The history of Faelon can be split into four distinct Ages. In The First Great Age - The Age of Dragons the gods roamed the lands and for much of the time peace reigned. Eventually disagreements amongst the gods led to the begining of the war which has spanned the millenia since. With the help of the good draconic races and their newest creation - the elves - the light deities pushed the dark from the surface of Faelon and sealed them outside of the godshield. Their battles continue in the heavens and amongst their followers in the realms.
With the departure of the dark gods, the forces of light managed to push the dark races from most of the lands. With the dark races retreated underground or into the further races of the land the light races flourished. The elves forged strong links with the dwarven kings and their gnomish allies. Together they kept watch over the development of the human tribes and spent some time helping the halflings piece together their civilisation. The dragons retreated from the world - as great forces of light or dark they were now in a position to become the dominant race, although at the cost of the other species and by mutual concent they decided this would do nothing to serve their masters. Their retreat signified the end of the Age of Dragons and the beginning of the The Second Great Age - The Age of Elves.
Peace reigned for roughly 3500 years, broken only by disputes with the dark races who boiled forth from their hiding places before the forces of the duegar gained a foothold in Regnum Periculi. As the war raged to push the dark dwarves back into their underground halls a drow assassin murdered the elven king and stole the Shard of the Dulin. After a series of internal battles, during which the drow tried to sieze control of the elven empire, the drow were expelled from elven society and banished to the darkness below. The elves finally were in a position to aid their dwarven allies against the duegar and began pushing them back. The drow, meanwhile used the Shard to break a hole in the godshield to the outer planes. While not a significant enough tear for the gods themselves to return, the hole allowed the abominations trapped out there to invade. During this dark time, known as the Great Coming, fighting ravaged the entire planet as the light races struggled and died in combat against the evil that had overtaken them. The other dark races came out of hiding and allied with the invaders. Crushingly, the might of the militaristic halfling empire chose to ally itself with the invaders giving them an immediate foothold in the heart of the civilized lands. This period saw the total annihilation of the elven empire and the blasting of the lands, poisoning them. Effectively this ended the Second Age.
It is at this point that the histories of the different continent diverges. Whilst the gods walked the land the distances between the landmasses were meaningless, and the elves constructed a series of portals to travel the distances. Even the dwarves constructed runegates to travel rapidly between their halls. With the loss of almost the entire elven race the network of portals were lost, and the dwarves were forced to abandon their runegates as they fell prey to the hordes of the outsiders. Left alone, each continent developed separately creating different cultures.
Few events achieved global significance since the beginning of the Third Age, the exception being an event near the end of that Age. The tear in the godshield had been repaired and in Regnum Periculi the invaders wiped out, allowing peace to reign for a time. This ended when the duegar and drow allied and invaded the dwarven halls from the depths. The war went badly for the dwarves and they were on the verge of extinction when a small cult hatched a desperate plan. They conceived a ritual which, when released, would burn through the underground tunnels striking dead any and all duegar and drow. The idea of absolute genocide was initially rejected by the dwarven kings but as the war continued to go poorly eventually they gave consent. The results were horrific. The ritual was discovered by their enemies and disrupted as it neared completion by a cadre of drow assassins. Instead of creatures of darkness it targeted a different race and, unchecked, it spread over the entire planet. At a stroke the small gnomish civilization was obliterated with virtually every single gnome turning to salt where they stood. A tiny, tiny handful survived - those on the surface assisting the surviving humans with the cleansing of the lands. This catastrophe is known to all modern dwarves - it is part of their culture. They don't tend to share it and only the rulers of the human kingdoms, along with the long-lived elves, actually know the terrible history. Amongst the dwarves it's known as Ironclaw's Folly and the clan name Ironclaw has been forever cursed.