Many millennia before the the formation of The Great Suarn Empire humanity had first arrived to colonize the planet when chancing upon Lenida fortuitously as the remnants of their peoples spread out into this universe from the one prior as it died. Spread out so vastly amongst the stars, the humans on Lenida would not know their cousins managed to find other worlds to settle, and even their own technological mastery was largely forgotten as few remained with the knowledge and tools needed to be able to pass down their history accurately. As a bastion of human progress amidst the rather barbaric cultures that formed in those dark times, the continent of Tesaria was settled amongst the first, though the learned knowledge of magic to aid them with their decreasing technological prowess would soon lead to the downfall of a great civilization. Many had begun spreading out to distant lands due to political reasons, but none could foresee that dissenters remaining on Tesaria would enact a doom upon the land.
Drawing forth wild magic in concentration along the leylines in Tesaria, the dissenters had sought to devastate their hated foes in one fell swoop. Miscomprehended the multiplied force of such an act, they brought forth a surge of magic that destroyed all but the most simplistic or shielded of technologies, as well as causing ruptures in the Kish Tectonic Plate that spewed out toxins, radiation, mutagenic banes and caused a two-thousand year storm across the entire continent, which gradually shrunk until it now covers only The Northern Wastes. Those that survived did what they could to rectify the disaster, but most attempts were failures that drove the population to flee, leaving the land to nature and time.
Five hundred-seventy-two years ago, the Felinae explorer Athka Rinn was driven by a terrible storm toward Tesaria despite attempts by her crew to keep them from that ancient, fabled land of woe. Thankfully for their vessel, The Savage Serpent was only driven aground and not torn apart by the storm they expected to still remain around Tesaria. As they needed to gather supplies to repair their ship, Athka took a few of her bravest sailors to travel far from the shore to determine if they had indeed arrived safely on Tesaria and how. Due to the scant few tales of Tesaria mentioning great landmarks that they were able to identify, the group verified their location, but were still astonished to find the continent habitable for the most part. While the storm had not fully vanished, it had been greatly reduced due to the land reabsorbing many of the magics that had kept it going, allowing nature to reclaim the continent, albeit with many species that had evolved differently within the storm and the mutagenic banes that warped their being.
When The Savage Serpent brought news of their journey back to The Great Suarn Empire, the emperor at the time dismissed the doubt of his aides and funded a larger exploration to be run by Athka. It ran for five years across the continent before Athka's death, with her successor, the Auduron Draconis Dragon-Kin Garesh Kone, continuing it for a further four years before the survivors returned with journals, samples and far more. This all persuaded even the doubtful aides to see their ignorance, and pushed the emperor to start colonization of the lost continent.
The plans for colonization were met with hardship, the first true settlement, Hollowstone, being abandoned twelve years after its formation. Other settlements cropped up and failed, but it was not until Dagger Crest was formed in The Badlands that a stable city began to flourish. Following this achievement, the Reynix Quinn Xhen managed to gather enough small camps together to reclaim the ruin of Hollowstone and turn it into New Hollowstone, which would become the capital of the then Tesaria Colonies of The Great Suarn Empire. Oak Hill, which had been formed not long before New Hollowstone, started to grow more prosperous and some wealthy investors moved further East to Dunklestadt amidst The Ghost Grove, and some from Dagger Crest moved North to form Thosisi. Four hundred thirty one years after it was rediscovered, however, a great change would occur that would forever alter the political climate of Lenida.
As The Great Suarn Empire laid claim to much of Tesaria, other empires and nations still attempted to carve portions for themselves as well, and tried to stir unrest amongst the population. For the most part this was largely handled with great ease, though wariness of what had caused Tesaria to be uninhabitable for so long kept most from escalating skirmishes into true war. However, as the numina are wont to do, they had selected champions of their own amongst the planet's population. Unlike many times prior, the Odarne Pantheon had taken particular interest in those who either currently lived in Tesaria or would be subtly manipulated into arriving there. The Arbiter Dyndar chose one in particular which sparked consternation within the pantheon: The android Kestrel Alras.
Given a soul and the gift of magic by Dyndar, he offered scant guidance as she became a great mage at the Magus Ludus academy of the arts, as well working with her allies to defeat many great foes that were both champions selected by the other numina and those whose fates were unexplicably tied with Kestrel's own despite no intention by the numina. As her renown grew, the small retreat she and her allies had built expanded to become the city of Gear Rise, and many who sought freedom for the colonial cities encouraged her at great length to confront The Great Suarn Empire and demand independence. Driven by a sense of justice but also reverence for all that the empire had accomplished, she and some of her allies left Tesaria to speak with the emperor's court. Meeting failure despite the emperor's mutual respect, she sought to show the Tesarian people's resolve, sharing vast numbers of spells and technological designs with the lowliest of individuals who would receive them, before bringing her army to each of the outposts of The Guard that The Great Suarn Empire had left to protect the colonies and enforce their subjugation to the distant throne. It took a mere eight months to drive those that survived and did not accede off the continent. The Great Suarn Empire was humbled in this, but neither it nor the other forces vying for control of Tesaria gave up easily. It would take another four years of combat with many rotating alliances both aiding and betraying the Tesarian people before finally the various empires and nations had enough public criticism of the war that Tesaria was finally granted its independence.
Kestrel Alras and many of her allies left the public eye after that, not wishing to become ruling figures of the government they had won the people the right to form. It became a loose participatory democracy, with several small villages not electing to join but still protected by the nation as a whole. Some claim that Kestrel herself founded Despolis in The Northern Wastes amidst the ancient human ruins when she sought answers to a grand question, and that after it was formed she left to the storm-wracked landscape in the East to continue her search. With the government in place there were still some skirmishes here and there, but for the most part Tesaria was allowed to grow into its own identity, gaining allies in many of its former foes and oppressors. However, even with the hundred and thirty years after it gained its independence, there are still some parts of the continent not fully explored due to the dangerous flora, fauna and puissant vestiges of the ancient human civilization that once resided on the continent...
No comments:
Post a Comment