A Historical Overview of Vintermor

Winter's Edge - An Historical Overview
In the First Age of the World, magic and form were one and the same. It was a mystical and wondrous time, a time before the humanoids walked the earth. The great dragons were the powers of the land, roaming and shaping life itself as they saw fit, as if they were gods. Their games and wars took eons to complete, and they were content. Most of them, anyway.

However, some dragons, mostly the chromatics, envied the gods, and wished to be considered their equals. These dragons secretly rebelled against the gods, and soon caused a massive uprising. Thousands of the wyrms traveled to distant planes, challenging the gods themselves on their own ground, hoping to replace them as the true lords of the multiverse.

They failed.

The gods were angered by the presumption of the dragons... after all, didn't they have a world without threats, a world where they were supreme? The dragon uprising was crushed easily, the primordial wyrms that challenged the power of the gods trapped in a new realm, splitting the magic from the mundane. The Mists held the primordial wyrms, using their essence to power the little magic left in the world. Though the gods were angry, they did not punish the wyrms that did not fight, instead content to leave the rebels shrieking in helpless torment within the Mists. Then the gods came together, and made their new creations... humanoids. And thus did the Second Age of the World begin, or the First Age, if you ask any but a dragon about it.

The Second Age was filled with wonder and glory, though very little magic. The most powerful magics were concentrated among the ancient dwarves and elves, as they formed mighty empires that spanned continents. No one knows the cause of their ancient feud, some rumor it was a conflict between their gods that started it. It matters little now, save that the wars were fought. Terrible things, the dwarves using arcane machines and runic devices not seen in this day, the elves responding in kind with fiery destruction. Elementals, outsiders, and darker things fought at their sides, as both dwarf and elf sought to take advantage and achieve total dominance.

Fortunately for the world, there were still good dragons in the world. Kunnia daughter of Aurinko, and Lognare the Brass were the most powerful of the good dragons, and they convinced Skogen and Skadia to join them in fighting their evil brethren. The MistWar raged for over a hundred years, the entire world being reshaped by the conflict. Nations fell as the remnants of the mighty elven and dwarven empires fought together against foes, desperate to avoid their own extinction. In the end, Skadia slew her father Jhoral, ending his cycle of evil, though the power erupting at his death changed them all, changed them into almost something like gods themselves. The evil trinity left, Talvi, Sslira, and Korinthar, fled to other planes. The three remaining of the side of good and life, Kunnia, Lognare, and Skogen, were given places among the gods themselves for their sacrifices and efforts. And then began the Third Age, the Age of Man.

Human cities rose into prominence, the ancient elven and dwarven empires shattered into distant memory. The Mists were a difficulty at first, as they rose and expanded to the point of being almost physical barriers, insulating different areas from each other. Soon though, the magic was discovered to gain safe passage through them, and travel and trade commenced once more.

After a while, an empire arose within the center of a continent. Comprised mainly of humans, though all civilized races were represented, the city-state of Taldara started to dominate their neighbors, forming a self-declared Empire. Moving swiftly, they subdued other nations, expanding to become the dominant empire, though a far cry from the ancient empires of the Second Age. They encouraged belief in all the gods worthy of respect, the Pantheist Church and the freedom of individual belief it gave aiding them in controlling their subject kingdoms. Soon after controlling their neighbors, they set their eyes across the sea, hearing rumors of stable manifestations of these Mists, where travellers from far away lands could come, farther even than across the sea.

And so, in the year 5012 of the Third Age, the Taldaran Empire established the colony of Vintermor. And the rumors were found to be true, for there were a plethora of beings from not just other countries, but even other worlds. The wars fought were hard, as the northern barbarian tribes resisted the colonists, but soon were subdued or bought off by the Empire. In the year 5074 T.A., the colony of Vintermor was successful enough, and prosperous enough, that they became known as the Kingdom of Vintermor, a representative kingdom of the Empire due to the awesome potential that lay within the ability to possibly control and trade with other countries, far far from Taldara and Vintermor.

And that is where we are today, the Kingdom of Vintermor awaits. Adventures to be fought, intrigues to be discovered, and riches to be gained. Find your path through the Mists, wanderer... if you can.