"The land wasn't always this terrible. Before The Establishing Wars, there was conflict in Ghiyar, but there was also culture, creation, and vitality in its people. Those qualities are gone, well not gone, but surely subdued.."--Boon Lamoral, Noghannish Bard.



A Tumultuous History

The continent of Ghiyar has always been shaped by conflict. From the early, barbaric skirmishes between Human clans and Orc tribes, to the greatest war in the land's history, The Claiming War, also known as the war that never ended. Nearly five hundred years ago, the continent of Ghiyar, less civilized than any of its counterparts, became the prize in a prodigious war between all major powers of the world. However, merely five nations were potent enough to war competitively for dominance over Ghiyar. The five nations were the Elven Imperial Alliance of the Southeast Isles, the Dwarven kingdom of Krune, the Gnomish Grand Clergy, the Human Council of True Breath, and the Human dictatorship of Inthor. For decades, the five nations warred, with none of them making progress that could help them triumph. Eventually, the five nations had unleashed so much destructive power on each other that all sides involved lost millions of soldiers, thousands of technologies, and immense monetary funds. After seventy-two years of conflict, the five nations became so infuriated by their lack of victory that they agreed to create a treaty that would allow them to postpone the war for five hundred years, allowing them all to prepare weaponry and strategems. With the war postponed, life in Ghiyar limped back into prominence. The settlers left behind by the five nations had varied fates, unlike the furious natives, who united to drive any vestiges of the five nations away. The Elven settlers were quickly murdered by Human clans, as were the Dwarven colonists. The Gnomish colonists survived for a while, but were annihilated by a Hobgoblin army in short enough time. However, the most desirable fates were those of the two Human ethnic groups introduced to the continent. The Inthoseran Humans from Inthor were accepted by the people of Ghiyar's newly-created cities quickly and with only minimal complaint. While their integration was not as rapid as that of the Inthoseran colonists, the Chuur of True Breath slowly became common in Ghiyar's more metropolitan areas.

Over the four hundred ninety-seven years that have passed since the temporizing of The Claiming War, life, technology, and culture has flourished on Ghiyar. The Humans who once lived in violent clans have largely abandoned their old ways, and the continent's cities have become incredibly advanced. For centuries, the emotion of Ghiyar's general populace has been optimism. That, of course, all changed when it was remembered by the governments of Ghiyar that The Claiming War had only been postponed, not ended. Only war preperations are important to the governments of the continent, so economic and social benefits have vanished as rapidly as happiness and contentment. With social norms flung into the void, factories employ children to manufacture weaponry, mine for the components of flash bombs, and--

