History of the Andar continent

Beginnings

Traditionally, the races have maintained separate kingdoms and principalities. The fae have the longest lasting presence on the continent, with an ancient and large empire that spans the most of the north and hugs the central grasslands. Because of their ethnocentricity, the fae on Andar refer to their nation simply as "the empire", and the other races refer to it as the fae empire. The fae originally came from the Duevat continent, but eventually parted ways from their brethren and set up an insular empire of their own. The arrival of the dwarves, gnomes, and elves on Andar is lost in the mists of time, although oral tradition among the fae mystics in the Hree desert maintains that the gnomes and dwarves predated the great migration of fae, but they lived in a semi-primitive state deep underground. Supposedly contact with the fae was what spurred the growth of civilization among the underground races, although the accounts don’t give much more how that occurred. They also maintain that the elven race is a distant branch of the fae that went feral, but anatomists and folklore specialists deem that an unlikely tale. According to their own records and traditions, the elves, dwarves, and gnomes have always lived on Andar. The arrivals of the trollocs and the humans, on the other hand, are much more recent and are recorded with a reliable amount of accuracy.

Fae

The fae empire stretches back eons, and has had several periods of growth and decline. Currently, about a century and a half into the reign of a strong but Machievellian ruler, the second of his line. The empire has most recently been in a period of moral and physical turpitude, and this ruler, the second of his line, is trying to consolidate the power in the center of the empire. He has dreams of eventually reclaiming land lost on the edges of the empire to the newer races. His overriding problem is the entrenched Byzantine politics endemic to the fae, which have adopted a deadly and amoral tint in this insular empire.

Trollocs

The trollocs arrived 2000 years ago as a small band of colonists who wanted to form an ideal society based on the teachings of the stoic/idealist philosopher Korbin. In contrast to the religious and highly structured society from which they grew, these new pioneers wanted to form a government that encouraged participation from all members of society, secular morality, and fulfillment of individual potential. Compared to other races, they are still conservative, duty-bound, and community minded, but for trollocs, they were idealist radicals. At any rate, the group bought land from the fae empire and formed a constitutional oligarchy with local democracy. By this time, a declining birthrate, high assasination and addiction rate, and increasing urbanization of the fae had led to a decline in the size of the empire and in power over outlying regions. Although they claimed rights to all the land on the continent, the fae actually controlled and inhabited only about half of it. They easily ceded to the newcomers some rich farmland and more rocky hillsides in exchange for a 200 year tithe of workers. The trollocs have mostly put this voluntary slavery behind them, but the in the fae empire, there is still an eager market form trolloc bodyguards and craftsmen. Unfortunately, there is also a small active underground slave trade for trolloc servants, and occasional raids into trolloc lands have rubbed a bit of the idealism off of the pioneers.

Humans

The human kingdom has existed for only about 400 years and has been actively expansionist force on the continent. They are the descendents of Viking wanderers who have spread across the southern sea and settling on the small, coldly fertile islands that dot it like confetti. They reached the southern point of the continent and immediately began spreading north and along the coastline. They maintain an active trade across the seas with the other Viking populated islands, and have worked to develop trading connections with other strong lands. Because of their unabashed expansion, they’ve had some run-ins with the fae empire to the north (who still maintains they own the land the humans now inhabit), but have mosly left alone the other nations who favor inland territory. Because of the rugged militarism of the humans however, the fae have been forced to turn mostly stand back and let the upstart human nation take over lands the fae previously owned. For the most part, the human nation is a loose feudal society that depends heavily on the sea and is only now starting to make use of rivers to expand inland. They’ve been blessed with a succession of gifted rulers who have done their best to secure peace and prosperity for their people. Consequently, they have a strong land and a suprisingly high overall standard of living. There is a strong emphasis on individual rights, and even slaves are granted hearings before court, the right to pass land to their children, etc. On the downside, they are an arrogant nation that disdains intellectualism and that is only now developing some of the finer arts of civilization, like universities and fine art.

Elves

The elves are organized as a series of large tribes that dot the continent. They tend to favor isolated wildernesses like deep forests, murky swamplands, and high mountains. Many of the tribes maintain contact with other elven tribes, and quite a few have rite of passage rituals involving traveling to other tribes, or maintain inter-tribal marriage or fostering customs. There is nothing approaching an overall government, and the local system of organization differs from tribe to tribe, but government by a group of elders is most common. They are overall a passionate people and little interested in growth, outsiders, or technology. More than any other race, they work and live with art, magic, and religion, but they have few centers of study for these aspects of their lives.

Gnomes

The gnomes are a friendly people by nature, tending toward mischeviousness and a deep understanding of the non-living aspects of nature like the rocks and weather and water. Although some nations of gnomes live above ground, the gnomes of Andar are strictly of the underground variety. Because they live out their lives deep underground, they have little contact with or impact upon the other nations of Andar. They are organized politically into city-states and are found throughout Andar, although entrance to tunnels deep enough to lead to a gnome city may be difficult to find from the surface. In general the are highly peaceful although unused to outsiders. Gnomes are an ancient race, maybe even as old as the fae. But as a people they have never shown as inclination to organize on a level more sophisticated than what they have. They produce few artists, engineers, despots, or dreamers of any sort. Most live contently in a simple lifestyle rooted in the present that has not changed in eons. They maintain some trade with the dwarves, who live closer to the surface.

Dwarves

Dwarves are the most practical and down to earth of the races. They share the interest in hands on work of the trollocs without adopting their stoic discipline, extreme conservatism, or selfless honor. They are a hearty people who have managed to maintain a zest for life despite the ancientness of their civilization. They are consummate craftsman and miners, and tend toward ornery individuality with occasional martial tendencies.

About 75 years ago, a high-level dwarven healer named Mallos rose in power, backed by an army of evil dragons and undead. After annihilating the mountain dwarf community from which he sprang, Malos used the dwarf tunnels and the cover of knight to atack the erasia district capital of the fae, the national capital of the trollocs, and several elven cities. Not only the cities, but also the leadership of these areas and their relations were murdered. Mallos, of course, was completely insane by the time of the great destruction, and he sought o permanently despoil the beautiful cities. Even 75 years later, the lands he despoiled are still enshrouded in a perpetual gloom, undead roam the land and the major cities are covered in ominous clouds. Unfortunately for Mallos, the dragons became board with the tunnelling to the human capital and the endless ruination of possible wealth. They turned on Mallos and defeating them cost him much of his powerful undead.

Meanwhile, the survivors of the holocaust warned the human king, Samuel, to prepare for the invasion. Among the remnants that find their way to the humans are a trolloc engineer named Gronig, an elven enchantress named Faradi, and a Fae snper named Serilla. These three were crucial to the human lead victory over mallos. Gronig collapsed the tunnels onto the waiting army, crushing part and exposing the rest to sunlight. Faradi distracted Mallos with his most feared enemy (his father) while Serille Fired arrow after arrow at his defenders, seriously wounding him. Mallos was forced to retreat, allowing the human army to conquer the remaining undead. Samuel was thankful enough to grant the displaced survivors of the three races new land under two conditions. First, each of them must pledge to come to the Human’s aid when needed, and second, all four races must stay in constant contact. Many of each race disliked the idea, but they couldn’t go home and so were forced to accept Samuel’s offer. The new country has three states which take turns being the seat of government every 50 years. Each hero was offered leadership in their new state, but only Gronig offered to start a new dynastic line.