The History of Man

Man is an interesting animal.

He came from across the sea, great of spirit but weak of mind, great of muscle but so short-lived. He was at most a nuisance to the great races that owned the world.

In a time too fast for most to comprehend, Man became something else. He built cities, each greater than the last. He traded his brute strength for the strength of armies, and his animal cleverness for sage wisdom.

Where Elf and Dwarf are divided amongst themselves, along lines of theology or heredity, Man is united, not longer by blood or creed, but by spirit and purpose.

In the short time he has been in the world, Man has come to accept the wisdom of the elder races, and has made his own names and his own temples for the gods.

However, old legends do not die easily; he has brought with him many apocryphal gods, and many unusual or even offensive beliefs.

When he came to the shores of the world, Man was the only race who killed his own, who discriminated against those of his own kind by such meaningless divides as color or gender. It is only the influence of Man that has brought these low concepts to the other races. (Many modern humans accuse the elder races of embellishing on this point.)

Even now, Man struggles with this internal strife, often to their shame when dealing with other races who are above such things. Though no race is without guilt on this matter, such things as racism and sexism are generally considered �human� failings, while their antithesis is considered �elfish� or �dwarfish�.

All this means that not all men agree on history. There are differing opinions from man to man, nation to nation, and even year to year. The majority accept at least some form of the wisdom known to all other races, though there is a powerful new movement that claims a completely different history.

In this history, the original world of man was a barbaric place, a war-torn wasteland where man killed man over worship of false gods.

The men who came to the shores of the world were pilgrims, seeking to find a home for their faith. What they believed was too dangerous for the old world, but, according to their prophets, would bring a new era of peace and justice to a new world.

Their faith states that there is only one god, that all others are false and without power. They explain the works of the gods as the magic of their followers, attempts to convince the weak-minded of their superiority by divine right, rather than mere might or magic.

The One God, Io, created not only the New and Old Worlds, but all the cosmos, including many other worlds. He is older than all worlds, and all time, and will exist long after every man, every tree, and every mountain is dust.

The One God has no chosen people; all are his children, and all are meant to worship him and only him. To this end, missionaries of the One God have passionately, and at times aggressively tried to convert men, dwarves, and elves alike to their faith. They�ve had next to no success among giants and dragons, though, curiously, the latter are the only ones who acknowledge the existence of the One God, even among the majority who do not believe he is the only one.

In his sight, all are equal, and all are perfect; no race is superior or inferior to any other. For that matter, no individual is above or below others, and to believe so is an affront to his love. He asks for no monuments, no idols, and no sacrifices; only that his faithful spread his word.

Monks of the One God live in every human city. They laud the virtues of their worship, and do as all monks do, providing care and shelter for the ill and destitute.

The One God has no priests, for it is not His will that his faithful should build temples. His is an evangelical faith; it is to be preached and practiced in every home, on every street, and all places where his presence exists (i.e. everywhere).

What the church does have are fanatics. All faiths have theirs, but the lack of a strong Church means that the fanatics are not policed by any internal force. There are many who are so caught up in the differences between their faith and the prevailing faith of the majority, that they allow themselves to become angry, and their hearts to fill with hate. With their vitriolic speeches, reactionary ways, and often violent tendencies, they cause more harm than good for their cause.

It is over 8,000 years since Man first stepped onto the shores of Tellandor, and in that time, many nations have come and gone, some without a trace.

Scholars divide the history of Man as neatly as they can into several periods:

The Long Dark

The first human settlers were primitive, barely capable of fashioning the ships that carried them to the new world. They scattered into the wild to find rich land to settle, building simple cities where resources were abundant. Most of their cities are gone, surviving only as shapes in the land where hills were carved into fortifications, and as tiny fragments of pottery and metal long buried in the soil.

Junean scholars have studied these ruins, using techniques they learned from the Elves to estimate their age. They have formed a rough outline of the various peoples--one could hardly say nations--who built the cities, and when they did it. It is this work that sets the first date of human settlement to roughly 6,800 years ago.

The runes of some dwarven halls mention the early race of Man, and seem to confirm these dates within a narrow band of accuracy. Most of the dwarves who made contact with Man in those days lived in halls long lost to the advance of Man; archaeologists eagerly search for clues to lead them to these old ruins, to see what treasures of knowledge might await them regarding the details of Man's early years.

It was in this long and primitive time that the various peoples of the race of Man began to form, and the first hints of modern cultures begin to emerge. Junean ruins on the Elder Terrace show artwork depicting warriors wielding their race's characteristic long, curved swords, which must have been carved over 5,000 years ago. Many of the ancient caverns in the Blue Sand have carvings from the early days of the Arian nomads, verified by Junean scholars as depicting a way of life for the early nomads very similar to that of their modern counterparts.

In the diplomatic halls of Oathkeep, much has been learned from the Elder Races. The Elves discovered the Juneans almost immediately, but left them alone for a long time before finally offering to share their knowledge for the betterment of Man. The early Arian nomads soon came into contact with the Dragons, whose deeds in those early years became the stuff of Arian legend for millennia to come. Since the The Great Dragonblood occurred nearly 5,000 years ago, the Dragons have had little to do with humans, and have lost most of the knowledge of their early experiences, but they can confirm that the Arian nomads learned some of their magic; whether it was taught or stolen remains a mystery.

Of course, the Juneans have kept meticulous records for most of their existence, and have preserved written works dating back almost 6,000 years to the invention of writing. By then, they had already contacted elves, and had progressed far as a civilization, for their time. The form of their early writing bears many tantalizing resemblances to Elvish script, leading to controversial theories that Elves may have learned writing from Men, not the other way around.

By the end of the Long Dark, humans in all regions had learned to forge metal, and had begun to build dwellings of such size and planning that they could rightly be called cities.

The Rule of the Druids

In a land now called Tirnor, a wise and clever order of Men erected a great monument: the Circle of Stone. These were the Druids, the first arcanists. Possessing power that struck fear into the hearts of ordinary men, the Druids banded together, first to share their knowledge, then to form a council who would direct the affairs of men for an age.

The Druids sat behind every throne in the lands of men (well, fairly, the lands south of Juni, and not yet the Blue Sand, where only nomads roamed). Their words became the law of the land. They rewrote the myths and legend of human culture. It was they who established the Great Church as the supreme religion of all men.

Under their rule, Man stagnated. The fledgling nations could not move or expand, for to do so would invite change that would lead only to chaos. They could not delve into the forest, for fear of rousing the Elves, or into the caverns, for fear of upsetting the Dwarves; both races were said to be mischievous and deadly creatures, not to be trusted.

Though the men thought they were wise, their rule nearly led to the end of human civilization. An increasingly discontent populace warred within itself, as cities grew overcrowded, and unclaimed, fertile lands beckoned. More and more, there was open defiance of the Druids, despite deadly consequences.

One among the Druids had true wisdom. His name was Telkior, though he would soon earn the name Betrayer from his druidic peers. Late in their reign, he rose to power, trying first to make his peers see reason, and finally plotting their downfall. He took one of the treasures the Druids had kept to themselves, the lost Blade of the Dynast-King, and returned it to the people. When he found the King, he told him the legend of the Blade, and bade him to forge a new kingdom of peace, justice, and prosperity for all mankind.

With the rise of the Kingdom of the Sword, the Druids dispersed into the shadows, swearing to return some day. Telkior stayed with the King, and founded a new order of druids, who would not shepherd the people, but safeguard the land, guard the fringes of civilization, and keep the peace between the races by maintaining contact with all of them.

Many Druids who fled the new Kingdom of the Sword made their way to the Blue Sand, where the Ahrimid people had since built great and glorious cities. The satraps of the Ahrimid Empire welcomed their knowledge, as they welcomed all knowledge. The Druids continued their work there, founding the Arcane Academies and the Order of the Ring.