History of the Golden Shores
History Long Past
The continent of Thiusland was made by elves to be their garden on Simul. As dragons, humanoids, beasts, and plants grew across the surface of the greater world, they stayed in this corner to play with their own world and grow new wonders. The elves were solely focused on the cultivation of the Ur tree and on managing the mistakes they had made along the path of creation, manifesting as forces that clashed fiercely, as was their nature.
One elf, the deigh-sprit (the one who shapes in the southern dialect) was not interested in growth or the collaborative building of life. They saw the dragon empires of the east, and the simple human stone huts and wished instead to build magnificent sculptures, crypts, and impossible monuments that would catch the eye and to cover them with strange patterns to confuse those who beheld them.
The deigh-sprit’s craft of landshaping was unparalleled on Simul, and was thought to be inimitable as long as it would never be sullied by the limited vision of the fleeting life of mortals. While the deigh-sprit’s way was not seen as helpful or contributing to the greater world as it was built by the elves, something many elves saw as essential to creation, they saw no harm in their kin’s creations and let them be. The elves kept the deigh-sprit’s buildings contained to one Peninsula on the southern shore of Thiusland. It was not for hundreds of years that a mortal touched the face of Thiusland. But one day, a dragon of great size and of green color flew to the forbidden shores fleeing from a lost war. The elves at large were kind to the dragon, assuming it lost. The creative thought was not, they were aghast that a mortal would land on their sanctuary and lay eyes on their master works. They created an army of living sculptures to slay the beast, rock given motion and a purpose. One grand titan of stone acted as a rallying force for the earth elementals and a great battle was fought between the sculptures and the dragon accompanied by its army of mortal warriors on the western fields of Thiusland.
Seeing the ferocity of the dragon, and its cruelty towards its subordinates, the elves of Thiusland realized for the first time that they needed to offer an alternative to the tyranny of dragons to the the cultures of Simul. This event also showed them that a dark impulse had grown in one of their own kin; the creative. It also made them realize that this new Thiusland, now also inhabited by mortals, would have no place for the deigh-sprit’s secluded playground.
The elves gave the deigh-sprit a choice, either accept that mortals would come to Thiusland and inhabit their creations, or leave this land. The creative felt betrayed by their kin but had no wish to fight them, so they left to the heavens. As a parting gift, they also left behind innumerable traps, monsters, and constructs amongst the various crypts they had built to slay mortals that dared trespass upon them.
The Recent Past
As humans, gnomes, and then dwarves arrived on the South shores of Thiusland, they were met by elven spirits welcoming them to their new home and warning them of the perils of the deigh-sprit’s relics on the peninsula. The gnomes were not enticed by the already built upon land and sought to travel further inland to farm. The dwarves made their way into the mountains and were shocked to find ancient dwarven mines and large metal slabs speaking of the importance of metal ores. The slabs were so ornate and ominous that a new religion was formed from their cryptic words, the practitioners calling themselves the Metallurgists.
The humans were awe-struck by the large areas of stonework and the structures were too vexing for the newcomers to ignore. They called to the people like sirens to a sailor and the humans began working to venture deeper into the structure, dismantling the traps put there to prevent their intrusion. They began building small settlements on top and around the wild stone structures but they struggled to copy the grand forms of the shaped landscape in their own constructions.
Those who proved themselves adept at bypassing traps and skilled enough to fight the monsters that roamed in the crypts were lauded in the budding community. A communal celebration and uplifting of martial prowess emerged among the settlers of the south. Three sects diverged, the knights who fought in the crypts of the peninsula, the fishers and ferry folks who took people out from the southern peninsula to the mainland, and the farmers of the mainland itself. As time moved on, the great sculptures’ splendor were diminished as they were built around, over, and through to create a sprawling city on the southern peninsula; Gildalia. This was not the end of the danger however as the crypts seemed to reach ever deeper and many were hidden in areas not yet explored by the mortals. The challenges below were too great for many knights and scores of brave or foolish souls found their death in the lower chambers, releasing monsters into the city above. As the newly formed city of the south grew, many dungeons were built over and sealed for the safety of the laypeople of the city of Gildalia. The people of the south branched out to numerous cities, some no longer wishing to weather the dangerous crypts while others wished to be closer to the Metallurgists.
As the cities grew so too did the influence of the Metallurgists, who had created a grand citadel in the upper reaches of the South. The members of the clergy found their way into the many facets of city life, some as judges, bankers, merchants, and healers. Their magical prowess was unmatched and their holy and learned ways gave them a place of respect in the society.
The ferry folks and merchants of Gildalia found themselves never wanting for food as they brought farmers who lived in Gildalia but farmed on the silver shore to and from every day. The need for trading potential led many farmers to focus on crops and farming practices that would prioritize abundance over diversity in order to allow them enough to feed themselves but also provide trade commodities.
Trade truly was king as this period saw the southern crops reach as far as the north and as easterly as the eastern city of Xedoc. Even with this prestigious trade, the merchants were not at the top of the social structure. They were never nearly as rich as the knights, as not only was stone taken from the ancient structures but also metal ore that the Metallurgists coveted and held in value above all else. This ability to find new metals for the church gave knights a symbiotic strength and as the church grew so did their worth and power. Overall, a class system hinging on value and worth seated itself deep into the southern cities and only grew more and more encompassing as the years moved on.