When the multiverse was new Io drifted freely through the new formed cosmos. Io watched the other gods shaping worlds and squabling over them like children, but he was not kin to them, and knew his power was greater. He wandered the worlds for millenia, searching for something he couldn't explain. In time he came upon a small oblong world.
He came to rest upon that world, and thought about what it was that he wanted. In time his musings were disturbed by a great race of reptiles, which dominated the lonely world. Taken with their beauty and grace, he uplifted the giant lizards from their pre-sentience and made them more like himself in form. A great queen arose among his first children, a fierce and beautiful warrior whose scales reflected every color of the spectrum. The queen, Asgorath, so enchanted Io that, when she fell in battle defending the still young world against a horde of inavders from the lower planes, he deified her and took her as his wife.
In time Asgorath produced a clutch of divine eggs. They hatched slowly, an egg cracking perhaps once an aeon. From this clutch, in time, came nine sons; Bahamut, Tricos, Sichak, Lendys, Zorquan, Task, Null, Kalzareinad, and Garyx. There also came nine daughters; Romyx, Tamara, Hlal, Aasterinian, Kereska, Astilabar, Tiamat, Calor, and Shalana. Three of the eggs have yet to hatch; The Dragon-Mother guards them still, keeping them ever close and warm in her lair.
The younger gods mated and brought forth progeny of their own. The offspring were great wyrms of mythic power, the greatest of whom became gods in their own rights. From Tamara and Lendys came Xymor, patron of the Dragon Paladins. From Kereska and Mighty Zorquan came Chronespsis. And from the clutches of Calor and Kalzareinad came dark Faluzure.
The less divine offspring of the younger gods intermingled with the ancient dragons who still inhabited Suelo. At that time the myriad races of dragon-kind were not yet distinct. In time, these semi-divine unions, and aeons of time produced the many species of dragons and kin which now inhabit every known world. The dragons spread, dominating the whole of their world and countless others.
Io had not created his world; he had intruded upon its natural cycle in a moment of self-reflection. Suelo and its Crystal Sphere were shaped by the goddess Plebias. She had sewn the seeds of her own civilization upon Suelo, and had been exploring the multiverse while waiting for her chosen to evolve. After countless ages she at last returned, expecting to find her chosen ready. Instead she found a world ruled by dragons; she discovered Io's interference with her project. Her rage was boundless. Plebias uplifted the primitive mammals, great apes who rivaled all but the eldest wyrms in size who would have been the ancestors of her chosen. She produced a mighty brood of giants, whom she dubbed the Ymir.
The Children of Plebias struck from shadows, with mental powers unknown to the dragons. On the Day of Dragon Death millions of wyrms died within a span of 12 hours. The Children of Io, who had never expected an attack from the jungled depths of their own homeworld, lost the vast eastern continent before any resistance could be organized. The dragons were not long routed, however, and turned the might of their entire empire upon the Ymir. The juggernaut of the Ymir war machine ground to a halt before they could reach the western continent, Lemuria. And so began a cold war which lasted for more than one hundred thousand years.
The Dragons spent much their time perfecting their sorceress abilities and rallying behind the might of their many gods. Their once great empire crumbled, unnoticed, as they focused entirely upon the plight of their own tiny little world. The Ymir, for their part, spent all their time focusing their mental energies ans studying the mysteries of the mind. Plebias guided them to ever greater plateaus of mental prowess. As the cold war dragged on across ages the Ymir conceived a plan to forever shatter the power and faith of their enemies.
The Ymir built a huge tripod of jade and orichalcum. From it they suspended twelve hoops, and they crowned it with a thirteenth, larger than the rest. They created thirteen spheres of the hardest crystal, and then they began their great hunt. In each of the twelve lesser spheres they imprisoned the soul of a dragon; one sphere for each age. They sought always the most powerful example they could find. They placed each of these spheres in the hoops of the tripod and affixed the vacant thirteenth sphere at the apex.
The Ymir linked their minds, all the Ymir, and activated the weapon. Plebias herself joined in the Great Link, eager for the final defeat of her foe. For a day and a night the entire race charged the tripod with psionic energy, many weaker giants gave even their lives to ready the tripod. The collected will of the Ymir, combined with the power of twelve dominated dragon souls, reached across the world, into the very heart of Lemuria. The divine soul of Io was explosively ripped from his body and imprisoned within the thirteenth sphere.
The Ymir had not fully realized the effect their weapon would have, and an awesome release of power ravaged the world. Although the sphere bound Io’s soul, and his body remained where it had fallen, his divine power was uncontained. The capital city of Lemuria cracked and sank into the ocean. The energies which had once been Io’s raced across the world, burning deep gouges into the land. Lava welled up from them and the weakened continental plates of Lemuria crumbled leaving all but the central plateau and mountains beneath the waves of the Lost Ocean. The Ymir continent was not spared the cataclysm. Io’s power struck the tripod and cascaded out through the linked minds of the Ymir. Only those giants with greatest mental fortitude survived the backlash. The great continent shattered, but largely did not sink, however, few of the Ymir lucky enough to escape the backlash survived the earthquakes and tidal waves that followed.
Those few giants who survived the destruction of their capital city fled with the Dragon Spheres as the city slowly sank beneath the waves of the Demon Ocean. In the days that followed, the dragons bombarded all the remnants of the Ymir that they could find with meteorites pulled from nearby orbits with great sorceries. They then hunted the scattered survivors to near extinction. They never located the dragonspheres, though they still search for the means to free Io and their long imprisoned kin (Asgorath has done her best to hide Io's imprisonment from the dragons of other spheres and fulfills all requests of him herself).
Suelo was long in recovering from disaster (and the subsequent meteorite impacts). Clouds filled the skys and rain fell constantly. The inhabitants of Suelo didn't see Solus for nearly three centuries. The rains washed away the signs of war and the last traces of the Ymir. The dragons had all but exterminated the Ymir, those Ymir who survived turned their backs on Plebias, for they believed she had failed them in their hour of triumph. The Ymir fell quickly to barbarism, hunting by night and hiding from the wyrms by day. They grew smaller over time, and their altered tribes spread across what remained of their old lands, always fearful of the dragons.
After the clouds at last cleared, and the inhabitants saw their rolling blue sun once again, the SpellJammer first entered Dragonspace. Other ships soon followed; survivors of the shattered sphere where the SpellJammer was born (Cloakmaster Cycle, Book 6), Hurwaeti from their distant empire, exiled Illithids from the Astromundi Cluster, and others. Humans formed a colony in what would become southern Konas. A hurwaeti colony was established in the jungles of Laurana. Goblinoids settled in Yur, and Halflings settled Alflon. Drow loyal to the goddess Eilistraee constructed communes in south-eastern Arizon and northern Ausia; while dwarves settled central Ausia and elves chose to tame the jungles of western Arizon. The Mindflayers were the last too arrive and they settled in southern Gondwania.
At first the settlers came as a tiny trickle and the dragons took no notice. Then it became a steady stream of immigrants, and the dragons took action. Fearing another threat to their homeworld might arise if the colonization was allowed to proceed unchecked, Asgorath sealed the sphere, preventing any vessels from entering or leaving Dragonspace.
Sealed from the rest of their empire, the hurwaeti still flourished in their new environs. Through peaceful trade and the occasional war they came to be the undistputed masters of Suelo. When the Hurwaeti Empire inadvertently released the clockwork horrors upon the spheres, however, some karmic twist brought Doom to the hurwaeti of Suelo. A great beast arose from the Demon Ocean and destroyed their capital city in less than an hour.
Over a matter of days the beast named Doom, or Tarrasque in the hurwaeti tongue, leveled every major city and military installation on the planet. All defenses against it failed, all attacks seemed to leave it unharmed. In a final effort the hurwaeti brought the entire force of their space-fleet to bear against the great beast, legions of sorcerers burned themselves out trying to wish the beast dead. In the end, finally, the beast sank beneath the waves. The damage had been done, their population decimated, mystic power shattered, and military all but destroyed, the hurwaeti faded from Suelo's political scene and vanished into the jungles of Laurana.
After the final battle with Doom, bits of the beast's scales were found adrift on the sea. Hurwaeti wizards found these pieces and preserved them for later study. The dead empire lacked the resources to fully analyze the samples, however, and they were passed on as relics of a forgotten age for millenia.
In latter ages two great empires arose and vied for dominance of the world. The Ceruleans dominated Alflon, Arizon, Laurana, and Gondwania. The Ora dominated Yur, Sina, Konas, Bluetspur, and Ausia. Knowledge of spelljamming had been lost with the Hurwaeti and so the two great peoples met primarily in naval battles.
The Ora were an ancient race, descended from the Ymir. From their art it is believed that the Ora looked something like modern ogre-magi, except with uniformly red skin and black horns. Their demonic appearance was said to belie their demeanor, however. The Ora were the ancestors of modern Yur and the ogre-magi are their most direct descendants.
Little is known of the Ceruleans, their oddly shaped ruins have been found scattered across their former lands. The ruins are routinely spartan, utilitarian, and designed for beings neither humanoid, reptilian, or draconic. No samples of writing or art have ever been found, and all that is known is what the Ora wrote of them. Even their name was assigned by the Ora.
What had come to be known as the Relics of Doom had been passed downthrough the ages, into the hands of powerful wizards and priests on both sides of the war. The samples were discovered to still contain a spark of life, nourished even in these small samples by the fabulous regenerative abilities of the beast. The Ceruleans were first to take advantage of this, using forgotten magics similar to the simulacrum spell they grew a great beast, known as The Devourer and unleashed it upon the Ora. Not as potent as legendary Doom, The Devourer was still mightier than anything the Ora could field. But in time the Ora also learned the secrets of tarrasque creation and unleashed their own upon the ill-prepared Ceruleans.
Then an evil Oran priestess, acting against her government's wishes made an advancement. By mingling a fiend with a sample she created Hell-Wrath. The Ceruleans produced the undead Darklight by infusing negative energy, and Ragnarok by adding a celestial's essence.
The Great War escalated, millions died as tarrasques battled each other and decimated entire armies. Believing they had found the way to create a beast as potent as Doom himself the Ceruleans created Apocalypse. In a process that took more than a decade they worked great magics while the world slowly died. Grown in their capital city, the week leading to Apocalypse's birth was celebrated in the streets. And then on the day of their savior's birth, Doom came for the Ceruleans.
Long believed to have been destroyed in the hurwaeti's last attack, the world was unprepared for the return of The First Tarrasque. Doom attacked Apocalypse, in a fierce battle that raged across all of western Arizon, Doom destroyed the interloper. Then, with a hatred unseen against the hurwaeti, Doom wiped all the Ceruleans from the face of Suelo. When the last Cerulean lay dead Doom returned to his slumber in the Demon Ocean; all those born of his relics fell into deep sleeps, and to this day only rarely do they stir.
Though ultimately victorious, the Ora were drained by the war which had so decimated the world. Political pressures, and the animosity of the dragons (uncomfortable with the Ora's resemblance to the Ymir) eventually wore down their empire less than 2000 years after the fall of the Ceruleans.
For the fifty thousand years after the closing of Dragonspace; the inhabitants of Suelo interbred with one another and evolved free of interaction with the rest of the multiverse. In time they came to be the world's current races. Civilizations ebbed and flowed, and in twenty thousand years since the fall of the Ora and Ceruleans society has, as often as not, centered upon the true draconic masters of Suelo. Many of the modern nations have outstripped all their predecessors in duration, at least since the end of the Oran Empire.
Nearly 3,000 years ago the Mercane struck a bargain with the dragon gods and secured the reopening of the sphere, the precise terms of this bargain remain unknown. Since the reopening of the sphere spelljammers (and the Mercane who sell them) have become a common fact of life in all the world's lands. Spelljammers can be found docked in all major cities, nearly all landlocked cities provide facilities for water landing vessels, and most towns provide at least a single berth for the purpose. Magic is widespread and readily accepted.
Few people know much about psionics, but it is generally viewed as just another form of magic. Psionics are common in the Illithid lands and the human territories near the crater which forms the division between Sinia and Konas. An ancient meteorite, forced down by the dragons at the end of the Giant War, has exhibited anti-magic properties which fill the bay and surrounding nations (primarily Volkrad). Many of the Dwalfar also display a talent for the mental arts.
Note: Horses, Cows, Sheep, and Goats did not evolve naturally on this world, and have only recently been introduced by spelljammers. They are considered to be luxuries and status symbols and are generally only owned by the wealthy. What Suelo did evolve, however, are a wide variety of giant hamster species. Known as crys (both singular and plural). It has been speculated that these varied species are the original stock from which gnomish Giant Space Hamsters were first bred. This is supported by the fact that the giant space hamsters are fully capable of mating with the local crys and producing viable offspring. The people of Suelo, therefore, feed on crys flesh, make their clothes from crys wool, drink crys milk, and have bred a variety of riding and war crys. Suelon riding and war crys have the same stats (including cost) of standard D&D riding and war horses. Real horses (and sheep, goats, and cattle) cost 10 times their normal price due to high import fees and the status that such a creature affords.
It is also interesting to note that the Suelon versions of all monsters which resemble (in part or whole) any of the above creatures, feature crys features instead. Suelon Gorgons resemble large scaly hamsters, though they have the same stats as all other gorgons. Suelon Centaurs (Cricetaurs) have humanoid torsos projecting from long legged hamster bodies. Suelon Minotaurs (Taurcrys) have Hamster heads and bite attacks. And Suelon Hippogriffs (Cricegriffs) are half-eagle and half-hamster. There are no Suelon equivalents of either unicorns or pegasi.
Although both the Dragon Gods and the Goddess Plebias believe that their shared world was created by Plebias, they are wrong. Suelo is a world far more ancient than any of these gods would care to think. In the ancient times before the multiverse took it's current form, before light even came into existence, Suelo was a vast ellipse of mass floating through the void between what dimensions did then exist. It existed between moments in time, and past the angles of thought. Those black gulfs of evil are inhabited by creatures the mere sight of which would drive the strongest willed of dragons into the black depths of insanity. Suelo, then known as Z'ress, was the capital of their foul empire. An empire which ended in a rebellion that spawned the multiverse as it is now known. Z'ress was thought to have been destroyed at that time. Though scoured of its unholy life (although that which inhabited it before could hardly be called life, as it adhered to a set of rules beyond those of the multiverse we know), the darke world continued on. Z'ress passed into the multiverse through a small causality rift created when the Goddess Plebias (who had been amongst those who had overthrown the old regime) formed Dragonspace.
Bathed by the light of the new born sun the world of Z'ress passed wholly into real space. It stabilized in it current egg-like form (a shape which has caused those few scholars who know the truth many sleepless nights). And the last vestiges of the old ways burned from its surface, leaving a blank slate upon which Plebias worked her will. Suelo is an old world however, And not all of the ancient evil has left it. Suelo is riddled with more tunnels and caverns than can be imagined. Caverns which still echo with the stillness from before the multiverse. Vast subterranean seas which have never seen the light of day. Places where the ancient ones still lurk and plot to bring back the days of their glory.
Now in the dark, quiet voids of the middle world -- That realm known as the underdark to those from other spheres. In that place between the fiery red light of the world’s core, and the equally deadly blue light of the outer world - the Ancients dwell still. They plot against each other and against the surface. They create servant creatures, beings partially of this world and partially of theirs. The Ancients are the darke and hidden lords of the Aboleth and the Kuo-toa. It is also from the Ancients that the Alflosin (Halfling) wizards learn their fell magicks, and it may very well be the Ancients who are behind the Alflosin bid for sphere conquest.