Estrian

History

The Estrian people trace their lineage to the twilight of the First Age, yet their culture did not truly crystallize until the heart of the Second. Their bloodlines are deeply entwined with the Wealch. Descendants of wizards, druids, mages, shamans, and more now lost to the shadows of forgotten time. That this mingling of blood is still remembered is remarkable, for the Estrians were among the last to adopt a written script beyond the ancient runes. Estrians were and still remain a people of voice and memory, their heritage carried in spoken words of elders. In this way, their culture is as much an echo of the mystic past as it is a living present, a vessel through which fragments of arcane ancestry endure. When the Estrians emerged as a true culture, united from many tribes of Wealch, they carried forward a spirit of fierce individuality. The sense of self did not root itself in the broader culture, but in the bonds of family. This gave rise to the distinct Estrian individualism known today. Through much of the Second Age and into the dawn of the Third, the Estrians thrived as a peaceful, mercantile people, They turned to violence only when wealth was at stake—wealth which, for the Estrians, was measured not in land or coin, but in artifacts, ships, casks of wine, and other tangible goods. Conquest was a concept ignored by the early Estrians. Yet the tides of history would not spare them. The eastward spread of the Gælics and their ceaseless raids forced the Estrians to cling more tightly to their cultural identity, their magic becoming as much a weapon as a heritage. Still, though their spells and traditions gave them strength in battle, they could not repel the zealous fervor of the invading Gælic hosts. Their freedom came not through conquest, but by enduring until the collapse of the Gælics’ own era, when the Estrians at last rose again unshackled.

During the long occupation of Estria, many Spellmasters who had once wielded their art in war turned their craft toward a new and vital purpose: the hunting and study of creatures that plagued the land and endangered trade. What began as a necessity soon became tradition, and alongside commerce, creature-hunting grew into one of Estria’s defining pursuits. A legacy that endures to this day, long after magic itself ceased to guide it. Yet Estria’s trials did not end there. In the second millennium of the Third Age, the Gothics subjugated the land, only to abandon it centuries later, leaving behind a people more steadfast and united than before. Each wave of conquest shaped Estrian identity, deepening their reliance on trade as a lifeline and a shield, exchanging goods with their occupiers in return for protection from foreign threats. Against raiders and invading armies they bargained and endured, but for the monsters that stalked their wilds, they had already forged their own path of mastery.

In the latter half of the Third Age, Estria knew a time of uneasy peace, where invasions were rare but raids from sea and land came often enough to demand constant tribute. These threats were not met with steel, but with coins and goods, bought off systematically until Estria’s wealth was slowly drained. As the great trade routes grew ever more perilous, overrun by Okkram and Drakkisles raiders, with Sakyr and Gælic warbands pressing in from time to time, Estria’s mercantile power withered. What trade endured shifted into the hands of the nobility, who alone could afford its risks and rewards, while the common folk were left with little but memory of the old mercantile glory. Thus, commerce ceased to be the lifeblood of the people and instead became the privilege of the rich, shaping Estria into a land where wealth was hoarded above rather than shared among its people.

When the Scourge descended upon Valklora, Estrians answered with steel, and spell earning renown as peerless slayers of creatures. Time and again they triumphed where hope had vanished, turning back the fiends when others faltered. This legacy carved their reputation deep into memory, and long after the wars, their name alone was enough to inspire fear or respect, rekindling their trade across the Valkloran shores. Before the empire fell with the death of its last Arthur, Estrians were honored in court, granted titles for their mastery of magic. From that time onward, Estrian courts made magic counsel a fixture, a rarity among nations, and foreign rulers too sought their service. Yet such roles brought danger; many Estrian advisors perished by assassination, on the battlefield, or at the hands of uprisings that blamed them for every ill. Those who survived returned home, carrying with them the bitter truth that Estrian wisdom, though valued, was rarely welcomed. The dawn of the Fourth Age brought with it both resilience and ruin for Estria. At first, they held firm against the relentless raids of the Drakkisles, weathering the storms of winged dracoid as they had for centuries. But their endurance was shattered when a ruler on wings descended from the floating isles, bringing with him the power of the Dragoneers. Unlike past conquerors, these were not content with occupation or subjugation alone—they sought to reshape Estria itself, weaving their own customs into the land while stripping away its ancient order. The wittans, once the keepers of Estrian law and tradition, were quietly cast aside, replaced by a meritocracy of nobles from the skies who governed in their stead. For the first time in their long history, the Estrians found themselves not merely subjugated but slowly assimilated, their elders silenced, their voice in their own destiny diminished, and their culture’s future slipping from their grasp.

Traits & Personnality

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Realms & Nobility

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Traditions

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