War of the Lich Kings

Era of Man / First Age / ~2.5 thousand years ago
About two and a half thousand years ago Valdemar witnessed a terrible invasion from the south. Having been secluded in their desert lands for so long the undead legions of the Lich Kings were a mere myth to the race of Men. That all changed when their forces marched north and slowly spread across the continent. Countless corpses of terrible monsters filled the dead ranks, but also the bodies and skeletons of more familiar species like dragonborn and elves. In the beginning there were few humans among the legions, but Men were numerous and they quickly swelled the undead forces with every lost battle. The march of the dead was slow and inevitable, and after half a century it was clear all of the continent was at risk of being overrun.

The other denizens of Valdemar fought back as well, the wood elves chief among them. However, they were not coordinated against the dead, with each faction, including the many small kingdoms of men, only looking to defend themselves. And so the devastation to Valdemar was widespread and seemed overwhelming. A dark age fell upon the world of men, and life became more about surviving the dead, either constantly moving as nomads, or erecting incredible defensive structures. After a few centuries of war like this it was a new alliance of Knights from across the lands that finally coordinated assaults on the dead.

The Order of the Sword was born from necessity, when the rulers of nations, often their liege lords, would not work to save mankind, they did. While the Order made an incredible difference, the tide would not seem to turn in their favor. It was only after a tentative alliance with surviving wood elves and metallic dragons that enough power could be brought to bear. While the Order often boasts of their central role in defeating the undead legions, most historians believe it was the metallic dragons, with their magic and fire that purged the countless dead. When the undead finally retreated south, the scope of death and destruction was so near total that the survivors claimed the start of a new age, the Second Age of Man.

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