History

History of the Universe!

The Creation Myth

The gods created the world in five days.

• On the first day, the gods drew magic from the chaos and worked together to split the raw chaos into the elements, forming the lands, the sea, the air and the fires below.
• On the second day, they worked even greater magic, draining the magic from other parts of the universe to bring forth plant life, and greenery covered the earth and sea and even floated in the air.
• On the third day, the gods drew power from other planes, and used it to create animals and insects and fish and all sorts of other beasts, to feed on the plants and each other in a complex cycle that would be called Nature.
• On the fourth day, the gods drew power from themselves, to give sentience to their favourite creatures so that their creatures could worship the gods that had created them.
• On the fifth day, weakened from their labours, the gods argued over the imbalances that had occurred between their favourite creatures. Strife and anguish were created - and have never left us..

Although almost all sentient races have a similar version to the above creation myth, none of them can actually agree as to how long ago it happened, and none have any reasonable explanations about things like the other planes – the Abyss, the Astral plane, the Nine Hells, Elysion, or any such strange demi-planes like the Shadow or Fey realms. The races vary in their interpretations on who was responsible for which parts of the creation - the elves believing it was just the Elven pantheon at work, and similarly with the dwarves.

The Al Shekeim nation, worshipping Odin alone, believe that he created the world and that the other gods were merely devils, albeit some misguided ones, in disguise.

The exact timeline since the creation of the world is unknown - except perhaps by some sages who have done esoteric magical research - but is believed to probably be something like this:

Pre-History

Circa 20 million years ago.

Creation of the Universe :-)

The Age of Myth

Circa 500,000 to 130,000 years ago.

The creation of the Prime Material plane. Dragons, the first truly magical race are created by Tiamut, along with Giants by Grummish. The Fey realm is created and populated by various fey creatures including the Eladrin (aka) "elves" by Téssalian.

The Age of Giants

Circa 130,000 to 80,000 years ago.

Dragons and Giants battle for dominance of the Prime Material Plane with the dragons winning and giants becoming rare. The Eladrin come through from the Fey Realm to challenge the dominance of the dragons, who outclass them and as punishment, strip the elves of their wings. Some retreat to the Fey Realm, and some remain in the Prime Material Plane, splitting into four main races - Alfaen, Undrean, Storm Elves and Drow. The dwarven race are also created by Hölst, and designed to live underground to avoid the dragons. Dwarves and Drow first clash.

The Age of Elves

Circa 80,000 to 50,000 years ago.

The Storm Elves master the power of the elements and take on the Dragons, working with the remains of the giants to defeat the dragons and destroy their breeding grounds. As the last dragon is killed, the link to the weave is lost, and the realms is plunged into a magical dead zone. All four elven races battle with each other, blaming each other for the loss of their magic.

The Age of the Orc and Man

Circa 50,000 to 6,000 years ago.

Emboldened by the extinction of dragons and the loss of magic in the realm, a consortium of lesser powers create a wide range of humanoid races - from humans, and halflings, through orcs and goblinoid races, to aarakokra and other more obscure races with varying degrees of success. The orcs and humans breed particularly fast and battle against other races and themselves multiple times. Various civilisations rise and fall - the Storm Elves disappear. The Alfaen exclude themselves on the island of Alfaen. The Undrean elves retreat into the ancient forests of Undrea. The Drow eke out an existence in the under dark. The dwarves retreat into their mountain strongholds and build their own impressive, albeit somewhat isolationist civilisation.

The Mage Age

Circa 6000 years ago.

The Alfaen elves discover dragon cocoons that were never hatched, and use them to build their Live-Ships - making them the masters of the oceans. They manage to hatch a dragon from its cocoon, and realise that the presence of live dragons in the realms is tied to magic. The dragon is kept trapped and drugged, and the elves start to regain their magical might. The connection to their origin - the Fey Realm - was re-established, and a number of other Fey came through, including Gnomes who were brought through to act as servants to the Elves. The Gnomes however proved to have their own fey magic, and slowly spread elsewhere in the Realms, establishing an unusual position within the various human societies as magical advisors.

Circa 5000 years ago.

Humans (and shortly afterwards a few other races) started to figure out how to use magic for themselves - and quickly numerous magocracies started to rise, overtaking the basic feudal systems that were prevalent in most places. The power of the mage seemed to grow exponentially.

Circa 4000 years ago.

A human mage adventurer from the southern lands discovers another dragon breeding ground - and to escape a storm, made a hole in cocoon and fell asleep inside, half merging with the unformed dragon there. When he awoke, he discovered he had gained some dragon-like attributes, including the ability to do magic in an almost innate way - unlike the complex arcane recipes that the traditional mage might need to memorise.

Circa 2000 years ago.

A human mage is born who goes on to become the most powerful mage in the world - Hedron the 1st - he unifies the various kingdoms and magocracies on the peninsular of Pacedon, and founded the empire of Pacedonia. He recruits 7 other archmages (MageLords) to run the seven schools of magic and a great period of prosperity spreads across the Empire.

Circa 1800 years ago.

The rival empire of Al'Shekeim arises on the southern peninsula, lead by a group of powerful sorcerers - descendants of the adventurer who had unknowingly slept in that dragon cocoon.

Circa 1500 years ago.

Epic magic abounds, and various wonders of the world are created - including pyramids in Al'Shekeim, the floating city of Skylon, the giant bridge to Maztrika and many others.

Circa 1300 years ago.

Hedron VII is killed by his own Magelords. Pacedonia fractures as the Magelords squabble amongst themselves - Al'Shekeim takes the opportunity to wage war, and the two great nations unleash magic on an epic scale - culminating in when an unknown necromancer creates a new type of powerful undead - one that has the ability to create more of itself - Vampires!

The Dark Ages

Circa 1000 years ago to 600 years ago.

A dark period of nearly 400 years during which the Vampires spread like a plague across most of the world - till eventually a concerted effort by a group of Odin priests used Epic magic to wipe out the vast majority of vampires. The few remaining ones learnt to skulk in the shadows rather than try to again dominate the world.

The Age of Enlightenment

Circa 600 years ago.

Pacedonia and Al'Shekeim rose from their respective ruins to again become major players on the world scene, but somewhat diminshed from they heydays. Circa 300 years ago, the Cataclysm happened - caused by unknown epic magic. The nation of Maxtrika sank beneath the waves, leaving only small islands where mountains had stood before. The loss of life in such a short time caused the gods to intervene and put a limit on magic - removing the ability to use Epic level magic in the world.

History of the Luna Valley

Based in a large fertile valley surrounded by mountains on the otherwise sparsely populated and western continent Colonial Lands, the valley has seen several civilisations rise and fall over the last six thousand years.

The Storm Elf Civilisation

Circa 7000 years ago.

Surviving Storm Elves settle in the Luna Valley and build a magic free civilisation (see above for the reason for why there was no magic in the realms at that time).

Circa 6000 years ago.

Shortly after magic returns to the realms, the Demon Xancrown comes to the valley to try to destroy the Storm Elves - the reason WHY the demon had such emnity for the Storm Elves is unknown. After many years of battle with Xancrown and his demon kin - the Elves, having failed multiple times to completely destroy Xancrown, manage instead to trap the powerful demon in a magical dungeon under the valley, but not before he had wreaked his revenge on them in the form of the Demonplague. Succumbing to the plague, the elves finally die out, leaving Xancrown trapped in his prison and the valley returns to nature for a while.

The Dwarven Civilisation

Circa 5000 years ago.

A group of breakaway Dwarves somehow manage to cross the ocean and found themselves amongst the elven ruins in the Luna Valley, and start to build their own fledgling civilisation in the Valley. They find Xancrown's prison and accidentally reawaken the plague, which, after a period of time, wipes out the dwarves just as it had wiped out the elves before them.

The Greenskin Civilisation

Circa 3000 years ago.

A powerful orc leader gathers lots of clans together from elsewhere on the continent, and brings them into the Luna valley, establishing a new way of life for this normally nomadic and warlike race. Isolating themselves from other orc and goblinoid races, the Yugtugs as they called themselves farmed, built themselves communities and cities even, sometimes re-occupying ancient dwarven or elven settlements, sometimes building their own from scratch. For a while, they started to show signs of becoming truly civilised, but then they too awoke Xancrown's plague, and sadly their budding civilisation also died out.

The Human Civilisation

Circa 1000 years ago.

Mostly human colonists, but with a mix of other races thrown in in small quantities from all corners of the world, fleeing the undead from the Dark Ages, manage to establish a Vampire free community in the Luna Valley. After only a few hundred years, the demon plague again awaken and multiply through the valley. A druid circle - Minas Herion - having managed to find evidence of the demonplague in the surviving records of the dwarf and elven civilisations that had come before, realise that this plague had the potential to spread far beyond the valley, now that the population of the valley was so more international and varied. Using some of the original rituals used by the elves to trap Xancrown in his prison, the Minas Herion druids perform the ritual, sacrificing themselves to drop a massive magical glacier into the valley, crushing/freezing the inhabitants and preventing the plague from spreading further.

The Current occupants of the Valley

Less than a hundred years ago.

Travellers to the valley set up communities in the few ice-free areas - near the coast (Safeharbour plus some minor fishing villages), in the foothills around the sides of the valley (Sweetwater, Fort Icewind and Hemlet), and on one particularly tall hill in the middle of the valley that had always been ice free - Tomar's Crossing. Tomar's Crossing itself was founded by an adventurer named Tomar, who had used the hilltop as a base of operations for his own treasure hunting in the ruins beneath the glacier. Using magic to scry and drill holes, he had succeeded in locating a number of ancient ruins, and his plundered treasure attracted others, eventually a small community building up around what had initially been just a tent city on an almost bare hilltop surrouned by ice.

About a month ago

A meteor strikes the valley, melting the glacier in the matter of days, causing widespread floods, landslides and chaos generally everywhere. Refugees start making their way to one of the few places unaffected by the flood waters - Tomar's Crossing.