Around 1460w the elves fled to the Twin Continents from their war-torn cities in the great lands of Aszmere (the southern regions of El Gurrah), after losing the war with the druids of the far north. The druids had stolen the formula of the shaelei waters, which had been created by the elves many centuries prior, and countless suffered in the wars that ensued.
The shaelei waters were constructed to mimic Hylic power, a rare scar of fallen stars, and in doing so, a new race of magic was born. The elves called them shaelirs (see supplementary text: ‘Concerning Elves & Nightfell’). Those born within these shaelei waters inherited powers incomprehensible to mortals. It was an innovation that many saw to be the beginning of a new Eyrador, but the greedy druids wanted to claim the waters as their own creation. Ultimately the elves suffered a heavy loss and what remained of them were herded to distant lands to live more peacefully and carry out their experiments.
Many centuries later, King Dormley’s war would shape the landscape of the Twin Continents forever, and the last of the elves would perish under his hand.
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In 1887w, Robert Dormley was crowned King of the Twin Continents by the council of Parth; a council that had agendas of their own – agendas that did not conform with the northern alliances. Unusual times truly, for only a Lord can become King through a ballot among the council, but Robert Dormley was not a Lord, far from it. He was a traveller; after departing from his family, he spent a few years wandering the depths of El Gurrah. He was dubbed the youngest King to ever take the northern throne, twenty-five winters or so in age. Who knows whose shoulders he had rubbed against to retrieve such an honourable position in Parth. His relations to the throne have always been speculated, but the anonymous council chose wisely.
Robert Dormley was appointed a task that only a King could delegate, the task was to exhume precious materials. His predecessor, King Havle, did not oblige to give such orders; and for that, he was cruelly slain in his chambers weeks before Robert Dormley was to be crowned. The people mourned for Havle as a cruel web of deceit was pulled over their eyes.
A new King was born, the north reluctantly celebrated – as is their command to do so when a birth takes place. It didn’t take long before the people revolted against the fabricated lie that was bestowed upon them. There are those who bide their time, and there are those who are hasty to get their revenge. Yet, either way is to fail. The throne was powerful, fiery, and the people were quickly thwarted from speaking out.
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In 1810w, almost a century before King Dormley was crowned, the south of Vaelem had claimed its first unconstitutional sovereign. Dortmund Aeden – the founder and the first King of Nigh. By the time Robert Dormley took power in the north in 1887w, it was Dortmund’s son that had taken the southern throne – King Jon Aeden.
Robert Dormley knew that the city of Nigh was a new union for the south, they would stand no chance against the true King of Vaelem and his royal army. The crown, Gyrinor, passed down through a line of “worthy” and “unworthy” King’s; from the desolated city of Capithorn to Parth. Only the true King, sitting on the throne of Parth, ruled the Twin Continents and because of that, the Aeden line of Kings was a laughable farce.
The south was no threat, but chances can’t be gambled. Robert Dormley’s charge relied on no other opposers to interfere with his plots; and so, he sent emissaries in the night to murder the southern King – just to weaken them further. The city of Nigh crumbled and their expected retaliation was stomped out.
~
Before the mining could take place, he had more commands to lay out to ensure he had no opposition. The purge of magic was the King’s next enactment; a law that sought to eradicate anything that possesses magical powers, whether it be by race or those who wield the archaic runes and born of shaelei waters. While very few accepted his new law, (that the lands of the Twin Continents should be for mortal men and not sorcery) no one agreed to its vile execution. It was not the King’s intention to please the realm of men; it was to instil fear upon them. Sorcery was already dying, Eyrador learned too late that some powers were just not meant to be coursing through its land. King Dormley thought of it as just completing the journey of life – to be ridden of it now and forever before others come fleeing from El Gurrah. It was his own selfish belief that with magic eradicated, he would be feared by outsiders and unopposed in the Twin Continents.
In 1889w, following the declaration of his new law, death flowed from the steps of Castle Parth to the shores of Daegomar. North and south battled on the Baronwell Plains once again in retaliation for the royal subjects killing their sorcerers and hunting them like dogs.
Thousands died in the following wars that broke out under the new law. Shaelirs were tracked and torn by rabid hounds; believers were spayed in their temples and murdered silently in the night. It was not only sorcery that suffered. It was the innocent mortals who were questioned, tortured, and often killed after probing, they were the ones begging for an incantation to save them.
Not long after his declaration, the royal armies had spread to all corners of the Twin Continents to impose their bloody swords – and that’s where the last of the elves died. They died in Foren and Darwent, deep in the southern forests of Daegomar.
The druids, the few that had also come from El Gurrah, were the only ones to concede their powers so they could live on. They are servants of the law by nature, which means they are also in the King’s hand.
~
In 1175w, a precious metal was discovered in the depths of Freng Deep by an unfortunate druid named Durin Omar. The rare metal was named berinium; it was later discovered that it hindered magical abilities, something about it negated the pull of the Hylic stars. This was the metal that was used to help King Dormley rid the Twin Continents of sorcery. The dwarves helped with the mines and its secrecy, but the whispers of the land spread fast through the north. The world of magic met its cruel end in the Twin Continents thanks to this precious material and the men who forged the blades and bombs with it.
It took years for the King’s initial purge to finish spreading like wildfire across the continents, but the aftermath was far greater. Magic had died; there was no hiding from the King’s eye.
~
The next command, that only a King could impose, (one that King Havle would not oblige to) was the mining of gold to be carried out in the north. Gold was an extremely rare substance in the world of Eyrador; Vaelem, just so happens to be the only place known to still have a large deposit of it. There were rumours of some being found in the south, but they were untrustworthy rumours. The goblins of Terra (a land far, far, far away in the east of El Gurrah) struck gold once. It was said they had mined their caves dry in pursuit of a god’s promise. Some reckon a sea-load of it was lost in the dunes of Aszmere in 1775w.
The smaller villages of the north, especially those that surround his gold mines, were forced to work for the King. Slaves were made of the men, and whores of the women. And once again minds were flayed, and families were torn apart.
~
Ten winters after the purge, the King’s thirst had died down. His mines were operational and budding; and he enjoyed the luxuries of an uncontested throne. So much so that he had a change of heart suddenly, he proposed a truce with Aldridge Aeden (son of Jon Aeden), the elder of Nigh. The truce was to see if Aldridge would break it, and surprisingly – he didn’t.
The south of Vaelem, thirty plus years since The King’s War, has grown to be a prosperous land, where the people have ridden the name of the King from their mouths. Quietly they rebuilt themselves with new morals and ideals.
The city of Nigh was developing quickly despite the destructive wars of old, but Aldridge Aeden, and his council, swore to make a city worthy of the people. In time it will grow. The hammers of the stone masons thudded through the nights, and the dust of the woodworkers never settled. They all hauled together, helping to build the dream that Dortmund Aeden had once envisioned – a unity of inspiration and courage. Aldridge was no King, unlike his father, or his grandfather before him, but his admiration for the south was like no other.
How does a man so vile and oppressive get the privilege to bathe with his strumpets and drink from his golden goblets? While the rest of the Twin Continents suffer in the trail of his madness. Aldridge would never rest until the King has been brought to justice, but it would take time and resources – and a cunning plan to unite the world once again.