Age of Kings

The Age of Kings represents the high times of humanity, when it came together in an empire that stretched across all of Darisia and began to extend its civilization even further. Although humanity has now spread even further across the face of the Wyrld it is a fractured thing, no longer united as it once was. Human nations now stand on equal ground with the nations and enclaves made by other species when once they reigned over all.

This age begins with the crowning of the first high king of Niellenor and ends with the beginning of the present age. In Darisia the Age of Balance is considered to begin with the nation of Shurrah while in the east it is typically regarded to begin some sixty years earlier with the establishment of Marash and the beginnings of the Thulean Mageocracy.

In either case, the age spans almost twelve hundred years, and for nearly an aeon of that one kingdom held humanity under its banner. Modern kings and sages are baffled by this, quoting well known laws of human behavior and society that should prevent such a long standing and stable nation. Nevertheless, Niellenor did indeed exist.

The riches of Niellenor have spurred many people on to adventure, for most of it lies unclaimed. Even the capital, with its fabled Sun-Palace which Coer-maen weakly attempts to resurrect, is unfound within the dark arbors of the Forest of Niellenor.

Exactly one thousand years after the crowning of Ambrose Devanian, some sages belief a thousand years to the day, the Years of Terror began. Humankind's first contact with the goblin races occurred as the foul creatures poured out of the underground where they had lived. Terror ruled at first as ogres and other creatures brought new fears to light, but the well organized kingdom was able to fight back and banish the creatures, for a time.

It was not too many years after this that other things began to appear, things that can only be imagined. Details of this time are nearly non-existent, and even the times before have scarce records because so much was lost. What is known are a few names, events, and legends, things so amazing that they stayed in people's minds and on their tongues across the years.

Grand Paladins who pushed back the darkness, fighting with such puissance that they were worth fifty men on the battlefield. Mages of great power, doing things that have not been replicated before or since, allies and enemies that have not been seen since including shadow elves, sapient undead, ground wyrms, gargantua, demons of legend, and worse. Which of these were truly part of the Years of Terror and which are the inheritance of a thousand years of imagination and storytelling is impossible to tell.

What is known is that one hundred ten years after the Years of Terror began, eleven hundred ten years after the crowning of the first high king of Niellenor, High King Muellnor died as the last of his line, leaving no one to assume the throne. The nation lived on for a time in its death throes but the loss of the dynasty and the damage done in the Years of Terror were to be the end of Niellenor. Less than thirty years later most of the mages of Niellenor had founded their own habitat as far across the Wyrld as they could go, creating the small village of Marash which would eventually grow to become the largest city in existence, which it remains to this very day.

Not long after Thule was founded one of the remnants of Niellenor would declare itself the nation of Shurrah, establishing an enlightened rule by the people under the headmanship of a prime minister. It is this new government that would well and truly mark the end of the Age of Kings.

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