Local History
The central heartlands of Arcania have always been considered regions rich in diversity, magic, history and opportunities for exploration. In ancient times the domain that lay between The Red Ridge Mountains and what would later be known as the nation of Myrddion was full of lush untamed forestlands, sprawling mountain peaks and great rivers and ruled over by dragonkind of a multitude of colors.
"Alexandros" itself is an ancient name referring to the ancient kingdom of Alexandros that was destroyed in the take over by Charn some seventy years ago and of which Alexandria was the former capital. Though the kingdom has not been re-established due to the end of the royal line, Alexandria itself has continued on.
Today, its nobility vie with merchants and visitors from other nations and cities. Its landscape is as varied as its markets, with a history that extends into the first age.
The Ancient Landscape
Alexandros rests on ancient land, a region historically rich with diversity, magic, and history. Long ago the domain that lay between the Red Ridge Mountains and the Vast was covered in untamed forests, sprawling mountain peaks and great rivers. Dragonkind of all colors oversaw this treasured place, and beneath them, a race of humankind struggled to grow.
During the First Age, these humans built temples and made offerings to the many ancient gods who still walked the world in flesh. Aside from their ruins and the occasional tales of seers, little is known of these ancient folk.
At some point, this ancient culture built a great and ancient temple, greater than all others in the area at that time. They centered it in an area touched by the visions of the gods, and used it to commune and to worship. This site today is known as the Eidolon Court.
Eventually, scholars know that the dragons left. The War of the Heavens rocked the world and they were called away as sentinels in divine armies. Maugrim tore from His brother, taking with Him His own pride, and the madness and darkness of the Void, and began a struggle that lasts today.
The divine struggles would reach into ancient Alexandros. Together with the conflagration of divine powers and the loss of its great protectors, the old kingdom was laid to waste. Destruction rained down from the hand of Maugrim and the gods of the underworld as they sought to unmake creation, and rip from the world the power of the Source.
Much knowledge was lost, and the kingdoms of old scattered.
The Settling of the Oruch, Sildanyar, and Khazad
The landscape would become the center of wars a millennium later when the sildanyar would settle it. Seeking to create a second, great civilization beyond the borders of Llyranost, they founded the city of Aranthalas within a realm they called Estania. In those days, the magic of the sildanyar and other, ancient races was mightier than is known today, and with this power they crafted some of the greatest wonders that the world has known.
However, dwarves traveling from Khazad Duin soon moved to the area, and fresh on their mind was the treachery of the mul'niessa. They mistook the inhabitants for their twisted brethren, and so began a war that according to some scholars, may have had Deimos' handiwork behind it.
The war raged for years between them, and eventually, the tribes of the oruch found themselves drawn in, either by the draw of blood or from the effort of defending their territories. War soon overtook the landscape, and this three-way conflict threatened to unravel all three civilizations and all they had wrought.
That all was not lost was due to the efforts of a great elven peacemaker by the name of Ra'Tenniel. He would forge the accords known as The Great Meld which established peace and divided the lands. Under Ra'Tenniel's influence, the sildanyar and khazad found peace, and the oruch became guardians of the wood and wild. They turned their mighty strength upon invaders and monstrous forces and the khazad built the great kingdom of Morduzum beneath the earth.
And yet, as peace progressed, the khazad would delve too far. Ignoring the warnings of their clan elders, they dug more deeply into the stone and earth. Eventually, they came to disturb the lair of the great Black Dragon King, one of the primeval ancient dragons that had fought side by side the twisted god Maugrim in the age of wars. Awakened, the cruel behemoth summoned to him his progeny and also trolls ando ther wicked, poisonous creatures.
The combat came to a close through the intervention of golden dragons, but by this time the land was poisoned and its earth soiled. The khazad retreated and offered sanctuary to the oruch for a time, and the sildanyar fled to the forests.
For three generations the oruch and the khazad held their peace beneath the earth, until an ambitious oruch lord by the name of Kotiphar sought to lay waste to the teachings of Adom. He reached back into the history of the oruch-kind, and came across forbidden names and teachings that the oruch had long forgotten. He embraced them, and swore a pact with fiendish powers, and in doing so transformed his clan into the Daemon-Orcs or the Mogareg.
The war that erupted ended the peace between the khazad and oruch in the land known today as Alexandria for some time, as the khazad who were not killed or slain by these daemon-orcs were sold into slavery or forced to flee northward, bearing tales of betrayal and horror. In the wake of the daemon-souled and damage from the ancient Black Dragon King, the mighty kingdom of Morduzum was no more, and its passages litter the land beneath like catacombs.
The Age of Artifice
The weakened state of then-Estania once again set the stage for the surge of humankind. The round-eared children gathered and gripped their spears, and went to war with the sildanyar over lands and resources. The son of the great negotiator Ra'Tenniel, Silvanos, established a haven for his people north of the human lands. He did so because he saw the war against mankind was one that could not be won, and with the sildanyar out of the way, the humans soon drew their city-states together.
For a time there was peace again.
However, this time was the time of Artificers and the time of Kulthus. The lands of then-Estania were considered backwater and expendable by the Kulthian Aristocracy, who stepped forward in conquest.
As the land's newest conqueror, they appointed a Governor who forbid their use of magic and enforced the laws of the Artificer's City. The Governor would then turn to exploit its natural resources and location to build a terrible weapon. This weapon became known as the Spell Cannon.
The Spell Cannon stood larger than men, and possessed the ability to fire a beam of Mana so powerful that it could sunder the very walls between the planes. Such toys were the power of Kulthos, and when they were torn from their throne by the Sundering, the people of the Alexandros landscape were able to step forward and free themselves once again. The Sundering spread from the great Eidolon Court of ages past--that great structure built now by unknown hands. The rippling effects tore into the ley lines and mana fields across the world, and scored Alexandros for years to come as a result of Kulthos' arrogance.
However, freedom was a difficult process, as for years they had been guided by the Governor, and been forbidden even the most basic education in the arcane arts. Because of this, the region recovered slowly and may have lain stagnant for some time if not for the arrival of pilgrims also fleeing the wrath of the Lords of Artifice. Among these groups were wizards, instructors, and other learned folk. Together, this new mixture of people and races began to lay a foundation to rebuild their cities and homes.
The Crown Wars and Sorceress Wars (Being Updated)
When the Crown Wars began, Alexandros' original position was that of neutrality but their location geopolitically between the continents of Arcania and Vantyre meant that one way or another they would be forced to get involved. Eventually in the name of right and good, Alexandros' current king, Regendus Dan'Alexandros, allowed Myrddion to use their territory as a staging ground for confrontations with Charn but stipulations were involved and the nation's own troops remained largely committed to securing their own borders versus wars in distant lands.
During the year of ascension which was by and large a sacred season for the people of Alexandros, a double tragedy struck the nation. The Great Plague had begun sweeping across all of Arcania. It was likely brought about or encouraged by the destruction of the Crown Wars. Alexandros was not spared the effects of the devastation and the streets of Alexandria were filled with the sound of the suffering and those in mourning. Following on the heels of plague, the war was brought to their very doorsteps. The neighboring nation of Celidun fell to Charn, giving them access to ports across the Inner Seas and following that a mysterious ally of Charn, the Witch|Altima struck the nation of Alexandros. Though expecting such an attack, they were unprepared for the sheer power and ferocity of The Sorceress Queen who wielded magic of unforeseen might and overturned Alexandria's armies with her own assault of beasts, monsters and strange magical-machinery. For two years, Alexandros fought back and resisted and even gained ground but eventually they fell and the king was slain and the nobility of House Alexandros forcibly scattered to the four winds.
The Sorceress Wars (Being Updated)
For fifty years, Altima reigned as Charn's general-queen over the region of Alexandros and she began to scour it for the secrets of the Old World. The elves of Mythwood shut away their forest using their own magic but knew that it was only a matter of time. The dwarves disappeared into the Red Ridge Mountains and other monstrous races soon allied themselves with Altima versus risk destruction. Within Alexandria itself, resistance groups began to form. Myrddion and other nations began to secretly submit to these groups. War-Golems, weapons, magic, soldiers and funding in order to bolster their efforts to battle the queen and destroy her.
For some time, these resistance groups lacked unity until the appearance of a new group who was symbolized by The Scythe as an intention of judgement against Altima and a symbol of the common man; a farmer's scythe. The name of this group was The Phalanx Falcis and their leaders include members of the old noble houses, including a members of house Alexandros which people had believed utterly destroyed up until that moment. When Myrddion had gained enough ground against Charn and pushed that empire back, Charn found that Altima had turned against them due to having stumbled across a means to assure her own power. Now the allied lands turned to the freeing of Alexandros and in the wake of this the Phalanx Falcis' tactics rallied other internal rebel groups and the formation of a people's army began to successfully throw off the shackles of Altima's reign. Her War Golems were destroyed, though the price was heavy, and from the north Myrddion's own armies drove inward and began to destroy the monstrous armies that had long held the land.
But the end did not come until a specialized group of Phalanx Falcis members drove into the heart of Alexandria's castle and after a pitched battle with great losses she was slain by Augustus who wielded a scythe of blazing light. Though they had taken heavy military losses, Myrddion routed the remains of her armies and the Sorceress Wars came to an end. Alexandria City was in ruins, however, and the lands of Alexandros bore the scars of machines, magic and warfare. Myrddion would take Alexandros as a liege land for the purpose of rebuilding it, bolstering its defenses and creating a strong unified presence to protect against would be predators in the aftermath of such a terrible series of wars. Augustus Alexandros - he who would have been king - had vanished.
The Watchful Peace (Being Updated)
Ten years passed and Alexandria still remained under Myrrish control and guardianship but now unrest had developed for the time where the city and nation was due to proclaim it's own sovereignty had come and gone and Myrddion retained control. The old nobility were still scattered and though they wielded power of commerce they lacked true political control. Augustus re-appeared and denounced Myrddion for their activities but when he re-instated the Phalanx Falcis, they were now seen as terrorists and not freedom fighters and their activities grew increasingly dangerous and desperate.
The actions of Augustus ushered in a new era of tension, strife and instability. Augustus attempted to gain the power to overthrow the Myrrish but at the cost of his own sanity and that of those closest to him. When defeated, his actions caused the near destruction of the holy site known as the Eidolon Court and brought in a time when Myrddion and Alexandria, once allies, looked at each other with eyes of distrust.
Such events would reach their peak when the late summer and fall of AR 1003 brought upon the city an event known as the Merkabah Siege. The Eidolon Court was revealed to be the same fountain of divine energy of the days of ancient Kulthus and a surviving High Artificer of those days was revealed to have been posing as the Myrrish Governor and to have been responsible for much of the tensions and policies that had existed.
The Merkabah Siege, wherein the floating fortress-city of Merkabah was raised from the sea and an army of constructs and undead and cult members of The Illuminated Order descended on Alexandria, brought about a great change in the region. Much of the city was destroyed and many lives were lost but in the end, Saluven the High Artificer was defeated and Merkabah crashed into the mountains beyond the city. The following winter, during an international summit that discussed these things, Myrddion agreed to restore full sovereignty back into the hands of Alexandros' ruling merchants, guild leaders and remaining nobility and the confederacy known as the Argent League was formed.
The War for Sendor
Recently, hostilities between Myrddion and Stormgarde led to open warfare and then the empire of Bludgun took advantage of this and attacked the Myrrish nation of Sendor, conquering it and beginning a new season of warfare. At first this seemed to have little impact on Alexandros which again sought to maintain a distant stance out of necessity for needing to rebuild in the aftermath of the Merkabah Siege - but this could not be maintained as Bludgun, near to her borders, continued to threaten the land and refugees from Sendor poured, creating difficult living conditions. Finally, after an attempted hostile take over of the city perciptated by mercenaries implanted in Alexandria under the pretense of coming to her aid, Alexandros declared open hostilities against Bludgun.
Joining with Myrrish forces, Alexandrian Irregulars marched into Sendor to reclaim it and free the slaves who had been held under Kinnevack the ogress. Their rush withdrew crucial support from the newly liberated Blar, which fell--and many of the hobgoblin refugees fled to Alexandria, or being a military race with recent hostility against Bludgun, aided in the organization of forces in Sendor.
The armies' march through Sendor is the tale of bards. They triumphed over Fort Gettys, then rescued the damned city of Versis from rampant demons before reaching Sendor's capital, Vinas Solmnus.
Eventually the war drew to a close--combined forces smashed the Brazen Drum, one of Kinnevack's torture prisons before rampaging against the city walls. The victors returned home to Alexandria with hope-filled hearts, as well as the new burden of refugees, and friends and family who saw their loved ones for the first time in years.
And then it went wrong.
Present Day
Alexandria, and the Myrrish King, vanished at the end of the War for Sendor. Locals claim that during a period of five years there was no sight of the city of Alexandria and that a gray mist prevented investigation into the area. Scholars attribute the happenings to the chaos of the times and potentially the dark goddess Taara. Regardless, where it has been five years for the rest of the world--to the re-appeared Alexandria, it appears as though Sendor's victory was just yesterday.
To the rest of the world, however--it was not.