Alter Aeon The Great Library

Welcome to the Alter Aeon Historical Archive!

Note - as with any topic, researchers should question the reliability
and veracity of these texts.  The library's aim is to preserve
documents, not verify accuracy.

AABN:  47605
Title: a book entitled, "The Rise and Fall of Q'thelas"

The earliest legends that the Quelese have of themselves tell the tale of
two villages, one elven, the other human, each founded between the Inland
Sea and the Southern Ocean in the depths of time.  A war party from each
village left to defend against murlock encroachers that were amassing in
the swamps and woods.  The murlocks decimated the elven warriors, then
wiped out the women and children left in the man-village. Weakened, the
murlocks were driven back to the jungles by the human army. Finding their
own village destroyed, they wandered until they found the elf village.  The
humans settled there, marrying the widowed elf women.  Their half-elven
progeny became the Quelese and the village grew into Q'thelas.

Q'thelas became a hub of activity in the region and a rising power in the
world. The Quelese began to expand in all directions, building additional
outposts and settlements.  The known colonies are Q'Inag (Naginag),
Q'Seneg, Q'Ital and Q'Keen (Kookien).  The Aztec capital city was built
amidst the ruins of another Quelese colony, whose name remains a mystery.
Haun's Mill is built near the ruins of another.  Various minor ruins are
scattered between the K'tinga River Valley and the Swamps of Sorrow. The
people of Q'thelas were industrious and prolific.  They quickly advanced in
both magical arts and physical sciences.  Barbarian murlocks and trolls
were swept before the their well-trained calvary and infantry.  Their
paladins became the most renowned warriors of the ancient world.  It seemed
as if nothing would prevent them from civilizing the entire region.   

Then war rained down upon mortals.  The clashing of immortals brought about
the Great Wars, and the Age of Chaos began.  The Quelese joined the side of
Good in resisting the invasions from the elemental plane of darkness.  The
war was terrible in the entire realm of Alter Aeon, but it was especially
bad for the Quelese.  Armies of orcs and their allies constantly streamed
down from the northeast to invade their lands. The entire Ash Mountains
were infested with the evil immortals' forces.  The orcs built the fortress
of Sutton Vu as a rallying point to gather their forces.  They opened
portals to the shadow world in order to bolster their numbers with demons.
In the beginning, the war went well for the Quelese.  Their military
discipline and holy magiks protected their cities.  As the war dragged on,
the evil immortals created more powerful shadow beings to send into battle.

  In order to combat the more powerful demons, the Quelese delved deeply
into the arcane arts.  Being aided by the Council of Seven Mages, Quelese
sorcerers reached a level of magical power  beyond that of the most
powerful mages today.  However, many  of the Quelese mages and possibly
even one the Seven became more concerned with  their own studies and power
mongering than heeding any deity or plight of the people.  They began to
pursue their own agendas.  By diverting their attention to personal  gain
they sabotaged the war effort. Some went so far as to rebel against the 
government and turn to demonology. Their corruption and magical perversions
proved to be the undoing of their race. One by one, their outlying cities
fell.  They abandoned their settlements in the east and fled to the
capital.  

The Forces of Evil besieged the city for fifteen years.  Q'thelas held out
until its defenses were finally overrun by an army of demons led by the
dragons A'maran Dax and Susami, who were aided by dissenters within the
city.  Q'thelas was destroyed and desecrated, and the Quelese civilization
collapsed. Fortunately, all was not lost.  The good immortals' astral
armies drove the demons from the region and put an end to the invasion.
Kenai's invading forces were similarly defeated. That remnant of the
Quelese race returned to repopulate their ruined cities after the wars.