Sonū has persevered through dark times, the horrors of war, and foul magic. Though relations between the humans and the other races of the Known World, its current landscape has been shaped by several key events.
Little is known about the Great Wars, but the remnants of The Old World can be found throughout the wilderlands of Sonū. No one knows with any degree of certainty how long the humans and Emere spent in self-imposed exile behind, sealed away and protected from the creatures and barbarism the world was reduced to. What is known, however, is that those who braved the poisons and the darklings which roamed the blasted lands, searching for remaining humans to exterminate, were vastly different from those who sealed themselves away. So different, in fact, that they were no longer viewed as the same species.
In their infancy, the Draer Wardens were solitary figures who bore the totality of the responsibility they accepted on their shoulders, and theirs alone. As the power inherent in the Land of Sonū recovered, the Last Warden - a title afforded the sole living Warden that was handed down as each new Warden was chosen - saw a need to protect the knowledge of Sonū’s scholars, having seen the proficiency with Old World science dwindle as those with the talent to wield sorcery increased. The Last Warden, an Emere by the name of Nilus Tarsis, believed that all knowledge was worthy of preservation - a tenet which drove a wedge between Nilus and his own people.
Over a thousand years after the Great Wars, an ambitious human sorcerer named Semil Bellas ignored the warnings of his peers, researching a means of conjuring a protector of Sonū - one which had no bias, merely stomping out dark forces wherever they were found. In doing so, he was infected by a dark spirit whispering in his mind. He became obsessed with accessing more powerful Elemental magic and became paranoid, seeing enemies at every turn. When his transgressions were discovered by the other members of the First Watch, he was expelled from the Wardens of Sonū. Fleeing to the northern territory of the Temeran tribes, he used his magic to subjugate the tribes, establishing a fortress and creating the Sthanex - a powerful tome of sinister magic.
A hundred years later, when the first Temeran armies marched forth beyond the Stonefang Mountains, laying siege to Oathhold and passing through The Noose to threaten the Ezinde tribes, Semil Bellas was no more and only the darkling spirit of Naramunz remained. The threat Bellas, a traitor to the Wardens of Sonū and the Council of the First Watch, posed was thought neutralized when the Draer Wardens drove him from Oathhold, but since the Darkling Naramunz had taken hold, its ambitions and hatred for the denizens of Sonū only grew. When Naramunz had the might of the Temeran tribes under his thrall, they marched forth to lay siege to Oathhold so that they could claim the power and knowledge within in the name of Naramunz.
Naramunz’ army was turned away only by the combined might of the Emere, Okun, and the Free Kingdoms Armies. Through the power of the Sthanex, his soul survived and the book whispered to new thralls, bending their minds to the will of Naramunz.
Two generations passed before the Darkling spirit Naramunz once again threatened the Land of Sonū. The Sthanex was discovered by a tribe of Ezinde in the Thurzan Reach on the western edge of the Sunless Valley. They felt its power and both feared and revered it. Through the dark tome, darkling spirits whispered to the Ezinde, tempting them with power over the Okun who stole their territory and the humans that gave aid and comfort to their enemy. Brada Kielo, High Warden of the First Watch, heard the whispers and gathered up the Heirs of Sonū - two descendants of a bloodline whose ancestors had been instrumental in the defeat of Naramunz and whose fate was seemingly intertwined with that of the Land of Sonū and its people. The other members of the First Watch thought Brada’s actions premature, doing little if anything to help his endeavor.
With the death of Kielo, the Draer Wardens were left without leadership. Those loyal to Kielo attempted to carry on in her name but were ousted by a mutinous faction which believes Kielo was destined to fail and that she should not attempt to influence the fate of Sonū.
With the death of Brada, the Council was left without leadership. Those loyal to her attempted to carry on in her name but were ousted by a mutinous faction that believed her actions were foolhardy, destined to fail, and that she should never have sought to influence the fate of Sonū and its people. Attempting to cleanse Oathhold of those like-minded to Brada Kielo, the Council of the Second Watch was formed.
Nearly fifty years ago, the first of the shadow wraiths emerged when Emeran sorcerers, in a vain attempt to recover secrets of Wyld Magic from the World That Was, began siphoning Elemental Magic energy from the very land itself to combine with their own Wyld Magic reserves. Elemental Magic is an insidious force, however, and the sorcerers became addicted to the power combining the two forces together provided. Worse yet, it opened the door further for Darklings on the other side of The Veil to infect those in the Land of Sonū.