Dawning of the Age of Dreams

By the dawn of the Age of Dreams, the world had taken a shape closer to that known today. Human civilizations flourished in the east, while the western lands of Cailleach remained the ancient heartland of the Ddraig, Drakeri, and Sídhe.

Sieges, Morrighan citadels, Sídhe courts, human kingdoms, and trading cities rose and fell. There were wars, as there were in every age, but for a time Aereth's people could aspire to more than survival.

It was an age of building, discovery, art, and memory.

It did not last.

The Return of Ys

Far to the west, the land drowned at the end of the Desolation Wars rose again from the sea: black, volcanic, and glassed with obsidian.

Morrighan patrols from Siege Azdiel were among the first to see it. Their Empress, Xorayss, carried warning to the High Court of the Sídhe, but the ancient tales of the imprisoned Shadow had become legend, and the warning was dismissed.

The vaults beneath the risen land were failing.

The Shadow Wars

As their seals cracked, the Dark Hordes returned. The Shadow spread outward from the west, and the wars that followed destroyed lands that had endured for uncounted ages.

Siege Azdiel fell. Its Ddraig were destroyed and remade as Drakhmar, terrible remnants of what they had once been. Xorayss, once an Empress of the Ddraig, became the first and greatest among them.

Gaia itself was shattered by eruptions, earthquakes, and great tsunamis. When the sky cleared, much of the old continent was gone. The Obsidian Islands, Amber Islands, Cold Rocks, and the Island of Serpents, collectively known as Yle, remained as fragments of what had been.

Upon the newly surfaced black land, a city grew around the ruins of Azdiel. The old name returned with it: Ys.

And in Ys dwelt Baara, Lord of Shadows and earthly servant of Dral'gath.

So ended the Age of Dreams.