The history of Te Lakay

So you have decided to roleplay with us, haven’t you? But before you create your characters and enter the game, there is a couple of things you need to know and they are the following – setting (history), races and game system and this is the order by which you should read before you jump to the actual creation. As you read all this, you will slowly shape a character in your mind, without you even noticing. So don’t panic, this text was written for your full understanding. If however you have questions, please, visit our Questions topic.

Now let’s get started with the setting, the vast land once called - Tylia. For a full understanding of its’ history and present, the age it is in right now and its’ conflicts you will need a map which you will find at the bottom of this text

Our game begins in the Third Age, when the new religion was established and the old ones surpressed. However, let’s start from the First Age because many answers can be found throughout the history.

The First Age of Tylia was the age of heroes, magic and gods. Four kings reached the shores of Tylia and disembarked with their powerful armies, each of them on a different part of the land.

They didn’t know what to expect when they arrived, but they were strong and determined and there was little fear in their hearts. They found the natives of Tylia strange and wild but not savage.

The natives were slender, shorter than the men, with pointy ears and odd sharp bone structure. They were magical beings who often communicated with the spirits of the nature, elements, animals and the dead. The men were terrified and started a war against the heathens. They conquered the whole Tylia - and natives, whom they called green children, were forced to accept their reign. The memory of four kings and their glorious victory still lives in the songs and poems of Tylia – Trezen the cold, king of North, Verneth the cruel, who conquered the South, Linoin the sailor who seized the western shores and mainland and islands further on the West, and Luent the beautiful whose kingdom on the eastern islands was as beautiful as him, created from magma when a volcano erupted a long, long time ago, when even the green children didn’t exist.

However, they continued exterminating the natives as fierce as before and soon their population was dangerously reduced – they were on the edge of extinction. Some hid in the mountains and some deep in Goodforest and Greenhall.

When the first humans began to die from a strange disease the kings realized that they needed green children’s help. The natives refused to help them and when the disease spread so that even they couldn’t avoid it, they agreed to make a truce. The old native shamans and healers who no longer dwell in Tylia, helped the sick and taught the human doctors all they knew. Temporary truce was followed by a peace treaty and the natives were free to come back to their old homes to teach humans what they knew and learn new things in return.

However, some still didn’t trust the kings and stayed in their new habitats, most of them sojourned to the mountain chain called Serpentis in the north. The mountains became their home, but living there changed them and they became nothing like their ancestors who had stayed in their old habitats. Those who stayed accepted the new religion called The Faith of Ten and abandoned their traditional faith. After that they celebrated the beginning of the First age and a period of peace.

During this long period, both humans and the natives, who were now called elves, changed in many ways. Humans kept little of their ancestors’ features and elves started looking more and more like humans, losing the magical abilities of their elders. However, the humans in the North remained the same as those who first inhabited it – strong, tall and wild. Only their hair was bleached by time and long winters.

The 4 royal bloodlines still blossomed with the children who very much resembled the first four kings. The line of Linoin still bred sailors and shipwrights, the heirs of Luent’s bloodline were all still as beautiful as the sun. Verneths in the south remained as cruel as their first king was, envious of the other three major houses. And the last one, the Trezen bloodline produced even better leaders, with every new generation.

The elves who had migrated to the Serpentis chain were soon forced to trade with the humans who, when they saw the northern elves for the first time, couldn’t believe their eyes. They had changed the most.

It is believed that they didn’t only mate among themselves but with strange old races of the North, whose blood made them stronger, more resistant but less pleasant to the eye. They became taller, massive almost like humans of the north, their hair turned white like the cleanest snow and their eyes almost as white as their hair. It was painful to look at them, with their rough faces. The only elven feature they retained were their pointed ears. Unlike their cousins in the south, Norn elves were fighters, thirsty for blood and revenge. They however, got used to humans in time and the vengeful fire in them slowly faded remaining only in few of the oldest among them. Still, just like humans of the North, they remained wild reclusive.

The humans were so petrified of what they might become if the border to the far north stayed open that their king, of the Trezen bloodline, ordered the construction of a huge wall to protect his lands. The king also gave them the whole mountain chain and made their leader, Helvyrn, lord of the Serpentis.

Helvyrn swore to allegiance to the house of Trezen and these two races of the North lived in peace. Also, Norn elves kept the religion and tradition of their fathers which they succeeded to pass on to the Northern humans. The old religion still lived in the North which greatly displeased the other kings.

Now, before the northern king built the wall and closed the border, some races slipped into his territory unseen. They were discovered only when the king sent his constructors up north. A race of very short people built their homes near the unexploited iron mines. They were pretty easy to deal with. Their leader, Theon Ironforge was very stubborn and proud but they were outnumbered and forced to surrender. Most of them were craftsmen and engineers so they didn’t have competent military strength to defend themselves from the human armies.

The king was intrigued by the little people and gave their leader the land they claimed when they first arrived. He was willing to make the dwarven leader a noble but the man said that he was already a king. King Theon Ironforge, the first king of the dwarves.

The second new race that came from the far north was a race of huge, monstrous people. Norns were convinced that they were giants but they were wrong. The humans were frightened at first but they soon discovered that aside with their large frame and strength, the creatures weren’t that intelligent. Some thought that they were descendants of exiled humans and northern beasts, the others thought that they were just some sort of subhuman and since no one was too sure, they simply called them Cendri which in old language means plainly – huge. They were soon also forced to surrender to the king who, disgusted by their nature, sent half of them down south with a message to the southern king, saying that they would be easily tamed and useful for working in the fields and on constructions. Half of them he kept up north as servants and trained them to do the same that he suggested to the king of the south. It was impressively easy to teach them new things and it was equally amazing how obedient they were. The king thought that out there might be more dangerous creatures who probably tortured the poor cendri. Soon, cendri were bred specially as workers, servants or guards and each noble house had at least one cendri to help them. They never objected.

All this happened at the end of the First Age. But there was another event that marked the end of the Age. A strange flying ship crashed on the plains of the Eastern kingdom. Unfortunatelly, none of its inhabitants survived the crash. Only one strange egg with a scaly black husk with beautiful crimson highlights remained unharmed. King of the East kept it for himself and it remained in his personal vault for two centuries. His grand grand son proposed to the Southern princess and gave her the egg instead of a ring. Enraged, she threw the egg into the fire, and to her surprise, the egg hatched. She was later called Eilia, the dragon mother. She never married and devoted her life to Regan, the first dragon of Tylia. Many people came to see him and many were seen crying because Regan was more beautiful than any other creature of Tylia. However, the secret of his homeland stayed unsolved and it was simply called Jhal Eilyr, the land across.

The remains of his ancestors’ ship still stood at the place where it crashed when the news of this strange event came to the north to dwarves who were mostly engineers and technicians. They were very interested in this strange contraption so they asked the king for escorts to the Eastern Kingdom where they intended to examine the thing. They couldn’t figure out how the ship flew in the air, but what they did manage to do was to disassemble it and take most of the parts back north. It was however strange that they never found maps or any kind of scripts on the ship. This was also the beginning of technological development whose bloom marked the beginning of the Second Age.

During the first half of the Second Age, many cities were built and many villages grew out of nowhere. There were now 2 times more schools than before, the history was written and cartographers created the first maps of Tylia. The first coins were forged in a hexagonal shape with a sun engraved in its centre, as a symbol of the supreme deity of the Faith of Ten. Many dwarves moved from the far north to the cities of south, east and west to teach young craftsmen and engineers.

No doubt, parts of that old flying ship wreck made a breakthrough in technology. Even science bloomed to an extent and it lead to the invention of gunpowder. It was followed by the matchlock handgun and musket but they were too expensive. The production of these weapons was aborted only to be continued near the end of the Second Age. Inventions that followed were the steam machine which was also too expensive and used only in mines, and thus transferring ore became much easier and the miners worked faster. Also, oil lamp clocks, hourglasses and sundials were replaced by mechanical watches but only the very wealthy could afford them. However, among the more affordable pieces of technology were mechanical prosthetics which became popular among craftsmen, constructors and alike.

However, the development of technology never reached its peak and Jhal Eilyr was never found. Humans were still too scared to set sails into the unknown although the ships of Western Kingdom were powerful enough for such an adventure. Elves just didn’t care. The reason why the development stagnated was another great war in beginning of the second half of the Second Age. The young new king of the South, Sherar Verneth whose name meant –brutal- in the old language, raised an army, powerful and big, promising titles, land and gold to every commander in the land who would follow his rule. Only a few still remained loyal to east and west and not one man or elf left the Northern Kingdom bowed to Sherar.

Sherar conquered east and west easily, making their kings his vassals, leaving their lands but making them pay huge taxes and call him his King. Still, with all that power in his hands, he wasn’t satisfied. The Northern Kingdom was still a thorn in his eye, a pain in his gut. Their king, Yutri Trezen lead a huge army of Norns and there was one thing that Sherar didn’t count on – highlanders, bloodthirsty Norn elves who had a far better position than the southern army which would have to take the mountain pass, to get to the Trezen stronghold, where they’d be defeated by the weather and the wild and strong highlanders.

The war lasted for years and the Northern Kingdom was weakened by the constant battles. Sherar strengthened his army with men from the east and west and found far better tactictioners.

King Yutri, old and ill, grew tired of the war. His people knew that the only hope they had was Lord Helvyrn himself because Yutri’s heirs had fallen in battles and only his youngest son who was still a child, remained. Both Yutri and Helvyrn were painfully aware that their numbers were meager and that they couldn’t resist anymore. On his death bed, king Yutri made Helvyrn a regent until his young son was of age.

He ordered Helvyrn to surrender to the southern king but made him swear to help his son or his son’s son to regain the crown. After Yutri passed away, Helvyrn did as the king asked and was hated by his people who thought that he betrayed the old king.

The elven lord moved to the Trezen stronghold, where he stayed until Yutri’s son was old enough to take to the throne only, not as a king but as a lord of the Northern Territory. He had to swear to allegiance to the new supreme king, Sherar Verneth of the South. He became a vassal just like the lords Linoin and Luent.

During the second half of the Second Age, Tylia didn’t prosper as well as it did in the time of the Old Kings, and most of the people hated Sherar. He was a tyrant who could care less about the development of the society and technology and his council was made of men who served their pockets more than their country.

Many new lords were proclaimed, many new knights sired and most didn’t deserve those honors. Sherar was still called the Usurper by some. Those who were heard talking ill of the High King were punished so many kept quiet, putting on a mask of loyalty until three lords rose from their thrones and attacked the South.

Unfortunately, the king had too many allies, spies and mercenaries and those who were considered loyal to the revolution were soon discovered to have been king's pawns. The North was cunningly taken over by a man once forgotten, the bastard son of the old king Yutri, a man called Morning Star. The West was taken over by Marias Linoin, young lord that was taken hostage after the Great Battle, only a decade ago. After murdering his father, he enslaved all the free nobles and simple men that lived in his Territory, making them pay huge taxes and raised an army worth of his one true king to whom he stayed loyal until the day he died. Only the house of Luent was standing their ground although nobody ever expected it would. However, after years of struggle they fell and were all punished for their treachery.

The Second Age was probably 200 years too long. The line of Verneths was strong until the very beggining of the Third Age. Their influence was too strong with help of his vasals of North and West. After the house of Luent was wiped out, their lands were burnt and soon, what once was a beautiful emerald archipelago, turned into a barren desert, inhabited by strange savage people who took arms and closed their borders. After 400 years, they are still believed to be canibals that have done unspeakable crimes against anyone who trespassed their land. It is a place long forgotten, colder than the wastes of the North.

During this period of 400 years, Tylia's most intelligent and educated people worked on its technological development along with medical and cultural. The language was slowly changing, medicines were being invented, diseases rooted out. Future kings were convinced to invest into this development and scholars fulfilled their dreams. Men rose into the air, flying across the country in their flying ships; zeppelins filled the sky and sound of gunfire replaced the song of birds. Various guilds were opened, offering training to those interested in their trade. Many dwarves left their homes up North and moved to the South where the education and assistance was needed. The exploitation of the Cendri was greater than ever - some were still used as cheap labor, some were schooled for greater purposes and those who couldn't work were mercilessly killed. However, even their strength was soon replaced by machines and many were left unemployed, uncared for. Factories closed the doors for these unfortunates who were forced to seek out different ways of survival. And although slavery was officially over with, some of them got to the hands of slavers. This technological development did not only bring good - for some it was the worst thing that could happen. Many villages and settlements were replaced with ever growing towns as the population grew but many turned into junkyards and wastes instead of what was previously planned. People turned to illegal acts, selling stolen goods - drugs, medical supplies, all kinds of unsafe machinery, ship parts, guns etc, because if this world was perfect for some, it was a hell for the others. Those who couldn't afford for health care had nothing else to hope for but death. Also, criminal rate raised to a dangerous level and became a great problem for the government.

Now, the Church of Ten was closed years before the cities were even made, for many stood against it, exposing their malicious intentions and years of abuse of their position. There weren't many followers left but as a sign of mercy, some of their monasteries and abbies were left intact. Their hierarchy was broken and Cardinals along with Archbishops, burnt on town squares, right in front of their temples. The old religion hasn't survived the changes that hit the North as well. Only the oldest of norn elves still remember it vaguely. When those remaining priests saw what happened to their superiors and how their religion was brought to ridicule, they decided to make a reformation. They moved to a monotheistic belief and the most enlightened among them wrote progressive and profound philosophies, thus creating a new holy book - Sen Liv. (To learn more about Sen Liv, move to the section about religions).

As soon as the Church fell, monarchy was brought to question and new king, Dalfin Verneth questioned and accused of many crimes committed by his ancestors. Many of atrocities were hidden inside temple walls and Cardinals' private chambers and when the scrolls and book witnessing them were found, Verneth royal line was exposed. Members of new king's council played safe and gathered many workers and unsatisfied citizens of this new world now called Te Lakay. Of course, the king had his own supporters and was unwilling to give up his throne so easily. Soon, his opponents started a civil war and after 20 days behind the barricades, they managed to get to the king and butcher him in front of his own people, along with his family. However, this was not an easy victory, because king's most loyal general, Cheldric Sewell wasn't yet ready to give up. He rode off into his certain, inevitable death the last day of the war and ruthlessly massacred 1000 students and workers at the barricades. It was also the end of general Sewell and cruel reign of the Verneth family.

After king Dalfin was gone, the old council convoked all the nobles who shared a part in governing Te Lakay. After two weeks of deliberations, they wrote a new constitution which distributed governing responsibilities to the members of the parliament, new term for the council. Parliament was also called Palman and it consisted of 9 scholars and nobles as a mockery to the broken religion of Ten. However, another noble was elected to represent king's figure but his power was limited. This new government created a new army, militia and a special order of city guards, border inspection and of course special agents called Espesyals.

Not long after Dalfin perished, his Northern and Western vasals were brought down as well and executed. The new government replaced them with their own people called magistrates or Majistras in the new language. Of course, as expected, majistras were no better than their predecessors. They kept high taxes and kept half of it for themselves. The people of their lands were oftenly punished for not providing enough for the country even though they weren't responsible for the obvious deficit. Also, they divided the country to Northern, Central and Eastern Maccara (new word for "land").

The old nobility held on to their titles but they lost rights to the lands they once owned. The only thing they were left were their estates and only few owned towns.

All in all the new world order brought much dismay to Te Lakay's citizens. As people once struggled to overthrow their old kings, they struggle now to create a better tomorrow for their children and descendants but life in this world isn't easy for those at the bottom.

Each character begins the game in accordance to their heritages, races and/or positions in the society. They must go through a prologue, reserved for the storyteller and one player only, in order to get to know the world and their surroundings better before they start interacting with other players. This is a very important era, the Third Age of the world in which many things are yet to happen such as finally reaching Jhal Eilyr, providing a better future for the ones you love, surviving in the steampunk jungle and discovering many secrets as you go.

Click on the map to enlarge it!