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The History of Sorus

In the Beginning
The region of Sorus was originally a collection of petty Kingdoms and City-states, engaging in constant wars and border skirmishes with each other. Despite their cultural similarities and shared faith, it seemed as though they would never unify.

Darius Drakebane would change that.

Before he took the name Drakebane, Darius had been born a commoner. As the son of a wealthy merchant, he was well-educated, but carried a distaste for his family's career. At the age of fifteen, he ran off to join a mercenary company known as the Steadfast Shields. He soon proved himself to be a highly competent swordsman, well-versed in battlefield tactics, and quickly rose through the company's ranks.

At the age of twenty-eight, he became their leader, and proved to be one of the best in the company history, expanding their numbers into the hundreds and boosting their fame by finding victory in the various border wars.

Five years later, the Kingdom of Taria sent an announcement throughout the realm. Some foolish explorer had awoken a dragon on an island to the southwest, which was now ravaging the coastal villages. Locked in a vicious struggle against a Coalition of neighboring City-states, they could not divert troops in sufficient enough numbers to stop the dragon themselves. Their King promised the hand of his only daughter in marriage to whoever slew the beast.

Darius rose to the challenge. He formed an agreement with two other mercenary armies: they would kill the dragon, but instead of marriage they would instead insist on gold, which they would split amongst themselves.

They rented ships, and approached the island from three different sides. Unfortunately, the dragon intercepted the two other Mercenary fleets, burning one in the water, and annihilating the second one as they landed on the beach. The Steadfast Shields, however, made it onto the island fully intact. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-Jun-2018 03:35:34 - Last edited on 16-Jun-2018 19:32:30 by NotFishing

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When the dragon came to them, they stood firm. As it rained fire on their warriors, Darius fired a ballista mounted on one of his ships. It struck the dragon in the base of its wing, forcing it to land, allowing the surviving warriors to close in and attack it while the archers peppered it with arrows. It is said that Darius himself leapt on the dragon's head, and drove his spear through its eye.

In the end, casualties were high. Only a quarter of the Steadfast Shields had survived the battle. The survivors of the other companies could be counted on two hands. Yet they were victorious. Known for his curiosity, Darius marched his army up to the deceased dragon's lair, to see it for himself. When he got there he found a vast cave, with a glowing red orb in the center. He picked it up, and felt its power. Having heard legends of the Orcs and Dwarves encountering similar items, he knew at once what he held.

He decided he would take the marriage after all.

And so he returned to Taria bearing Casimir's head. The nobility was understandably shocked that had a commoner had accomplished the deed; they had expected a knight or a lord to handle it. But a pledge was a pledge, and with great reluctance the King honoured the agreement, allowing Darius to form his own noble house. He took the name 'Drakebane', and married the Princess the next month.

The day after the marriage, Darius promised his father-in-law that he would end the war against Taria's enemies. With the hundred or so survivors of his company, he marched off to the front, to everyone's astonishment - how could so few soldiers make a difference? Darius had of course been keeping his new power a secret.

Darius linked up with the Tarian army, who were to preparing to do battle with the enemy the next day. The commander stationed Darius's men on the right flank, and when the next day came, history would see the Pyromancy Orb's first recorded use in combat. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-Jun-2018 03:42:25 - Last edited on 16-Jun-2018 19:53:07 by NotFishing

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Darius waited until the enemy was upon them, and then he unleashed the Orb's full wrath. Within seconds, half of the enemy army was bathed in fire and reduced to ash. The other half immediately broke and fled the battle.

The Conquest of the Southern City-States

Thankfully for Darius, the Kingdom of Taria was not as prejudiced towards the use of combat magic as the other Sorusian Kingdoms. After hearing of his success, the King of Taria named Darius the new commander of his armies, and ordered him to march into enemy territory and finish off the City-States. After witnessing the power of his orb, the warring City-States yielded to him without resistance, save for one - the city of Bluehaven.

The Queen stubbornly refused to surrender, so Darius used his orb to set several fires within the city. As the fires began to spread, she quickly changed her mind, so Darius extinguished the flames and was allowed into the city.

Now, Taria had effectively doubled the its territory. As a reward for his efforts, the King named Darius his heir, and bestowed upon him the City of Solace. The King spent the next few years consolidating Taria's power, and none of the other Kingdoms dared wage war against them, for fear of invoking the Drakebane's wrath.

Darius's Ascension

When Darius was forty, and his wife pregnant with his first child, the King of Taria finally died, allowing Darius to take the throne. His first act was to rename the Kingdom of Taria into the Empire of Sorus, vowing to unite the entire region. Naturally, the other Kingdoms interpreted this as a declaration of war, and so war began.

Darius's Conquest

The fight was incredibly one-sided. Though King Darius was vastly outnumbered, and half his army was of questionable loyalty, his orb made all the difference. Army after army he crushed, city after city he conquered, within a year everything from the Southern Sea to the petty-kingdom of Talendria was under his control. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-Jun-2018 03:42:26 - Last edited on 16-Jun-2018 20:13:21 by NotFishing

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Darius's Reforms.

In most Sorusian Kingdoms, magic was left almost entirely in the hands of the Church. All aspiring mages were required by law to be sent to a Great Temple to learn the basics, and there was a great stigma placed on having mages rule, or use magic in combat. Darius was no mage, but his orb was undisputably magic, and he had used it to subjugate half a continent.

Naturally, this was met with outrage. Many went so far as to denounce Darius's use of the orb as blasphemous, that such tools were only fit for use by the gods (in actuality, scripture had never actually been clear on whether mortals were permitted to wield the orbs.) Several plots and uprisings ensued, but were all crushed.

In the meantime, Darius declared that the use of Combat Magic was now legal, so long as it was not used to violate the law. He contacted several well-known human mages from the few areas where combat magic was not illegal, and gave them permission to start their own institution in the City of Solace, the new capital of the Sorusian Empire. And thus, the first Wizard's Academy was founded.

In order to provide some appeasement to the priesthood and peasantry, Darius also decreed that it was illegal for mages to hold titles and land, or marry into the nobility. He named himself an exception, pointing out that he was not a mage, and instead merely possessed a highly powerful magical artifact.

Darius would finally succumb to death at the age of eighty-three, having lived a long and healthy life.

Cidius's Reign

Cidius inherited the throne after Darius. He was immediately plagued with plots and rebellions. Though he initially demonstrated great success in stopping them, an assassin would eventually claim his life. The assassin then attempted to steal the orb, but was thwarted by Cidius's son Marius, who had the assassin slowly burned alive. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-Jun-2018 03:42:28 - Last edited on 16-Jun-2018 20:10:11 by NotFishing

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Marius's Reign

Marius was just as capable at wielding the orb as his grandfather. He quickly crushed the remaining rebellions, executed the families of those who started them, and gave their titles to families who would be more loyal.

Over the next couple generations, rebellions would break out every time a new Empire ascended the throne, but they were all crushed. As time went on, rebelling soon proved to be a hopeless cause, and so the rebellions ceased. With time, the plots ceased as well, and people grudgingly accepted the new Empire. For nearly one hundred years, there would be peace.

One Hundred Years of Peace.

For one hundred years, the Drakebane Dynasty ruled without incident, and the Sorusian Empire began to truly flourish. Roads were constructed and expanded, linking up the formerly divided region. Contact was established with the Kingdom of Dormoor, creating several profitable trade agreements and paving the ground for a long and profitable friendship. Another Wizard Academy was established, and new advancements were made in magical.

Unfortunately, not all was well. Now that mages faced fewer restrictions, the usage of blood magic and necromancy began to increase. Some say this was due to the reduced influence of the Faith, others say it was because the Wizard Academies were too liberal in their teachings (despite the fact that the Forbidden Arts never held an official place in the Academy Curriculum.)

In the end, the decision was made to allow the Faith to expand the military organization known as the Paladins. Traditionally, the Paladins had always been tasked with the duty of guarding temples, escorting newly-discovered mages to the Great Temples, and protecting high ranking priests. Now, their role was expanded to include hunting down practitioners of the Forbidden Arts, and their ranks were opened up to the magic-wielding Clerics, who were taught the way of the sword in addition to Tranquil Magic. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-Jun-2018 03:42:29 - Last edited on 17-Jun-2018 19:36:39 by NotFishing

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Maro's Conquest

The 'Hundred Years of Peace' would eventually be broken by Emperor Maro. One of his first acts upon his ascension was to expand the army and stockpile food. Two years later, he called the entire Empire to arms, and with an army of 60,000 he marched north to the Forests of Elfgard.

At first, progress was swift. The disunited Elven Tribes were initially only able to offer scattered resistance through skirmishes and raids on supply lines, but this was only a nuisance. Eventually the southern tribes were forced to retreat, as the army came closer and closer to their camps. Soon, nearly a third of the Elvish lands were now under Sorusian control.

Rather than continue pushing, however, Maro chose to consolidate his conquest. He established three major forts, which the cities of Daralt, Greenhaven, and Valenguard would eventually be built around. He ordered the construction of bridges, and cleared stretches of forest for roads.

That delay gave the elves the time they needed. Gathering at the site which would later become the City of Elkwood, the elves recognized that the only way to repel the Sorusians would be to stand together. So they formed a Coalition, vowing to defend each other from all outside invaders, Sorusian or otherwise. And then, with an army of 15,000, they marched south.

The army the Elves had assembled was only a quarter the size, but that mattered little. Rather than face the army openly, the army scattered into dozens of individual raiding bands, who lost concentrated attacks on supply lines and stockpiles. They ambushed patrols and caravans, and assassinated military commanders. They were unable to claim any new territory, and each victory came at a cost, but they had denied the humans the ability to advance.

This stalemate continued on for four years, with both sides taking heavy losses. Eventually Maro broke and offered peace, on the condition that he keep the lands he had conquered. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-Jun-2018 03:42:30 - Last edited on 17-Jun-2018 19:58:12 by NotFishing

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For the Elves that was not good enough, and the war continued for three more years until they too finally broke down and accepted. Some clans, however, refused to accept the peace, and still launch raids into human territories to this day.

As for the Sorusian Empire, the war had been a costly affair, leaving the treasury nearly bankrupt, but in the end it endured.

Colonization

In the coming years, more and more people made their way north, forming new towns and villages. The Duchies of Valender, Greenhaven, and Gara were established, which Maro gave to generals who served him well in the conquest. Iron mines were discovered to the west of Valenguard. The forests surrounding Greenhaven and Daralt were rapidly deforested revealing fertile soil underneath which turned the regions into agricultural powerhouses. In addition to this, Daralt also became a bustling port city. The new additions to the Sorusian Empire began to prosper, and a third Wizard Academy was established in Greenhaven.

Cidius's Conquest

Maro's grandson, Cidius II, would eventually take power. Just as ambitious as his grandfather, he too was resolved to expand the Empire by conquest, but he knew better than to attack the now-united elves.

Using the wood from the recently deforested north, he constructed a massive navy at Solace City. Then, with an army of 40,000 he crossed the Sorusian Channel and landed on Naris, Pyromancy Orb in hand. The gnomes surrendered quickly, knowing their jungles and tree-top settlements would be no match for the Orb. Their government, culture, and religion was left intact, but they had to provide regular tribute as well as their military support.

But Cidius was not done. Seeing how easily the Gnomes had yielded, he figured the three Drow Kingdoms would be the same. So he sailed further east, and landed in the Drow Isles. But to his surprise, the Drows did not yield. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-Jun-2018 03:42:32 - Last edited on 17-Jun-2018 20:10:44 by NotFishing

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The Drows fought him to the bitter end, the three Kingdoms finally choosing to set aside their disputes. They held on for three years, bleeding Cidius's forces heavily. The largest ever battle had been fought at Bluehaven, in which the assembled Drow Mages had almost been able to counter the power of the Pyromancy Orb. In the end, though, Cidius was victorious, and the Kindoms yielded to him.

But that was not to be the end of Drow Resistance. Over the next fifty years, several rebellions and plots began to break out. They were all crushed, but at heavy cost. There were whispers of discontent back at court by those who believed the Drow Conquest was costing them more than they were gaining, but Cidius and later his son stubbornly refused to pull their forces out of the region.

The Sorusian Cataclysm

The Sorusian Empire was, indisputedly, the most powerful nation in existence. The Dwarves were their allies, the Drows were their subjects. The Great Kingdoms of Vilith and Jalka were long gone, having collapsed to a mysterious decay shortly before Sorus was successfully united.

Then, one day, over the course of a few minutes, that would all change.

There was no warning. Half of the continent was suddenly consumed by a massive inferno, annihilating most of the empire, Gnaris included. Only the four Northern Duchies had survived, and for months they were blanketed with ash storms from the south.

Leaderless, they nearly fell into anarchy, but after a few years they were able to regain their hold on things.

The Kingdom of Greenhaven

After his region was restored to order, Duke Barras of House Wyland had been the first to declare his independence, naming himself King in the old pre-Empire style. For reasons unknown, the Academy stood by him. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-Jun-2018 03:42:33 - Last edited on 17-Jun-2018 20:41:14 by NotFishing

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The Kingdom of Talendria

After the Cataclysm, the Great Temple of Talendria was the only Great Temple left standing, and proved itself vital to restoring order by offering shelter and performing charity to those who needed it most. The Grand Bishop at the time also denounced the Drakebane dynasty, claiming that it was their blasphemous use of the Pyromancy Orb that brought the Gods' wrath upon them. Listening to her words, the religious Carmen Karmont declared independence and named himself King.

The Republic of Gara

The Duchy of Gara had been officially ruled by House Arenar, but merchants and nobles of the region held a tremendous amount of influence; more so than they did in other Duchies. And it certainly didn't help that the Lord at the time was a six year old with no brothers or sisters. Gara had left been hands of a Regency Council, consisting of the most prominent merchants and nobles of Daralt.

It was the Regency Council that stepped up to restore order, and that they did, using their vast wealth to hire mercenaries to suppress the rebellions and riots. Unfortunately, a few years later the young Duke of Gara would perish in a tragic accident. The distant branches of House Arenar in Talendria and Valender both expressed a claim to the Duchy, but were denied. Instead, the Regency Council took permanent rulership of the city into their own hands, forming the Council of Daralt. Since Sorus was no more, they declared independence; the Duchy of Gara was now the Republic of Gara.

The New Sorusian Empire

The Duchy of Valender had managed to get its affairs in order the quickest, thanks to the benefit of a rather large garrison that had been stationed there to repel Elven raids. Duke Calvin made full use of this army to restore order, securing roads, villages, and bridges. But even while the other duchies were still in disarray, Calvin kept his armies at home, fearing an invasion from the Elves in the north. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-Jun-2018 03:42:35 - Last edited on 17-Jun-2018 20:51:48 by NotFishing

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Only after the other Duchies had restored order and begun declaring independence did Duke Calvin begin to press his authority. He declared himself the herald of the New Sorusian Empire, and named himself Emperor, before launching a war against Talendria in the south. In the ensuing years, more wars would unfold.

The Rise of the Drow Empire

With Sorus destroyed, there was nothing preventing the Drows from rebelling against those who occupied them. House Zhang led a revolution. The Sorusian soldiers garrisoned on the island were slaughtered, and for the first time in nearly a thousand years, the Drow Isles were once again united under one ruler.

The Rise of Dormoor

The destruction of its greatest partner was initially a devastating blow to Dormoor, but they quickly recovered, and were able to negotiate far better trade deals with the much-weaker Human Kingdoms that still remained, but they quickly got into naval conflicts with their drow neighbors to the south over domination of the seas.

The Rise of the Mercenary Guild

With the humans once again divided and at each other throats, mercenary companies once again began to emerge, like the ones seen even before the Unification of Sorus. With their emergence came a call for regulation, to prevent them from switching sides, or turning to banditry when work was scarce.

Pre-unification Sorus had a Mercenary Guild just for that purpose, so the decision was made to have it re-established. All new companies were required by law to register with the guild, and adhere to specific regulations and a code of conduct. All four human kingdoms supported the guild, as it ensured that the mercenaries they hired were reliable, professional, and even somewhat trustworthy. Beneath the gold, the Bitter Steel.

12-Jun-2018 03:42:36 - Last edited on 17-Jun-2018 21:04:00 by NotFishing

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