In the year 393 The Great Kingdom of Hann was over run by Barbarian and Monster Hordes from the bad lands and mountains. It is believed that the hordes were inspired by a great general known as Kanna, who melded the various ruling chiefs and tribes into one unit. The great Houses of Hann were destroyed and the Powerful Hann Druidic circle decimated. The Great Kingdom of Hann was destroyed and broken, all that was left was a number of independent principalities and duchies.

The sacking of Hann went on for nearly five years, and during this time the remains of the Druidic Circle, led by Oliver Green-Barrell and various Knightly orders were fighting to regain control of Hann. Eventually, in 398h, it became clear that there was little of the Kingdom left to fight for, and Albert Bloggs, who had been leading one resistance group, lead a mass exodus to a new island home and established a new set of cities and estates, known as The StrongHolds.

At the same time Oliver Green-Barrell left the area to become Grand Druid and used his influence to set up a Holy Island, off of the coast of the Strongholds, which was to maintain the Heraldic tradition of the Kingdom of Hann and to provide guidance to the scattered remnants of the Kingdom of Hann. In 400h Oliver retired as Grand Druid and retired to Holy Island as a Heirophant Druid, he became Baron of The Holy Island and Chief Herald. He still rules the Holy Island today, 200 years later.

In the StrongHolds three major fiefs were established Stilan, under the control of Bloggs himself, Melange under the control of Forrick, ex bishop and general of the town of Derrimys and The Complex, under the control of Cratapan a mage who had excelled in battle magic. Each made an oath and pact that their individual strongholds would always be governed by the best of their own class, to continually provide threefold protection for their subjects. The Noble Houses of both Melange and Stilan have managed to breed true and title had passed by direct lineage to the current rulers. Complex, while still ruled by the same blood line, had a break in lineage when Cratapan died childless and the title passed to his sister’s son.

At the same time Captain Viren Bellamy lead a second party to the same island as Bloggs settlement. Bellamy established Byrny, further inland as a separate and independent colony.

They discovered that the Gnomic Community of Deep Delve was already established in the mountain. Friendly relations were established fairly quickly when the Gnomes realised the economic advantage of having a thriving Human settlement as customers. The far-seeing Gnomes realised that The Strongholds might develop enough to become an export route into the rest of Human society.

The year 403h saw the formation of the Wangate Confederation from some of the independent states created during the break-up of the Kingdom of Greater Hann... The states of West Wangate, East Wangate and Upper Wangate between them controlled access to the Wangate pass, and initially came together in a loose confederation for mutual protection. In 404h The Wangate confederation was attacked by the neighbouring states of Huboyr and Wadeva, two more statelets from the old Kingdom of Hann, in an attempt to gain control of their only route to the sea, Wangate won the war and installed new friendly rulers in each of these provinces but with a few safeguards built in, and thus the Empire of Greater Wangate was formed.

In 405h the Wangate Empire conducted economic war on the ports that shipped the goods that came through the Wangate pass, in retaliation for the support that those ports had given their enemies during the war. The city states of Deyr, Bofa in 406h, and Malaton, in 407h, all became member provinces of the Empire.

The Empire of Greater Wangate covered the Wangate pass and its surrounding area and consisted of a number of provinces managed by local governors. The rulers of the Empire were quite careful to select local rulers who would be acceptable to the local population, but who would not have gained power without the assistance of the empire. In fact on each of these occasions the empire had supported a group from within the country and made their leadership the new rulers of that nation.

Eventually the Empire consisted of nine provinces of differing sizes, all managed by Governors of various levels, and all loyal to the emperor. Everything settled down for a while.

In the early 500s The Grand Caliph of Zakhara was increasing his empire by conquest and in 507h the borders of the two empire met when the Grand Caliph annexed the land to the East of the Scarabee and Kamph mountain ranges.

Everything stayed relatively quiet for a while, until, in 523h, the Barbarian and Monster Hordes rose again and attacked Galinia, one of the remaining independent statelets that came out of the Kingdom of Hann. This time the Hordes were led by a powerful Mage known as Carne. The refugees from Galinia fled into the Wangate Empire, the StrongHolds and Byrnye, taking as much of their fortunes with them as possible. All three states expanded but the Strongholds and the Empire prospered most.

In 524h the initial settlements were made on the Razadi Islands.

By 533h Angasa, an Island City off the Galinia coast had been repopulated by survivors of the hordes. These settlers were hardened and tough, and had survived by killing, murdering and stealing. Rather than join with the rest of the states Angasa stood alone and developed a reputation as being a haven for thieves, pirates and other bad eggs.

In 557 the people of Sybarite and Bime came to the empire with a proposition. There were men in each of these conquered states who were prepared to act as leaders in an attempt to overthrow the rule of the Grand Caliph, and who for military support would commit their states to the Empire. A war ensued as General Vander-Mann supported by Colonels Fediton and Red-Nose rallied the troops of Sybarite and General Hardin supported by Colonel Hiner rallied the troops of Bime. The Empire blockaded the ports of Bime and eventually landed a marine force at the City of Bime and sent a company of Red Sash Knight through each of the Rockhome and Snake River passes.

At about the same time the rangers of the Thinhorn forest combined with a resistance movement from Lower Smokey to overthrow the Malik and put their own leader in his place. This small army then came to the support of General Vander-Mann at the Battle of Hall Bridges, attacking the Caliph's Army from the rear and disrupting them to such an extent that they were forced to flee in disarray.

At this point the Caliph's General, Tashman, realised he could not relieve the garrisons that were bottling up the empire's knights in the mountain passes and ordered all of his troops to regroup at Sybarite Town. The people of the town sensing a victory closed the city gates and defended them with all the strength that they could muster, General Tashman realising that he could not complete a siege before General Vander-Mann arrived ordered his troops to march for Kusnir. At Kusnir he met up with the garrisons from the mountain passes and realised that he would have to concede that he had lost the war.

By this time the uprising in Bime had started and the Emir of Bime had withdrawn all of his troops to the City of Bime and was holding that for the Caliph. The plains to the west of the town were controlled by the Bimian Rebels under General Hardin supported by a company of Greater Wangate marines.

General Tashman sent out messengers to arrange a parley and negotiated free passage for himself and his troops down the great lake to Bime, on the condition that they left most of their weapons behind. These troops moved down to Bime and were followed by a detachment of Red Sash Knight and a company from Sybarite under the command of Colonel Fediton who took station on the Western Plains. Cut off from the sea by the Imperial navy, troops to the east and west and only the expanse of the Great Lake to the north, the Emir had very little choice but to sue for terms. An eventual surrender was negotiated and the Emir, supported by General Tashman and their followers were allowed to leave quietly, quickly and retaining most of their personal wealth, on the condition that they did not damage the town, kill any hostages etc.

Some of the Zacharan’s in Bime had seen the revolution coming and indeed had some sympathy with the locals. Some of these moved away from Bime and settled in the Razadi Islands rather than return to the Zacharan Empire proper.

In the space of about six months the war had been won, and in 558h the Great Lake states joined the Wangate Empire.

Rockhome, a local Gnomic settlement, had not been occupied and provided economic and advisory support to the rebellion. They remained outside, but closely associated to, the Empire.

In 560h, the cities of Jekleal and Melmond, also working with the support of the Wangate Empire, threw off the Zakharan yoke and became members of the Wangate Empire. Many Zacharans stayed in Jekleal and Melmond under the new regime, although many returned to the Zacharan Empire. A few migrated to the Razadi Isles where they were welcomed by the earlier refugees from Bime.

Again everything quietened down for a while, until in 583h a surprise attack on Lower Smokey heralded the start of the most recent troubles. The leaders of the monster hordes were destroyed by their own commander, a man named Kane, when they failed to meet their objective.

A mage, Ryanne, had been prophesying a devastating attack on the Empire and in 587h she left Lower Wangate, purchased a lake island close to the Strongholds and established the independent barony of Rostil Island.

In 588h it became clear that Kane had been busy, and Ryanne was correct. He returned to the Wangate empire in force, destroying the Central States completely. The Great Lake States survived fairly intact, but with great loss of life, and on the Far Coast, Jekleal survived but Melmond was destroyed. Jekleal, Bime, Sybarite and Lower Smokey all consolidated, took in refugees, and re-established themselves as independent states.

The StrongHolds also took in refugees and in 589h expanded to create a new Barony at Westland to cater for them. The Razadi Islands also took in a number of refugees.

Augustus, a rich merchant with distant family ties to the old Lord of Angasa, seized his opportunity, recruited a rag tag army of refugees from the Wangate Empire, and carried out a surprise attack on the Island City. The attack was successful and Augustus set him self up as Ruler of Angasa.

A short time later he was sent letters from Richard Briganda, claiming tithes as the heir to the Principality of Galinia. Augustus refused, and in exchange for recognition of Angasa as an independent state agreed to help Richard develop and resettle the rest of Galinia.

Richard has started to re-settle the Galinia mainland and is still looking for reliable people to clear and repopulate tracts of land for him …