Discovery and Settlement:
First discovered in 532 AL, by Lord Vox and his followers, Aeternum became the centre of Voxism and the site of the famed Battle of Lorenth. Aeternum remained relatively untouched due to the impassible Moril Mountains to the South and the turbulent Straits of Merovin to the North; this caused it to serve as a refuge for much of nature’s exotic fauna-such as the Leoplurodon.
In 525 AL, the prestigious Lord Vox was persecuted in Shariathine Jerus (modern-day Avien) for heresy and apostasy. Advocating his ‘Voxism’, Vox supported the faith in the power of mankind and in science. Lord Vox instead purported the idea that, since humanity was the most powerful race in the world, then therefore the most powerful human striving for the benefit of his race would be the most powerful being. This inadvertently resulted in the traditional worship of Vox and his descendants as living Gods.
His persecution led to the wide-scale rioting of the Jerusian population. Resulting in the debilitating Jerusian Civil War, the Voxists and Shariaths waged a five year civil war until the coming of the Ecclestial Army in the First Divine March. Poised to crush Jerus, the Ecclests incited the subsequent mass panic and disorder within the unprepared Jerusian populace. Thus, freed by his followers, Lord Vox gathered all available supplies and led some 5,000,000 Voxist refugees through the Moril Mountains in a last desperate attempt at survival.
Arriving out into the fertile lands of Aeternum a two years later, the Voxists had lost half their number while trekking through the mountains. Disheartened, many Voxists began to degenerate into depression and insanity. Gravely ill himself, Lord Vox led his remaining followers down the length of the River Aevus before arriving at a small hill alongside the river that overlooked most of the land. Surrounded by fertile land and relatively near to the dense woodlands, the survivors decided to form their main settlement, Lorenth, there.
Finding the land to be rich in resources and bountiful in food, the Voxists quickly formed an effective and sustainable society. Recovering swiftly, Vox sent scouts around the country to determine its layout. Discovering the carnivorous, yet relatively docile, Leoplurodon, Vox sent men to tame the beasts. Serving as beasts of labour, burden, transportation and war in the place of traditional horses, the Leoplurodon soon became an iconic and integral aspect of Aeternian culture and livelihood. Gradually spreading out across the country, colonizing areas of fertility and bountiful natural resource, the Voxist nation gradually stabilized and preparation began for the eventual war with the Ecclest.
Designating Vox’s descendants as the royal line of the nation, they became traditional dictators of a sort-following the interpreted teachings of Voxism. However, with the threat of an Ecclestial invasion and the benign stipulations of Voxism, the rulers of the Voxists continually strove for the progress and benefit of the nation. Revolutionising agriculture, inventing the first effective sewage systems and making unprecedented breakthroughs in medicine, the secluded Voxist nation developed at a much higher rate than the rest of the Cyrin continent. Indeed, the Voxists remained relatively unharmed during the series of epidemics that ravaged the land during the Second Divine March, 590 AL. Additionally, with the masses of available rock and the discovery of iron and various other resources in the Avonus Mountains, the Voxists began to develop more advanced and durable infrastructure, armour and weaponry.
Additionally, the Voxist military (vaguely based upon the Cyrish system) was placed under a massive reformation by the Vox’s remaining generals. Focusing on incorporating the amphibious Leoplurodons in place of traditional cavalry and tailoring military strategies to be able to stand against the Ecclestial Knights, the Voxist military began to progress away from the rest of Cyrin. Furthermore, having been direct witnesses to the power of the Ecclest, Vox and his descendants initiated a diluted Spartan lifestyle within the Voxist population to maintain a general state of military capacity throughout the whole populace. Able to develop without external interference and supplied with superior weaponry, the Voxist military soon grew into a disciplined and lethal army.
Reemergence, the Fourth Divine March and Exposed Existence:
However, after over a century of tranquility, the Voxists began to grow irritable of their ignorance of the surrounding lands and by the Third Divine March in 650 AL, the disillusioned Lord Alioth organized for the foundation of the Moril Rangers. Predecessors to the famed Voxist Intelligence service, the rangers served the Voxists as, essentially, an elite Corps of rangers dedicated to the patrolling and defense of the Moril Mountains. The Rangers were trained to withstand intense temperatures as well as mastering stealth, espionage and ranged combat; making the Moril Mountains their traditional training grounds and headquarters-to this day, the ancient Moril Ranger Headquarters remain under strict governmental control. Designating several Rangers to mark a distinct pathway through the Moril Mountains, Lord Alioth aimed to reconnect to the Cyrish community. Working tirelessly, the Moril Rangers cut a distinct (yet easily defensible) path through the mountains. Finally succeeding in 625 AL, the Voxist reconnaissance teams arrived in Jerus upon the final stages of the Third Divine March.
Discovering Cyrin to have been completely dominated by the Ecclest following the results of the Third Divine March, the Voxist reconnaissance teams accidentally revealed themselves to the Ecclestial Jerusian population. Recognising their cultural enmity, the Jerusians attempted to take the reconnaissance groups into custody. However, with superior equipment, the Voxists fought free of the ensuing conflict and fled back through the mountain passes. Following them, the Jerusian army was quickly cut down by the various Voxist outposts stationed along the mountains. Leading them into the heart of the mountains, the Voxists trapped the ill-equipped Jerusian army and cut them down in the infamous Moril Massacre of 626 AL. Devastated by the loss of the bulk of their military, the Jerusians called out to the rest of Ecclestial Cyrin for aid in dominating the Voxists. This initiated the Fourth Divine March.
With the news of the impending Divine March upon their lands, the Voxists began to panic. Deeming Lord Alioth as unsuitable for holding the Voxist Throne in light of his imprudent actions, the Voxists deposed him and instead elected his sister, Lady Aurel, and her line for rule; thus demonstrating the Voxists’ limited loyalty to their ruler, but instead their boundless loyalty and adherence to the Voxist code. Striving to abolish the remnants of sexism in her population, Lady Aurel proved to be an adept military commander and the nation was soon gearing up for war. Fortunately though, protected by sea via jagged rocks, high cliffs and turbulent seas, the only feasible route of invasion would be through the foreboding Moril Mountains.
With the formation of the Fourth Divine March in 629 AL, the Ecclestial Knights began their trek from the Ecclestial homelands of Terrinus on the Eastern Coast of Cyrin towards the last vestige of religious freedom from the Ecclest-the Voxists. Already having fought off several attempts at incursion from the Ecclestially controlled Jerus, the Voxists were placed on high alert. Collapsing the mountain passes, save for small byways winding through the mountain range known only to the Voxists, Lady Aurel prepared the bulk of the Voxist military around the capital, Lorenth. Abandoning settlements and draining the land of crops and food, the Voxist population began to evacuate behind the capital.
Arriving at Jerus in 630 AL, and subjugating several minute rebellions along the way, the Ecclestial Knights began performing minute incursions into the mountains. After losing a few men in the mountains, the Ecclestial Knights seemingly vanished. However as Voxist scouts were sent out, they were ambushed and many were captured. Tortured into submission, the imprisoned scouts were forced to lead the Knights along the mountain passes towards the Voxist homelands. However, foreseeing this, Lady Aurel dispatched the Moril Rangers to harass and torment the Ecclestial Knights throughout their trek through the mountains.
Therefore, upon their arrival in the Voxist homelands in 631 AL, the Ecclestial Knights had been much disheartened and diminished due to the extreme weather conditions, the Moril Rangers and several attempts to mislead the Knights by the captured scouts. However, though advancing swiftly down the length of the River Aevus, the Ecclestial Knights found no solace in the lush countryside. Devoid of all cultivated crops, the Knights were forced to feed off of anything they could find; including fake stores of poisoned crops placed in half-hidden view under the orders of Lady Aurel. Additionally, travelling along the length of the river, the Knights were ample targets for the agile Voxist Leoplurodons.
Greatly weakened and with low morale, the Knights finally faced the bulk of the Voxist army at the Battle of Lorenth beside the River Aevus and before the Hill of the Lorenth. Charging repeatedly into the Voxist shield wall at the base of hill, whilst suffering under a hail of arrows, the Ecclestial Knights were unable to break through the disciplined Voxist military. Frustrated, the Ecclestial General Horus ordered a final complete charge against the Voxist infantry. With the remains of the Ecclestial heavy cavalry engaging the Voxist shield wall, the Voxist Leoplurodon cavalry charged out from the River Aevus where they had been racing down for days after a successful attempt by the Ecclestial Knights to mislead the Leoplurodons. Crushed in between the unyielding Voxist infantry and the vicious Leoplurodons, the Ecclestial Knights routed for the first time in history. Pursued all the way back through the Voxist homelands and through the Moril Mountains, the Ecclestial Knights were reduced to a mere fraction of their previous power.
Capturing the Ecclestial General Horus, the Voxists were able to force Terrinus into enforcing a general status of peace and non-hostility over all Ecclestial nations in relation to the Voxists. However, gravely weakened as they were, the Ecclest would never again rise as a major power in Cyrin. Indeed, soon after the degeneration of the Ecclest in Cyrin, Shariath and Voxism began to invade the previously devout Ecclestial nations of Cyrin.
Honouring the Lady Aurel as a heroine of the Voxists, the Lady proclaimed in a famous speech:
“My people, we have gone through much hardship to get to the stage that we are currently at. Voxism has evolved from a suppressed faith in the shadows of my grandfather’s Jerus, to becoming the most dominant faith in Cyrus! Science and humanity shall prevail over these false Gods, just as we have endured and prevailed over the Jerusians and the Ecclest! We shall have endured the Ecclestial Knights, we shall endure the Shariathine Mamlukes, and we shall endure the world before us! We are eternal, We are Aeternum!”
Naming the nation’s lake after her, and adopting the name Aeternum for their nation, the Aeternians continued to flourish and advance. No longer struggling for mere survival, Aeternum had developed into a stabilized, recognized and powerful nation. Content to develop seclusively behind the Moril Mountains, the Aeternians remained relatively undisturbed until the invasion of Aeternum by Shariathine Jerus and the subsequent Voxist Assimilation a century later.
