Wednesday, September 12, 2012

Geis Basics: Timeline - The Dragon Kings

The Dragon Kings struck out from their base on the continent of Puentas.  On the southern part of the continent of Lothgar, Vipak, Humanity, Centaur and Sroloc sages besought the Manitou of knowledge and established a stronghold.  They named the citadel Elbareth and established a great Library there that became the repository of all knowledge, dedicated as it was to the Manitou of knowledge.  The great mages of the time united and utilized a naturally occurring mana geyser to create a fighting force capable of standing against the might of the Dragon Kings.  A crystal was forged, combining magical and psychic might.  An artifact of such power to alter the living bodies and souls of those who followed the ceremony.

The Soul Riders were formed.  They successfully repelled the Dragon Kings in several mighty battles the likes of which have not been seen on Geis since.  Several centuries passed in this manner of constant warfare.  During this time, possibly as a result of the Soul Rider Crystal's energies, the dog-like race of the Grenis and the cat-like race of the Malacore arose from the peninsula of Elbareth.  As the battle raged, the Soul Riders established strongholds in the Moralay Archipelago as well as on Anterre and Mologan.

The Dragon Kings had ever been proud, too proud to work together.  Their lack of central command eroded their war efforts.  While the rest of the world perceived them as a unified force, the Dragon Kings were in reality separate forces working to their own ends.  They were warring as much among themselves as they were the rest of Geis.  One arose among them, a massive dragon with a warlock Drakus ally, that realized the dangers posed.  Seeking aid from the Manitou of dragons, they formed a link more powerful than a mage and its familiar and unified their minds and wills in a unique way not found elsewhere in Geis.

Together, they unified the diverse Dragon Kings into a single force and set about systematically pursuing their greatest enemies, the Soul Riders.  First to fall was the closest stronghold in the Moralay Archipelago.  Then the citadels on Anterre and Mologan.  As each stronghold of the Soul Riders fell, the area soon fell to the Dragon King forces.  The greatest mages and psychics feared the worst and gathered together at Elbareth, the final stronghold of the Soul Riders, to seek an answer.  They created another fighting force, bound this time not by a crystal but rather by a simple stone column.  The Beast Masters were formed and sought to aid the Soul Riders while the answer was sought.

They found it.  It was an answer calling upon staggering power.  A solution that would forever change the face of the world.  As they began the ceremony, the Dragon Kings attacked the final citadel of the Soul Riders.  The battle lasted months, bolstered by the fledgling Beast Riders the Soul Riders were able to push the Dragon Kings to the seas.  Each side suffered staggering losses.  Eventually, the Dragon Kings realized what was happening.  They gathered their strength in a final assault upon the Soul Riders, seeking to eliminate them once and for all before they set their sites on Elbareth proper.

The Soul Riders, long thought to be the invulnerable enemies of the Dragon Kings, fell to the last man.  The Beast Masters had been routed.  The Dragon Kings gathered around the Soul Rider Crystal, the great artifact that could recreate a new army able to oppose them, and prepared to destroy it.

At that moment, the Great Ceremony completed at the mana geyser within the Steel Circle underneath the Great Library at Elbareth.  Seven hundred seventy seven archmages, warlocks and high sorcerers working in  concert cast the most powerful spell in existence.  Energies pulled from the very center of Geis itself reached out into the heavens, drawing even more power from the very mages involved in the casting and struck the lone moon surrounding Geis.

The resulting cataclysm shattered the moon, creating a cloud of dust and rock particles that appeared to those on Geis as an arch reaching across the sky.  The Dragon Kings, simultaneously casting their own spell, were instantly teleported from where they were.  The Soul Rider Crystal joined in the casting and disappeared, possibly destroyed, no one knows for sure.  For a period of three weeks, the skies of Geis were dark.  The sun appeared as only a dim light in the heavens.  The very air was coarse and difficult to breathe for a full day.  When the air finally cleared, the Dragon Kings had disappeared.  No one could say for sure where they went.  Eventually, Elbareth sent out expeditions to Puentas and they encountered a mighty Myst that was impenetrable by magic or psychic or physical means.

The time of the Dragon Kings was over.  The Arc Dawn had eliminated the threat.  Elbareth, once the shining jewel of the free realms, was dark.  The Great Library lie dark and dead.  Every last mage involved in the Arc Dawn had died from the effort.  After nearly two and a half millennia of oppression, freedom had been won for Geis at great cost.

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