The Unknown History of Orelioth

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ORELIOTH! I cry your name

as a child to its lost mother,

while we crumble into ruin.

Where might your wonders lie,

and where might our renaissance be?

                                                                - Goinas the Blind

This is the beginning of a hopefully occasional series of posts where I share ideas for a setting.

Orelioth is a fabled empire of the distant past, one of many that have existed, yet somehow more important than any other. Yet every detail of its existence is debated, in taverns and universities. The only thing that is agreed upon is its imprint on present: magnificent ruins, powerful magical relics, and immense cultural artifacts.

The old empire is an object of veneration and fear; its wonders have to power to change the lives of many at once. Its magics far exceed any created today, and have survived the spanning epochs between. This brings hope for a new golden age, a return to Orelian society, but in the hands of a malicious few these relics have wrought great ruin.

The draw of an Orelian society is immense. It must have been a time of great prosperity. Yet it seems to far from reach. Indeed, present society is a shadow mockery of the old values. Leaders that stand for nothing, citizens with no community, and only survival as the weakest glue patching society together.

The current dark age obscures Orelioth further. Its 'archaeology,' done by the novice treasure hunter, is poor, and the bare bits of documented history do little to elucidate life at the time, nor give any clue to the broad cultural and political shifts that brought this empire about. This is only further complicated by those who would spread misinformation and falsified evidence of Orelioth for their own ends. The family name "Orelion" is a common claim to a royal lineage, though there is no solid evidence that a ruler of Orelioth ever had that name. This is only the mildest and most common of false claims.

Despite all the confusion, there is little doubt that Orelioth was a high water mark of the world's civilizations, an epitome of golden ages, on all technological, magical, cultural, societal, political, and personal fronts. It makes the contemplative wonder, could such a society really be recovered, to anything nearing its former glory?

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