Iobaria may be one of the oldest centres of civilisation in the North. Sages believe that the gigantic and mysterious steps carved into the side of the Deathly Mountain, Dirrinir, belong to an unknown civilisation which
pre-dated the founding of Koloran and were therefore carved tens of thousands of years ago.
Koloran itself was founded by Cyclops fleeing from
Ghol Ghan as that empire collapsed into barbarism nearly 25,000 years ago. Koloran
appears to have been an enlightened and civilised state but it too had vanished by the times the dragons first
appeared in the region, fleeing from the wars in the West about 10,000 years ago.
The first humans arrived in the region when
Ulfen barbarians migrated into Iobaria from the lands to the west about 3,800 years ago. The dragons acted as mentors to the newcomers and by 3300 years ago the Iobarian Empire stretched from the Castrovin Sea west past the Lake of Mists and Veils into what is now Medev. In the South it encompassed the realms now known as Brevoy and Numeria. As the empire grew in power, however, it fell out of favour with the dragons as the humans began to covet the hoards of their mentors and sought to increase their powers by studying the ancient secrets of the Cyclops. The dragons withdrew to the northern mountains and were no longer welcomed in the Empire.
The Empire, however, was devasted by a great plague in -2853 which sages believe may have been initially released from a Cyclopean ruin and led to many deserting the cities and reverting
to a tribal structure. Civilisation did not rise again until -1311 when King Iril unified the Kingdom of Iobaria
with the help of draconian allies. In return for this aid the King agreed to turn over the stewardship of all known Cyclopian ruins to the dragons. The kingdom survived until -613 when yet another plague was unleashed which killed
three quarters of the population. The source of the plague was never pinpointed but if it was Cyclopian in nature
it came from a previously undiscovered site.
As before civilisation returned to a tribal state until about 300 years ago when humans once again started repopulating the ruined cities. These tentative steps back to civilisation were brutally curtailed by the campaign
of Churl the Conqueror who swept through the region putting these fledgeling communities to the sword. As a result
the only functioning city states in Iobaria today are those of Orlov and Kridorn which lie on the margins of the former kingdom on it coasts. Although the princes of these cities have dreams of re-uniting the realm, however, in practice it is not certain that they could muster enough strength to defend their cities against another barbarian invasion.