A Brief History of Icengale

Before Icengale there was Alaris, a world that is as different from Icengale as night is from day. Alaris was a tropical world that was much closer to the sun and had a roughly 300-day year. Lizardfolk were the dominant race on the planet. Other races existed but their civilizations were generally tiny and scattered. The lizardfolk, known as the Sarai, worshiped the Goddess Sarantha. Other Gods and Goddesses, known as the Alarin, existed but they were all minor demi-powers.

The reign of the lizard folk lasted for nearly 10,000 years. During that time the achieved much, creating a single, world-spanning empire similar in technology and achievement to that of the Roman empire of Earth. This empire, however, eventually stagnated. The Sarai had achieved much but instead of achieving more they chose to rest on their laurels. Eventually the other races started to grow and expand. They learned much from the Sarai but learned more on their own. Naturally push came to shove and soon there was war. For a thousand years the lesser races fought against the Sarai. This was not a single war, but a series of wars here and there that saw the Empire of the Sarai broken and fractured. This, too, led to another uprising, that of the Gods.

The lesser powers of Alaris saw the weakening of the Sarai as a weakening of the Goddess Sarantha. Thus was started the Divine Uprsising. A select few Deities chose to remain neutral but the majority of them chose sides, dividing along lines that equated to North and South on the planet. Very little is known of this war as it was fought beyond the ken of mortal men. However, the war did spill over into the real world, and the result was devastating. The Deities altered the world until it became the world what it is today. This, of course, did not happen overnight. It took hundreds of years. During this time the orbit of the planet shifted, one of the planet's two moons was nearly lost and thrown into a much larger orbit, and the great glacier started to form. Eventually the war stagnated and a truce was called.

The Divine Aftermath saw Sarantha reduced to a minor power. She had invested much of her power into protecting and saving her Children from the climate change and in her place stood the handful of Gods and Goddesses who had remained neutral. They were now all Major Powers in their own right, as were some on either side of the war. As it stands now the neutral gods are worshiped on both sides of the world, as is Sarantha. Those who remained loyal are worshiped in the North and those who rose up are worshiped in the South. All the Gods and Goddesses have had to expand their spheres of influence to fill in the gaps left by those who "left" the pantheon.

Today the Sarai are a shadow of their former selves. Most have reverted to a state of tribal barbarism. Some, though, cling to their heritage and there are still pockets of civilized Sarai around the world. Almost universally the Sarai have shunned arcane magic. Those few who practice it tend to be outcasts or short lived. One exception is a black-skinned race on the Southern side that dwell in the Mrax Desert. Their skill with magic is legendary.

The world is definitely a Points of Light type of a world, with many isolated kingdoms and city states throughout the world. The power of the lesser races has greatly exceeded that of the Sarai but they have never been able to unite as a single unified power. The upheaval of the world that gave rise to them also gave rise to the monster races of the world. Most of them might not be as advanced as the other races, but many of them have greatly flourished. The safest means of travel in the world is by sea. Of course, safest is a relative term as even the seas have their own perils. Travel overland is often dangerous, with roads generally being nothing more than horse trails. Within a kingdom the roads are better maintained and wide enough to handle cart traffic. Some paved roads do exist, but these are extremely rare and are just as likely to be remnants of the Sarai Empire as they are to be new. Even with roads travel within kingdoms can be dangerous. Major towns and cities are scattered and isolated, most of them having existed before the kindgoms formed or situated in strategic locations, either military or economic.

Trade is what unites the world today. Many parts of the world have resources that are unique only to that part of the world. For example, for some strange reason pears will only grow on Perryn Island. Well, that is not totally true. Pear trees have been cultivated in other lands, but they have always grown up stunted and produced fruit that was small, bitter, and nothing like real pears. Major trade routes crisscross the world, usually hugging the shores, sometimes branching out across the waters to reach isolated islands, and sometimes cutting across land to reach inland communities or to bypass unfriendly areas.

Merchants on both sides of the world tend to congregate around the Icen Channel, waiting for the biennial thawing of the Icen Channel. On both sides of the channel are merchant cities devoted to the storage of trade goods. Most of these trade goods are naturally of a non-perishable nature, but a few wizard-merchants have storage facilities devoted to the preservation of perishable goods. Merchandise from the other side of the world tends to stay relatively close to the Icen Channel region, but some goods do make their way around the world. These items are highly sought after and while they might be well known their origin is often shrouded in mystery. For example, people living in one part of the world might be familiar with Tokai Sake and know that it is an alcohol made from rice but they have no idea where or what Tokai might be.