Faengleis

Modern Faengleis was born of a great war between the so-called "Shining Races" against the might of the Orodravian Empire.  Lead by the twelve Namitha Ardrua, the free races brought a costly balance to the world that forever sealed away their homes in the mysterious Outer Dark.  What remained of the shattered Orodravian and the free races was left to rebuild within the confines of the High Wall.

After a time of rebuilding, there came an age of exploration and adventure, when the reborn nations feverishly expanded their borders, founding new settlements and discovering long-lost neighbors.  Some nations became powerful through growth and others through alliance or trade or mastery of magic, until most of the lands of the world were covered in civilization, the waters plied by the trade fleets of great kingdoms.

But, with the High Wall enclosing the world, culture fell into stagnation.  Once-great civilizations calcified, falling prey to conservatism and pride.  Far from the egocentric places of power, the borders of the world began to contract.  Great swaths of wilderness and the powerful monsters that dwelt there eclipsed the shrinking borders of men and many smaller nations disappeared entirely, unremarked by apathetic neighbors.

Then--two scant decades ago--came a great war, the Crowned Powers of the world arrayed against the mysterious Empyrean Academy who sought a return to the vanished gods of old.  Lives were lost in unnumbered multitudes and when the dust and blood settled, the stagnant world was revitalized.

But dark hands hold the world's reins now...the opulantly vulgar courts of Xain have launched a bloody reconquest of their rebel provinces, propelling themselves to global prominence as they eye weakened neighbors.  The distant Pirate Lords have assembled a fleet without equal in history and declared the outer oceans their sovereign territory.  From their caves and mountains, the wild orcs have returned to haunt men, with armies of giants and ogres alongside them.  Blackest sorcery has set a rot into the world itself, spreading under the undying gaze the Emperor of Bones.  Deep beneath the surface of the seas, the mythical Court Aquatic of the sahuagin proves both real and dangerous as they assault those who dare the waters of the Stormcradle.

Never before has the world needed heroes so desperately, for the light wanes and a march of darkness threatens to end all that was good in ages past, while the sleeping secrets of the Vanished Gods could spell the end of history itself...