Etaliari is a world older than time.
Its story is one of love, loss and guilt, it is of life, death and rebirth.
It is of Three Siblings, separated by fate.
And their children, left alone to rot.
Its story is one of love, loss and guilt, it is of life, death and rebirth.
It is of Three Siblings, separated by fate.
And their children, left alone to rot.
The Creation of Home
How Etaliari came to be has always been a great mystery shrouded in secrets and myths. Many clues left from the Old Home point toward the actual creation of the planet being thanks to the Lonely One, who is referred to in many ancient depictions and ruins as a "maker" and a "creator". The Dragons who hold that scarce knowledge have revealed on numerous occasions that the Lonely One bore this name for a reason; this nameless godly creature came from far away in the Great Beyond, bearing a great sadness in his heart. Like his name suggests, he was lonely. He would have created Etaliari - giving it the name Home in his ancient language - to make a place where he would feel at home, and at peace. And for a while, it did work... Etaliari was prosper with great and advanced civilizations, but now all that remains of them are ruins dotting the lands of the Great Continent. Today, the Lonely One has ceased to exist, and remains only in memory, and in an eternal struggle to survive a dying world...
The Second and third ages
Etaliari's history is divided into three Ages; the First, the Second and the Third. To read more about those specific Ages, see Ikrouk History.
The First Age was before the Great Purification, the Second Age began when the Benevolent One took over Etaliari, and the Third Age began with the rule of the First King, all of this during a period of millions and millions of years of Ikrouk evolution and the world shifting and morphing.
The First Age was before the Great Purification, the Second Age began when the Benevolent One took over Etaliari, and the Third Age began with the rule of the First King, all of this during a period of millions and millions of years of Ikrouk evolution and the world shifting and morphing.
The Celestials and the siblings
The Dragons privy to such ancient knowledge have scarcely entrusted it to a few chosen Ikrouks across many generations, and those Ikrouks have told those stories as legends to their children, who have given it to their children and their children's children. Such is the case for all the legends and myths of Etaliari; whether they are based on facts or are falsified lies told by the Dragons in order to keep the Ikrouks calm, none remain who care to know.
According to the mythos told by the Dragons, the Celestials are creatures of great might and magic, who dwell in the realms between realms. Powerful wizards, they use their might to create or destroy, akin to powerful gods. Our realm is governed by two of them; the siblings Koth and Sarren, the Benevolent One and the Fierce One. Sarren the Fierce One rules over the Great Beyond, and never steps upon Etaliari, nor does he ever look back at it, while Koth the Benevolent One is our Mother and caretaker on Etaliari; she lives at the top of the Ssany Towers, lost in the heavens of the Ssarh'isse Desert, possessed by a great sadness.
According to the mythos told by the Dragons, the Celestials are creatures of great might and magic, who dwell in the realms between realms. Powerful wizards, they use their might to create or destroy, akin to powerful gods. Our realm is governed by two of them; the siblings Koth and Sarren, the Benevolent One and the Fierce One. Sarren the Fierce One rules over the Great Beyond, and never steps upon Etaliari, nor does he ever look back at it, while Koth the Benevolent One is our Mother and caretaker on Etaliari; she lives at the top of the Ssany Towers, lost in the heavens of the Ssarh'isse Desert, possessed by a great sadness.
Koth the Benevolent One
Koth is the only Celestial known to Ikrouk-kind. She is reverred as a great Goddess, a caretaker and a loving parent to their Home, the one who keeps it alive in her brother's absence. The Benevolent One is at the heart of the main religion on Etaliari, and is linked to all the lesser spirits and gods living in its farthest reaches. She is described as a being of pure light, the brightest light that keeps Etaliari and its people out of the darkness of Sorrow. Mother Koth can sometimes be seen drifting across the skies of Home, a distant pale light in the form of a long, elegant dragon with veils for wings. Just as the Ikrouks are the Children of the Lonely One, the Dragons the Children of the Fierce One, Koth, too, has Children of her own; on Etaliari, they appear as her Eyes. Strange creatures akin to sea rays, the Eyes travel all across Etaliari, unaffected by weather or Corruption, in silence and elegance. They often act as benevolent spirits that offer protection to certain areas, or even predictions of things to come. It is said that meeting an Eye on a journey gives good fortune. Anyone shown insulting or giving harm to an Eye will be cursed with misfortune for the rest of their days, so it is told. Some cases have been reported of an Eye performing a miracle, healing illnesses, plagues, and fatal wounds...
Only one country on Etaliari still prays to the Lonely One and sees him as their one and only God, Iznugia, and that has created many conflicts with other countries, even today. Some say this is why the Izn'cks keep themselves isolated on their islands, far from the Great Continent.
Only one country on Etaliari still prays to the Lonely One and sees him as their one and only God, Iznugia, and that has created many conflicts with other countries, even today. Some say this is why the Izn'cks keep themselves isolated on their islands, far from the Great Continent.
Sarren the Fierce One
Not much is known about Sarren the Fierce One, but some communities still pray to him as a God of War of sorts, and he is often whispered to by soldiers, knights and warriors before battles in hopes that he will give his might to their arm. Sarren has fled Etaliari long before the Second Age, and has not stepped back on it since. The only proof that he has a connection at all to the Benevolent and Lonely Ones is through the ancient ruins of the Old Home, with old carvings and runes mentioning his name. According to those ruins, he would have helped his brother build his nation by granting him Dragons, who, in those same runes, were depicted as guardians and protectors. Today, only a handful of Dragons still possess some knowledge about their creator, and they do not share it easily.
The Great Purification
"The Great Purification" is an event that took place eons ago in the history of Etaliari, long after its creation and long before the present day and even longer before the existence of the modern Ikrouk. It is often referenced in the annals of History as being the cataclysm that shaped the world as it is today. The legend goes that the Lonely One used forbidden magic to create his Home, and was therefore punished by bigger and stronger Celestials, who forced his brother, Sarren the Fierce One, to send his own children, the Great Black Dragons, to purge Etaliari of the darkness of the Lonely One. They destroyed everything that had been built under his watch, the civilizations were no more, any technological advances were reverted back to zero, and the Lonely One was no more. His children, left alone.
Their deed done, the Great Black Dragons were ready to leave this world to ashes, but the Benevolent One, the Lonely One's elder sister, in her deep anger and sadness at the loss of her brother, petrified the Great Black Dragons and turned them to stone, forcing them to remain on the surface of the planet and act as guardians, forever watching the world they sought to destroy rise again with life, under her own rule. The Celestials that had punished the Lonely One retreated back whence they came, and Sarren was never heard from again; the common belief is that he is hiding his chagrin at being used by staying as far away from his brother's resting place as possible...
Etaliari was made with love, destroyed by jealousy, and risen again with loss.
Their deed done, the Great Black Dragons were ready to leave this world to ashes, but the Benevolent One, the Lonely One's elder sister, in her deep anger and sadness at the loss of her brother, petrified the Great Black Dragons and turned them to stone, forcing them to remain on the surface of the planet and act as guardians, forever watching the world they sought to destroy rise again with life, under her own rule. The Celestials that had punished the Lonely One retreated back whence they came, and Sarren was never heard from again; the common belief is that he is hiding his chagrin at being used by staying as far away from his brother's resting place as possible...
Etaliari was made with love, destroyed by jealousy, and risen again with loss.
The Corruption of the world
At the start of the Second Age, after the Great Purification, the land was left to heal from its wounds, and over time, life sprouted and celebrated anew upon Etaliari. Home was now under the guidance of the Benevolent One, who, despite her great sorrow, was overjoyed to see the children of her brother survive the calamity of the Great Purification. Over thousands and thousands of years, however, when peace was thought to have returned at last, strange flowers began to appear in certain areas of the land; Crimson Flowers. From the spots where the flowers took roots, a bright and alluring liquid began to erupt, quickly taking solid form and shaping into strange and sharp golden crystals. At first, they were small, and isolated, but as time passed and the world grew, so too did the crystal growths. They began to grow on anything that lived, and all that would be overwhelmed by the alluring smokes of the crystals would eventually die, and turn into what was quickly known as Zara - the Damned.
A new calamity was upon the world, and it came to be known as the Corruption. It seeps into the mind of anything that breathes, destroys it from within, and slowly absorbs the creature’s soul into what came to be called the “Black Sea”. The Black Sea is, according to those who have seen it and come back to tell the tale, a vast lake of darkness. No horizon, no sky, no ground. Some have said that they heard voices coming from the lake, others claimed to have seen spirits float along its surface, while others have reported seeing a creature emerging from the still waters. What that creature is, none could ever describe it, such was its horror. The people were being absorbed into this deep darkness, and not even the Benevolent One could find a way to stop it… until the First King appeared. The First King was a commoner, a farmer, with a heart so big and a will to love so strong that, using ancient knowledge now lost to the world, he willingly went to the heart of the Black Sea, and absorbed it into his heart. The Corruption vanished, and the One With A Heart Of Void became the First King of Etaliari, entering the world into a new era of peace, known as the Third Age.
The Pale Ones and the Monarchs
But alas, no one is immortal, and neither was the First King. He lived for a very long time and prospered, but when came his time to enter the endless sleep and depart for the Abyss, with time, the Corruption reappeared upon the world. Refusing to see it spread upon her new home once more, Mother Koth devised an idea, one that would shape Etaliari’s future for years to come. Much like the way she created her own children, the Eyes, she created strange beings made of light and magic. Using ancient magic privy to the Celestials - magic that some suspect was the same one the Lonely One used when creating Etaliari - Mother Koth infused eggs displaying certain qualities with this light and ancient hidden runes, thus creating what is known today as the Pale Ones. Their bodies served as mere shells to transport a light akin to that of the First King, with hearts so large and bodies so void of anything that they, too, may absorb the Corruption. And that is how Etaliari entered its endless cycle of Life and Death - of Purity and Corruption. As of today, in the year 5750 of the Third Age, eleven Kings and Queens have sat on the throne in the Temple of Kings, each living for five centuries, far longer than any Ikrouk. The current King, Meiroo Isluya, has been alive for far longer than any previous Kings or Queens.
Only one Pale One may exist at any given time, unless a Pale breaks and becomes a Broken Pale One. When hatched, they appear as any other Ikrouk, but with a pure white complexion; even species that bear very dark robes appear as white. In order to become a Monarch, each Pale One must go through a pilgrimage across the whole land of Etaliari, meeting with each of the statues of the Great Black Dragons and praying to their spirits. It is believed that those spirits then give more powers to the Pale One, but no one is really sure what truly happens in those meetings. It happens that, sometimes, a Pale One "breaks" under those new powers, and can no longer become a Monarch. Those are then called Broken Pale Ones, and are reduced to a life devoid of purpose. There are currently two Broken Pale Ones on Etaliari; Lady Khatanni Ztïte, the Matriarch of Iznugia, and her son, Prince Gavvain Ztïte. The Pale One is a child, Artur Mirras, and is hidden away in the protective grove of Lotlein's Guardian spirit, Farryn.
Sorrow Given Form
Corruption takes many forms on the land and its people. Crimson Flowers, which appear like ashen flowers covered in rust and emanate a strange smell of blood, are the first indicator of Corruption. Their roots dig deep, and can grow anywhere, through rock, metal, ice and water. A highly infected area will have those roots spreading everywhere and latching on to everything they find, even forming tall, distorted trees with no leaves. After the Crimson Flowers bloom, a bright golden liquid will pour out of the soil or the surface the flowers have grown on, and will quickly harden and take sharp edges and shapes, like rows of sharp ice formed under harsh winds. The more infected an area, the more Corruption pours out, to the point where it can appear like it has a mind of its own. At this point, Corrupted gas can erupt from where the crystals originally erupted, which contributes to spreading the infection. Anyone walking in an infected area must wear a special gas mask in order to avoid infection.
On living organisms, Corruption appears similarly, but also has a mental toll atop the physical one. Physically, if an individual does not struggle mentally and have a positive outlook on life, their Corruption will grow considerably slower, and may not even take over their whole body in the end. On the opposite, those who suffer mentally and are taken by sorrow, will feel the Sorrow of the Lonely One full force, by having the Corruption take quickly over their limbs and putting their life on the line. Limbs that are completely taken over are usually amputated to avoid a quicker spread across the body, and the usual first to go are the wings of an Ikrouk, as they become too heavy to carry and fly. One’s mental state usually goes to darker places once the Corruption settles in, often to sad ends… Any living being that becomes lost in the Black Sea will die, and become a Zara unless purified with Pure Crystals. Weaponry made of Pure Crystals is the only thing that will completely destroy a Zara, and sometimes treatments using those crystals are used on Corrupted Ikrouks to slow the process down. But alas, there is no known cure for this slow disease, at least not one that doesn’t include the coming of a new Monarch to purify the land once more.
There is a common occurence that has never been explained over the course of the Third Age, and that is the Corrupted Cocoon. They form when a person with a good outlook on life becomes overwhelmed by their Corruption, but instead of becoming a Zara and wandering the land as a Damned, their entire body becomes encased in crystals, and they freeze where they last laid down. Ikrouks that have frozen over thousands of years ago can still be found today, still encased, but alas, nothing can pry open their shells, not even the sharpest Pure Crystal tools. When a Corrupted Cocoon forms, the entire area around it must be barred with protective barriers of Pure Crystals, to stop it from spreading and taking over the entire area. Entire castles and temples were lost to Corrupted monks and keepers living alone and corrupting the whole place, so now protective measures were taken as to keep as many portions of land as possible. Ikrouks captured by these cocoons were often described as looking "at peace" and "as though they were sleeping"...