Fragmented Records

Cogged Ruins

The Clogged Ruins are a reminder to the artificers of Maelsheen what can happen if they make too critical a miscalculation. This once great walking city crawled upon a thousand legs, but due to a lack of prototyping before it was approved to be taken full scale, it suffered an unforeseen critical failure causing it to break down as its arcane power source was crushed between gears, leading to an explosion destroying the walking city and bringing ruin to its inhabitants. Wild magic infests these ruins, and strange automatons have come about as they attempt to maintain their mechanical parts from salvage, their mechanical minds corrupted by the out of control magics.

Lands Forgotten

North of the empires are the Lands Forgotten. While the Empire is traditionally called the "Great Empire of the North", and now is known as the "Shattered Empires of the North", it is in fact not the northern most point of the continent, nor even that far north in general. In fact it is only just south of the equatorial band, and all that is north of it is considered the Lands Forgotten. The wastes of the desert made expansion unappealing for the elves, though the gnomes who came from there brought a few notes of wisdom. Dragons were rare, theorized to be further evidence of their origins as creatures born from the Chasm of Creation, but giants roamed the Lands Forgotten.

The gnomes hold two conflicting piece of wisdom of giants, the first migration insists the giants are friends, and it is by their generosity that the gnomes learned the first seeds of their craft, which they used to make the crawling devices that one day allowed them to travel south to the empire, where their craft has evolved and flourished to the empire's incalculable benefit and displeasure. These gnomes insist that there has never been undue cruelty inflicted at the hand of even the cruellest of the the northern giants. This wisdom is often accepted by others, as the goliaths are said to come from the north, descended from the last human tribe to remain in the Lands Forgotten and are well known to carry the blood of giants. Any who has met a goliath can confirm that their strength is second only to their generosity and loyalty to friends, and is matched by their fury towards their foes. This is often used to lend credence to the words of the gnomes of the first migration, as well as the fact that the crafts of the goliaths incorporate several designs found in traditional gnomish works.

The second migration, who brought knowledge of more magical crafts which they shared with their kin insist the giants are evil tyrants who destroyed the gnomish cities and enslaved much of their kind. They claim that the giants tortured the gnomes they captured, using them as mere magical component to craft mighty artifacts, and to cast spells to create constructions unlike any which could be made by tool alone. The gnomes of the second migration claim their understanding of magic was gained by spying on the giants during their attempts to rescue their kin before travelling south to the Empire. The magic the wield, at least by their claims, is that which is inherent to all gnomes, and was cruelly extracted by the giants. After many long years of study they have devised methods that those who are not of gnomish decent can also perform, these methods are claimed to be ethical to use, unlike those they accuse the giants of using, as well as rituals that allow gnomes without magical skill or talent to lend their inherent power to those can use it without harm. The most ancient texts that came with the second migration gnomes are written in the giant tongue, but in a cipher that no one who has achieved a chance to read even a single page can yet unveil. The gnomes of the second migration kill all who attempt to even enter a room possessing these texts, claiming it is for their own protection. While many are less convinced of the veracity of the second migration gnomes, the artifacts they craft often possess many giantish features, and seem to use a strange mixture of giantish and gnomish magics to achieve their results. It is also known that when the second migration arrived they were clearly injured and fatigued from long war, and showed the signs of torture and cruel servitude.

Those who once travelled through the wastes of the Lands Forgotten noted that they could see giants in the distance more than once, and with rare occasion they even met them living peacefully within the few cities in the Lands Forgotten among the gnomes and goliaths. No humans, half-lings, or elves were spotted among those in these cities, but many cities had an orcish quarter, which were more akin to a military fortress. These orcish quarters were part of an ancient agreement with three orc tribes, who in exchange for food, water, and bronze they would serve to ensure the law was enforced within the cities, and invaders were repelled. Cities were classified by these diplomats and explorers into three classes: Small-Law, for those ruled gnomes, Tall-Law for those ruled by giants, and Kin-Law, for those ruled by goliaths. While this may at first lead many to believe this determined the predominant population of a city, this was not true, instead it referred only to the ruling class, and as such the general inclination to be expected of the laws there. It was also noted many of these cities were built around ancient structures and ruins universally agreed to be of giantish design, and while other such structures dotted the landscape, those outside of cities seemed to be far more dangerous.

Sadly, with the loss of the maps and chronicles of the Lands Forgotten, we know not the name of any of these cities, their locations, or even much of their population other than those three races were noted as being found within. However three locales are still held in record, and are believed to be of significance since they were kept within the records of several noble houses, and the discovery of one lead to the founding of two of the first human noble houses, though their locations are lost.

The first locale of significance is the Fortress City of Eyes, a complex of dozens of strongholds built entangled, upon, within, and through each other. Known to house at more than three vanguards worth of true beholders, and innumerable numbers of their petty kin. They design of the few crests and icons that could be observed by those who entered and escaped alive imply that these beholders date back to the days of scourge, and the banners of fourteen scourge legions were spotted, though of them only two legions could be found outside of the lower levels, which seemed entirely abandoned by the many eyed rulers bickering within the halls.

The second notable location still known is a giant made temple to a god known as Dra'och, which matched the giantish design of the ruins the cities were apparently built around. The temple was overrun with dangerous beasts, though a powerful staff which is now stored in the Oirdeen College of Arcana was recovered within at the lost of a full exploratory legion from the entrance chamber. Dra'och is a lesser known deity, said to be of the second generation. While he has no temples within the empires, nor are records of any other temples known to exist, he is an imperially recognized deity, though he insists he receive no worship other than the practising of his gifts of magic. His titles are known to be Writer of the First Spells, the Teacher of Artifice, the Forger of Artifacts, and the Weaver of Arcane Matter. He is the only deity which dwarves are known to worship, as he granted them the secrets of forging with magic in an ancient deal, and it known to even to this day allow any dwarf who wishes to exit the deal to be released from it for no cost, but the returning of what he gave. This deal is said to be that in return for the knowledge of crafting magic items beyond the abilities of any other at the time, and a natural aptitude towards the craft, he took in return their ability to feel contentment with their work, but not their pride in it. As such no dwarf has ever been content with the quality of their craft no matter how proud of it they are, always striving to do greater. The most recent record of Dra'och was when he manifested within one of the rampaging cities of Maelsheen and brought its destruction, a witness claims he took from the ruins a tome and handed it to a young child with an order to learn to do such themselves with mere words. That child is known to be the headmaster for the last two centuries of the Oirdeen College of Arcana, due to the curses wrapped around their name, we shall, as all other records, omit it. The headmaster has refused to comment on this matter, stating that Dra'och is the patron of all who seek to cast spells.

The final notable location is a large dwarven tower, within were countless artifacts and relics of their height. The schematics recovered allowed the dwarves, once they were returned, to achieve artifice they haven't matched since the first lost their home, though it did not recover all their forgotten secrets. This tower also appeared to have once been the entrance to a complex beneath the ground which is now collapsed in many sections and filled with various dangers, potentially being a sign that the dwarves are also from the Lands Forgotten. The group who entered the ruins recovered all they could, but most of them perished. One prize was so great that those who lead this expedition were granted nobility, as they brought back the blade and helmet of the First Emperor, taken from an ancient elven skeleton. It is known he vanished with a group of three companions to repay a dwarven debt for forging the recovered artifacts, the lack of his return, and failure to ever repay the debt, has been one point of distrust and rivalry between the elven and dwarven people ever since, the return of the artifacts and the story of his demise has eased tensions to a degree, as it is now believed he perished in an attempt to repay his debt and not due to dwarven trickery. The blade and the helm were repaired by dwarven smiths, and now rest awaiting the next emperor who reunites the the Shattered Nation.

House Peiriannyd

The elven lead Peiriannyd House came back into power in the frightfully short period of just under three hundred years after accepting a large number of gnomes within their isolated mountain estates in Maelsheen. Previously a fading family, whose wealth was fading without trade with the great forges of Oirdeen, Peiriannyd is a recovering house who is now known for their construction of mountainous trade routes and the strange plants they manage to cultivate along the unstable leyline through their lands thanks to the constructions they learned to make from their gnomish servants. Despite this recent recovery, Peiriannyd is not as rich nor as powerful as it once was.

Their isolation and close proximity to gnomes in their day to day lives has lead to a form of madness spreading throughout the family, most prevalent in their habit of inventing and learning how to perform the lowly tasks of forging and crafting despite their noble status putting them above such menial work.

Despite being a predominantly elven, the house is willing to marry with humans of noble families, meaning they count both half-elves and humans among their number, not only that, but they consider such to be full members of the family. Most outrageously to other elven families, Peiriannyd have been known to have one family that belongs to the house adopt low-born into it to justify another branch marrying them. This is despite the fact that they are noble traditionalists, and believe nobles are better than low-born, and there shouldn't be marriage between high-born and low-born. They are also known to be cautious throne reformists, specifically relating to the races who qualify for the throne. The house believes that there should be more nobles from the other races, but only if they have some individuals who stand out as deserving, and said individuals should qualify to hold the same duties relating to the throne as the elves including the right to run for emperor. As for foreign affairs, Peiriannyd are known expansionists, and believers in the imperial proclamation. This results in them often spending large amounts of their wealth on missions to expand imperial borders, with little mercy for the so called savages who stand in their way. When these missions are successful they rarely add the new lands to their holdings, instead petitioning for any locals who assisted them in their missions to the status of noble and to be granted the newly conquered lands.