History of the Lands of Válka

In the last moments before the beginning of time, the great dragon fell in fearsome calamity, rending the earth anew and forging the great bowl world named for its fiery creator: Válka. The dragon’s bones seeded the mountains; from its spilled blood grew the vast forests that spread out like verdigris oceans. Válka’s rivers flowed from deep gorges of stone and out over the rich plains. The ancient native spirits reawoke and began their long tending of the woods and wild places, while their twisted, darker kin took on new monstrous forms, taking up residence in the shadowy places. Other beings emerged from the quiet: the goblin-folk in the mountains, keeping their histories and their secrets; the reptilios, cold blooded inheritors of Válka’s pride and strength.
And the humans, spreaders and changers, tinkerers, short lived but clever. It was they that spread the furthest across Válka, harnessing steel and the oldest of magics. Some sought to live in peace with Válka and headed north, living off the seasons, eventually becoming known as barbarians. Some focused their minds on sorcery, building towers of will and twisting their human kin into weird abhorrent shapes in search of the hidden secrets of life and the dragon’s power. These, the Wizards, continued meddling in the stuff of being eventually led to great enmity amongst their creations, and these strange and twisted things formed the Brotherhood to combat their machinations. The rest of humanity found power in the shaping of the land, clearing the old forests for farmlands and building huge walled cities guarded by Knights to keep the rest of life at bay.
All the many people of Válka came eventually into conflict with one another, vying for power, for honour, for the spreading of their beliefs and the protection of their homes. This great land is now a place of conflict. Válka is a land of war.