The Unexpurgated History of Anover and Avari

Anover Before the Cataclysm

The lands now known as Anover and Avari were a lightly-inhabited hilly region east of the Plain of the Seven Cities. The largest settlement was the elven town Shialuna with approximately two thousand residents.

Traders from Fontanova traveling overland to points east would pass through the forests of Anover with caution due to the numerous bandit gangs who called those forests home.

Day Zero

Anover was far enough from the capital to suffer no ill effects from the immediate blast. By by nightfall, the first rain of filth hit the western part of Anover with unrelenting force. Sharswold Forest suffered its first wave of transformations, raising the twisted Sharswold ents and corrupting many of the elves in the area.

The Evacuation of Fontanova

• • 4916-4917 FYA**: The collapse of the western mountains that let the sea rush into the Plain of the Seven Cities led to a panic in Fontanova as the ocean was suddenly less than twenty miles away and getting closer. With no organization, half the city of 700,000 fled east. They were massacred in the Sharswold. Those that weren’t became easy prey for the bandits of the region. With an embarrassment of riches, the bandits stopped fighting among themselves and unified under Queen Anova into a force of 80,000.

The Fourteenth Imperial Legion

• • 4916-4918 FYA**: Organized under the bound vampire Lady Iseult, the Fourteenth had been en route to quell an insurrection in the east when the Cataclysm came. She and her legion of 3,000 men and undead took refuge in the Sharswold. With the death of the lich-emperor and his court necromancer, Lady Iseult was freed from her servitude. Rather than go to war with the bandit queen, she opened peace negotiations and founded what would become the city of Vierzhenten.

As part of their peace treaty, many human and elven slaves were sent to Vierzhenten to serve Lady Iseult and her vampiric underlings.

The Rise & Fall of Newhope

• • 4916-4930 FYA**: After the initial rush of refugees from Fontanova, General Heitor Jossantos led a more organized evacuation. With 22,000 soldiers and almost 100,000 refugees, he marched east through the Sharswold, past the madness-stricken Shialuna, and through the bandit lands. By the time he settled on the far side of the Sylphide River, he had 51,000 battle-hardened survivors. There, they joined up with a small number of survivors heading west to get away from disasters of their own.

Newhope survived more than a decade of increasingly aggressive attacks by the Anoveri, but was overrun after the goblin rains came and transformed large numbers of the city’s residents.

The Goblin Purges

• • 25-35 DB**: Reversing a long-standing policy of accepting goblinized humans into her military and kingdom, Queen Anova accepts an ultimatum from Thalassa that she purge them in order to be recognized as the legitimate ruler of Anover. Tens of thousands are rounded up and slain. More flee south to Avari and dig in.

The First Avari Wars

• • 34-41 DB**: The Thalassans make an effort to dislodge the goblins from Avari, but lose support from the Anoveri when Queen Anova I is replaced by her granddaughter, Anova II. Sensing that their independence was in jeopardy, she makes an allegiance with the goblins and grants them autonomous control of their entire island.

The Gegenzauberer Revolt

• • 64-67 DB**: A long-simmering resentment of the deal with Vierzhenten explodes into open revolt. The rebels are desperate and disorganized, but join forces with the Gegenzauberer movement, which wants to ban all use of magic on the island.

The Thalassan Invasion

• • 67-76 DB**: Allied with the Gegenzauberer, the Thalassans successfully conquer Anover and Avari, placing King Eckhart Gegenzauberer I on the throne as a vassal king.

The Gegenzauberer Pogroms

• • 76-112 DB**: The Gegenzauberer Kings systematically destroy magic users wherever they can, allowing only priests of recognized religions to openly practice magic. Eventually, a coalition of druids, rangers, and other magic-users take up semi-permanent residence in the Sharswold. Every time the Gegenzauberer kings try to send an expedition into the forest, it’s destroyed.

Sharswold Independence

• • 166-167 DB**: Long since isolated, the people of Sharswold formally declare their independence from Anover and drive west to the sea. The Anoveri are only capable of a token resistance, lacking magic.

The Sharswold War

• • 216-221 DB**: After Gegenzauberer power wanes, the rival Versklaven faction gains ascendance and starts using those naturally born with magical ability as slaves of the state, trained to protect it from all magical threats. In 216, they go to war with the Sharswold, but are driven out at great cost to both sides.

The Avari Revolt

• • 223-231 DB**: Unwilling to wait for the Versklaven to rebuild their power base, the Sharswold coalition of spell casters strikes at their heart, led by the wizard Avari burning their capital city of Anova. They score several major victories over the Versklaven’s enslaved mages before the tide turns.

Eventually, a coalition of the Avari and the Gegenzauberer defeat the Versklaven and settle into an uneasy peace with the Avari taking control of the southern island. The Thalassans bless the new arrangement.

The Avari Detente

• • 231-615**: For nearly four hundred years, Anover, Avari, and Sharswold exist in an uneasy truce. Starting in 588, they realize that the sea is receding and their two islands are becoming conjoined. This leads to the building of Statfrieden, a city that straddles the ever-shrinking gap between the two islands.

Between the northern and the southern side of Statfrieden lies Statfrieden Riesegbrucke - a massive stone bridge, big enough to have dozens of small buildings built on top of it. The Statfrieden Riesegbrucke is officially neutral ground between the two nations and all business between them is done there.