Humans with their brief conceptions of time refer to each era of this age as a separate age. This age has so far lasted for 35,000 years. Thus they speak of the Age of the Nine Nations of Man, The Age of Six Empires, the Age of Terrors and Triumphs, the Age of Darkness with the Wars of the Black Host, the Age of Heroes, the Age of Wonders and the Age of Sorrows. Each of these Ages (eras) followed a cycle of about fifty centuries, after which there was a limited remaking of the world by a wielder fo the Demonstone.
In the Age of the Nine Nations of Man, the ancestors of the of all Zharzhanim (Zharhanha) were called Mnarians and they lived on the continent of Mu. Thraa, Ilarnek, Kadatheron and Zharzhanos were the great cities along the river Ai, the river that wound its way through Mnar to the great river Oukaranos. The source of the river Ai was a great marshy lake whose name is lost to lore, but it lay in a basin known as the Basin of Ib, where once the city of Ib lay. There arose the doomed city of Sarnath.
Down the Ai in Mu one came to the River Oukaranos past the gilded spires of Thran elephant caravans tramping though the perfumed jungles in Kled where forgotten palaces with veined ivory columns slept lovely and unbroken under the moon. Ulthar , beyond the River Skai, where the Kings of the IIlek-Vad, the ancestors of the Atyri, sat on their opal throne. The story of the Cats of Ulthar is part of the lore from this era. The men of Uthar are the ancestors of the Kiresh who still revere cats. The nation of the Lomarians who fled from Zobna before 'floods of ice'. The Zobnars became known as Lomarians after they had resided in Lomar for generations and cleared the land of the hair,long armed cannibal Gnophkehs. The Lomarians also were ancestors of the modern Kiresh. Legend speaks of the great city of Olathoe, where the greatest warriors and scholars of the Lomarians lived, Olathoe betwixt the peaks of Noton and Kadiphonek.
Lore also speaks of other places in Mu, of wave washed Mtar at the mouth of the Oukaranos. Or southeast of the Oukaranos wheere lay the land of Dothar famed for its oils and luxuriants, or the far northwest to the highlands of Implan where the wild hags of Ishig ate the dread kalb mushrooms and danced beneath the gibbous moons in celebration of dark mysteries. Of the great Bnazik desert of southwest Mu, or the land of Sydathria in southeast Mu with its nuts and spices where dwelt the ancestors of the Muerrin. At the end of this age, Mu sunk beneath the waves, and now the ruins of this once majestic land exists only in the realm of dreams.
Mu was destroyed to save humanity from the dreaded Titan, Cthulhu, whose spirit had been raised from his tomb and given form by the Archmage Huttamim, cursed be his name, avatar of Nyrlathotep who used the Demonstone to accomplish this act. Huttamim created the strange and "impossible" city of Rylleh to house his demon hosts pulled from realms beyond the stars. Huttamim thought to use such might to rule H'thartha and a thousand worlds beyond, but his arrogance was his undoing and he became the slave to the very forces he unleashed. His brief tyrannical realm is known as the First Empire of Man. It lasted a mere hundred years. After that, Mu was rapidly enslaved by Cthulhu and his fiendish hosts and the evil would have spread across H'kartha and beyond if had not a band of brave heroes whose names unfortunately have been lost to time had not acted, stolen the Demonstone and used it to defeat Cthulhu. The price was high, the loss of all the lands of Mu. Still remnants of humanity survived.
The Age of Six Empires was marked by the movement of men to the continent of Cydarthia. This land int he Saurial Era was called Ghazulan and that is still the name the Haz use for the continent. In the Age of Six Empires it was called Cydarthia by men and elves, but since the Age of Heroes it has been called Gondwana.
In the age of Six Empires, the continent we now called Gondwana did not resemble the modern continent at all although relics of this vanished age are still found. Here were built the Empire of Celephais, the Elvish Sky Empire of Serannian, and the Sultanate of Teloth along the sluggish Zuro river with its three great cities built by the men of Old Ulthar, Teloth, Nir and Hatheg. The Telothians are the ancestors of the Zharzhanim (Zharzhanja). Another of the great civilizations was that of the Oonai. The Sultanate of Oonai built by the ancestors of the Kiresh, stood where now the expanse of the Pharuka Wastes. Nor should be forgotten the Empire of Jaren along the Xari River ,built by the ancestors of the Muerrin. A great expanse down the eastern coast of the continent which included the frigid highlands of Narthos above the sizzling deserts of the Sharun Wastes, From the shimmering deserts of the Sharun Wastes where the dromedary-men lived and came to market at the city of Sinara to the rich jungles where the cities of the Jarenji lay, were lands whose wonders are still hinted at in the songs of Muerrinstan, for those Coastal Kingdoms are built on the fragments of what was once the vast plains of Jarenji. The Quest of Iranon is one of the few bits of extensive Lore from this period that have survived.
The Empire of Celephais lay in what is now Northern H'kartha. The Celephaisans were a race born of the mixing of elvish and human stock. They are the ancestors of the Uruk (Orcs), their beings corrupted and transformed during the reign of the Dark Overlord. Their civilization was said to be as dazzling as the stars of the firmament, but they fell under the influence of the seething spirit that was Nyarlathotep sought to free the nine Old Ones imprisoned on the continent of Cydarthia. Nylarlathotep, harbinger of the Old Ones was raised from his slumber by the folly of the Emperor Hujuile who sought to use the spirit of this Titan as a weapon, a great windstorm known as Sethu, to destroy the armies of his enemies. This he accomplished, but the price was high, for Hujuile was to become the vessel of this dark power. The raging wind that was Sethu was given flesh and the command of an empire. The possessed Emperor Hujuile of Celephais has come down through the mists of time as the figure known as the Dark Overlord. The six empires fell under the sway of this dread tyrant who ruled most of the continent for over 200 years. This realm is known as the Second Empire of Man. During this time unspeakable rites were carried out by the Dark Overlord to revive his masters, the nine Old Ones, greatest of the Titans,whose essences had grown quite weak since the days long past when they had reigned. Nine sacred artifacts were sought by the Dark Overlord which could be turned to his unholy purposes completing the task of returning the Old Ones to their dominions. Six great heroes thwarted this effort, utilizing the Demonstone in a great showdown of which little is known save that the Dark Overlord was overthrown.
The magics that were invoked against the Dark Overlord began to unravel the fabric of the universe setting off a chain reaction that unleashed a terror of natural cataclysms that shook H'kartha for ten years. Cydarthia was destroyed and remade by earthquake, volcanoes and flame, and its ruined landscape rebuilt anew. However some men escaped the destruction in sheltered corners or travelled through the Place of All Places to the world of Tellus with whom our world H'kartha has an ancient connection
Lore on this age has not yet been discovered by the adventuring parties
Little is known of the Age of Darkness, except that evil was dominant through most of the epoch and the forces of good and civilization was on the defensive in relict pockets for most of the period. An exception was the Golden Alliance in which the Empire of Anwahr (or Anawahr depending on which dialect of Gondwanapal is spoken), the Confederacy of Sorenso and the Grand Caliphate of Taj-Barour (Muerrin) along with an alliance of smaller states and free cities united to drive back the forces of darkness. The Jasmine Warriors founded by the first Pharoah of Anwahr, Ahruhim-Mardukha, the Priest King. The Golden Aliance lasted 150 years until it crumbled under a powerful force of evil invaders, known in legend as the Black Host. This dark army was led by the Devourers of Blood and Souls. A race of malignant evil sorcerors from afar who came to the continent then called Tarsenia and now known as Gondwana. The Black Host conquered most of the continent before its final destruction in an epic battle in Ariana, in what is now the northern Jholith desert. The Black host was led by an evil Vampire Queen who who was an agent of Nyarlathotep. She had sought to become an avatar of the Dread Harbinger, but was thwarted in this effort. Undaunted she sought to serve herself as the Harbinger of the Old Ones by first attempting to establish dominion over the continent. In this she failed as well. The final defeat of the Black Host was under by a great allied army under the leadership of the great Hero Gondwana and his 11 companions. It is said the 12 heroes rode great golden dragons during the battle. It was the last time Golden Dragons were seen in Gondwana until the recent reports of these marvelous creatures over the city of Kyroz during the last days of the tyrant Marghash. The Vampire Queen was vanquished, but it is said in some legends that she rose again, and will one day return to wreak her vengeance.
This is the age of the Empire of Gondwana (Third Empire of Man) and is the subject of the Vendulian Epics, the stories of great herores of the Highguard, the champions of the Empire who kept the enemies of the empire at bay for 5000 years. Unlike the first two continental empires , the Third Empire, The Empire of Gondwana, was largely benign. It was originally divided into 11 satrapies, each ruled by one of the companions of the Pharoah Gondwana who ruled the empire from the capital of Anwahr. The Eleven ancient satrapies were Tertaitante (now the Platesu of Leng) , Merdainjez (Now Oasis Sultanates), Taliban-Khalish (now the Coastal Kingdoms) , Ariana (now the Jholith Desert, Mdugbu (Now the Far Kingdoms), Aladez-Khadrustan (Now the Lost Empire), Upper Gebra-Salamwardu (now the The Jhoz Desert, the Al-Khojath Barrens and Utsu Jungle), Lower Gebra-Salamwardu (Now called The Delta), Atyri, Albredrezzin (Now the Lake Ditrict of Central Gondwana), and Kikuru (which lay partly in what is now the Troll marshes on the Western Coast of Gondwana and stretched from Mdugbu to Atryi and eastwards into what is now part of the Pharaka wastes which have greatly expanded in dimensions since the Age of Heroes). The Ishandeshee of Sorenso were tributaries of the empire.
It was the Pharoah Gondwana drove the Uruk Hai (Orcs) from the Western Delta into the eastern swamplands, freeing up the Delta to further colonization by the Kiresh. The Kiresh had begun spreading into the Delta during the days of the Empire of Anwahr when the Uruk were subjugated by the Kiresh. By the time of Gondwana the Western Delta was divided roughly equally between the two races and a near continual state of war existed between them. Gondwana felt that the only way the Delta could be pacified was by driving the Urek out of the Western Delta. A group of mages known as the Madjori arose from the South as an early challenge to the Pharoah Gondwana, but they were vanquished, and thought for many years destroyed.
The great grandson of Gondwana was the Pharoah Azaltin-Kal-Enlil ruled the city of Anawahr, the rich and powerful capital of a great Empire. There was a great war raging, and the king while intelligent and well versed in poetry and the other gentle arts, astrology, and magic-was sickly and no warrior. He called to his service the greatest astrologer of all the 11 kingdoms-the Seeress Fatima. He dreaded dying without an air, and plunging the already beleagured Empire into civil war. For elven days he honored the seeress with daily and lavish celebrations and exquisite gifts of silk, gold and perfumes. After each night of entertainment, the king would ask the Seeress the same question: "How can a man live forever?"
The Seeress was evasive, crafting complex patterns with her Tarot and giving tantalizing predictions of his future. She predicted seven triumphs and four debacles-but of the ultimate fate of himself and his realm she was evasive. Then she would drop hints about the dangers of seeking after certain questions-and the obstacles the Gods and Spirits would place in the path of a quest such as the search for immortality. Finally the Seeress relented to the Pharaoh's urgings and laid out a pattern. She revealed The Fool, and the Pharaoh squirmed uncomfortably as the Seeress identified this as his signifier-and then the Wheel of Fate-which she declared represented a cyclical link to the future-where his fate would be resolved. Then the Seven of Wands inverted-the card she explained represented a force that acted both in concert and in opposition to his purpose. Next she turned over the Hierophant, then the Magician, then the Knight of Wands, then the Hermit, then the Empress Inverted-all represented individuals he would encounter on his quest-each card representing a series of individuals-groups that the Seeress called the Knights of Wands. Then identifying the next card as the signifier of the realm, she turned over the Tower, and the court gasped. Then the final card, Death inverted. They said that the Pharaoh seeing his ambitions both granted and thwarted went mad, locked himself in his library and ignored the problems for his realm, in favor of arcane researches. His half-brother Amakim, Satrap of The Taliban-Khalish, led his armies from the city of Kaal'anash to seize the realm. Civil war raged-with Anawahr being repeatedly sacked. Amakim established his capital at Muluk, and the Pharaoh withdrew to the city of Eymarana to the south. A dozen years later it is said that the Pharaoh fleeing a disastrous battle near the First Cataract stumbled wounded and dying into the nearby ruins of his old capital. There he swore a most dreadful oath and read from a scroll of dire evil that he had procured..." From that time on the Pharaoh of the empire was a largely ceremonial role, with the Satraps ruling over quasi-independent kingdoms, held in a shaky alliance kept together by the Jasmine Knights. The decline of the Jasmine Knights leading to their final corruption by the evil Sorceror Jafael-Ghuri led to a period of chaos known as the Sundered Satrapies.
This period of over 7 centuries saw the decline and fall of the empire of Gondwana, and the end of Kiresh dominance over the continent of Gondwana. The satrapy of Upper Gebra-Salamwardu, the heartland of the Kiresh nation was destroyed. The Upper Salamwardu perished under the influence of the Goddess Lokatha. Lokatha was the dominant Goddess in the region with temples in the cities of Nippya, Tilyit, Gogul, Talash, Gilish and Culkhay. Nippya was the chief of her cities. During the Wars gainst the Madjori the sacred wells of Lokatha were poisoned, driving the Goddess mad. In desperation, the cities of the region turned Lokatha out of her ziggurat replacing her with other Gods. Lokatha plotted revenge and calling forth the ancient race of the Ophidians unleashed a terrible vengeance on the land, turning the Kiresh of the region into beastmen and the lands about the Upper Salamwardu became a jungle wilderland. The Madjori ("Mind Benders") were some sort of wizards who first appeared in history as formidable foes defeated by Gondwana and Zaladin in the conquest of the continent. Later they emerged from generations of obscurity and allied themselves with the Atyri. The Madjori sought to fill the power vacuum conquered large portions of the continent. They were slowly driven back, and the strongholds of the Madjori were eventually destroyed. The Atyri(still a human nation at the time) withdrew to the far south.
The defeat of the Madjori saw the onset of another Golden Age in H'kartha. This is the time when much of H'kartha was ruled by the Taeljal Sha'ir, or Mage Kings. They were great spellweavers who commanded hosts of magical servitors called Sandestins and the world was transformed into a place of beauty and grace such that the name Age of Wonders is applied to this time. The academies of magic in Kyroz and Taliban are relicts of this age. Eventually the Mage Kings grew arrogant, corrupt and tyrannical and were overthrown by an alliance of Zarzhanjah magi known as the Mithral Order and the nine Dragon orders of Paladins, including the Skyriders of Xiuhtehra and the Templars of Bahamut.
During this period and before, the Ancient Zarzhanjah (Zharzanjah and Zharzhanjah are alternate spellings) lived in the woodlands of Ariana (now the Zholith desert) and the plains of Merdainjez(now the Dervish Barrens). Over 5500 years ago, after the fall of the Taeljal Sha'ir, during a time which came to be called the Wizard Wars, a group of evil wizards called the defilers arose among the Atyri and attempted to gain mastery over the continent of Gondwana. Their magics were fueled by the energy of life, and their castings over time drained the life-sustaining mana of the world, leaving desolation in their wake.
As a result of the wasting effects of their magics,these evil magi were forced to conquer new lands, creating a cycle of war and desolation that is now called the Wizard Wars. In main opposition to the Defilers were the Mithral Order and their paladin allies. The Defilers tired of the intervention of the pesky mages of the Mithral Order sought to conquer Merdainjez and Ariana. The long struggle that followed despoiled the lands of Gondwana, leaving vast deserts in their wake. The plain of Gebra the heartland of the Kiresh, was covered over by the Jhoz desert and the Uttezulvane (The HIgh Forest) became the barrens of Al-Khojath. Merdainjez was largely destroyed, save for pockets defended by the Zarzhanjah magi, which became the Oases Kingdoms of the present day.Ariana defended by elves, dwarves and men was more secure against the depredations of the Defilers and their tainted magics. A little over 5000 years ago they managed to penetrate the defenses of Ariana and inflicted havoc on the land. The great forests of Ariana with their trees hundreds of feet high withered.
To crush their Zarzhajah foes for all time, the Defilers invoked a terrific cataclysm on the land, but their terrible act of retribution unleashed forces that was beyond their control. The magi and hosts of the Defilers who had been poised to conquer Ariana were consumed the conflagration. Volcanoes erupted, the land was shaken with earthquakes of a scale not seen before. The fertility of the land was depleted and the forests and fields of Ariana withered. Lake Ariana turned into a sea of choking dust.
Those Zarzhanjah who lived in or around the lake who survived the earthquakes, were forced to flee from the swirling burning sandstorm that covered the land. Of the three million Zarzhanjah that had lived in Merdainjez and Ariana at the start of the Wizard Wars, only a few thousand remained. Once farmers and fisherfolk the survivors were forced to adapt to a new and harsh land, adopting the dervish lifestyle. Their former elven and dwarven allies, became fierce rivals, and even the clans of the Zarzhanjah fought among themsleves over the slim resources of their once rich lands. Kanli (vendetta) became the habit of these arid lands.
The elves of the region called the Vashaleyneshee, were already a darkskinned folk, and were unusually adaptable for elves. They are called the Sand-elves now, but the name Vashaleyneshee, in Vashale, the elvish dialect of the Sand Elves, literally means: Canopy Dwellers.
This age is marked by the return of the 10,000 year cycle that marks the stirring of the Great Old Ones and the great grief that comes with such events. However because of other larger cycles of stellar alignments, and other factors that remain obscure, the process moved slower than it had in the past. Civilization had begun to recover again in Northern H'kartha when a new threat emerged. Raiders from the sky, known as the Pelai began to pull down to the foundations the fledgling civilization emerging from the havoc of the Wizard Wars. To humans these raiders were a new threat, but the Haz and the Elves had encountered them before, and spoke of them as the Pelai. Unable to fight their great power, the city-states of the humans in the Delta and Muerrinstan adopted a policy of appeasement to buy off the raiders. Tyrants arose acting as agents of the Pelai. The Time of these Despots lasted some 1000 years in Muerrinstan and 4000 years in the Delta. The city of Flage also overthrew its Despot at this time, the only city in the Delta to do so, led by two great heros Stavos and Miklos, the first and second of the Flage Paragons.
In Muerrinstan, after 1000 years came the Great Revolt, in which the agents of the Pelai were driven out by the help of "The Hidden Ones". There was much fighting and destruction, but the Pelai were driven out, and the seeds of modern Moor civilization were rooted. Another 3000 years would pass before the Pelai would face another great challenge to their hegemony in Northern H'kartha. Ishandeshee invaders with the help of Flage, Moorish volunteers and Kiresh eager to end the tyranny of the Despotates, seized power in the Delta establishing the Ishandeshee Hegemony which would last for some 1000 years.
Ten years ago, the Pelai returned, what had distracted them from the Delta for 1000 years is unclear, for the Haz report raids against them during this period. Within five years they had reconquered the Delta, and the Illithid Marghash had established himself as Hegemon there. Marghash however was not able to crush two groups of resistance fighters operating under the command of a strange mystic named Venakro and a group known as Yildirim Ghazim (Thunderbolt Warriors), a group under the leadership of a blind seer known as the Eye of Marduk. These forces during the month of Ceti in the Tenth year of the Pelai, began to make inroads in the southern Delta. Marghash regime was further weakened a revolt of Khosul cultists known as the Horned Society with whom he had made a dark alliance. In the month of Ja'al Moloch dragons were seen for the first time since the Third Empire over Kyroz, capital of the Pelai Hegeomony. A fierce and mysterious battle was fought, ending with the appearance of a enormous Pelai fleet of flying vessels. Marghash was replaced by Gharash who made peace with the anti-Pelai rebels, ceding to them the Southern Delta. In the rest of the Delta he sought to end direct Pelai rule and establish friendly regimes holding fealty to him as Hegemon. The result was civil war in the cities of the Northern Delta as factions sought to takeover in the power vacuum. In Qaarnaa and Flage, factions hostile to the Pelai gained ascendency. In Qarnaa, it was Yudenaithe, the Pirate King who took over. Yudenaithe turned out to be a member of the Siderthe race, whom the elves called Prometheans. In an earlier incarnation he was known as Melikkainu. Having helped fight the Dark Overlord, he could prove a great aid in helping battle the evil of the Great Old Ones. In Flage the strife of the Delta also cause havoc. The Paragon Galnor Flagenstavos who had been a Pelai puppet, was overthrown, and the city was thrown into chaos. In the month of Iasco, a semblance of peace was finally established and the city became divided between three factions: The Triad, the Guild and the Kiresh Knights, each plotting total ascendency. In the other cities, various pro-Pelai factions managed to seize power, although none of these regimes, even in Kyroz were very stable, and coups and counter coups continued into the fall of the 10th year of the Pelai Hegemony.