Wildemount
Wildemount after the Calamity
In the wake of the vast destruction of the Calamity and the exile of the pantheon in the Divergence, the survivors began to emerge from the ash and shadows to reclaim and rebuild Exandria. Across the continents, many took the pieces of their cultures and sought a place to forge a new age. This tome focuses on the rebirth of the deeply scarred land now known as Wildemount, the site of the most terrible conflicts of the Calamity, where the echoes of those deadly battles linger to this day.
In the Wake of the Gods
After the Calamity, the lands of Wildemount became wild and perilous, filled with monstrosities and beasts that prowled its broken fields and shattered mountains. The land’s new denizens reclaimed the newly untamed realm, hunting any mortals not clever enough to hide. The masterless creations of the Betrayer Gods ruled their own territories, establishing themselves as a new pantheon.
As the dust settled, surviving mortals grasped at what they could from their bygone lives and hid away in fear of what would come next. Those of faith dealt with their sense of failure and abandonment, while enlightened scribes mourned the loss of their research and the great magical secrets that had enabled the previous age to rise to such prominence.
Others picked up what they could from the ruins and chose to start anew, hoping that their descendants would learn from their mistakes. Over those early centuries, the scattered survivors fought back the terrors that stalked the abandoned lands of Wildemount, continuing to endure and build new societies, civilizations that eventually reclaimed Wildemount and brought the world to this modern age.
Western Wynandir
The lands of Western Wynandir were the epicenter of the Calamity’s destruction. Rocky ranges of mountains were sundered, entire landscapes burned, and hovering seats of power crashed down from the sky, their floating cities consumed beneath the hungry earth.
Grimgolir
The dwarven clan of Grimgol that once helped hold the center of the Ashkeeper Peaks was nearly wiped out during the Calamity. The surviving families and warriors burrowed deep beneath the surface of Exandria to wait out the chaos. Collapsing nearly every established tunnel used in the wars above, the clan found themselves cut off from the rest of Exandria. For centuries, the dwarves of Clan Grimgol endured the darkness alone, defending against the dregs of the Betrayer Gods’ forces and adapting themselves into a hardy and stalwart people.
Half-remembered tales and myths of their forgotten history, mingled with worship of Moradin, began to stir an eagerness to return to their ancestral home and build anew. With new purpose, they carved their way back toward the surface, only to find the mountains of their home reduced to dust and pebbles.
Not easily dissuaded, the dwarves returned to the surface for the first time in generations, finding the once-ruined world now recovering with renewed life and color. The resilient clan made their way north along the Brokenveil Bluffs and found a massive mountain to house their new city. They built their stronghold into this monolith among the Dunrock Mountains, and gave their new home the name of Grimgolir.
Rise of the Julous Dominion
In the Marrow Valley, the numerous decades following the Divergence left the landscape blackened and inhospitable. The remaining people struggled for food and shelter as they wandered the rocky hills for centuries, avoiding the colder weather of the north. Nomadic sects of humans and halflings defended themselves against the hungry beasts and lingering evils threatening their homesteads, and fought with each other over fertile land.
Small civilizations began to form amid the chaos, but it wasn’t until the central township of Zadash was established as a safe outpost that the unification of the Marrow Valley began. Helmed by the Julous family, supposedly of noble blood from before the Calamity, a guarded community with an organized military force was built in the center of the valley around four hundred years ago. It became both a haven for the struggling masses and a center for agricultural expansion.
Increasing their strength with each generation, this movement guided by the Julous family became known as the Julous Dominion, stretching across the south end of Western Wynandir. Not all agreed to join the Julous Dominion, however. Some outliers rejected the Julous interests, founding their own village of Kamordah on the boiling earth of the hills in the southwest Marrow Valley. In time, the people of Kamordah came to worship a being of primordial fire that lives beneath the mountains and speaks to them in dreams and visions.
Founding of the Dwendalian Empire
In the frigid fields north of the Marrow Valley, the survivors of the Arcanum city of Zemniaz scraped by in the snow for centuries, clutching their surviving scrolls and fragments of cultural history. They established the dour outposts of Icehaven and Yrrosa, but it wasn’t until the Zemnian people wandered east to the Pearlbow Wilderness that they found fields that were fertile enough to nurture a new society.
Founded atop the ruins of an ancient temple to the Dawn Father, the city of Rexxentrum rose to become the hub of Zemnian culture. Now that the Zemnian people no longer had to struggle for survival amid the harsh elements, their leaders argued over how to establish a centralized government. Some wished for a republic, while others sought a theocracy under the priests that shepherded the people into this new age. Eckhardt Dwendal, a well-respected merchant and tremendous force behind the development of Rexxentrum, wished to institute a monarchy and place his son Manfried on the throne. Debate spun wildly for over three years, while Eckhardt privately made deals with the heads of the emerging guilds, using promises or blackmail to secure their cooperation. With the resounding support of the flourishing guild heads, the throne was established. In the year 539 of the post-Divergence era, Manfried became the first emperor of the Dwendalian Empire.
The Marrow War
It wasn’t long before the expanding borders of the Dwendalian Empire began to push up against the growing Julous Dominion. An agreement was brokered to avoid conflict as long as favorable trade could be established and maintained. Even so, the resource-rich center of Western Wynandir was split between the two states, with both factions eager to discover the other’s weaknesses. Rumors of the discovery of a massive platinum mine within the Julous Dominion further increased the empire’s desire to conquer their neighbor.
At this time, religious leaders throughout the Dwendalian Empire rebelled against the emperor’s religious restrictions. After his coronation, Emperor Manfried Dwendal enacted laws limiting worship and prayer to subjects concerning the power, profit, and expansion of the empire. In the year 544 PD, internal strife and insurgent action turned bloody when the zealous leaders of varying faiths attempted, and failed, to usurp the throne for their council. An angered Emperor Manfried Dwendal had the rebellious priests executed—an event that came to be known as the Admonition.
The emperor spoke of abolishing all worship within his boundaries. This caused further uproar among the populace, but then Emperor Manfried’s spies discovered that the seeds of the uprising had been sown by Julous interests. Publicly exposing the plot, the emperor outlawed only select faiths that he felt threatened civilized life. He redirected much of the people’s fury by also proclaiming the Julous Dominion an enemy of the empire later that year and declaring war on the neighboring nation.
Meanwhile, the Julous Dominion was dealing with the refusal of the outlying villages near Kamordah to accept their rule in this time of brewing hostility. They eventually drove the independent villagers back into the Cyrios Mountains, just in time to hear the horns of war blaring from the empire to the north. The violent conflict known as the Marrow War lasted over sixteen months and cost the lives of many soldiers and innocents on both sides of the Marrow Valley.
The Julous Dominion lacked the unified military force of the empire. When a major military push left the capital city of Zadash occupied by the empire, Baron Inock Julous and Baroness Tessandra Julous met with Emperor Manfried to negotiate a peace. During this meeting, the baron and baroness were unceremoniously executed. Their bodies were displayed publicly along with the narrative that they had attempted an assassination on the emperor during the peace talks. Disheartened and bereft of leadership, the Julous Dominion immediately came to an end, as did the war.
To prove his benevolence to the people of the newly conquered Julous Dominion, and to help avoid future uprisings, Emperor Manfried declared that all citizens of the dominion would keep their lands and homesteads. No soldiers would stand trial or be punished for their previous allegiance. Life would continue as it had, except for the implementation of imperial taxes, laws, and oversight across the valley under the new emperor. Outlawed religious iconography was destroyed, crops and goods were redistributed according to the needs of the empire, and life slowly returned to normal for the Zemnian people.
A King Is Crowned
With citizens of the former Julous Dominion tense beneath their new rule and a growing sentiment of frustration with imperial leadership building, Emperor Manfried sought a way to reform the nation under his banner. The propagandist minds who fought the social war with the Julous Dominion recommended a shift in public image and title, one that could command more respect within Western Wynandir while casting aside the oppressive connotations of the title of emperor. Still riding high on the victory against the Dominion, Emperor Manfried harkened back to the halcyon lore of the Age of Arcanum, recalling the beloved kings and queens of old. It was decided that the people would no longer have an emperor, but a king. Crowning himself the first of the line of Dwendalian kings, King Manfried insisted on maintaining the now-ominous national title of the Dwendalian Empire, famously proclaiming, “I am the Dwendalian king to my people, beloved and open to their wishes. To our enemies, we remain resolute and unstoppable. We are the Dwendalian Empire.”
The Eve of Crimson Midnight
Not a quarter century after the Marrow War ended and the line of kings was established, a smaller, internal conflict rocked the capital city of Rexxentrum. A number of noble houses with a strong history of studying arcane pursuits began to compete with other high-born magic practitioners from the Julous Dominion. Throughout the lands of the newly expanded empire, these houses escalated their subterfuge and espionage against one another, until the rivalry finally erupted into an all-out magical conflict in the streets of the capital itself.
The events of the Eve of Crimson Midnight destroyed numerous buildings and maimed a number of innocents caught in the crossfire. The struggle ended with all involved shackled and brought before the king. After days of deliberation, an agreement was drawn up that would absolve those involved of the usual punishment in exchange for direct subservience to the Crown and the goals of the empire. Establishing themselves as the Cerberus Assembly, this council of mages became a powerful tool for the empire to maintain its position as the dominant force of Wildemount.