AGE OF RECONQUEST [YEAR 6667-YEAR 8888]

On the second day of the year 6667, Gothar called the fourteen Immortals back to him and entrusted them with the difficult task of bringing back peace and preserving harmony on Ganareth. To reward the people of Ganareth for their heroic deeds, Gothar let the Immortals passed on their expertise to the ones who they considered as deserving. He laid his left hand on the forehead of each of the chosen ones.

Alenaek, the Enchanter, Vahalken the Ranger, Shakaar the Shadow Knight, Oshyir the Monk, Nekresis the Necromancer, Miriador the Paladin, Allouisus the Conjurer, Jezarael, the thief, Guerhoan the Cleric, Ellianor the Druid, Circeliane the Bard, Arkorak the Warrior, Alzeria the Amazon and Skaarelius the Wizard went through the Great Corridor of the Gods and by setting foot on Calder’s realm, theymarked the beginning of a new era.

The eighth realm resounded with the Dragons’ cries of pain and terror as the blows inflicted on them by the Immortals rained down. During the past centuries, they had forgotten what vulnerability and fear meant. The news of the arrival of the Immortals spread like a terrible shock wave among Dragoon’s troops. All the Dragons throughout Ganareth were overcome by doubt since they had to fight against faceless enemies as no one had ever seen the faces of the Immortals except their most faithful and closest disciples.

« Only when we have a face too, we will be able to gaze upon the Gods ».

For the first two years, the first disciples began their learning but the fight against the Dragons was still unequal. After the Beast had arrived, the force of magic had vanished as well as the great powers which it gave. Of course, the constellations influenced the people of Ganareth but, although they had observed a lot of stars, their knowledge on the subject was too limited to enable them to understand how the constellations worked or how to exploit their resources.

On the 69th day of the year 6669, the first Brave was born of the union of an Immortal with a Man. On Ganareth, harmony was progressively restored but the Immortals’ task was far from being accomplished.

Victory remained an inaccessible dream for many people until the 22nd day of the year 6688, the day when the Dwarves, in their quarries, forged the first weapons endowed with a formidable magic power. During a fight, a moon crystal had come off the sword of a Half-Elf and as a consequence, the weapon had suddenly lost all of its power. The life of the Half Elf was in game and the way it was discovered was badly taken as the power of these weapons derived from the moon crystals inlaid in the steel in which they were made of.

On the 11th day of the year 6699, Gothar created the Fairies as small female flying creatures and sent them throughout the world in order to found a new Alliance and to show the people of all races how equally the Mana could directly be harnessed. These creatures of pure, constructive or destructive magic miraculously managed to bring together the Elven representatives of all ideological trends as well as the representatives of all other races including the Gnomes. In the course of the centuries, the Elves had undergone profound mutations. As they were deeply attached to nature, the Elves practicing traditional magic were called the Wood Elves. They were very much the same as the Original Elves and lived in the heart of the deepest and most impenetrable forest. The followers of constructive magic had grown markedly taller than the Original Elves before the schism and their skin became fair. They were called High-Elves. Among them, were to be found the most fervent supporters of enchanting magic and the most talented disciples of Alenaek. Those who had chosen to explore the ways of destructive magic were called Dark Elves. Their skin became darker and their eyes became red. They found in Necromancy a type of magic which was compatible with the magic which they had been developing so far and some of them became the most talented disciples of Nekresis. The other Elves were disconcerted by the changes undergone by the Dark Elves and they were surprised also to see that they were so much feared.

In spite of all their past differences of opinion, all the tensions and the quarrels that had grown between them, the Elves decided to institute the Council of Sages.

On the 22nd day of the year 6822, the Council of Sages, prompted by the Fairies, decided to appoint two Elves, the Dark Elf, Vuuar and the High-Elf, Elliak to run a research program on the moon stones and the moon crystals. It took them eleven years of relentless labour to succeed in their research. In the early hours of the 2nd day of the year 6833, as they were burning moon crystals in their secret laboratory, Vuuar and Elliak discovered the principle on which the Mana fountains worked. After weeks of prevarication, the Council of Sages entrusted them with the task of inventing six smelting furnaces which would enable them to reproduce on a larger scale, the same reaction that they had obtained during their previous experiments. The construction of six Mana fountains then started, Vuuar and Elliac were supervising it and volunteers from all races closely guarded the building site. On the second day of the year 6844, the six Mana fountains were filled with raw moon crystals and the six smelting furnaces were lit at the same time. The first results did not meet their expectations as no fountain achieved full-scale production that day. Yet, there was a positive sign in Gothar’s realm, the walls of the Wahl appeared to be lined again in golden and sunny shades. The Council of Sages held another meeting in spite of the poor results obtained so far and voted to carry on the research.

Ten more years of doubts and sufferings passed until a Gnome, named Paamel, proved that there were two types of crystals. Like Vuuar and Elliak, Paamel had been trying to find another way to extract the Mana from the crystals. He had been carrying out experiments on the basis of complex distillation processes. During one of these experiments with millidistilled water, he noticed that some crystals were becoming darker while some others were becoming lighter. That day was the 24th of the year 6854. The machine was called hydrapteron and was used from then on to distinguish the Dark crystals from the Light ones. Encouraged by this major discovery, Vuuar and Elliak resumed their work with even more determination. On the 33rd day of the year 6866, Vuuar decided to concentrate on Dark crystals out of which he obtained the best results. In his opinion, Dark crystals were more appropriate to a magic based on Necromancy. But Elliak, on the contrary, was obtaining noticeably better results with Light crystals. Both Elves went on quarrelling bitterly which roused previous antagonisms.

In the year 6886, the Sprites produced before the Council of Sages the first sketches of maps recording the location of the galleries which had spread underground throughout the mainland realms. The Council asked them to complete this map by noting down the nature of the crystals that were to be found underground. In the year 6898, the map was completed and it showed that the crystals were not distributed evenly everywhere. Obviously the Dark crystals were mostly in the North while the Light crystals were mostly in the South. Through the years, the nature of the moon crystals had been considerably altered by Dragoon’s breath either by his inspirations or by his expirations . Therefore, the fountains built in the North of Ganareth were supplied with Dark crystals by Vuuar and those built in the South were supplied with Light crystals by Elliac.

By the 24th day of the year 8000, a whole network of Mana fountains had been set up in the different territories. The magic power collected by the fountains fantastically spread throughout the ether and started influencing the world and the different people inhabiting it. The Mana flux emanating from the fountains was too powerful to be staunched or even approached by the Dragons.

Boosted by this flux, the magic powers of the people grew ever greater as well as their strength. The Gods regained their former influence and commanded respect again.

The Dark Elves went back to dwell in their caves and began to worship Calder. Hel was revered by the High-Elves who used constructive magic. They also kept excellent relationships with Men.

The Wood Elves, who had remained faithful to Neutra, went on revering her fervently and found again a certain harmony and thanks to their powerful magic.

The Sprites remained faithful to the Goddess Ysatis and continued to offer their prayers to her from the deep ends of their galleries.

Although they had not been so true to Hydra in the past, the Gnomes, cousins of the Sprites, continued to adore her.

The Dwarves became fervent worshippers of Agnar who endowed them again with strength and courage.

Malecta was revered by the sturdy Half-Trolls, a sort of animal-like warriors, who is always ready to fight and is reputed to be extremely ferocious.

The Half-Orcs began worshipping Zephyr.

The Braves, highly influential people rather naturally pragmatic, were to believe in Aesir. As to the Men, they chose to revere the God who they wanted except some of them who chose to become agnostic.

The Half-Elves enjoyed the same religious freedom as the Men.

The wars of reconquest started then and lasted 888 years.