Cyrak, also known as the Old Kingdom or the Land of the Cyrakian Princes, is a fallen kingdom that once flourished in the forested lands west of the Great Mountains. Founded sometime in the first millennium BA, it became a target of conquest for the neighboring Dark Lords in the 800s and after decades of conflict ultimately fell to them around 900 YA.
Prior to the war the land was peaceful and prosperous, ruled by a long line of able monarchs of the house of Cyrak, a dynasty that included great warriors, clerics, and mages. During the reign of Talon Cyrak, last of the line, the Dark Lords began a concerted campaign of subversion against the kingdom, weakening and dividing its people and undermining the authority of the ruling family. Talon and his supporters were ultimately outnumbered by collaborators and invaders and the land fell under the control of the Dark Lords.
The surviving loyalists fled east across the Great Mountains and founded a new kingdom in exile. Meanwhile, a plague-like curse decimated the remaining population of the Old Kingdom, started deliberately by Talon just before his death to punish those who had betrayed their land and to prevent them from collaborating further with the conquerors.
