'The Great Histories and Houses of Eraesel: courtesy of the Elders of Torinth'

1000 B.C: The Dawn of Magic and the Arrival of the Four, by Elder Garand

Before the Dawn:

Looking upon the state of Eraesel today, it seems a world away from the mystical and vague beginnings of ancient history and the records of mankind. A trip down the Black Hollow, or to the snowy highlands that surround Skyrel, reveals that the great history of Eraesel and how it came to be is but a shadow of what it once was. We have lost the relics of Old Eldrill, with the home of the First Kings of Eraesel little more than a pile of rubble along the roadside in the northern Coves. Even the relics of New Eldrill, like the Kyrks that once littered the kingdom, are all but gone. Nonetheless, whilst the buildings and men of the ancient order are dead, their stories are not.

Legend has it that 1811 years ago, before the arrival of the Pashkiri and the War of the Four, the continent we now call Eraesel was the Nameless Land, an island that stood on it's own. Although it is hard to gage how the Nameless Land looked, many Elders state that the most accurate representation of the days before the Great Arrival can be seen through the luscious green fields and rolling hills of The Coves. The reason for this is because Torinth has always been the seat of the King, with the other four provinces (Hogsfaen was not a province at this point) the seats of the Four Gods. Therefore, the Four decided to leave The Coves as it is, in honour of the days before their arrival. The inhabitants of the Nameless Land are referred to only as the 'Brezonians', the first human ancestors of many of the great houses that rule over present day Eraesel. Elder Jesbold has been pivotal in the study of Brezonians, with his research revealing that Brezonians were significantly shorter than modern men, with hair so blond it almost appeared white, and eyes of pure white, as in those days men did not have a pupil or iris in their eyes. Another aspect to note is their rather pale skin and petite features. Indeed, accounts in books such as 'The Birth of Eraesel' or 'The Invasion from the East' (both highly praised primary sources for detail and accuracy) stress their beauty and otherworldly appearance. The unknown author of 'The Invasion of the East', writing sometime after the Pashkiri Invasion of 0 A.C. from personal experience, states:

'Just when I thought I had come to know all there is to know in this world, I stumble upon New Eldrill. Barbaric, they said. Hideous. Though when we sailed in with our mighty fleets I was not the only man on board to be mesmerised. These fertile, green lands full of fair species so different from our own they seemed not human.'

Nobody is aware of the history of Brezonians before the Great Arrival, mainly due to the fact that they did not write their own histories before they were enlightened by the Four. Artefacts have been found, but nobody remains who is able to translate the Brezonian tongue, seeing as how they changed to the modern vernacular upon the arrival of the Four.

(Above) An artistic impression of the Tarquin Lake before the arrival of the Four.

The 'Dawn of Magic' of 1000 B.C, and the Great Arrival:
Many have given different names: 'The Riders of Dawn', 'The Great Enlighteners', 'The Architects of Man', but all know them by the same name - 'The Four Gods'. The ancient scripts tell us that in the year 1000 Before Conquest, four men arrived on a ship made of walnut wood, donning robes so exquisite that the Brezonians bent their knees when they saw them. They were the first wizards to ever land in Eraesel, indeed the first wizards to exist upon this world. Nobody quite knows where they'd come from, as they never revealed such information. All we know is that the Four started in the east as far as the Kingdom of Mossabad, where men have skin as black as night, and made their way across the world, shaping it's cities and geography as they went, until they reached their final destination: the Nameless Land, which they now called Eldrill. It is important to note here that whilst they were called 'gods' by the Brezonains, it was not meant in the same context as is used in the east and the barbaric lands beyond the Arman Islands: though we refer to them as gods and the first wizards, we acknowledge them as men and, like men, capable of dying. When one travels east beyond the Arman Islands to foreign cities like Salhidoñia, men in these parts hold ludicrous beliefs that the Four were chosen representatives of some higher beings.