Year 0 NE, Approximate (New Era): The founders of what would eventually become the Exaul Kingdom came ashore, having traveled over the sea to escape the assault of the Saevas Empire. The Saevas believed in "purity", which could only be achieved by wiping out anyone who was not of Saevas, or of pure Saevas blood. The Saevas, under their new so-called god-emperor and his fanatical regime, sought the absolute genocide of all non-Saevas on the continent of Ortus.
The Saevas Empire had built itself into a military powerhouse. None could oppose it, either alone or united. All who fought the Empire died. Only those who fled survived. The gods granted the people of Ortus a means to flee and promised that in the fullness of time, the Seavas Empire would face judgment for its heresy and atrocities. As the Saevas Empire did not possess any means of oceanic travel and believed the world was only their continent and nothing more, they did not pursue further.
Year 0-35 NE, Approximate: The Exauls encountered and befriended the Orcs, Elves, and Dwarves, the original inhabitants of the Adyta continent, their new home. Dozens of ships continue to arrive, bringing hundreds, and then thousands, of Exauls (Exiles) to Adyta. Temporary settlements are built, and the four peoples work out where the new arrivals can settle more permanently without intruding on anyone else's territory.
Year 35 NE, Approximate: Construction began of Urbs, the capital city of the Exaul Kingdom on the fertile plains near the center of the continent. With the aid of the elves, dwarves, and orcs, construction went quickly. The Council Of Kings is established by the seven monarchs who had led their nations to come to Adyta. Each promised to share their power equally.
Year 50 NE, Approximate: Urbs is fully built, and other cities and settlements begin to be developed. Relations with the Elves, Dwarves, and Orcs continue to go well, with trade relations being established. The only complication is that the Orcs do not use precious metals as a currency, and instead were using tokens made from the bones of animals that were ensorcelled by their shamans to prevent counterfeiting. As such, trade between orcs and other races is only done through barter.
Year 100 NE, Approximate: Due to the actions of their king, the elves are cursed by the gods. The king had killed a holy stag during a hunt, and when the gods demanded answers, he claimed that he had forgotten such a magnificent beast was sacred, blaming it on his advanced years and failing memory, then implied that was the fault of the gods for having cursed mortals with those flaws. In response, the curse gods cursed the elves three-fold, giving the elves eternal youth and life (barring death by violence or injury), as well as an absolutely perfect memory, and robbed them of their ability to tell any kind of falsehood.
Elves can no longer lie and can remember anything they have experienced with such clarity it is as if it is literally happening at that moment. This would result in a century of upheaval for elvenkind before they finally adapted to their new condition.
107 NE: The Fracture War begins. The Fracture War occurs because the Council of Kings, now chaired by the descendants of the original kings, squabbled over who held how much power, rather than sharing it equally as their ancestors had. The kingdom of Exaul is temporarily divided into seven warring nations, and for more than three decades, bloody combat ensues with no one able to get the upper hand. The elves, dwarves, and orcs stayed out of the fighting, not seeing any of these would-be kings as being worthy of the absolute ruler of Exaul.
138 NE: A new faction calling themselves the Warbreakers arises, gathering together those who are sick and tired of the endless warfare and forging alliances with the elves, dwarves, and orcs. Commoners and nobles, soldiers and scholars, the Warbreakers came from many different walks of life but unified in their desire to end the ceaseless, meaningless civil war.
Together, they conquer the seven divided realms and reunite the kingdom under a single banner once more. The leader of the Warbreakers, Agnos the Unifier, is crowned the new king. At this time, the administration of the kingdom is radically changed. Seven regions are now administered by Archdukes, who themselves delegate authority to lesser ranks of nobility to administer smaller and smaller regions. While not a perfect system, it creates a set hierarchy of power and authority that the previous system under the Council of Kings lacked.
150 NE: The Exaulian calendar is officially established, abandoning the previous calendar system that had been carried over from their previous home. Year Zero was set as the supposed date when the Exauls first arrived.
157 NE: The Linus Academy, the first official school for the teaching of magic. For the first time, the study and teaching of magic were both standardized. This was the birth of what is now known as the Old School of magic. This would form the foundation of how magic was understood and utilized for centuries to come.
The Old School is based on learning spells as a whole, rather than learning the basic components that make up a spell. Magic would not be properly dissected and studied for centuries, so the Old School was essentially a means of teaching magic users how to cast existing spells, with only the most rudimentary efforts made to create new ones, and then only large and powerful spells rather than basic ones. While this allowed the traditions of magic to be passed on from generation to generation, it also resulted in a near-stagnation in the study of magic.
168 NE: Gold is discovered in the territory of the orcs. The discovery was accidental, but the places it was located were problematic, as they were in a region considered sacred by the orcs, and as such, the orcs forbid anyone from trying to extract this precious metal. Attempts by individuals to trespass upon the orc's holy lands to try and steal this gold caused continuous tension between the people of Exaul and the orcs for decades to come.
168 - 255 NE: A time of stability, nothing truly noteworthy occurs, barring the creation of the navy, with explorers and merchants now sailing the seas.
248 NE: The Saevas Empire fully collapses. After fully purging the "known" world, that being the continent they inhabited, the Saevasians turned inwards, their fanatical devotion to purity intent on wiping out any possible trace of "impure" blood. Anyone who was not blonde, dusky, green-eyed, and fit the ideal body-form and aesthetically pleasing facial structure that was considered the ideal Saevasian was either killed outright or sterilized to prevent them from "polluting" the pure blood of Saevas.
Further, to prevent impurity, inbreeding, and even outright incest, was not only permitted but legalized and endorsed by the government of the empire. While those with obvious deformities caused by this action were immediately killed at birth, other results such as diminished mental faculties or psychological issues caused by brain deformity were common, as was sterility. By the year 179, two-thirds of the population was mentally retarded, dangerously unhinged, emotionally unstable, or incapable of producing more children.
The God-Emperor of Saevas and his regime decided this could only be the result of unknown impurities in the bloodline, rather than the natural result of several generations of "keeping it in the family". So, further purges occurred, and inbreeding and incest were deemed mandatory, barring those cases where an individual had no existing family. As a result, by 225 NE, there were few people left intelligent enough to be able to administer an empire as large as the one the Saevas had carved for themselves, and when the current God-Emperor died, the crown went to his only son.
Whatever divine intervention had protected the line of God-Emperors to this point had ended, and the heir, a result of brother fucking sister, son fucking mother, and father fucking daughter for five generations was by no means fit to rule. Said son suffered from such severe mental impairment that he could not speak, clothe himself, walk upright, or clean himself, so ruling an empire was impossible. Collapse soon followed, and the empire devolved into stone age primitivism.
When Exaul explorers later encountered the survivors of the Saevasian Empire's downfall a century later, they found people living in the ruins of a grand empire. These survivors were often of incredible beauty and great physical fitness, but also extremely stupid, few even able to manage fire or the wheel. Reduced to primitives, but incredibly hardy and attractive ones, it was not uncommon for raids by outside nations to occur, capturing Saevasians as slaves. Exaul was no exception.
Men were often used for brute physical labor, the women for... courtesans, so to speak. The word 'Saevas' would become a descriptor for anyone incredibly attractive, but so stupid they're only good for basic labor or warming a bed. This would continue even three centuries later when the last "pure-blooded" Saevas died and the Saevasian blood had been diluted to the point that it was effectively impossible to tell if anyone had any Saevasian blood in them at all.
Thus was the punishment of the gods: Saevas was destroyed by its own "purity", and then its bloodline diluted to non-existence.
255 NE: The war between orcs and humans occurred. Human settlements on the border between Exaul and the orcish territories were destroyed, and the orcs were blamed. Exaul had a far superior military to the orcs, and the war was more or less a rout. The orcs were forced from their homes and set on a seven-hundred-mile exodus into what is known as the Badlands, regions that are terribly hot, inhospitable, and almost completely unliveable.
262 NE: The Catastrophic Success, and the ensuing Gold Crash, occurs. The sacred mountain of the orcs, now renamed Giltmont, contained far more gold than anyone imagined possible. To put it into perspective, on Earth, the total amount of gold extracted from the earth in all of human history can fill an Olympic swimming pool. Within seven years, the Exauls had extracted twice that, with far more being evident within the mountain, as well as silver, platinum, Mythril, and a plethora of gems. There was no end to the wealth, but having so much devalued it all to being nearly worthless.
Background: In ancient times, the orcs had a society similar to that of the Exauls, but an orcish hero, after completing a task on behalf of the gods, and was granted any reward he could ask for. The hero, his fatal flaw being greed, requested a mountain of treasure that was so great it stretched up to touch the sky. The gods granted it, and the hero spent the rest of his short life trying to ward off anyone who might try to claim it. Unable to leave the mountain for fear of losing his treasure, but unable to transport his wealth anywhere, the hero died of thirst, starvation, and exposure.
Then, as orcs began to squabble over the impossible mountain of treasure, the dragons came and began fighting for it, and dragons fighting tends to result in massive collateral damage. The orcs prayed for relief, so the gods covered the treasure in a mountain, forced the dragons away by claiming the mountain was sacred, and therefore belonging to the gods. This demonstration of the foolishness of greed caused the orcs to foreswear gold and other such treasures, and their society took great care to manage their economy to prevent the very problems that the Exauls now were experiencing.
265 NE: The economic crisis is finally resolved with the creation of the Orich, the new currency of the kingdom. Made from the alloy Orichalcum, its composition a closely guarded state secret and further protected from counterfeiting with magic, these coins fully replace the now valueless gold and silver coinage previously used.
269-274 NE: The First "Gold War" occurs. Since gold was now worthless in Exaul due to the vast amount found in Giltmont, it is mostly used for ornamentation, jewelry, and art. However, King Adnos the 5th came up with a new use for it that could benefit Exaul: Economic warfare.
Pirates and privateers from the Seven Isles Alliance, a nation infamous for its naval strength, regularly attacked merchant ships, including those from Exaul, before finally attacking a destroying a major coastal city. The atrocities committed would go down in history, and not a single man, woman, or child would be spared. Military retribution was not possible, however, due to the vast difference in naval strength between the two nations. To deal with the problem, the king secretly sent dozens of agents acting as merchants, who began using the vast amounts of gold at their disposal to begin buying everything they could.
Food, resources, weaponry, property, land, every resource that could be bought, was bought. Tradesmen and craftsmen were hired away, banking companies were bought out, and firms that did everything from mining and smelting iron to building ships were purchased and brought under Exaul's absolute control.
Competent military officers were offered extremely lucrative contracts to serve as "advisors" for Exaul, and all but the most patriotic of men will accept an offer if the amount of wealth being promised is large enough. Any government officials who caught wind of what was going on were bribed to be kept quiet. Everything needed for every step of the manufacturing process of any necessity or luxury was now owned by Exaul, either in part or in totality. It was all done so quickly and quietly that before anyone realized that the economy was falling apart, it was far too late to stop.
Then, as this massive influx of gold caused hyperinflation and economic turmoil, the people of the Seven Isles tried to turn more towards a barter economy, only to find that the ones who owned everything worth owning were the Exauls. The vast supplies of food the Exauls had bought were exported back to Exaul, and farms that the Exauls had bought were producing non-edible goods like cotton, tea, coffee, and tobacco. The fleet of fishing ships the Seven Isles might have used were now owned by Exaul and were delivering their catches in Exaul ports. The Exauls now had the power to decide who could eat, how much they were allowed to eat, and when/if they ate at all.
Every existing merchant ship was now owned and operated by crews of Exaul sailors, owned by Exaul trading companies, and they carried goods only for Exaul. Other nations had received very lucrative contracts to not do any trade with the Seven Isles. The people of the Seven Isles had vast amounts of gold, but precious little they could buy with it, and the Exauls weren't willing to trade anything, since after all, gold was worthless to them... just as it was now worthless to the Seven Isles.
The Seven Isles wanted to go to war, but their soldiers could not be properly equipped because all of the weaponsmiths and armorers had been bought out of all stock, all iron reserves bought out, all iron mines belonged to Exaul, and any competent craftsman was in Exaul forging weapons and armor for their new employers.
The naval vessels of the Seven Isles could still be sent out, but without shipbuilders, timber, cloth, etc., they could not build new ships or repair the ones they had. Worse, they lacked enough competent officers to command their army or navy, and Exaul had detailed knowledge of the strength and capabilities of the navy of the Seven Isles thanks to their newly obtained military advisors. Mercenaries couldn't be hired, as Exaul had paid all of them a large amount of gold to deny all contracts offered by the Seven Isles Alliance, and no one could offer more gold than Exaul.
Exaul didn't let its acquisitions sit on a shelf, and instead used its new resources and personnel to build up both an army and navy that was second to none. As the Seven Isles withered away, Exaul grew ever stronger.
Before the Seven Isles had even realized that they were being attacked, Exaul had won since their method of attack was not to sink ships or kill soldiers, but to completely decimate the economy of the Seven Isles. Exaul owned everything that the Seven Isles would have needed to wage a war, manage its infrastructure, or even just feed its own people. The only succor that could be found was either by working for firms owned by Exaul, or leaving the Seven Isles outright... and with Exaul owning every ship currently not in military use, escape was not an option for most.
Within five years, the leaders of the Seven Isles Alliance could do nothing as the Exaul Grand Navy sailed into the ports of the capital, and threatened outright war if there was not an immediate surrender. With no means by which to put up any meaningful defense, the choice was obvious.
The nation of the Seven Isles was taken without a single battle, or even a single casualty... asides from the hundreds who died from starvation or disease due to the results of Exaul's stranglehold on their economy. A treaty was signed that the islanders would come to call The Rape Of The Isles, making the isles and all who lived there slaves to the Exauls in all but name. As a final act of dickishness, the treaty included the confiscation of all gold, silver, or any other precious metal or gemstones within the Seven Isles, and all currency to now be solely in the form of Exaul's Orich. Even the economy of the Seven Isles would be under the complete control of Exaul going forward.
275 NE: The first official "Adventurer's Guild" was formed, formalizing and regulating what had previously been an unofficial practice within Exaul. Dangerous beasts, savage monsters, and other, more terrible threats still popped up from time to time within Exaul, despite its growing wealth and influence. As such, "independent specialized assault contractors", or as they're more commonly known, adventurers, were hired to deal with these threats, rather than having to rely upon a response from the nobility administering the region, or royal authority, which may not arrive in time to resolve the issue.
While largely beneficial to adventurers and the kingdom as a whole, this act was largely intended to monitor and control adventurers. After all, having people running around with powerful weaponry and magic at their disposal could be a recipe for disaster if any of them got any ideas regarding bigger things than coin and cleavage, wenches and mead. Regulation and oversight ensured that any potential future problems are recognized and monitored. If they do become dangers to the kingdom, there are numerous ways of dealing with them, few of which require outright killing: If a skilled adventurer is offered a position in the royal guard or other high-rank, high-pay, cushy jobs, they'll jump at it, nine times out of ten.
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312 NE: The Isolation Treaty is signed between Exaul, the elves, and the dwarves. This formalized a national policy between the three nations that had been going on since 255 NE with the conquest and diaspora of the orcs. The treaty ensured that none of these three powers would interfere with the internal affairs of the others, barring the outbreak of a war in which the continent was at risk of conquest by outside forces. The orcs were not invited to the conference at which this treat was formed, and had been ignored by all since 255 NE.
358-369 NE: The Second Gold War Occurs. This time, not against a nation, but the Chryseum Group, whose unethical business practices had taken control of numerous countries, and running the economies of those nations into the ground. Exaul used the same methods they'd used against the Seven Isles, with resounding success. It was not difficult, since the economy of the continent was largely in shambles. Exaul came in as saviors, liberating a nation that was being destroyed by greed. The Gold War simply accelerated what was already in process, as the entire continent would likely have fallen into collapse within a century without outside interference.
Instead of conquerors, Exaul would be the liberators of an entire continent. Those members of the Chryseum Group who could be found and captured were punished through imprisonment or execution, and those who could not be caught would live the rest of their lives pursued by the law.
As with the Seven Islands, the Orich became the currency of choice for the newly liberated continent, with all gold, silver, and other precious metals and gems confiscated, all to ensure the future economic stability of the region.
400 NE - 700 NE: The Golden Era begins. Three centuries of unrivaled peace, prosperity, and power. Several factors would cause this to come about.
Firstly, the fact that the two previous Gold Wars had ensured that there was no meaningful competition between Exaul and the rest of the known world. With absolute control over the flow of the Orich currency in the other major players in that hemisphere, Exaul held sway over a large amount of territory. While those nations would benefit somewhat due to Exaul's influence, they remained very much inferior to the great kingdom of Exaul. The other nations of the known world gave Exaul a wide berth and tried their best not to antagonize Exaul.
A Pax Exaul, caused by fear of the nation's power, not just economically, but also in terms of military, naval, and magical power, as Exaul's might in those arenas were second to none in the known world. If Exaul wanted something, they could buy it effortlessly either through gold or Orich. If a new technology or magical discovery was made, Exaul could afford it, either buying it openly or through bribery, subterfuge, or espionage. Any talented individuals in other nations were recruited to develop great works for Exaul.
The second factor was the discovery in 350 NE of how to crystalize magical energy into Exponentia, a solid-state crystal that could be used as a power source for magical items. Where before magical enchantments had a brief duration of up to an hour, the invention of Exponentia allowed the creation of magical items that could work for months, years, even decades, and recharging the enchantment was as easy as replacing the crystal when it was done.
Untold conveniences that were once only dreamed of were now available to the common man in Exaul. Indoor heating and cooling, cooking without fire, and so much more were all able to be developed very quickly and distributed at blazing speed. The process was quickly refined to improve the quantity and quality of the Exponentia produced, to keep up with the ever-rising demand.
The third factor was the invention and distribution of the Golem, the magical automatons that could effortlessly do the work of dozens of men. Able to labor tirelessly, any simple manual labor was able to be left to a golem. Farming, tilling, plowing, mining, and a thousand other jobs that normally relied on dozens of men working countless hours could now be left to golems.
While extremely rare luxury items outside of Exaul, within the kingdom they were so common by the end of the Golden Era that many families of commoners might have one or two such creations working for them to do the chores. Gold, silver, and other precious metals were often used to construct the automatons. After all, Exaul had so much of the stuff that it was effectively worthless. Meanwhile, more heavy-duty models were made of iron, steel, and stone for mining and more difficult work. While they were considered for military use, it was ultimately decided against since most of them were made from precious metals that were too soft and malleable to be of military use.
Golems made from more solid materials were considerably more expensive, and while possible for military use, they required constant orders and guidance to function, something difficult to accomplish in a pitched battle. While numerous improvements were made to the "operating systems" of golems, future considerations of military applications were never explored.
These three factors allowed for an era where the people of Exaul were able to live peaceful, idyllic lives free of stress or hard work. Many of Exaul's greatest artists, poets, and philosophers were from this era, and Exaul became known not only as a military powerhouse but a cultural juggernaut as well. By the end of the Golden Era, there was not a single nation in the known world that did not have some manner of cultural influence from Exaul within its society. Had this era lasted a few more centuries, the end result would be the creation of a global monoculture, where all was Exaul and Exaul was all.
However, all good things come to an end.
712 NE: The Vanishing of the Gods occurs, causing the end of the Golden Era. The gods vanish, and with them, many of their blessings.
The curse laid upon the elves still stands, as does many of the curses the gods had laid upon others, but the blessings and wonders of the gods begin vanishing now that the gods are not present to sustain them. This would cause problems across the world, but none quite so terrible as in Exaul
The vast amounts of gold, silver, and many other precious materials that had been extracted from Giltmont turned to sand. Some materials, like Mythril, remain, but the vast resources that allowed Exaul to perform its "Gold Wars" were now gone. Since many golems had been made of precious metals from Giltmont, this meant that three-quarters of Exaul's golem workforce vanished and had to be replaced, but were now much more expensive since they had to all be made from iron, stone, and other materials that had actual value, rather than worthless gold or silver.
Thanks to the Orich currency, the Exaul economy wasn't destabilized due to a loss of currency, and their possession of the gold taken from the victims of the previous "Gold Wars" still existed, so the kingdom was not utterly bereft of precious metals and the like, but that supply was now drastically reduced.
712-765 NE: The era that is known as the Trembling begins. During this time, Exaul was on very shaky foundations and risked collapse.
People were having to adapt to a world without gods. Injuries or illnesses that could once be healed by a visit to a cleric now had to be mended either through magic or allowed to heal the old-fashioned way. While this was a boon for alchemists and potion sellers the world over, it would be decades before the supply caught up to the demand.
There are other issues, however. No gods meant no blessings or sanctifications so that the buried dead would remain in their graves. Cremation now had to become the common practice in Exaul, rather than burial or entombment. Likewise, divination, the prophecies and visions granted by the gods which allowed mortals to get a look into the future, were gone. The future was now very much in doubt in more ways than one.
During this time of turmoil, the monster population skyrocketed. Blessings granted by the gods that had kept the monsters from breeding in too great a number or repelling them from some locations were gone. Adventurers, who had almost become a novelty in the centuries before were now a necessity for survival, and Exaul's mighty army was often deployed to aid in culling the monster population before it became too great. At least, that is until 752 NE.
752 NE: The Death Cult Of Skyourn arrives and begins attacking Exaul. The cult of Skyourn was built upon the prophecy made by its leader, Skyourn, that in the absence of the gods, whoever conquered the world would ascend to take the now-vacant throne of the heavens. Skyourn and his cultists came from the previously unexplored opposite half of the world, the Eastern Hemisphere, and his cult came in the hundreds of thousands to destroy Exaul. They believed that by destroying the most powerful and influential kingdom in the "known" world, their dream of world conquest would be easy to attain.
While most knew the cult's tenants were BS, some in Exaul did flock to Skyourn's banner. It was in the hope that if a new god did rise, then the world could go back to the way it once was. Most, however, girded for war.
752-758 NE: The Scorn War begins. The name came about due to a mispronunciation of "Skyourn" that ended up sticking. The kingdom of Exaul rallied to fight off the invaders, and as per the Isolation Treaty, begged aid from the elves and dwarves. The elves came immediately, but the dwarves were slow to move.
Dwarven leadership was very traditionalist and was hesitant to do anything that might upset the status quo. They feared that the war might expose their people to external influences that could cause a call to reform. While the dwarven leadership wasn't corrupt, it was cripplingly stagnant, effectively unchanged for centuries at this point. Instead of sending soldiers immediately, weaponry and armor forged by skilled dwarven smiths were sent. While not quite the aid expected, it was extremely useful and greatly appreciated by the king of Exaul and the elves, and the kings of both nations sent word to continue providing the equipment needed, holding the dwarven manpower in reserve in case of emergency. The dwarven government agreed to this arrangement since it allowed them to contribute without risking interference from the outside.
The kings of both men and elves went forth onto the battlefield, their vast armies ready for the war to come. The elven king and his grandson went to war, leaving the king's daughter behind to oversee the kingdom as queen. The king himself left his eldest son and heir, Belua, to oversee the rulership of Exaul.
Prince Belua, who would soon become known by such names as Belua the Vile, the Wicked, the Monstrous, the Blight, and scores more, was the worst possible person to be left in charge of things.
Belua was a member of the Cult of Exaltation, a cult that put humanity, and most importantly, Exaul, as the center of the universe. By their reckoning, this world was made by the gods solely for the people of Exaul. As the chosen ones of the gods, all other things existed for the pleasure of Exaul. By their faith, the gods had vanished because the Exauls were the new gods and masters of the world, free to do as they pleased. The elves, dwarves, and all the people of the other nations were nothing but playthings for the people of Exaul.
753 NE: After the initial wave of Skyourn cultists were repelled, the two kings set off to take the fight to the enemy. A series of naval battles would occur, followed by a ground campaign on the continent on the other side of the world, that would continue for five years. It might have gone on longer, but the battlefield prowess of the elves is the stuff of both legend and nightmare. A body that lasts forever, and never diminishes due to age or decay, combined with a mind that perfectly remembers every aspect of their fighting style, makes for a deadly warrior.
A single elven warrior is said to be the match for a thousand men, and thousands upon thousands of elves marched with Exaul.
While this was happening, Belua and his fellow followers of the Cult of Exaltation went into action. First and foremost, they took control of all means by which the kings and their soldiers might be contacted, ensuring that the only information that they received was only what the cult wanted them to hear. They also controlled any communication that left the kingdom to go towards their neighbors, the elves and dwarves. This communication blackout would ensure that no one outside of the kingdom would interfere.
After this, the cult started kicking recruitment efforts into high gear, gaining thousands of new adherents within a year. While no professional soldiers, the new converts made up for their lack of combat prowess with pure devotion and fanaticism. While most of the citizens wanted nothing to do with the cult, the fact that the Cult of Exaltation had royal endorsement, the backup of the royal guard that was loyal to the prince, and a large number of fanatical followers ensured that any who tried to resist were lucky if they were only killed.
So, with absolute control of all outward communications, a ruler in place who was fully devoted to the cult's cause, and an army, the cult had everything it needed. With the elves deprived of all soldiers for the war effort and the dwarves staying put under their mountain, the stage was set for the greatest tragedy of Exaul's history.
754 NE: The assault on the Kingdom Under The Mountain and the Elven Kingdom occurs. The details are irrelevant, but with the Dwarves being isolationist and having no interest in the outside world, their army was hardly up to the challenge, and the Elven army was fully dedicated to the war leaving only a token force of youngsters ill-fit for combat for protection, it was a one-sided rout. The elves and dwarves were enslaved. The males among the elves were butchered to a man, and the females were made into sex slaves. The dwarves were put in chains and forced to toil ceaselessly to produce armor and weapons for the Cult of Exaltation.
Prince Belua used dark magic to curse the High Thane of the Dwarves and all of his line to be without hands due to their refusal to obey. Because of this, the dwarves who had always been unconcerned with magic came to hate it with a passion, and even studying the art as a matter of curiosity was considered taboo.
Meanwhile, on the elven side, Prince Belua took the queen of the elves as his personal plaything and violated her endlessly. During this time, three children were sired, two of which Belua personally killed at birth as they were considered "impure", being half-elves and as such inferior to a human. The third was born after this "Time of Exaltation" ended, and survived.
758 NE: The two kings return to find that things are not well in their kingdoms, and the event is known as "The Year Of Blood And Tears" began. It began when the two kings returned to Urbs, which was renamed Civitas a century ago. The two kings were shocked and horrified by the things they saw on the way into the city but did not act, wanting to get to the royal palace and find out exactly what was going on.
Upon reaching the throne room, they were greeted by Prince Belua, who was in the process of violating the elven queen. After stopping, the Prince welcomed his father home and went on a speech about how the time of Exaul was now, and all his father needed to do was kill the elven king and all would be well. The people of Exaul were the gods of the new era, and it was time for them to take their place as the rules of the world.
The elven king drew his sword and gelded Belua, and the prince's own father decapitated his eldest son and heir with a single stroke. The two kings had become close friends in the time they'd spent defeating the Cult of Skyourn, as had many of the soldiers in the two armies as they'd fought side by side. The Cult of Exaltation found no converts or believers in the newly arrived army, just men and women angry at what had been done in their absence.
The next year was spent, for lack of a better word, 'purging' the cult from Exaul, and the next ten would be spent mending the damage done to the elven and dwarven kingdoms. While the dwarves were able to return to something approaching normalcy within a relatively short time, the elves have never, and will never, be able to fully recover from this terrible time. In the aftermath, hundreds upon hundreds of half-elves were born and many elves would, in the years to come, commit suicide, being unable to deal with the terrible trauma of that dark time, their flawless memory making it so that the agony of those days would never be dulled.
765 NE: Flavius the 4th is crowned king. Named Flavius the Wise, Flavius the Reformer, Flavius the Protector. He implemented numerous reforms that allowed Exaul to get back on track, and united the three kingdoms, elf, dwarf, and human, under the monicker of the Terni Alliance. He reasoned that why the terrible tragedy of years ago had occurred was that the three races had been isolated for far too long, and the best way to prevent future tragedies would be for them to join together. Trade was established between the three kingdoms, strengthening the economies of all three. While Exaul's decline from the Trembling was stopped, however, it cannot be said that the new arrangement caused any real growth or improvement.
New laws were made that would help to account for the absence of the gods, and to strike down any new cults that might appear. Peace was established, albeit a brittle one.
783 NE: The War Against The Dark Lord begins. No one knows where he came from, who or what he was, or anything else about him. He simply marched out from the Badlands into Exaul at the head of a vast army of orcs and began putting every human they found to the sword. No explanation was given and no terms for surrender put forward, it became clear that his aim was nothing short of the utter genocide of every human on the continent. He was only stopped during the Battle of Romulus. During this pitched battle, the mysterious hero Tiago faced down the Dark Lord in single combat, plunging his blade into his adversary's chest. As the battle ended, Tiago rode away, proclaiming that he would return again to save the kingdom in its darkest hour.
In the aftermath, it became common practice for orcs to be captured and enslaved. While any orc in the Badlands would resist capture with everything they had, once forced into slavery, they became placid and obedient, requiring little oversight to manage them.
800 NE to 900 NE: There have been no real noteworthy incidents within the kingdom since the War Against The Dark Lord. No wars, no major events, no changes or reforms made. However, the poisons that kill empires, complacency, hubris, and corruption, are truly beginning to take hold. In the absence of an imminent external threat to unify the kingdom or potential competition on the global stage to keep it vigilant, it has begun to relax its guard with inevitable consequences.
900 NE (Approximately): The New School of Magic is created. Where before, magic was taught as spells, each one having a clear, set effect with no alteration or customization, the art was now being broken down into basic components to allow practitioners to be able to create a near-infinite variety of spells by creating formulae and implementing variables to create effects. While much more versatile than the previous system, it met a great deal of resistance from scholars and institutions deeply entrenched in the Old School. This fight between the old and new schools continues on to the modern-day.
Meanwhile, while a few people can see that Exaul is in a marked decline, these individuals are marginalized, trivialized, and ignored by the overwhelming majority of the people in Exaul. After all, Exaul was the greatest kingdom in the world, it controlled the economy of multiple nations and possessed an army second to none. How could it be falling?
How could it not? Monster attacks were on the rise, as were undead infestations and growing bandit tribes. The economy was falling apart, as the careful supervision that had monitored and maintained the value of the Orich currency had fallen so lax as to be non-existent, causing rampant inflation.
Meanwhile, trade was falling off in part because of this inflation, but also because Exaul's primary exports were its olive oil and the dwarven weapons obtained from the dwarves. Nothing else was marketable, as other nations could produce everything they needed at a lower price than would be required for shipping it from Exaul. While some did propose new potential investments and avenues of research, finding a patron willing to bankroll any new project was just about impossible. It is a common joke that one was more likely to convince a dragon to invest in a project than a wealthy Exaul aristocrat.
While monster attacks and the like are on the rise, the number of adventurers cannot keep up with it. Every year, a few villages are wiped out. While the kingdom ostensibly is very large, a small but growing portion of it now belongs to those who take it if the kingdom is unable to reclaim it, and fewer efforts are being made to reclaim what is lost.
Meanwhile, other nations that had been forced to rely on the Orich currency are secretly working to create their own unique currency that would replace the Orich when Exaul finally fell. Alternate avenues of trade and manufacture were established so that Exaul could be cut out of the loop at any time. While no one wanted to fight Exaul, due to the nation still having a powerful army and navy, they were more than willing to make plans for the day when the kingdom would fall. The writing was on the wall for everyone in the known world, but Exaul was not willing or able to read it.
1000 NE (Approximately): It is now that nebulous time in the history of a great kingdom or nation in decline, that vague point where it is hard to say if it is falling, or has already fallen. In the future, scholars may point to a specific incident to indicate that this was the moment the kingdom fell, while others will argue that the kingdom had fallen a while back, but no one realized it had until this moment occurred because if the kingdom hadn't fallen then that moment would never have happened.
1017 NE: The modern-day of our story. A new king has been coronated, Flavius the 7th. His father had been crowned fairly old and had a relatively short reign. During the years before his coronation time, Flavius went overseas and both saw and learned many things, including how bad Exaul's situation was. He has returned, intent on making the changes and reforms he believes may yet save the kingdom. However, the seven Archdukes and their subordinate nobility are resistant to any changes made...