The Dragon Era
The first civilization to arise on Athanasia, though most don't know of it, was the Dragon Lords'. The original dragons built the first civilization, hence it being the Dragon Era. The government was made up of a Senate, with elected councilmembers who decided most of the laws, but even they were ruled by the Dragon Emporer-the oldest member of the ruling dynasty with more power than the Senators. The Meera didn't exist yet, and humans were often kept as slaves, though owners were subject to laws concerning the rights of humans. They were used mostly as scribes and in jobs requiring more skill and dexterity than the dragons possessed, rather than hard labor.
The last Emporer-a huge black called Sword's Edge- wanted to create a race of beings, half-dragon and half-human, for his own reasons. He turned to a couple of geneticists who created Seireimisuyuumei, the first Naedre. The insane Sword's Edge then betrayed the geneticists and sentenced them to death, stealing the naedre away to learn how to create more. He bound Seirei to his palace so the naedre would not be able to leave, then created an army of naedre, who were completely loyal to him and lacked any free will. A fierce war began.
The Dragon Empress, Sword's Edge's daughter South Wind, with the help of Seirei, captured one of the naedre and freed her from her father's magic. The naedre, Kajinmarea, in turn freed her race and defeated Sword's Edge, but apparently died doing so. The naedre were not happy with the Dragon Lords, and waged war on all dragons, until the dragons had to flee into the wilderness, and the naedre took over the Empire.
Hundreds of years later, the humans started a rebellion against the naedre, killing the Queen while the prince disappeared. Another massive war ensues, and both races all but wipe each other out. The naedre eventually die out, while humans regress into hunters and gatherers, eventually losing track of their history until the Dragon Lords and naedre are completely forgotten.
The Meera Era
The second Era was the Meera Era. The Meera appeared with vastly powerful psychic powers and built machines and their own civilization. They had extremely advanced technology, just short of space travel by the end of their Era, while humans were still primitive tribes. A strange, magical plague swept through the land and killed a large number of Meera. Humans were also affected by the disease, but in a different way. Women who contracted the disease and survived more often than not gave birth to half-human, half-animal people. These people could use magic, but were viewed with suspicion by humans, so seperated themselves into their own clans. The clans and human tribes fought one another bitterly, and the surviving Meera were caught in the middle with no way to escape.
A trio of strange Meera saved the race by gathering materials and discovering how to create the technology necessary for space travel. The Meera were able to leave Athanasia forever and go to an uninhabited planet, Jaurik, though they had to leave most of their technology behind. They eventually turned to hunting for their food and living as wild animals on Jaurik.
Meanwhile, the war on Athanasia had ended. The remaining clans withdrew to Silefaer Isle, which they hid with magic in order to cut themselves off from the rest of the world. The clansmembers who remained among humans eventually married into human families until the animal features disappeared. This is the origin of human mages.
One such wizard tried to experiment with the plague that resulted in the clansmen. He created several half-human, half-animal creatures but discovered no cure for the plague itself. The notes about the virus he created, as well as the virus itself, he hid inside his home before he died.
The Human Era
Thousands of years after the Meera left, the humans discovered how to use their left-over technology to their own advantage, as well as some perplexing ruins from even longer ago, and this was the start of the Human Era. They turned Meera ruins into human cities and became kingdoms, constantly warring with one another. A young king named Dicidius founded the country that would become Whinthcer, and set the stage for several schools of magic to be built later. Hundreds of years later, Whinthcer was one of the largest and most powerful countries on Athanasia, ruled by the Reyell family, descended from Dicidius. A young, extremely powerful wizard named Tarivan began plotting to take over the world, and finally, he made his move, taking over several smaller countries first, he then turned to Whinthcer. He was victorious, and after conquering Whinthcer and killing the entire Reyell family, save one princess who managed to escape, he continued on to conquer the entire world of Athanasia. After taking power, Tarivan systematically killed all other wizards, so that his family line would be the only ones capable of using magic. Though he conquered the world and brought all the various countries together under one Empire, Tarivan eventually died, and his young son took the throne.
The young king didn't have a chance to do much, because a feral black dragon, called Rajath by humans, attacked his caravan while he was traveling. Many of the people were killed, and the king himself was wounded. Before he died, he cursed the dragon, and in fact all dragons, so that their energy would be drained away until they died; the attempt cost him his own life, but the curse worked. Many dragons died, but a few survived by bonding themselves to humans and leeching energy from them. Since dragons had a bad reputation, these dragons and their hosts were viewed with much suspicion by others, so they all moved to an area in southern Whinthcer, where they discovered the ruins of an ancient, huge castle. They decided to turn it into a city for dragons and their riders, and Shato-Youma was created. The dragonriders thrived in the Keep, though rumors started to circulate abou the ghost of a young, odd-looking child haunting the Keep.
A hundred years after Tarivan first came to power, his grandson ruled Athanasia with his family. Somehow, a virus from long ago was discovered in Shato-Youma and accidently released. Many people were killed, but it resulted in more half-human half-animal people. This time, they were called halflings, though still treated with as much suspicion as the first time. The virus also took its toll on the royal family, killing the Emporer and many of his children. The ones who survived ended up caught in the middle of a brewing rebellion, and when the rebels stormed the palace, only one member of the royal family survived. The youngest prince, Aelle, was only a year old at the time, and while the Emporer's supporters overthrew the rebels, he disappeared during the attack, and no one knew what happened to him. In the Prince's absence, the Empire was run by an archchancellor and a council of noblemen was chosen to run the various provinces.
Seventeen years later, the Empire was falling apart and war was on the horizon. From seemingly out of nowhere, a young man named Derek appeared, claiming to be the missing Prince. He was able to prove his claim with magic, but shortly thereafter was attacked by an assassin and had to flee the capital city. He fled to Shato-Youma, where, at about the same time, a strange girl appeared, and she was none other than the Reyell princess, Aliessa, who escaped Tarivan by being flung forward in time by a wizard. She bonded a white dragon by accident, which made her ineligible to rule, since dragonhosts couldn't rule. Nonetheless, she befriended Derek, and with the help of the Keep's dragons, they managed to retake the capital city and root out the corrupt politicians who tried to kill him, after which Derek officially became Emporer.
Some years after this, Silefaer Isle was rediscovered by a halfling girl who ended up shipwrecked. The clansmen rescued her and eventually made contact with the rest of Athanasia again. Though they were treated with the same distrust as halflings, they established some trading with port cities, but soon shut themselves away again from all but one harbor town filled with halflings.
And that, basically, brings Athanasia's history up to the present time.