For centuries, Chorane has simply been a myth, a legend, to the people of Ansalon. Chorane was known as a land of fire and ice, and deemed as fantastic and unbelievable as the Dragon Isles or the tales about a continent across the Courrain Ocean. After all, everyone knows that nothing could possibly survive in the frozen wastes beyond Ice Wall.
What no one realizes that life does exist beneath the icy plains beyond Ice Wall. Chorane is real and filled with both life and death.

The Great Migration
It is unknown, even to the Choranians, when the Amesh first led his people to Chorane. The Ameshites never kept precise records even before the great migration, so it is uncertain during what age they left their former homeland. Historians are sure that the great events that led the humans to Chorane occured long before the rise of Istar, before the Third Dragon War, and even before the fall of Ergoth.
All that can be determined from the Song of Amesh is that the people of Amesh were threatened by both the land and their enemies. Threatened with extinction, one of their own, Amesh the Brave One, rode out alone to find a new home for his people. According to the song, Amesh returned in a year and a day with tales of a land with "Ice That Burns." Amesh led his people south, past the imposing Ice Wall, and down towards Krynn's south pole. According to the song, the journey was long and arduous, costing many lives. However, the people of Amesh finally found the great crevasse, named Amesh's Rent, that would lead them to their newfound home.
The people delved down into the rent, through ice and molten rock, and found the countless levels, the veritable maze of caverns and tunnels, that made up Chorane. The first people the Ameshites met were the Kendar, a lost offshoot of the kender of the surface. Although they were just as curious and carefree as their cousins on the surface, the Kendar were more quieter than the kender. The Ameshites quickly formed a loose alliance with the Kendar, who helped them move into their new home below the ground.
Hoping to rebuild their lives as soon as possible, the Ameshites quickly expanded into the various empty caverns and levels that the Kendar did not inhabit. It was during this time, only about a century after the Ameshites first entered CHorane, that they encountered the Theiwar, a race of magic-using dark dwarves. The Theiwar had left their dwarven homeland and tunneled deep into the earth. After several centuries, they discovered Chorane and made parts of it their home. Distrustful of the humans, the dwarves only reluctantly established contact with the Ameshites.

The Great Rift
For several centuries the three races lived in relative peace. The Ameshites were busy exploring and expanding their hoem, as were the Theiwar, and Choane was a relam of peace and prosperity. Then came the Cataclysm. Chorane was severly damaged by the Cataclysm. Its very composition was changed as the Cataclysm collapsed tunnels and shifted levels. Many died and countless were lost amid the rubble. There was no place to hide from the destruction that caused thousands to perish.
The Cataclysm changed the lives of the Choranians and created the Great Rift. Some of teh Choranians saw the Cataclysm as proof that the people had turned away from the gods. They believed that the solution was to rededicate themselves to the old traditions of their ancestors. Turning back to the gods, these people became known as the "Ameshites."
Another group took on another philosophy. They blamed the gods for the Cataclysm and their solution was to find new gods. Tired of old blieifs, they ridiculed the Ameshites and called themselves the "Yaluu," which is the Choranian word for "seekers."
A third party did not believe that either side was right and wanted more than anything to keep the Choranians together. They called themselves the "Vodar" and emphasized the background and culture that bound the Choranians together. They sought to form a compromise between the Ameshites and the Yaluu, but both camps refused to the Vodar's offer of reconciliation. Turning a deaf ear to the their offers, neither the Ameshites or the Yaluu liked or trusted the Vodar. Violence and bloodshed soon erupted between the two camps, with the Vodar trapped in the middle.
For 300 years, tensions mounted between the three camps as they staked out land and formed their own separate nations. More than once, either the Ameshites or the Yaluu have attempted to take over the other. The Vodar have always attempted to promote freedom, but none listen. They have developed a great hatred for one anotehr and fought because they had always fought. Eventually, they even forgot why they were fighting, only that they had always fought one another. Each side has tried to villainize the other with false claims of cannibalism, genocide, rape and other heinous crimes. Mounting their forces, the Ameshites and the Yaluu faced off with the Vodar caught in the middle.

The War of the Lance
The War of the Lance changed the face of Chorane. While the people of Ansalon did not believe in Chorane's existence, the Dark Queen knew that Chorane was real. She had many Yaluu clerics and was, in fact, slowly corrupting the Ameshites. The Ameshites had turned to Parthenu (Paladine) after the Cataclysm, but they slowly drifted from his teachings. The Ameshites considered themselves to be the true followers of Parthenu and considered the Yaluu and the Vodar to be heretics and blasphemers. Paranoid of anything different, the Ameshites devotion to Parthenu twisted and mutated under the Dar Queen's subtle guidance.
Coinciding her move for domination of Chorane with the War of the Lance, Takhisis called upon the clans of chromatic dragons that resided in the dragonholes of Chorane. These evil dragons quickly approached the Theiwar and the Yaluu with promises of conquest. Takhisis also spoke quietly with the corrupted priests and officials of the Ameshites so that they wouldn't interfere immediately. At the same time, Takhisis had just extracted the Oath from the metallic dragons on the Dragon Isles, but she had no hold over the metallic dragons in Chorane. While the Theiwar and the Yaluu quickly attacked the kendar adn the Vodar, the chromatic dragons were charged with keeping the metallic dragons contained. Many titanic dragon battles erupted in the chilly skies above Chorane, as well as within the twisting tunnels and caverns of Chorane.
Times looked their darkest as the Vodar nation crumbled under the onslaught of the chromatic dragons, the Theiwar, and the Yaluu. Those Kendar who escaped enslavement were forced to scatter and flee. Caught unaware, the metallic dragons were pushed back and prevented from aiding the people on Ansalon. The Ameshites eventually and reluctantly entered the war, but by then it seemed too little, too late.
The Yaluu conquered the Ameshites and finally dominated all of Chorane under the Dark Queen's flag. They moved up from the lower levels that they had previously resided and occupied the upper levels. The Theiwar occupied the lower half of Chorane. The chromatic dragons helped maintain the rule of the Yaluu and the Theiwar as well as keep the metallics in their dragonholes. The Ursoi, bear-like humanoids who had strived to be neutral in the conflict, were slaughtered until only a few scattered tribes remained. Even the mighty Razhak, a unique race of extremly long-lived rock-men, were attacked and sent into hiding deep within Chorane. The Kendar were made the slaves of the Theiwar and the Ameshites became the slaves of the Yaluu. Many of the Vodar were also enslaved, but the majority simply fled into previously unexplored areas within Chorane and continued with limited geurilla warfare against the Yaluu. However, the remaining free Vodar were only scattered pockets of resistance that posed little threat to the strong Yaluu empire.
The Yaluu ruled mercilessly and kept the Ameshite culture seperate from their own. After years of slavery and oppression, the Ameshites realized the nature of their folly. They understood that they had left Parethnu's ways and had been seduced by the Dark Queen. Secretly, they began to turn back to Parethnu and evaluate their culture. Under the yoke of oppression, the Ameshites regained their faith. Slowly, they organized and grew in power as their priests gained clerical powers previously unknown to the Ameshites. As the Yaluu grew decadent and proud in their rule, the Ameshites plotted with the Vodar and bided their time.