The timeline of Sal’taron

An approximate base of what happened in the past.

[-0-] From the End to the Beginning [-0-]

Many, many, too many thousands of years in the future, the universe is collapsing, time is gradually coming to an end and the last civilizations are stranded around black holes that are used as a source of energy and light. After an arduous decision (and alliance), what remains of the survivors of existence has set out in search of how to save themselves, finding the solution in the words of an important scientific leader, Soht.

He has theorized that the gravitational power of black holes, as we already knew, can bend space and time itself, but calculate the "where" and the "when" is almost impossible to perfectly determinate. Nevertheless, the only way to save oneself is to exploit a black hole, and look for a fairly ancient "chrono-spacial strip", a sort of "memory" that guarantees a safe passage. Thus, after several years, a large fleet of titanic vessels embarked on what would be the last journey.

However, of the 24 ships built, only 8 arrived in the "most remote past", once so ancient that it hadn’t even been cataloged in the time before the space colonization. The ships were now exhausted, the souls and bodies of the survivors shattered and so they opted for a fortune landing on a barren and almost dead planet, if not for a small grain of land. Now that they were safe, these "explorers" began to give life to the planet through terraforming, which took a few centuries before making the planet livable thanks to technologies that were too complex to even describe (in the meantime, the Survivors slept a long cryogenic sleep) . When the planet was ready, these new colonizers "planted" the seeds of life, but since the major biological samples had been lost with one of the ships, they had to make sure that the DNA was adapted, often creating hybrids. While some of the major personalities of these explorers began to think they could become like gods, the savior of that race explored that world, finding something curious: the nanomachines they had left to terraform the planet had evolved.

Some had assumed energetic capacities, others still interacted with the planet itself, and others ... had taken advanced forms.

Soht admired this, after all he was a scientist. But this couldn’t be said of his other kin. After a young civilization of beings with humanoid forms but with totally anomalous characteristics began to venerate Soht as a god-father, four of the major survivors decided to divide up the world, thus creating the lands known today and becoming gods to them, albeit figuratively, but power soon led to war: in all the known lands that have been, there is a portion of land completely desert and barren, the result of those terrible wars that have radiated the world. Soht abandoned his brothers and sisters, and retired with his "disciples", who had created a functional society under his teachings and renamed themselves Al'daer.

While Soht was leading his people, his four “brothers and sisters” decided to create a "supreme race" on an island, but without a base they could do nothing, so they extrapolated the oldest of their shared DNA: that of human beings , adapted and modified over time, until it created a first prototype race, which, however, tied itself to that flow of energies linked to the world, and which could therefore create a problem.

They decided, therefore, to enslave those creations, but this did nothing but unleash a war that lasted for centuries.

The semi-human beings, almost two and a half meters tall and exuding energies that were soon called commonly "magic", since they could show hot flashes from nowhere or raise storms with a clear weather, drove their masters from the island, led by a slave who was later called Valer Naham, and who became a guide to his people. When Soht first met Valer, the latter was rather indifferent to the old man, but he immediately understood that he was no other than a kindred spirit, and decided to follow his teachings.

[-0-] Of gods and slaves [-0-]

This, of course, sparked the wrath of the other Colonizers, who decided to try again, this time creating beings with a direct connection to the Flow, but the result was a race so beautiful and powerful in using "magic" as fragile and defenseless . Thus, one part was left to die in the cold and hunger of the young Windernonth, while another found its way to the island of semi-humans. Within a few years, that fragile and powerful species grew out of all proportion, and by joining forces with the newly baptized Haynolan (First People), they created and molded a new life form, bestial but majestic, almost by mistake but with exceptional results: the first dragons of the world were born, and they had an extraordinary intelligence, an infinite memory and a goodness inherited from their creators, but a destructive power equal to their thirst for knowledge.

When the now known "Those of Before" or "Ancestors" attempted one last attack, the three races fought strenuously, but now their creators had become no more of flesh and bones, but metal and technology. So, Soht intervened along with his Al'daer, providing support in the fight and making the invaders flee.

What seemed like a victory, however, soon proved to be a tragedy: the Ancestors concentrated their attacks on the land of the Al'daer, destroying everything and making that place imbued with barren "magic", freeing the forces of the Flow all over the world. Soht wept for that loss, and yet the compassionate words of Valer Naham weren’t enough: leaving the last remaining of the Al'daer on the Island, he disappeared from circulation, without any knowledge of where he had gone. What is certain, and that this triggered the fury of Valer Naham, who banished the four Ancestors and used his own magic to trap his bitter enemies in prisons impossible to abandon, that is the same vessels used to arrive on that planet, trapping them in an eternal cryogenic sleep.

Many decades after, while the Three Progenitors races were finally breathing and expanding their reaches, Valer Naham received the gift of fatherhood: three children, all with great powers over magic, and with unique, uncommon gifts.

The elder brother was called Febar, a talented wizard in the art of illusory magic, and gifted with the power of Insight. Thanks to this gift, the boy was able to predict many futures and consequences, making the construction and decision of his peoples’ society stable and prosperous, but as time passed, he felt that power more akin to a curse: he saw beautiful and happy situations, but also terrible and dreadful possibilities, some of which never changed.

The stress, the conspicuous use of special herbs to let his Insight dormant and simple fate granted him a not so attractive look, with gaunt eyes and a livid skin tone.

The third of them, Maera, was the only daughter he ever had, a talented singer whose voice was capable of bound even the strongest will. Of the three, she wasn’t the wisest, and for sure the patient one of the trio: his father described her briefly “as the waves of the sea: one moment calm, the other ravaging and furious”.

The second of the children was granted with a grand name, Aren, and thanks to his elder brother’s gift his future was clear: he would’ve lead the Island and their people, his destiny was that to guide and teach, and his power over Light was more than a simple source of light in the dark, but a beacon for those lost in the Darker Times.

As he grew, Aren became more and more curious over the question of mortality: been born of magic, Haynolan’s spirit became one with the Flux, and so live on a new plane of existence… yet, even when the manifestations of long dead relatives spoke to him about their new life, Aren still had some disbelief. Why no elf nor dragon souls could manifest ? Could this been a sign that only those truly connected to the Flux were going to become one with it ?

Was he strong enough for what lies beyond existence ?

All this questions made him fearful of death, so much he never wanted to speak about it, or assist in a funeral rite. This concerned his father greatly.

Later, as time passed, Aren grew less and less attached to that negative thoughts, even thanks to a young elf that helped him find a way to happiness. In the end, the two became intimate, and surely more than friends, but one night the elf was killed by accident, when the two were experiencing some new herbs in bed.

With the death of the elf, the fears of Aren grewed stronger than before, becoming an obsession from which he couldn’t escape, and this gave his elder brother a terrible vision of destruction and annihilation.

Febar and his father wanted to maintain this secret, but knew they had to do something, and if their future couldn’t be changed, at least grant a possibility to the rest of the island to live.

Meanwhile, Aren’s obsession took him away from the main city, in a place forgotten by most of his generation, where he found answers to his many questions… and new masters.

The masters teached him knowledge over the true nature of the world, truth he wanted to hear, and ways to never fear death… and rule over the world as a divinity.

But to become a god, he had to get rid of his mere body, abandon his husk of flesh and bones and blood.

With the knowledge granted by the mysterious and ancient masters, Aren started his descent to ruin: as he changed his body with elaborated prosthetics of cold steel and magic, his connection with his father and brother grew distant, so much that the they became strangers, and to woren the situation, Febar’s visions became even more terrible.

And then, it started: in the Myths, the night that signed the end of the Haynolan was known simply as the Night of the Weeping Stars, where Aren Naham massacred his people and burned his home, assisted by his Sister and what was presumed once a dragon now turned into a more human, yet demonic form, along an army of faithful followers that sacrificed their bodies to become like Aren.

As the brief fight enraged, Valer and Febar waited for Aren in the throne chamber, knowing exactly what was going to happen next, and determined to change it.

Finally, after the complete annihilation of the Haynolan, only those present in the room were the last to stand: the fight was harder than before, Febar fought his sister ant the once Dragon, while Aren his father.

Knowing what was going to happen anyway, Febar managed to convince the Once Dragon to stop fighting him, since the war was over and the rest of the island already left, while the latter helped him with his sister, showing remorse in the end.

But for Aren and his father, this couldn’t be said. Valer Naham managed to defeat his son, but in the end he hesitated, and tried to convince his son to stop and start again, no matter what happened… he was still his little prodigy.

But in response, Aren impaled his father to the throne, piercing his heart and killing him. With the end of the night, the four remaining survivors harnessed a new power, one that granted them powers over the world itself: that day, the Divines were born, two more than pleased by their actions, while two reluctant but bound to the fear that their brother and sister could cause greater damage now.

So, an Oath was made: none shall have harmed those inferior than they, nor they would’ve interfered if not in case of extreme need with the rest of the weaker ones.

Since then, the world has grown in many different ways: the elves landed on what is now the land of Windernonth, discovering that their brothers and sisters abandoned in times immemorial had evolved into mockeries of themselves, with hard skin and sharp fangs (the orcs), and that a race unrelated to the flow was born in the nearby land of Titos, creating empires but too busy fighting each other (the humans), while a similar one but more squat, hairy and scorbutic grew in the bowels of the mountains, with devices of enviable complexity (the dwarfs).

In the lands to the East, a new breed of beings with the appearance of dragons with humanoid features had established themselves under the teachings of wise masters (the Drakelings), while the bestial dragons of the past had fought a war against human hunters, finally deciding to transmute in humans with characteristics of dragons, such as horns, scales and reptile eyes (the Dragonites).

[-0-] The story so far… [-0-]

Not long ago, almost 400 years before a world peace (albeit precarious), one of the emperors of Titos, Yhefim Ghirteov, arrived in Windernonth and with him came all that Titos offered: humans, technology that was not just of dwarven nature, and the thing humans are famous for: wars against what is not like them.

For this reason the elves who lived in the great marble city of Nethe'tal were driven out or killed and the orcs enslaved for centuries, deported even to distant lands like the desert V'Cariona or the disappeared Ghelenea.

Yhefim lived a prosperous life, and thanks to his second wife (the first had remained in Titos and lived happily as never before), the Emperor had 7 children, all with different magical powers and of which only Azhot, Alixand  Viden and Lumnia are remembered, respectively a Cryomancer, an Umbramancer, a Seer (and lately werewolf) and a Heliomancer, a sorceress capable of controlling light and its properties. In the years that passed, Yhefim's power passed to his first son, who decided to annex Windernonth to Herisos, so to create a superpower to use against the eternal enemy Kalanter (who, from his, had the support of V ' Cariona), but this did not please the native inhabitants, who began with protests first, then sabotage of the trade routes and finally a real civil war, then perpetrated also by Viden and Lumnia for independence from Titos.

For almost five years, the civil war shed the blood of many, too many innocents, so much that only the death of Yhefim stopped the conflict with a temporary truce, just long enough to allow the body of the centenary Emperor to get home.

In the shadow of all, Alixand, the second son, sought a way to permanently stop the war in the cursed and obscure books and texts contained in the library of Saamak Academy , finding a powerful but difficult spell to master.

After going almost to the border of his homeland, the young magician began a ritual that at first seemed to work, but instead triggered a cataclysm so powerful that it was even seen by the distant V'Cariona, which manifested itself as a great green glow, which immediately killed every form of life in the extreme north of Windernonth, to then make it resurrect as undead beings perpetually afflicted by the eternal cold of those lands wrapped in a thick blanket of ice and wind, unable to abandon it or take refuge in warm places (the heat hurts these beings worse than a stab in the heart). After this, the humans remaining at Windernonth continued their life, procreating and joining their legacy to the rest of the mystical land, but natives (especially the royal line of elves, or Royal Elves) in some occasions severed all ties. It was not easy for the strangers to create something new, but thanks to Viden, the humans of Windernonth could soon find their place, and even the other races decided that peace was the only solution. Thus, like today, Viden is the King of Nethe'tal, a wise elder of over two hundred years who best governs his land (the Great Green Glow has extended the life of all those who are born or reside in Windernonth).

Subsequently, an emperor reigned for a brief period in Herisos who relied too much on the words of his generals, advisers and in particular the noble houses of the capital, Malquar. This led to new Kalanter’s uprisings, but fortunately a general managed to coordinate the troops in order to delay the advance on the capital, guaranteeing the North-East evacuation of the civilians and the arrival of the allies of nearby Grelda, a known land for warriors so ... robust as they are reckless and fierce on the battlefield. This general conquered the good will of the people, being himself born in the countryside and without a penny, unlike his colleagues who for better or worse came from families of a certain social rank: he was and still is Lorrindo Aldon, who during the war in the capital invoked the power of the gods Valr and Neehmen, the Eagle and the Lion, who gave him the strength to him and his allies to drive out the future king of Kalanter, Nicholas Gersande, then a high officer and war hero .

With the victory, and the death of the Emperor, the people decided that had to be their savior, Aldon, to take the crown and not the brave nobles with the sole interest of accumulating wealth and power. Thus, under Aldon, Herisos was resurrected and with it a new route to Windernonth, longer but safer than trying the lot in the lethal North, or as it was renamed by the locals, Tundammah (Tundra of the Eternal Frost), bringing the inhabitants and their magic in the neighboring nation, forgetting the stakes of the past, but forging new ones, smaller and worldly, but still miners. The elves have become far more like nobles, proud of their sublime traits and their immortality, creating many enemies between humans and dwarves.

The orcs, on the other hand, have gained not only freedom, but have begun to abandon tribal life for one more comfortable, for commerce and even union with other races, something not very well seen by the tribes of Windernonth. This, however, without ever completely abandoning traditions.

After a few years to create new routes, links and even companies, mysterious ships arrived from the great ocean, the Mihr'mid, on the north-west coasts of Herisos and Windernonth, on which there were creatures with draconic and human traits. dressed in exotic clothes and armed with thin swords with a blade capable of splitting thicker armors, if used with skill: people called them Drakelings, even if their name meant "Sons of the Ancient Dragons" in their native language. They brought with them merchandise, food, manuscripts and gifts from their land, Draconia, or as they called it, "Home of the dragons of the Sun and the Moon". They proved determined to join forces with those lands that were mysterious to them, but in exchange Nethe'tal's council asked them to bring elven researchers to their homeland. 200 years have passed since that day, and yet the researchers have not finished exploring those lands.

And now, Sal'taron is a land almost entirely united, even though the mysteries prevail: an island beyond the Burned Lands of Windernonth has sparked the interest of many, and along with the ruins of the Ancient Elves it is assumed that it is El'meimirel, the "cradle of the world", the Isle of the Haynolan.

A group of sailors, who had been lost in a tsunami, reappeared on the shores of Meras (South of Kalanter), reporting that they had arrived in an unexplored, dead and gloomy land, with stretches of glass and fossilized trees, and in the center of which there would be a hollow mountain with a titanic tree ... and sad songs in the air.

The forest to the east of Windernonth is sick, and not a simple disease, but a real curse that turns the inhabitants into blood-hungry beings and turns them into creatures of the night, while in the West the clans of ghouls and Wood Elves are at war and increasingly involve travelers.

And finally, something is coming to the surface from the underground of all the lands, ancient vessels coming from the meanders of time, and in them technologies never seen or thought, not even by dwarves, and a cult carried out by the technocrats of the city of Cronem, in Herisos, is analyzing its immense archives, translating, adapting and demonstrating that these beings were not mere travelers, but benign gods in search of a new home..