[center][b][u]Myths and Legends[/u][/b][/center]
[hider=How Magic Came To Be]
[indent]In the beginning was darkness and the void. Nothingness but from which a spark erupted, creating those that would become the gods. Their names and identities shifted and morphed over the long millenia. So too, did their creations, the humans, who rose up to build great cities and civilizations. 

The ancient empire, Pazhiq sought to prove their faith the greatest of those across any land. Their emperor, Qa’Noreen, subsisted on nought but honey and water for a year. Each day, he submitted himself to the will of the gods, that they should see his fervor and faith and bless him and his people beyond all others. At the end of the year, with his faith having stayed true even as his closest friends and allies turned on him and his empire beginning to crumble, the gods answered. Qa’Noreen, the first Diviner, the first of man to be gifted with magic. 

Given power over the elements, over the bodies and minds of men and creature, Qa’Noreen used his power to vanquish those that had become his enemies. It seemed that a new era of peace and prosperity was to begin. Yet as his empire grew, so did his dissatisfation. Where once he proclaimed himself an instrument of the gods, he now himself as an equal. The gift that the gods had given had soured in the hands of mere mortals. 

But rather than remove their gift from the world, the gods looked to teach both Qa’Noreen and humanity a lesson. The emperor’s daughter, Lasharae received the gods’ touch. The woman had become a priestess many years previous and had long felt ashamed by the monster her father had become. The gods had their champion, people flocked to Lasharae’s banner and open rebellion broke out. While men on both sides fought and died, father and daughter dueled for supremacy. The gods, however, had made it so neither had an advantage in power. 

Unaware of this, Lasharae and Qa’Noreen battled for a week straight, neither sleeping nor eating. As their armies began to falter and their own strength drained, they each went for a killing blow. Each succeeded, and an explosion the likes of which had never been seen marked the location for all eternity. Bawara, as it was called in ancient days, where the mortal gods did battle and died. A crater still marks the location. 

Magic did not die that day, however. Instead, it flourished. The explosion did not just kill, but sent the gods’ gift out in a wave, touching those with good hearts and true intentions. No man or woman could ever be as powerful or control so much as the first Diviners had. To use the powers, humanity would need to work together. The gods found this to be a grand joke, and left their creation to struggle on.[/indent][/hider]
[hider=The 200 Year War]
[indent]Little is known of the War itself, except for its ending the beginning of 500 years of relative peace and prosperity beneath the guiding hands of the Emperor and Mihra. What is known, is that before the Empire and before the War, there were no Mihra and many kingdoms claimed the land of Terlayne. Magic existed in ways no current Terlayners could dare imagine. Powerful mages rose up, without the deadly cost, without the limitations. Each kingdom handled magic and mages in their own way, some ruled by the mages, some subjugated them, others had something closer to a true alliance. The powers gained, it is said, came from ever increasing ties between the mages and the old gods. Varying from kingdom to kingdom, hundreds of gods were worshiped in these days. 

Wars were common, and mages were used sparingly in offensive matters. Until the uprising, as some believe was the original catalyst. A small kingdom that foreswore all magic and its use. Those born with an innate talent were exiled, sometimes killed. At the same time, there was an increasing movement across kingdom borders from the mages themselves. They were better than those without their talents, they were more powerful, they should rule. That small kingdom was the first to fall of many. If all of mage-dom had accepted those beliefs, the world might have had a chance. But there were those who disagreed, or those who came to disagree with who would lead the mages in their utopia. 

Cities were laid to waste, farmlands destroyed for generations to come, hundreds of thousands died in the battles, in the fallout, from disease and despair. The heightened lifestyle that magic had allowed for only brought the population lower when it was ripped out from under them. Nothing seemed able to end the vicious war. With each passing generation, rivalries and rebellions became more frequent in all sides. The world seemed set to rip itself asunder beneath the weight of death and destruction. Earthquakes rocked the earth, the shorelines were ravaged by intense storms, there were blizzards in the midst of heat waves. But no peace could be found, the war had gone too long, the destruction too much to set aside. 

Until the Mihra arrived. The stories say they locked away the old gods, that the magic had been tainted and turned its users mad, like a contagion infecting even those without any ability. They cleansed magic, but not without severely limiting it and its users. With the madness wiped away, peace was possible. The earth quieted in response and time came to rebuild. The history of life before the war was gone, completely or near enough. The history of the war is told in stories, the veracity of the stories highly questionable. The Mihra are said to keep an old tome that includes the few remaining histories and an accounting of the war, but none outside of the highest ranks are said to know its contents.[/indent][/hider]