Prologue
Long before the arrival of the Remnant of power to the land of Callia, and the conflict that followed its discovery, the two lands at either side of the mountain range called ‘Sing,’ lived happily distant from each other. The old tales passed down from person to person told of the original humans to arrive upon the land, having sailed the seas after departing the old lands to the west. Depending on who was asked, the story differed, but the spread of people across the continent started somewhere on what would be the coast of Xiandol. While parts of the coastline were viable for settling, the glacial remains of a previous time of freezing upon the mass left nothing but barren dirt and rock deeper inland.
Some chose to remain upon the slivers of green space at the western expanse of the continent, while others chose to brave the seemingly impassable mountains to seek what was at the other side. Those who made it found a lush untouched land of forests and rich plains that extended all the way to the eastern sea which had never previously been seen by their people. Albeit smaller in size than the lands at the opposite side of the range, the bounty it provided the settlers allowed the civilization to proliferate.
While the people of what would become Tulefore prospered, the people of early Xiandol segregated themselves about the limited resources; the wooded areas, and the workable land, or the flows of water from the mountains. While Tulefore was constructing cities and venturing out across the seas for the first time, Xiandolans were still attempting to sew the land and forge tools to aid in their survival.
A century and a half before the arrival of the Remnant, Tulefore, under the leadership of Daedus Auriline, made their first move in their yet unknown desire to build an empire. In the sea to the south, they had discovered a people upon an ancient volcanic island, calling themselves the Soany. The land was rich with resources unknown to the Tuleforians, and the news of such things forwarded Daedus’ desire to bring the strange, unseen land and its people under the flag of Tulefore. With only a meager military presence, the Soany were forced to convert and accept the Tuleforian outsiders as their rulers. In the following decades, more lands across the sea were discovered and forced under the rule of Tulefore, expanding the colonial holdings and cultural richness of the young Empire.
Xiandol, at the same time, was fractured still, divided by tribal identities and the desire to hold onto limited resources. Thirty years before the arrival of the Remnant, a man by the name of Horatus Halmalch gathered what forces he could locally to make contact with the other tribes. Whether through reason or force, Halmalch swept across the land, incorporating the divided people under his own name. With an indisputable force behind him, he declared himself King and took up his rule in an old hamlet called Xiandolia in the far north of the land. In order to maintain his rule over his growing kingdom, he stripped as much power and agency from the people of the land, centralizing the military forces and trading lines about the chilly capital.
During the time before the arrival of the Remnant and the following Sing wars, it could have been said that both nations were at their strongest and most prosperous. The tales recorded here follow the two nations in their prime, leading into the arrival of the Remnant itself, the birth of the conflict over the desire for its power, and finally the rise of the venerable magi who banded together to force the tides of the Sing Wars.
