A NOTE TO FOXSONG: If you see anything for Miraculum in here you want to change, feel free to leave a comment or PM and I'll change it for you.

A NOTE TO ESSEX1943: Since you've got your own lore, the NRB will have limited coverage here, especially since you came in later, but please try to use this as a reference for your lore so you don't break from canon.

What's up everyone? This may surprise you, but I'm still alive! I know I haven't posted anything CURRENTLY UP for over a month, and haven't posted an actual Minecraft build in even longer, but rest assured, stuff will come. I suppose now is the time for me to say that I am currently hard at work on one or more projects, but unfortunately, if I said that, I'd be lying because I'm not. I've got a bunch of projects sitting around, and while I intend to finish them, I can't give any dates. Anyway...

So, when Iyecte and I aren't discussing airships or blowing up universes, we come up with backstory for our little complicated war. It started out simple, and now has gotten pretty deepo deeper than what you will see in this blog, at least until the events we've come up with have come to pass. What you are about to read is the end-product (of sorts...this journey is nowhere near over) of months of discussion, creation, modification and distribution among small groups of lore that essentially describes our nations from their inception to the present times. Don't worry, this won't be a year-by-year, or even fully comprehensive with all the lore we've come up with, but I said I'd do this, so I'm doing it...

The following is presented in chronological order, with no bias towards any civilization (although the focus may change and primary focus is on Skylords and Iyecte since they're the only ones who really have lore) or era.

Early Skylord/Iyectan History

Oddly enough, two countries that are practically polar opposites of each othero the Skylords, a modern, technologically-advanced society whose focus lies on aesthetics paired with functionality; and Iyecte, a pseudo-archaic, technologically-limited culture obsessed with firepower and firepower onlyo come from the same root. In the dawn of Skylord civilization, a small group of then-called wizards and alchemists managed to construct a gateway to another world. Unfortunately, it was unstable and enveloped the entire town they were staying in, a whole 4,000 people, and teleported them to the Nether. From this point, we can observe history from two very different viewpoints:

Skylords:
Upon the disappearance of the town, the citizens were presumed dead due to fire or another natural cause, and the Skylords stopped at that. After a few years, they were almost completely forgotten. During this time, the Skylords saw great years. The economy of their fledgling state was already strong due to the resource-rich land, their military was powerful, and attempts were being made at manned flight at any time. Approximately 20 years after the town's disappearance, the first airship, the Skyship Endeavour,took off from Mistral City and flew around for a half hour before landing. From then on, the government and civilians quickly adopted airships, although Skylord Brony had yet to introduce mechanized warships, but the "Boat and blimp" style proved itself quite effective in dealing with neighboring nations. It was only 100 years prior to Israphel's resurgence that the Skylords made first contact with Iyecte, although they didn't know it. A small patrol of airships came across an odd anomaly between two mountains known then as places of powerful magic. (In reality they contain high concentrations of Chronium and Obsidian, which are perfect conductors for Nether portal energy. Chronium also has a neurophysiological effect on anyone nearby.) Without warning, a group of mysterious aircraft flew through the portal and dove towards the ships. Within minutes, all but one of the Skylord ships had been reduced to burning wreckage, and the sole survivor fled the scene. In the first technical Black Op in Skylord history, a massive armada carrying a secret weapon flew back under the guise of a training exercise. While they aroused suspicion by participating in the first known training exercise to destroy well over half the ships in it, the government managed to divert attention away from this fact by admitting that winds were bad that day, and only the biggest vessels were stable. Obviously, this was not the case, as the Iyectan vessels made mincemeat out of their opponents before being destroyed by the weapon aboard the Skyship Vengeance, the first-ever TNT cannon. While this engagement was kept quiet, the report by the original survivor leaked to the public, and these mysterious "Nether Airships" became a part of pop culture. Featured in movies, television, games, books, and virtually every other form of media imaginable, no one had any idea that the ships, which in the media were usually portrayed as demons, were actually crewed by descendants of distant ancestors.

Iyecte:
Ancient Iyecte's story, on the other hand, is a bit more dramatic. Moments ago, they were simple farmers and merchants playing host to some wizards, the next they are thrown from their homes into a world that was the definition of hostile. Due to none of the population being named "Skylord," they never felt that much loyalty to their previous nation, and therefore were quick to make their own state completely different from it. It took several years, and many deaths, but finally Iyecte was established. They managed to spread out into the Nether, establishing colonies in the hostile land. Using one of the magician's beacons, the Iycectans of the capital city erected a mob shield protecting them from ghasts, zombies, and skeletons. Unfortunately, the field stopped just outside the walls of the city, so all other settlements were defenseless. While the Iyectans learned self-defense and used the swords carried by pig zombies, supplemented by bows and arrows, to defend themselves from ground mobs, the need to defend against ghasts grew ever larger as entire towns fell prey to their fire. It was at this time that one of the wizards noticed a strange property. A certain mineral found in Netherrack naturally floated when an electric current was passed through it. Within a week, the very first Iyectan airship was constructed, using what are now known as room-temperature superconductors to fly off of Earth's (and the Nether's) magnetic field. Fixing battlements and dispensers to the hull, the crew found the armored vessel to be highly effective against ghasts. It was at this time that the first Iyectan shipyard was also created, and was soon churning small airships out by the dozens for patrol and law enforcement. As time wore on and the airship builders became more practiced in their craft, they created even larger vessels with more power, harnessing spawner eggs for blazes and ghasts and forcing them to fight against their own kind.

Several centuries passed, and Iyecte turned into the dominant force in the Nether. Spanning a vast space, with a large population, they had all the mobs of the realm under their control. Their culture was completely different from the one they lived in before, as they adopted a more utilitarian and spartan lifestyle, were more aggressive, and abandoned all concepts of aesthetics. Due to history being distorted, an Iyectan of this era saw the Skylords, a mystical quasi-metaphysical race that may have created them, as killers who only had concerns for themselves. This was only further reinforced when an expedition, traveling through an experimental portal, failed to return. At this point as well, concerns grew about the world that lay outside the Nether, which was for most Iyectans their home sweet home. In several of the outer colonies, rebellions broke out, and the Iyectan military gradually became overstretched. During this period of bloody civil war, an occasional Overworld adventurer or scientist would pop in. Most were received by the Iyectan government with help and lodging, as well as answers to any questions, although those from the Skylords soon had to go in inside armored cars with a full army escort. While the armored cars, which had not been around when Iyecte's original settlers disappeared, perplexed the population, they had more pressing concerns, and the Skylord observers were soon forgotten. 2 years after the civil war started, a rebel saboteur detonated a bomb affixed to the beacon that had provided security to the capital for hundreds of years. Wild ghasts and blazes began indiscriminately killing, and the city was soon reduced to a battleground. With some hesitation, the Emperor ordered expeditions to be sent to the Overworld, with the prospect of leaving the Nether for a new land. Unfortunately, this only made things worse as more people found themselves faced with choosing to keep their home or leave it behind for dead. The construction of 7 city-ships began, and warships slowly began reemerging into the Overworld. Finally, they made contact with a boat-and-blimp nation, not the Skylords. The Iyectan airships annihilated their newfound enemies, and before long began being more audacious. Attacking anyone they met, the Iyectans slowly formed a small area around their portal that belonged solely to them. Now the next phase began: the creation of an Overworld state.

TO BE CONTINUED...

Welp, there you have it! All of ancient Iyectan and Skylord history, or most of it, right there. Next up'll be first formal contact between Iyecte and the surrounding nations of the Skylords, New Lunar Republic, and Miraculum. Foxsong, I know this section doesn't really include any mention of your country, but the next ones will, and if you want to add anything about Miraculum to here, please feel free. Anyhoo, stay tuned for more lore coming soon!