TIMELINE OF THE REALM
The following is a patchy timeline of the entire history of the Realm, in centuries, from the cosmological beginnings of the Infinite Past up to the Common Era and The Newcomers' Age. It is constantly being updated.
Click on any century to see notes on historic events of that era. Then follow the rabbit hole deeper by clicking on any stories that have been fleshed out by kids and counselors in weeks of camp and game days over the last ten years. This timeline is presented as a skeleton to hang many, many more stories on.
THE INFINITE PAST
There is nothing.
Thing dreams an other
Now there is Darkness.
Thing dreams another
Now there is Silence.
Thing dreams five more
Now there is Stillness.
Seven sleep in company with Thing
Now there is Cold
Oh, how they shiver!
The Seven dream the Weavers.
The Weavers begin weaving.
Now Stillness is broken.
The weaving kicks up Dust...
The Weavers finish weaving.
They lay the Cloth atop the Seven.
Now Cold is broken.
Dust settles on the Cloth.
Note: Dust is known as Mist to the Goblin people or Sh'ne. Sh'ne revere Mist beyond all as a primal substance beyond Thing, the Weavers or the Seven's ultimate control.
The Weavers brush Dust from the Cloth
Their brushing makes a rhythm
Now Silence is broken.
From Dust is Air.
From Dust is Water.
From Dust is Earth.
The Rhythm creates a reckoning of what that has come to be.
This reckoning smites Eternity; it is the Wound of Time.
In time, all will be broken.
Yet the Rhythm soothes the sleepers beneath the Cloth for a long, long time.
THE ARCHAIC ERA
The Sorcerers of Igal divine the beginning of time as far back as this date.
Thing and the Seven sleep.
The Weavers beat the ever settling Dust. Their work never ceases. The Wound of Time grows.
Long-entranced by the Rhythm of the Weavers, Thing dreams Fire.
The Cloth bursts into flame. Darkness is broken.
The Cloth burns with life. All destinies are woven into its weft and warp. Soon the Cloth of Life will burn completely away. It is burning fast.
Though it will be brief, the burning is spectacular.
First to erupt from the burning of weft and warp are The Great Forests: Easðe, Oesðe, Nearða and Suerða.
New things erupt in the Forests and live in them. These things are noisy.
...very noisy.
They will be short-lived as the Seven begin to murmur in their sleep.
In smoking Suerða things first begin to speak.
The Sorcerors of Igal teach that this smoke of Suerða, this speech, is Fire itself dreaming. This doctrine of secondary creation is known as the Heresy of Faerie.
The Beings of Speech move fast into all lands of the Firstborn- the Beings Before Speech. In the greatest magic ever created, he who is known as Wynathnudd freezes the burning for a time and leads many Firstborn to the Na Feauns, a place cursed forever against all Beings of Speech.
THE EARLY MYTHIC ERA
The First Mystery appears.
The Coming of the Faerie Courts from warm Suerða is the First Mystery. They are the Siddi, the Seelie Court and the Unseelie Court of Faerie. They live in harmony and celebration for a blessed five hundred years in the Forest. Eventually they establish a palace on the mountain of Shehelemet.
Their singing makes the sleepers toss and turn.
The Faerie or Siddi Civilization is flourishing.
4882 B.E. The Several awaken. They are angry and make themselves known in Faerie. They wish to sleep. They wish again for Silence, for Darkness, for Stillness. They tear into the noisy fabric of life. The Siddi first call them the Sorrows. One among the Sorrows tears through the cloth and into the world. This one is called the First Great Horror. It's name is now forgotten.
4932 B.E. The Seelie and Unseelie Courts break apart. The Seelie Court become known as "The Elves" or Sidi.
4932 B.E. The Unseelie Court flee forever from Shehelemet and go east beyond Eddsea. These become the first "Goblins" or Sh’ne. They find and embrace the wild Kathgrach Range and the fens of the Great Sahn beyond. They renounce the life of the Courts and the Horror they associate with courtly life. They seek wildness in all ways. The one called Wynathnudd, whom the Sh'ne dub the Wild One, bestows upon them the gifts of Tooth and Claw. The Sidi begin to consider the Sh'ne feral and dangerous, but their fear and mistrust does not overrule their respect and the two courts remain in good (if separate) relations.
The Graces appear in the time of The Horror. They rekindle Fire in the hearts of the Three Courts of Beings: the Sidi, Madzi and Sh’ne.
4777 B.E. The Madzi (or Dwarves) arrive from cold Nuerðe, and a Grace is among them. Their appearance is forever known as The Second Mystery. The Madzi arrive on Shehelemet and slam their hammers into the stone of the mountain calling the Horror unto them.
Sidi, Madzi and Sh'ne fight. The Horror, nicknamed Grâsh by the dwarves of old, is defeated when the dwarves slam it into the sky along with a chunk of the sacred mountain of their birth. Goghama flew into the sky after it and has been chasing Grâsh ever since. This was the beginning of sun and moon. According to dwarven lore, this is also the formal beginning of time and of mortality. The beings of the Three Courts only began to suffer the effects of age after the defeat of the First Great Horror, and mostly affected by age were the dwarves.
The Sidi and Madzi take residence on Shehelemet and help create a magnificent city. The civilization of Shehelemet begins. The word 'Shehelemet' refers to both the mountain and the great city.
Later in 4777, during the Moon of Cracking Wood, there is a cosmic event of unusual violence. Stars are seen burning down to all four corners of the world from moon in its ever-retreat from Goghama! Soon Human beings, The Third Mystery, will appear.
The civilization of the Courts of Grace in Shehelemet is flourishing.
Magol Saera the Terrible appears deep beneath the Aillach Mountains and begins to advise the Hidden Dwarves who ran from the fight against the First Great Horror.
By 4000 B.E. the Elves have come to live in four different courts. These courts will eventually come to be known as The High Court (high as in high mountains), The Spirit Court (later the Deep Court), The Forest Court and The Sea Court. They live in relative harmony until the arrival of Human Beings from far out of the West.
The civilization of The Three Courts, also known as The Courts of Grace, centered in Shehelemet, is flourishing.
The Strife of Colossus begins.
3033 B.E. The Colossus (AKA Kolzaga) appears as a mysterious gift of armor to the King of the Great Dwarves from an unknown source. The armor awakens and slays the dwarven king Gokhallric XIII driving both Dwarves and Elves from Shehelemet. The Dwarves call the awakening of Colossus The Second Great Horror.
3033 B.E. The Kathgrach Range, homeland of the Sh'ne is invaded by the Great Dwarves who were displaced from Shehelemet by Kolzaga. This begins the Ugly War and it ends with the Sh’ne receding from the mountains and into the Great Sahn.
Shortly after the Ugly War the Great Dwarves also invade the stead of the Good Dwarves who remained in Éddan and were advised by a long lost tribe of dwarves under the influence of a sorrow calling itself Magol. Thus begins the War of Atonement between the dwarves that ends with all surviving dwarves receding into the Dimhellir or underdark for some time.
3030 B.E. Having been driven from Shehelemet, The High Elves create a new and magnificent city not very far away. This is the city of Caer Sidi, or City of The Forever-Forsaken Elves. The High Elves renounce Shehelemet as gulboeden or forever-defiled. Many begrudge the Dwarves and blame their deep delving for awakening the sorrow that brought destruction to Shehelemet.
The Spirit Elves (later known as Deep Elves) who still consider the mountain sacred (ghatran), eventually return to Shehelemet as healers and caretakers. A city and sanctuary of healing comes into being high on the slopes of Shehelemet, open to all peoples of the Realm.
In love with The Realm, the Colossus leaves Shehelemet, but it is a jealous love. The Colossus disappears.
2999 B.E. Those who will come to be known as The Deep Court of Elves return to Shehelemet and create a bracing and healing magic. The High Court stays in Caer Sidi.
The Forest Court and Sea Court never return to Shehelemet.
The Dwarves return to Shehelemet.
2899 B.E. The dwarves return to Éddan. The new dwarven kingdom in Éddan is called the Kingdom of Rhakmadz, meaning 'the dwarves who recreated themselves.' The Rhakmadzi live uneasily near the Deep Elven Court in Shehelemet, though many families of the Madzi with ancestral ties to Shehelemet return there to reclaim what Kolzaga took from them. Rhakmadz extends far to the eastern edge of the range toward the great inland sea. There the Dwarves continue to delve deep into the Mountains of Éddan and create a secret stronghold of unimaginable strength.
Though Shehelemet and Caer Sidi are close by, Deep Elf and High Elf are now far away from each other in spirit! Strife between the Deep and High Elven Courts is amplified after the formation of The Kingdom of Rhakmadz. It explodes into war after the Hidzi arrive.
THE LATE MYTHIC ERA
The first Humans appear in gracile grey ships from distant Oesða - The Third Mystery. Not much is known about these strange and variable new beings. This first-encountered variety from the west claim they are 'starborn.' 'In Old Elvish, 'star born' (hiddricin) sounds much like 'stubborn child' (hidzircin) and so the Hidzi were ever known after as the 'stubborn children' or eventually just "the kids."
In the next hundred years the city of Shehelemet is sacked and left in ruin, the Dwarves and Goblins disappear and most of Humanity is slaughtered. The High Elven Empire of Caer Sidi replaces the civilization of Shehelemet. This is known as the Sylvan Age or Imperial Age of Elves.
2660 B.E. The Coming of the Hidzi. The Hidzi trade first with the Sea Elves and High Elves. The coastal Elven clans welcome them and become arbiters of trade between these copper-seeking Hidzi seafarers and the autochthonous Elven clans further inland.
2630 B.E. Some elven nobles have enriched themselves in the copper trade by this time, particularly those of the High Elven Clan. The woodlands of Faerie is despoiled and the greatest mountain of the ancient Three Courts, Shehelemet, is plundered.
2625 B.E. By this times some of the Great Dwarven families in Shehelemet, and most of Rhakhmadz had joined the High Elves in tearing into the western mountains. Dwarves grow rich satiating Hidzi lust for precious metal; metal claimed by both Dwarf and High Elf and who's extraction was resisted by Deep Elf. Strife grows between Rakhmadz, Shehelemet and Caer Sidi. This strife helps launch the War of 10,000 Arrows.
2624 B.E. Deep Elves launch a not-exactly peaceful resistance to the destructive High Elven trade. They are joined by Goblin allies in the east and their Wood Elven kin in the south. Skirmishes in the Forest eventually lead to Gladva, an elder and much respected Deep Elf, being martyred by the Prince of High Elves, Guellharet, at the gate of Shehelemet. All-out war follows. The Dwarves possessed by some sort of madness fight both elven factions. The Forest is engulfed in a relentless and bloody conflict that becomes ever after known in the sorrowful dirges of the Sidi as the War of 10,000 Arrows, or the First Elvish War.
2624 B.E. The Goblins reappear as The Federated Bands of the Sh’ne Sahn. When the War of 10,000 Arrows erupts they aid the Deep Elven - Wood Elven Alliance by attacking the Dwarves in the east. The Federation drives the Dwarves out of the Kathgrach Range, a place they have dominated since the Ugly War.
The Dwarves are burned out of the western part of the mountains by The High Elves and recede into deep caverns and strongholds in Éddan near Eddsea. They dissappear for over 1,800 years.
The war ends in almost total annihilation for the Wood Elves. The Deep Elves, though yet unbroken, retreat from retributive wrath of their High Elven kin. They no longer have any desire to contribute to the dominant cultural and political hegemonies they so disfavor. They advance to hidden and yet free frontiers deep in the Earth itself.
The Goblins, having just driven Dwarves from the Kathgrach, are themselves driven out of the southern part of the Sahn by Hidzi and Sea Elves allied with the High Elven Court. Those of the Federation of the Sh'ne Sahn now in the north of the Sahn never forget the Hidzi's role in the War of 10,000 Arrows, and how they drove them from their southern homelands.
Some goblins meanwhile continue to live in the south in secret guerilla enclaves and in Kattegut. They resist Caer Sidi's dominance as best they can.
While Hidzi are never again much welcome in the north of goblin lands - many were eaten for trespassing - much, much later in the Saga of the Realm goblins of the south were willing to take in Hidzi refugees who had been driven from their homeland in Middangeard.
After the High Elven Empire is established, most Hidzi flee Fairie. Those who stay became little more than servants of the Empire, even though most Hidzi had sided with the High Elves. Those who had taken up arms against the High Elves receive a slow death before the Emperor and his jeering court. A small band of Hidzi who had not taken up arms but who had sought protection from the Deep Elves, are cast by the Emperor into the Wild Valley, cursed to all Beings of Speech. There they will be hunted and eaten by a being the Elves call Wynathnudd, the Wild One. He had come out of the Na Féauns at certain times of year and terrorized any elf who ever tried to settle there. The Na Féauns had been avoided since time immemorable, and the valley came to be respected and avoided as well, even though it was the only pass into the western lands from Shehelemet. The Emperor casts magic copper rings about the necks of these Hidzi that keeps them from leaving the Valley and in time the place itself becomes known as the Ring of Sacrifice or the Torc Amret in early Wyddic language of the Hidzi.
2622 B.E. The War of 10,000 Arrows ends with the beginning of the reign of The High Elven Empire of Caer Sidi. No surviving court of beings has the strength to resist or stand against it, its power is total.
The High Elven Empire of Caer Sidi flourishes for 523 years. Cruel, capricious and copper-loving, it holds all Elvendome in its despotic grasp. All Sidi who once hunted freely in the great primeval forest are now its subjects.
Caer Sidi keeps ties with the magical sylvan beasts of the Forest that remain aloof from other civilizations. Though their sorcery remains intimately tied to things wild and sylvan, Caer Sidi becomes as grasping and as expansive as any Beings of Speech ever has. The Empire expands under the will of an Emperor who dominates the Lands of the Mountain and even realms beyond the Western Sea. Caer Sidi shows little sympathy for Human, Dwarf or Goblin. They are spectacular. They are magical and winsome. But they are fearsome, unforgiving and vengeful. Mercy is a word whose meaning is forgotten before the word is altogether dropped from their language.
The Hidzi live in subjected coastal settlements during the time of Caer Sidi and deliquesce. Some have learned magic from the Elves-but still no sigil awakens to them. Some are enslaved. Some flee back across the sea.
The Federated bands of the Sh'ne hold out in the wild north of the Great Sahn. Some goblins remain in the southern part of the Sahn harassing Elven marquises on the border of Nagooth. Caer Sidi is unsuccessful in ever permanently dislodging them.
2507 The Iztani (one of the tribes of the Alacrani) ascend the Alacrani Throne and conquer all the arid lands across the Southern Sea.
In this 100 years Caer Sidi is destroyed, most Hidzi are slain or driven from Faerie and the Elves recede forever.
2099 B.E. A faction of Deep Elves, now changed, return to the surface. The Second Elvish War, a decimating conflict, culminates in the complete destruction of Caer Sidi and the flight of all Elves from the Realm forever. Perhaps the Sidi fled to Tor Dalen, or embarked from those cold shores to Tor Alséa. Perhaps they went elsewhere. Perhaps they exist no more.
Most Hidzi are slain or chased out of the Realm during the catastrophic Second Elvish War. Some Deep Elves return frim the underdark and with their Wood Elven allies slaughter many Hidzi who sided with the High Elves. They do ghastly things. Sometimes the Hidzi refer to these Elves as the Gladva Sidi and stories are told to this day about the Gladva, mostly to scare children.
The civilizations of Iztan continues to form far across the Southern Sea.
It was a freer time in Iztan, before the brutal reign of the Nameless Queen. It was a time that would eventually come to be called the Old Way. The Old Way understood the world as polytheistic and animistic. It revered the moon as a tripartite goddess and paid attention to lunar cycles to achieve fortune in harvest-time from the goddesses. Each phase of the moon and every day of the year was a diety unto itself, each revered with a votive stone claimed to have fallen to the earth from the heavens. Many of these stones were left in their natural state, others were worked on by sculptors.
Eventually the Old Way survives only in isolated places when an official order of priests come to power. This order of priests becomes known as the Chancery, and they are part of a new class of wealthy families who form the Khargan nobility, an ascending power that comes to control the weather and agriculture.
THE EARLY ELDER ERA
Sometime after the fall of the High Elven Empire of Caer Sidi, Hidzi peoples return to the Realm. These are the Iowydd (later Wyddic) peoples who will eventually form the Houses of Hart and Draech. It's not known whether the Iowydd were related to the people who came to the Realm a thousand years earlier and traded with the Elves of Shehelemet and were later slaughtered or driven from the Realm during the Deep Elven rebellion.
Prophets call the Iowydd to the Realm; they heed the call of of the Erwydd u Ddaeár (Air-WITH-oo-they-AIR), or the Hart of Thousand Antlers. The Iowydd (who later will be called Wyddic peoples or Wyddans) hail from a mighty place far over the Western Ocean; a place of dragons called Atál an Teá. The Iowydd boast that many cities of Atál an Teá were skyborn cities in the clouds before the continent sank beneath the sea and pulled those cities down with it.
The Iowydd did not come straight from their ancient homeland of Atál an Teá however, they came to the Realm from Tor Alséa, ‘the cursed land.’ After fleeing the sinking of their homeland (an affair in which the evil being 'Darkheart' apparently had a hand in) the Iowydd found refuge in Tor Alséa for a time. They lived with the Elves of that place learning much about the magic of the Realm, but they stayed less than three generations for a curse of Tor Alséa plagued them with catastrophe, diminishing their wisdom and power. It is said by some that curse of Tor Alséa was placed by High Elves in the time of Caer Sidi, so that hidzi could never organize any resistance to High Elven dominion. Some say this is false and the curse stretches much further back in history, but it may be a reason why the Iztani never settled in Tor Alséa as well.
Leaving Tol Alséa the prophets of the Erwydd u Ddaeár urge the Iowydd to sail to the Realm.
1971 B.E. They find the mouth of the great Icén River and sail up into the fertile Mabon Valley. There in the Mabon Valley they Iowydd settle and a time fondly remembered as The Long Wyddic Peace begins. The wise ones of Aelaredadd recount how in these early days in the Realm the Iowydd lived in harmony with each other and in alignment with the calling of the Erwydd u Ddaeár the first earth-sigil ever awakened to humankind.
While the Iowydd live in peace and prosperity in the valley, they build huge stone dwellings in the high mountain fjords overlooking the Western Sea as a commemoration and remembrance of their ancient sky-borne civilization. These places, hewn of living stone, were not originally strongholds, they were sanctuaries for reflection. Eventually these high stone dwellings will become the Bátreas, the great family strongholds and places of last refuge in the civil strife to come after the appearance of the Second Great Horror.
In another thousand years, the Batréas will aid the Wyddic people in resisting the Iztani invasion in the Elder Wars of Empire.
Meanwhile across the Southern Sea, Iztan experiences a mysterious shift in thought and a renaissance in philosophy and intellectual debate beins. The south and central regions of Iztan begin to place high value on scholarship and learning. New sciences and magics developed in this time. The region becomes highly tolerant and highly cosmopolitan. Science and magic coexist in a free-thinking society that values many ways of understanding the mysteries of the world and seems to reject any notion that humankind needs to adhere to the reverence of any diety.
But... a consolidation of power also begins - the Khargan nobility will soon come to control much of the resources of the region, and their military and courts will eventually become a vehicle for the Empire of the Nameless Queen when she arrives from some mysterious place.
In the early days of Khargan power, the nobility fears the Iztani renaissance will undermine their power and they attempt to control this wild flow of free thinking with mixed results. An official order of intellectuals is sponsored by Kharga that becomes known as the Chancery. The Chancery is an official hierarchy of competing philosophies incentivized by rewards of gold and courtly appointments, all with the aim of legitimizing the Khargan regime. But patronizing the Chancery backfires and the free exchange of ideas accelerates. Huge advances in thought are made in all disciplines from architecture to politics, from medicine to arcane craft. Scholarly debates rule the day whether rivals vie for prestigious positions at universities or for advisory positions at the court of Kharga. The immurans become a special class of intellectuals who customarily travel far and wide in order to broaden their knowledge of the world and its mysteries.
The immurans become respected as arbiters of justice and healers, but become loved as story tellers. The visit of an immuran is always hoped for and celebrated in the villages. In the cities great debates between famous immurans become more popular than gladiatorial duels! For hundreds of years after the death of the most beloved immurans, their bones often travel in reliquaries from temple to temple and from university to university to be revered and remembered. This angers some immurans who are staunchly against the worship of anything beyond free thinking and scholarship, but it secretly pleases others.
One of the most famous of the travelling immurans is Khaliz Adhor, known for his jollity. He is a Citrakan by birth and not from Kharga. Citraka is region known to have taken up reverence of the Chancery to a higher degree of severity and to the point that tolerance of the Old Ways completely disappears; reverence of stones is seen as idolatry. Against all advice, Khaliz Adhor disappears on a trip to Makara and is presumed lost and eventually presumed long dead. Rumors of his demise spread far and wide, but if fifty lore masters discussed how Khaliz Adhor met his fate, there were fifty different versions of that story!
After 800 years of peace and prosperity, the Iowydd have created the most fantastic and learned civilization that ever existed in the Realm.
1457 B.E. An heir of the early family of Dumon first ascends the High Throne of Mabon in the City of Dumnonia near the River Icén. The glory of Dumnonia surpasses even the glory of Caer Sidi though it is not a glory of conquest, but of cultural achievement. The expansiveness and richness of art, music and magic has never since been seen in the Realm.
The family name of Dumon and Dumnonia come from the same Wyddic cognate meaning "heartbeat".
The Glorhaes Tapestries of Dumnonia date from this time and show many wonders of the Realm that no longer exist.
In the next 500 years the Iowydd however will split into two separate peoples after a great tragedy awakens and topples The Long Wyddic Peace.
Meanwhile in Iztan... the Chancery rules over most of civilized Iztan for a thousand years before the coming of the Deathless Queen. After the coming of the Queen its priests and institutions survive in a heretical tolerance in a few places beyond Kharga, though the official religious institution of Iztan becomes the Reformed Chancery. It’s teachings are enforced where the Deathless Queen has the absolute, uncontested power to do so.
The High Throne of Dumnonia is flourishing.
1233 B.E. The Dumnoni Family (relatives of the Dumon) ascend The High Throne and the Age of Sorcery begins. The High Throne of Dumnonia derives a mythical importance from this era.
The Cleddig Tapestries of Dumnonia dating from this time show glissknives, (a sword much later in time favored by the House of Hart), sheathed in the hilts of warriors sailing to the Realm from across the Western Sea in the Sylvan Age. It is not known whether or not the early humans who traded with and were eventually subjugated and slaughtered by the elves were Wyddans, but the family of Dumnonia seems to be marketing this notion and claims new discoveries in magic had been taught to them by the High Elves thousands of years ago. There is an odd reverence for the now ancient Empire of Caer Sidi in the Dumnoni family. Some say this boast of connection with the High Elves is a lie and the 'new magic' was discovered in a tome by explorers in Tor Alséa. The tome was written after the fall of Caer Sidi in the language of the Deep Elves. There is little doubt this tome certainly existed, and many say this is where Blood Magic and Sorcery was first learned and used for intimidation and control.
THE LATER ELDER ERA
800 B.E. In the next 100 years the Wyddans will split and form the first Esteemed Houses of Hart and Draech.
792 B.E. The Dwarves Reappear. The Dwarves re-enter the annals of the Hidzi. They do not tell of the interim history between being burned out of Shehelemet, being driven from the Sahn and re-entering the known lands of The Realm. They take up residence in a multitude of hills and mountains around Eddan and Eddsea. Perhaps they follow a call to duty to be present for the coming of the Second Great Horror.
776 B.E. Icenia, a young city far to the south of Dumnonia, receives magnificent visitors traveling on extravagant ships who say they hail from one of the Twelve Kingdoms of Dogbu. They bring prophetic warnings of destruction lured by the Blood Magic used in this land. After three days, word of these strangers' arrival reaches Dumnonia and two of the emissaries of Dogbu are kidnapped and disappear. The third, who's name is remembered as Ameena, escapes to her ship and sails back to Lokossia, never to be heard from again. The story passes into myth and no one since the tragedy of the Second Horror has even pondered the existence of Lokossia and the Twelve Kingdoms of Dogbu!
777 B.E. The Second Great Horror erupts in the Mabon Valley and Dumnonia is destroyed. An ancient Wyddic lay tells that the Sorrow that destroyed Dumnonia was the same Sorrow that sank the land of Atál an Teá. Some say blood magic practiced by the greatest Iowydd families opened a door for the Sorrow to first enter the world, but unlike the First Horror which ravaged the Three Courts of Faerie the instant it tore into the fabric of the world, this horror stays disguised as a sigil, quietly advising the great families against each other, turning their hearts toward greed, suspicion and control over a hundred years. After several years of civil war the Horror appears in all its strength destroying the fantastic city of Dumnonia.
Here are some words of Aeleran Leesh on the matter:
"Dear ones, harken now and know why we suffer! For things were not always like this! Our ancestors settled this timeless valley and followed the wisdom of the Erwydd u Ddaeár. Our people lived in greatness! Once, peace and plenty was the birthright of all! But alas, those times have passed! The Horror came to us and twisted the hearts of our people against each other. Some say the great sorcerers following the Grimoire, called the Horror to us. Others say it tracked our path from Oestha. However it came to us, it set sister against sister, brother against brother and hung the sigil of war in every hall and home. Above the clanging of our swords and shields in the valley it fell upon Dumnonia and its laughter rose like a roar of wind above the Valley of Mabon! The city of our people, glory of the Realm, is now but a pile of stone on the road to Ghulbátrea."
Eventually the Iowydd unite against the Horror and succeed in banishing it from the world, but it takes a terrible sacrifice from the wise family of Gwybda, a sacrifice that none of the Iowydd can easily forget - least of all the people of Gwybda whose hearts are un-healingly blemished by the Horror.
At this time, the Iowydd call the Gwybdwylli the sad ones or greycast. When the influence of the Erwydd u Ddaér recedes after the fall of Dumnonia, the Gwybdwylli and their friends are called by a new sigil to leave the Mabon Valley forever.
777 B.E. After the Horror is banished from the world, most of the Gwybdwylli travel beyond the mountains of the north, following the call of a prophet among them to harken to the ancient ways of their ancestors: the dragon people of Atál an Teá. These are called the Draechi and they will eventually form the House of Draech and settle in the Aergwyll beyond the mountain of Shehelemet. The Draechi originally were not a distinct people of the Iowydd, simply the ones who followed the call of the Dragon.
The Aergwyll will become a place of wonder over the next few hundred years, although a much different kind of wonder than Dumnonia. And again a sky-borne magic will be rediscovered, if on a much smaller scale than Atál an Téa!
732 B.E. After the fall of Dumnonia, a slow burning civil war among the eight greatest families of Mabon culminates in the Battle of the Batréas.
Those who stay in the Mabon Valley after the people of Gwybda leave, continue to study war in the once peaceful Bátreas of the fjords. These families muster mighty armies in the valleys below and send their children to war against each other. Though the Horror had been gone for almost a generation, its shadow was long.
Here are words again from Aeleran Leesh, "Wise ones of our people, the Gwybda, made great sacrifices so this Horror could be banished from our world and they were grievously marred in spirit. Our Gwybdwylli left to find healing in the north, while the Horror left a wake of tragedy long beyond its years here. Without the wisdom of our Gwybdwylli, now again sister turns against sister, brother turns against brother and all the great families hole up in the strongholds of the mountains. Our Bátreas were once places of sanctity in the highest reaches of the land. Now we imprison ourselves in these stone tombs and send our armored daughters and sons to take what is left of the fertile valley.
I know no other way, my children! I take my sword and shield as my time asks me to. All that is left is duty. Perhaps we prevail, perhaps we live – and some day our descendants may see a time of peace and plenty beyond this ruined waste!
To arms sisters! To arms brothers! I hear the horns of our cousins calling ruin upon us! Let us not fall today! Oh, let us not fall today!"
Civil war eventually comes to an end under the reign of a minor leesh of Ghúlbátrea who seizes military control of the valley for a time after the Battle of the Batréas. He wisely enacts no retribution on his former enemies but entreats them to participate in forming a new political unification and thereby seeking an end to strife in the Realm. By order of the leesh himself, this man's name is purposefully not recorded nor now remembered in the annals of the Wyddans of the Realm. All families or houses of the Mabon Valley are invited to participate in a restructuring of the rulership of the Realm as one unified and great family or great house. And thus the first Esteemed House of the Realm is formed: The High and Esteemed House of Hart. The stag sigil of the House of Hart will have eight points on its antlers representing the eight great families of the Iowydd in the Mabon Valley. (The original Erwydd u Ddaér had a thousand points for every living being.) Nonetheless, Dumnonia will be re-built on the ruins of its former glory, though in a few hundred years the city of Icénia way down the Wyddic Delta at the mouth of the Icén will overshine Dumnonia in importance.
The language of the people of Mabon under the House of Hart will change slowly. The Iowydd will come to call themselves Wyddans and their language Wyddic, though they are generally referred to elsewhere in the Realm as 'Hartians' and their language 'Hartian' as well.
Meanwhile over the next few hundred years the language of the Draechi people changes little and sounds much like the language originally spoken in old Dumnonia and perhaps the land of Atál an Teá. This language is called 'Draechi' after its people, by outsiders. The Draechi have ever called it Iowydd and the language is, of course, very similar to Wyddic, the language of the people of House of Hart.
THE COMMON ERA
Note on the reckoning of years:
B.E. denotes the reckoning of years used by most contemporary people in The Realm, meaning "before empire."
R.Y. or Realm Year is used by Elder Houses to refer to the contemporary era after the Iztani invasion.
E.H. or Era of History is used only by The Newcomers. E.H. reckoning begins with the coming of the Ghoddic tribes 99 years after R.Y. reckoning which begins with the coming of the Iztani.
In these centuries The Iztani arrive in the Realm and the Elder Wars of Empire begin. The Draechi have retreated entirely. A syncretized culture of Iztani and Haartii traditions begins to form in spite of the war. The first Newcomers arrive.
R.Y. 1 The Empire arrives traveling in low squat iron vessels from across the Southern Sea. They seize the Icén River Delta and drive the Wyddans of the House of Hart under their swords and back into the coastal mountains with a surprising ease. The Elder Wars of Empire begin. The House of Hart will mount a formidable and fierce resistance to the Iztani Empire that will transform them into a mirror image of their conquerors.
R.Y. 2 The Iztani establish the city of Khad Zhere on the Dagor Hallwah high above the sea. Khad Zhere will grow massive and glorious along with 7 other citadel-fortresses along the southern coast of Rhaétia over the next 100 years.
Iztani lords of Kharga establish great plantations east of the Icén River. They establish mining operations in the mountains near the southern part of the Mabon Valley now called Dumnonia after the once great city. Many Wyddic lords and townships are subjugated and brought into the political machine of empire.
Over the years a slow syncretization of Wyddic and Iztani culture forms in Rhaetia even though a war between the Wyddic families in Dumnonia and the Empire sustains over several hundred years.
R.Y. 3 The Wyddans of the House of Hart organize in the Bátreas of old to match the might of empire. The Bracelet of Knights forms under the remnants of the Dumnoni family.
R.Y. 12 The Aergwyll Society forms with the express purpose of expelling the empire from the Realm.
R.Y. 99 (or E.H.1) The Bracelet of Knights say in this year emissaries of The House of Hart invite Ghoddic Tribes from The Dying Lands east of the sea to fight with them against the Iztani Empire. This may have happened but there is no account of it from the Hunigoth people who come east of the sea several hundred years later.
Resistance against Iztan grows and gathers strength. Meanwhile Rhaétia forms in its own right.
R.Y. 102 By this year The Iztani have colonized the entire Icén River Delta but are never able to completely break the Wyddic resistance north in Mabon. A strong syncretized culture of Iztani and Hartian traditions has synthesized by this time in the Icén Delta in spite of the wars - this country is called Rhaétia.
The Northern Islands were originally settled by Wyddic peoples who lived in simple fishing villages for over two thousand years. These were the same peoples who settled the west of the Realm and formed the wondrous city of Dumnonia, and much later the Houses of Hart and Draech. When the Empire invaded the Realm, the House of Hart was prepared to defend the west, but the Northern Islands fell. As people were driven from their farms and villages in the islands, the Iztani settled in new villages. While the Empire waged war in the west, mainly in the province of Rhaetia, Iztani people in the Northern Isles were spared and even benefited in material ways from increased traffic and commerce of war. After centuries of rich intercontinental trade, several powerful city-states emerged ruled by satraps from Kharga in Iztan.
The House of Hart beseeches the Dwarves of Eddan for help.
The House of Draech continues to provide material and magical support from the Aergwyll. By this time the Draechi have erected a labyrinthine university under an order of Magificars called the Gwybdwylli after the early follower of Gwybda. The University is located on a northern shore of the Great Lake of the Aergwyll. It holds some sort of secret function that may involve protecting a magical pool found there. There is small political strife in the Aergwyll that leads to a group of Draechi people who also call themselves "Gwybdwylli" leaving the Aergwyll and moving north and east until they enter the Sleev north of Eddsea, which ever after becomes known as Sleev Dracha.
The Gwybdwylli are a silent and powerful order of Magificars. Their split in the Aergwyll and Sleev Dracha apparently had something to do with the preservation of a power that both helped them banish a great horror while simultaneously saddling them with a curse. In any case, the power of the Gwybdwylli will come into play near the end of the Elder Wars of Empire and topple the last of the Iztani's Seven Citadels in the Realm.
Hill Dwarves will befriend many Ghoddic families in the fight against Iztan in the upcoming years.
The Ghoddic tribes settle in The Realm and eventually found the House of Arko.
R.Y. 269 The Hunigtoth arrive, perhaps the greatest of the Ghoddic clans from Middangeard. Leading them is the Bearded One, Aescer Heorthgeneat who’s twin sister Aethel, the Braided One, stayed behind east of the sea. It is rumored that Aescer is a dreowudu, or shapeshifter.
The Bracelet of Knights under Turnik Leesh finds and convinces the newly arrived Ghoddic people to fight with the House of Hart in exchange for land and goodwill.
R.Y. 271 The Battle of Dagor Hallwah. The Iztani have already begun to recede for unknown reasons, leaving the last of their mercenaries holed up in several coastal cities, the greatest of which is Khad Zhere upon the high rock of Dagor Hallwah. Khad Zhere was a fine and bright city built in the Iztani tradition on a high promontory on the edge of the Southern Sea. Draechi sorcerers, or Gwybdwylli, bring down its walls and Ranraki and her last 100 Paladins are killed in battle with The House of Hart and their Ghoddic allies. In this battle Aescer survives but loses his eye to Ranraki.
The Empire recedes. The city of Icénia will grow considerably and become an absolutely dazzling metropolis.
The Khodéic tribes arrive.
R.Y. 272 After almost 300 years of war, the Iztani who remain in Rhaétia are left isolated in a hostile land. The story of the formation of 'The House of A’quilah', officially known as the Paládanic Sanctuary of A'quilah, begins when the sigil of Quil’eth the Plumed appears to Grisla and some of her captains who were under the command of the now deceased Ranraki. They manage to escape Khad Zhere before it falls.
The Coming of the Paladins of A’quilah After years of war the Empire had conquered much of the fertile valleys of the west, yet for unknown reasons the power of Iztan - rumored to be a nameless and deathless queen - stopped sending reinforcements and communications. Her citadels in the valleys fell one by one to the ruthless fire and blades of the Bracelet of Knights, a Hartian order from Dumnonia bent for vengeance. The last citadel to fall was the greatest: Khad Zhere, and here is where a beloved captain, Ranraki the Golden, made a glorious last stand so that many of her people could escape the wrath of the Knights. Several of her Paladins joined the escape for they had been charged by Ranraki to protect their people.
These survivors followed the prophet Grisla through treacherous lands to the Gulf of Ëanor and the city of Il’Labor near the Northern Islands. By this time, all those who followed Grisla had taken to the way of A’quilah. They believed their suffering and eventual redemption would come as prophesied by atoning for the death and destruction their ancestors had brought to the Realm. Grisla preached a way of righteous thoughts, words and deeds that would result in every person born on Earth finding peace, prosperity and purpose: within a year of her arrival, Il’Labor and every city in the Gulf of Ëanor was following the way of A’quilah. Il’Labor was renamed Ranrak’il and followers of A’quilah moved quickly to influence the other great city-states in the Isles. But following the path of A’quilah meant disarmament of the city-states, unification under the leadership of Ranrak’il and eventual reconciliation with the House of Hart – these were not great places to start for the powers of the Isles.
Even before the coming of the Paladins, the fortress-cities of proud Khad Taruk and glittering Khad Geal were vying for control of the Islands - after the last of the Khargan satraps were either withdrawn or fled back in fear to Iztan. The most-respected city of the Isles however was ruled by Elders of the Old Chancery, a venerable clerical order of Iztan. This was Bahz’il (called Il’s’Baa on our map), and its Council of Elders used their authority and influence to maintain peace between Taruk and Geal. But pressure from the Paladins pushed the Northern Islands into war. Taruk struck first and took Bahz’il by surprise, Geal responded by counterstriking Taruk in Bahz’il and ‘liberating’ the Council. Ranrak’il struck at Geal with an eye to controlling Bahz’il and the Council, but was assaulted by both Khads. Bahz’il fortified itself against any further invasion and the Isles plummeted into war for the first time since the destruction of the Wyddic villages.
The Cult of Quileth the Plumed This is the cult that lead to the Sanctuary of A’quilah centered in the Northern Islands of the Realm. Quileth appeared to Grisla as a dream-sigil a year before the fall of Khad Zhere, which she foretold. Girsla was imprisoned for this, though Ranraki continued to seek her council and eventually freed her. Quileth appeared to Grisla as a great, keen-sighted bird of prey symbolizing the sovereignty of the single creative force of the universe, radiating life and intelligence. The teachings of Quileth, as received by Grisla, were very different from any of the other religions in Iztan, and were recorded in a codex written by her and carried with her from the south all the way to Il’Labor. The Codex of Plumes was finished in the Toerc Amrhet, now considered a holy place by the A’quilans. In the Codex of Plumes, Quileth and Darkness are opposed. Radiance and entropy are known as Lash and Dorgor. The codex teaches all beings to follow the Feathers of Lash, which are multiple but are categorized in three types: perceptions of goodness, spoken goodness and actions of goodness. If one then follows good thoughts, words and deeds one will find right livelihood on Earth, a condition deserved by all born on the Earth. The Codex also calls for the protection of Water, Earth, Fire and Air.
Other spirits are revered in the Codex of Plumes, but these are aspects of Quileth. A few of these spirits are associated to Dorgor and are feared as demons. Dorgor is sometimes misunderstood of as a force of Evil or a great evil divinity itself opposing Quileth the Good, but to the knowledgable, Dorgor is just the absence of Lash-the primordial creative forces radiating from the plumes of Quileth. Quileth is not the Sun, nor is it related to the old Sun Goddess of Iztan.
The captains of Ranrak’il, Khad Taruk and Khad Geal all camp their vast armies on the great Island of Bahz’il, surrounding the city of the same name, seat of the Elder Council and the authority of the Old Chancery. It is certain that whosoever controls Bahz’il will come to control the Northern Islands and the destiny of the last of the Iztani in the Realm!
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R.Y. 273 By this time the Houses of Hart and Draech have been sundered for over 1000 years. The Aergwyll Society (pronounced air-i-gwith) meets with a band of Iztani mercenaries who escaped Dagor Hallwah lead by Grisla. The Aergwyll Society helps these surviving Iztani transform under the eorth-sigil of Quil’eth the Plumed. The survivors found The Paládanic Sanctuary of A’quilah.
In an unrelated sequence of events, a group of Citrákan mercenaries stationed in the enlightened province of Torc Amret drop out of the war and disappear. The secretive Shaani Emirate forms in a place east of the Aillachs known only to its denizens as Emet Shaan. They have dealings with strange civilizations to the west in Gorhälen and Sylhälen of the Great Gulf.
R.Y. 273 The Dumnoni family of Hart seeks to restore the High Throne. The City of Icénia has grown considerably and becomes an absolutely dazzling metropolis after the empire is defeated.
Ghul D'zaal, formerly Ghul Leesh IX, ascends the High Throne, formerly of Mabon - now of the Realm, formerly in Dumnonia - now in Icénia. (Leesh is a wyddic term for a lord, D'zaal for a king.) Ghul D'zaal was formerly Prince Ysrog of the Dumnoni family, who took the name of Ghúl after inheriting the rulereship of the stronghold of Ghúlbátrea. He ridiculously claims Ghúl was the name of the original founding lord of the House of Hart, the same lord who ordered his name be forgotten.
The Dumnoni wish to restore the High Wyddic Days of Peace and Glory under the rulership of Ghul D'zaal. The Bracelet of Knights works as the hand of the Dumnoni. Not all Hartian families of Mabon share the philosophy of the Dumnoni clan, but not all families possess the power and esteem of the great Dumnoni.
R.Y. 274 ( or E.H. 175) The Ghodds are lead by Aescer’s daughter Aetrig Hardcleft after she wins an unfortunate duel with a commander of the Bracelet of Knights (see the Cwenemaker) by the title of Glaab Leesh. Tragically Lord Glaab had been an associate of her father.
Ghul D'zaal grants the Ghoddic people of Aetrig, Daughter of Ascer, all lands between the Rivers Ypswine and Gurthang. The Kingdom of Arko is established in the upper Eddsea delta where the city of Béorfort will come into being.
R.Y. 276 The House of Arko forms. The Arkan seat of power is shared between the fortress enclaves of Béorfort and Eorfóric... and to some extent Heorot. Both Béorfort and Eorforic will grow into great cities. The Arkans prosper!
R.Y. 290 (E.H. 191) Some Khodé people, after surviving the complete desolation of Middangerad, first arrive in the Realm in a great firth north of Arthedan. Following the Order of the Hare and joined by a warlord of the Roergar called Raylahi they are met by goblin peoples on the shores of what will become Irmunsul. The Khodé are wretched, immiserated and yet unafraid. An Arakun chieftain throws a pig leg before the Khodé and an uneasy silent tension follows. A Khodé captain returns the favor/insult and hurls the half eaten carcass of a Marlin by the tail at the feet of the Arakun. The goblins explode in laughter. After, the Khodé are shown empathy and respect by goblin peoples of the southern Shan as well as given land in Irmunsul and shown the strange harvesting techniques of the Sahn.
R.Y. 296 (E.H. 197) The Khodé are repelled by Arkan lords after trekking up into the fertile high valleys of the Wuducomb. They set to war with eastern Arkan lords for land. This is remembered now as The Boar War, a contest largely confined to the Kathgrach Range. Though the Arkans fight this new Khode-Goblin alliance, at some point it is clear that the Khodé will not easily be beaten back. Béorfort sues for peace suggesting a land share. Kattegut is bequeathed to the Khodé and there is feasting in that land. A new kinship grows between Béorfort and these long-lost sister-people.
The High Throne of Icénia still held by the house of Dumnoni (lower case house as in lineage, not an Esteemed Realmic House with a capital H) grows wary of the growing strength, influence and wisdom of Béorfort. Agents of the Bracelet of Knights plant conspiracies in Eorfóric of a Khodéic plot to destroy Arkoland.
RY 292 Many Iztani remaining in the north of the Realm are established in the lands of Il'Labor and the Western Islands under the Paladins. These lands had been settled during the wars of Empire in prosperous fishing villages. Their greatest port is re-named Áquilah Aden, the Land of Áquilah and the Paladins now rule a kingdom. They build a naval force unmatched in the Realm, much as the Empire of Iztan had.
Emet Shaan and a secret enclave of Iztani who rejected the wars of Empire, is rediscovered by the Iztani in Il'Labor. The people of Emet Shaan have developed a powerful magic not seen in the Realm since the Sylvan Age.
Tensions between Houses begin to grow as Hidzi populations soar after the War of Empire and land becomes scarce outside of The Wild.
R.Y. 301 (or E.H. 202) The House of Sahn-Gliér or “The House of the Orphans of the Sahn”, forms some time after The Boar War when the sigil of a great Boar appears to a naghra along the slimy rivers of Irmunsul. The peace that was made with the Kingdom of Arko grows into a lasting affinity betwen the Sahn-Gliérans and the eastern lords of Arko. This friendship will help Aetrig's people in Béorfort during the strife soon to to come.
R.Y. 311 The Paladins claim an alternate High Throne from the throne dominated by Hart in Icénia. They call this the Throne of Justice at Ranrak'il in the northern sea faring country of Il'Labor. TheThrone of Justice pledges to protect all common people from some of the more grasping families of the House of Hart. Some Hartian families lend aid to the Paladins in secret, including the great figure of Ayel Leesh, Mouth of the Airigid who was a close personal friend of one the first potent and formidable justiciars of the Paladins.
By the 3rd Century, the Draechi have forsaken feudalism and rulership for fiercely independent but mutually supportive villages, yet they participate in the traditional feudal power structure of the Houses of the Realm through the Seat of the House of Draech. The Seat is situated in a hall in the village stronghold of Dwyfin Coddig on the great lake, but representation in the Seat rotates among independent villages in the federation of the Aergwyll y Draechi.
Stewardship of the Magisterium (or Chantry), the authoirty of all magic, by this time has been entrusted to the House of Draech by the High Throne in Icénia, but it is functionally independent. The secret order of Draechi Gwybdwylli that oversee the Chantry also steward a Wyddic University, but the structure of the Gwybdwylli and these related institutions is cryptic, secretive and extremely hierarchical.
R.Y. 402 Eadric of Béorfort is mudered by Aethelfrith of Eorforic at Knockamore, but Aethelfrith is also slain in the plot. Eadric curses Béorfort by leaving The Sword of Aetrig, Caledbolg, in a stone at the hill's summit just before his death. On this same day Ishelm daughter of Aetrig is assassinated. Thus begins a thirty-year struggle for succession between Béorfort and Eorforic for the Arkan Throne.
R.Y. 421 The House of Sahn Gliér aids Béorfort in this conflict, secretly caring for and raising Ishild of Daughter of Ishelm, in the Sahn.
R.Y 442 Ishild of Ishelm draws Caledbolg from the summit of Knockamore and ends the thirty year war for the throne at Béorfort.
By the 4th Century, Sahn-Glierans have come to live in a feudal structure of Baeders, a cluster of communal houses with a central Hall. Leaders from one generation to the next are determined much more by charisma than lineage, families matter much less than villages.
Since this time the stronghold of Gliérstad (Stronghold of the Bastards) has held the Seat of the House of Sahn-Gliér and a charismatic individual by the name of Irmunghad (Shining Pig) of Kattelgrot (Big Tree) holds the seat for almost fifty years. Gliérstad is served by a warband made up of warriors from villages across the Sahn who see their service as a privilege. Gliérstad also guards a fantastic mining operation.
R.Y. 488 The Ikkerik arrive and enflame all tensions.
The Ikkerik hákkarla, or Seekers, arrive under their war chief Teigh Bru Hahn, Bridger of Lands. He is later remembered by outsiders as Tiburon I, though in the north he had been Jarl Rollo Gylfang.
The Hákkarla conquer the Grey Shores swiftly and these shores are renamed the Iron Shores by those who fled south. The name change flatters the Hákkarla who keep it. They develop a rich economy of sea towns between the islands of the northeast known as the Freybergsríki Hákkarla centered between the towns of Vilhjalmir and Bottvatn.
The Ikkerik change little in the Realm and only eventually form the House of Hákkarl under the advise of seers who see the usefulness of having an instrument to engage in the larger politics of the peoples of the Realm - their sigil has ever been the Sjohere, the great shark-serpent of the deep, and as always they revere Tyfig above all, the mirror under stars that keeps their ships in the sacred middle of the cosmos.
Oddly an elf returns to the Realm and is first seen among the Hákkarlans affectionately referred to as "Alfie". She is the first elf seen in the Realm perhaps in several thousand years. Some say she is the same Alfenriel or Dessetia of the Legend of Nagooth.
The Six Esteemed Houses of The Realm are fully formed and begin vying for positions of authority over the scarcity of land. All lay claim to The High Throne by might or right. It is a cynical and dangerous time of political opportunism and military adventure.
R.Y. 520 After the ascension of Queen Ishorn daughter of Ishelm the Younger, son of Ishild of the line of Aetrig, the Arkans claim the High Throne of The Realm and hold it at Beorfort, not Icenia where the house of Dumnonii set it 147 years prior.
Some Arkan dreowudu or bearskin priests are shot dead by a Hartian border patrol in Gurthbad. The Houses skirmish and relations sour.
R.Y. 533 The Colossus, scourge of a mythically ancient time, returns to fulfill some unforeseen prophecy.
R.Y. 570 (or E.H. 471) The House of Hákkarl forms.
R.Y. 590 The House Alacrán arrives in The Realm, fully formed, having been chased from Iztan by the Lich Queen. They possess no ships or lore of sailing. Their arrival is an enigma.
R.Y. 599 Across the Southern Sea, the Lich Queen on the Throne of a desolated Iztan vows to return to the Realm and finish the Iztani Destiny of Colonization.
...and far out across the wide world, even further away than ancient sunken Atál an Téa, other peoples and places and histories mightier and more glorious than any seen in the Realm, in Iztan or in Middangeard have surely risen, fallen and risen again! Some day the weft and warp of their histories will be woven into the tapestry of life in the Realm!
The World as hypothesized by the Sages of Igal
