The World that Was

Generations ago the Great Dragon War devastated Amar. Led by the dreaded beast Bahakul, the dragons with their corrupted human followers, descended on all the free peoples of Amar. None now living in the Nine Kingdoms know how the war began but the old tales speak of fire, of blood, and of death beyond counting. Humans, Elves and Dwarves all fought to save their lands in a singular moment in history where all were equal in their desperation.

Fearing the end of their people the Dwarves retreated to the fortified safety of their great halls of stone, legends claim they defeated any great serpent that dared enter but seldom since the war has any human seen one of the “mountain folk”.

Watching their great forests and beautiful cities burn, the Elves, uniting their own kin, fought the dark forces with a ferocity born of desperation. Tasting the bitterness of each elven life lost, they fought to the western coast. With every step contested by the shadows in the sky they boarded their vast fleet. Some legends say they sailed west to continue the war but human history books agree the majority of the Elves abandoned humans to their fate. Never to be seen again.

The scattered humans and few Elves choosing to remain faced obliteration. The Great Human Kingdom of Arnir faced the utter devastation of Bahakul's shadow, his twisted power sinking most of the once powerful nation into the sea, its glory lost to the waves. With the Dwarves hiding in their great mountains and the rest of the Elves sailing to the west, all seemed lost.

Only when the five Wizards, and the Estel, the ‘trusted’ elves, travelled to all corners of the realms to unite what little of disparate humanity remained. Under the remaining banners of Arnir, all humans fought as one against the dragons and their corrupted servants. Slowly the dragons fell to the dirt, by arrow, sword or the sorcery of the Five, one by one Bahakul lost his shadows of the sky. Sensing his defeat, Bahakul drew within his being as much dark magic as he could contain, a final, spiteful effort to destroy the very world of Amar. But the five wizards, focusing their power into their leader, shielded Amar from ruin. Bahakul, his body overwhelmed by the malignant magic coursing through it, was destroyed. Nothing remained of him but a foul ensorcelled ash which scattered to the winds, covering the lands of Amar, in an unnatural blight that never healed. Thus the evil was defeated and the pivotal moment in history known now as “The Calamity” was ended.

The remaining dragons were pushed to extinction and the forces that followed them fled to the north, to the darker parts of the world. The leader of the Wizards, having given his very essence to save Amar, turned to crystal, now residing in the kingdom's capital. However, the land still bears the scars of the Calamity. The Blight of Bahakul spread like a disease, through forests, mountains and beyond, spawning countless unnatural creatures, and horrors now spoken of in folklore, campfire stories and cautionary tales.