The Missing History of Man

Academic Note

In the First Book, it’s well established the events that led to the disappearance of the First Son and the self-unmaking of the First Woman in her grief. Warathi people believe that the man who dubbed himself Wa’rath the Conqueror was the true First Son returned. He who led the successful purge of the demons of the land, ultimately returned again to claim the seat of the Ascended Father in the Holy City, casting out all who would not internalize his way before starting his vicious rule of the land. This is all well known and a terrible part of our history. What is not known or well documented is what attempts to reclaim the land were made prior to the return of the First Son. If only we could gain access to the annals of history held within the white and black walls, perhaps it would shed light on some of the greatest mysteries of our day.

– “Wonders of Ages Past”, Professor Lumo Alcaño, Academia Gelgadongo. 11 Nomenia, 931 A4.

The loremasters of the Academia Gelgadongo have many unconfirmed reports of non-Warathi and non-Torian people in lands outside of the realms of man. The official stance on the matter is that none of these cases that have ever been reported have been confirmed by Academia officials, and thus are only to be taken as word of mouth reports.

This is not to say that there are definitely not any other peoples outside of the known realm of man, but even the idea that there are others out there is a subject that has many young academics transfixed. There have been a handful of cases in the academy’s earlier history where young lordlings were so convinced of the existence of others, they led expeditions to the untamed lands in the Northeast, into jungle and harsh landscapes, and far South into the cataclysmic lands where legends say the First Son first disappeared.

Because of the high frequency of failed expeditions, with only a few of them returning home at all, and an even smaller amount unscathed and unchanged, the academy has banned the teaching of the subjects in recent times, to any first, second, third and fourth year students. Only after the student has excelled in their chosen field of study may they gain access to these texts and eyewitness accounts. However, they are still subject to academy officials discretion and should a student show too much interest in the subject for the any purpose other than tame curiosity, they typically are not granted access to the repository.

What we do know is this – in the jungles of the Northeast, far beyond the eyes the Grand City of Torium, expeditions have claimed to have been attacked through the trees, or in the night when there is naught but campfire light to see. A few reports have claimed to have seen the people, loincloth wearing savages with extreme facial disfigurement and covered in feathers and sometimes bright colors. Some expeditions reported assault upon them by use of spears and darts, to devastating effect. None of the reports have claimed any kind of successful attempts to treat with the peoples there.

In the South, the unforgiving, volcanic wasteland, have only had a few reports of expedition attempts. Perhaps the greatest reason for this is the the Warathi control all routes on land to the place, so only a ships can potentially reach these lands. A Penderonian explorer by the name of Estançinho is perhaps the greatest source of the lands to the far South, but again, it is to be taken as merely one man’s word.

When Estançinho returned from his famous expedition there, he claimed that there were great and terrible structures of metal on wheels, completely foreign from anything known to us, lying around a hellscape that reaches temperatures too hot to traverse during the day. The story is told of many of the crewmen dying of heatstroke or getting extremely sick – especially of infections, fatigue, vomiting, and other ailments such as violent diarrhea and hair loss, were among the symptoms that the crew reportedly were inflicted by in the short them they were there.

Perhaps most chilling were the reports of eyes watching from a distance. The story told explains that many of the men would see human figures through the dust and smoke, only to look again and see nothing there. It was a common thing, and while if true, it could have been a hallucination, it is to be noted that many of the crew reported similar descriptions for the watchers in the haze.

With all this said, the mysteries of the world and potential other people remain a popular subject between the learned academics. If these reports are true, then it is very possible that there is more to our collective history than is known in our legendarium. Perhaps there were people who were not afflicted by the curse, or perhaps there were some successful expeditions before the First Son’s conquest.

Alas, with the field of study now forbidden, we may never know.