The Three Kingdoms - Background

Thekbar and the Ignathans

Legend has it the geographical area known as The Three Kingdoms is tied together by ages old lore. In ancient times, long before the Shattering, the kingdom of Thekbar spread across all of the land that is now the Three Kingdoms. Their relationships with the other ancient nations, The Empire of Suepen and the Elven Empire were peaceful. The realm of Thekbar was threatened only by the race known as the Ignathans.

The Ignathans were a humanoid race who worshipped the Dragons of the Glitterpeak Mountains. A violent and chaotic race, the Ignathans always sought conquest and war. The Ignathans were held at bay by the ruler of Thekbar for centuries.

The Royal line of Thekbar had a magical gift tied to a distant draconic bloodline in their ancestry. This gift allowed them to intimidate and sway the minds of Ignathans and Dragon kind. The power did not show itself until a royal child’s coming of age; their sixteenth birthday. For many years, this gift held the Ignathan hordes at bay and slowly over generations the gift was forgotten.

Forgotten until, one fateful day, it came to pass that the King and Queen of Thekbar died in a terrible accident leaving their only daughter, a young girl of thirteen years. Iliani was well supported by advisors and counselors as she took on her role as leader. However, as months passed the Ignathans found that they could encroach further into Thekbar. Soon, their raids turned into full blown invasion. Thekbar struggled to hold back the horde and called upon their neighbor, the Empire of Suepen and the Elves, for help.

Suepen did not help them, but built up their own naval defenses in preparation for the Ignathans reaching the coast. Thekbar and the Ignathans fought for two years. During that time, scholars on both sides sought to discover what had changed to allow the war. They both soon learned that Iliani was the key to long term victory. The Ignathans had the advantage and Thekbar had been brought to its knees. Iliani’s gifts were already starting to come into fruition and she spent much of her waking time in hiding, sketching places and maps that she had never seen before that held unknown secrets of the Dragons.

The Ignathans used all of their means to kill Iliani before she could come of age. The sorcerers of Thekbar were tenacious. They set a trap for the Ignathan army, drawing them in and around the city of Thekbar using news of Iliani as bait. When the army arrived, a series of magical traps devastated the Ignathans.

The last few Ignathans hunted for Iliani’s true location. They found her just in time to see her being sent through an ancient magical portal that the sorcerers had changed to push her somewhere beyond her enemies knowledge and hopefully to safety. The sorcerers were slaughtered, but Iliani was safe.

In the meantime, the Suepenese had displeased their Goddess Novrius because they had dishonorably chosen not to help. Novrius ordered that when the time came, the Empire of Suepen would send their finest warrior to help the descendants of Thekbar.

The Sixth Age

When the Northern Empire swept down to destroy the Elves, the land of the Three Kingdoms succumbed and became a part of the devastating war that ended in the Shattering. The Elves’ perspective on the humans that populated that land twisted. The ancient peace turned to fear, hate and arrogance.

In the Sixth Age, after the great Reformation, a large part of the Storm Coast has formed into three human dominated Kingdoms. The Kingdoms of Shale, Gothna and Diamar have evolved from a cultural mixing of the ancestors of Thekbar and a number of the wild tribes of the North, remnants of the Northern Empire.

Over the past few centuries, these kingdoms have been in an almost predictable cycle of war and cold war. A state of cold war has existed during the past few years and there are concerns that national sensitivities have begun to increase again and a wrong move from one of the nations, or from an external source, could lead to bloody conflict on the border lands once again.

Though trading treaties have been developed between these three nations, raiding and conflict still occurs regularly along the borders. Perhaps, more of a concern is the strong smuggling community that has developed along the Storm Coast. Over land travel between the Kingdoms has become increasingly expensive over the years as border and import taxes have steadily risen. Though, there are significant risks in taking overland routes around the Kingdoms or taking long sea voyages, bigger numbers of traders are willing to arrange such caravans to increase their profits. Such maneuvers are steadily eroding the coffers of the Kingdoms, another element that could be a prelude to war.

The Three Kingdoms have the coldest climate on the Storm Coast. In the South-West, from the ruins of Thekba to the Arkenfell Mountains, the snows never completely melt. Further east, the climate becomes more temperate. Of the Three Kingdoms, Gothna is the warmest.

The humans of the Kingdoms are a tough breed. They live off the land, having developed agricultural techniques that suit the harsh climes. Even the farmers are fighters, used to having to fend off raiding beasts from the mountains and dark forests, and warriors from other nations. The people of the Kingdoms have more in common with each other than they like to admit. Most of the differences have grown out of the politics and policies of the three royal families.