sinno voila de quoi vous occuper :
Shadow Empire Storyline sketch
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1. Far Before the Game Start :
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At the origin, the land was one big continent inhabited by a old race of
people that looked like human and called the Sh'lzhurhab. Keen and smart,
they quickly built a large empire ruled by a group of immortal mages called
The Elasho-dha. Those mages ruled the land and their inhabitants for eons,
giving the people the ability to get a decent, safe and nice life.
After a while, one of the Elasho-dha decided to get the power for himself.
Corrupted by some unknown entity, he started to plot against his own Empire,
throwing Elasho-dha against each other. By a great, almost unbelievable plot
web, he finally got the chance to be chosen as the Primeras, the only leader
of the Sh'lzhurhab Empire, the Ghaq-uamagyat.
Ghaq-uamagyat ruled for roughly eighty century, using his magic power and
some gruesome rituals the Dark Entity told him about. Almost mad, Ghaq-uamagyat
started to require human sacrifice to get a large amount of fresh fledh to
sustain his decaying body. After a while, the rate of sacrifice was almost unbearable
and to prevent any kind of rebellion, Ghaq-uamagyat decided to launch a group
of explorer to find out new lands to conquer and enslave.
They were actually nine exploring crew that left Sh'lzhurhab to find new lands.
Most fo them died in the raging ocean but two of them landed on small twin
islands : Divarida and Faranot.
Divarida was a crescent shaped island covered with dense jungle and strange
ruins that seemed to be even older than the Sh'lzhurhab Empire. To the contrary,
Faranot was a sterile, desert covered, round shaped isalnd centered around a
large active volcano. The Faranot explorer quickly died to the various traps
and danger they found there, leaving a large unexplored area. The Divarida
explorers were luckier. They found out that the ruins they discovered was in
fact the relics of an ancient, evil race called the Xihan. The ruins told the
ancient story of a violent, bloodthirsty race of thin human like creatures that
finnally disappear into the collapsing of their mother land, a cataclysm that
separated their continent into two parts, the actual islands of Divarida and Faranot.
The rest of the Island were kind enough to settle a colony. After some months,
Ghaq-uamagyat decided to send some settlers to build a new city to ensure his
empire's glory.
Meanwhile, some people started to gather nightly to plot against Ghaq-uamagyat.
Knowing that any attempt to directly kill him would have lead to their own
destruction, they spend most of their days to prepare a spell that would render
them invisible to Ghaq-uamagyat mighty Scry spell. Two generations of rogue mages
finally found out a way to cloaked themselves from Ghaq-uamagyat and started to
plot against him. Ghaq-uamagyat was aware that some mages tried to hide from his
grasp but never tought they will be able to succeed. Facing the fact that a somewhat
large group of mages was able to fight him, Ghaq-uamagyat went mad and use his link
with his Dark Entity to start what he called a Holy War against "heretic magi".
The War was in fact a massive slaugther. Mages and non-mages rebels or innocents
were killed, half to clean up the rebels ranks, half to provide more flesh to
Ghaq-uamagyat. During endsless years, the people of Sh'lzhurhab suffered from
privations, martial laws and other unfair edicts. The order of the Rebel Magi,
the Afaroti, finally found out about the link between Ghaq-uamagyat and this strange
Dark Entity they called The Dark Prawler. Their investigations lead them to follow a
thin remain of energy from Ghaq-uamagyat palace to the isalnd of Divarida. They so
thought that the Prawler was the collective consciousness of the ancient Xihan
civilisation, trapped between the Prime Material Plane and the Negative Energy Plane.
To defeat Ghaq-uamagyat, the Xihan Ghost has to be destroyed. The Afaroti send a group
of adventurer to seek out clues about this civilisation.
Ghaq-uamagyat went mad later. Under the influence of the Prawler, he gathered a
large amount of energy to finnally purge his empire from the Afaroti. During the
ritual, Afaroti mage adn warriors tried to stop Ghaq-uamagyat but failed. The
energy were released destroying the Afaroti and the whole Sh'lzhurhab continent.
As a side effect, the continent drown into the ocean and raised the antiques Xihan
continent from beneath the see. The whole Sh'lzhurhab people were killed in the cataclysm,
leaving the colony and the Afaroti mages alive on Divarida.
2. The Dark Ages :
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After the Destruction of Sh'lzhurhab, the lost setllers and the last Afaroti gathered onto
the new, wild lands that raised from the sea. Knowing that no one will ever come from their
ancient Empire, they decided to forget their old legacy and start anew, from scratch again.
Afaroti decided to protect the settlers by cleansing large parts of fields from some strange
Taint. Colonies grew up from cleansed spot to cleasned spot, enlarging the area of safety
of the settlers. Warriors and other craftsmen built a large wall around those area and decided
to definetively gather there, behing a hill they called Palenth. Using the best parts of
whatever remains they found from the Sh'lzhurhab destruction, the new settlers finnally built
up a decent, casts based society where every representative guilds has a way to make itself
heared. Someione could have call that democraty, but it was more a mutual consensus based
ruling that anythign else.
For more than one century, those settlers lived happily. But during a attempt to enlarge
the radius of influence of Palenth, the leader of the settlers, Marvarath, was killed
during a strange incident. This death started a small civil wars at the end of which a
part of the Palenth inhabitants decide to exile themselves as expiation. Those nomads
went deeply into the land and were for ever forgotten. During this period Palenth evolved
from its old imperial legacy to a more structured city. The Afaroti decided to give the
city a more strict, more enlightened governement and chosen a King among the best
representant of the Warrior and Craftmen guild. Halathar from the Warrior Guild became
the first historical king of Palenth and ruled for at least 5 years. Very strict but
very kind to his people, Halathar made Palenth a prosperous city. Newly found jade
mines and good lumber field ensured the city wealth for years and Palenth became so
big that new smaller city were built into new cleansed spot.
Meanwhile, the exiled tribe found a new home. A strangely calm and cleasned forest
welcomed them and offered them a new home. They quickly found out that they were not
the only people that have returned to this island. They meet the High Elves, master
of the forest of Caeldyurn. They made a pact that let the human be the master of
the northern part fo the forest, while the Elves will rule in the south. Regulary,
gifted women from the human tribe were allowed to follow the Way of the Stars and
to become Moon Priestess. Becoming more and more close, the two race finally merged
their territory and lived peacefully for century.
During the last year of Halathar's reign, a remain of the energy used to destroy
Sh'lzhurhab attracted a large asteroid onto the new continent. This massive comet
struk the sea and a gigantic tsunami hit the western coast of the continent. The
shockwave was so strong that half of the Palenth walls fall apart, leaving the city
open to the raging waters. Shortly after the tsunami, a dense, dark rain started to
pour over the land, kiling cattle and destroying crops. The sun was barely visible
and people died from diseases, starvation and from various epidemy, among them, a
strange one called the Dark Death. Ten years passed before the Afaroti Cast finally
found a cure to the Dark Death and cleansed the city of all the dead or decaying
people. They also raised a small army that would defend the now broken city walls.
New sections of the city were build, and mines were dug into the Hill to get fresh
material. In about a decade, Palenth was almost as big and wealthy as before when
the worse happened ...
As Halathar felt to the Dark Death, they elected a new King and gave him magic powers to
help him resist the Taint. A Oath, called the Oath of Aerin was written and the new King
known as Mathar ruled the city for a decade. He built all the current city section and
made new settings for city protection. He also decided to carry on the Legacy of the
Afaroti. A large parts of nowadays facility are coming from this age.Mathar died at
the age of ninety eight,leaving four sons and four daughters. Melkor, his first son
donned the Crown at the age of seventeen and ruled for two years before Joltar, his
younger brother assassinated him and stole the Crown. A civil war ransacked the city
and finally, all the Mathar's sons died and the crown was don by Jyllara, his youngest
Daughter, that became Jyllara of Mathar, Queen of Palenth. Some troubles darkened this
rulership, assassination attempts, and other problems arose but she escaped all those
traps and finally give the Crown to her son, Hathar. Hathar get a great influence on
his days. He finalized most of his mother's plans and restored the status of the Royal
Familly. Hathar ruled for fifty years and his dinasty ruled the city for about five
hundred years. In 500 After the Cataclysm, Jyllara VII, Queen of Palenth decided to
extend her kingdom and let a large fleet of vessels explore the Southern Sea and financed
large expedition behind the mountain. After a while, Palenth Kingdom get a large number
of colonies and was the ruling state of this side of the continent.
In 580 AC, Mathar IX became King of Palenth. At this times, Palenth counted more than
nineteen colonies, nine protectorat and three consulat all over the see and land. Most
of those explorations lead their crew to discover islands that were once mountain tops
of the former Sh'lzhurhab Empire. For unknown reason, all the expeditions that were trying
to cross the frontier between the Western coast were Palenth stood and the Forest of
Caeldyurn mysteriously vanished ...
In fact most of those crews finally decided to stay there. The human part of the Forest, called
Denyar, was a true paradise. For century, Moon Priestesses and Grove Attendant built a new
religion, based on Nature's Worship. The Priestesses were in charge to protect the Forest while
the Grove's Druid were in charge to protect the Southern part of the continent that were close
to the desertic island of Faranot. The Denyar tribes found out that Faranot were the center of
the old Xihan Empire. A strange amount of energy was gathering near the volcano and the Druid
of the Denyar Grove decided to built up a large wall to ensnare this region. This wall, know
as the Wasteland Fringe.
Around 600 or 610 AC, the Southern Sea colonies started to claim to become independent from
the overgrown Palenth. Colony inhabitant trough down the link with Palenth by ransacking boats
and preventing royal troops to do their bidings. Mathar XI decided to slaugther those rebels
and so was started the Bloody Bay Massacre. Thousands of island inhabitants were killed on sight,
whatever age, gender or rank. Mathar XI became Mathar the Red.Nearby colonies started a blocus
against Palenth and started to destroy Palenth crops and cattles. The war was silent but dreadful
and for years, Mathar Xi and his daughter, Jyllaraya ruled savagely and during an event known as
the Night of the Banshee, a congregation of Mage from a still loyal colony cast a curse upon a large
part of the rebels, exiling them trough the Negative Material Plane. The ancient order of
the Afaroti Mages decided to exile themselves, as the Palenth ruler seems to have lost sanity.
They build a new sanctuary, the Aerin Tower and swore to let the world follwo its own destiny.
Just before they leave, they banished Hathar XV The Mad to the Inner Circle of Hell, ending
the dynasty of the Hathar and let the people get a new ruler and bring peace to Palenth.
Palenth turned out as a republic, then a ontocracy and various other political schemes.Later
a King that claimed to be an original descendant of the first Hathar came and get the throne.
So far, he ruled nice and peacefully.
3. Character Classes :
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Some events run in other parts of the Continent during this period :
* In the south, the High Elf anfd the tribes of Denyar founded an alliance to protect each other.
Meanwhile, the Grove's Attendant decided to raze the Wastelands from the Evil that lurk there.
They found an ancient artifact, the Oblivion Stone, that radiate a pure hatred aura. The Druid
went mad but managed to destroy the Stone, unleashing evil on the Southern islands and forest.
Grove's Attendant disappear from the surface fo the earth, leaving only a few memebers that
become the DARK RANGER (*druid class), cursed to slay eveil everywhere till they finally found
rest. Moon Priestesses decided to help their brethern by creating a new order of half woman, half elf
mage, the FEYLING (*sorc class). The Feylings were secretly sent to various location to spread the rite
of the Moon God.
* The old Elasho-dha that get killed by Ghaq-uamagyat weren't that dead. They kind of survived
as a perverted, mad spirit that call itself C'kegnothuda. When the land of Sh'lzhurhab was
destroyed, they agther a small part fo the psychic energy of the dying people and tranfer it into
a distant location in the North of the newly found continent. The energy grew larger and larger by
attracting livign animals, sucking blood and life force. Recently, the C'kegnothuda was strong enough
to craft a material body. Once embodied, it creates a new life form, based on some remaining corpse.
Those living forms was imperfect and needed blood to sustain. C'kegnothuda taught its broodlings where
it came from and that they have to avenge him. It give them its remaining power and finally disapeared.
Those broodling , called the VAMPYRE (*assassin class). From now on, VAMPYRE roam the lands for blood
and to seek revenge onto the descendant of the Ghaq-uamagyat.
* After the fall of th elast Palenth King, a new religious order raised. The Light Churches of Anosat
founded three orders : the Templar, the Host and the Mendling. Two of those orders finally engulfed into the first
and Templars started to rule the land by strength, despite the autorithy of the Palenth King. Turning half mad,
TEMPLAR (*paladin class) started to frigthen low people with story of Final Judgement of the Soul and
of Upcoming Apocalypse that will cleanse the land. They actively seek and destroy any evidence of Moon
God worship or druidic preaching.
* Ancient Xihan fled the destruction of their land some aeons before this story. They went down into the ground
and some of them founded a new civilisation. Isolated from sun and civilisation they start to worship a Shadow
God, Skarra adn to prepare their return when the continent will raise again from the sea. Some of them, DARK PRIEST
(* necro class) started to try to lead their brethern collective consciousness to rule over the new continent, leading
to the Sh'lzhurhab disaster. They will eventually raise from the ground and try to rule again on the Upper World.
* High Elves waited, they waited the return of their ancient enemies. The Xihan came back from under the ground.
But the Elves were ready, they got CAELMARA (*ama class) champion ready to protect their homeland. Some other exiled themselves
to the Northen Wastelands to gather their spiritual energies. They came back, attuned to the world, and leading animals and
using strange tribal rituals, they are the BEASTMASTERS (*barb class)