After the battle of the Valley of Sighs, the peoples who called themselves the Astridites migrated over the Belnok Mountains eastward, seeking refuge from the bloodshed they had survived. Among them was supposedly one of the ancient rulers of the homelands of the Blood of Saemon. Focused, organized and vowing never to let the violence and evil of what happened in the Valle of Sighs ever happen again, they stay together as a single group, until they could settle as one and build the first city and center of a new kingdom. From this was founded what some call the First Line, or Prima Astridite. It was a rich kingdom that flourished for hundreds of years in the time of the First Fellowship, spreading out over a large area, but holding itself separate from the rest of the world. As it spread, it allied itself with an ancient race of darker wild peoples who descended from the Nakrians – a folk who have faded into memory. Together they supposedly created an idyllic kingdom, though they purposefully held themselves separate from the lands to the west and south as they were settled. They wanted nothing to do with the rough ways and savagery they saw developing and focussed on hiding themselves away as opposed to fighting for prominence. Only certain delegates were allowed into the Astridite Kingdom from the west. Somehow they knew when outsiders would scout their territories, and when forces would pass their borders bent on raids and violence. They grew increasingly isolationist, and in time they vanished from memory. It was sudden when it happened, and literal. The mountains, streams, lakes, rivers, keeps, towns and villages were scoured from the surface – down to the bedrock.
General knowledge…
The ancient lands to the northeast of the Valley of Sighs were settled and passed into legend as an idyllic kingdom. It all vanished in a breath. The lands were scoured to the bedrock in many places. All living things, even the birds vanished without a trace. Volcanoes sprung up and the land heaved and buckled for a hundred years. New hills, new mountains rose up and vast powerful storms scoured the land – a millennium of growth and erosion in a hundred years as if the very world were trying to heal itself. As the lands “grew back” they were conquered by the Orrish. It became a proto kingdom of the Orrish, and the dark gods used its volcanic soot to enhance the cover of their peoples and keep them safe from the rest of the world, which wanted to kill them all. The curtain of night formed around it – the first of the protective cloaks the dark gods made for their peoples. In time, the Orrish would drive south into the eastern lands of the first kingdoms of the east.
The area of The Scouring became The Oldening of Orlec in the world of Orlec.