Diablo III Kore

The story of Allods Online begins on the planet Sarnaut.  The largest continent, Yul, was inhabited by many remarkable civilizations: the elven kingdom of Airin in the northwest, the Zem tribes in the southern desert, the orcs of the eastern lands, and the migrating Aro tribe.  The Aro were led by the Great Mage Tensess, who brought the Aro to the ruins of the June kingdom, the first kingdom of humans, which had disappeared under a mysterious curse.  In the ruins of the June, the Aro waged war with the orcs.  Under Tensess’ leadership, the Aro were victorious, and the Kanian civilization was established.

Another hero of this great war was the Great Mage Nezeb.  Both mages, battle-scarred and hungry for power, battled for leadership of the Kanian people.  Tensess emerged victorious and banished Nezeb to deserts of the Zem, where Nezeb become leader of a nomadic tribe called the Ugra.  With a new army, Nezeb launched his armies upon the Kanian lands, conquering a portion of the Kanian lands.  From this victory, Nezeb formed the Xadaganians, an independent and strong human country, spurring an enmity spanning millennia.

In the year of 4015 of the Old Era, the Great Cataclysm struck Sarnaut.  The planet was shattered and allods, islands from the planet’s remnants, emerged.  The Allods float in the Astral, the space which surrounds Sarnaut’s remains.  Millions perished until the Great Mages discovered a way to sustain life on these Allods, ensuring the survival of some civilizations.  The cause of the Great Cataclysm remains a mystery despite the Conclave of Great Mages’ attempts to pass the disaster off as the forces of Creation and Destruction striving for equilibrium.  With the passing of the Great Cataclysm, Sarnaut moved from the Old Era to the New Era.

The Conclave of Great Mages consisted of the wisest and most ancient mages of Sarnaut.  Though they are bound to the Rules of the Conclave, they had free access to arcane and esoteric lore available only to the Conclave.  In the third millennium of the Old Era, the Great Mage Skrakan led the Council.  He apprenticed a number of mages, two of which became his most prodigious pupils: Tensess and Nezeb.  500 years after the first confrontation between Tensess’ Kania and Nezeb’s Xadagan did Skrakan bring the warring Great Mages to heel.  Yet, Tensess and Nezeb’s influence grew too large for Skrakan to control, and a schism split the Conclave.  From that point onwards, there was no Conclave.  There was only the Mages of Kania and the Mages of Xadagan.  From the endless war in the eighth century of the New Era, two opposing factions were formed: the League, led by the Kanians, and the Empire, led by the Xadaganians.

A remarkable discovery enabled ship-borne exploration of the Astral, heralding the Era of Astral Travel.  This new technology spurred the war between Kanian and Xadaganian to new heights, as the countries were now able to siege allods without the assistance of the Great Mages.  The secret of Astral protection laid in an iron meteor from the depths of the Astral.  Unfortunately for the Imperial Allod of Kirah, it was filled with this meteoric iron.

In the year 909 of the New Era, a League army invaded Kirah, spurring an Empire counterattack of Arisen, orcs, and Xadaganians.  Kirah was a powderkeg, and the allod quickly became drenched in blood.  Yet, on a fateful night in 910, unknown portals began opening across allods spanning the entire Astral.  From these portals came endless legions of ravenous demons.  Meanwhile, the Astral began consuming entire allods and their Great Mage guardians, and other allods were further fragmented, becoming much smaller than their original forms.  Yasker and Eniel, leaders of the Empire and League, ordered their armies to evacuate as the demons flooded Kirah.  Yasker opened a portal to Igsh allod to allow his army to flee, but only a fraction was able to get through before he was unable to sustain the portal.  The remaining Empire army was slaughtered by the demons.  The League army attempted to flee using their Astral ships, but only a lone ship managed to evade the Astral demons.  By the end of the invasion, many allods were completely lost and millions of people had perished.  Smaller invasions followed, but never on the same scale.  With an implacable common foe, the League and Empire put aside their differences and established an uneasy alliance.  For the next 15 years, they waited for the next invasion which never came.

In the year 957, after decades of non-aggression, a new war erupted between League and Empire.  A fleet of Imperial Astral ships wielding new technologies attacked League territory.  The League was unprepared for such an onslaught and retreated, ceding their allods to the Empire.  Due to the imperial naval blockade, the League resorted to opening portals until they managed to successfully capture an Imperial ship.  Elven mages reverse engineered the Empire’s technology, allowing the League to meet the Empire on their own terms in the year 962.  As the war intensified, the invasions by demons, now infrequent, intensified in frequency and aggression.  Around this time, a disturbing religion began to spread across the allods.  Groups of Arisen, humans, and orcs began to greet the demons, considering the demons a just punishment for the inhabitants of the allods.  By serving and assisting the demons on their unknown mission, these cultists believed they could ensure their survival.  Meanwhile, the Great Mage Tensess had been slain in battle against the Astral demons.  Skrakan, the only Great Mage with enough power to support Kvatoh allod, the capitol of the League, assumed leadership of the faction.

In the year 965, Skrakan came across a book called “The Revelation of Tka-rik”.  The book revealed that the Astral demons were evil spirits from another world whose fundamental purpose was destruction.  Tka-rik had unleashed the demons during experiments by the Junes civilization while researching new sources of magic.  He discovered that the only way to end the invasion was to close the gates to the demons’ world.  Skrakan went public with this information, temporarily halting the war between League and Empire.  A year later, Skrakan signed a peace treaty with Nezeb.  Scouts discovered the location of the Junes gates, and the Great Mages and armies left to close the gates.

After capturing the allods where the gates were located, the Great Mages were finally successful in sealing the gates.  It was a pyrrhic victory.  As the gates closed, a massive Astral storm swept into existence, wiping out the armies and Great Mages.  Only a handful of ships managed to escape, bringing news of the shared victory and sacrifice.

The loss of Skrakan and Nezeb left a void in the League and Empire’s hierarchies.  The League was ruled by the Conclave of Great Mages.  Aidenus, the Great Mage of Kvatoh, took command of the League.  The transition of power was less fluid in the Empire, erupting into a bloody confrontation.  Two Great Mages fought for leadership: Gurluxor, an old and experienced mage who was nonetheless a mere shadow of Nezeb, and Yasker, the young hero of the war of Kirah.

Yasker parlayed with the Arisen and Orcs, promising equal rights in return for their support.  They pledged their support and Gurluxor was quickly overwhelmed, who fled to his allod and was never found.  Victorious, Yasker proclaimed himself a Great Mage of the Empire, and fulfilled his promise to the Arisen and Orcs.

The Astral was now a dangerous place, harboring demons and other terrible creatures.  Despite this, travel and trade flourished.  With the growing economy a new threat arose.  Astral Pirates preyed on independent traders as well as League and Empire caravans.  Meanwhile, the alliance between League and Empire crumbled, eroded by overpopulation, diminishing resources, and ideological differences. 

A new war was declared in the year 1008, spurred by a new allod discovered between Kvatoh allod, home of the League capital, and Igsh allod, home of the Empire capital.  This allod was referred to as the Holy Land.