Naturally, I'll have to be vague. ^_^
The races of the planet we now live on are broadly termed the Empyrean, as we're called human. Their average lifespan was 1000 years.
The Falatacot and Dericost are the two peoples who are first mentioned. There is evidence that Dereth (called Killiakta by the Dericost and Ireth Lassel by the Yalain - as in Tolkien, there are many overlapping place names) was originally Falatacot land. Dericost existed on a vast continent to the southeast. I've stated previously that Dereth, the playable bounds of AC, is like Iceland floating alone in the Atlantic. It's important geography, but tiny tiny compared with the lands many of the texts mention. The Falatacot were driven south and east by a mini-ice age, and came in contact with the Dericost.
The sovereign who sat upon the Ice Throne of Dericost apparently wanted the power the Falatacot held, for they were allowed the kingdom. The origin and fate of the Falatacot are unknown. They are known to have been seers of some power, gaining visions of the future through ecstatic blood rituals. No oracles other than those of the Falatacot have been mentioned in the histories; perhaps the talent lay only within their bloodlines. The most powerful spellcasters among them were women; thus the uncomplimentary epithet "witches."
Dericost was a mighty power, ruled from the high and frigid Plateau of Gelid in the north of the continent. It waxed further through black arts. Their nobility had an unfortunate tendency to turn themselves into immortal undead. There were two factions among the Dericost undead; the Winds From Darkness and the Lords of the World. The difference between those factions is open to debate at this point. Collectively, all the undead nobles of Dericost were called the Old Lords by the commoners they ruled.
Dericost invaded two neighboring realms, the Empire of Yalain and the Kingdom of Haebrous. This is the earliest known reference to these powers in the histories. Haebrous' location is undefined; Yalain is pretty clearly stated to be based on an archipelago south of the continent which was home to the Dericost. Among the islands of this archipelago was called Knorr, upon which a great Lyceum (school of magic) was built.
Details on this war are sketchy. It is known that Dericost lost, and Yalain continued and prospered. Haebrous' fate is undefined, though later references to the Emperor of Yalain being "Regent of the Shattered Throne of Haebrous" implies that between the Dericost and Shadow wars, the kingdom fell or was broken apart.
The Yalain, and to a lesser extent Haebrous, are referred to as the High Empyrean cultures. When the common person thinks of Dereth's past, he or she pictures the glittering cities of the Seaborne Empire. Read Tanith Lee or Lord Dunsany, or just picture Lothlorien, Imladris, and the Western Lands. That's the sort of effortless, timeless majesty the Yalaini culture possessed. Even the mightiest cities of Ispar are but small and dirty reflections of Yalain's least, and our magic, to theirs, is little more than the dabbling of children.
But, following a meteorological phenomenon called the Black Rains (the name alone is known) a shadow fell upon the glades of the north, in the Yalain-occupied Dericost Marches. A great darkness arose, and the children began to disappear. Lord Atlan, noble of Knorr, was sent north with a great army. Only one returned, her mind broken by the experience. Through the gibbering and weeping of this girl, the Yalain first heard of the entity they would call Bael'Zharon, "Slayer of Hope." A council of the five most learned mages in the land was convened to advise the Yalaini Emperor.
They spent hundreds of years fighting a losing war against the Shadows. They themselves did not know where the Shadows came from, but they knew too well what had sparked this upwelling of darkness and madness. At the last, as their people were slain or absorbed, a young mage named Asheron hatched a dangerous plan, drawing on the mostly-forgotten writings of an earlier mage. The Council and he wove a trap of planar magic and enchanted crystal, and in this, Bael'Zharon was confined. This triggered a cataclysm, and all the members of the Council were killed. Asheron, somehow, survived.
After the Shadow War, Asheron continued to experiment with planar magic, and refined it to the point that he could cast portals to any destination he pleased. Sometime during this period, the Gelidite cult fled for Killiakta. They were the descendants of the nobility of Gelid, exiled and resettled in the south by Imperial Decree. They thought that building the city of Frore would trigger the fulfillment of an old Falatacot prophesy about the "Fourth Sending." This, they assumed (and you know what they say about assumptions), would freeze the world, killing all but their cold-acclimated selves. Then they would return to their ancient homeland in Gelid. They encountered the remnants of Dericost nobility in Killiakta, and, spurning them, turned inwards.
Not satisfied with crossing his own world, Asheron strove to cast portals to others, and he and his adepts explored them. But at some point, a mistake was made. From one of those worlds, the Olthoi swarmed into this world, as ants when their colony is kicked. The Empyrean could not resist them, and no clever plan of entrapment could be discovered. So Asheron sent his people... elsewhere.
The might of his spell caused grievous damage to the planes; random portals began to open, all over the universe, all tied here. Many fierce creatures (Tumeroks, Lugians, etc.) fell through these in numbers, until the only larger forms of native life that remained were the Gromnies. Possibly the deadliest of these new arrivals was humanity, who were quickly enslaved by the Olthoi.
But there is a tale that has already been told...
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Chris "Stormwaltz" L'Etoile |