The world of Encara was home to dozens of races and cultures, its history spanning tens of thousands of years. A land rich with both arcane and divine magic, it was a place of breathtaking wonders and monumental conflicts. Cities of gleaming spires and underground metropolises coexisted with ancient forests and towering mountains, each shaped by the millions of beings who called Encara home.
Yet, in the decades before the Diaspora, a shadow loomed over the stability of the world. The Kaldjari Imperium, an empire of orcs that had long ruled much of Encara's southern hemisphere, found itself stretched thin. Centuries of unchecked expansion and industrial ambition had taken their toll—its resources were dwindling, its farmlands depleted, its mines stripped bare of ore, and its once-vast forests reduced to skeletal remnants. Famine and unrest spread through the empire, giving rise to uprisings and insurgencies that threatened to unravel the great machine of the Imperium. Collapse seemed inevitable.
In a desperate bid to stave off the empire's decline, Emperor Thalgar Ul'Vothak turned his legions northward. His sights fell upon the prosperous nations of Yldan, Yost, Ainor, and Elendris, whose lands were rich with resources the Imperium desperately needed. For generations, the Kaldjari had been content to govern their own territories, and the northern nations—lulled into a false sense of security—were unprepared for the sheer force of the Imperial Advance. With steel, magic, and war machines, the Kaldjari armies swept across the southern borders, claiming vast swaths of land before the stunned nations could mount a proper defense.
Realizing that none of them could stand alone against the might of the Imperium, the four nations—bolstered by their northern and eastern allies—formed the Midland Alliance, a coalition meant to hold the line against the orcish war machine. What followed was a grueling war of attrition. Though the combined forces of the Alliance stemmed the Kaldjari tide, they could not drive it back, and soon, both sides found themselves locked in a brutal stalemate.
Desperate to avoid further bloodshed, diplomats from the Imperium and the Midland Alliance entered into negotiations, seeking a resolution that would prevent outright devastation. Yet, the talks quickly soured. The Kaldjari refused to relinquish any land they had annexed and demanded more than the Alliance was willing—or able—to concede. The dwarves and elves of the Midlands, wary of the Imperium's unchecked consumption of resources, feared that any lasting peace would come at the cost of their own lands. With no common ground to stand on, the negotiations collapsed, and war seemed inevitable.
That is, until a young wizard named Ciaranol Kalvorsson—the son of an Athandr dwarf mother and a Felaari elf father—made a discovery that would change the fate of Encara forever.