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timeline | sether war | sethers | guardians | maps | shen/shirae

TIMELINE
Random events. Including some events that are not as random.

1643 | Sether War begins
1649 | Sether War ends
1650 | Autumn festival becomes holiday
1892 | start of ten year war between snow-wisps and humans
1978 | conflicts in lands south of Eviel
2339 | Eviel officially becomes part of Dragon dominion
2346 | expedition south of fen-wisp territory disappears mysteriously
2597 | earthquake east of Miren
2603 | several small towns southwest of Soraya are destroyed
2604 | present story

SETHER WAR
About a thousand years ago, there was a war between the Sethers and Jekkanai. The Sethers, always in search of bodies to keep as their own, went to war against the other beings — humans, vampires, etc. Jekkanai, being the guardian of this world, fought back against them. And the dragons and phoenixes, thanks to their ever-eternal war, chose sides. The dragons supported Jekkanai; the phoenixes supported the Sethers.

The Sether army, led by a few Sether and phoenix generals, moved north. They took over the fen-wisp capital of Azor-ni before moving forward to the city of Miren (which was larger in the past). For a long time, the fighting continued in the mountains and forests, since the main armies were at a stalemate just north of Miren.

Unexpectedly, a new Sether general named Leil appeared and began to lead the Sethers as far north as Soraya (then just a small town). They struggled over the mountains and through the desert as if there was no resistance at all, until they were on the coast, just a few hundred miles from Eviel, where the dragons were centered. The dragons, naturally, began to get somewhat nervous with a huge army sitting on their doorstep.

The lead strategist of the dragons, Lory Rann, had no choice but to commit even the youngest dragons to the fight. One of these was Epsy. The first wave of Sethers were just at the shore of the sea when a great darkness (so to speak) came upon the land, called forth by one of Epsy's friends, whose name and appearance everyone seems to have forgotten. The Sethers retreated all the way to Miren, to regroup. The dragons followed.

There, Jekkanai sealed Leil away. The rest of the Sethers surrendered and were sealed away much further south, in an underground city (to ensure a lack of light) surrounded by a ring of mountains.

A huge division was made spanning the continent, into which was put pure darkness, so to speak, to ensure the Sethers could not cross it. (The water in this entire "river" is pitch black; those who fall in never come up again. The only way to cross is by ship.)

After the end of the war, there was nothing but confusion for many years. Many of the people who fought in the war disappeared mysteriously, including Epsy's friend. (Jekkanai faded out of memory another hundred years or so after the end.) The other guardians were relegated to the sidelines, with Jekkanai proclaimed as the big hero for having sealed the Sethers away. Jekkanai was to have shared the leadership with Amira, but she (conveniently for Jekkanai?) fell into enemy hands just before the end of the war, and was not released until much, much later.

The entire thing was a loss for both sides: The phoenixes lost because they and the Sethers had not taken over. The dragons lost because so many of them (nearly 70%) had been killed during the war (something they still have not recovered from up to the beginning of the story). The Sethers had been sealed away, trapped. Jekkanai, perhaps having used too much power to seal them, began to lose more and more influence until he had nearly no power at all. 

Now, a thousand years later, things are stirring up again. The dragons have too few people for such a war; the phoenixes are too weak, their best and strongest having been killed off by the dragons a thousand years ago. Jekkanai is gone, where, no one knows; the Sethers are dreaming of hate and bloodshed. It can only end badly.

SETHERS
Sethers are largely immaterial beings that look a little bit like dark fog in the air when not inside a host. They can possess any living thing by taking over its body. At that point, the host is as good as dead; once the Sether leaves the host body, the host body either is brain dead or just dead. Some assert that the Sethers consume the soul of the host in order to manifest itself, since often the Sether takes on some of the personality of the host. Others (who don't believe in souls) say the Sether is just a collection of memories and desires floating around in the form of energy, and that it's not the Sether who becomes the host but the host who becomes the Sether, in that the host merely takes on those memories and desires.

Sethers are impossible to kill. Their shell, their host can be destroyed, but they cannot be killed (except by darkness). The only way to contain them is to seal them away; they must either be contained or entirely destroyed.

Another thing worth noting about the Sethers: Outside their host, they dissipate in total darkness. The more scientific theory for it is that the Sethers are basically bits of energy floating around, and can sustain themselves somehow with energy from light, and that when in darkness, they have less energy to maintain themselves and so begin to lose bits and pieces until they no longer exist. The less scientific theory is the more obvious: Shadows exist only when there is light, and not in darkness.

Even inside their hosts, Sethers display a surprising abhorrence and fear of darkness. This may be because if their host is killed, they are forced to leave the body, and are then vulnerable as shadows. Light cannot harm them and only strengthens them.

MAP
It's a . . . map. O_o See the . . . map-ness. o_O Hey, shiny colors.

This is actually a much-simplified map. The names of mountain ranges and bodies of water are not included, for example. And many details like smaller rivers and cliffs and a scale and so forth are omitted. But then these are largely not relevant until the second war starts, and by then I will be drawing much more detailed maps of smaller areas. 

SHEN / SHIRAE  
This is only important if you are interested in my other stories. In [Shades of Dark], the groups will always be referred to as dragons and phoenixes, to reduce the potential for confusion, since the whole Shen vs. Shirae thing isn't as important here.

However, in many of my other projects (admittedly projects you'll never see) the dragons are called Shen and the phoenixes are called Shirae. Neither of these groups are human; they merely have taken on human form for so many years that they forgot what they were before.

The only way to become one of the dragons or phoenixes is to make a blood pact with the appropriate individuals. It involves either dying or a substantial amount of pain, depending on how it's done, and most that attempt it either go mad or die. It is almost never attempted except by seriously unbalanced individuals or when the only other alternative is death anyway. It has happened successfully only 3 times in the past four or five million years, so you can judge your chances there.