The History I: The Founding of the Kingdoms of Men
The Good King was called such for his just code of laws and fair ways. It helped that Wenschen was also a military genius, and in his long reign he conquered all of the people around the Great Mountain.
The Good King's military was based on knights and clerics. His religion, known as the Doctrine of Peace was a sort of Syncretic Paganism that considered different Gods of the same domain equivalent to each other - so that each god of love was a different face of the same god Aphrodite, and each tyrant God another face of the same god Bane. The Great Mountain Kingdoms had brave knights of many different faiths, and the dwarves of the mountain served him too, and built him marvelous armors and weapons.
After the Good King's death, his heirs continued his conquests. As they went, they took for themselves and their descendants the lands that they found there. They built castles and keeps to protect the people from barbarians. They installed in the temples those priests from the Great Mountain Kingdoms who most closesly resembled the faith of the conquered peoples. In this way, they conquered many of the kingdoms of men, and also those of the elves, who they married, and of the orcs, who they put to the sword. In this way, the Kingdoms of Men become the greatest realm in the world.
Over a thousand years, the Kingdoms of Men experienced ups and downs. The Good Kings died out, and were replaced by other dynasties, some good, some bad, some who spoke the common speech, others who spoke foreign tongues. The Kingdoms were united not by a shared ethnicity, but by a shared ideal: That all the peoples of the world would live in peace once they were united under the rule of the Good Kings, and once their priests realized that their gods belonged to the same Pantheon. The Kingdoms of Men called themselves that because in their eyes, they were the one true nation for all of humanity, and would eventually unite all the world under their rule.
The civilization that was spread was one of knights, kingdoms, bards, priests, ale, and meat. Everywhere the Kingdoms once ruled, you now see Castles, temples to many colorful gods. You see the traditional music of Men, which is quite bawdy and usually sung. For food, you find bread, meats, and beer of every description. The arts of the kingdoms were beautiful tapestries, mosaics, and statues, depicting the deeds of the Good Kings or of one of the Gods. The Alandrathans also invented the modern practice of magic, although they were later surpassed in its practice.
The language of the Great Mountain Kingdoms became known as the Common Tongue. The other languages once spoken in the domains of the Old Kingdom have died. The Elves and the Dwarves still speak their tongues as well, although they are debased by many words from Common.
The Common Tongue is still called Common even today, and many of its native speakers have difficulty understanding that it is not spoken everywhere, and think those who do not speak it ought to learn. Their pride was their downfall. The Kingdoms were the most powerful area on earth. With the sharpest steel and the mightiest magic, none could surpass them. Even after they began to break up into smaller kingdoms, they were still mighty. They were inward looking, and failed to see the other nations of the earth rise up and surpass them in the arts of magic and technology.
When the foreigners started to become powerful, it was harsh. The Kingdoms have been broken up, and many of them parceled out to foreign nations. Many of the Kings have been overthrown, and replaced with republics, theocracies, or stranger forms of government still.
And yet, the Common Tongue is still spoken in all of the old Kingdoms of Men, and the old Pagan temples still stand. And deep in the heart of the lands of the Kingdom, the Great Mountain still stands, and the descendants of the old kings gathers here, and seek one day to restore the kings to glory.
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