In the old times, Men ruled the area with personal power. Using their psionic abilities, the "Autarchs" could create items from thin air, see into peoples' minds and control whole populations by force of will. The Autarchs made alliances with the Illithid to gain this power, and were corrupted by the evil that they unleashed. Slavery was common and servants were often mind-controlled to obey their master's every whim. Huge citadels were constructed, to allow the Autarchs to meditate in peace. They controlled their empires from these hidden fortresses, having lower-level Autarchs do most of the real work of governing.

After a few hundred years, there were many who aspired to the Autarch rank. Infighting became common as each Autarch tried to hold on to control of his empire. During this period of civil war, a Autarch would be killed and replaced by another, each more evil and cruel than their predecessor. The kingdoms split into much smaller states, to the point when the slaves and peasants in some states couldn't produce enough food to survive, because they had very little land.

At that point of crisis, the saviours came into sight. A small group of men learned the tricks of casting magic spells from the elves. They used this heretofore unknown ability to topple the powerful Autarchs, one by one. First the smaller, weaker states fell to their fireballs and ice storms, then the larger ones.

Once a state was liberated from its tyrannical ruler, the group of mages left one of their own to help them form a new government -- by the consent of the people. Slavery was outlawed in almost every new state. Many tried to create democracies; many put the mage who was their protector up on a pedastal, electing him as their King; some dissolved into anarchy.

The remaining Autarchs hated the new states. A great war broke out, as the Autarchs forgot their own squabbles and started fighting for their power and their lives. The loss of lives was fantastic as psionics and magic "duked it out" across battlefields covered with free men and slaves. The two remaining large empires fought long and hard to destroy the ranks of men and mages. For several years, neither side could gain the upper hand. Then someone discovered necromancy.

Suddenly, as the slave army cut down their enemies, they would rise again from the dead and continue fighting. Mind-controlled or no, many warriors ran in terror from the undead. This allowed the mages' armies to make headway against the Imperial legions of the Autarchs. Within months, the great citadels were under siege by armies that did not need to eat or sleep and fought as well during the night as the day. It was only a matter of time before they fell.

However, the undead came with a high price. The evil forces unleashed exacted a heavy toll on the new mages who became Necromancers. Their forms began to wither, they lost all sense of life and beauty, and slowly started changing, becoming their own creations. Many of the mage leaders became high-powered undead, liches and vampires, during this time. As they became more and more evil, the people who they governed were subjected to ever more increasing torments. Peasants wondered if they had gained any ground, going from being the slaves of the Autarchs to being fodder for undead "experiments" and practically slaves again.

The revolt this time was much less sudden and therefore all the more impressive. Slowly, people took control of the governments away from the undead and forced them into hiding, in the low places beneath the earth. Many were killed by zealous groups, who named the undead "scourge of the living", and decided that they had no right to continue their existence. Priests began to realize that their deities did not like the undead, and that they could use their holy symbols to cause them to run in fear or even disintegrate, withering from the mighty power of faith.

But, it was not an all-out war. In time, the undead were beaten and man was ruled only by other men. Some of the mage-kings were benevolent, but some were as power hungry as the old Autarchs. In some areas new forms of government appeared: patriarchies ruled by the leaders of a faith, oligarchies ruled by merchants, feudal systems where maintaining an army was a duty instead of a right. Minor wars were fought and many of the smaller states merged.

For the next hundred or so years, acquisition and negotiation caused the states to expand and become fewer in number, until a stable politics was reached. Then a couple of hundred years saw very little change in the boundaries or forms of government, as leaders turned their vision inwards, to improve the quality of life in their own countries.