Added the codex entries for the Winter War and the Mythshan Empire. With these entries complete, I can now move onto into more recent history. The events after the Great Gates of Waldenkore closed.

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[hider=The Winter War]

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The initial battle was a three-way bloodbath. The Kurgans fared better than the Altians, their anti-magic equipment serving well to quickly dispose of the new Shotum threat. Nevertheless, the Shotum were strong, and they had been physically altered by the mana to be taller and faster than a normal human. Some had turned into horrors that didn't even resemble a human at all. It wasn't long that the Kurgans and Altians set aside their differences to unite against the Shotum threat. Even with the new alliance, the Sultan of the Dominion still demanded the Altians abolished their battle mages, and forfeited all arcane artifacts to be destroyed. The king refused, and continued to employ spellswords and wizards on the battlefield against the Shotum. This refusal continued to work against the alliance, as the Kurgans couldn't reliably fight alongside the Altians without negating their ally's magic. As the Winter War carried on, the Altians continued to lose ground without the anti-magic capability of the Kurgans. And the Kurgans were quickly becoming overwhelmed without support from the Altian battle mages.

It took the courage of an Altian general to defy his king, and forego the use of magic. The general would instead purchase advanced weapons of war from the Mythshan Empire to replace the battlemages. The general would then use the agreement to forfeit magic as a bargaining chip to obtain Kurgan anti-magic weapons and armor. The general's name was Lupus Walden, the man whom the city of Waldenkore is named after. Thanks to Walden's cooperation with the Kurgans, the two empires managed to push the Shotum back into the deep north. Unfortunately, any attempt to go further and destroy the wellspring was viciously repelled. Unless a solution could be thought of quickly, all humanity would be able to do is watch the world end in ice. The remainder of the Kurgan army and Walden’s forces were merged under Walden’s leadership. This army consisting of two nations did well to mend the wounds dealt between the Dominion and Altioc. When more Kurgans arrived in Altioc, they weren’t there as enemies; rather, they were there as allies to find back the Shotum hordes.

General Walden was not a stagnant man, however, and he couldn’t bear to watch humanity sit and wait for their cold demise. Walden proposed a plan: Humanity would band together, and apply their combined knowledge to survive the ice age until a time would come when the Wellspring could be closed, and the world would be given a chance to recuperate its lost mana. Walden spoke of a vast cavern, joined by dozens of tunnels below Altioc. It would be possible to build a city underground, using the heat from underground lakes of lava, and geothermal vents, to outlast the cold. The Kurgans didn’t initially agree to the plan. Rather, they continued to send soldiers into Shotum territory to try and close the Wellspring before the planet got colder. The Kurgans sallied forth into Shotum territory for over a year, but as the ice age settled in, the expeditions ended up getting shorter and shorter. Reluctantly, the Kurgans abandoned the effort, and joined the Altians in their attempt to create the underground city. Despite the combined effort, development of the city was slow. The Kurgans refused to use magic to help build, which resulted in lost time with physical labor. The Altians, while adept with magic, had to focus their mages on the war against the growing Shotum menace. General Walden’s army was repurposed to solely guard the underground city during its construction in case the Shotum broke through. The best men both the Kurgans and the Altians could muster, would keep the city safe at all costs. Walden knew that by the time the city was complete, the Shotum would have overrun them long before. Walden dispatched his fastest messengers, and sought out the help of the Mythshan Empire.
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[hider=The Mythshan Exodus]

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The Mythshan Empire was south of Altioc, beyond the Jin Quoh Desert. The land was mostly mountainous, with a handful of valleys which acted as borders between the Mythshan provinces. As Arkadia destabilized and descended into the ice age, the Mythshan empire saw the effects first. Before long, the Mythshan empire descended into a never-ending night, and temperatures were colder than anywhere in the civilized world. Prophets of the Mythshan faith believed it to be the wrath of their divine emperor as punishment for years of internal strife and civil war. The Emperor knew otherwise, he had attended the hearing with the Kurgan emissary all those years ago, and decided to keep the truth hidden from his people. To the Mythshan, the Emperor was divine, and drunk with that superstition. He preferred the nation believing that he was demonstrating his power, rather than be seen helpless in the face of the apocalypse. The provinces had risen in revolt long before the ice age began to set in. The people were unhappy of the emperor’s rule, and dared to challenge his divine might.

Walden sought out the Mythshan Empire because of their reputation for stone masonry. With the majority of the Mythshan Empire being in and on mountains, the people had come to use their magic to mold, shape, and animate stone. The Mythshan built some of the strongest fortresses and buildings in the world, just what Walden’s city would need to outlast the ice age and the Shotum onslaught. As the Mythshan Empire warred with itself, they also developed weapons to be able to destroy such fortifications. There were one of the most advanced nations on Arkadia, and their help would be crucial if Walden’s city was to be built on time. The emperor agreed, but only under the condition that him and his loyal subjects were secured a place in the city when the gates closed. With little time to spare, the messenger spoke on behalf of Walden, and allowed the emperor entry. In turn, the emperor addressed his nation, telling the people that the world was freezing over, by his divine command of course, and that it was too late to stop it. He offered an ultimatum to the rebelling provinces, pledge loyalty and survive, or freeze in cold darkness. People desperate to survive followed their emperor north to Altioc, while the rebels who didn’t pledge loyalty remained to die.

The emperor brought his armies, and better yet, had called upon his magi to animate the legions of Terracotta Soldiers to fend off the Shotum while the Mythshan architects worked. The citizens of the Mythshan Empire were happy enough to travel further from the south. Some had almost forgotten what light from the sun looked like, no matter how dim it had gotten. The abandonment of the empire was known as the Mythshan Exodus, and it added over twenty million souls to the city’s population; far more than what was anticipated by Walden and his messenger. Walden became concerned about food stores, and space.  They would need a plan. Unbeknownst to Walden, and the Mythshan people, the Divine Emperor already had one. When the architects finished molding the cavern into a working city of stone, the project was considered complete, and humanity began to pour through its great gates. The Kurgans were uncomfortable at first, that the city was crafted out of magic, but understood the necessity. Just mere weeks before the city’s completion, the Altian King had succumbed to the cold, and appointed Walden as his successor. Altioc followed Walden without complaint into the city. The remnants of the Triarchan Republic had arrived, and their bad blood with the Kurgans created tension in the stone streets. The Mythshan Terracotta formed defensive lines outside the four great gates of the city, and remained vigilant. The Emperor had his architects for a great palace deep in the city for him, and proclaimed himself the ruler of this new city. This self-proclamation was met with great disdain, and once again, the emperor faced a rebellion. This time, in the streets of humanity’s last bastion.
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