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More from dragontalon
This is a map of the land where my story Fates of the Unicorns takes place.
The story is for mature readers only, but the map and the following history of the World is safe for general audiences.
Pre Empire
Not much at all is known of this time. Many competing nation states, often formed from a single furry species were constantly at war with each other. Sea travel was limited due to the dangers life that swam beneath the waves. Shops went missing often, attacked by small fish that could eat away the hull given time, and large squid-like creatures that would sink a ship by pulling it under. What is known is that a group of mixed species furries somehow made contact with creatures now called Leviathans. These creatures were massive.. miles long and lived deep in the oceans. Even then nobody knew their true forms, only occasionally seeing vast tentacles rise up, and most communication was done through intelligent dolphins that were used as messengers and translators. The Leviathans were vastly intelligent and gifted the small group of mixed furries with powerful magic, letting them build ships that could endure the seas and they quickly united the world after a series of quick wars, many of them bloodless due to their far superior magical abilities.
The Age of the Empire
The empire ruled for centuries in relative peace. This was the golden age of the World, where access to wonderful magics by the Leviathans allowed the furry races to shape the world to their liking. Each furry race had their own House, with their own rules, customs and land. They were held accountable by the Empire's central rules and laws, but had limited freedoms within their borders. The lands between the furry Houses carried a mix of furry races, and were governed by the laws of the Empire. Half the population lived in non-House lands and in such places the various species got along and mixed well.
The one exception were the dragons who kept nearly entirely to themselves, and who also rarely had visitors from other species. Slavery was legal in their territory so no furry would dare enter their lands without a visa promising safe passage by the dragon House. It is not known why the dragons were allowed such practices. It is thought that they were too entrenched for even the Empire to conquer them without wiping them out completely, so the dragons were convinced to join the Empire with treaties that gave them special privileges, at least in their own lands.
The Great Dark Age
Why the Leviathans rose up to smash the ships from their waters is not known. The results were catastrophic and quick. What was once a world spanning Empire was thrown into chaos as trade was cut off overnight and coastal cities were devastated. Much of the magic depended on the Leviathans for support and when this was withdrawn, vast areas of the furry infrastructure ceased to function. Civil war broke out, with furry races fighting among themselves to replace the fallen empire. A hundred years of war left the continent in the midst of The Great Dark Age, the once great cities in ruins as they were repeatedly burned to the ground in the wars.
Almost all history was lost in these dark years. Cities were smashed into ruins, their treasures looted and taken back only to be looted again, eventually nearly all being lost or destroyed. Almost all surviving documents come from well before the fall, so little is known of the history leading to it, why it happened or what caused the continent to wage such a long and fierce war against itself.
Nothing at all is known of what has happened on other continents. Any attempt to sail the seas results in the Leviathans destroying the ships, and then attacking the coastal lands that launched it, always with great loss of life and destruction. Surviving kingdoms quickly learned to leave the seas alone. The world was now reduced to what records used to call the southern continent, but is now simply the continent, and more commonly, the world.
The Rebuilding
Eventually civilization rose again. Each furry race forming a kingdom made from the old house lands, borders redrawn and a mostly peaceful time began. The dragon race occupied the mountain pass between the two halves of the continent which nobody wanted due to the active volcano at the east end of the range. The western side was considered undesirable due to it's lack of natural resources and poor farming and it remained rural and underdeveloped. Minor wars were fought here and there, but the ruins of the empire were a reminder to what that would lead to, and they were quickly resolved. The eastern half of the continent was dotted with mines, forests and lush farmlands. Culture was slowly regained, cities grew, libraries and universities once more became common sights across the continent. Magic never recovered, for much of it was directly supplied by the Leviathans. But the Empire had learned much, and scraps of their skills still remained.
The Insect Wars
Nobody knows, nor understands where the insect races came from. If they were known back in the days of the Empire, no records exist. But they were clearly nowhere to be found during the Great Dark Age and the Rebuilding. They appeared on the east coast of the continent, emerging from burrows and deep caves to attack and slaughter without mercy. The coast was a total loss and refugees poured west as the insect armies advanced. The furry races all came to fight them, the dragons being the only race that could fight them effectively. But even the dragons and the combined might of the rest of the furry armies could only slow, not stop the advance.
A particularly terribly trait of the insects was soon discovered. They had many species both big and small that served various purposes, but one in particular was most reviled and feared. A captured furry would be brought to a queen and enveloped in the end of a massive tentacle to be fed and conditioned. A larva would be birthed. It was about a foot long, and would burrow into the back of it's victim where it would take control and slowly grow an exoskeleton around the furry. These mutated creatures would then be used as additional warriors. They caused many regiments to turn tail at the sight of former comrades returning as enemies. What was worse was these mutated horrors were used as generals, their former furry minds being used to think and plan against their former friends and allies. Except for the insect queens, the rest of the army were drones and workers, hardly smarter than an animal. Even the queens were not considered terribly bright, and the war would have been won easily but for the numbers and the actions of the furries who were enslaved and compelled to fight for the insects.
After nearly a year of warfare the insects suddenly stopped and dug in. Attacks were attempted to push them back, but they all failed. The insects were unstoppable when they were advancing, and once dug in were even harder to dislodge.
A year passed and they erupted without warning to invade again. Thus began a bi-yearly cycle, a year of war separated by a year of silence by the invading armies. After a decade it became clear that there was no stopping them. Every two years the land they occupied grew, and so did the armies they fielded that allowed them to advance faster and faster. At the end of a war year the dragon race, badly hurt by the fighting realized they would soon be wiped out entirely. They declared they no longer could, or would fight the advance, but would themselves dig in to their mountain homes and make a last stand in the narrow land bridge, aided by the frequent volcanic eruptions and rocky, impassable terrain.
This did not go over well with the rest of the furry races, but there was little they could do, the dragons mountain homes being as impregnable as the insects were when they had dug in. What was even more unpopular was the dragons decision to charge passage to the western side of the continent. But again there was little to be done, they controlled all the passes and knew the routes to take.
The cost of passage became quickly known. The dragons simply took anything shiny or valuable. Gold, jewels, art of all kinds. Weather by design or fate, they filtered out anything that wouldn't help the retreating furries survive in the new lands, but left the refugees with anything useful. Tools, books, food... all were left untouched. In time people stopped trying to bring entire caravans full of looted or family treasures but nobody who had anything of value dared bring nothing for fear the dragons would refuse passage.
The former kingdoms broke down under the strain and the insects' bi-yearly invasion was unopposed, not that they were ever slowed down much by the former defenses. They quickly covered half the continent, and it only took one more cycle for them to reach the dragon borders. By the time the insects reached the land bridge between the two halves of the continent, over half the known furry population had been killed or worse.
Here, finally they were stopped. The insects could not deal with the cold of the high peaks and the dragons fire-breathing drakes were able to keep the narrow passages blocked. The dragons dealt with any insects that managed to sneak through, and the mountains were mostly granite and hard stone, not something the insects could burrow through quickly.
The Age of Refuge
Once nearly deserted, the western half of the continent was now crowded with refugees and displaced furries. There were no house lands here, and everyone was forced to live in a mix of species to survive with only small encampments and towns with a majority of a single species. There were of course fights and even minor wars, but no single race could gain a foothold. A leader arose from the chaos as they often do, and quickly rallied the people to rebuild and live in peace. It helped that the dragons would often decide to keep nobility as slaves instead of passing them through, the result being the various furry races had few noble princes to rally behind.
Within a generation things had settled down in the new land, now called Refuge. Most cities were a mix of races, and only a handful of towns and villages were of one race, usually only when they gathered due to a particular skill or need. Such as the rural unicorn villages devoted to the taming and breeding of animals, which they could do far better than other furries, and cities like the Elves home where they concentrated to protect and use what few magics they still possessed after all the wars and time.
The dragons maintained their defenses, and slowly turned the few passes into heavily armed and defended forts. Painstakingly over generations they pushed the defensive line forward with new forts and walls, only stopping when the land began to widen and the border became too large to defend. Still maintaining every fort as they built new ones, the land bridge became a single massive defensive castle, built from the mountains themselves. It was a stalemate. The insects could not breach the defenses, but the dragons could not move forward either.
The Modern Age
The battle line between the dragons and the insects has not moved in generations. Occasionally the insects would push inward, but the dragons always took back the ground lost.
The species-agnostic government has done well, and avoided a second dark age. Cities have grown and once more the land is at a stable peace. Groups do rise up now and then trying to gather all their race into a single House of old, often led by someone who can claim some noble blood, but they never gather many followers.
Interspecies love and marriage is common now. Very, very rarely a mating between species can produce a half-breed but it is very uncommon. When a married interspecies couple wishes to have a child, they find a compatible mate for the female, or a surrogate member of the males species. Sometimes, especially with a surrogate female, the extra furry will end up formally joining in the marriage. Marriages with two pairs of a furry race are also common and adoptions are common, and not unknown to cross species barriers.
The dragon capital is located in a massive crater. An asteroid strike had blown a huge crater out of the center of the mountain range, leaving a nearly vertical rim and a flat basin. The crater is several miles wide and is riddled with caves and passages carved out for hundreds of years for the dragons and their drake mounts. The center is a large, flat valley filled with castles and other buildings as well as coliseums and even a small forest left untouched for hunting games and rituals.
The furry government maintains an uneasy truce with the dragon empire. The dragons need the furries to trade for food and supplies, and the furries need the dragons to stop the insect invasion. So the furry government mostly ignores the dragons when they cause trouble in the borderlands. The borderlands surrounding the border of the dragon kingdom are mostly rural farms that supply the dragons with food, as they do not have enough land of their own. Being a farmer in the borderlands is a risky, but profitable venture. The dragons pay farmers yearly for a steady supply of cattle and other herd animals, and they pay in gold which they have an enormous amount of from the retreat. This is nearly the only source of gold or historical art. Ranching for a year can provide enough gold for a single farmer to retire off of. But it takes many hands to run a ranch, so most spend 5 to 10 years at it before retiring.
The lands further from the border are safer to work, and also high in rewards as the farmers can pay in gold for new stock, supplies and needed tools.
The downside to living in the borderlands is that dragons will come down in a small group to raid a village, taking a few choice furries as slaves. Farmers have come to join up with others and buy protection from furry solders, hiring private armies. The dragons seem to enjoy the challenge and usually give the defenders a fair fight. Ranching in the borderlands is a dangerous profession, but is far from suicidal. Although furries are constantly being kidnapped and taken, the number is small compared to the farming population so the risk to a single individual is small.
Dragon raids deeper into furry territory are very uncommon, happening perhaps once a generation. They are rarely worried about among the hundreds of towns and villages that are within range, as the chances of a particular village being hit is extremely tiny. But if a village is raided... well... read the story to find out what happens.
You can read Chapter 1 or jump to my journal updated with the latest Table of Contents.
The story is for mature readers only, but the map and the following history of the World is safe for general audiences.
Pre Empire
Not much at all is known of this time. Many competing nation states, often formed from a single furry species were constantly at war with each other. Sea travel was limited due to the dangers life that swam beneath the waves. Shops went missing often, attacked by small fish that could eat away the hull given time, and large squid-like creatures that would sink a ship by pulling it under. What is known is that a group of mixed species furries somehow made contact with creatures now called Leviathans. These creatures were massive.. miles long and lived deep in the oceans. Even then nobody knew their true forms, only occasionally seeing vast tentacles rise up, and most communication was done through intelligent dolphins that were used as messengers and translators. The Leviathans were vastly intelligent and gifted the small group of mixed furries with powerful magic, letting them build ships that could endure the seas and they quickly united the world after a series of quick wars, many of them bloodless due to their far superior magical abilities.
The Age of the Empire
The empire ruled for centuries in relative peace. This was the golden age of the World, where access to wonderful magics by the Leviathans allowed the furry races to shape the world to their liking. Each furry race had their own House, with their own rules, customs and land. They were held accountable by the Empire's central rules and laws, but had limited freedoms within their borders. The lands between the furry Houses carried a mix of furry races, and were governed by the laws of the Empire. Half the population lived in non-House lands and in such places the various species got along and mixed well.
The one exception were the dragons who kept nearly entirely to themselves, and who also rarely had visitors from other species. Slavery was legal in their territory so no furry would dare enter their lands without a visa promising safe passage by the dragon House. It is not known why the dragons were allowed such practices. It is thought that they were too entrenched for even the Empire to conquer them without wiping them out completely, so the dragons were convinced to join the Empire with treaties that gave them special privileges, at least in their own lands.
The Great Dark Age
Why the Leviathans rose up to smash the ships from their waters is not known. The results were catastrophic and quick. What was once a world spanning Empire was thrown into chaos as trade was cut off overnight and coastal cities were devastated. Much of the magic depended on the Leviathans for support and when this was withdrawn, vast areas of the furry infrastructure ceased to function. Civil war broke out, with furry races fighting among themselves to replace the fallen empire. A hundred years of war left the continent in the midst of The Great Dark Age, the once great cities in ruins as they were repeatedly burned to the ground in the wars.
Almost all history was lost in these dark years. Cities were smashed into ruins, their treasures looted and taken back only to be looted again, eventually nearly all being lost or destroyed. Almost all surviving documents come from well before the fall, so little is known of the history leading to it, why it happened or what caused the continent to wage such a long and fierce war against itself.
Nothing at all is known of what has happened on other continents. Any attempt to sail the seas results in the Leviathans destroying the ships, and then attacking the coastal lands that launched it, always with great loss of life and destruction. Surviving kingdoms quickly learned to leave the seas alone. The world was now reduced to what records used to call the southern continent, but is now simply the continent, and more commonly, the world.
The Rebuilding
Eventually civilization rose again. Each furry race forming a kingdom made from the old house lands, borders redrawn and a mostly peaceful time began. The dragon race occupied the mountain pass between the two halves of the continent which nobody wanted due to the active volcano at the east end of the range. The western side was considered undesirable due to it's lack of natural resources and poor farming and it remained rural and underdeveloped. Minor wars were fought here and there, but the ruins of the empire were a reminder to what that would lead to, and they were quickly resolved. The eastern half of the continent was dotted with mines, forests and lush farmlands. Culture was slowly regained, cities grew, libraries and universities once more became common sights across the continent. Magic never recovered, for much of it was directly supplied by the Leviathans. But the Empire had learned much, and scraps of their skills still remained.
The Insect Wars
Nobody knows, nor understands where the insect races came from. If they were known back in the days of the Empire, no records exist. But they were clearly nowhere to be found during the Great Dark Age and the Rebuilding. They appeared on the east coast of the continent, emerging from burrows and deep caves to attack and slaughter without mercy. The coast was a total loss and refugees poured west as the insect armies advanced. The furry races all came to fight them, the dragons being the only race that could fight them effectively. But even the dragons and the combined might of the rest of the furry armies could only slow, not stop the advance.
A particularly terribly trait of the insects was soon discovered. They had many species both big and small that served various purposes, but one in particular was most reviled and feared. A captured furry would be brought to a queen and enveloped in the end of a massive tentacle to be fed and conditioned. A larva would be birthed. It was about a foot long, and would burrow into the back of it's victim where it would take control and slowly grow an exoskeleton around the furry. These mutated creatures would then be used as additional warriors. They caused many regiments to turn tail at the sight of former comrades returning as enemies. What was worse was these mutated horrors were used as generals, their former furry minds being used to think and plan against their former friends and allies. Except for the insect queens, the rest of the army were drones and workers, hardly smarter than an animal. Even the queens were not considered terribly bright, and the war would have been won easily but for the numbers and the actions of the furries who were enslaved and compelled to fight for the insects.
After nearly a year of warfare the insects suddenly stopped and dug in. Attacks were attempted to push them back, but they all failed. The insects were unstoppable when they were advancing, and once dug in were even harder to dislodge.
A year passed and they erupted without warning to invade again. Thus began a bi-yearly cycle, a year of war separated by a year of silence by the invading armies. After a decade it became clear that there was no stopping them. Every two years the land they occupied grew, and so did the armies they fielded that allowed them to advance faster and faster. At the end of a war year the dragon race, badly hurt by the fighting realized they would soon be wiped out entirely. They declared they no longer could, or would fight the advance, but would themselves dig in to their mountain homes and make a last stand in the narrow land bridge, aided by the frequent volcanic eruptions and rocky, impassable terrain.
This did not go over well with the rest of the furry races, but there was little they could do, the dragons mountain homes being as impregnable as the insects were when they had dug in. What was even more unpopular was the dragons decision to charge passage to the western side of the continent. But again there was little to be done, they controlled all the passes and knew the routes to take.
The cost of passage became quickly known. The dragons simply took anything shiny or valuable. Gold, jewels, art of all kinds. Weather by design or fate, they filtered out anything that wouldn't help the retreating furries survive in the new lands, but left the refugees with anything useful. Tools, books, food... all were left untouched. In time people stopped trying to bring entire caravans full of looted or family treasures but nobody who had anything of value dared bring nothing for fear the dragons would refuse passage.
The former kingdoms broke down under the strain and the insects' bi-yearly invasion was unopposed, not that they were ever slowed down much by the former defenses. They quickly covered half the continent, and it only took one more cycle for them to reach the dragon borders. By the time the insects reached the land bridge between the two halves of the continent, over half the known furry population had been killed or worse.
Here, finally they were stopped. The insects could not deal with the cold of the high peaks and the dragons fire-breathing drakes were able to keep the narrow passages blocked. The dragons dealt with any insects that managed to sneak through, and the mountains were mostly granite and hard stone, not something the insects could burrow through quickly.
The Age of Refuge
Once nearly deserted, the western half of the continent was now crowded with refugees and displaced furries. There were no house lands here, and everyone was forced to live in a mix of species to survive with only small encampments and towns with a majority of a single species. There were of course fights and even minor wars, but no single race could gain a foothold. A leader arose from the chaos as they often do, and quickly rallied the people to rebuild and live in peace. It helped that the dragons would often decide to keep nobility as slaves instead of passing them through, the result being the various furry races had few noble princes to rally behind.
Within a generation things had settled down in the new land, now called Refuge. Most cities were a mix of races, and only a handful of towns and villages were of one race, usually only when they gathered due to a particular skill or need. Such as the rural unicorn villages devoted to the taming and breeding of animals, which they could do far better than other furries, and cities like the Elves home where they concentrated to protect and use what few magics they still possessed after all the wars and time.
The dragons maintained their defenses, and slowly turned the few passes into heavily armed and defended forts. Painstakingly over generations they pushed the defensive line forward with new forts and walls, only stopping when the land began to widen and the border became too large to defend. Still maintaining every fort as they built new ones, the land bridge became a single massive defensive castle, built from the mountains themselves. It was a stalemate. The insects could not breach the defenses, but the dragons could not move forward either.
The Modern Age
The battle line between the dragons and the insects has not moved in generations. Occasionally the insects would push inward, but the dragons always took back the ground lost.
The species-agnostic government has done well, and avoided a second dark age. Cities have grown and once more the land is at a stable peace. Groups do rise up now and then trying to gather all their race into a single House of old, often led by someone who can claim some noble blood, but they never gather many followers.
Interspecies love and marriage is common now. Very, very rarely a mating between species can produce a half-breed but it is very uncommon. When a married interspecies couple wishes to have a child, they find a compatible mate for the female, or a surrogate member of the males species. Sometimes, especially with a surrogate female, the extra furry will end up formally joining in the marriage. Marriages with two pairs of a furry race are also common and adoptions are common, and not unknown to cross species barriers.
The dragon capital is located in a massive crater. An asteroid strike had blown a huge crater out of the center of the mountain range, leaving a nearly vertical rim and a flat basin. The crater is several miles wide and is riddled with caves and passages carved out for hundreds of years for the dragons and their drake mounts. The center is a large, flat valley filled with castles and other buildings as well as coliseums and even a small forest left untouched for hunting games and rituals.
The furry government maintains an uneasy truce with the dragon empire. The dragons need the furries to trade for food and supplies, and the furries need the dragons to stop the insect invasion. So the furry government mostly ignores the dragons when they cause trouble in the borderlands. The borderlands surrounding the border of the dragon kingdom are mostly rural farms that supply the dragons with food, as they do not have enough land of their own. Being a farmer in the borderlands is a risky, but profitable venture. The dragons pay farmers yearly for a steady supply of cattle and other herd animals, and they pay in gold which they have an enormous amount of from the retreat. This is nearly the only source of gold or historical art. Ranching for a year can provide enough gold for a single farmer to retire off of. But it takes many hands to run a ranch, so most spend 5 to 10 years at it before retiring.
The lands further from the border are safer to work, and also high in rewards as the farmers can pay in gold for new stock, supplies and needed tools.
The downside to living in the borderlands is that dragons will come down in a small group to raid a village, taking a few choice furries as slaves. Farmers have come to join up with others and buy protection from furry solders, hiring private armies. The dragons seem to enjoy the challenge and usually give the defenders a fair fight. Ranching in the borderlands is a dangerous profession, but is far from suicidal. Although furries are constantly being kidnapped and taken, the number is small compared to the farming population so the risk to a single individual is small.
Dragon raids deeper into furry territory are very uncommon, happening perhaps once a generation. They are rarely worried about among the hundreds of towns and villages that are within range, as the chances of a particular village being hit is extremely tiny. But if a village is raided... well... read the story to find out what happens.
You can read Chapter 1 or jump to my journal updated with the latest Table of Contents.
Category Artwork (Digital) / Miscellaneous
Species Unspecified / Any
Gender Any
Size 976 x 686px
File Size 282.9 kB
Errr okay... That all sounds nice enough but... What about them insects? Isn't there going to be a truce made between insects and the furry races, or another war for rescources and conquest that will decimate both of them? The story chapters seem to have a heavy focus on bondage and slavery, which I approve, but given this detailed history about the insects and stuff kind of overshadows the whole BDSM thing. You could use that to make a pretty epic Lord of the Rings tale of it
There isn't going to be a truce between the insects and the furry races as the insects are not interested in one. The insects don't really care about resources or territory. They are pretty much ruled by instinct with only limited intelligence and simply see the other races as food. The queens are the only ones with any real smarts, but even they have a tough time going against their instincts.
It's kind of how I write. I go where my desires take me, and so far, they are taking me into the details of life as a slave in the dragons caves. If something epic draws my interest, I'll write that. I have a ton of stuff in my head about what happens all over, and until I start writing a chapter I never really know what part is going to come out.
Nice icon BTW. I approve of muzzles and ball gags.
It's kind of how I write. I go where my desires take me, and so far, they are taking me into the details of life as a slave in the dragons caves. If something epic draws my interest, I'll write that. I have a ton of stuff in my head about what happens all over, and until I start writing a chapter I never really know what part is going to come out.
Nice icon BTW. I approve of muzzles and ball gags.
During the insect scare in the capital, I noted that Bloodhounds served a significant role among the draconic security forces. While I'm certain that as frontline "warriors", the Furs are usually rejected and seen more as a liability by the Dragon warriors. However, I was curious if specialised support roles that some races were suited for have had applications extended into frontline service, such as bloodhounds being used to aid in locating young queens trying to establish a new hive as part of a scouting group so that Drake squads can be called in without unneccesarily risking the valuable drakes on a mere suspiscion.
Yeah, they did some good visuals with them. Can't say the movie (and book) were not partial inspiration, and Starcraft, Aliens and reading about how actual insect colonies work. You can trace ideas back and back until the beginning of time if you work at it, it's all rather fascinating. :)
I like the history but I see two things happening the dragons defeat the insects once and for all but suffer massive losses for it and the furs seeing the weakness, that the furry kingdoms form a colalition to attack the dragons, or the capital becomes over saturated with slaves to the point where it’s like 20+ slaves per dragon and all it takes is a massive uprasiing to topple the dragons.
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