Little is known of the first three millennia of the Age. Humankind lived in barbarism and despair, enslaved by elves, cheated by dwarves, eaten by goblins and ogres and trod down by giants. Only the fortitude and virtue of humanity enabled them to endure these rigours, but they swore that they would one day repay in full.
peace and progress came first to the lands of the Haramesh, where many a kingdom rose in the eve of the third millennium, and flourished and fell during the fourth. Marc the Traveller tells in his books of the many vast ruins which have been left behind by these people, palaces, statues and pyramids. They wrought bronze and gold, but did not know of iron, for the dwarves jealously guarded this secret.
humankind came to prosper in the north as well. The scattered tribes banded together under ethnarchs, and the ethnarchs led them to glory, carving out a place for humanity with fire and iron. Mounted warriors brought fear and death to the tall races, whom had never ridden. It was a time of great glory, but the people were uncivilized and did not know of honour, and they yet consorted with ancestral enemies for their own benefit. The elven queens, with their vile magics and treacherous dealings still held humanity under their heels. The people did not know of script or writing, and their glory is known to their descendants only through the many songs of this age.
rose the Aegimorean empire in the west, whose emperors taught the people of virtue, and whom built the first human cities of the north. They prepared ships that sailed far and wide, reaching the distant shores of the east. They brought the elves to grief, and were the first of human kings to refuse to bow to the elven Queen of the Sun. Other human kings to the north and the east learned from the Aegimoreans, and the human lands flourished, though many still bowed to the elves. From the south, where the Haramesh had come to power, came the lure of forbidden knowledge. Men of Haram had travelled to the west, and in the west they had learned of sorcery, and this poisoned fruit they gave the Aegimoreans as well. The Aegimoreans learned well, and came to great power, and they brought the elves to greater grief, but when the Academy grew proud and in hubris tore emperor, empire and Academy apart, the Aegimoreans rued the coming of magic. And there was a time of darkness and horror, as sorcerer-lords fought endlessly. But the horror was doled out to elves as well, for the sorcerer-lords broke their rule over men, and cleft their realm in two, destroying the southern half. The elves did wail, and no longer presumed to rule over men. Then came a dawn in the east. The Cargan empire rose to save humanity, and at the dawn of the seventh millennium, they had conquered, and purged, and shriven, the lands all along the Mare Interior, north and south, east and west, all was Cargan.
there was Pax Cargana, the peace of the Cargans. Humankind did flourish, and
all was good. The dwarves and elves remained within their woods and mountains,
and the goblins had been reduced from barons to brigands. Only the Padishah
of Haram offered challenge to the Cargan empire, and many a glorious battle
was fought in the south, for ultimate rulership of humanity, yet no true victor
emerged. There is no consensus as to why the Great Plague emerged. Some blame
the corruption and complacency of the Cargan consuls and pontifs, others the
Invisible Academy, which the Primarch allowed to arise and grow powerful,
without regard for the horrible fate of Aegimorea. Some say Haramesh brought
the plague from the south, others that a miasma was drawn up by the influence
of malign stars. Whatever it's cause, the first wave of the plague killed
half the population of the emprie, and the the survivors knew fear and want.
To the south, the Haramesh grew bold once more, and began pulling away chunks
of the fat flesh of the empire. The people of Aegimor cried out for a saviour.
A warlord of their blood heard their cry, and his heart was moved by his people’s
plight. The army of the west followed him in rebellion, and the Cargan empire
no longer encompassed all civilized men. The descendants of Aegimor fought
Cargans and Haramesh alike, and with their blood they gave life to the Kingdom
of Clemencia – the land of Mercy. And the knights of Clemencia were valorous,
and they took land from both Cargans and Haramesh, and the king of Clemencia
became known as the Grand King. But Clemencia’s first dynasty, more virtuous
than any other line of kings, was eradicated in a single night, by assassins,
and the realm was torn by civil war, and attacked by its old enemies, Cargans
and Haramesh. The Second Dynasty fought them off, but this was a dynasty as
cruel as it was powerful. The lands north of the Mare Interior, however, stood
fast against these cruel masters, and preserved the virtue of the First Dynasty.
These are the Frankish lands. In the middle provinces of the Cargan empire,
the Invisible Academy, having come to great power, seized power, and demanded
that their leaders be made consuls. The Primarch refused, and a great war
was fought and lost, and no longer did any of the lands west of the White
Mountains bear tribute to the Horned Throne of the Primarch. The sorcerers
soon fell upon each other, and fought a civil war more terrible than any war
fought before or after. However, their rule survived their atrocities, and
still their confederacy remains.
Today, the western lands are ruled by the Second Dynasty of Clemencia to the south, and virtuous kings rule the Free Kingdoms. The middle lands lie in the strange and unnatural claws of sorcerers, and is known as their Confederacy, and the eastern lands remain loyal to the Horned Throne and its Primarch.