Once, long ago, Filenfoe was home to the first hastu civilization. Under the guidance of their goddess Tset, the hastu built many cities, fortresses, and great structures; they were carved into the mountains, and from the mountains. Places like the canyon city of Gawir, the monolithic accomplishment of Ziggurat, and Kolong, the city beneath a mountain. But at the end of the Dawn Era, the hastu abandoned Alteris, going with the gods to the dark dimension. When they left, they left Filenfoe a deserted kingdom, cities empty, being reclaimed by the sands of the Kaduruk desert. In the chaos that followed the end of the Second Dragon War, many humans entered Filenfoe, claiming the ghost towns and cities of the hastu as their refuge.
In the days of the hastu, their kingdoms were named Yial and Bial. The humans named the region Filenfoe after their claiming of it, a reference to their long time enemies who had once lived there. It is unclear how long humanity occupied this region before the beginning of recorded history in the Fall Era. But through that time, the region was home to many different kingdoms and nations. For many centuries during the Dawn Era, there was a unified kingdom of Filenfoe, united under the family of Keeli.
There are many apocryphal stories of this family and their exploits, though there are no written records to indicate whether these stories are true. But under the rule of the Keeli line, the people of Filenfoe prospered. They paid homage to the ancient gods, and established many new settlements and cities. They built their capital city, Galia, by the delta of the Tulgunda river, and the fortress city of Sagara farther south, near the jungles of Jurig Kai. The Keeli line prospered well into the 250th year of the Fall Era, before things began to weaken for them.
In the year 250 FE, the first Silgen tradesmen entered Filenfoe, passing through the Narrows, a small canyon way through the western ridges of the Naekiin mountains. This was the first time humans had entered Filenfoe since their first arrival in the forgotten histories of the Dawn Era, and it had a great impact on the people of Filenfoe. At first, their presence brought with it new wealth. But as the people prospered, so did the influence of the dark gods. Chaos and lies began to seed themselves among the people, until juntas began to lay claim to the plains of Filenfoe, weakening the kingdoms authority. The family of Keeli united their people against this new, growing threat, but the juntas were only the beginning of their trials.
By the year 270 FE, Silg no longer viewed Filenfoe as a kingdom, but a conquest. They moved their armies into western Filenfoe, and began the process of vassalizing the cities there. Worse still, the northern kingdom of Mul Debbon also began invading into eastern Filenfoe, claiming annexation of those lands to prevent the spread of their rivals the Silgens. The kingdom of Filenfoe was too weakened by their internal war with the growing juntas to oppose the occupations. But they fought, tooth and nail to keep their home. The capital city of Galia fell to the Debbonese forces on June the 18th, 290 FE.
In the year 312 FE, there was another trial. The hastu, who had vanished thousands of years before, suddenly returned. They found themselves refugees in a war-torn world, unable to support their needs. The kingdom of Filenfoe feared that the hastu would cause more division, but the returning hastu showed no animosity toward their ancient enemies, and instead secluded themselves into the deserts and forgotten fortress cities of their ancestors. The royal family prepared for the worst from the hastu, as they continued their campaign to free their people from their oppressors.
The royal family of Keeli reestablished their seat of power in the fortress city of Sagara, hoping they could overcome the juntas in time to reclaim their nation from the invaders. But a powerful junta, calling themselves the Maung, or being translated, the Tigers, spearheaded a coup to assassinate the Keeli line. In the year 345, the Maung initiated their coup, but the crown prince, Mokee Keeli, was away from the castle keep on the night of the attack. The story goes that he returned from a hidden land, far to the south across the sea, to find the Maung waging terrible war across his kingdom, and the regions of eastern and western Filenfoe under enemy occupation. In his rage, he became the Warrior King, and waged a terrible conflict against the Maung and the invaders.
In 350 FE the invading nations became embroiled in the Trade War, and the conflict between the two nations weakened their hold on Filenfoe. The Warrior King, with the aid of his remaining loyalists, established a treaty with the hastu people who had moved into their lands. For the promise of accepting them as citizens, the hastu agreed to fight on bahalf of the Filenfoean kingdom; they laid waste the Maung, and drove the invaders to abandon their hold on the kingdom. By the end of the war for Filenfoe, the royal line of Keeli was lost, and the kingdom fell into ruin.
As time moved forward in the Fall Era, Filenfoe was a place of many nation states, caught up in the continued conflicts left behind by the actions of the Maung, the other juntas who vied for power, and the vacuum of the occupation of Silg and Mul Debbon. The influences of the hastu cultures also affected Filenfoean development, contributing to a renascence of identity in many of the nation states. Only the nation state of Sagara retained the cultural purity of their heritage in the wake of the wars and upheaval.
Over the next few centuries, the wounds of the occupation slowly healed, with humanitarian aid coming from both Silg and Mul Debbon to repair the injustices of the past. In modern Filenfoe, there are many trade hubs along the roads from Silg to Udai, as well as an increase of community between the nation states of the region. There are four major nation states of Filenfoe: Sagara, Ziggurat, Galia, and Kaduruk. Every nation state has hastu citizens, but the central nation state of Kaduruk is the only one governed by a hastu hierarchy. Since Kaduruk is a vast desert, the people of this nation state have few permanent cities; they instead move in nomadic bands, following the seasons to keep in the more fertile regions throughout the year. Ziggurat is home to the fertile plains of Tenah Rendah, where the study of healing has strong roots. Galia holds the north eastern territories of Filenfoe, and has the most temperate climate of the region.
Filenfoe is a place of varied landscapes. There are savannahs, deserts, high mountains, wetlands, and jungles. The people of Filenfoe share a sense of unity in their collective trials. Time has not been kind to their kingdom. But despite all the strife, they remain undaunted.
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