History of Aundair

"The old name was Thaliost, after the city that sat at the heart of it all. Galifar gave it a new name — his daughter's name — and with it, a new purpose. But the old name clung to the stones. It still does." — Professor Danne ir'Soras, University of Wynarn

Pre-Galifar Origins

Long before any Wynarn sat in Fairhaven, this territory was known by another name. The city of Thaliost was one of the major human city-states that emerged as humanity spread inland from the eastern shores of Khorvaire, well established by approximately –2,500 YK alongside Wroat, Korth, Metrol, and Daskara — the constellation of rival powers that would one day become the Five Nations.

The region's early history left arcane fingerprints. The Mark of Passage appeared among humans in Thaliost around –1,900 YK, and the Mark of Handling emerged in the western reaches roughly a century later — the bloodlines that became House Orien and House Vadalis. Two dragonmarks arising in a single region within a few generations was unusual, an early concentration of arcane potential that would define this territory long before anyone called it Aundair.

Fertile farmlands between the great lakes and the Towering Wood drew sustained settlement and shaped a culture oriented around agriculture, trade, and the increasingly practical study of magic. Where Karrnath produced warriors and Daskara produced priests, the people of Thaliost were already treating the arcane as a tool of daily life.

Integration into Galifar (1–894 YK)

When Galifar I unified the Five Nations in 1 YK, Thaliost became the province of Aundair — named for one of his daughters, the Princess Aundair, twin sister to Cyre. Where Cyre was devoted to divination, illusion, and transmutation, Aundair specialized in evocation and conjuration; she negotiated with celestials and fiends and brought down her enemies with storm and fire. Bold where her twin was thoughtful, she governed her province from Fairhaven and stamped it with her personality in ways that persist a thousand years later.

Each province received one of the pillars of the united kingdom: Rekkenmark Academy for Karrnath, the King's Citadel for Breland, the Grand Temple for Thrane. Aundair received the Arcane Congress, established by Galifar I in 15 YK in the floating towers above Arcanix on Lake Galifar. Created to serve the whole kingdom, the Congress grew increasingly aligned with Aundair's court over the following centuries — training magewrights, standardizing magical education, and advising the crown on spellcraft and policy. It became the empire's foremost arcane institution.

The centuries of Galifar's golden age brought milestones that deepened Aundair's identity: House Lyrandar taking possession of Stormhome in 347 YK; the Starpeaks Observatory commissioned in 512 YK; the first lightning rail connecting Flamekeep and Fairhaven in 811 YK. Aundair's noble class cultivated a culture of refinement, education, and arcane accomplishment across this entire period, and the province became known for its vineyards, universities, and a carefully maintained sense of cultural distinction that would eventually harden into something more divisive.

The Silver Crusade (830–882 YK)

In 830 YK, lycanthropy surged in the Towering Wood. Western Aundair suffered a wave of attacks and wererat infiltration that overwhelmed local defenses. Left unchecked, the plague might have consumed the province entirely.

Keeper of the Flame Jolan Sol launched the Silver Crusade in 832 YK, dispatching an army of templars to Aundair. But the Crusade was driven by political ambition alongside spiritual purpose — Jolan Sol proclaimed that lycanthropy corrupted the soul itself, a doctrinal position that left no room for mercy. The templars lacked reliable means of identifying lycanthropes and frequently persecuted shifter communities and innocent bystanders alongside genuine threats. Demagogues on both sides — many of them wererats working to turn possible allies into bitter enemies — spread paranoia that made the violence worse. It was only when House Medani produced a dragonshard focus capable of detecting lycanthropes that the templars could reliably identify the true foe.

The cultural divide the Crusade created between western Aundair and the nobility of the east would prove consequential for generations. Western families who survived the attacks embraced the Flame as their liberator, but the faith they adopted carried a harder edge than the Flame practiced in Flamekeep. This regional population became the seedbed for the Pure Flame sect — an extremist branch defined by harsh judgment rather than compassion, whose influence remains a feature of Aundairian religious culture. The Crusade formally concluded in 882 YK under Keeper Jovor Daran. The scars it left behind would prove far more lasting than the plague itself.

The Last War (894–996 YK)

FROM THE KORRANBERG CHRONICLE, 894 YK: "The succession crisis deepened yesterday when Prince Wrogar of Aundair declared publicly for his sister Mishann's claim to the throne of Galifar. He is the only one of Jarot's children to do so. War now appears inevitable."

King Jarot ir'Wynarn died on 12 Therendor 894 YK. Three of his children rejected the succession of their eldest sister Mishann of Cyre. Wrogar of Aundair alone backed her claim, and the Last War began.

Aundair entered the war on the side of legitimate succession — a position its people remember with considerable pride, though that alliance proved fragile as the conflict ground across generations. Leaning on the Arcane Congress and its magewright networks, the kingdom established itself as the Five Nations' foremost practitioner of battle magic. It assembled the first regiments of arcane dragoons, developed the war staff and battle rod, and fielded unique assets including elite squads of skystaff riders — a capability no other nation matched at scale. These innovations spread across all Five Nations over the course of the war.

The conflict exacted a steep territorial price. Thrane seized Thaliost — the city where Aundair's history began — and held it throughout the war. The countryside along the Thrane border was severely damaged; the Crying Fields, farmland permanently scarred by battlefield magic and haunted by restless spirits, stand as a lasting emblem of that cost. The destruction of the White Arch Bridge linking Rekkenmark to Thaliost severed the primary overland route between Aundair and Karrnath, a rupture whose consequences persist. Extensive arcane repair work restored Aundair's cities, but the countryside recovered unevenly.

The Secession of the Eldeen Reaches (958 YK)

In 958 YK, the farmers of western Aundair seceded, declaring themselves the Eldeen Reaches under the protection of the Wardens of the Wood and the Great Druid Oalian. They cited decades of neglect, punishing taxation, and conscription into a war that never protected them. The lords of Aundair had focused their resources on the eastern fronts; the Wardens stepped in when the crown would not, and the western farmers chose the druids over the nobles. Karrnath, seeing an opportunity, provided arms to the independence movement and deployed warships to protect food shipments across the Bitter Sea.

The loss fell hard on the Aundairian noble class — many families held land and title in the western territories and never recovered. The rift deepened a cultural divide that had been growing for two centuries: first the west's embrace of the Pure Flame, then economic neglect, and finally secession. When the Reaches broke away, they took not only farmland but a religious and cultural community that had already been drifting from the Aundairian mainstream.

Most Aundairians still call it treason. The Reachers call it survival. Neither side has budged.

The Treaty of Thronehold (996 YK)

The Mourning destroyed Cyre on 20 Olarune 994 YK, and the terror of what that meant — not the diplomacy — brought every surviving power to the table. The Treaty of Thronehold in 996 YK ended the Last War. Aundair retained Fairhaven, Arcanix, and its core eastern provinces. It did not recover Thaliost, and it was compelled to recognize the Eldeen Reaches as sovereign.

Queen Aurala ir'Wynarn opposed many of the treaty's compromises, came to Thronehold only after sustained diplomatic pressure, and signed a document she regarded as unjust. She made no particular effort to disguise that assessment.

Modern Rule (996 YK–Present)

Under Aurala, Aundair has focused on restoring prestige, deepening investment in the Arcane Congress, and projecting influence through magic, trade, and cultural authority rather than direct military action — though the distinction between "not yet" and "never" remains deliberately ambiguous. The Arcane Initiative drives ongoing investment in battle magic and civilian infrastructure alike, and the crown has cultivated strong relationships with House Lyrandar, House Orien, and House Cannith West.

Three factions pull the crown in competing directions. One demands reconquest of the Eldeen Reaches; another demands action on Thaliost, where Archbishop Solgar Dariznu has suppressed Aundairian opposition with increasing brutality; a third supports Aurala's own ambition — the throne of Galifar. The Pure Flame movement in Thaliost has grown bold enough that some within it openly discuss seizing Flamekeep to "liberate the Keeper," and Keeper Jaela Daran is herself deeply troubled by Dariznu's excesses.

Aurala has pursued patience over adventure, but the pressure is sustained and growing. Her stated ambition — to unite Khorvaire under Aundairian leadership through a just war — has not receded with the peace. The mystery of the Mourning is the only thing holding everyone at bay. When that mystery is solved, the calculations change for everyone.