A Brief History of Syphain, Part 1

THE PILGRIMAGE


The western continent of Syphain was “discovered”  two years after the Great Freeze. The recording of years was begun by men in the far east and this was around the time men began to travel by sea and discover new lands out of necessity.

The worldwide catastrophe known as the Great Freeze had been caused by the earth stopping its rotation around the sun, leaving half of the land in darkness. This forced people to move eastwards to find habitable lands.

Many groups fled to Syphain in order to survive. The largest of the groups were the men (or “Aelnid”) and the elves. The elves came from a frozen tundra known as Mipone, and the Aelnid from the wastelands of N’ar Tirren.

Prior to its discovery, Syphain was inhabited for immeasurable years by a variety of flora and fauna, but the only two speaking races were called the Klavians and the Mantars. The Mantars populated the northeastern portion of Syphain, in a large area now called the Cairnon. Their capital was Majerhaus. It was surrounded by smaller villages, of which Canyffe was the furthest south. When man arrived and travelled northwards, this was the first of the Mantar villages they found. They burned Canyffe to the ground and overtook the capital of Majerhaus.

Because of this event, the Mantars were pushed eastward, and they formed the small villages of Lu and Bi. In the year 247 after the Great Freeze, the village of Lu became mysteriously empty. All of the inhabitants had died of a possible epidemic. Only the town of Bi is what is left of the grandeur of Majerhaus. The Mantars continued to settle in different areas on the outskirts of the Cairnon. They eventually travelled further west and began to integrate with the elves and the Klavians.

The Klavians lived in the far west of Syphain and remained relatively untouched for a while, until nomads began travelling there from other islands. There was a large group of nomads that settled in the south, in the land of Fanos. They worshipped a minor god called Argog, and it was in his name that they wiped out the native Klavians. More groups settled, and eventually a full third of the Klavian population west of the Central Plains was wiped out in a matter of a few years. Since this event, the Klavians have remained close to wooded areas, and have more or less stayed hidden from civilization.