The Era of a Thousand Petty Kings

Upon the conclusion of the Great Peace the human leadership was left without a clear goal. The leaders of the humans met on the former island of Elba and made the last agreement they would make. They tore down most of the old capital and renamed the island Haathor. They then began to bicker and dispute over who would hold what and slowly people began to leave the grand army. The first king of the Thousand Petty Kings was King (formerly Duke) Stru of Gaul. His leaving of the expedition led to the leaving of all the lords, one at a time until only Godfrey of Bouillon remained, holding his new city of Haathor.

 

The divided lords split and fissured further over the years until there was almost a thousand petty kings in the former Empire of Ternum, which the Humans took as the name for the continent as a whole. The humans began to formalise their worship with the Oracles.

 

The Oracles are the priests of the average human. Their faith, often simply called The Worship of the Old North Gods. The Oracles were said to commune with the Gods of the human’s ancestors from back when they lived in the far north, past the sea. Worship itself was highly personal, with family rituals and death rites. The only times the Oracles came together with the general populous was for either divination, where people made sacrifices to the gods to get advice on the future and the right course of action, the most prestigious was the Oracle of Caria. Allegedly the last free King of Magnabruk, Philip II consulted the Oracle asking would be unify the Thousand Petty Kings, the Oracle replies:"""The Bull is crowned"" All is done"" The Sacrificer is ready"" All will fall at his feet"''' '''

Philip thought that this was great, the Kings were the bull, he was the sacrificer. In reality the CAM unified the kings, not Philip, he was the bull, not the sacrificer. The other occasion was for major religious festivals, where they led prayers and public revelry. The most popular festival was (and remains) Muneriafest. It was a festival to the goddess Muneria, who is the goddess of revelry and the perversion of tradition. On her festival for a week people abandon social customs and begin to drink and party for the week, electing Queens of Muneria, who decided the drinking games.

 

The former Empire of Ternum was devastated and after the Great Peace they rallied behind Fabius. Fabius brought the many elven peoples together and drew his sword, plunging it into the ground, he declared that he would not raise this sword against another elf so long as he lived, this display of goodness led for the leader of the Drow, Marcus Vipsanius Agrippa to do likewise, just like that the Elven Confederacy was born. The Elven confederacy was weak, even their crack units barely outnumbered the neighbouring humans, who were clearly more battle hardened. The elves fortified the mountains, creating a time for growth within the EC. They took in the thousands of elven refugees who fled the mistreatment by the humans, slowly swelling the Elven population as time goes on.

As the years went by kings rose and fell, there seemed to be a balance of power between the kings, limiting everyone's expansion. This changed with the rise of the CAM, who unified their kingdom and surrounding kingdoms with the use of superior technology. They fought several major battles which turned the tide of war and led to the end of the era with the declaration of the Corporate Charter.