Creation
According to some legends, the universe was made up of time, magic, and material swirling together in unorganized chaos. The gods of creation wove the three together in equally balanced parts to create a new world.
The veil between the worlds was thin, and from time to time a mist would descend upon the lands. The edges between worlds would blur, and beings from other realms could cross over. Many of the magical beasts who make their homes in the wild parts of Interphaze originated in other worlds and migrated here at those times. Some scholars believe that the earliest humans also came from another world, and that from time to time new individuals or groups still stumble across the barriers to find new homes in Interphaze.
This world thrived, giving birth to a wide variety of different races, from giants all the way down to halflings. Sometimes they lived in harmony with each other, sometimes they fought against each other. Eventually a few of the civilized races banded together to form the country of Interphaze, ushering in a new era of society. Three classes were created including the noble class, born or chosen to be leaders and administrators, the working class, the backbone of society, the everyday people who provide the food and craft that keep the country alive, and finally the hero class, made up of individuals born of any rank that choose to devote their lives defending the lands from danger.
Amongst the hero class, there were individuals who discovered that they could manipulate the very essences from which the world was made. Some could bend earth, water, and the other elements to their will, others could reach out and grasp magic, shaping its energy to do their bidding, and still others could manipulate time itself. Those that could bend or stop time were the most powerful of all and called themselves the Time Lords.
War of the Time Lords
The Time Lords were split, half wanting to use their power to help protect the land, half wanting to use their power for their own personal gain. A war broke out between the two groups of Time Lords and the entire country was embroiled in the conflict; more and more were forced to choose sides, abandon their callings, and join in the fight. To battle each other, the Time Lords relied on using more and more of their power, each side trying to overwhelm the other with sheer amounts of power used in ways that had never before been seen.
The war devastated the lands, and there seemed to be no end in sight. In desperation, four heroes of legend embarked on a secret quest to find a way to stem the flow of the Time Lord’s power. They found their answer in the form of a ritual that would create a second moon that would lock time in place so it could no longer be manipulated by the Time Lords. Unfortunately the ritual required the four heroes to sacrifice their own lives to provide enough energy to fuel the spell. As heroes, dedicated to protecting the lands, they felt it was only right to do so; they completed the ritual and successfully stopped the Time Lords.
Unfortunately after so many years of abusing time’s power, the fabric from which the world was made was irreparably damaged. The holes torn in the veil allowed countless monsters and demons to pour into the realm from other worlds. Powerful magical artifacts also appeared that many hypothesized must have come from other worlds and it was now magic that reigned supreme over the land.
It was during this time that Corteus Seath was crowned King of Interphaze. As the first elven king, he was able to solidify a union between Interphaze and Mirunel, the land of the elves. With the help of the Dwarves, he led the heroes in valiantly defending the realm from the new onslaught of magical beasts.
Apocalypse
The War of the Time Lords had so greatly damaged the fabric that made up the world, that magic poured through faster and faster. It widened the holes more and more until the magic tore the remaining shreds of reality apart. He force of the tear pulled all of life into one of the two neighboring realms. The righteous heroes found themselves in the realm of demons while the evil heroes found themselves in the realm of angels. Knowing that they did not belong there, each side fought that realms’ denizens in a race to recreate the material world in their own image or be trapped for all eternity.
A World Reborn
The souls of both the heroes of evil and the heroes of good were strong, and both sides prevailed against their respective foes. They managed to find the ancient spells that had originally created the world and through force of will they managed to reshape the torn threads of wild magic, time, and material into their original form. They remade the world, half evil and half good, and reformed the protective barriers that abuse of time and magic had torn apart. They returned to the newly remade realm of Interphaze and found it changed.
Time flowed normally, due to the balance of the two moons over the lands. The flow of magic was lessened to a normal level, allowing enchantments to wear off after time. Many ancient artifacts were lost or destroyed. The threats of beasts from other realms lessened and the heroes had only to defend the country from local monsters.
It was at this time that Bishop Hunter, the head dwarven priest and a proven loyal ally of the realm, disappeared mysteriously. The dwarves vowed to search for him and set off on a quest to find him. The king, Corteus Seath, decided to accompany them to repay the dwarves for all of their help in defending the realm during major times of crisis.
In the king’s absence a regent was appointed to care for matters of the realm. This regent set up a council of advisers to assist him. Time passed and the king did not return from his quest, it seemed to many that he would not return. Sensing a need for a single ruler, the ruling council appointed a new monarch, the Kender Queen Firerun Spiritsinger.
The elven nation refused to recognize the new queen and elected to once again to be an independent kingdom.
Destruction of the Capital
During the time before the Apocalypse, a twisted lich-mage had discovered a way to create a pocket of safety to protect herself from the destruction of the realm. She alone, of all the monsters from the old world, had managed to survive. She decided that if the heroes could remake the world in their image, than so to could she. To destroy the world, she conceived of a plan that required all of the power of the Incarnations in the form of their artifacts. She was almost successful, having convinced most of the heroes of her good intentions to save the artifacts from harm, but was thwarted at the last moment by an untrusting goblin. The lich-mage was eventually defeated, but the entire capital city was destroyed in the conflict. It was rebuilt as Newtown.
A Time of Instability
Time passed and eventually elected Queen Spiritsinger grew bored of politics and abdicated her throne. A period of instability followed as the heroes and nobles scrambled to determine who would lead the country.
During this time Jal Fatespinner, already a leader of the wandering nation of Romani, pulled a legendary sword from a stone. The sword was prophesied to “bring either great glory or great destruction” to the lands of Interphaze. Many interpreted this to mean that it’s owner would be a great king of Interphaze. As a result, Jal was elected next King of Interphaze. The working class revolted, refusing to follow King Fatespinner, and he shortly thereafter abdicated the throne.
The crown passed next to a man called Marshall, who claimed the same humble roots as the workers of the land. I was eventually revealed that the man called Marshall was really the paladin Gabriel in disguise. The hero class refused to acknowledge Gabriel as the legitimate ruler of the land, and he, too, chose to abdicate the throne.
At this time, a new claimant to the throne emerged. A man named Traveus Seath returned from travels in far away lands. He proved himself to be the son of the long departed Corteus Seath, and the legitimate heir to the throne. He assumed leadership of the kingdom and was recognized by nobles, heroes, and workers alike to be the legitimate ruler and the fight over the throne ended.
The Reign of King Traveus Seath I
King Traveus inherited a realm that was plagued by divided loyalties and evil influences from outside realms.
Pirates raided the coasts, claiming many of the realms coastal islands as their own lands. A sapling from the tree of life was infested with a demonic spirit of death, earning the moniker “Tree of Death,†spread corruption to an ever increasing area of land around itself. Dark elves attacked from a realm somewhere beneath Interphaze, threatening to take over the surface. The influence of the evil god, Sanjeen, began to rise across the lands.
With the help of his most trusted advisers, the king was able to forge a diplomatic partnership with the Brethren of the Coast, uniting them with the heroes of Interphaze against the common enemies.
After three years, the Tree of Death was finally vanquished by a partnership of heroes led by the druidic circle and clerics of the Church of the Three Faced Goddess. The ritual to banish the demon within the tree nearly failed, and would have done so, if not for the noble sacrifice of Kizzy Windsong who threw herself in the way of a hostile spell.
The threat from underground was stifled before it gained much momentum as the opening between the Drow lands and the lands of Interphaze were closed off by an explosion.
The forces of Sanjeen continued to spread, gaining influence in the land and planting themselves like a cancer in mayn towns and cities throughout the kingdom. For years, the battle for the soul of the land raged, with the forces of Sanjeen slowly gaining ground. Opposed by the church of Orrim, and the heroes of the realm, the conflict erupted into full scale war. The end of the war came only through the sacrifice of one of the greatest scholars in the Kingdom, Heiro, and the bravest Ranger in the land, Alex.
The end of the Sanjeen wars brought a time of relative peace, though bandits and monsters take advantage of the kingdom’s weakness in growing numbers.