Before Kaezul, the Old World (Antonica/Faydwer, though Antonica isn't called that on WR) was populated much like they are on EQ Live. Odus (Erudin and Velious areas - not called Odus or Velious either) was virtually unknown to the people living there.
When Kaezul came, he made individual pacts of non-aggression with all the city-states there to prevent them from teaming up and slaughtered them one by one in quick succesion. Slaughtered - not conquered. He had no use for more lands or followers and it would just be a source of rebellion.
The survivors fled to Odus/Velious and ended up in Erudin and Thurgadin and erected a wall of massive storms to prevent his ships from entering. 25 years after this, WR's storyline starts.
With the dragons and giants being too much of a superpower to destroy it with a teleported force, he tried to do it by allying himself with the dragons. The nature of this alliance was eventually brought to light and destroyed by the players before it became too strong. For various reasons, Kaezul eventually had to tend to his homeland of Kunark (not called that either!).
In his absence, the players - guided by Jayla's lorekeeper Shaina - grew stronger and started travelling and conquering the planes, the most powerful ones organizing themselves as the Guardians of the Winter - though Ruin, a Kaezulian sympathizer organization, provided a largely effective countermovement to them. They (the players in general) discovered the Lands of Magic and with them the Frogloks. They also encountered the rather evil Akhevans and a mystical but seemingly benevolent group of powerful frogloks called the Mavassi that to this day - very general details like their bare existence aside - remain very unknown outside the upper power echelons of the players.
The Eternal Empress of the Akhevans eventually captured Shaina as the players were making a serious mess of regular business in the Lands, and the players ultimately failed their rescue mission and she was cursed to walk the Lands as a ghost, barred from interfering. Shaina walked the Lands as an observing ghost of Jayla for a time before taking up residence in Jayla's plane.
The players carried on though, and they grew powerful and daring enough to attempt to retake their homelands. They found two devastated continents filled with the ghosts of the dead and corruption. Faydwer especially still suffers under this. Most importantly, they found very few Kaezulian troops for heretoforth unknown reasons. It can only be assumed Kaezul is still tied up with Kunark, or that he simply thought the player races dead.
Eventually, the players cleansed the majority of the Corruption on Faydwer led by a rescued High Elven general that had been held captive in Eldenal's Mansion since the beginning of the original war, though as I said, the Corruption still remains, but the corrupted creatures are no longer nearly as dangerous or many.
As of right now, the players are still settling in and reestablishing their hold on the Old World, more powerful, united and prepared than ever before though Kaezulian sympathizers are still abound, even at the highest echelons of the player races. Ruin is a good example of that. The Guardians eventually disbanded, and there is currently no major group that officially opposes Kaezul at this time as Ruin's only real equals are largely distanced from the conflict, having formed long after the actual war and recapture of the homelands.
On an OOC note, most characters made after the retaking of the homelands were born after the Kaezul's original invasion, though we do not enforce this in anyway. You are free to roleplay a character that suffered through the invasion if you wish, but we discourage it to emphasize the amount of people killed in the conflict.
