked upon a campaign to capture the Maughold and thus effectively cripple the financial prowess of Envael. The Trivante phalanxes marched on the citadel, meeting Envaelu forces in a single decisive clash over the River Mane, in which the Envaelu were routed. Although ferocious in combat, the single-minded intensity of the Envaelu was no match for the organisation and discipline of the Trivantes. Outside the colossal Maughold, though, the numbers of Trivantes proved to be far too few as the fortress easily withstood any assault and showed no signs of weakening after five long years of siege warfare, at which stage the Trivantes simply decided to return home, abandoning all the siege equipment they had amassed and ignoring the Envaelu.
* N.B. This is indeed the same Cadavok with whom we are currently travelling. Tabarayn is the sort of character that would appeal to Zhar. Oh, and A.F., the standard dating system in modern Arsencia, refers to the years After the Fall of the Old World, although the exact year in which the old world came to an end is unknown. Bonus points for recognising the remnants that survived the Fall.
