Long Ago...
In ancient times a powerful Empyrean empire flourished on the island of Dereth. At the height of their powers, the Empyrean magician Asheron opened a portal to another world, accidentally ushering in hordes of viscious insects knownn as Olthoi.
Asheron sent his people to safety through a powerful spell called The Sundering, but he himself stayed behind to oppose the Olthoi. A side effect of this magical rupture opened portals to many worlds, and summoned their natives to Dereth. Among these were the humans, from the world of Ispar.
For many years the humans lived as Olthoi slaves, but a band of rebels led by the commoner Elysa Strathelar and the nobleman Thorsten Cragstone rose up to fight. Aided by Asheron's Magic, they slew the Olthoi queen and won freedom, though the fight cost Thorsten his life.
Faced with the prospect that they might never return to Ispar, humans have made the island their new home. Though the Empyrean and Asheron have vanished, some of what they wrought remained: mystical portals that carry travelers many miles in a heartbeat; and enchanted Lifestones that bind the spirits of men and women and allow them to be resurrected.
The outcast Isparians built towns and carved out small pockets of safety in a perilous world. But as swift as the changing of seasons, the mysteries of Dereth visited devastation on the human enclaves.