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According to legend, the Greatfather inhabited Magnar since the birth of the world. He roamed the valleys and mountains of the land, exploring a land inhabited only by the beasts of the woods and hills. He spoke to the animals and the trees, befriending them and learning their wisdom. To the Greatfather's dismay, all living things around him eventually died. From the whales of Magnar's stone gray seas, to the mighty icewalkers of Magnar's northern reaches, all living things on Magnar met their end sooner or later. Even the trees, the longest-lived of all the Greatfather's friends, eventually declined and died. The immortal Greatfather could only watch as mortality claimed all life around him. The Greatfather walked Magnar for nearly three thousand years, searching in vain for another immortal being in whom he could confide.

From the heavens, the valkyries watched the Greatfather's melancholy search. The valkyrie Nystra took pity upon the Greatfather and descended to Magnar to befriend the Greatfather. The Greatfather was elated to meet a fellow immortal being, and he took Nystra as his wife. Nystra bore the Greatfather six sons over the course of their marriage - the very first of the Born. The Greatfather was tremendously proud of his new family, and together the Greatfather and his children explored Magnar, teaching them all of the wisdom he had learned in his solitude among the beasts. Nystra taught the Greatfather and his sons the ways of the valkyries - how to settle down and live in a domicile and be civilized.

Eventually, Nystra tired of the company of the Greatfather and left. Horrified by his wife's disappearance, the Greatfather left his sons to their devices as he went out to find Nystra. The Greatfather searched Magnar for many years, and eventually found her in the haunt of the troll Shebalog. Nystra had taken Shebalog as her new husband, and with him had sired many sons and daughters. Overcome with jealousy, the Greatfather went into Shebalog's cave in the dead of night and killed Nystra and Shebalog with a heavy rock. Upon seeing the blood of his wife on his hands, the Greatfather wept loudly. Hearing the terrible cries from the chambers of their parents, Shebalog's children fled the cave in the night and scattered across Magnar.

A remorseful Greatfather returned to his home to see his sons once again. He encountered Eshkag, one of his sons, in the woods outside the house, scrabbling about in the dirt eating acorns and roots. When questioned as to why he was doing this, Eshkag explained that his brother Seolhi had striken him blind in a fight, and that he could not find his way back home.

A furious Greatfather returned with Eshkag to find his home was in shambles. His sons had succumbed to infighting, and their disputes had caused the house to fall into ruin. Seeing that his children could not be trusted to live together, the Greatfather elected to divide Magnar amongst his children. The Greatfather sent the children to the far-flung corners of the land so that they would not fight amongst themselves. Eshkag, however, was in no condition to fend for himself, and so the Greatfather allowed Eshkag to stay with him.

In their own corners of Magnar, the sons of the Greatfather established their own houses, and eventually encountered the daughters of Shebolag. The Greatfather's sons took these women as their brides, and sired the second generation of the Born. And as their children grew up, the Greatfather was horrified to find that his own children continued to age. Due to the wounds inflicted by Seolhi, Eshkag was the first son to pass away. He died in the Greatfather's arms, who was as saddened as he was bewildered, for he did not understand how the offspring of two immortal beings could be mortal. But the valkyries in the heavens had conspired against him. Seeing the Greatfather murder their sister Nystra enraged the valkyries, and so they placed the curse of mortality on all of Nystra's children - that the Greatfather would never again find company in a fellow immortal.

The Greatfather could only watch as his children withered and died like all other beings. Refusing to watch his progeny die like all other life, the Greatfather departed the realms of the Born and has never since been seen.

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In the absence of the Greatfather, his children multiplied across Magnar. The houses established by the first Born grew into estates with plenty of wheat and livestock. The great forests of Magnar were thinned to build homes and palisades for their estates. Great swathes of forest were cleared to create pasturage for sheep and cattle, particularly in Magnar's southern hills. The oldest and most established estates were those built by the original sons of the Greatfather, and these typically became the seats of each of the six realms. Smaller estates sprang forth, and the masters of these estates pledged their fealty to one of the six realms in return from protection from livestock thieves and banditry. As the six realms accumulated wealth, their masters became increasingly avaricious. Realms attacked one another to plunder cattle and other wealth. The incessant raiding and pillaging led to mass starvation among the common folk, and killed many men of fighting age.

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It became clear that something had to be done to stop the rampant warfare. It was apparent that a leader among the Born was necessary in lieu of the Greatfather. Magnar needed a master above all masters. Isvald Lastrund, the Lastrund Master, suggested at a feast of the six masters of Magnar that Mastery of Magnar be a rotating title. The Master of one realm would serve as master; upon his death, the master of the realm next in line would assume mastery of all Magnar, based upon the order of birth of the forebear of each realm. An election was summarily held, and Isvald Lastrund was named the first Master of Magnar.

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Several hundred years of relative peace ensued, and Magnar's population swelled. Wars between the realms continued to occur, but were much fewer. The Masters of Magnar had established a lasting peace among the realms. But the peace was shattered with the arrival of the Thalasans. A seafaring people from across the Sturmsee, the Thalasans arrived first as a small number of traders, greedily exchanging furs, pelts, and ivory from walruses and icewalkers for exotic goods from the southern lands. But within two years of their initial arrival, a massive fleet of great Thalasan warships landed on the southern coast of Magnar. Cohesive, well-organized armies of soldiers bearing metal armor disembarked from these ships and effortlessly routed the disorganized warbands of the Bornic defenders and their exotic siege engines laid waste to the primitive estate fortification. Most terrifying of all, perhaps, were their horses: exotic animals from the south that the Born had never encountered before.

Within months, the Thalasan hosts had driven the Born into the northern hinterlands of Magnar. The Realm of Lastrund had been utterly vanquished at the Siege of Draath, the southern realms had fled into the North, and Ysmor Blacktooth, Master of Magnar, was skewered by a Thalasan lancer at Byrno. Mastery of Magnar fell upon Solveig Eshkag. Solveig recognized that continuing to attack the Thalasans in a piecemeal, uncoordinated fashion would spell doom for all of the Born. Unity among the Greatfather's Children would be utterly necessary. Solveig approached the Master of the Seolhi - the perennial nemesis of the Realm of Eshkag - and offered material support for Seolhi boats to waylay Thalasan supply ships arriving and returning to the south. He persuaded his fellow masters not to waste their warriors in futile counterassaults of their captured estates, but to conduct brief nighttime raids and ambush small cohorts of Thalasans traveling the countryside.

Solveig's coalition was very effective at hamstringing the Thalasan advance into northern Magnar, but he knew that he would not be able to expel the Thalasans without help. He turned to the non-Bornic peoples in the icy north of Magnar, and met with Lypaak, a king among the sons of Shebalog. In exchange for assurance that the Born would leave the far north of Magnar in peace, Lypaak assembled an army to assist Solveig and the Born in freeing Magnar from the Thalasans, complete with a cohort of reindeer-mounted warriors.

Seolhi pirates had captured correspondence from the Thalasans that indicated that their hosts were mobilizing to capture Narskur - the Eshkag stronghold and center of Solveig's resistance. With this knowledge, Solveig recognized an opportunity to deal a decisive blow against the Thalasans. At the plains near Yorvask, the northward-marching Thalasans encountered the largest army ever assembled by the peoples of Magnar. An effective charge by reindeer-mounted javelineers caught the Thalasans off guard, giving the Sons of the Greatfather and Shebalog the opportunity to charge into the Thalasan infantry and engage them in their preferred one-on-one melee. After hours of intense fighting, Solveig and Lypaak's armies emerged victorious, and the Thalasans were killed to the last man. A number of Thalasan horses captured after the battle became the forebears of most horses in Magnar today.

Following the great victory at Yorvask, Solveig and the children of the Greatfather marched directly against Draath - the former seat of the Realm of Lastrund. There, they encountered a mighty citadel where the Lastrund estate had stood a year before; a tower of stone built in the Thalasan fashion. Donning the armor and clothing of Thalasan warriors slain at Yorvask, Solveig's mightiest warriors approached the gates of the keep pretending to be Thalasan soldiers. Once inside the keep's gates, the Bornic warrior lashed out savagely against the garrison inside and opened the gates for the Solveig's army waiting just beyond the treeline. The Thalasans inside the keep were utterly butchered, and Solveig personally beheaded the Thalasan lord. The Thalasan commander's severed head was paraded atop a pike when victorious Solveig returned to Narskur, and eventually a goblet was fashioned out of his skull. The remaining Thalasans scattered across Magnar were eventually slain by vengeful Born or sailed back home - either on their own ships or commandeered Bornic boats - never to return again.

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A hard-won victory over the Thalasans belonged to the Greatfather's children, but many Born predicted that they would return to avenge their fallen kin and conquer Magnar in earnest. But 630 years have passed since the Battle of Yorvask, and the Thalasans have never been seen again. Their conquest of Magnar ended in defeat, but the Thalasans left an indelible mark upon Magnaran culture during their brief reign. Most of these innovations have been martial in nature. Foreign weapons like maces and halberds have been adopted by the Bornic warriors who previously used only axes and swords, and Thalasan-inspired war machines like the ballistae are now utilized by the wealthier masters. Fortifications are now built out of stone if possible. The Thalasan-built citadel at Draath, the example from which all Magnaran stoneworkers draw inspiration, now serves as the court of the Master of Magnar. Perhaps the most revolutionary change to Magnaran society is the introduction of the horse. Cavalry have turned the art of warfare on Magnar on its head, and have forced warriors to adopt new tactics and weapons to counter the threat of horse-mounted foes.

The Thalasan contributions contributed more than just new ways of waging war. Thalasan loanwords and place names persist - particularly in the south of Magnar. Thalasan traders left behind an appetite for foreign goods such as spices and fruit wines. And the Thalasan encounter kindled an interest in the wider world beyond Magnar. This interest has driven some adventurous Born to brave the Sturmsee and see what lies beyond Magnar's shores.

<sub>• The ancient seat of the Seolhi monarchy is located in the southernmost tip of the isles, in a short cliffside castle known as Urchin's Reach. It is squat, dark grey, and walled off on all sides, with a sole tunnel entrance through a cove underneath the castle -- this is a protective measure, making the fortress only accessible during low tide, once at daybreak and once again at dusk.

• The Seolhi have contributed relatively few inventions to Magnar's history, instead spending most of their history preoccupied with infighting, though there are three creations that the isles rightfully take credit for; the lobster crate, the galley, and a style of somber eight-lined poem known as "Sküvosa". Aside from their original creations, the Seolhi isles supply the rest of Magnar through their trades with firstly with salt, as well as pearls and cured meats. Though it is not a true export, the backbone of the Seolhi economy is made up of money sent home by Seolhi sailors and fishermen living in other realms.

• Due to the poor farmland and comparatively high rate of death in the isles, be it through murder, drowning, or the most common killer of the West -- respiratory infections -- the Seolhi isles have the lowest population of any realm, and highest number of immigrants living abroad. "Wandering Seolhi" who have left the isles for one reason or another typically live nomadically, running aground to cook meals or gather supplies wherever they have sailed.</sub>

Of the five children sired by Einar Seolhi, Suriah is the only one to have survived growing up in the isles. Considering the circumstances of her birth, this is nearly miraculous; Delivered a month early and through a breech birth that killed her mother during delivery -- three separate but equally poor omens in Seolhi culture -- Suriah was called only "The Girl" by her wetnurses until she was two, out of the Seolhi custom to not name children who seem small or sickly. In spite of her mercurial health as an infant Suriah grew up like a weed, embracing both the princess's matters of royal court, and the seafaring customs of her people. Despite the slight inferiority complex garnered from vying for her father's attention amidst the death and disappearance of her older brothers, Suriah's life was easily the easiest following her ill health as a child, until a fateful birthday.

On the seventeenth anniversary of her birth, Suriah fainted in the halls of Urchin's Reach and began to shake violently, as if possessed by spirits. For a fortnight, she slept with a breath so faint her father feared to put a blanket over her chest. After all known medicines failed, Einar turned to the spiritual world, sending for priests, healers, and miracle workers throughout all of Magner. His quest ended shortly after meeting the witch Vasvalya, who breathed life into Suriah with a blessed sealskin pouch. From there, it is rumored among the low Seolhi lords and other enemies of the Seolhi crown that Suriah would go on to study the denomination of the witch who healed her, cursing her enemies to gain swift victories in her father's name.

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Born at the onset of one of the harshest winters in Magnar's history, Halvar Stein has personally seen the effects of starvation and desolation on his Realm's populace, and for the first time in many centuries, the Stein have begun raiding their Bornic neighbors.



This is Andar. He's Halvar's uncle. He is weary of his nephew's abandonment of Steindahl's tradition of non-aggression against their fellow Born, but with winter hitting the Stein in full force, he sees no way to dissuade his Master. Until that call to cross the Sturmsee where Halvar's obviously gunna go for it and everything's gonna be awesome.