History of Ba Xian (Hua Xia)

The History of Ba Xian (Hua Xia)
The summaries ahead help fill in the gaps between the first years and the fourth era, which is the current era. Each era is about a millennium. Keep in mind Baxian (or Ba Xian) would be used as a name for the entire continent, and Hua Xia, the name itself, would not be given to the country until the third Era.

Era 1: The Pandemonium Conflict, or the First Millennium
The first era, when the material plane started to discover the land of Ba Xian. By the time the first people arrived (the Eladrin who lived in the material plane, along with others they had learned to tolerate), they found the continent in a state of war between two groups, the Seelie Court, who controlled the southern lands, and the Unseelie Court, who controlled the northern lands. The war itself was a continuing thing well before people had come to Baxian, and it had seemed that both sides had come to a stalemate with both sides unable to best each other.

The people who had come from afar had sympathy for the Seelie Fey, who had convinced them that the other side was obsessed with oppressing the entire continent into a dark, chaotic realm with no hope. The rest of the era for the immigrants was spent learning things about the world with the help and knowledge of the Seelie Fey on the world of magic and the energy from it, and putting it to action in the battle against the Northern lands. In time, the Unseelie Court was slowly defeated, and near the end of the millennium, was completely abolished. The Unseelie Court, however, knew of their impending doom, and planted a secret gate that would, one day, open to unleash darkness even worse than their own on the world they would never see.

This era is where most of the first deities were formed. The land was ripe to be picked of it's energy, and those who mastered magic and the art of collecting their inner energy went to become legends for the eras to come. The Fey who once ruled over the lands knew their time was coming to an end, and instead of fighting the newcomers, had helped them settle into the material plane, and retracted the gates leading to the Feywild, living there instead with the Unseelie who kept the balance between the dark and light courts without having to fight a war over it.

Era 2: The Scholar's Revolution, or the Time of Learning/The Time of Dragons
With the Seelie Fey leaving the material planes to the people, now known as the Ba Xians, they were free to continue their studies with little hindrance of war or conflict in the near future. This brought a time of peace for over 5 centuries, which allowed the humans, elves, gnomes, halflings, dwarves, and the aasimar to strive and find their own places to live on the continent, breaking up the land fairly. This break up of land would create the countries of Hua Xia, the Free Lands, the Gobi Desert, Gorya and Yamato in the next era. These 5 centuries would also bring the last of the deities to be celebrated by the people in the future eras.

Even though there was some peace without the presence of war, it was still not a perfect world. Without the Seelie Fey and their chaotic magic, there was nothing stopping the magical beasts to roam and slowly overpopulate over the last 5 centuries. One magical beast in particular was the most misunderstood however, and would sadly see the near-eradication of their kind at the end of the next era.

The dragons were the strongest monsters to show their head during this Era, interested in the knowledge learned by the newcomers. The dragons themselves also had an ability to control the energy within Ba Xian and passed on this information only to the most trustworthy Ba Xians by pushing them through various vigorous tests of trust. There were dragons of darkness as well, though, and often the dragons of light would had to fight them off in strenuous air battles to protect the Ba Xians below.

The dragons of darkness knew they could not win their battles and took to searching the mountains for any source of extra power, and it was then they found the gateway the Unseelie had placed long before in the most northeastern lands, a land not yet civilized by the Ba Xians. They opened the gate, hoping to find a dark power to recruit, and without knowing, they had opened the first gate to the Shadowfell. The monsters that had poured out of the gate reached out across the land of Ba Xian and terrorized the world with a wave of darkness unseen by them for many years. The blame was not only put on the dragons of darkness, but the ones of light as well, as they apparently had done nothing to stop them.

The many centuries of progress would halt to a stop here because of the conflict now placed upon the people of Ba Xian, and would reach to the end of the era, bringing forth a new era of constant conflict against a completely chaotic enemy.

Era 3: The Calamity Hunt, or the Emperor's Call to Monster Eradication
A powerful aasimar family who had excelled during the second era stepped forward, enacting as the head of the Ba Xian armies once more. The Han family knew that the time was perfect to take their spot in power with the abilities their family had learned and passed down. Going to each of the various groups who had formed their own smaller governments, the Han family demanded loyalty to their name in return for the ability to remove the presence of the Shadowfell and the monsters that ruined the lands of Ba Xian. Some accepted the offer, and some refused, believing they had the power to do so themselves.

Regardless, the Han took what they could, and worked with the groups that did accept the offer (these groups would eventually become the lands that form Wu, Shu, and Wei). They knew that they could not defeat the bestial waves alone, and had decided to call upon their relatives within the heavens. Everyone in Ba Xian then knew the power the Han family truly had. As they had requested, the clouds opened up to the bright sky above, and an army of celestials of all kinds came to the call of the Hans. The Han were quick to dispatch the warriors they summoned, taking out countless amounts of magical monsters both from the Shadowfell, and the ones who were native to Ba Xian that posed a threat (this included the dragons previously mentioned in Era 2).

This, however, upset the balance towards the light. Many of the races who did not side with the Han broke off any contact with the newly found Hua Xia, either going into isolation within Hua Xia itself and creating hidden monasteries and villages, or leaving the new country altogether to join with another land. They studied their own path of knowledge, and built their own civilization, each living in their own country (which would form Yamato, the Gobi Desert, the Free Lands, Gorya, and Tirnen Rhovan).

Regardless of those leaving, Hua Xia grew into a powerful country, returning to it's journey of progress once more, even if it was slower than before. Other powerful families were appointed as officers in the courts of the Han to watch over regions of the country such as the Liu, Cao, and Sun families. Together, the families would clear Hua Xia of it's evil, and bring in a new era. They crowned one of the Han as emperor over Hua Xia, looking to them for guidance into where their progress would go from here.

The animals and monsters who were lucky enough to escape Hua Xia found themselves roaming through the Free Lands. Druids and clerics of nature knew that these animals must be preserved or they would become extinct. Through excruciating work within the last 300 years of the era, the druids and clerics would move any animals and monsters they could to the cursed islands of Tirnen Rhovan. There, they would manually construct biomes on the islands and maintain them for the creatures they could rescue. This is where the remaining dragons would make their home.

Free Lands Era 3: Westrianna's Destruction

Note: This information had not been written down and thus is not knowledge any PC would know unless it was found out.

Inbetween what had been going on in Hua Xia, the Free Lands, which were ruled by the eladrin kingdoms, had it's own conflict. They did not go out of their way to destroy the monsters within the land as they were ordered by the Han family. Instead, they had chosen to accept the presence of such monsters and only remove those who were destructive to civilization or the land itself. Two cities, Estel and Westrianna, had their own drama going on, and had no time to deal with Hua Xia's demands.

Elmon Westrianna, the fey king of the Westrianna court, was growing old in age and was concerned that he did not have a son to take his place in the courts, only having two daughters. In desperation, he went to Estel requesting assistance. Estel knew the king was in a dire situation, and thus directed him to the feywild, where he met with a hag. The hag agreed to provide the king a child and in turn, she would one day take his eldest daugther, Audrey, to be her servant. The king agreed, not realizing the deal had been for a child, not specifically a son.

Months later, a daughter was delivered to King Elmon's doorstep. The king was so outraged, he took the baby to Estel and accused the kingdom and it's rulers of trickery, and refused to take the baby back with him, forcing Estel to take care of the child who would grow up to be Liliste Dunlock. This action would come full circle back to King Elmon though.

When Liliste was of age, she led an unexpected army against Westrianna, surrounding the city and refusing to take any people alive. They rushed the city and within a tenweek, it was completely raided and destroyed, and all of it's people killed. Liliste then moved to nearby cities and villages, and repeated the action. Her actions however would make Westrianna unhabitable, forcing all kinds of spirits and specters to arise from their vengeful spirits to protect their city from the other side. Westrianna would be left alone to rest in it's blighted state.

The hag who had worked with Estel had gotten her end of the deal, coming into the now devestated city. She took up Audrey's dead body, and raised her to become her new servant, now a sprite.

Era 4: The Celestial Fabrication, or Hua Xia's First Civil War/Romance of the Hua Xian Kingdoms
The hunt was over, and the emperor and his forces had come out victorious. The cost, however, was too much for the emperor to bear. He would never know that the aasimar and the celestials he had called down to his servitude would plan his demise, taking a long path to slowly take over the empire, and ultimately, all of the kingdoms under his power.

Soon after the era began, the celestials were quick to convince the emperor that the tieflings he had allowed to roam with them were secretly plotting his end. The emperor was very unsure about that course of action at first, seeing as his head advisor was an albino tiefling who he had trusted for many years. A secret court was held between the celestials and the emperor, and with the proof given (albeit the proof was filled with false evidence and cover-ups), a genocide of tieflings was put into law, forcing the tieflings of Hua Xia to go into hiding wherever they could. This action would bear much weight on the natives of Hua Xia, as many saw their friends either killed or their friends were never seen again.

Hua Xia would not fight between just themselves. They also fought against rebels who wanted to end the conflict in Hua Xia once and for all. The Free Lands and Gorya would rise their forces against the kingdoms of Hua Xia, all led by the infamous Liliste Dunlock and the Xing family of Gorya.

Free Lands Era 4: Westrianna's Ressurection

Princess Audrey Westrianna found a way home from her rifted time in Daleos, now armed with more power than when she left. When she realized she was back in Hua Xia, she immediately took to training and finding soldiers to assist her in taking back her ruined homeland, Westrianna.