Alright, spent an hour writing all of this, so if you don't like it you better be nice about it. I haven't proof read it yet, so there might be some glaring grammatical errors. I will fix these later, after I've relaxed my aching brain.
Eblistan – The Rise and Fall of an Empire
The Westwind Invasion: Eblistan can trace its roots back to a thousand years ago, when the mighty Khans of North Olcra landed upon the western shores of Eulona with an army bred to conquer. Driven by lust for glory and conquest, these savage yet courageous warriors waged a decade long campaign against Eulona’s inhabitants. In this time entire Kingdoms were felled, millions of people lost their lives, and the land was laid to waste by the innumerable Khanate war machines.
Eventually, the Khans were brought to heel as their armies outreached their supply trains, and disease riddled their ranks. Though they had tried to replenish their losses from members of those they had conquered, the willingness of these conscripts was questionable, and before long the Khans were struggling to field enough men against a revived and formidable native resistance. One by one, each of the great Khans fell to the hands of their amassed adversaries, until only the last remained: Ebli Khan.
Realising that he had lost everything in his gamble to stake a claim over Eulona, Ebli Khan sought to cut his losses before his shame consumed his future. Retreating to the western coast, he attempted to evacuate himself and his troops away from Eulona, but found the Khanate navy had fled following news of the recent defeats. Cornered by the legions of Eulona, Ebli Khan made his stand with his back to the white froth of the Western Sea.
Though outnumbered five to one, Ebli was a supreme tactician, and his heavy use of mounted cavalry archers proved critical in driving back the hordes of his would-be killers. Again and again, the armies of Eulona crashed against his spear walls, all the while they were hit in the flanks by hundreds of horse archers. By the time they called a halt to their endeavours, Ebli had turned the endless fields of green red with blood, and his army had suffered little. Had the other Khans, as courageous as they were, relied as much as he on the horse archer, then perhaps their children would have ruled Eulona to this day.
Realising that they could not keep up the tenacity of their attack, the armies of Eulona eventually withdrew. Ebli, trapped between aggressive neighbours ever seeking revenge, and the vast expanse of the Western Sea, decided that perhaps he could still make a claim to the land. And so it was, that eleven years after the Khans of Olcra attempted to conquer Eulona the first permanent Khanate was established.
Ebli Khan, Duranar’s Chosen: Ebli Khan’s incredible victories earned the eternal devotion of what remained of his peoples on Eulona. Thousands, trapped behind enemy lines, made the long and perilous voyage to join him at his newly established base camp in the former Elven city of Evergreen. In honour of his tribe way back across the Western Seas, Ebli renamed the city Baalor (literal translation from Olcran to the common tongue: World Breakers).
Seeing that his enemies had become weakened through their failed campaign to push him off the continent, Ebli, ever resourceful and ever cunning, launched a second attempt to conquer the land.
Using the superior mobility of his widely horse-mounted army, he was first able to defeat the High Elves of Nillanor at the battle of Crystal Glade, which opened the bloody gateway to the East. Panicking that the Khan would be able to repeat his success against the Dwarves to the south, Eulona’s peoples once again unified themselves under a single banner.
Men, Elves, Dwarves, Gnomes and other races came together to form several mighty war hosts. They poured across Ebli’s borders from multiple directions, and it seemed that the great warrior had finally run his luck dry. It was here however, in his darkest hour, that it is said he was visited by Duranar – The Olcra’s Deity, the Lord of All, and told he would go on to claim a great victory.
Inspired by his divine vision, Ebli launched himself at the Eulonans. Rather than waiting for their multiple armies to converge on him, he struck one after another, obliterating them through superior tactics. Eventually, after a year-long war, the armies of the Elves and the Dwarves were permanently broken, and both races suffered atrocious casualties. The Oclrans on the other hand, had sustained losses that they were able to replace, and so once again Ebli went on the offensive.
Reconquering Nillanor, and putting the Elves to the sword, he struck south and destroyed the Dwarven Kingdom of Irongarde. His victories sent shockwaves through the defeated continent, and his beaten enemies rallied once more to defy him. Again, Duranar is said to have visited the Khan, and declared him ‘the Prophet of Truth’. He was tasked by Duranar’s divine authority to vanquish all those of Eulona that would not convert to his worship. Ebli Khan’s war of survival and military conquest, therefore became a Holy War almost overnight.
With inexhaustible energy and vigour, Ebli Khan’s army pressed across the land. He championed every force that arose to stop him, no matter the power of its commander, or the strength of its warriors. These string of victories eventually led to the Khan holding ownership of over two thirds of the entire continent. All races bended the knee to him, and all had dropped their false pagan beliefs in favour of Duranarism.
For the remainder of his life, Ebli became less war-focused, and more pious. He retired to the city of Baalor, where he ordered for the construction of a mighty monument to Duranar along the western coast. He also issued strict orders that this was to be the place of his internment, when Duranar finally called him home to the Undying Promised Land.
Though no longer seeking to dull his blade on the lifeblood of his enemies, Ebli’s rule was by no means soft. Strict Duranistic Law was implemented; crimes of all manners, whether it was theft, murder, rape or adultery were punishable by death. The populations under his control were enforced to practice worship of Duranar, or face summary execution as non-believers.
He had been titled The Prophet of Truth, and was entrusted by Duranar, or so he claimed, to spread the word of the true faith no matter the cost. “Duranar,” he proclaimed, “will look after his own.” Thus began the ‘Great Cleansing’, where thousands of people were put to the sword for the slightest suspicions of harbouring false beliefs, or for questioning the Duranaristic Doctrine.
Eventually, at the ripe age of 80, the Khan perished to a fever. Before his passing however, he had written the words Duranar had conveyed to him over the years in the Book of Truth, or ‘Bak’Rah’, in Olcran tongue. This book was to serve as Eblistan’s religious ideology for centuries to come.
Eblistan Sultanate: Ebli had many sons and daughters; therefore his bloodline was secure. The first ruler of his lands, was Mazar Ebli, the Prophet’s first son. Mazar was a well educated fellow, and lacked his father’s will for bloodshed, but was also devotedly pious when it came to the worship of the Lord of All. He ordered a great city built around the monument his father had made to Duranar – the construction cost the Khanate the extent of its coffers, but it was a grand construction.
High walls, neat squares of buildings and wide roads, it became the Jewel of the West. In honour of his father, Mazar named the city “Eblistan’s Rest”. From here he ruled his peoples with an iron fist, taxing them heavily so that he could raise more monuments to the Lord of All. Realising he could no longer rule the extent of his various lands by himself, he divided the regions and placed them under the control of trusted generals. He named himself the Sultan of Eblistan, and Supreme Ruler of “All that Duranar has created”.
The Age of Regicide: Centuries passed, and the Eblistan Sultanate’s power waxed and waned with the appointment of each new Sultan. The far east of Eulona by this time had managed to consolidate itself into the United Realms of the Free Peoples (URFP); the Sultans of Eblistan had failed in this time to bring the URFP to heel, and before long, they faced a serious military threat.
Sultan Amar II, the 18th Sultan of Eblistan, attempted to end this problem before it became too large to handle. He marched Eblistan’s armies East, but his campaign was a spectacular failure, and the URFP’s legions were able to defeat him comprehensively at The Battle of Bluewater. With no army left to defend Eblistan, or to keep its inhabitants in order, revolts erupted across the Sultanate.
Returning home, chased closely by the URFP’s counter offensive, Sultan Amar II was murdered by his own beloved Sultana, (Meri of Nillanor), who then took to the throne in a skilful coup. The first female ruler, and an Elf no less, Meri’s rule was short lived. Unable to raise a loyal army to her cause, and beset upon by all sides from the URFP’s invading legions, and a revolting populace, she herself was murdered in her chambers by her own bodyguards.
Sultan Kevlar I ‘The Half Man’, Amar’s and Meri’s only child, took to the crown. Though only 16 years of age, he was fiercely intelligent, and was able to rework Eblistan’s fortunes. Gathering up a citizen’s militia of ‘True Belivers’, he quickly put the revolting provinces to the sword, before wheeling on the legions of the URFP. He broke them at the Battle of Nillanor, but lacked the resources or manpower to push the initiative. For the next fifty years, an uneasy truce existed between the two nations.
As Kevlar I died of ripe old age, he had made a vital flaw. Fearing his eldest son, a simple minded and blood thirsty thug by the name of Prince Oban Ebli, he divided the Eblistan Saltante between his three offspring. This merely created a crippling civil war, as brother fought brother, tearing the Sultane asunder.
The URFP took advantage, and soon, its legions were pouring across the land. Kevlar’s children perished in their own walled up cities, and the Sultanate was left without a ruler. All the while, the URFP’s forces gathered outside the ancient walls of Baalor. With no army left to defend her, the Eblistan Sultanate looked ready to fall into the oblivion of Eulona’s bloodied history.
The Sadek Caliphate: As the city of Baalor was besieged, and the peoples of Duranar despaired at their imminent doom, an unlikely saviour arose in the form of a prominent Oman (Duranistic Preist). Declaring himself Duranar’s Chosen, this Oman by the name of Sadiir Sadek, grasped the crown though others attempted to bar his way.
Commanding the loyalty of his peoples through the announcement of divine visions, he was able to marshal Eblistan’s forces for one final counter attack. The Battle of Baalor was intense, as it was costly. Tens of thousands of lives were lost over a three month period, and the URFP was undone – yet so too was Eblistan’s unyielding strength. Reeling from the horrendous losses of the campaign, Sadiir Sadek looked to fortify the position of his peoples around the grand city of Eblistan, where they would be able to endure future foreign aggression.
The URFP, having lost most of its troops, and its people weary of the constant war, simply dissolved into the many minor states that it was composed of. This more or less destroyed the direct threat to Eblistan’s survival, prompting Sadiir Sadek to press for a diplomatic end to the war. The various leaders of the newly liberated former states of the Eblistan Sultanate agreed to the Oman’s terms of ‘mutual compassion’, aimed at the various sides in the conflict consciously forgetting their bloodied pasts. It was a vain peace, but it was still peace, and for a hundred more years Eblistan stood as a bastion of strength.
Sadiir Sadek, prior to his death, declared Eblistan Citadel as Duranar’s City – a place of piety, compassion and peace. Eblistan transformed from a Sultanate to a religious Caliphate; the harsh forms of Duranaristic Law were watered down to create room for tolerance and softer justice. Though this was met by resistance from Eblistan’s established religious patriarchy, it was effectively implemented. Power was centralised around the Sadek bloodline, and these new religious leaders would go on to rule Eblistan to the present day.
Eblistan Citadel, Present Day: Far removed from its warlike past, Eblistan Citadel is mostly a place of learning, peace and philosophy. Though Duranarism still holds sway in the religious community, it has been blunted by constant reinterpretations of Ebli’s Bak’Rah.
Militarily, Eblistan is an exhausted force. Constantly threatened by the Elves of Nillanor, who still hold grudges against the Caliphate, there are incessant sparring matches between Eblistani mamluks and Elven rangers on the borderlands. The ruins of Baalor are frequently contested between Nillanor and Eblistan, and from time to time the two nations sign peace treaties that alleviates things for a short while. For the most part however, Eblistan is safe behind its high walls and mounting riches stemming from its mastery of the coast.
For the last few decades, things have been relatively peaceful, and no large wars of been fought in Eulona. The peoples are very much tired of such things, and strive to rebuild all that was lost. Though many, especially the longer lived races, still hold bitter feelings towards Eblistan and all the historic misery it represents – despite its recent progressive nature.
From the Great Palace of Duranar, a central grand fortification in Eblistani Citadel, Caliph Bazar Sadek rules his nation with cautious respect for his neighbours. He tries tirelessly to win a lasting peace with the Elves, and to strength trade ties with the Dwarves in the south. He, like many other monarchs, lacks the taste for war and is unwilling to press Eblistan’s borders further into contested territories. This has earned some anger from the prominent warrior castes of his peoples, who feel that Eblistan should at the least reclaim its original historical regional borders that end at the dilapidated forts of Lusil, Akhos and Ahya.
EDIT: I can of course make concessions to the whereabouts of nations, or their names. I just literally had to invent a world lore by myself, and I felt if I had to keep stopping to ask questions it wouldn't ever get done. So if your character's origin stands in stark contrast with the lore, just let me know and I'll see what I can do. Be patient though, this was far from an easy stroll through the park and I'd like people to show respect, rather than go "RAHRARHAHRAHRAHR IF YOU READ MY CHARACTER SHEET YOU WILL CLEARY SEE BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH HOW DARE YOU BLAH BLAH BLAH"
SECOND EDIT: I can also make maps of places like Nillanor and Irongarde upon request. These are actually quite easy to make, so I don't mind doing it. Other places too I could make, if given descriptions to work from.
