So we're going to talk a little about some history that I've mentioned here and there. There are calendars, but I felt like they were much too dense and convoluted to introduce into the narrative, so I only mention little bits and pieces here and there so that everything more or less is in chronologic order, but without overloading you with meaningless word salad.

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First, The Terror of the Long Night.

As far as anyone knows, this is/ was the beginning. Not the beginning of the world, but the beginning of the world as we know it, because some legends predate the Long Night. Even the most educated scholar from the most prestigious nation would tell you that the Long Night was a period of death and darkness and a slow freeze that killed life and light. The only salvation from this death sentence was the arrival of the True Gods, who drove back the Elder Things and restored light and life to the world. That's why, across every land, every people, they hold a deep significance to the onset of winter and its inevitable release into spring.

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Second: The Founding of the Anglish Empire.

The precursor to what would eventually become the Anglish began on the southernmost tip of the continent of Rothgar. They were taught by the Golden Lady, and commanded to subjugate everything in Her name, and so they began a slow march up the continent, growing stronger, smarter, creating new weapons, discovering steel, so on and so forth. The country that Mother Swan (from Katarina the Witch Hunter) emigrated from is located towards the continent's heart. Along the upper edge of the continent of Rothgar, going from the western tip, is Philippa, considered the pinnacle of human civilization. Head east from there, and you run into the heavily forested lands of Blackwall, which are known for their shipbuiding. A mountain range separates them from Ardeal, an ancient country with a dark and storied history. South of Ardeal is Montesilvano. Heading east from Ardeal, a mountain range gives way to two countries in one: Lyonesse, and Sarkomand. Head further east, and you run into a frigid tundra which is the land of Silesia. North of Silesia and across a sea perpetually filled with dangerous icebergs was the desert continent of Bel-Arib. And thus the entire continent knew the peace of the Anglish for a thousand years.

Sarkomand bears special mention. It was a city-state with several cities revolving exclusively around the the study and distribution of magic. The plateau of Sarkomand held the Jeweled Cities of Magic: Beryl, Opal, Topaz, Pearl, and Onyx, each city more or less focusing on one particular aspect of magical study. As an example, Pearl revolved around magical healing and regeneration.

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The First Civil War

A civil war broke out amongst the subjugated nations that comprised the Anglish Empire as a result of indolence, corruption, and mismanagement. Three major things were a result of the war: First the removal of men from positions of authority, secondly, the consolidation of the conquered nations into an actual Empire, and finally, the loss of how to make steel. The Empire regressed to using bronze, and since the making of new steel things had been lost, steel became the currency of choice over gold.

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The Black Plateau

There was a magical incident that poisoned the entire plateau of Sarkomand with raw, unfiltered toxic magic. I've gone to great lengths to explain just how bad this catastrophe is, how the Anglish Empire struggled first to defeat it, then to contain it, and then finally, to abandon the entire continent altogether for the continent to the north; Hesperia. Ever since then, the Black Plateau has been a constant source of worry for the Anglish Empire. Even though an enterprising and particularly driven Witch Hunter was able to not only survive the chaotic lands atop the Black Plateau and seal the magical breach, nobody actually believes the tale and the lands are (still) poisonous with foul magic anyway.

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The Subjugation of the Yamato

The Anglish discovered the Yamato, an island nation to the west of Hesperia, and immediately moved to conquer it. This happened in parallel to the subjugation of Toledo, another nation that was to the south of the Yamato. both nations sold each other out to the Anglish, but while the Toledo welcomed the Anglish with accommodation, the Yamato were not so accommodating. The Anglish Navy sailed into key harbors and using artillery and magical bombardment, pounded several cities flat and unilaterally announced, "You belong to us, now."

While the Yamato were considered part of the Empire, they enjoyed a certain amount of independence and autonomy. No Anglish would be allowed to set foot on sacred Yamato lands, and in turn, Yamato re-taught the Empire how to make steel. Yamato itself is somewhat poor comparatively speaking to other nations, so they greedily bought up everything they could in exchange for steel.

Thus, the Anglish Empire spanned five continents: Rothgar, Bel-Arib, Hesperia, Toledo, and Yamato. (Though Toledo and Yamato are considered "large islands", technically speaking)

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The Grand Exodus

Because containment of the Black Plateau was deemed only a stopgap measure, the capital of the Anglish Empire was relocated to the southwestern tip of the continent of Hesperia. Ardeal moved across the Sea of Mirras to Einsamkeit and upriver to Begierde and Tannit and began intermarrying with the descendants of what was once the Empire of Nauders. Nauders itself remained in the north to guard against the one clear pass into the blighted tundras far to the north, abandoning its cities to the south to fend for themselves.

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The War of Liberation

There's a lot of conflicting stories about how, where, and why the War of Liberation happened. Everywhere across the entire empire, wars broke out. Cathedrals were destroyed in an act of rebellion against the Golden Lady. Depending on where you stand, the man most directly responsible for the War of Liberation was either the Betrayer or the Liberator, a Witch Hunter known as Konstantin lon Pavlenko, grandson of The Living Saint Katarina lon Pavlenko. It's said that Konstantin found some measure of power known as The Final Solution, enough to drag the Goddess from her Sacred Realm, and defeated her, though large parts of Darnell and the surrounding lands were destroyed.

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The Second Subjugation of Yamato

Yamato chafed under the rule of the Anglish, and the Anglish grew to believe that the Yamato more and more were elves, a race they'd fought to exterminate time and time again. The second subjugation included a land invasion, and while large portions of the occupying forces were wiped out, enough were deployed to bring the Yamato to heel. Several clans turned to piracy and terrorism in an effort to expunge the Anglish incursion, and their activities continue to this day.

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The War of the Eastern Marches

To the north of the city of Aston on the northwestern edge of Hesperia is a nation known as the Urthan. The Anglish have tried on several occasions to subjugate them, but because they were busy prosecuting wars in other lands at the same time, there had never been a point in time where the entire might of the Ever Victorious Army was brought to bear against the Urthan. Lands were lost, retaken, back and forth for decades. The Urthan were considered barbarians and heretics because they worshipped the Lady of Silver, the Moon Goddess, and not the Golden Lady.

The Northern Avalanche, a mysterious, savage, and brutal army that thrived in the forbidden, cursed reaches of the North beyond the mountain range of the Spine discovered some way of invading Urthan from the north. Whether a new pass was discovered through the Spine, or whether the Northern Avalanche had found some other way to get around the them didn't matter, they pressed the Urthans from the north while the Anglish pressed them from the south, forcing the Urthan to march east, torching and destroying Anglish settlements. While the armies of the Anglish marched north to crush the Northern Avalanche, it was left to mercenary companies to deal with the Urthan incursions as they moved further and further east. The Northern Avalanche was beaten back and the Urthan survivors were allowed to reclaim their homeland.

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I've left out quite a bit: the founding of the Yamato Empire, and the war against the Ishamaelites for example. I just wanted to touch on a few events of significance in the World of Aggenmor in a more encyclopedic format, rather than info-dumping ridiculous amounts of lore into the stories themselves.

I haven't gone into too much detail about these things either, because the point is not to give you a dry account of things that have happened. These events revolve around people, and my stories revolve around the people that have encountered and lived through these events. They'll never have the bird's-eye-view that I've just given you, and it's better that you walk and talk with the characters that live through these events than anything else.

I'll have a chapter for you on Saturday.