The History of Beqanna

The Shortest of Short Versions

This is the extremely condensed starter version for new players. This is also the sort of information characters new to Beqanna would easily come across before settling into life on BQ and getting more details from other characters.

Beqanna opened the 31st of May in 2001.

In the beginning, Beqanna was a deserted territory, populated by many animals -but no horses. Then came the first two stallions: Swish, who represented all good, and Black Magik, who represented all evil. Swish founded the light realm and Black Magick the evil, and as more horses arrived and lands discovered, the Neutral lands were formed for horses who were neither purely good or entirely evil.

Lone Star answered the call of the fairies and saved a mythical princess. As a reward, he was given what he desired: wings, horn, immortality, and the princess, Banater er Rih. They returned to Beqanna, and Lone Star and Banat er Rih became the first mythicals in Beqanna. In time, the lands became a set of eight Kingdoms and many herds under their banners. The Kingdoms were Heaven’s Gates (Lights), the Dewdrop Deserts (Light Mythicals), the Dazzling Waterfall (Neutrals), the Forbidden Dale (Neutral Mythicals), the Chamber of Evil (Darks), the Forsaken Valley (Dark Mythicals), the all-mare Amazons, and the bachelor kingdom of the Tundra.

For year upon year, decade upon decade, Beqanna simply went on. Wars, both large and small, were fought, Kings and Queens rose and fell – Beqanna saw many of its first independent queens.

Over time, the residents of Beqanna forgot their roots, forgot that their traits and their homes were a gift from the fairies. Beqanna stripped the kingdoms of their magic. The physical landmarks of the Kingdom’s magical entities remained, but they were no longer magical. No more tattoos in the Amazons, no more spirit animals in the Dale. The burning tree of the Chamber became just that, a burning tree, without the power of prophecy. No more immortality for the monarchs, no more wings or horns or any other trait for those of certain ranks. The residents of Beqanna did not deserve such gifts, decided the fairies.

And still, the residents of Beqanna did not listen. The warning was not enough. Beqanna itself rose at last, stirred by the concerns of the fairies, and took it all away from them. Beqanna wasn’t just changed this time: it was gone. All magic had been stripped from the land and the residents – and while the common lands remained, all of the familiar Kingdoms and their many decades of history were gone, replaced with new lands that the residents must organize anew. For a period of time, magic worked only on the mountain. Beqanna forced them to earn back their right to magic and powers, slowly, and with hard work.

Though she had destroyed the old lands, Beqanna provided new lands for its people: Sylva, Nerine, Taiga, and Ischia Rather than grovel and petition Beqanna for one of her new lands, Carnage instead stood defiant, and used his ill magic to create his own land, Pangea, a wasteland that sat like a cancer on Beqanna’s landscape.

Life began to settle back into some semblance of normalcy for Beqanna, though she kept a much closer eye on her people through the faeries. Due to the needs of Beqanna’s residents, two new lands were created: Loess from the hills and Hyaline from the mountain lake. To keep the balance, two were destroyed: Pangea -- Carnage’s creation -- and the Plains. Life may have settled into a type of peace again, but Carnage refused to let his creation rest at the bottom of the sea.

Carnage was prevented from recovering Pangea himself, but using volunteers he brought back a sickly and diseased version of the kingdom. A magician was then murdered within Pangea, as was a horse with the seal of Pestilence, which released a terrible Plague into the world.

The fairies were not strong enough to counteract this compilation of dark magic, not at first, but they were able to bring back four lands from the past, which they were able to make “safe havens” immune from the plague: Icicle Isle, Island Resort, Brilliant Pampas, and Silver Cove. They restored Taiga to livable land once more and then grouped the lands into four sections (North, South, East, and West), each with two existing lands and a safe haven. It was decreed that in each region, there would be only one Kingdom and the other two lands would exist as herds and territories, and those lines were to be sorted out while they all tried not to catch and die of the plague.

The Northern Kingdom was lead by Nerine, with the sublands of Icicle Island and Taiga. The Southern Kingdom consisted of Sylva and Brilliant Pampas, led by Loess. The East was led by Silver Cove, and included Pangea and Hyaline. The West was the islands of Ischia and Island Resort, led by the Kingdom of Tephra.

While the people of Beqanna schemed and sorted themselves out, the fairies found a path to a cure for all. They still didn’t have the right power to simply vanquish it, but with the aid of Beqannians to quest and sacrifice to gather the ingredients, from the safe havens, a cure was produced and life in Beqanna was restored to plague-free normalcy - that is, wars both major and minor, petty skirmishes, and other mortal concerns In an attempt to breach the barrier between life and death, a mare named Rhy brought together a group of questers to attempt to create a day on which anyone could speak to those who had died. However, it went terribly wrong and with the veil thin and forces pressing on either side, the veil between life and death was torn, allowing free passage from death to life. Amongst those who crossed over were five names from Beqanna’s history: Straia, Nikkai, Craft, Anatomy, and Starlace. These five came back with something extra – something from history to gift to those in the current era.

The Alliance

Think you’re the best of the best?

Since the early 2000s, two elite warriors from each kingdom (later including neighboring lands) have met on the Plains to battle each other in randomly-chosen brackets to decide precisely that. The winner is blessed with gifts, including magic for themselves and protection from steals, raids, and challenges for the land they represent. All warriors who volunteer for the Alliance are awarded prizes, as well as additional gifts for second and third place.

Winners

• Jamie - 2020, Pangea (final battle)
• Brennen - 2018, Ischia (final battle)
• Set - 2012, Chamber of Evil (final battle)
• Anaxarete - 2008, Chamber of Evil
• Cancer - Chamber of Evil
• Covet - Forbidden Dale