Black Desert lore: black stones, the Black Death and the war for the desert

Black Desert is set on a continent split between two great powers: the Republic of Calpheon, a land of trade and money, and the Kingdom of Valencia, an absolute monarchy on the edge of a vast desert. Between them lies the desert both want, full of black stones. Below is the history of the world in order, region by region, as Pearl Abyss tells it in the game's own history pages. Years are given in the game's Elionian calendar.

We wrote this from Pearl Abyss' Adventurer's Guide and game pages (sources at the bottom). Where those pages disagree with each other, it says so. The game's main story was also rewritten in later updates, so quests in game may tell parts of it differently.

  1. The AncientsA great civilisation rises on black stones, then falls.
  2. The SherekhanYear 185: a people cursed for killing a dragon.
  3. The Black DeathYear 235: a plague from the desert kills over half the west.
  4. The Desert WarYears 236 to 267: Calpheon marches on Valencia.
  5. Black crystalsYears 275 to 278: the race for black stones begins.
  6. The RepublicYear 281: Calpheon's king is gone, a council rules.
  7. Your storyThe 280s: giants, demons and the Black Spirit.

The Ancients and the black stones

Long before the kingdoms of today, an advanced people now called the Ancients lived on the continent. In Pearl Abyss' words, the black stone was "a source of immense power" that "played a pivotal role in the advancement of their technology". Through alchemy, the same stone "brought ruin upon the minds of the Ancients, leading to the downfall of their once-great civilization."

What is left of them is ruins, sealed chambers and relics, and the stones themselves. The largest deposits lie in the desert between Calpheon and Valencia. Calpheon calls it the Black Desert. Valencia calls it the Red Desert. That one difference in name sums up the whole conflict.

The Sherekhan of Drieghan

Far to the south-west, in the mountain land of Drieghan, the Sherekhan came to be in Elionian year 185. They had killed a dragon, and the kill cursed them: their skin hardened and their bodies changed. Led by Akum, they first settled east of Drieghan, but drought struck within a year. Before he died, Akum told the survivors to bury what he gave them and to settle "on the land where the blessed rain falls".

The Sherekhan wandered for some forty years. In year 226 rain finally fell, filling the valleys with waterfalls and lakes, and they found Duvencrune, which became their capital. Over the generations their bodies shrank and lost the strength their ancestors had. For a long time Drieghan stayed unknown to the rest of the world.

The Black Death (year 235)

In Elionian year 235 a plague spread across the western continent from merchants who traded with the desert. It turned the skin black and rotted the flesh, and it killed more than half of the population. Nobles and priests were not spared, the sick were abandoned by their families, and the dead were burned to stop it spreading.

Then it vanished as suddenly as it came. It left the old order shaken: if nobles died like commoners, people asked, were they any different? The priests of Elion, Calpheon's church, found someone to blame. They said the Valencians and their black crystals had caused the plague, and called them heathens. Pearl Abyss' own history of Calpheon calls this a made-up story, used to justify the war that followed.

Valencia's own history tells it from the other side. There, the plague followed a bloody quarrel between King Imur Nesser and the Aakman, ancient guardians who claimed the relics and chambers in the desert. When the queen fell ill, Valencians blamed the king's massacre of the Aakman, while priests from Calpheon pointed at the black stones buried under the sand.

The two histories do not quite agree on dates: Calpheon's puts the plague in 235, Valencia's in 234. Both agree the war began in 236.

The Calpheon-Valencia War (years 236 to 267)

In year 236 Calpheon and its allies among the western kingdoms marched into the desert. The war lasted around thirty years. In Serendia, King Crucio of Heidel was pushed into supporting it by the priests of Elion.

Mediah, the land in between, grew rich from it. King Bareeds II declared Mediah neutral but let Calpheon's armies pass, and the merchant leader Neruda Shen had Mediah's smiths forge weapons with black crystals that Calpheon supplied. Valencia secretly backed Mediah's merchant guilds too, in return for trade rights and protection. Alchemists working with the crystals found they held real magical power.

The war ended in disaster for everyone. On the last expedition, around year 267, Calpheon's King Dahad and his army were buried by a huge sandstorm in the desert and never came back. Valencia's King Imur renamed the battlefield the Red Desert and gave the victory to Aal, Valencia's god: "The vast desert is Aal's land. The oasis signifies the tranquility of Aal and the black stones represent Aal's abundant provisions."

At the same time the world itself changed: tsunamis, typhoons and droughts struck, and barbarians, orcs and ogres moved into the lands left empty. Around year 266, barbarians driven out of the desert began raiding Mediah, and towns like the Iron Mine and Omar Lava Cave were abandoned.

The race for black crystals (years 275 to 278)

By year 275 Calpheon and the other kingdoms were trading with Valencia again, through Mediah. Now everyone knew what black crystals were worth for weapons and alchemy, and new deposits turned up in Keplan, in the Serendia wetlands and in Mediah. Crucio of Heidel hoped the crystals in Serendia would free his kingdom from Calpheon.

They did the opposite. From year 276 Calpheon's young King Guy Seric attacked Heidel to take the quarries. After heavy battles, Serendia's Domongatt chose a treaty over total defeat, and some called him a coward for it. Serendia had to accept Calpheon's soldiers near its watchtowers, a weaker economy, and give Calpheon all rights to its black crystals.

Meanwhile Mediah's merchants spent their war profits on Altinova, a walled capital finished around year 273, which brought the lawless region some peace.

Kamasylvia, the elves and the burning of the tree

In the great forest of Kamasylvia, the goddess Sylvia came down and made the holy tree Kamasylve. From it came two peoples: the Ganelle and the Vedir. The land was blessed with nature spirits.

When Sylvia's descendants grew careless, dark spirits invaded the forest. Desperate for power, the Vedir burned the essence of Kamasylve to fight them. It worked, but it wounded the tree so deeply that it fell into a deep sleep. The burning split the Vedir: the conservative Acher, the radical Ahib, and the neutral Dark Knights.

The Ahib grew more arrogant and were called heretics, and around year 276 the Acher went to war against them under Queen Brolina. Beaten, the Ahib fled south-east in year 284 and built a stronghold in O'dyllita, a land shrouded in darkness, where they allied with the Salun Bears and grew dangerous again. In year 286 Brolina opened Kamasylvia's gates to Calpheon and Drieghan.

Pearl Abyss' Kamasylvia history also mentions an alliance with Calpheon's Guy Seric, who admired the elves' archery, while Kamasylvia was in a civil war with Grána.

Mediah and the Three Days of Darkness

In the southern village of Tarif, the sorceress Illezra broke a sacred law: she broke the seal on the Book of Cartian, the tome that holds the power of the first sorceress, Cartian. The power nearly killed her. She fled, joined the Elric Followers, and raised a tower in northern Mediah.

In year 277 an explosion from Illezra's tower brought three days of darkness. Fire swept Mediah Castle and killed King Bareeds II, though his youngest heir survived. The kingdom gave way to the Republic of Mediah. Around years 280 and 281, Illezra led barbarians toward Altinova while savage Sezecs closed in too.

The Republic of Calpheon (year 281)

Guy Seric's wars and taxes broke his kingdom. In year 281 he died under suspicious circumstances, the old feudal order fell apart, and commoners won their economic freedom. A council of representatives from every class replaced the king: Calpheon became a republic.

In Serendia, Jordine became Grand Chamberlain that same year and told Crucio to build up Heidel's army while Calpheon was busy fighting itself. In year 283 peasants rose up against higher taxes, and the Tower of Will incident followed: a light from the sky, and monsters gone wild. By 285 more and more outsiders were arriving in the port town of Velia.

Valencia's crisis (year 282)

In Valencia, the fifth king, Torme Nesser, ruled from around year 270. Astrology and theology flourished, and the kingdom grew rich on the black stone trade. When he died in year 282, his eldest son Sahazad Nesser became the sixth king.

But Sahazad's half-brother Barhan Nesser found that the new king did not have the golden key, the ancient object that proves the right to the throne. At the same time, the Aakman came back and ancient giants rose from the desert.

Where your story begins

This is the world the player walks into in the 280s: a new republic in Calpheon, a shaky throne in Valencia, monsters in the borderlands, and black stones that everyone wants. You arrive with a voice in your head: the Black Spirit, a dark being bound to you that grows stronger by feeding on black stones and ancient relics. The main story follows it across the continent, from Balenos and Serendia to Calpheon, Mediah, Valencia and beyond.

Older versions of the main quest told the story differently in places. Pearl Abyss has since rewritten it, and the history above follows the game's region histories rather than one version of the quests.

Beyond the first continent

The world has grown a great deal since Black Desert came out in Korea in 2015 and in North America and Europe in 2016:

Sources

Black Desert is a trademark of Pearl Abyss Corp. Legionhall is made by players and is not affiliated with Pearl Abyss.