Children, it's time for a history lesson

Alright, I promised a campaign setting, so here it is. Well, the beginning of it. This is simply the basic history of the world, and includes the majority of the significant historical events of this world for what is almost the last 4000 years. Now then, let's begin.

Evalt was a flourishing world. Civilization had been established almost everywhere. A great war had ended. Evalt seemed to be at peace. Gratyi, the comet that was considered to be an omen of good luck, appeared. Many thought a great new era was going to soon begin. Everything just seemed right for it. But then something that no one could have foreseen happened.

Gratyi collided a very surprised world. Immediately it nearly completely wiped out an nation of people. Earthquakes shook the world, bringing cities to the ground. Fires broke out for hundreds of miles almost instantly from the heat of the impact. Entire nations burned in the inferno. The impact also sent massive tsunamis out in every direction. Coastal towns around the world were destroyed by massive waves. The whole world was in chaos. Most of the survivors lived on the other side of the planet. They were spared from the worst effects of the impact, although they too would soon suffer. The impact had shaken a lot of dust into the atmosphere, which blocked out the sun. The whole world was in darkness. With the sun blocked out, the remaining crops died. The whole world was beginning to starve. Many resorted to cannibalism to survive. Not only was there starvation, but the lack of sunlight made the world colder. Many of those that didn’t starve, froze.

However, not everyone was hurt by the lack of sunlight. Vampires loved this change in the world. The vampires that had survived the impact loved not having the ever fear the sun. Many began to hunt those who still lived. Vampires became as big a threat as starvation and the cold. One opportunistic vampire named Roltes saw an opportunity to gain power. Many of the vampires heedlessly hunted down the living, not realizing that if they continued like this their food would soon be completely extinct, and then the vampires would be the next ones to starve. Roltes began capturing the living, and keeping them like livestock. Soon, vampires began coming to him to obtain their food, and Roltes obliged. He began to establish a small kingdom, over which he ruled. Many vampires joined him. After all, he was the man with the food. Other vampires soon saw what Roltes was doing, and they too began to use the living like livestock. These vampires also created their own nations, and proclaimed themselves to be kings and lords.

These many vampire lords began to fight for power. War broke out between the vampire nations. What was most fought over, was food. Vampires raided each other’s cities and stole their “livestock.” For a century the Vampiric Wars continued. Many of the weaker nations collapsed under the control of the more powerful vampiric nations. Roltes did very well in these wars. He was a brilliant tactician, and a clever politician. He also amassed the largest supply of food in the vampiric world, which made many vampires willing to join him. By the end of the wars, Roltes emerged victorious, with all resistance crushed. He declared himself the Emperor of all of Evalt.

For the next several millennia, Roltes ruled over his empire. He continued to keep a tight control over the food supply for the vampires. He made sure to breed his “livestock” and be careful to not have too much of it eaten. Vampires were the only ones that had any real civilization during this time. Almost all the living people on the surface of the world were slaves to the vampires, used for food and work. After about a millennium of rule, Roltes proclaimed himself to be a god, and demanded that everyone in his Empire worship him. Temples dedicated to him, and Roltes became the most “popular” god in the world. During this time, he experimented with creating human-vampire hybrids, and ended up creating the bloodlings. Bloodlings had a slightly higher status than the rest of the living. They were rarely used for food, and could have some minor political power within the empire. The other slaves resented this, but could not do much. Some slave revolts occurred during the history of the empire, but they never had much success. The vampires were simply too strong.

Then, after several millennia, the dust began to settle. The vampires were extremely worried, as sunlight was beginning to reach the surface in some parts of the world. Over the course of several centuries, more and more light began to shine through. One thing however, became obvious. It only shined through on one side of the world. On the other side, it never shined through. Astronomers were perplexed. From the knowledge that was left over from before the impact, they knew that the world turned, so that the sun eventually shined on all parts of the planet. Yet it constantly shined on only one part. Clearly, something was very wrong. However, the vampires did not concern themselves with this too much, because they were far more worried about keeping their empire. Roltes was especially worried, as light was beginning to shine down on his capital, making life very difficult for the rulers. Successful slave revolts had happened in several parts of his empire, where the sunlight was too strong for the vampires to do anything. Roltes began to move himself and much of the vampire ruling class to the part of the world still in darkness. The slaves in the capital city took this opportunity, and began to revolt. The sunlight made fighting difficult for the vampires, and the slaves succeeded in their revolt. Roltes was in the city at the time, and he was never found after the revolt. No evidence has been found of him dying, but he has never been seen by anyone since the revolt, so no one knows if he’s really dead, or simply hiding somewhere.

With the fall of Roltes, the rest of the empire quickly fell apart. Vampires fled to the dark part of the world, while the slaves rebelled. The vampires in the dark side of the world had lost their unity, and were in chaos. Historians mark the fall of the final vampiric city at the year 3567 AI (After Impact). After this point, the slaves were free, and the world began to return to normality.

Except that not all was normal. The slaves realized that Evalt no longer turned like it used to. The impact had stopped it in space. Life soon adapted to this new strange world. Nations established themselves along the edges of the illuminated part of the world, for the majority of it had become an extremely hot desert due to the constant sunlight. Civilization began to re-establish itself.

It has now the year 3901 AI. The world is now divided into three zones. Pozahr where the sun always shines creating an incredibly deadly desert, Zgobisch where the sun never shines over an icy cold land, and the Central Belt, where civilization has established itself, and is thriving. The vampires have never regained the unity that they had under Roltes, and now stay within the Icelands most of the time. The world still has many problems, but it is healing.