[Tenai] Short History of Tenai

[Throndir]

The world of Tenai was once a vibrant world full of life. It was one of the first worlds created, pre-dating many other realms by thousands of years. Peace reigned upon the goodly races, tensions were few. Then they came.

The Solatar were a race like no other. Compromised of nothing but rigid thought and dominance, these mechanical beings were a race that no one in the world of Tenai had ever dreamed of. Breaking into the world of Tenai through the use of a gate, they encountered awe and surprise from the races of Tenai.

During a skirmish between the orcs and humans, a Solatar vessel hovered just above them in the sky. Momentarily dazed by the event, the warriors dropped their guards, both orc and human standing in awe at the vessel that seemed to float in mid-air. When the vessel landed, the curious orcs and humans warily approached the metallic ship. Part of the vessel gave way, and soon a column of mechanical golems came marching through. Acting purely on instinct, the orcs and humans ran. Or tried to. In a matter of a few seconds, all that remained of Clan Grator's Orcs, and the 18th Shield Knight Division was no more. All that was left of the warriors were charred bones and flesh.

Elsewhere in the world, many of these similar vessels appeared. Creating havoc among the cities, the Solatar slaughtered orcs, humans, elves, dwarves and gnomes.

The gnomes are a race akin to the dwarves. However, unlike the gruff dwarves, they are more inquisitive, inventive, and jolly. In their own villages, they had many mechanical inventions that did not always work out as planned. Even blowing up in their faces in some cases. But the gnomes didn't mind, creating new mechanical toys and gadgets was something they did for fun; simply a past-time activity. Everytime an invention would explode, they would laugh, shrug, and create the next new gadget. It was because of this fact that gnomes could create mechanical gadgets that the Solatar feared. The gnomes were the first to be eradicated.

After the kingdoms of Tenai have been alerted, they mounted a defense. Employing every able mage, and teaching the art to as many who were able, they planned to counter the mechanical threat through magic. A power that the mechanical creatures did not seem to have. At first the mages did great damage to the Solatar vessels. Their blasts of fire, their ability to control the very weather was something that the Solatar had never before encountered. It defied all their sense of logic, it defied their own very rules of the physical world. Perceiving the magic users to be more of a threat then the diminutive gnomes, the Solatar focused every bit of their strength to annihilate every mage and anyone who can command the powers of nature. But unlike the gnomes, the mages stood their ground and fought against every assault.

Destroying a few of the Solatar ships with their magic, they soon attempted to salvage what they could find from the vessel. What they found astounded them. The technology of the Solatar far surpassed their own. Every bit of the mechanical ship was a wonder to any who would be interested. With the aid of magic and the help of the few remaining gnomes, the people of Tenai took the ship apart, backward engineering the large piece of technology. Through the gnomes they were able to distinguish what every piece did and what it can accomplish. It was a natural ability of the gnome, a sense that allowed them to discern where each piece went into the puzzle. Through magic, they were able to use the information from the gnomes to be able to build their own creations. Adding their own enchantments when it was necessary.

But the price of technology was not little. Protecting their work and research on the Solatar technology, many people died, mostly mages. At this time, every race of the Tenai joined together as one group. One entity to defend themselves against the Solatar. Even the usually secluded Orcs were accepted members in the group. Old racial tensions died the moment the Solatar came. Through war and lost, the races of Tenai were joined more closely in their paths. They were not just humans, or just orcs, or just elves, or just dwarves, or just gnomes, they were of Tenai.

Soon, new blades were crafted, new weapons were made for the people of Tenai to defend themselves with. Mechanical implants became a necessary tool to survive through the Solatar's relentless attacks. The mages were the primary target of the Solatar, and soon the mages themselves created implants for themselves which gathered the magical energies more readily. They created implants that gave them resistance to poisonous gases. They created implants that reduced scars and wounds, healing them as quickly as they appeared. They created implants that absorbed energy directed at them. They created implants that increased their vision and accuracy. At this time in the time line of Tenai, it was a commonly known fact that all mages were people that were half mechanical. Beneath their robes and cowls, the mechanical parts of the mages stirred into life.

The few surviving gnomes, numbering only in the hundreds, lost their laughs and lighthearted jokes. The war, more than any other race of Tenai, affected them the most. No longer did they create inventions to give them and others a laugh. No longer did they joke around life. Every gnome lost a member, if not every member of their family. They were a broken race, holding on to each other through the onslaught of the hated Solatar. They became less like gnomes, and more like grim hearted dwarves. Since the war started, no one has ever seen a gnome smile. They hid in secret along with the mages, researching and creating new technology and inventions that would fight against the Solatar. It took them thousands of years, and a war that decimated their entire race to realize that their inventions were not worthless. But nor did they make toys or trifling gadgets. They created machines of war, weapons of destruction, and shields that, to the surprise of themselves and every other race of Tenai, actually worked.

It was because of these drastic measures, that ensured the defenses of Tenai. It was because of these measures that the people of Tenai survived for so long against a race that was far superior to themselves. While the Solatar were cold, calculating, mechanical creatures, the people of Tenai had courage, strength of heart, and hope. As long as there was hope, there was victory. But not without a steep price.

In a year's time, the Solatar razed every kingdom, city, village, and outpost. In five years since the initial attack, the world of Tenai lost its natural features. The mountains themselves were leveled to a mere mound of their previous glory. The once fertile valleys were no more than dried mud. The lush forests were nothing more than charred earth. After a decade, the population of Tenai was reduced to a mere five percent of their once thriving world. Only the most keen and hardy of the people of Tenai survived.

It was during the tenth year of the Solatar's invasion that the small population of Tenai found a way to defeat the invaders. It was through a device that combined technology and temporal magics. It was designed to completely stop time indefinitely. Freezing a single moment in time.

Instead of creating a gate similar to that of the Solatar which was used to come into the world of Tenai, the people of Tenai instead used magic in conjunction with technology to create their own devices capable of transporting beings across the multiverse. Through thousands of different worlds and realms. They planned to use the temporal bomb and send it through a gate into the world of the Solatar. In a deep underground facility, they did just that. While all the remaining mages chanted to keep the gate open, the bomb was sent into the swirling vortex, designed to detonate at the moment it reached the other side. As the bomb went through, and the gate closing, the people of Tenai hoped that the job was done. They hoped that the Solatar will never again be able to go to other worlds and cause chaos as they did to Tenai.

The Solatar, somehow finding out the state of their home world frozen in time, decided once and for all to annihilate the threat of the Tenai. Using energy weapons, they blasted craters that were the size of large lake. Firing upon the ground relentlessly and randomly, the Solatar hoped to destroy any of the hidden underground bases the people of Tenai had. To eliminate every last person from the world Tenai.

Finally, a weapon capable of destroying the planet was created by the Solatar. It orbited around the planet where the mages of Tenai found it through the use of magical scrying. In hundreds of underground bases across the world of Tenai, the mages were hurriedly creating gates that would send them and others to different realms. Because of the short time for preparation, each gate had a different destination. Having no time to worry about such things, the survivors of the world of Tenai quickly went through the vortexes. Moments after going through, the weapon of the Solatar fired. The world of the Tenai was no more.

Scattered across different realms, the people of Tenai joined once more in a common cause. In honor of their shattered world, the people created an organization, they called it the Tenai. It was created to find every other survivor of their lost world, scattered through the realms. The tragedy of their world gave each person, be it orc, human, gnome, dwarf or elf from the world of Tenai, a new purpose. Although their world was destroyed, they vowed that no other world should suffer the same fate. Thus they became the Planewalkers, able to walk between planes through the use of personal gates. Defending the countless other worlds from unseen threats.