The story of Shonghania begins with its First Age- an age of wild beasts and monsters both savage and intelligent whose creation and evolution were spurred by the Blood of the Earth. The continent was hostile to humanity with the savage monsters ravaging the land and the intelligent ones forming kingdoms where they preyed on human minds and bodies. The humans who weren’t fighting for survival in the open sequestered themselves in fortifications and walled cities for protection.

Laal, founded by the house of Ameram- revered monster slayers- was the largest and most magnificent of these fortified human cities of the First Age. Ameram had five children, four of which became the forefathers and mother of the four great peoples of Shonghania.

And his fifth child, rendered immortal by the Blood of the Earth, gathered others like himself to form the Issa. Their ascendance marked the beginning of Shonghania’s Second Age.