HISTORY

Many thousands of years ago, a group of people fled across the western desert seeking refuge. They came from a land called Paláios, where a pantheon of gods and goddesses were worshiped. Eight of these deities were demonic, requiring human and animal sacrifice. Many of the people became demon-possessed, and when the rulers began yielding themselves to the evil spirits, life became increasingly difficult for those who resisted them. The world began turning very dark. But a priest named Licas and his followers rejected the polytheistic religion, the eight demons, and their demonic master--the Spirit of Darkness--in favor of a belief in Arva, the Light, and Celendil, the Peace. The Paláiosan authorities reacted to this heresy (and loss of temple revenues) with great violence. Many of the Arvans were tortured and killed--sacrificed to the demons they hated. The rest of them fled into the desert. When the refugees reached the western shore of the Qwarneeya Sea, they settled down amongst the scattered Saráyn fishing villages and founded a kingdom they called Tir-Aza-Ci-Qwaya or Tazaqwaya, Home Place in the Desert.

The Tazaqwayn found they had neighbors in the Jorminil River Valley, but the Nalo--like the Saráyn--were a peaceable people, and Tazaqwayn religion and language soon influenced and dominated their cultures. Not so the nomadic Savársee, who periodically attacked the Saráyn and the Nalo. In time the Nalo and the Saráyn living in the Jorminil Delta joined and became one people. But the Saráyn along the Savársee coast were forced from their homes and sent fleeing across the Qwarneeya, where they settled the northern lands, taking with them bits of their own culture as well as that of the Tazaqwayn.

When King Ayzar of Goffeleccee came to power, he had a vision of uniting all the peoples to combat the threat of the Savársee. He married Glinara, the daughter of the King of Tazaqwaya, and with the combined wealth and power of the two great kingdoms, he conquered Eedo, Valtarmelsa, and finally Savárseeya and became the first High King of Casanarva. He established a new capital in North Goffeleccee, calling it Xahara-Xara, the Royal City, though now it is called Xahara-Xaravel, the City of the Ancient Kings, and he renamed North Goffeleccee, Azaranarva--Place of the Light.

For about five thousand years the High Kings ruled from the Royal City, and the Code of Light was the universal law of the Eight Kingdoms. Where there was famine or flood, the High King sent aid. Where there was civil unrest, the High King sent his Velnar Knights to reestablish peace. But the eight demons had followed the Arvans, luring some in every generation to serve them, and in the end, the Civilization of Light was destroyed from within by the jealousy and treason of the demon-possessed.

Aseenah ra Casanarva was the last High King of the Ancients. The night before he was executed, he had a vision of the return of the Light to Casanarva and he wrote a prophecy. He was able to smuggle out the tiny scroll and his own magic Medallion of power. He entrusted them to his brother-in-law, King Xidel of Savárseeya, knowing that the Savársee were yet the strongest people and would be the best able to survive the Fall of the Civilization of Light. The scroll of the Ancient Prophecy and the Medallion of the High King were hidden and lost for five thousand years, until they became more myth than history and--like the Bringer of the Light, the Prophecy foretold--were believed in by only a few people.

In the Casanarva Scrolls is found the story of the fulfillment of the Ancient Prophecy and of Etendil-ra’n-Arva, the Bringer of the Light. The Scrolls begin with A Lamp Shining in a Dark Place, in which the lost magic Medallion of the High King is found and the Prophecy is set in motion. The Scrolls are continued in The Darkest Hour in which Lord Saray learns the real meaning of honor and courage and Princess Catreena discovers the true price of freedom.

For more information: I have notebooks and boxes full of information about the world of Casanarva, but I thought these things might be the most important to know. If you have any questions about Casanarva, please let me know, and I will try to add the information here.