Chronicles of Auire Quick Guide

This contains all the basic revelatory information within the first few chapters that set this world up. NO SPOILERS.

The story opens focused on 3 noble houses and students who live under their influence. There are 8 kingdoms under 1 human empire, known as the Earthborn Empire.

Major Groups:
Letholds- Red and Gold represented by a Lion, a quintessentially royal dynasty, King Wyllem Lethold is the current king of the Kingdom known as The Illidal, a massive continuous state-sized city. It is a desert city, and houses Rinwood Academy. Davyd Kynt is the Executor, or chief operative of the king and head of the royal and city guard. He is known as the King’s Dog. The Illidal is seen as the leader and capital of the Empire, consisting of 8 kingdoms, although in times past, there has been an Emperor, but he has been dead for quite some time, and the Empire has been unsure of what to do about it. King Wyllem Lethold is a man driven by ambition, and has just dismissed his imperial senate, an emperor’s way of checking a king’s power, and is beginning a bid to become the next emperor himself. He has also noticed that the Church of the Holy Order has turned to a monotheistic sect of the cult of Atothis, and is also in defacto control of the imperial administration in lieu of the dead emperor.

Tyristans- The richest house in the entire world, traditionally loyal servants of the royal Bellicote family, in the kingdom of Kadesh. Their symbol is a golden bear and they use gold, purple, and grey as their primary colors. They have just begun a false flag attack to give an excuse to wage civil war to overthrow the Bellicotes. Though people were comfortable with the Tyristans having to answer to a king to balance their ridiculous wealth, now people are looking the other way during the civil war and leaving the Bellicotes to be outspent, because the Tyristans are paying everyone else off including many Bellicote allies, although the force of the loyalists should not be understated. Many allies are honoring the law and their commitments, though they are clearly underfunded. The Bellicote loyalists survived a rouse to take the city under the excuse of a pirate attack, although the king was assassinated by Tyristan guards, and the capital city of Kadesh, Mythgar is under siege. Kadesh is a flat and temperate zone without thick forests, with some deserts and hills with rich mining deposits. Tehmet Tyristan is a tournament celebrity and war hero, traveling the empire looking for his missing brother and trying to spread pro-tyristan propaganda.

Coterels- The ruling house of the mountainous kingdom of Archerus, which runs the whole western length of the empire, symbolized by a green tree on a background of mountains. The tradition here is to worship the god Thor, and that the whole Archerian society was set up as a shield against hordes of undead from mythic ages past. They still fund and operate outposts to watch for these ancient enemies, and an anxiety for these monsters persists their folklore to this day. This people is united in its devotion to one god, Thor, although they are not monotheists. The ancient royal house, the Thorsons, were kicked out long ago and replaced with stewards, the Coterels, whose royalty was also revoked at one point, but they remain stewards of the throne, effectively royalty, often called kings by their people and their servants. The Thorsons went south and bred their way into the horse kingdom of Serth, and are now ruling the kingdom as the royal house, claiming ancient royal blood and honor in conquest. The Serthi are a dark skinned people, so Thorsons have changed much from pale mountain men, but they had a reputation for being crazy and having a bloodlust. The latest king, Rehrgar Thorson is extremely apologetic and reasonable, which many react to with justified suspicion. Rehrgar Thorson is attempting to repair relations with Archerus whose capital, Thorhold, was named for the Thorson family, both of which of course named in devotion to the god Thor, patron of the mountain people. Waltyr Coterel is the acting King of Archerus, and Darion is his son. Darion’s mother was murdered by a Thorson assassin sent by Rehrgar’s father.

Rinwood Academy- A monastery and university in The Illidal, near the royal quarter. Our story begins when an elven slave is discovered by the Executor of King Lethold, Davyd Kynt, and the investigation into what happened begins. She is brought to Rinwood in a desperate bid for the unique healing skills of the priests that reside in the school here. She is then offered a place at the school by the high priest himself, as long as she completes her education as a priestess under his tutelage first.

Events:
Agican War- a civil war that began about 20 years prior to the story, in the Kingdom of Agicus, a desert region with little resources of their own, and not nearly as densely populated as The Illidal. This was a significant event for the Imperials because although it started as a minor dispute, it boiled into a war the entire empire took one side or another on. It was particularly important because no true war had broken out between the kingdoms for thousands of years, and this involved every kingdom, not just factions within Agicus. Additionally, no war had been fought externally since the Great War 80 years prior. Every court has war stories referencing the Agican war, and many people are in power now because of their deeds in that conflict, or because their predecessor died in it. The actual results of the war are not important and are never covered to bring attention to this fact, what matters to these people is the trials and spoils of the war itself, the fact that it’s basically the only real military conflict they’d been able to prove themselves in. It’s implied that the rebel faction lost, as Agicus is still a kingdom, and that the imperial forces more or less put down the rebellion and that was that.

The Great War- exactly 100 years prior to the beginning of the story, the orcs and goblins of the northern kingdoms, known sometimes as the “savage” kingdoms, along with kingdoms of men unincorporated into the “civilized” Earthborn Empire. The Empire took its authority from keeping the tradition and identity of Earth alive, the story being that the people of Auire escaped a dying Earth. Precisely when the Great War began is unknown, but it ended very suddenly with the suppression and enslavement of the entire orc and goblin population. By the end, the Empire could not spare resources to force the northern human kingdoms of Shinsing and Herodia to join. The main significance of this event is mythological, the orcs began attacking Imperial kingdoms, presumed at first to be revenge for raiding of orcish territories which imperial civilians and militaries had been doing for thousands of years. But soon, the raids became obvious efforts at conquest on the orcs’ part. Soon, they revealed that they had a Dark Lord on their side, the true god, which was why they were winning. They almost destroyed the Empire, but with help from the elves, the orcs were pushed back to the fortress of the Dark Lord where the heroes of the time battled him. After the Dark Lord was defeated, though, magic left the world of Auire, which was the second significance. The humans and especially elves had become completely dependent on magic and so everything changed that day, the elves retreated to one single island and shut off all communication, and humans had to go back to using only their wits and ingenuity to produce and maintain their civilization. Some elves remained in the Empire, and eventually some very powerful priests were able to use a small amount of magic, but the connection was all but gone, all magic was severely weakened if not obliterated by the event. The scale of the war and the destruction combined with everything else put war off for a long time, and there was not another one until an incident in Agicus blew out of proportion. Some suspect this Dark Lord is behind all the various demonic and monstrous invasions that have caused world wars.

The Demon War- a mythic event supposedly happening in prehistory involving a demon invasion and the goddess Athena. Precise details are unimportant and unknown, but is a cultural touchstone for all faiths. The demons were defeated under Athena’s leadership, and some theorize they turned to other means like necromancy to continue harassing the mortals of Auire.

The Dragon War- a war which infected dragons with a will to kill each other and they disappeared from civilization thereafter, a few survivors reported hiding out over the millennia.

Wettan Attacks- a series of mythic events involving hordes of corpses permanently destroying two of the original 10 kingdoms of the earthborn empire, which inspired the reformation of the kingdom of Archerus to absorb some territory and become a shield kingdom behind a long mountain range where the hordes were easier to fight because of cold temperatures and the ability to funnel them into canyon chokepoints where numbers mattered little. These attacks eventually fizzled out and slowly fewer and fewer were seen, for unknown reasons.

Quorangar- an apocalyptic but recurring event where the devil and the true god/king of the gods have a battle involving all the souls who have pledged to one side or the other. This occurs when the devil believes he is at critical mass with enough souls to destroy the forces of heaven. This always ends in the destruction of the planet. The churches want to encourage proper worship to bolster the ranks of heaven to either delay Quorangar or end with heaven as victorious. Heaven has always been victorious but only by a hair, since the world is destroyed every time, but is always remade if heaven wins, perhaps in hopes that the devil does not possess the world this time, populated by the survivors. Most cultures have slightly different takes on it, but it is based on the event that brought all the human races to Auire from Earth. Most traditions say that a great war destroyed the Earth and brought people to Auire, where they swore off destructive technology as an agent of the devil, which is a reason they turned to magic and technological evolution was somewhat stagnated for hundreds of thousands of years, to medieval/renaissance level of technology and science.

Major World Timeline, in Years, Relative to the Great War
Quorangar: approx. 300,000 BGW

Elves and Orcs evolve: between 250,000 and 100,000 BGW

Demon War: at approx. 60,000 BGW

Earthborn Empire begins: 41,492 BGW

Dragon War: 38,905 BGW

Earthborn Empire reaches greatest extent: 27,683 BGW

Wettan Wars: starting sporadically at approx. 19,000 BGW

Wettans Destroy two kingdoms: from 17,048 to 16,697 BGW

Last Wettan Attack: 10,340 BGW

Great War: from approx. 150 BGW, ending at 0 BGW

Agican War: 81 AGW

Start of Chronicles of Auire: 100 AGW