Zachania (2 page)

Dalafin began to hear
tales of a town on the south west shores of Kratos that had become
a haven for wizards, he asked the King for permission to
investigate, once given he left and did not return for five
years.

Upon his return he
brought back many secrets and ideas. One of which was a detailed
way of mapping time, this was to be called a calendar, later to be
known as
The Tusarian Calendar
.

Year 1.

The return of
Dalafin

Year 67.

The death of the
Tusarian saviour King Bolson Hanoster, Tusaria mourned for a whole
year.

Year 68.

The crowning of King
Graval Hanoster, eldest son of the heroic great King. Graval was
like his father brave and wise.

Under his reign the
people of Tusaria first earned a pay for their work. Great
libraries were built where reading and writing was encouraged, this
year began the great age of Tusarian scholars.

Year 152.

First visit by the
leaders of Kesain to Tusaria, the Kesain’s were losing their war
against the Degrainian Empire and sought allegiance with Tusaria
against them. King Graval declined saying great thought was needed
before he engaged in war but he did give them conditional sanctuary
if they needed it.

Year 154.

The Tusarian Empire can
no longer stay out of the war, they form an allegiance with Kesain.
Many thousands die as the whole of Kratos is once again thrown into
battle and chaos.

Year 252.

After a century, the
war still rages, King Graval Hanoster is killed in battle, his
youngest son Bolson named after his Grandfather is appointed King.
The new King was a keen scholar who in his youth had accompanied
the wizard Dalafin on his travels in the search of knowledge.
Bolson had learnt many of the wizard’s teachings; in years to come
he was known as King Bolson the Mystical.

Year 254.

King Bolson introduces
a religion he had studied in the south while with Dalafine to
Tusaria, King Bolson brought the religions founders, a group of
monks called ‘The Edonlies’ from their home in the south back to
Tusaria and built them a huge temple to preach their faith.

Year 264.

The great victory of
Kalankine valley where two thousand Tusarian’s defeated over ten
thousand Degrain.

Year 265

The Degrain Empire
strike back hard for their defeat at Kalankine,the entire outpost
in the south is massacred in two days, fifty thousand men are
butchered.

Year 365.

The next one hundred
years sees Tusaria weaken, the Degrain Empire all but defeat the
Kesain’s then turn their full attention to Tusaria.

Year 366.

The King sends men to
every corner of Kratos frantically searching for anything that can
save them from what now seems like certain defeat. A great Tusarian
General returns with a device called the bow and arrow and with
this new weapon they begin to fight back.

Year 384.

King Bolson Hanoster
the 2nd is killed by Degrainian assassins while giving a speech at
Kemkar creek, the dead Kings eldest son Klufe became so enraged he
gathered his own personal guard and set forth for the border vowing
to revenge his father.

Year 385.

Klufe still missing is
pronounced King in his absence, later that year the severed head is
delivered to Tusaria by a merchant who had been ambushed by the
Degrain and only spared his life so he could deliver the murdered
Kings head.

Year 386.

Makros Hanoster crowned
King of Tusaria, Makros quickly shows his calmer qualities, the
rashness showed by his elder brother would rest in the grave with
him as Makros ordered all of his Generals to forget their anger and
hatred and fight this war with clarity of thought and strategy.

Year 394.

The one hundred year
peace spell began as internal feuding within the Degrainian Empire
prevailed.

The war never ceased
but the Degrain never really ventured from their own land. King
Makros was thankful for the respite as once again his Tusarian
Empire was on the brink of defeat when the attacks ceased.

Year 499.

The Degrainian feud
ends.

Year 500.

King Makros Hanoster
dies and his eldest son Kros is named King.

Year 501.

The Degrain Empire
begins to attack Tusaria again.

Year 521.

King Kros Hanoster
creates the first sea going army which travel the seas in
cumbersome boats.

Year 523

“The Great Yellow
famine” begins, for the next century and a half the skies remain
cold and dark, crops cease to grow and disease becomes rife, The
Edonlie monks call it a sign from the gods to end the never ending
wars. The war stops as the Empires battle against their new common
enemy’s disease and starvation.

Year 566.

The great Yellow famine
takes the life of King Kros, he is succeeded by his middle son
Bolson the 3rd.

Year 683.

The Yellow famine
ends.

Year 685.

King Bolson Hanoster
the 3rd sends a delegation of Edonlie monks to the Degrainian
Empire asking that the peace that had lasted during the famine
continue. The monks were never seen or heard of again.

Year 701.

The Degrainian Empire
invades the Tusarian border, Tusarian’s are taken by surprise and
many thousands die. The Degrainian advance was held at Oken gorge.
Degrain’s defeated at Oken gorge, King Bolson the 3rd takes total
command of the Tusarian army’s and proves his worth as a mighty
warlord.

Year 707.

A historic year that
would have great consequence upon the future, a Edonlie monk called
Pang took it upon himself to seek out the fabled home of the gods,
myth has it that Pang after years of searching finally reached
their home.
Pang pleaded with the gods to intervene and stop this endless war
but the Lord God Cladas refused.
So the God Apollo hid the monk for forty years where he taught him
many secrets, together they created a new religion later to be
called PANGKOR. Pang was then allowed to leave and spread the
word.

Year 747.

Pang returned to
Tusaria where the King learns of his epic quest. King Bolson gives
Pang his full blessing to spread the word, within five years
Pangkor is the prevalent religion on Kratos. Pang travels south and
west where he creates three new towns Zanlia, Varanasa and
Tallasian.

Year 757.

King Bolson forms a new
council and gives its members the titles of Dukes and Knights.

Year 767.

The Tusarian Empire
begins to inflict heavy attacks upon the Degrainian Empire.

Year 768.

Duke Heikan’s army kill
over twenty five thousand, Degrain in just one day. The town where
the battle took place was renamed Heikania as tribute to the Dukes
courage and victory. This was also the time of many other great
Tusarian heroes’.

Year 772.

The war had now
definitely turned in Tusarian favour, though this year was one of
great remorse as the great Tusarian wizard Dalafine met his death.
Dalafine left his King and said he must journey to his death. The
whole of Tusaria mourned his death especially the King.

Year 803.

The Degrainian Empire
on the brink of defeat. Armies of Tusaria have them pinned into
their own land desperately trying to defend their borders. Then a
new family emerges to prominence in Degrain, the family were more
fearsome and bloodthirsty than any who came before them. Their
leader was a savage beast called Lord Tagra who had been orphaned
as a boy and raised by three evil witches; Lord Tagra rose through
the ranks in fearsome speed.

Degrain legend says
that during a meeting of council the Degrain King informed his
members that the Degrainian Empire would immanently be defeated,
Lord Tagra outraged at the Kings statement savagely killed him with
his bare hands. Tagra then threatened to kill every council member
unless they swore to his allegiance. Soon after Tagra had every
member murdered anyway then pronounced himself absolute ruler of
Degrain.

Year 804.

The Degrain rise to
their new leader as he instils confidence and pride. Tagra preaches
across Degrain rousing his subjects into frenzy’s as he orders them
to fight to the death. The Degrain quickly begin to be victorious
again, he took control of the borders again and with the aid of his
witch’s magic conquered many a battlefield.

Year 805.

Lord Tagra’s witches
present him with a magical mirror, this mirror was an instrument of
amazing dark powers, legend tells how this mirror was a channel
directly to the God Creckas .... Later to be called the Evil God.
With this mirror and Creckas aiding the Degrain’s the scales of
turned drastically.

Year 811.

The Kesain Empire is
totally destroyed, there lands are sacked and burnt to the ground,
only a few escaped into hiding from the merciless wrath of the
Degrain.

Year 814.

The Degrain’s focus all
there might upon Tusaria.

Year 815.

Half of Tusarian land
under Degrain rule.

Year 816.

King Bolson holds
urgent discussions on how to avoid total defeat. His Dukes and
Knights tell him they have no answer to the Degrain magic.

Year 818.

Tusaria defeated by the
Degrainian Empire, towns and villages across the realm are burnt
and sacked, King Bolson orders Duke Heikan to take what is left of
his battered army and escape to the mountainous regions of the
north west.

Known as Zachania.

Year 819.

The Palaces of Tusaria
are destroyed; the Fleeing Tusarian’s break into groups and scatter
across the land.

Year 820.

In the ancient book of
ZANCHEK it tells how the Gods returning from a quest discovered the
conquest of Tusaria,

Apollo was deeply
saddened by his people’s fate so he decided to look further into
why and how his people were defeated. Apollo soon discovered that
the reasons lay in the magical mirror and the aid of his fellow god
Creckas.

Apollo returned to
Kratos and stole Lord Tagra’s magical mirror.

Cladas upon discovery
of Creckas’s guilt banished his brother to an eternity of limbo.
The evil mirror had by this time attained so much power it could
not be destroyed for fear that its powers would only enter into
another object.

Apollo was given the
task of disposing it in a place where its evil could never be used
again; its powers would be buried with it for all of time. Lord
Tagra was also visited in his sleep and warned that if he persisted
in hunting of man then he and his race would meet death.

Year 980.

Peace lasted on Kratos
for over one hundred and sixty years, the surviving Tusarian’s
under the leadership of Duke Heikan had settled well in the
mountainous region of Zachania. The tribes that already lived there
welcomed there human cousins with open arms, Zachania and its
sister province Zanlia in time began to flourish.

Year 981.

On a peaceful farm just
south of Zanlia lived a hardworking man named Bowen. On one
afternoon his property was attacked by a faction within the
Degrainian Empire who had grown tired of peace. This small party of
Degrain’s were merely a scouting party yet they killed eighteen
members of the family Bowen.

The Zachanian........
Degrain War had begun.

Year 984

Hostilities between
Degrain and Zachania began to escalate, at first there were only
raids on Zachanian and Zanlian lands performed by small groups of
Degrain mercenaries but it did not take long for the large army’s
to follow.

Year 985.

Vast army’s march north
to Zachania

Year 986.

The town of Zanlia
proclaimed unsafe. The Degrain army’s make camp only one days march
from Zanlia, many thousands of Zanlian’s leave their homes and seek
sanctuary in Zachania.

The Battle of Zanlia,
thousands who remained are slain, Degrain are victorious.

Year 987.

The Degrainian Empire
enters Zachania; the fierce and proud Zachanian’s helped by their
inhospitable terrain succeed in halting the Degrain armies, Degrain
forced to retreat.

After months of battles
and thousands of deaths the Gods acting under the frantic behest of
Apollo decide to intervene. A peace summit is called. The gods
Apollo and Anfinnis along with Duke Heikan and Lord Tagra attend,
after days of exchange a peace is finally agreed.

Year 1500.

The end of the Degrain
civil war.

While Most of Kratos
for five hundred years basked in glorious peace, Degrain witnessed
internal warring between two great houses, many said that without
anyone to attack they turned on themselves. The great house of
Tagra still controlled the councils but the mighty house of
Harkanikar refused to show allegiance. The Gods kept a watchful eye
on the Degrain especially there creator Anfinnis. Cladas forbid
Anfinnis any intervention in the Degrain civil war but Anfinnis
could not turn his back on the race he had created. Myth and
legends tells how he gave Lord Tagra a magical Bow and arrow to
which used to kill his rival Lord Harkanikar, the civil war ended
and once again Tagra was absolute ruler of Degrain.

Year 1545.

Lord Tagra killed by
his eldest son Unk Tagra, old age had finally caught up with him
and as is Degrainian tradition it fell upon his eldest son to take
his life, a huge ceremony was held where thousands witnessed Unk
Tagra behead his father thus the eldest son took command of the
Empire. The new ruler soon began to feel worthless, this was
peacetime for a race who valued warriors above all else. Everywhere
he looked he was surrounded by reminders of his ancestor’s great
victory’s and campaigns. His Father had decorated the Palace in
huge statues of himself in full warring costumes and soon these
statues were a burden around his son’s neck like the heaviest of
weights.