A Brief History of Caerdolan

The story of World of Caerdolan begins with the rise to power of the Caerdolan people and their empire. This empire reigned for five hundred years until it crumbled from within due to competing factions and rebellious subjects. The people who eventually became known as the Caerdolan were originally a nation of wandering, nomadic pastoralists and horse herders, known to themselves as the Ekwo Madhara, who were made up of loosely allied family clans. Wealthier families ruled over groups of smaller families tied to them by an elaborate series of ritual oaths and obligations. While wealth was measured primarily by the number of war horses and cattle that each clan owned, their livelihood was mostly dependent on raiding, particularly for grain and vegetable foods that they did not grow, as well as slaves and precious metals. They existed thus for uncounted centuries until the rise of a great empire in the east, known in Caerdolan lore as the Jade Empire, with vast, regimented armies. These people drove the Ekwo Madhara out of their ancestral homeland, and into the West.

For generations the Ekwo Madhara wandered through vast hill country and deep woods, at times fragmenting into smaller bands, and at other times finding one another and mobilizing into a terrifying force. Eventually, they made their way across the dark northern sea to a land known from ancient times as the Bone Land because of the great dragon bones that were sometimes unearthed by farmers’ ploughs. In later centuries, after the fall of Caerdolan, this land would forever be plagued by petty conflicts that would earn it the name of Warlands.

In this land the Ekwo Madhara encountered tribes of farmers and cattle herders who called themselves the Eryu. At first there was peace between their peoples, but eventually war broke out as Ekwo Madhara chieftains sought to rule over the Eryu after their own fashion. The deciding battle took place at a stronghold of the Eryu, known as Cair Dolas, a fortress of stone built upon a high rocky hill overlooking the sea. The Ekwo Madhara besieged Cair Dolas for many months, and prayed to their sky god Páarun to deliver the citadel to them. According to legend, a terrible storm broke out and lightning struck the main watch tower of the fortress, breaking it down upon the outer wall, and causing it to crumble. Cair Dolas fell to the Ekwo Madhara, who then became masters of all the Bone Land. The chieftains of the Ekwo Madhara eventually settled in the citadel, which over time was made grander and more beautiful in imitation of other cities they had seen during their wanderings, and the people that dwelt therein became known as the Caerdolan.

For many generations the Caerdolan grew in power and might, and they learned the wizardry and lore of the ancient peoples that they conquered and absorbed into their growing empire. From the Ahamun they learned ship-building, and improved on the craft, and they sailed to other lands, and brought home precious things, and many slaves, amongst which were the wise and those skilled in handicrafts from other nations. Their city became more beautiful than any in the northern lands, and their hunger for more conquests and wealth led them farther south.

In the lands across the sea, in what eventually became known as the Mainlands, were a numerous people known as the Faranx. These people lived in tribes and raised cattle as well as grew crops. They were akin to the Eryu, though long sundered and spoke a different tongue. The Faranx welcomed the Caerdolan as teachers and warlords, and swelled the armies of Caerdolan in the hopes of gaining power and riches of their own. With this great army the Caerdolan marched south and east across the lands, bringing down kingdoms, and taking what they could carry. Caerdolan lords, and sometimes even great chieftains from among the Faranx would sit upon the thrones of deposed kings, all in the name of the emperor at Caerdolas.

In time the fleets and armies of Caerdolan had reached the borders of the great kingdom of Kuonrhua. Legend has it that the city fell in one day without any bloodshed. This marked a turning point in the history of Caerdolan, for Kuonrhua had been the strongest power in the south, and soon became the southern capital of the Caerdolan Empire, and a place of learning and commerce surpassing even Caerdolas for beauty and grandeur. The original rulers of Kuonrhua were enslaved or driven out, and became a scattered and wandering people, unloved wherever they tried to settle. For they had long been known for their cruelty and excessive decadence, and in time they became known as the Rhua, which in some places is used to mean “outcast” and “dispossessed”.

For long years the Caerdolan ruled from Kuonrhua and from Caerdolas in the distant north, and their armies and fleets moved south across the sea to the Drylands, and therein conquered the coastal kingdoms and principalities as far east as mighty Ateb on the Great River. Yet there the might of Caerdolan failed, and Ateb was never conquered, though an uneasy peace was ever the order between the two lands. The eastern capital of Caerdolan was the great city of Bospora, the gateway to the Inner East, and the lands of the Istarians. There the Caerdolan lords became very wealthy with the riches that flowed from the east, and wise with the lore that was hoarded in Porphyra, the purple isle of Wizards.

Thus was the history of the Caerdolan empire counted: five hundred years from the day that Kuonrhua fell to Caerdolan rule until the day that the southern capital rebelled against its northern masters. The Faranx chieftains had grown strong and thought themselves greater even than their Caerdolan lords, many of whom had become wicked and twisted by delving into witchcraft and devilry. The Faranx had adopted the religion of the Kuonrhua, the worship of the gods of light, and chief among these was Roski, who was the beautiful god of the sun and its life-giving power. In the years before the Fall a charismatic leader arose in Kuonrhua and had many followers from among the Faranx. His birth name is lost to history and legend, but he was eventually named after the god Roski, whose blessings were said to guide his wisdom. This led a rebellion that rose up against the Caerdolan rulers of Kuonrhua, but he was captured and put to death upon a pike for his treason. In retaliation the people of Kuonrhua took up arms and stones and brands of fire, and the Caerdolan rulers were driven out or killed in the streets of Kuonrhua.
Then the city was made strong again, and it was renamed Korma. Roski was named supreme god of Korma, and a great war began wherein many smaller kingdoms were formed and just as quickly fell, and in the end the empire had collapsed, and the last ruler of Caerdolan, the Empress Anáanara, who unlike her fathers before her was reckoned to be generous and kind, was assassinated by her own advisors. Evil bickering ensued and the city of Caerdolas was abandoned, its treasures and even its stones carried off or thrown down in ruin, and the remnant of its people were scattered wandering or slain, or made slaves to those who had once been their slaves. Only in eastern Bospora was there a remnant of the nobility that traced its lineages to the great houses of Caerdolan, and they became increasingly secretive and remote, preferring to govern through their Faranx and Istarian underlings while they remained locked in secret study and dark worship in their strong towers.

The center of power in the world became Korma, whose temples and palaces far surpassed anything that had ever been seen in Caerdolas in terms of size and beauty. From its quays sailed the greatest galleys and freighters to all parts of the known world, and above it all rose the great Church of the Sun, whose idol was Roski. The priests of Roski and the holy knights ranged out far, preaching the worship of their bright lord, and at times converting heathens by the sword and flame.

One thousand years after the fall of Caerdolan, the empire of Korma and the Church of Roski rules a vast land that encompasses the most of the Mainlands, as well as the outer lands that were once under the influence of Caerdolan. Only in the east, beyond Bospora, are they stayed by the might of Istaria, and in the south beyond the Great Desert where the remote Shadowlands lie, and the distant empire of the Omo thrives. Thus the culture of the Faranx thrives, and in it are blended many other customs and ways, including the ancient lore of Caerdolan, whose language remains the language of magic and erudition, and the wisdom of many lands. And so the ancient gods have fallen into disgrace and neglect in favor of Roski, except in secret cults and remote places, and only the goddess Istare rivals him in the lands that bear her crescent moon emblem. Yet all is not well in the empire, and there are those that whisper that the church and the empire are rotting from within, and that there will come a time of revolution and reform, when the balance of power will tip once more.