The War Against Talos

To understand much of the beliefs and wars of now, you first must understand what was fought before. I will keep this story short, and tell only what is important for you to know. But be aware that while the heart of the story remains the same, each land and people has its own take on what the truth of Talos and the war against him was all about.

Talos was - is - an evil god, whose dark powers once directly touched the land and corrupted that which it came in contact with. His evil was so great that eventually all that was good, and all else within the world, rose against him. The Gods even joined the War, and brought their powers to bear against the evil that was Talos.

The war was long and bloody. Thousands - millions - died. But eventually the War was won, and the Gods used their powers to trap Talos in his Vale in the sky. And peace came finally to the lands.

Thousands of years passed.

The Garandi Invasion

The kingdoms of the West rose over the years, beginning with the Ruzician Empyre. Gwynned arose from the Empyre, as the baronies and city-states of that squabbling nation joined together long enough to win their freedom from their overlord. Alfheim in the south, founded by a Ruzician who left behind his lands and its ways. The Nomads travelled the Great Desert, and the Ulun continued to worship their Celestial Dragon, Gartek, while forging exquisite works of craftsmanship. The Feydakin, both Light and Dark, resided in their ancestral homes, and were just legends to most outside the realm of Alfheim.

And then the invaders came.

From the far East, the Garandi came to the western lands, great armies which began an aggressive invasion of the Western lands. They landed on Dragon Isle in the fall of 1999, and quickly took the island as their base of operations. From there, the various Armies of the Clans invaded the mainland, and quickly conquered. The Clan of Water took Dragon Isle and patrolled the seas. The Clan of Death took all the way up the Red River. The Clan of Fire invaded the Empyre, and took to Hajira. The Clan of Earth landed at Thallen and entered in negotiations with the Ulun. The Clan of Air landed in Gwyneth, and took the coastline. The Clan of Light was the most recent to land, taking Southpoint in Alfheim. The Clan of Darkness has yet to make an appearance.

The West knew little about these invaders, and only since the Truce has been declared have the Westerners gained any understanding of the motivations of these invaders. The Easterners see the Gods as being a force of evil, and their invasion has the purpose of taking the Gods down. Other than this broad generality, however, little is known about the Garandi.

Unexpectedly, however, shortly after the Clan of Light took Southpoint, the Garandi leaders opened peace negotiations with the leaders of the kingdoms of the West. More surprisingly, however, the diplomats who met at these talks in Liberty came to a tentative cease-fire. The resulting Truce has put an end to the open warfare, at least for now. The Garandi have made some withdrawals, but they still hold the land they conquered as their own. Tensions are still high between West and East, and the War is still fresh in everyone's mind.

Barely two months later, four ships set sail. Four ships from four lands were caught by a dark storm, and shipwrecked here, where their story begins.