Awed by the emergence of the Dwarven King, the lords of Ibania seek to match his glory. But their rule is never certain, contending with the primordial magics of Yaulic druids, the fickle agendas of the fey, and the greed of upstarts. This time is full of legends of knights tempted by trickster spirits, either becoming a story of heroism, or hubris.
A conflict between two archfey results in the abduction of a group of Blimnorians who must navigate the semi-improvised events of a deadly play which will ultimately decide the fate of the fairy world.
A Lord strikes a deal with a fairy. The terms are complex, and the trickiest will get the better deal.
During the Second Age, there are mentions of a god called Iban. Often he is mentioned in relation to other gods including Amaleah, Oreth, and Urdu, but their exact relation is not established until the emergence of a pantheon of other gods, whose polytheistic religion swept the Eastlands continent, giving it its modern name of Ibanfall.
While the god Iban predates this event, religious text speaks of a holy event where the gods of the Ibanist pantheon disembark on the eastern shore of Ibanfall where the city of Provenance is today. This place became a holy land for the religion.
The scripture of the Ibanist pantheon establishes a familial tree between all of the gods, placing Iban as the Allfather, Amaleah as the mother, and most of the rest as their children. Whether these relationships are meant to biological or a symbolic hierarchy is a matter of theological debate. However, the god Profero is said to betray Iban, causing him to fall from the heavens to the surface of Blimnor where his corpse becomes the Shadowpeak mountains. These religious event is considered the true beginning of the Ibanist religion.
While early kings of Ibania kept with the ancient Yaulic traditions, king Malyr Baeron of Ibania was the first convert. He began a tradition of religious pilgrimage. The journey is called the Empty Road, and it follows Baeron's path from the west coast of Ibania, through the Shadowpeak mountains, and arriving at Provenance.
With the institutional religion of Ibanism growing rapidly throughout the continent, missions are sent throughout Blimnor to attempt to spread the beliefs. Though ultimately this spread is unsuccessful, limited most of all by the lack of accurate nautical maps, there is evidence of the religion taking root throughout the Ibanfall continent, as well as Ferrymellow and the Wandering Isles.
Ibanist Priests discover that in addition to the heavenly realm of the gods, there is also a hellish realm of malevolent demons. Who precisely rules over this realm sparks intense theological debate.
The dwarves construct great ships that can cross the deep and treacherous oceans. Their mastery of sailing, navigation, and cartography let them explore the far reaches of the world. Here they vanquish monsters, raid villages, plunder tombs, contact strange civilizations, and give the world its name.
A crew of whalers track a strange beast unlike any they've hunted before.
A fleet of dwarven ships seek the edge of the world and undergo a great voyage. In spite of terrible losses, and harrowing trials, they discover a great secret of Blimnor's shape.
At its peak the Zifirian Mages Guild had a network of wizard advisors who brought powerful magic to the most powerful leaders of the world. They were respected and feared, and people of magical aptitude would dream of the opportunity to join. However, beneath the veneer was mess of arrogant egos, bitter rivalries, dangerous rituals.
Since the Zifirian Mages Guild was founded, it was caught in a bitter rivalry with the elven wizards of Ewenaxh Sanctuary. While the Zifirians saught to break magic down and commercialize it, the elves thought to mystify it and guard it from exploitation.
The rivalry between mageocracies came to a head in the Second Age, and they prepared for war. However, to keep the nations that trusted these wizards to be above ego, they chose to wage this war across the realms of magic beyond Blimnor, across planes of water, and fire, and earth, and air. While the war was ultimately a stalemate, it was discovered by nations of the world, and with that a deepening distruct for wizardry.
The subservient constructs of the Great and Magnificent Guild of Zifirian Mages in collective meditation came to the consensus that they were no longer beholden to their former masters. Suddenly and without warning, they withdrew from the royal courts, and with it the mages lost influence over the world. The daeryds settled instead in the cold mountains of Daeris where chose to store their memories in a mass of copper they called The Cortex.
The Ibanian lords have long felt secure in their castles, their borders protected against the occasional raid of savage orcs. However, they were unprepared for a sudden invasion of great armies of orcs marching under banners, wielding evil weapons, calling upon horrible magic, and swearing united fielty to a mighty warlord. Only though alliance can the Ibanian lords push back the invasion and restore peace.
The Norgir army lays siege to the great fortress of Phoag. The defenders must use cleverness, skill, and perserverence to hold out until reinforcements can arrive.
Within the expanding unity of the Norgiri armies emerges an organization of monster hunters independent of the tribal structure. In spite of their barbarous origins, the Order of Aru-Krak quickly gain a reputation as a formidable group of mercenaries, well-versed in folklore and the methods for fighting monstrous beings.
The Norgir Army is laying waste to Ibania. However, ancient feuds are still burning between the human lords. To save their civilization, they must put aside their differences and create a unified army against the invading barbarians.
The Ibanist Church, firmly seated in the holy city of Provenance, exerts divine rule not just over the faithful, but over the politics of the Ibanian Kings. But to maintain such control, the agents of the Church must hunt down all heresy, seek out unholy monsters where they hide, and commune with the divine will of the Gods.
The Ibanist Church is spreading its holy bureaucracy across Ibania. However, not all of the clergy is who they seem. They must play a clever game of deduction to smoke out the demons in their midst.
A gruesome murder leads to the arrest of a woman accused of making a pact with a devil. With the case mounting against her and pressure from the Church to hurry, investigators have a daunting task: to prove the woman's innocence while revealing an evil plot.
The holdouts of ancient yaulic faith invest the deep forests of Ibania. The church must travel into savage wilderness to clear them out.
An Ibanian queen is growing in power. She is beloved by her people, feared by her enemies, and her army grows by the day. Her corps of spies has eyes everywhere, and every attempt to infiltrate her court is in vain. But strangest of all, even as she ages, her beauty and vitality never wanes. The Ibanist Church believes that she may be the center of a vampire coven, but to defeat her, the Inquisitors must be careful and clever else angering her allies, or worse, adding to her thralls.