The current struggle that pits the Living Races against the Withered Aegis is but a drop in the history of Istaria. The current age that we live in, "Age of Adventure" is only the latest in a long line of struggle and survival. The ages are as follow: The Age of Gods, the Age of Dragon, the Age of Warrior-Kings, the Age of the Sorcerer, the Age of Lamentations, and the current...Age of Adventure. But the place to start is at a time before even the Gods walked...

In the beginning before time, before the Gods walked across Istaria was the realm of water. A unknown cataclysm splintered this realm into three new realms, the realm of Storm, Ice, and Vapor. Because this event is more lore than knowledge many have named this period, "The Before Time."

At some point after this event the Gods came to Aradoth. The Goddess of Creation, Istaria, with her brethren began the Age of Gods. In this age 2000 years before our own did the Gods and their Avatars walk among us. The various races were according to the surviving lore of each race kept isolated from one another, though nomadic with in their own regions. An exception to this is the first city, the human city of Jarl. Though now held by the Withered Aegis the last studies done by scholars indicate that at that time humans were still nomadic...