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//Context: This is an in-universe telling of the history of the world, written by an unreliable narrator. This both helps educate the players on the nature of the current powers and how they came to be, while also giving them some notions of the mythology that can later be challenged through reveals in the story.
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An Abridged History of Pre-Imperial Thea

Volume I: From Ancient Times through The War of Iron

by Vien Moric, Imperial Scribe, Historian, and Noble Lord

Written 128 E.E.

 Eons Past

There was the Void, and the Shapers. The Shapers knew only each other and the Void. Eventually, they grew tired of their own company, and chose to put forth a collective effort to Create. Thus, Thea and the Realms. Here, religion tends to offer further explanation and purpose to these events; as this is a historical record, it shall rely primarily on evidence, and only offer conjecture when supported by such.

Pre History (~10,000ß)

The Shapers, for a time, continued to Create while they were on Thea. There are some claims that they built great temples, perhaps even cities – the limited ability of any mortal to explore the Wastes stifles any true attempt to understand the actual history of this period. Through fossil examination, we know they lived alongside the Saurs, commonly called Land Dragons. Based on Elven records of conversations with some metallic Dragons of our own time, it is believed that the Shapers were long gone from Thea and their presence reclaimed by nature long before the Drakes the Saurs became had the first Mortal Thoughts.

The primary supported theory for the time between the Shapers’ disappearance from Thea and the start of the Era of Flame is that the magic of the Shapers’ very presence remained on Thea, and that magic is what enabled and elevated the various forms of life in our Realm. This theory is accepted and promoted by the Mages’ Circle and the Grand Academy, and versions of it are found in most major religious institutions across the world.

The Era of Flame (~5,000ß)

Though it is known that Dragons in this time period represented a myriad of elemental forces, this centuries long era is known for these creatures’ wars that pushed them to the brink of self extinction. Draconic lore is and always has been purely verbal, so the reliability of narratives about the nature of these conflicts is only as safe to trust as the Dragons themselves. One definite factor of the conflict then, as now, is the philosophical and physiological differences in the desires and machinations of Chromatic and Metallic Dragonkind.

While Dragons do not form nations or cities, they are known for finding or creating lairs both for their treasure hoards and to raise their young in safety. It was this avarice for precious metals and jewels that, according to some Elder and most Draconic myth, led the dragons to share Thought with the Dwarves, and then the Elves. Though only a few fringe cults of Dwarven society condone this theory, it is a widely held and accepted belief among Elves, and by proxy, many Tieflings, Dragonborn, and other Half Elf breeds.

The Age of Wood and Stone (2,800-2,500ß)

The Dragons raised up the Dwarves and Elves to help them claim the vast riches hidden in the hills and mountains of Thea, where gold and gems lay buried beyond the reach of the Dragon’s scraping claws and gnashing teeth. To this end, the two Elder races created the first Tools, from broken rocks and felled trees.

With picks and axes, the Dwarves and Elves dutifully served their masters, building great mines and extracting tons upon tons of meaningless wealth. To better understand and serve, they developed writing, shelters, and in a few cases, settlements. From time to time, conflict arose among these slaves, who found their picks just as capable of splitting skulls as stone. Such fights were typically dealt with internally, quietly, and quickly within their respective communities, for fear of raising the Dragons’ ire at wasted time. The Chromatic masters of Thea were nearly timeless, yet were as impatient as petulant children.

The War of Iron (2,400-2270ß)

As the Elder races’ populations grew, so did their technological prowess. With more than enough bodies to fill the needs of the Dragons’ mines, others went to work innovating and creating: metal working, tracks and carts, dams, and more were all developed in the course of a single century in what we now refer to as the Iron Revolution.

Fighting worsened among the Drakes’ servants; able to quickly meet their yearly quotas, they often argued over who got what share of the leftovers. Then, in the mid twenty fourth precentury, an Elf named Ladnas managed to convince his tribe that they’d be better off breaking the chains of their masters instead of fighting one another.

Ladnas rallied many tribes and camps, forming the first true nation: The Alliance of Freed Elves. The Dragons responded quickly and viciously when they learned of the growing rebellion, but were stymied by the large numbers of slaves they’d allowed to grow, as well as the machines their servants had now honed into instruments of war.

When the Dragons suffered their first great loss – a lair destroyed, the Dragon and its young slain, the treasure horde almost entirely looted – they realized that they could not fight the Elves alone and hope to survive. By promising the Elves’ mountains to the Dwarves (as well as violently coercing them) the Drakes now had an army of their own.

For more than five and a half decades, Elf and Dwarf fought a vicious war. The Elves concentrated their efforts on destroying the Dragons’ dens and defending their own lands, while the Dwarves pushed into deeper and deeper incursions at the behest of their scaled masters.

In 2,382ß (the start of the modern Elven calendar), Ladnas was killed in a drawn out Dwarven siege against a large fortified Elven village. Hearing the laments of their younger cousins, the Dwarves offered a temporary ceasefire, to let the Elves bury their dead and perform funerary rites for their fallen leader. Broken and facing nearly certain defeat regardless, the Elves graciously accepted.

The funeral pyre for Ladnas is the most easily recognized image in Elven iconography; it is still seen so widely today because it is inarguably the most pivotal moment in their early history: as mourners gather around the flames, great wings blotted out the sun above. The Dragons had never agreed to any peace accords, and they saw the funeral as the perfect opportunity to ‘solve the Elven Question’ once and for all.

As is now well known, this was the singular most impactful mistake Dragons have ever made. By dismissing the parlay between the Elder races, they Drakes had managed to unite them. The Dwarves were disgusted by the bloodthirst and utter irreverence of their masters – in the face of total victory, no less – and turned on them. Dwarven ballistae bolts flew not into Elven walls but into the hearts of the swooping Dragons, saving the Elves and marking a turn in the war.

More than another half century of death and chaos would pass before the Dragons acknowledged their coming defeat and scattered across Thea, hiding from Slayers who sought their total extinction. Though the gentler Metallic breeds had nothing to do with the Elder races’ enslavement, even they were killed when possible, reducing their already decimated number to nearly nil. Eventually, Dwarf and Elf alike halted their hunts, enjoying a new period of calm and freedom.

They settled their lands further and built their respective civilizations: the Dwarves’ Living Tree Cities and the Elven Republic of villages and cities dotting the northern mountains we now call The Horns and The Frills. This was also the time when the Men and the Orcs of the Silver Plains (then called the Golden Plains) began their own ascension, developing language, tools, and eventually, trade and interaction with the Elder races. On Titan Island in the South, the isolated tribes of Floresiens began to separate into two distinct species: Gnome and Halfling. The Years of Peace had begun, and would continue for nearly half a millennium.