The illustration above: Main gate of Dorna, modern capitol of Dornia
Early history. Boltok and Damani
The rise and fall of two powerful human kingdoms Boltok and Damani left a solid imprint in the history of the world.
Both kingdoms were born at the same time in the distant 85th century, when an ancient kingdom Boltania was torn into pieces by a bloody civil war. And while two sides of the conflict kept spilling blood of their former friends and relatives, the population of predatory monsters feasted and grew on their remains. Humans didn’t even notice how a large portion of the land, currently known as Jungle of ruins, became too dangerous to live, forcing people to migrate deeper into the continent.
This intervention of nature caused both sides of the conflict to stop fighting and brought a long but tense peace. A peace that would last for two and a half thousand years – more than enough time for both nations to recover from the losses, to restore population and to grow solid military power and ambitions.
The population, power of the army and knowledge of magic in both nations grew at approximately equal rate, but the conditions in which they developed throughout the centuries differed and in the long run it affected the balance in favor of Damani.
Boltok occupied the Sothern land where they had no serious enemies to deal with. There were monsters and pirates but neither were threatening to the nation on land.
Damani on the other hand had to deal with orcish clans of the Eastern Greenlands who often raided humans for goods and slaves. Constant clashes with the green-skinned barbarians gave Damani a lot of trouble but also gave birth to numerous skilled and talented war veterans and commanders. A high concentration of seasoned warriors who were eager to fight, the desire to crush the ancient enemy and an overly enthusiastic new king pushed Damani to start a full scale war against Boltok in the beginning of the 110th century. So called Twelve-year war bean.
Damani’s master plan
Twelve years of war between two powerful nations had many hot and cold phases and until the 11th year it was not clear who would get the upper hand. In the end of eleventh year of war Damani generals developed a masterplan to defeat Boltok once and for all.
The plan consisted of several stages and required fast and precise movement of the entire Damani army. First of all they’ve sent diplomats to Boltok to organize a fake treaty. After it worked and the front between two kingdoms calmed down, Damani launched a massive campaign to the North and attacked Eastern Greenlands, quickly wiping out nine large clans of orcs. Dozens of thousands of mutilated green-skinned corpses had been impaled on pikes and left in the mountains where other orcish clans lived. This move had only goal – to send a gruesome message for the rest of the clans to stay away.
Without a break Damani pulled out all of their forces from the North and launched a massive attack on Boltok, betraying the treaty and catching the enemy off-guard. Using the element of surprise the main army of Damani in just three weeks broke through Boltok territory and reached Palima, the capitol of Boltok. The large portion of Damani army surrounded the city and besieged it, while the rest of Damani forces were to spread to East, West and South, pushing back the rest of Boltok forces and causing as much damage to the kingdom’s communications, supplies and spirit. Trapping the Boltok king in his own capitol and capturing him was the main point of the plan and it was working perfectly up until this point, but as soon as the siege of the capitol started, problems began.
Palima was a well-fortified city with a large garrison of experienced warriors, but most importantly it also homed the most experienced and powerful magicians of the kingdom who arrived here using teleportation stones at the first sight of Damani army. Several direct attacks of Damani have been thrown back and led to massive casualties on the side of attackers. Seeing no other choice the generals who were in charge of the siege chose a different, passive strategy – to force a long, exhausting siege and to wait for the main forces to finish off Boltok resistance in other regions before trying another full-scale siege. This choice would cost dearly for the entire Damani kingdom, because their masterplan could only work if the victory was reached in the shortest time. And while generals who were responsible for this decision fully realized the risk, they were unaware that they even less time than they expected.
Events that were happening to the North from Damani would change history of the entire continent and were predicted by several Damani tacticians who opposed the masterplan. Sadly their reasons fell into deaf ears.
The rise of the Green tide
Damani expected that an extermination of several disconnected clans of orcs, who were fighting between each other anyway, would horrify the rest and would buy Damani several months of peace on the North. This is where they miscalculated and got an entirely opposite result. Orcs of these lands had very specific beliefs regarding warfare and the defeated. Constant internal fighting between the clans was not considered as acts of aggression but a competition. Contested lands with rich populations of animals to hunt were the subjects of most conflicts but sometimes they attacked each other just to show superiority and to earn respect among their own. Most often when two clans fought and one was taking the upper hand, they left women and children alive (Most if not all mature women would be raped though), allowing the defeated clan to restore with time.
This tradition was shared among all orcish clans of the North and was deeply connected to their shamanistic beliefs and traditions. Just like hunting a specific animal too much could lead to disappearance of this animal in future, a destruction of entire clan was considered a bad omen and could attract attention of other clans who could even form a temporal union and to punish the guilty clan with bloodshed.
Despite thousands of years of neighboring with the clans Damani never bothered to understand their foes – they simply considered them savages who should be destroyed at any convenient opportunity but whose numbers were too great to start an open war. And when nine clans were wiped out, the reaction of the rest of the clans could be easily predicted.
Leaders of hundreds of small clans, who could not deal any real damage to the powerful kingdom on their own but who had a burning desire to do so gathered together to form a union. Proud and different clans of orcs were so angered by the brutality and disrespect of Damani that they were ready to put aside any grudges for one task – to teach humans a lesson they would never forget. For the first time in the world history all clans of Eastern Greenlands were united under one banner. The Green tide was born.
The great Boltok escape
The siege of Palima lasted for seven long months. During that time Damani forces managed to destroy Boltok’s army and already captured several towns to the South from Palima. To Tovarn II, the king of Boltok, and to defenders of Palima it was clear that the war has been lost. Sooner or later the city would fall and its citizens would be mercilessly killed.
That’s when the king of Boltok addressed the citizens of the city and offered a brave but dangerous plan of survival. One day under the cover of night the city gate opened and the entire population of Palima rushed one direction – the East. Forces of Damani who surrounded the city were caught off-guard and their positions have been breached.
The king of Boltok and a large number of citizens escaped into the Jungle of ruins and through it reached Tamir peninsula. Damani army tried chased them only briefly because at that time they received the news about the invasion of orcs into their kingdom. Here Damani made their second grave mistake – instead of sending the entire army back home, they’ve divided into two groups, one stayed in the Boltok territory to finish their conquest and the other rushed North. Was it simple miscalculation of the orcish threat or Damani generals simply could not accept a possibility of letting their ancient foe to live another day – remains an unanswered historical question.
The end of the Twelve-year war
While part of Damani army went North, blissfully unaware that their kingdom was already doomed, the rest of the Damani army kept raiding, killing and capturing the Boltok people and lands. To further demoralize the resistance they successfully spread a false rumor about the death of Boltok king. In reality the Boltok king and his people successfully reached Tamir and created a new kingdom there, but at that period of time there were no means to inform the remaining citizens of Boltok about this.
Only a few Boltok settlements kept armed resistance. The rest preferred to either escape the kingdom through the Midland sea to the West or to hide within hard-to-reach areas of Boltok. Salvation woods and a small mining town in the mountains became perfect places to hide for thousands of people.
Damani’s conquest through the land of Boltok didn’t last long. In just a few months the Green tide swooped through Damani kingdom like locusts. Most Damani settlement have been destroyed, defenders and most citizens killed and only a small portion enslaved. Inspired by their success orcs didn’t stop on that and proceeded marching into Boltok territory where the same activity took place, but to a smaller degree, since most Boltok citizens by that time have already abandoned their homes and either were hiding or were already reaching the shores of Principalities.
Seeing no difference between humans of one kingdom and another, orcs sought more blood to sooth their rage. Nine clans were destroyed by humans - nine human kingdoms had to fall.
With little effort they tracked down and destroyed the remaining forces of Damani army who lost support from homeland and suffered heavily from partisans.
After spending a few more months within Boltok territory in desperate search for new foes orcs turned their gaze at another area with large known population of humans – small provinces on the West, across the Midland sea. Using captured boats from both Damani and Boltok they crossed the sea with anticipation of new helpless humans to kill… but upon reaching the Western shore of the Midland sea they faced a large, well prepared army who was already waiting for them. The following defeat threw back and cooled down the appetites of the Green tide for a few decades.
The Unrest and the new ruler
In Dornia history the time of unrest is referred to the historical period between 110th and 114th centuries. More than three hundred years the shattered remnants of once proud kingdom had to survive and rebuild what was lost. Even after the Green tide fell apart, orcish clans kept raiding this land and forcing citizens to fight for their crops and lives.
The false news about the death of the king in the end of Twelve-year war caused people to seek a new leader, and gladly for them there was a perfect candidate for such important role. Count Romus, the owner of the small mining town on the Southern hillside of mount Turma was a distant relative of royal family. Workers of this small town were digging into the mountain for many decades before the Twelve-year war began the tunnels were used to hide and protect thousands of citizens who lost their homes in the surrounding lands. The town itself was build in a very strategically convenient spot, a flat space in the side of the mountain with only one traversable path to reach it. So even when orcs found it, their attempts to besiege it miserably failed. The town had access to water and food within the mountain, so it could easily survive a very long siege. Orcs quickly lost interest to this town after a couple of unfortunate attempts and left it alone.
Count Romus obtained immense respect and love of people during the most difficult years – he went out of his way to accommodate the refugees and constantly forced his workers to reinforce tunnels to prevent collapses and casualties. Slowly simple mining tunnels turned into rooms, corridors and halls where large numbers of people could live and work.
By the time the question of a new king gained full power, Romus was already an old man. When he was offered the crown, he accepted it but only on one condition – that instead of his head, it would lay down on the head of his daughter Dorna who by that time was already in her thirties and who was performing most duties of her father.
After a humble crowning ceremony Dorna demonstrated immense energy and enthusiasm in the act of decision making. Not only she refused to move to recently re-taken Palima, she declared her mountain hometown as the new seat of power and named it after herself. The kingdom have also been renamed into Dornia.
All her life Dorna dedicated to turning a mining town into a capitol, helped other regions of the former kingdom to recover and took active part in fighting back the orcish raids. A small regular army had been created out of volunteers the same year of her crowning and by the time of her death five decades later became a solid force.
Dornia and Tamir relation
In the end of 110th century when queen Dorna was in her seventies, she received unexpected guests – a delegation of diplomats from Tamir. Forty years of lies about the death of the true Boltok king Tovarn II had been exposed and now his son, young king August, invited the current leader of Boltok to meet in person and to discuss the future of two nations.
Four months later queen Dorna personally arrived to Tamir’s capitol Kortas where she met the king of Tamir. In her memoirs she could not hold her excitement about the achievements of Palima’s refugees for just forty years. Kortas already at that time was a solid town made of stone with massive structures. Unfortunately her memoirs lack any details about how they did that.
To Dorna’s great surprise August did not plan to return to the homeland of his father and showed no interest in her throne. On the contrary he acknowledged her and her line as legit rulers of former Boltok territory and offered to form an alliance. After weeks spent in Tamir Dorna returned to her kingdom with documents signed by both monarchs. Freedom of transportation between two nations for citizens, profitable trade deals, military alliance and a marriage arrangement between princess of Tamir and prince of Dornia were just a few examples of them.
Without taking into consideration several minor incidents between two kingdoms, to this day Tamir and Dornia consider each other reliable allies.
Consequences of the Fields of the damned. The birth of Purifying light cult
In 114th century Rinara Dusktale, a talented countess with a secret hobby of studying forbidden necromancy, offered the king a solution to solve the problem of orcish invasions once and for all. It is still unknown if her arguments were strikingly convincing or the king had a secret romance with Rinara, but her plan had been accepted despite loud disapproval of the majority of nobles.
The very existence of Fields of the damned and the idea that it was created with permission of the king planted a seed of mistrust and superstition within the population. Many believed that disturbing the dead was a terrible idea, considering that many of those dead were distant relatives of Dornia citizens, heroes who died for their kingdom during the Twelve-year war. While one side argued that it was disrespectful and insulting to the fallen, the opposition answered with the idea that those defenders would consider the chance to serve the kingdom once again as honor.
Meanwhile not only necromancy but magic in general received a boon in popularity among wealthier portion of the population. Many new schools dedicated to study of magic, enchanting and alchemy opened in Dorna, Palima and some other large towns. Unfortunately, on par with responsible, talented students there were many of those who wanted to study magic just because it was popular at that time. Needless to say that such power in hands of a fool would only result in disaster. And so all across Dornia took place numerous incidents related to a careless use of magic. From properly damage and public inconveniences to mass casualties.
Mistrust and hatred spread deep roots within hearts of simple people. Like a volatile substance it only needed a spark to flare. And the spark was found a century later, in face of a teaching of the Purifying light.
Augun Fardison came from a simple family but he was recognized in early age as a potentially talented magician. Sent to a magic school in his home town, he showed astonishing results and had been quickly recommended to join the most prestigious school in Palima. Eight years later he successfully graduated and was offered a position of Palima court mage, which he eagerly accepted. But not because he wanted to be a magician by that time, his motives were different.
During his young years of mastering the arcane art, Augun developed a very specific vision of the world, in which the nature had to be allowed to flow at its own pace and that humanity’s intervention into it would eventually cause the world to collapse. He believed that every living creature had its place and role in the circle of nature, while magic acted as an outside force and brought imbalance. His effortless ability to master it caused him to fear and hate the very concept of magic. If he, such responsible and rightful person, could learn it so easily, someone else with dirty, corrupted mind and ambitions could do so too. Such possibility had to be prevented.
Emboldened in his growing hatred of magic he studied numerous disasters and anomalies caused by it all around Karandia and wrote a book called “Purifying light of truth” where his laid out his vision of the world without magic and supported it by numerous examples of disasters caused by careless or intentionally aggressive use of magic. Using his high position and hiding his true motives he began printing his book and spreading it in Palima and a few years later in other corners of the kingdom too.
The Purifying light ideology found sympathizers and followers in face of simple people whose understanding of magic was very limited, spreading and evolving long after Augun’s death. Groups of followers began gathering in specific places to read prayers for the health or the Earth and disappearance of magic. Followers of the cult sometimes even organized protests before the gates of magic schools, demanding their closure.
For three centuries this movement would gain a huge following and leaders who successfully twisted and radicalized Augun’s vision, leading to a disastrous civil war in 118th century.
Trade path of Kamus
Dornia is situated between three powerful nations – Tamir, Principalities and Inginia, each in good relations with each other. And while Inginia and Tamir always had a straightforward sea trade route between them, Principalities and Tamir experienced difficulties in reaching each other. Either it had to be a long sea rout through Midland sea into the Memorial sea or a very dangerous adventure on land from Midland port to Krasan harbor.
It was in Dornia’s interest to create conditions for Principalities and Tamir to trade with each other through its territory and the honor of solving this problem belonged to Kamus Longer who was a keeper of treasury of Dornia in 115th century.
He offered to build six castles on equal distance between each other from Midland port to Krasan harbor. Each castle would hold a large garrison whose duty would be to constantly patrol the areas between the castles and to offer protection to foreign merchants and travelers who wouldn’t mind spending extra coin.
Creation of the Trade path of Kamus had two goals in mind. First of all, the patrols between the castles would clear out monsters and intercept the undead who often roam too far from the Fields of the damned. This made the Norther regions of the kingdom much safer to live in. Secondly, the taxation and guard services provided by the garrisons created a steady income to the royal treasury, which by calculation of Kamus would fully cover the expenses of the constructions in less than forty years.
It took 36 years to build all six castles before they were usable and it caused a heavy pressure on the treasury. But as the history showed – the risk was worth the effort and to this day Trade path of Kamus serves Dornia, Tamir, Principalities and other nations who have access to Midland sea as the only relatively safe land passage through the Eastern Karandia.
For this achievement Kamus Longer was honored with a statue in the main corridor of Dorna. Sadly he didn’t long enough to see it himself.
The Great purge and the civil war of Dornia
Historians of modern age argue to this day about the personality of Augun Fardison, author of the book “Purifying light of truth” and unofficial creator of Purifying light cult. In his book he wished to see all forms of magic being banned from study and use, but in his works he never made direct connections between magic itself and civilized races who happened to have magical abilities as part of their nature.
After Augun’s book became popular and got in hands of Palima’s court he lost his position and privileges. After that he became a naturalist and for his entire life never accepted any connection between his book and the rising cult of Purifying light. This fact didn’t bother the followers as their leaders took over his ideas and kept updating, twisting and radicalizing them for many decades after he disappeared from the public view.
While his original book was just a collection of personal opinions of one angry man and a lot of questions in it were open for interpretation, new literature, written by overly-zealous haters of magic and presented as if Augus was their author, had these questions answered in a direct way – magic itself was deemed heresy and any creature who uses it was a heretic too. Naturally or not.
Starting from 116th century Dornia grew more and more hostile to representatives to any other races by human. Increasing number of elves, fairies and dryads became targets of cultists who shamed them for being who they were. Inactivity of the rulers allowed the cult to grow to dangerous proportions. Trade with Maledia was completely compromised, countless people had to migrate from Dornia, especially from the Southern regions which were affected the most.
Only by the end of 117th century Dirnia’s government began taking measures at suppressing the cult. Many churches had been forcefully closed in Palima and Dorna. Followers of the cult were forbidden from service at Krasan harbor, Midland port and garrisons of the Trade path of Kamus.
The tension grew to dangerous degree and exploded in the beginning of 118th century when the new king came to power. Young Peten I was a follower of the church himself and sought to fulfil its dogmas through his rule.
In just the first month of his ruling, king Peten I forced through several radical laws, a period that was later called the great purge. All non-human races had been declared out-of-law and stripped off Dornia citizenship and protection - every citizen was granted a right to hurt and even kill them on sight without any consequences. All magic schools had been closed and known mages were hunted down by freshly organized order of witch-hunters. Streets of cities and towns turned into battlefields where fanatics of the church clashed with citizens who opposed these laws. Even the army fell apart and began taking sides.
The chaos of civil war caused massive destructions and casualties but it lasted for only one year. The war ended when one of the generals, whose name had been erased from history and who was loyal to the king at the beginning of his ruling, slain him right on his thrown. The general made this decision after his wife had been wrongfully accused in witchcraft and killed by the cultists.
Three kings who ruled after Peten I tried to eradicate the Purifying light church by force but each of them died under mysterious circumstances before they could deal any real damage. It was clear that the church’s root spread deep within the entire kingdom and forceful removal was no longer possible. Fourth king, Alem II, decided to act in a more diplomatic way and to try and find a compromise. A meeting with leaders of the church had been organized and on it both sides signed so called Alem’s pact, in which the kingdom had been separated into two zones of influence. On the South the cult could freely practice their traditions but on the North its activity was strictly limited.
Since 118th century to this day Purifying light church still exists, strong and influential. They have their own army of paladins and even created their own spiritual capitol – Citadel of light. To the credit of church leaders, they strictly enforce the Alem’s pact and the North of Dornia is considered more or less free from their activists. Representatives of the non-human races could once again gain citizenship of Dornia, live and work in its Northern territories.
But unfortunately the memory of the great purge never gone away and each time a new monarch sits on the throne, the entire kingdom tenses in dread – will the monarch keep the church in check or will the Alem’s pact be lifted and the church gains freedom to act once again. Only time will tell.
Early history. Boltok and Damani
The rise and fall of two powerful human kingdoms Boltok and Damani left a solid imprint in the history of the world.
Both kingdoms were born at the same time in the distant 85th century, when an ancient kingdom Boltania was torn into pieces by a bloody civil war. And while two sides of the conflict kept spilling blood of their former friends and relatives, the population of predatory monsters feasted and grew on their remains. Humans didn’t even notice how a large portion of the land, currently known as Jungle of ruins, became too dangerous to live, forcing people to migrate deeper into the continent.
This intervention of nature caused both sides of the conflict to stop fighting and brought a long but tense peace. A peace that would last for two and a half thousand years – more than enough time for both nations to recover from the losses, to restore population and to grow solid military power and ambitions.
The population, power of the army and knowledge of magic in both nations grew at approximately equal rate, but the conditions in which they developed throughout the centuries differed and in the long run it affected the balance in favor of Damani.
Boltok occupied the Sothern land where they had no serious enemies to deal with. There were monsters and pirates but neither were threatening to the nation on land.
Damani on the other hand had to deal with orcish clans of the Eastern Greenlands who often raided humans for goods and slaves. Constant clashes with the green-skinned barbarians gave Damani a lot of trouble but also gave birth to numerous skilled and talented war veterans and commanders. A high concentration of seasoned warriors who were eager to fight, the desire to crush the ancient enemy and an overly enthusiastic new king pushed Damani to start a full scale war against Boltok in the beginning of the 110th century. So called Twelve-year war bean.
Damani’s master plan
Twelve years of war between two powerful nations had many hot and cold phases and until the 11th year it was not clear who would get the upper hand. In the end of eleventh year of war Damani generals developed a masterplan to defeat Boltok once and for all.
The plan consisted of several stages and required fast and precise movement of the entire Damani army. First of all they’ve sent diplomats to Boltok to organize a fake treaty. After it worked and the front between two kingdoms calmed down, Damani launched a massive campaign to the North and attacked Eastern Greenlands, quickly wiping out nine large clans of orcs. Dozens of thousands of mutilated green-skinned corpses had been impaled on pikes and left in the mountains where other orcish clans lived. This move had only goal – to send a gruesome message for the rest of the clans to stay away.
Without a break Damani pulled out all of their forces from the North and launched a massive attack on Boltok, betraying the treaty and catching the enemy off-guard. Using the element of surprise the main army of Damani in just three weeks broke through Boltok territory and reached Palima, the capitol of Boltok. The large portion of Damani army surrounded the city and besieged it, while the rest of Damani forces were to spread to East, West and South, pushing back the rest of Boltok forces and causing as much damage to the kingdom’s communications, supplies and spirit. Trapping the Boltok king in his own capitol and capturing him was the main point of the plan and it was working perfectly up until this point, but as soon as the siege of the capitol started, problems began.
Palima was a well-fortified city with a large garrison of experienced warriors, but most importantly it also homed the most experienced and powerful magicians of the kingdom who arrived here using teleportation stones at the first sight of Damani army. Several direct attacks of Damani have been thrown back and led to massive casualties on the side of attackers. Seeing no other choice the generals who were in charge of the siege chose a different, passive strategy – to force a long, exhausting siege and to wait for the main forces to finish off Boltok resistance in other regions before trying another full-scale siege. This choice would cost dearly for the entire Damani kingdom, because their masterplan could only work if the victory was reached in the shortest time. And while generals who were responsible for this decision fully realized the risk, they were unaware that they even less time than they expected.
Events that were happening to the North from Damani would change history of the entire continent and were predicted by several Damani tacticians who opposed the masterplan. Sadly their reasons fell into deaf ears.
The rise of the Green tide
Damani expected that an extermination of several disconnected clans of orcs, who were fighting between each other anyway, would horrify the rest and would buy Damani several months of peace on the North. This is where they miscalculated and got an entirely opposite result. Orcs of these lands had very specific beliefs regarding warfare and the defeated. Constant internal fighting between the clans was not considered as acts of aggression but a competition. Contested lands with rich populations of animals to hunt were the subjects of most conflicts but sometimes they attacked each other just to show superiority and to earn respect among their own. Most often when two clans fought and one was taking the upper hand, they left women and children alive (Most if not all mature women would be raped though), allowing the defeated clan to restore with time.
This tradition was shared among all orcish clans of the North and was deeply connected to their shamanistic beliefs and traditions. Just like hunting a specific animal too much could lead to disappearance of this animal in future, a destruction of entire clan was considered a bad omen and could attract attention of other clans who could even form a temporal union and to punish the guilty clan with bloodshed.
Despite thousands of years of neighboring with the clans Damani never bothered to understand their foes – they simply considered them savages who should be destroyed at any convenient opportunity but whose numbers were too great to start an open war. And when nine clans were wiped out, the reaction of the rest of the clans could be easily predicted.
Leaders of hundreds of small clans, who could not deal any real damage to the powerful kingdom on their own but who had a burning desire to do so gathered together to form a union. Proud and different clans of orcs were so angered by the brutality and disrespect of Damani that they were ready to put aside any grudges for one task – to teach humans a lesson they would never forget. For the first time in the world history all clans of Eastern Greenlands were united under one banner. The Green tide was born.
The great Boltok escape
The siege of Palima lasted for seven long months. During that time Damani forces managed to destroy Boltok’s army and already captured several towns to the South from Palima. To Tovarn II, the king of Boltok, and to defenders of Palima it was clear that the war has been lost. Sooner or later the city would fall and its citizens would be mercilessly killed.
That’s when the king of Boltok addressed the citizens of the city and offered a brave but dangerous plan of survival. One day under the cover of night the city gate opened and the entire population of Palima rushed one direction – the East. Forces of Damani who surrounded the city were caught off-guard and their positions have been breached.
The king of Boltok and a large number of citizens escaped into the Jungle of ruins and through it reached Tamir peninsula. Damani army tried chased them only briefly because at that time they received the news about the invasion of orcs into their kingdom. Here Damani made their second grave mistake – instead of sending the entire army back home, they’ve divided into two groups, one stayed in the Boltok territory to finish their conquest and the other rushed North. Was it simple miscalculation of the orcish threat or Damani generals simply could not accept a possibility of letting their ancient foe to live another day – remains an unanswered historical question.
The end of the Twelve-year war
While part of Damani army went North, blissfully unaware that their kingdom was already doomed, the rest of the Damani army kept raiding, killing and capturing the Boltok people and lands. To further demoralize the resistance they successfully spread a false rumor about the death of Boltok king. In reality the Boltok king and his people successfully reached Tamir and created a new kingdom there, but at that period of time there were no means to inform the remaining citizens of Boltok about this.
Only a few Boltok settlements kept armed resistance. The rest preferred to either escape the kingdom through the Midland sea to the West or to hide within hard-to-reach areas of Boltok. Salvation woods and a small mining town in the mountains became perfect places to hide for thousands of people.
Damani’s conquest through the land of Boltok didn’t last long. In just a few months the Green tide swooped through Damani kingdom like locusts. Most Damani settlement have been destroyed, defenders and most citizens killed and only a small portion enslaved. Inspired by their success orcs didn’t stop on that and proceeded marching into Boltok territory where the same activity took place, but to a smaller degree, since most Boltok citizens by that time have already abandoned their homes and either were hiding or were already reaching the shores of Principalities.
Seeing no difference between humans of one kingdom and another, orcs sought more blood to sooth their rage. Nine clans were destroyed by humans - nine human kingdoms had to fall.
With little effort they tracked down and destroyed the remaining forces of Damani army who lost support from homeland and suffered heavily from partisans.
After spending a few more months within Boltok territory in desperate search for new foes orcs turned their gaze at another area with large known population of humans – small provinces on the West, across the Midland sea. Using captured boats from both Damani and Boltok they crossed the sea with anticipation of new helpless humans to kill… but upon reaching the Western shore of the Midland sea they faced a large, well prepared army who was already waiting for them. The following defeat threw back and cooled down the appetites of the Green tide for a few decades.
The Unrest and the new ruler
In Dornia history the time of unrest is referred to the historical period between 110th and 114th centuries. More than three hundred years the shattered remnants of once proud kingdom had to survive and rebuild what was lost. Even after the Green tide fell apart, orcish clans kept raiding this land and forcing citizens to fight for their crops and lives.
The false news about the death of the king in the end of Twelve-year war caused people to seek a new leader, and gladly for them there was a perfect candidate for such important role. Count Romus, the owner of the small mining town on the Southern hillside of mount Turma was a distant relative of royal family. Workers of this small town were digging into the mountain for many decades before the Twelve-year war began the tunnels were used to hide and protect thousands of citizens who lost their homes in the surrounding lands. The town itself was build in a very strategically convenient spot, a flat space in the side of the mountain with only one traversable path to reach it. So even when orcs found it, their attempts to besiege it miserably failed. The town had access to water and food within the mountain, so it could easily survive a very long siege. Orcs quickly lost interest to this town after a couple of unfortunate attempts and left it alone.
Count Romus obtained immense respect and love of people during the most difficult years – he went out of his way to accommodate the refugees and constantly forced his workers to reinforce tunnels to prevent collapses and casualties. Slowly simple mining tunnels turned into rooms, corridors and halls where large numbers of people could live and work.
By the time the question of a new king gained full power, Romus was already an old man. When he was offered the crown, he accepted it but only on one condition – that instead of his head, it would lay down on the head of his daughter Dorna who by that time was already in her thirties and who was performing most duties of her father.
After a humble crowning ceremony Dorna demonstrated immense energy and enthusiasm in the act of decision making. Not only she refused to move to recently re-taken Palima, she declared her mountain hometown as the new seat of power and named it after herself. The kingdom have also been renamed into Dornia.
All her life Dorna dedicated to turning a mining town into a capitol, helped other regions of the former kingdom to recover and took active part in fighting back the orcish raids. A small regular army had been created out of volunteers the same year of her crowning and by the time of her death five decades later became a solid force.
Dornia and Tamir relation
In the end of 110th century when queen Dorna was in her seventies, she received unexpected guests – a delegation of diplomats from Tamir. Forty years of lies about the death of the true Boltok king Tovarn II had been exposed and now his son, young king August, invited the current leader of Boltok to meet in person and to discuss the future of two nations.
Four months later queen Dorna personally arrived to Tamir’s capitol Kortas where she met the king of Tamir. In her memoirs she could not hold her excitement about the achievements of Palima’s refugees for just forty years. Kortas already at that time was a solid town made of stone with massive structures. Unfortunately her memoirs lack any details about how they did that.
To Dorna’s great surprise August did not plan to return to the homeland of his father and showed no interest in her throne. On the contrary he acknowledged her and her line as legit rulers of former Boltok territory and offered to form an alliance. After weeks spent in Tamir Dorna returned to her kingdom with documents signed by both monarchs. Freedom of transportation between two nations for citizens, profitable trade deals, military alliance and a marriage arrangement between princess of Tamir and prince of Dornia were just a few examples of them.
Without taking into consideration several minor incidents between two kingdoms, to this day Tamir and Dornia consider each other reliable allies.
Consequences of the Fields of the damned. The birth of Purifying light cult
In 114th century Rinara Dusktale, a talented countess with a secret hobby of studying forbidden necromancy, offered the king a solution to solve the problem of orcish invasions once and for all. It is still unknown if her arguments were strikingly convincing or the king had a secret romance with Rinara, but her plan had been accepted despite loud disapproval of the majority of nobles.
The very existence of Fields of the damned and the idea that it was created with permission of the king planted a seed of mistrust and superstition within the population. Many believed that disturbing the dead was a terrible idea, considering that many of those dead were distant relatives of Dornia citizens, heroes who died for their kingdom during the Twelve-year war. While one side argued that it was disrespectful and insulting to the fallen, the opposition answered with the idea that those defenders would consider the chance to serve the kingdom once again as honor.
Meanwhile not only necromancy but magic in general received a boon in popularity among wealthier portion of the population. Many new schools dedicated to study of magic, enchanting and alchemy opened in Dorna, Palima and some other large towns. Unfortunately, on par with responsible, talented students there were many of those who wanted to study magic just because it was popular at that time. Needless to say that such power in hands of a fool would only result in disaster. And so all across Dornia took place numerous incidents related to a careless use of magic. From properly damage and public inconveniences to mass casualties.
Mistrust and hatred spread deep roots within hearts of simple people. Like a volatile substance it only needed a spark to flare. And the spark was found a century later, in face of a teaching of the Purifying light.
Augun Fardison came from a simple family but he was recognized in early age as a potentially talented magician. Sent to a magic school in his home town, he showed astonishing results and had been quickly recommended to join the most prestigious school in Palima. Eight years later he successfully graduated and was offered a position of Palima court mage, which he eagerly accepted. But not because he wanted to be a magician by that time, his motives were different.
During his young years of mastering the arcane art, Augun developed a very specific vision of the world, in which the nature had to be allowed to flow at its own pace and that humanity’s intervention into it would eventually cause the world to collapse. He believed that every living creature had its place and role in the circle of nature, while magic acted as an outside force and brought imbalance. His effortless ability to master it caused him to fear and hate the very concept of magic. If he, such responsible and rightful person, could learn it so easily, someone else with dirty, corrupted mind and ambitions could do so too. Such possibility had to be prevented.
Emboldened in his growing hatred of magic he studied numerous disasters and anomalies caused by it all around Karandia and wrote a book called “Purifying light of truth” where his laid out his vision of the world without magic and supported it by numerous examples of disasters caused by careless or intentionally aggressive use of magic. Using his high position and hiding his true motives he began printing his book and spreading it in Palima and a few years later in other corners of the kingdom too.
The Purifying light ideology found sympathizers and followers in face of simple people whose understanding of magic was very limited, spreading and evolving long after Augun’s death. Groups of followers began gathering in specific places to read prayers for the health or the Earth and disappearance of magic. Followers of the cult sometimes even organized protests before the gates of magic schools, demanding their closure.
For three centuries this movement would gain a huge following and leaders who successfully twisted and radicalized Augun’s vision, leading to a disastrous civil war in 118th century.
Trade path of Kamus
Dornia is situated between three powerful nations – Tamir, Principalities and Inginia, each in good relations with each other. And while Inginia and Tamir always had a straightforward sea trade route between them, Principalities and Tamir experienced difficulties in reaching each other. Either it had to be a long sea rout through Midland sea into the Memorial sea or a very dangerous adventure on land from Midland port to Krasan harbor.
It was in Dornia’s interest to create conditions for Principalities and Tamir to trade with each other through its territory and the honor of solving this problem belonged to Kamus Longer who was a keeper of treasury of Dornia in 115th century.
He offered to build six castles on equal distance between each other from Midland port to Krasan harbor. Each castle would hold a large garrison whose duty would be to constantly patrol the areas between the castles and to offer protection to foreign merchants and travelers who wouldn’t mind spending extra coin.
Creation of the Trade path of Kamus had two goals in mind. First of all, the patrols between the castles would clear out monsters and intercept the undead who often roam too far from the Fields of the damned. This made the Norther regions of the kingdom much safer to live in. Secondly, the taxation and guard services provided by the garrisons created a steady income to the royal treasury, which by calculation of Kamus would fully cover the expenses of the constructions in less than forty years.
It took 36 years to build all six castles before they were usable and it caused a heavy pressure on the treasury. But as the history showed – the risk was worth the effort and to this day Trade path of Kamus serves Dornia, Tamir, Principalities and other nations who have access to Midland sea as the only relatively safe land passage through the Eastern Karandia.
For this achievement Kamus Longer was honored with a statue in the main corridor of Dorna. Sadly he didn’t long enough to see it himself.
The Great purge and the civil war of Dornia
Historians of modern age argue to this day about the personality of Augun Fardison, author of the book “Purifying light of truth” and unofficial creator of Purifying light cult. In his book he wished to see all forms of magic being banned from study and use, but in his works he never made direct connections between magic itself and civilized races who happened to have magical abilities as part of their nature.
After Augun’s book became popular and got in hands of Palima’s court he lost his position and privileges. After that he became a naturalist and for his entire life never accepted any connection between his book and the rising cult of Purifying light. This fact didn’t bother the followers as their leaders took over his ideas and kept updating, twisting and radicalizing them for many decades after he disappeared from the public view.
While his original book was just a collection of personal opinions of one angry man and a lot of questions in it were open for interpretation, new literature, written by overly-zealous haters of magic and presented as if Augus was their author, had these questions answered in a direct way – magic itself was deemed heresy and any creature who uses it was a heretic too. Naturally or not.
Starting from 116th century Dornia grew more and more hostile to representatives to any other races by human. Increasing number of elves, fairies and dryads became targets of cultists who shamed them for being who they were. Inactivity of the rulers allowed the cult to grow to dangerous proportions. Trade with Maledia was completely compromised, countless people had to migrate from Dornia, especially from the Southern regions which were affected the most.
Only by the end of 117th century Dirnia’s government began taking measures at suppressing the cult. Many churches had been forcefully closed in Palima and Dorna. Followers of the cult were forbidden from service at Krasan harbor, Midland port and garrisons of the Trade path of Kamus.
The tension grew to dangerous degree and exploded in the beginning of 118th century when the new king came to power. Young Peten I was a follower of the church himself and sought to fulfil its dogmas through his rule.
In just the first month of his ruling, king Peten I forced through several radical laws, a period that was later called the great purge. All non-human races had been declared out-of-law and stripped off Dornia citizenship and protection - every citizen was granted a right to hurt and even kill them on sight without any consequences. All magic schools had been closed and known mages were hunted down by freshly organized order of witch-hunters. Streets of cities and towns turned into battlefields where fanatics of the church clashed with citizens who opposed these laws. Even the army fell apart and began taking sides.
The chaos of civil war caused massive destructions and casualties but it lasted for only one year. The war ended when one of the generals, whose name had been erased from history and who was loyal to the king at the beginning of his ruling, slain him right on his thrown. The general made this decision after his wife had been wrongfully accused in witchcraft and killed by the cultists.
Three kings who ruled after Peten I tried to eradicate the Purifying light church by force but each of them died under mysterious circumstances before they could deal any real damage. It was clear that the church’s root spread deep within the entire kingdom and forceful removal was no longer possible. Fourth king, Alem II, decided to act in a more diplomatic way and to try and find a compromise. A meeting with leaders of the church had been organized and on it both sides signed so called Alem’s pact, in which the kingdom had been separated into two zones of influence. On the South the cult could freely practice their traditions but on the North its activity was strictly limited.
Since 118th century to this day Purifying light church still exists, strong and influential. They have their own army of paladins and even created their own spiritual capitol – Citadel of light. To the credit of church leaders, they strictly enforce the Alem’s pact and the North of Dornia is considered more or less free from their activists. Representatives of the non-human races could once again gain citizenship of Dornia, live and work in its Northern territories.
But unfortunately the memory of the great purge never gone away and each time a new monarch sits on the throne, the entire kingdom tenses in dread – will the monarch keep the church in check or will the Alem’s pact be lifted and the church gains freedom to act once again. Only time will tell.