Working on the History of Arkadia, this will most likely be the most time consuming part of the world building process. I will share what I have finished thus far. It includes information on the time before Arkadia entered its Ice Age, and the empires and events that were prominent during that time.

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[hider=History and Notable Events]
[hider=Before the Ice]
[img]https://www.artsfon.com/large/201408/2035.jpg[/img]

Arkadia was once a thriving green world. Every corner of the planet was graced with the powerful sun, and life flourished because of it. Humanity was everywhere on Arkadia, sprouting into vast empires and developing their own unique cultures and beliefs. Sources of magic were abundant on Arkadia, and all nations, save for the Kurgan Dominion, wielded it in some way. It was thanks to this magic that humanity had expanded and thrived on Arkadia. At the time, magic was a convenience of life. But nobody, save for the Kurgan people, foresaw the doom it would bring about with its continued use. But the Kurgans' warnings fell on deaf ears, after all, who would forfeit their quality of life? The other grand empires of Arkadia denounced the Kurgans, and mocked them as primitives for willingly forgoing the use of magic. The beginnings of the Winter War would surface when the Kurgan Dominion outlawed magic, and went as far as sending inquisitors to arrest or kill foreign magi visiting the Dominion.

[hider=Ancient Nations]
Among the hundreds of lesser kingdoms on Arkadia, five grand nations stood over the rest. The Mythshan Empire, the Kurgan Dominion, the Altioc Empire, the Triarchan Republic, and the Shotum Clan. 

[hider=The Kurgan Dominion]
[img]https://www.shiizm.ru/sites/default/files/user/2/01.2016/7994947.jpg[/img]

Arkadia's landscape before the ice age was diverse. Running along the equator was the great Jerulan Desert, ruled over by the Kurgan Dominion. The Kurgans were a mostly nomadic people, with only a few major permanent cities dotting the landscape of the Jerulan Desert. Kurgans made their fortune by trading, with whole communities living in massive trade caravans that moved along the border of the Dominion. Kurgans were also great craftsmen, as they did not rely upon magic to build your structures or tools. Everything in Kurgan society felt precious since it was hand made. This, in turn, made Kurgan goods highly sought out by other empires. Nowhere else in the world could one find weapons or tools as high quality the ones from the Dominion.

But before all that, there was a time when the Kurgans used magic as much as the rest of the world. It all ended when a group of Kurgan miners, digging for precious stones and mana crystals, stumbled upon the ruins of an even more ancient civilization. No names were ever recorded, and this civilization barely exists in any of Waldenkore's records beyond brief mentions. The miners quickly set out to explore the strange catacombs, and came across a tome. The language was oddly familiar to the Kurgan people, and over the course of a few months, the tome was translated. It was discovered that the writer of the tome was a magi, the first magi in fact. It was he who had created mana, and ethereal energy source, that held Arkadia in a stable orbit around the sun. The tome also shed light on the mystery of mana itself, and revealed that it was a finite resource. It explained that while mana could be used and wielded, it should only be a privilege of the few, and never anything more. Mana could replenish itself, but it was a long, slow process.

The High Sultan of the Kurgan Dominion recognized the widespread use of magic, and foresaw its depletion in the coming decades. It was by his royal edict, that magic be outlawed in the dominion. The Sultan then sent out emissaries to the other nations of Arkadia, in an attempt to warn them of their impending apocalypse. The emissaries were either sent back to the dominion with lackluster results, or executed for their perceived words of heresy. When the Sultan heard of the deaths of his most trusted envoys, he sent a warning out to the world. "Any magi to step foot on the sands of the Kurgan Dominion, shall be executed. Any and all magical artifacts will be destroyed, and their owners arrested."

The Sultan even formed an inquisitorial branch in the Kurgan military, consisting of mage hunters equipped with mana defusing weapons and armor. These inquisitors carried out the High Sultan's edict, with lethal efficiency. It wasn't long before the common Kurgan people both respected and feared the inquisitors. And the borders became closed to the rest of the world. The High Sultan knew that, while magic no longer existed in his lands, the rest of the world was rife with it. And so he he began to march his armies across his borders, and started the Kurgan Crusades.
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