THE WAR AGE (85 AFTER BLONEAD - PRESENT DAY)

Queen Blid Blonead and Arian Horus vanished from the face of the earth and never appeared again. There was no royal offspring and thus the kingdom was divided into four equally large territories, which were ruled by the queen's closest advisers: Neban Maha, Ruard Lopesa, Edgar Seher and Uma Plutak.

Driven by greed and longing for more authority and more territory, the four of them threw themselves into a bitter power struggle. Burdened by this tyranny, their subjects became deeply unhappy. Edgar Seher could not deal with the conflict any longer and moved to the south of Iberia. He formed the holy city of Gor there with his followers.

The people's dissatisfaction became an open revolt. Under the leadership of Armin of Remperd, a rebellion began in which they occupied the city of Lezina. The government troops managed to surround them and round them up in the city centre.

The rebels managed to survive there for a long time, despite the fact that they were cut off from all supplies. However, one night their siege came to a bloody end: under the cover of darkness the army worked their way into the city centre and attacked the rebels - 20,000 rebels were massacred. That night went down in history as 'The night of the black moon massacre'. Rumour has it that the missing war hero Arian Horus was also involved in the bloodbath. Armin of Remperd managed to flee.

Afterwards Ruard Lopesa abdicated a renewed division of Iberia. He took charge of Derion, the eastern territory. He gave Valorian, the west, to Neban Maha. And the considerable, quickly developing holy city in the south, which was ruled by King Tristan, became Gor.

Ruard Lopesa became a strict ruler, his power became more important to him than the welfare of his people. Neban Maha, on the other hand, was a ruler who was very focused on the needs of his people and placed importance on discipline and recruited a tightly organised army.

However, the division of Iberia did not put an end to the mens' power struggle. Both leaders proclaimed themselves emperors and the military conflict continued between Derion and Valorian. Gor remained neutral. King Tristan was mainly interested in trade and supplied the enemy kingdoms equally with food and weapons.

One day Ruard sent some men to Valorian to collect taxes from the inhabitants. The tension escalated when Neban Maha captured and beheaded the entire delegation - this led to a war between both kingdoms. To finance his army, Neban Maha increased Valorian's taxes.

Ruard's troops dared to attack Valorian's capital city. At first the attack seemed successful, however the attackers were not able to occupy the castle in which Valorian's soldiers had entrenched themselves. The siege was cancelled and both rulers agreed to a ceasefire.

Convinced that Gor had secretly been supporting Derion, Neban Maha attacked the kingdom in the south of the continent. Many people managed to flee on time and get themselves out of harm's way.

King Tristan reinforced his neutrality. Thereupon the troops from Valorian left Gor. Shocked by the attack on his home, King Tristan began recruiting his own powerful army.

The ceasefire between Derion and Valorian continued - however the hostility between them continued. Thus the leaders decided to separate their countries by a fortified border and stop all trade between them. Gor became the only trade partner of both kingdoms.

Not even two years had passed when border disputes led to the second great war between Derion and Valorian. Yet again neither country won.

It was only after many exhausting battles, that both leaders agreed to another ceasefire and trade flourished again: Valorian concentrated on food, natural resources as well as tools and armour, Derion focussed on producing magically enhanced weapons and magic potions.

Peace has been kept for many years now, but it is very fragile. Both leaders are using the time to recruit new troops and there is evidence to suggest that the next war is just around the corner...