Born when the world was young was Nymarga, a great and powerful magician who came out of the wilderness and served in the Celestial Court of Samarappa as Vizier to King Surep. Nymarga's heart was dark — some say he was born evil, others that he listened to the whispers of Amaymon the Spider — and he plotted against his King. Surep was poisoned, and Nymarga broke the Celestial Court and remade it in his own image, casting Jala the Good Prince, son of Surep, into exile. Nymarga's dark rule cast a shadow over Samarappa, and eventually his influence even reached into the Heavens, and Irré the Black Sun replaced Illiki the Sun Bull for a time. But Jala returned after long years in the wilderness, and with his sons and daughters and new allies he drove Nymarga from Samarappa and remade the Celestial Court anew.
Nymarga fled east into the mountains, and there he shaped his own empire, coming in time to rule the Metic Kings and the Princes of Vanimoria, Thessidia and Thessure, Galia and the great city-states of the Silver Scale Sea coast as well. In i221, the great war between Nymarga, as the Tyrant of the West, and Dauban Hess, as the Conqueror King of the East, began after Divine King seers proclaimed Nymarga a son of Israha, the hated Rebel Angel, and Ligrid, the Temptress Queen. Nymarga and Dauban Hess warred for many years, but Dauban Hess' skills as a general and warrior proved Nymarga's undoing in campaign after campaign in Thessidia and Galia and finally in Vanimoria itself. In i240, Nymarga was slain by Dauban Hess in his capital of Tir-en-tiel and his body cursed by priests of the Divine King and entombed in salt.
After divinations in i281 were rumored to confirm the death of Dauban Hess in the East, his generals began to whisper that they, and not the Dragon Kings of Illia and Hemispia, deserved to rule the Golden Empire by right of Dauban Hess' trust in them. And so the Empire he left behind broke into many pieces, as his Successor Kings squabbled amongst themselves about the proper mode of successsion — heredity or appointment, kingship based on blood or trust — and the Dragon Kings of the East broke all contact with the Imperial Court and established their own court in Heliopolis, which they called the Sun Court.
At first the Imperial Court in Millene, which took the name of the Phoenix Court — both to symbolize the rebirth of a trusted general as a King, and the rise of the Court from the ashes of Dauban Hess' disappearance — outshone the Sun Court of Illia. The Phoenix Court, influenced by the Great Schools of the Gola, was the model of the civilized, imperial court, as the educated and the ambitious sought appointment to seats of power. But in time, the Phoenix Court grew darker and dimmer. Since rule by appointment could not guarantee the lasting legacy of an inheritance passed on to descendants after death, some of the rulers of the Phoenix Court lands grew increasingly interested in magics that could prolong life. Practitioners of alchemy and sorcery, arts with long traditions in Thessidia and the Gola, gained many new patrons, and Nymarga's old advisors and adjutants began to reassert their power in what some called the 'Return of the Magicians,' making themselves useful in this pursuit of long life and even immortality. The underground worship of dark and ambitious gods grew slowly but steadily, as secret temples to Amaymon the Whisperer and Ligrid the Temptress and Israha the Rebel were built throughout the cities of Thessid-Gola. And many believe that the stage was finally set for the entrance of the Worm Kings by the plundering of Nymarga's tomb in i360, when the Oracle Queen of Khael cried out that his spirit had been released into the world once more.
The Phoenix Court was in open warfare with the Sun Court by i380. Wars were launched against Amora, Illia, Hemispia, Dania, Palatia, and Khael; cities were sacked or conquered, the Kingdom of Telesia centered at Agrapio was destroyed, and slowly the deaths of Dragon Kings began to mount in number. The Kings of the Phoenix Court withdrew into seclusion, even as they sponsored intrigues in neighboring lands, sent their fleets and armies out to sack and despoil almost indiscriminately, and sought out gold and slaves for the darkening city of Millene as rebellion spread through overtaxed and depleted provinces. Eventually the reason for their seclusion was revealed, when in i475 emissaries from Amora bearing tribute finally gained an audience with the Phoenix Court, and fled in terror at the worms that dripped from the rotting, still-living flesh of the depraved Kings and Lords of Thessid-Gola, some of them kept alive since Dauban Hess' time by strange rituals and bloody human sacrifices. Word spread quickly throughout the Known World, and the damned rulers of Thessid-Gola became known as the Worm Kings.
Their secret revealed, the Worm Kings lashed out at the world, sending their fleets to destroy and pillage in a campaign of destruction that culminated in the sack of the Oracle City of Khael in i498. The Oracle Queen was raped, and as she lay dying she called up omens of destruction, and pronounced her last prophecy as a curse. Seven days later, the city of Millene, capital of the Worm Kings' empire, was destroyed in a great volcanic explosion, a maelstrom which buried the entire city, drove back the sea, and turned the sands black for a hundred miles in every direction.
Most of the Worm Kings were destroyed in the explosion, as was the Phoenix Court, countless other lives, the ancient city of Millene, and even the original Sun Throne, brought from Illia to Millene by Dauban Hess when he established his capital there. But some of the Worm Kings managed to escape the destruction, and a great hunt began. For a hundred years after the destruction of Millene, Helios the Sun hid his face in shame, and Hathhalla the Sun Veil held the sky, as the Known World sought its vengeance on the Worm Kings. The Dragon Kings and their allies sought them out and slew them wherever the Worm Kings or their dark servants hid, whether in tomb or cave or disguised on a throne. The last Dragon Kings set sail into the Great Southern Sea and into the Far West in their pursuit of the last of their fleeing enemies.
The power of the Dragon Kings was expended in this great hunt for the Worm Kings, however, and only one true Dragon King, Erlwulf, of the line which had been granted rule of Dania, remained to return to the East in i648. Upon his return, he found a dark kingdom grown near his own; a Worm King had insinuated itself in Uthed Dania, gathering batle lords and war captains from the Utheds and the Kings of Djar Mael, and turning them to its own evil purposes, though Erlwulf did not know with certainty who the Worm King was. The world was already fatigued from its long war with the Worm Kings, but Erlwulf rallied some of the lords of Dania, Auria, and Daradja, and with a handful of Mael Kings and adventurers from throughout the Known World, they launched a small crusade against Uthed Dania.
A long and curel war ensued, the last tired fight between the last Worm and the last Dragon. In i657, Erlwulf was slain on campaign, he and his guard taken by surprise returning to the Daradjan citadel of Heth Moll. In i666, some of the Mael Kings and the hero Fortias of the city of Therapoli unmasked the last Worm King: Githwaine, once a minor general to Dauban Hess, masquerading as a local Uthed lord. He escaped them, however, and was not slain until i675, when Fortias trapped him and slew him single-handedly. Githwaine was buried in secret, and the priests of the Sun Court pronounced a great curse upon Uthed Dania in the name of the Divine King, blighting the whole of the land.
Uthed Dania was from then on called Lost Uthedmael, to remove the taint of the Worm King from the name Dania. The Mael Kings who had fought against Githwaine resettled ot the coast of the Middle Kingdoms, becoming the Kings of Maece. Utheds and Djar Maelites who had fought for Githwaine withdrew into the harsh fastness of the Dain Eduin mountains, and were shunned by the rest of the world. Fortias was made King of Atallica and High King of the Middle Kingdoms by the Sun Court, and granted the rights to the Dragon Throne of Therapoli. His first act as High King was to build a great wall between the Middle Kingdoms and the cursed land of Uthedmael. Awain, High King of Therapoli, is his descendant.
