Revolution in Elione (3.5e Campaign Setting)/History
Elione has a long and storied past, but there are several distinct eras.
Pre-History
Eons ago, travelers discovered Elione, and the magic that pervaded the land. Outside the reach of the Ancient Beasts and horrid monstrosities that plagued the outside world, these travelers decided that they would set foot on this continent, never again to return. They brought with them powerful dragons and other forces of good and evil to colonize this land full of life. But from one ancient race of travelers descended most of the sentient races in Elione.
It was several thousand years after Elione was first settled, when the land was heavily populated and the first farmers had begun to till their land, that the Tree of Life and Death sprung forth. No one knows where it came from, but from that moment forward all the souls on the lands touched by the Tree's roots were forever tied to it, passing through an unending cycle of reincarnation. It was then that the first users of divine magic sprung forth. Claiming the mandate of their gods, they rode forth and conquered lands, forming many smaller kingdoms that were constantly warring. For hundreds of years this war raged, until the first of the Divine submitted to the Tree of Life and Death.
Rule of the Natural Order
After years of war, Cathbad, the Seer King journeyed to the Tree of Life and Death at the behest of one of his visions. When he arrived he found the pools from which the Tree drank, and saw within it the future of his land. Seeing his people, and countless others, destroyed by the raging war, he pledged himself to the Tree, and in return it granted him great power. Cathbad became the First Druid, and through the powers granted forced the Divine Warlords to submit to his rule one by one. The land, finally at peace, now had a crisis. Who would rule?
Hywel, who had the Divine Gift of Writing codified a set of tests and laws, and organized the Wardens of Life and Death, warriors and hunters who would serve the Druids for all time. He had them seek the most powerful Divines in the land to take control of the lands left without rules. Dividing Elione into six kingdoms, he declared that the most powerful Divine Caster in each land would be the ruler, and all the others would serve the churches and government. While the kingdoms were allowed to retain their religions under the Code of Nature, they were forced to submit to the Druids of the Natural Order. There were insurrections, but the Natural Order kept its control for a hundred thousand years before the tides began to change.
One hundred thousand years after the Natural Order imposed their laws, two powerful groups began their plans in the shadows. The Unnatural Order, founded in direct opposition to the Natural Order, began to amass their army of the undead to mount an offensive.
