The Ruins of a Centaur City dating back to the Age of Yore.
Before the Greeks, before the Romans, Europe as we know it was called the Land of Yore. A number of mythic races, now long extinct, ruled the Land of Yore. To the west, in what is now Great Britain and France, lived the Elves, a wise seafaring folk with long life spans and magnificent cities. To the north, in what became Scandinavia, dwelt the Dwarves, a short, hardy race renowned for their strength and stubbornness. In the south lived the Satyrs and Centaurs, two bitter enemies that both eventually fell to the invading Humans. In the Alps and across the eastern plain, Wolfmen prowled the land. And finally, in the north, a race of Giants lived in quiet seclusion, stirring from their campfires only when attacked. The Land of Yore endured for centuries, but eventually all the mythic races died out, due to the brutality of the invading humans. Thus the Age of Yore came to an end, giving way to history as we know it.
File:Yore1.pdfClick here to see a map of the Land of Yore during the Great Peace.
Note: Although the Land of Yore contains a variety of fantasy races generally associated with magic, there is NO MAGIC in the Land of Yore.
The Elven Age (1 - 400 A.Y.)[]
The Elven scribes marked the beginning of the Age of Yore with the founding of their capital, Connemara. The Elven Warrior Beladon the Blue founded the city after his tribe became the first to unite all of the British Isles. Beladon, a native of Wales, took Kalidora of Ireland as his wife, thus cementing the new dynasty. After establishing the city of Connemara, Beladon organized a united government, dividing his realm (the British Isles) into Vassals. He appointed a Vizier to rule each Vassal, and declared himself the High Vizier of the Empire. He also added to the strength of the Elven Fleet, which patrolled the waters of the Irish sea and the English Channel. And so the Age of Yore began.
The Great Peace (400 - 650 A.Y.)[]
After the Humans and Elves finally made peace, the seven races of the Land of Yore achieved an unsteady peace that lasted for 250 years without a major war. The Wolfmen occasinally raided their neighbors in Germany and France, and the Centaurs and Satyrs broke out into small skirmishes every so often, but the general spirit was tranquility. The Humans in Germany and the Netherlands established more effective techniques in farming and husbandry, while the Elves built magnificent temples to their Gods in Normandy. The Elves no longer wished to expand their empire, and while a few Human Thanes spoke of conquest, they could never seem to gather the strength. The Dwarves, meanwhile, discovered an immense vault of gold in Norway, and became the source of wonder for their neighbors. The Dwarves began to build ships and patrol the Baltic Sea, trading with the Humans, Elves, and Wolfmen. As the Dwarves slowly grew to dominate the north, a war brewed in the south. So around 650 A.Y., the Great Peace came to an end, and the Dwarven Age began.
The Dwarven Age (650 - 800 A.Y.)[]
Dwarves are dull and boring because they spend most of the day hitting rocks with picks to dig tunnels so they can take metals out of the earth. When they are not hitting rocks with picks they spend most of their time drinking intoxicating beverages and hitting each other. Its really amazing that this activity would be the best that was found, but that's why its called The Dwarven age. Sad, isn't it?
The Bleak Times (800 - 1150 A.Y.)[]
Because the humans themselves were the products of interbreeding with the aliens from outer space, they retained this activity and had been interbreeding with all the other races for most of their history whenever they could find a willing partner. Thus, the human race began to include the traits of the other races which made them simultaneously more formidable and more likely to fight amongst themselves. As the Dwarven Age came to a close the humans began to encroach on other territories and the others were forced to relocate to smaller and smaller areas, except the Elves, who were able to guard their territory and temples. By the time the other races came to their senses and realized that they must fight off the humans or lose all rights to their traditional homelands there were so many humans the fight seemed hopeless. However, the high elven priest Aedzmiaga developed a weapon that would kill only the humans - or so he thought. When used, this terrible weapon did kill most of the humans, but it also devastated the satyrs and centaurs, obliterating all but their memory. Many elves, dwarves, and giants also died, incluing the not-nearly-as-brilliant-as-he-wished-he-was Aedzmiaga. Because they can smell something coming a mile away, most of the Wolfmen (except the ones with head colds) escaped to the relative safety of Atlantis. It was many years before many areas were habitable again, although small oases where dandelions and Ratatat trees grew sparsely dotted the landscape. From orbit, these spelled out "My hovercraft is full of eels" in Sanskrit, even though Sanskrit hadn't been invented yet.
The Final Days (1150 - 1200 A.Y.)[]
Because the Bleak Times were so drab and bleak, the remaining inhabitants of the Land of Yore came together for a big party when it was discovered that a few centaurs and satrys had survived. They decided to call this time The New Age, but it wasn't to be. Realizing that violent conflict was stupid and counterproductive, even the Wolfmen decided to be peaceful and all beings held each other in high regard and celebrated their diversity and cultral nuances, although the wolfmen didn't actually eat anyone. The land was tilled and renewed, the fruit of the trees were delicious and nourishing, and all the residents of the Land of Yore lived in peace and harmony for 50 years until the aliens from space came back and killed them all because they couldn't stand the fact that they were happy and prosperous. Too much interdimensional travel will do that to you.
The Nothing Days (1200 - 2500 A.Y.)[]
Seriously, nothing happened for a long time because the space aliens were really good at what they did. But after a few centuries of killing anything that moved the space aliens got in their flying saucers and flew away to kill more interesting things somewhere else. After they left, nothing happened.