Brief History of Gurab

I will do my best to summarize the history of our world. It will be very brief and ommit a lot of important people and events, but it should give you a cursory overview that would be useful in interacting with our people.

Rabadanjah Iskandranguz

Recorded history begins with the Age of Warriors. For three thousand years, our people were ruled by warrior kings who distrusted and shunned magic. Force of arms and personal might were paramount values and we believed the ones who died a glorious death in battle would depart for warrior heaven, where a new, improved body would be sown for them from the bodies of the ones that failed. However, over time the approach people had to magic would evolve. In the final thousand years, magic was no longer illegal and began to be practiced openly. At the end of the Age of Warriors, mages started to come to positions of power and even led some nations. Eventually, the society shifted away from warrior domination and mages ruled the world.

This is when the Age of Sorcerer Kings began. It lasted only about 1200 years, and for half of it, the Sorcerer Kings were stuck in a cold war, a state of mutually assured destruction. Over this time, magic was seen as the ultimate pursuit of power and grew in ways few remember today. We know the Sorcerer Kings learned how to create life from dust and how to turn the entire planet to dust. They erected massive monuments that supplied power to entire nations. Once they had the power to destroy worlds, they were locked in a struggle where everybody was afraid to use that power, fearing they’d fall prey to it as well. Unfortunately, someone eventually drew first blood.

Thus began a 300 year period of Mage Wars. Entire nations were leveled and new lands were raised from the seafloor. Mountains were thrown across the planet. Seas were drained to power engines of destruction. Unsatisfied with the level of destruction they were causing, Sorcerer Kings started redirected leylines, the very lifeblood of magic, towards their seats of power and towards their targets. The destruction this caused was unspeakable. With the very essence of magic torn asunder and scattered to the winds, not only did the Sorcerer Kings begin losing their power, all life started to wither and die. Despite all of this destruction, Mage Wars did not end with a bang, but with a whimper. The world simply died, and the Sorcerer Kings died with it.

The following 900-1000 years were known as the Desolation. As the world began dying around us, we were scrounging for ways to keep living. Anarchy ruled the world, as various warlords began to take over. This was when a few people began to practice magic by draining life energy from the creatures surrounding them. As this practice was only furthering the devastation of our world, it was shunned and marginalized, but desperate arcanists continued, nevertheless. Some even rose to power as warlords, but their rule was usually short-lived as they were seen as a throwback to the Mage Wars and were quickly toppled.

Nearly 1080 years ago a group of luminous begins called the Saviors arrived from the sky and preached salvation for our world. They taught us holy magic and brought order to civilization once again, starting a new age. We called it the Age of Saviors. They promised they will make our world better, but at the same time told us we were not ready for perfection yet. They left and prophesized that they will return in a thousand years and bring on the Rapture, taking the virtuous souls with them. As you might notice, their deadline has passed almost 80 years ago, and nothing happened.

Although we still believe we’re in the Age of Saviors, there was a lot of turmoil on our world. Some people believe that we got our math wrong, and must simply continue waiting for the Rapture. Some believe that we had our math right, but we were all unworthy, and thus they didn’t return. Even those split into two, some saying we must repent and then maybe they will come, and some saying it’s too late. Others believe the math was right, and the Saviors did come… invisibly. And anyone who died or disappeared 80 years ago was raptured. And all of us left were unworthy.

And yet, a lot of people are starting to doubt their faith. In spite of the healing and order the Saviors brought, our world didn’t get a lot better. We are still a desolate desert, scrounging to come by water and food. Thus, some people doubt the Saviors were ever right. But most people say they were good, but they failed to return and will never return. And we must face a future without them. And find our own way of saving this world.