With the world left for dead at your feet, and a bad taste in your mouth for "civilization" you might be tempted to take some advantage.  At around -8,000 the Rayla became saviors.  Empathic Healing saved many from despair and chaos.  By -7,900 they had become manipulators. The Raylans resistence to chaos allowed them to prey on the weakness of others.  They were determined not to let civilization return to the past.  By by -7,800 they were violent dominators.  They practiced Empathics, but somewhere along the way they forgot how to feel empathy.
The great trees began to fall silent.  They saw the sleeping groves as a sinister act by their only possible rivals - the other Raylan Groves.  Unthinkably, Hamellil went to war Glamellil.  In Dramellil far to the south, the same symptoms were evident.  Shocked and dragged out of their innocence, the Dramellil could do nothing else but go to war against their northern brothers to stop the advancing decay of all that they held sacred.

They huddled in the snow together.  Three thousand Raglan archers against the howling wind.  Hamellil was before them.  They could feel the sleepingTrees, but barely.  They could smell fire too.  They knew that the warmth of the groves were a distant memory here.  Kalaiis sat among them.  "They are blinded.  I will not believe that they can ignore this forever" he thought burying his head in his cloak.  "They have become orog."  The mass of them held off the cold of the night, and at the dawn made ready.  In less than a quarter hour they marched toward the ancient grove of Hamellil. 

"They are coming" shouted Dunall  "Steady your bows."  But they could sense the weariness of their leader.  He had been a rock.  An impassable fortress.  But lately they found access.  Vulnerability.  Self-imposed cracks allowing them in - telling them that he knew that it had somehow gone wrong.  Hundreds of years of wrong.  That they had dominated themselves.
The Dramellil entered the grove, bows drawn as they walked.  In the clearing surrounding a great tree they met.  Both awaiting the word to unleash piercing death.  Dunall and Kalaiis met eyes.  They steeled themselves against the anguish they were certain to suffer in a matter of seconds.  Then suddenly all bows lowered.  They knew - suddenly in that moment they all knew that war was over.  For the first time in their history a Great Raylan Tree - the one directly before them - had just died.

The Rayla knew that their original intention had been a good one.  To prevent the past from being repeated. They sought out the wisest of men in Isban and Petros, the Grimdon and the Sahag the few remaining Jasou in the conquered Zenabesh and worked with all of them to establish a pact between the elemental faiths.  They agreed that Gods should never again roam Uranta.  They constructed an Elemental Staff from each of the four elements with Power from the Alak-Ans still buried deep within Zenabesh.  This staff could banish unwanted entities from Uranta. They all gathered the artifacts of the era of Gods and magic, and buried them deep within Zenabesh.  They closed the demon portal in Forbesh.  All of this finally accomplished, the Ralya ceased all contact with the world outside their groves.  And one day 1,000 years afterward the great trees awoke once more.  All but one.

Next: The Glacial Epoch

"We ride" shouted Rakis, Avatar of Fuegon, as he morphed into the largest of the seven Dragonlords.  The others followed suit.  High above the valley of Forbesh they began their flight.  One by one they vaulted into the sky with a roar.  Exultant peels of Fire lashing from their open maws.  Today they attack Zimurac.  Arriving, they swooped down belching flame, scorching the hills and  raising vast clouds of steam from Lake Zimurac.  Greeting them was the spectre of a gargantuan that suddenly rose from the depths of the lake.  The Dragonlords swerved but one was hit and went down into the roiling water.  Another broke south to the Valley of Shull.  There the Grimdon were waiting.  Thousands of boulders suddenly leapt from the ground striking the Dragonlord, who answered with a scorching breath that brought the hills to a burning inferno, but still he went down.  Back in Zimurac, Rakis arrived at the Troc capital, the gargantuan spectre held in battle by the remaining four Dragonlords.  Hovering above the island capital in the center of the lake, he called down a column of Fire upon it, following  with Energy Storm and Hurricane Force.  When all was fire and destruction, Fuegon the God himself appeared in the midst of the blaze to claim his victory.  But Siomann was waiting.  Zokesh had tapped into the hidden Necromancy of the Orb of Fire from centuries earlier and together he and Siomann sent a Greater succubis super-charged with Siomann's Enchantment to entrap Fuegon and his Avatar.  Rakis was separated from Fuegon and sent to the God's temple which was soon to become relegated to obscurity.  On Fuegon's greatest moment of victory, when he alone was the ultimate God over all of DOM and The Khaniz, he was led willingly into the same eternal dance party as the one to which he has sequestered Khaniza.  To complete the deed, Zokesh opened a demonic portal in Forbesh at the Temple of Fuegon to smite Fuegon's followers.  Many were possessed by lycanthropic entities.  Within one generation, Fuegonism was dead and lost to the memories of only a few.

This scene was repeated the world over in many languages and in all places.  Uranta lurched rapidly toward chaos and death.  The Age of Magic was nearing a close.  By -8,000, The Great Plagues had killed off the remainder of civilization.  Kathubra alone was triumphant.  Sioman was banished from the world by her hands.  In the end he simply had no Avatar or followers left living that remembered him.  Grimdon was all but destroyed, Kathubra took hold of Grimbold and the rest of DOM.  The Trocs were decimated.  Men were consumed by chaos and anarchy and overcome by disease.  Ezmere and Zokesh had committed mutual destruction and left the spent plane.

The Rayla alone had survived in numbers and would write the final chapter to this tragic age.

Next: The Raylan Domination

The world of simple beings was over.  The planet had grown too dangerous for survival.  Disease, which did not affect the Gods devastated Urantans.  Losing vast numbers of faithful was having an effect on the Gods.  For without worshippers, the Gods are nothing.  The Gods Fuegon and Siomann had established a tentative truce.  Goddess Khaniza had grown too powerful and needed to be taken down.  They both craved her followers, a vast number of humans in all parts of the Khanize Barrens used to hardship and resistant to disease. 

The chaos surrounding the Prime Material Plane had attracted large numbers of entities that thrive on such mayhem.  Queen of these entities was the Goddess Kathubra whose mortal followers originated in Tixtlan but were growing worldwide like a cancer especially in the small forgotten places.  The places where men and beasts flee in times of oppression and cruelty.  Her followers were never organized, and most never knew her name.  In Pyramis they called her Zaizun.  All of her names were pseudonyms for anarchy and chaos. This chaotic despair had attacked the very heart of Neriz, the city of Khaniza, and the natural insectoid inhabitants there.  The Entarans lived in tunnels far below the city, tapping the same waters that refreshed the Khaniz  of Neriz.  Sensing, but not understanding the state of the world, they broke forth and began to destroy the city.  Despite countless Timeslips and Time Spheres the Avatar of Khaniza was a casualty of the relentless blanket of Entarans.  Khaniza was angry.  She engaged Kathubra in battle in the Ethereal Plane.  This was all that Fuegon and Siomann needed.  As she plunged headlong into battle with chaos, she was beguiled by Siomann into believing that she had won.  Her path back to the Prime Material  led her instead to a powerful Magic Jar and an eternal party in the now trans-dimensional Fuegonite Great Hall of Humak.  With no Avatar to discover her whereabouts, her influence waned and her people eventually scattered - living a nomadic life in the Khaniz Barrens.  Even her beloved Neriz sunk into the sands.

But Fuegon and Siomann did not revel in their victory, for in their minds there could only be one true and eternal God of Uranta and they already had plans for each other.  Competitiveness for dwindling followers not infected by chaos became paramount.  Ezmere and Zokesh continued their endless war.  Armies of demons and devils battling it out while men ran, hid and died in unknown places.  Both Ezmere and Zokesh sought deific allies.  It was understood that these alliances were to be short-lived.  Zokesh had allied briefly with Fuegon to rid the Jasou of the Alak-Ans.  Both coveted it.  Fuegon summoned dragons from the Elemental Plane of Fire, and despite the Earth-rending machinations of the Jasou, the Dragons cleared a path for the Demons of Zokesh to take possession of Zenabesh in a single hour.  The Alak-Ans had been deliberately buried by the Jasou to prevent its taking.  The rapid destruction of the Jasou and their Avatar of Alak at the hands of hordes of demons - immune to Kinesis insured that the great gem would remain buried for awhile.  The remaining Jasou were scattered to the winds and those that survived the desert and the Zokesh eventually drifted back to their ancient homelands in the southern hemisphere.  Alak became a God without a people and he disappeared.
Zokesh had plans to unearth the Alak-Ans, but they never got the chance.  Ezmere attacked their capital with massive Meteorics.  Fuegon never got the chance to get his hands on it either as a secret alliance between Siomann and Zokesh would mark the beginning of the end of him and of the 1,000 year Age of Magic.

Next: What Goes Around Comes Around.

It is unclear where the race began.  Perhaps with the Orb of Fire and gem Alak-Ans, but the desire to acquire large reserves of Power spread across Uranta.  Eventually Power was not enough.  Avatars began using their power to summon the Gods themselves.  These etheric entities were far more powerful than the demonic ones brought by the Morbreth in Halifax.

Deities receive their Power through the worship of the faithful.  Thus their legend and number of believers allows them their Power and abilities.  These deities in turn redistribute the acquired Power among their faithful.  This symbiotic relationship describes the nature of religion, Power acquisition, Low and High Magic in Uranta.  (It's "Meze" or description of reality).  Individual direct acquisition of Power from the Astral was deemed to small to be of use.  During the Great Age of Magic, Gods walking Uranta was a natural outcome of the ability to conjure entities combined with an endless quest for Power.  Having a gem of Power suddenly became somewhat passe - when your God himself was at the helm.  The deities saw it as a chance to compete directly with other such deities, they relished the opportunity to drink in Power from the Astral Plane and to build their own "Meze."

But Gods generally have only the collective wisdom of their faithful.  And there was little of that at this time.  As went Halifax, so went Uranta.  The devastation caused by nations of great Power and Gods weilded at each other can only be imagined now.  But for hundreds of years terror and mayhem reigned.  Powerful magics laying waste entire civilizations. 

In DOM, Fuegon incarnate strode the hills of the Malpedun.  He granted his "seven" the ability to morph into fire-breathing dragons.  He allowed his Avatar the ability to call down huge columns of eternal Fire.  And the Orb of Fire was placed in a new Temple that existed halfway between the ethereal plane once removed from the Prime, and the Elemental Plane of Fire.  It's entrance was in Forbesh.  Grimbold allowed his Grimdon Avatar the ability to rend the earth at will.  To dig massive areas rendering them instant graves for his enemies.  Siomann gave the Trocs the ability to beguile and enchant their enemies and produce huge specters and phantasms.  The southern Portat Trocs were gifted with the transmutational power to Polymorph, contstruct vast phantams - then make them real with Permanence.  Greater Etheric Entities were called forth by the Zorbeshis in the south.  In the Khaniz Barrens, Khaniza gave the Dance of Fire to her faithful as a sign of their advanced Power for Energetics and Shamanism.  Her Avatar could Call Wolves, alter reality and cast massive Timespheres.  Powerful artifacts and engines of war were magically produced on all sides, especially by the Jasou.  For nearly 400 years the Gods walked Uranta, powerful avatars reigned, and life was cheap and expendable.

Next: The Imprisonment of the Gods

This map depicts the dominance of The Fuegonites and the advance of men and the Jasou (called "gnomes" by the Fuegonites).  The Corbam Valley (in yellow) was the scene of The Battle of Corbam - an immense battle between the Trocs, Grimdon and the Fuegonites.  The latter force won the day.

In the north, the Fuegonite wars with the Grimdon kept them busy for generations.  Slowly the Grimdon had relinquished ground.  The Rayla (called "Elves" by the Feugonites) gave ground as did the Trocs to keep out of the way of the ongoing conflict.  The Orog long ago were swallowed up into Feugon's territory.  Eventually, there was no land in DOM that was not spoken for by one culture or another - and each then sought to hold and defend it.

The Jasou were also expanding.  To keep others away rather than out of a desire for more land.  They knew of the Orb of Fire, and coveted it.  They themselves had unearthed gems of some Power in the Porthan mountains - or rather gems that could hold Power when it was placed into them.  By this time, the Jasou had become rather powerful Kineticists as well as Shaman, Tranamutationalists and Energeticists.  The Avatar of Alak, a Shaman named Jolaka, craved a stone to rival or exceed the Power of the Orb of Fire.  In this endeavor lasting years, many stones were found and rejected.  The great Shaman first took Etheric journeys then Astral journeys to gain a hint of the location of an orb of Power.  At one point during these journeys a powerful stone was felt.  This stone was ripe and amazingly already inbued with a great deal of power.

Jolaka stared into the inky abyss that surrounded him.  He had long ago left the faintly glowing path that led from Zenabesh into the pink etheric mist.  There was a trail here - he could feel it.  But he could not see it.  Dare he step into this Astral void?  "A lot riding on a feeling" he thought.  But his indecision was already calling him back.  "No!  Not again!" he hardened his intent.  "I must go on."  hurling himself into the darkness he willed consciousness.  Following no trail now, he cast Ringsight and Substantiation as he went to keep the reality from crumbling to nothing.  "I have crossed" he thought to himself as his body caught up with him at one point.
It had been an hour since Jolaka had started his journey.  His acolytes surrounding his body in the Great Hall of Alak.  They looked at each other with hope and fear.  They knew that their master had gone in with the determination of a Jasou-ne-dan, one who cared not if he returned if without the prize: the location of a sacred stone of Power.  It might be buried deep within Uranta, or in the mountain homes of their enemies.  They knew that he sought it as if possessed.  When Jolakas corporeal body disappeared after half an hour, they knew that it meant he had materialized somewhere.  But where?  Then, from the former location of his body they saw a faint glow appear.  Backing away quickly, the glow grew to a dazzling light.  Suddenly, and from nowhere a huge multicolored gem appeared - hovering in the center of the room.  Fearing for their lives, the acolytes ran outside of the room.  It was then that Jolaka leapt to the ground from within the stone as if it had a door in it.  "I have done it" he exclaimed triumphantly as he appeared before them. They gazed incredulously.  No one had predicted him returning at all much less with a physical stone.  Jolaka knew that the gem and its Power was not there by his doing alone.  He had perhaps stolen it.  But so easily?  No, it had to have been abandoned.

What Jolaka could not know is that an entire civilization had imploded and cast the stone physically and spiritually adrift.  At least for now.  But that is a tale of another dimension and for another day.

Next: When Gods Walked Uranta

Civilization would rise and fall during this Tumultuous period in world history.  This catastrophe occurred the world over - but we shall view it mostly from our Domish armchair.

When the Fuegonites arrived in DOM in -9,480 they were not welcome.  The original inhabitants had already seen men and thought them crafty, dishonest and weak.  Prone to illness and despair.  The men already there did not want them either, but as they were on the opposite side of of the continent, they did nothing to inhibit their arrival.  Surprised to find that the local Orog worshipped Earth gods rather than Fire, the Fuegonites nevertheless began to convert them.  "Better with us than against us" they said of their nearest neighbors.  Ultimately they did manage to convert the western Orog to their faith, though many also continued to worship their Earthen Gods as well. Those that did not convert, moved east and became enemies.  By -9,300 the Feugonites were well ensconced in the area now known as Fane.  The Grimdon Skafs (called "Dwarves" by the Fuegonites) still held dominion over most of the interior of the continent.  The Trocs held the southwest, the Portats drifting south from aggression by the northern (Zimurac) Trocs.  The Raylan expanded over much of the eastern interior (including present-day Blaad).  The eastern humans had city-states throughout all of the east as well and held many faiths.  They practiced Necromancy, but also Shamanism.  The Jasou (called "Gnomes" by the Fuegonites) had constructed many strongholds in the Porthan Mountains to the extreme south, and due to their proximity to the Khanizat, had adopted the Fire element into their faith.  They practiced Energetics as well as Kinesis, and also had Shaman among them.
By -9,300, the continent was primed and ready for an explosion.  Naturally it would be the Fuegonites that would light it.  By this time they had acquired some Transmutation from the Troc.  They had Orogs with a mild level of Kinesis.  The had Energeticists, and they also had access to a degree of Necromancy left within the Orb of Fire from Morbreth which they began to explore.  Each successive Fuegon Avatar longed to outdo the previous in Power and land acquisition.  Soon they were challenging the hegemony of the "Dwarves."  They would soon have a valuable aid in this.  For far away, nearly on the opposite side of the globe the Tixtlani had a purge a century earlier.  Living in that country were large winged lizards known as Roc.  That beasts pillaging of farm animals had caused the Tixtlanis to band together and drive them out of the country.  The roc had flown north, seeking roosts at the pole.  The harsh climate there eventually drove them over the northern pole and down the other side, reaching the north of DOM (Castan and Fane) c. -9270.  Instead of destroying them, the Fuegonites domesticated them, eventually using them as aerial mounts.  It was the edge they needed and the Fuegonites began their assault on Grimdon.

Korlan examined the reigns.  They were worn, but would hold.  The great beast turned head around to look at him, it's long neck bringing its maw within striking distance.  It shifted it's stance as Korlan swung his leg over.  But the beast allowed the rider.  Korlan slapped the beast and the roc shuddered in acceptance.  Lurching forward it's great wings spread forth and after a few short hops was airborne.  "Today we scout Grimdon" the captain shouted.  And the seven riders rode off into the day.

Next: Jasou and the Alak-Ans