Norbayne Timeline

[Phoenixguard09]

So my ideas regarding Norbayne's timelines are rather sketchy I'm afraid, mainly a random mess of 'eras', 'ages', and 'periods'. Sorry about that. Hopefully this thread will help me put together something a little more solid.

Contents:
The Primordial Age: A time when the world was shaped by the beings most modern races call gods.
- The forging of the world and the purge of the precursors.
- The coming of the Sidhe.
- The arrival of the Fomoraigh.
- The destruction of the Gealai Aisling and the Ri-Foraoirse.

Mythic Era: When the 'gods' began to abandon the world, mortals became the most powerful beings in existence.
- Varr is inhabited. The first Stormlord claims the Gilded Sword and calms the Everstorm. The Devourer is defeated for the first time.
- The Roanfaille emerge. The blood of the Biesz. Jaroslaw and the Ilaena.
- The Bruin. The death of Sostenir, last of the true Aen'Cead.

The Time of Maudh: A tainted 'god', Maudh ruled Norbayne under an iron fist.
- The rise of Maudh.
- The Midland Settling. The people who would become the Midlanders arrive from over the sea. The Fyrst-Dynion flee to the deep woods or to the northern ice-bays.
- The tale of Balor Olc-Suil.
- The Emergence. The Dunscarth join the surface war against Maudh.
- The Bovus arrive in Norbayne.

The Border Wars: Conflict arises between the Dwergar of the mountains, the Hillmenn clans and the Urskinn of the lowlands.
- Boldar of Clan Irondrake: A cunning Dwergar general unites several holds and wages war on the Hillmenn.
- The Siege of Lansebrudd: A strong Urskinn fortress, Lansebrudd is laid low by the forces of Nilfrost of Clan Goldmonger. There are no survivors and Lansebrudd is rebuilt and appropriated by the Dwergar.
- The Unification of the Hill-Clans: Sven of the Nine-Fingers unites the hill-clans, but is murdered by his own sons.
- The Border Wars Conclude: The Dwergar retreat to their mountain fastnesses after a series of defeats in the west of Unterguardt. The kingdom of Drakon is established on the western coast of the continent.

Reign of the Bovus Empire: The Bovus came, they saw, they conquered...
- The Bovus Expansion: The Bovus push south, all the way to the foothills of the Oso Montanya. Skirmishes are fought between the Bovus and the Bruin, but neither side commits to outright warfare.
- The Golden Age of the Merigund: The underground realms of the Dunscarth see their longest continuous period of peace.
- The Toraa are reached.
- The Woodsmen Rebellion: Led by a charismatic figure, Seann O'thewoods, the Woodsmen secede from the Bovus Empire.
- Thorus Stormhammer: A former Dwergar slave, Thorus leads his people to freedom in the Boltmoors, founding the Geardarr people, who proclaim him the Raddare.
- The Bovus Empire Crumbles: Plague and warfare has seen the Bovus population fall over the centuries til they possess but a shadow of their former power. With the Woodsmen and the Geardarr both seceded successfully, the Midland client kingdoms rise up in open and often violent revolt. Many Bovus retreat into the woods, forming enclaves to keep the old ways alive.

Dynasty of Gods: The continent of Arlend is riven by discord.
- The Malantai Darkhand makes his pact with the entity Zara and arises as the God-King in northern Khaliros, subjugating the Northmenn tribes north of the Jaglaw Mountains.
- The first incursion into the Three Kingdoms is halted at Howling Pass. Malantai Darkhand dies the first of his seven deaths in the rout, ridden down by a brigade of Muraini royal guard.
- Malantai Darkhand emerges six months after the disaster at Howling Pass and personally leads a small, elite band of infantry south, over the Jaglaw Mountains, razing Snowton and slaying the old king of Murai in retribution.

The Common Era: After the fall of the Bovus Empire.
- Kresimina, the Witch-Queen of the North.
- The Great Inquisition: The Bruin Inquisition, formed centuries ago to maintain a watchful eye of magical activities within Grimguarda, expands its influence, leading to a spate of murders across the Southlands of Norbayne.
- The Lemarian Wars and the Loschain.
- The Brilliant Towers of Drell. An academy is founded in the Southron kingdom of Drell to both further the study of magic and ensure the safety of those who practice it, who are still under threat at the hands of the Inquisition.
- The Seekers of the Flame.
- The Ice-Bay Purge: Wrothdar tribes come down from the mountains in what seems like concerted strikes against Selkye settlements.
- The Jeleni find Norbayne.
- The Enclave Wars: Feartarbh enclaves strike against Southron kingdoms holding Feartarbh slaves.
- The Krona and the Great Maw.
- The Meadean Labyrinth.

More eras will probably be added, probably with different racial outlooks. The Northmenn of Unterguardt for instance probably don't account their calendar to the fall of the Bovus, though I'm not certain on that count.

Dates and Years
Most dates presented in this document will be according to the Midland Reckoning, a record which begins with tentative dates in the Mythic Era (abbreviated to M.E.), a period which spanned from the destruction of the Gealai Aisling, through to the arrival of the Bovus on the shores of Norbayne. According to modern scholars, the Mythic Era lasted approximately 600 years, but it is the nature of such studies that accounts are vague and we may never know the true span of years.

The years of Bovus Rule in Norbayne are subject to much greater documentation, and as such we can determine the length of their domination with greater accuracy. The years between their arrival in Norbayne and the sack of the great city of Palatium and the eventual fall of their empire are referred to as the Imperial Era (abbreviated to I.E.), a period which lasted 378 years.

The time after the Bovus Empire's fall is referred to as the Common Era (abbreviated to C.E.), spanning through to the current year, at the time of writing, of 1648 C.E.

EDIT* 1648 C.E. is the year in which the events of Three Coins, Two Birds and a Gilded Sword begin. These events conclude in 1650 C.E. Our most recent chronicle at this point is Seven Stones and a Pale Shadow, which begins in the year 1731 C.E.

[Jubal]

I still can't help mentally expecting the Bovus Empire to be mostly made up of dairy cows.

At some point I'll get my head around the Norbayne fluff properly and after that point I'll probably spam you with constant suggestions! Thesis revisions to do for now though, alas...

[Phoenixguard09]

The Primordial Age

The Creation Of The World As We Know It:
The original rulers of this world were the dragons, mighty beasts which ruled land, sea and especially the sky. Other creatures existed of course, but none could match the dragons for might, though a few did try. It was the dragons who first discovered the secrets of arcane magic, the ability to convert one's own life-essence into a tangible force in the material world.

And then, the Others came.

The first among them were beings from another world entirely, few in number and immensely powerful. They forged the land into what they willed and created sentient life to serve them, each race forged as it were from the basal life-forms which inhabited those lands. According to the most ancient of histories, they were called the Herre by the ancestors of the Invarrians, the Wyrhta by the Dunscarth and the Jordsmedh by the Dwergar, all of which were amongst the very first peoples to awaken. But it is the name given to them by the Danann, who most affected by the events which followed, which has come to represent these primordial beings. The Aen'Cead.

The actions of the Aen'Cead drew the attentions of yet more entities. In the Otherworld, beyond the veil of reality, daemons prowled, drawn by the echoes of sentient life. They craved, and still do, the feelings and sensations of living, and being formed of pure energy, can offer a trade with mortals, their power for a taste of life.

But daemons were not the only things drawn by the world-shaping of the Aen'Cead. The Fomoraigh, those who Dwell Beneath, as the Danann call them now, manifested before the Aen'Cead, and all the world would never be the same. Predatory, and extremely powerful, the very arrival of the Fomoraigh devastated the eastern half of the planet, rendering it unsuitable for life. The Aen'Cead which dwelt there, and all their creations, were destroyed.

Most of the Aen'Cead fled the cataclysm, but some few remained behind, mostly in hiding.

The Fomoraigh, The Ri-Foraoirse And The Gealai Aisling:
The Ri-Foraoirse, the creators of the Leathe, were a clan of the Aen'Cead which dwelt in what is now known as the Gwyrai Woods, the central body of woodland which covers the majority of the continent of Norbayne and borders the Wardenfells. It was they who were responsible for the spirits of the world being as they are today.

The king of the Ri-Foraoirse was Mor'Righ-Glas, and it was he who was contacted by the inhabitants of a dying world. The Sidhe, or so the Ri-Foraoirse called them, needed a new home. Judging them to be pure, Mor'Righ-Glas provided what they required, bringing them into the material world. For some time, this arrangement worked well, and the Sidhe took up a role as guardians and custodians of the wild places.

But eventually, the reason for the end of the Sidhe's world became clear. As time passed, more and more of the Sidhe came to fall to the Taint, causing the lands they cherished to fall into ruin. The trees would grow poisonous, the beasts rabid and the spirits themselves, insane. So it was, that the Ri-Foraoirse, at the command of Mor'Righ-Glas, created the Gealai Aisling, the Moonlight Dream, a lake of sorts for the Sidhe to go to rest when their work was done, a place of stasis where no harm could be done, nor change wrought. The Leathe of the Gwyrai Woods were charged with protecting the lake from outside influences, specifically from those who would wish the Sidhe harm.

When the Fomoraigh came, the Ri-Foraoirse fled into the depths of the Gwyrai, hiding themselves away with powerful magics, and with the aid of their Sidhe allies, they were able to escape the destruction of their kin for a time.

Of Balor Olc-Suil And The Leathe:
Balor Olc-Suil was one of the Danann, a race who shared the Gwyrai Woods with the Leathe and the Ri-Foraoirse, blessed, or cursed perhaps, with the Witchsight, an ability to see the Sidhe at work in the world and to communicate with them. He befriended them and they told him of the Gealai Aisling, of how they would go there to join their kin in time, and how the Moonlight Dream held, bound within it, the majority of the Sidhe and all the power they possessed.

Friendly to the Sidhe, Balor Olc-Suil had himself introduced to the Leathe and thence to the Ri-Foraiorse, who welcomed him as an honoured guest. For some time Balor dwelt with the Ri-Foraoirse in hiding, until he learnt the location of the Gealai Aisling, at which point he left.

He struck a deal with the Fomoraigh, revealing the location of the Ri-Foraoirse to them, in exchange for the power of the Gealai Aisling. In a single night, the Fomoraigh fell upon the hidden refuge of the Ri-Foraoirse, led there by the traitorous Balor Olc-Suil. Mor'Righ-Glas was the first to fall, at the claws of the Earth Shaker, Crith-Taluin, and the Fomoraigh feasted upon the Ri-Foraoirse, taking their power for themselves. The Gealai Aisling was sundered in the fighting, and tainted Sidhe spirits were allowed into the world once more, taking for themselves the darkest places they could find.

With the Moonlight Dream destroyed, Balor Olc-Suil was driven into madness. He fled to the mountains far to the north, but his part in the tale of the world is not yet done...

The Fomoraigh:
The Fomoraigh hailed from another plane of reality entirely, and in their way were similar to the Sidhe, though far more powerful, able to simultaneously possess a corporeal form and remain in the Otherworld, or some other equivalent. They had discovered and then subsequently perfected the ability to travel between planes at will, seeking out ever more powerful beings to consume, ever increasing their own power.

Their ruler was called Cethlinn, She of the Crooked Teeth, who allegedly took the form of a gigantic tusked wolf. The most powerful of them was Crith-Taluin, the Earth Shaker, depicted as a scaled beast, gargantuan in size, like a wingless dragon but as large as a mountain. Their scout, in the shape of a bat whose wings could blot out the sun, blood endlessly dripping from ephemeral fangs, was Gadaighrian, the Thief of the Light.

More existed, but a few fell in battle with the Aen'Cead, who were themselves immensely powerful, and many others were never given names by the Danann or any others before the fall of the Ri-Foraoirse. After the Gealai Aisling was destroyed, and the Ri-Foraoirse defeated, the Fomoraigh began to fall into infighting. So many immensely powerful beings gathered together, with no common purpose anymore led to inevitable conflict. Ever crafty, Cethlinn led the Fomoraigh deep under the mountains which would be called the Wardenfells, to slumber. She left the Danann with a warning, that the Fomoraigh would need to be sated with constant offerings of blood, or else they would emerge and finish the destruction of the world.

[Phoenixguard09]

I still can't help mentally expecting the Bovus Empire to be mostly made up of dairy cows.

I fear you may not be the only one.

All good man, I hope one day I too get my head around all the content, rather than the current situation, which is content all around my head which I need to gather up and tell.

What I have put up so far is the basic gist of the very beginning. Answering a few questions too. Why are there so many different sentient races? What are the spirits? Did the Gods exist? (That last one isn't really answered at all. All this may be mythological. If that's the case, then none of the other questions have been answered either....)

Still to come in time:
- Maudh.
- The Voyage to Varr.
- The Coming of the Bovus.
- The Secret of the Roanfaille.
- Thorus Stormhammer and the Fall of the Bovus Empire.
- Kresimina, the Witch-Queen of the North.
- Lemaria, the Toraa and the Jeleni of the Westrand.
- The First Seekers of the Flame.
- The Krona and what they are.
- The Meadean Labyrinth.

Those last couple are probably a little too current just yet. I need to flesh out the Mythic Era a lot more first.

[Phoenixguard09]

The Mythic Era

The Split Of The Dwergar:
Unterguardt has always been an inhospitable icy land, but in the times directly after the Fomoraigh retreated under the Wardenfells, conditions were practically unliveable. Between the release of thousands of unseelie Sidhe upon the destruction of the Gealai Aisling, the disrupted weather patterns caused by the arrival of the Fomoraigh and their wars with the Aen'Cead and the rise of the Wrothdar clans in the mountains, the people who dwelt upon the landmass of Unterguardt were hard-pressed to merely survive.

The Dwergar were the children of Fjell-Herkser, the Mountain Lord, one of the Aen'Cead who set out on his own to the north, and they dwelt deep in the mountains, with thriving communities in the Mournfrost  and Blackspine ranges. When the Fomoraigh came into the world, Fjell-Herkser did what many of the Aen'Cead could not, and fled. Before he left, the Mountain Lord told his children that the mountains themselves would birth a great champion who would deliver their people their inheritance. It is not in the nature of the Dwergar to ever settle for anything less than the total amount of anything, and so over the years, their inheritance came to mean supremacy of the world.

After the destruction of the Gealai Aisling, Unterguardt, along with most of the known world, was wracked with devastation. The great Dwergar city of Jarnverk was destroyed by fire, and many of the people were left dispossessed. The survivors of Jarnverk wished to make a new home for themselves, far to the south in Norbayne, but the kings of the other holds forbade them, claiming Fjell-Herkser demanded that the Dwergar remain in the mountains of Unterguardt to await the coming of Raddare, the Saviour. Despite this, the Dwergar of Jarnverk departed over the seas, earning themselves the enmity of the rest of their race.

Within a century, the city of Nyjarnverk was completed in the mountains on the northern coast of Norbayne and the inhabitants struck up a close friendship with the Selkye tribes of the Icebays to the east and the Highlanders to the south. Nyjarnverk was considered a sanctuary for many years, but that is a story for another time...

The First Stormlord Of Varr:
The origins of the race who would become the Invarrians is a story lost in the depths of time. What is known is that they came from Unterguardt and that wars between them and enemies such as the emergent Wrothdar clans and the fledgling kingdoms of the Urskinn, drove them west, to the shores of the sea. There they built ships, for they could not remain there, armies closing all around them.

For weeks they sailed, but they were hampered by the great sea-storms generated by the arrival and presence of the Fomoraigh, the Everstorm as it was called, and many ships and lives were lost. It seemed that all would be lost when the ship of Egetrae Skjold ran aground on a small island. Upon that island was a stand of windswept trees and a stone shrine, with an altar of dark iron. Upon the altar lay a beautiful sword, blade inscribed with a language those who read did not know, but could somehow understand.

"Ek njota smidad vid foerad brenna vid inn myrkr, daudr vid inn verdr eda lif vid inn firar Varri."

"I was forged to bring light to the darkness, death to the deserving and life to the people of Varr."
- Harold Oakenshield's reasonably accurate translation.

Egetrae Skjold took the sword and ordered the crew to use the stand of trees to repair the ship, believing that this was some kind of divine providence. As soon as the ship was repaired and set sail once more, the island vanished under the waves, shrine and all, leaving only the Gilded Sword as proof it ever existed. With the power of that very sword, the captain was able to calm the Everstorm and uncover a large, rocky landmass to the west, which he led his people to. That island became known as Varr, the Isle of the Reavers.

The Stormlord And The Devourer:
Egetrae Skjold was made the Stormlord of all of Varr, and several settlements were founded across the island, foremost of which was the city of Isenhjem. It was not long however before another menace arose, the Devourer, theorised to be one of the Fomoraigh drawn north by the power emitted from the Gilded Sword, or perhaps one of the Aen'Cead, tainted in some way.

According to the Invarrians, with the power of the Gilded Sword, Egetrae was able to defeat the Devourer and drive the thing back, beneath the waves, but at a terrible cost. A great many Invarrians were slain and Egetrae himself was mortally wounded. With the very last of his strength, the first Stormlord rode a great wave over the Dividing Range, landing in the uncharted east of Varr, where he found the site of an ancient temple, Werencha. It was there that he left the Gilded Sword, and faded into legend.

The Roanfaille And The Biesz:
The Roanfaille of Sothbayne are another people whose origins are long lost. Each clan, and there are many, has a multitude of legends, and few of them match each other in anything but the most remote of ways. Two stories remain consistent, the first regarding a threat which caused the Roanfaille to migrate north from their homeland on the southern coasts of Sothbayne, way beyond the Wispaniyali Range which form the southern border of the known world, and the Ghostlands which reportedly stretch for hundreds of miles beyond them. This threat was called the Kiel in the Jezyk tongue, or the Zadlo in Wyraz, and all that the tales can agree on is that they were vicious and far more powerful than the Roanfaille were able to defeat on their own. Some stories claim they tainted the spirits of the dead, cursing them to seek out the living and try to take a new life for their own. Others claim that the creatures were born of flames, the twisted remnants of fire spirits. As the Roanfaille have always cremated their dead, both of these stories could be seen as being true. 

Driven over the mountains by the Kiel, the Roanfaille found themselves in the Plain of Bones, the Nizina Kosci, a wide expanse of bones, a graveyard for some kind of gigantic, primordial beast. It has been theorised that the Aen'Cead responsible for the continent of Sothbayne may have bred some kind of beast of burden to help in shaping the world, maybe even the ancient relative of the mhor. Whatever the case, the bones in the Nizina Kosci are sometimes uncovered even to this day, and they are truly gargantuan.

For many years the Roanfaille journeyed through the massive graveyard, always northward. The Nizina Kosci however, was, and still is, an inhospitable place, and many died. The Roanfaille people dwindled, until only the strongest remained, and even they were at the end of the strength. In one particular obscure variant of the tale, told in the Wyraz language and only to those trusted with this knowledge, the Roanfaille were led by a man named Targowac Wyzwolicielem, the Deliverer, a warlock of significant power.

Targowac knew that his people could not last, and so manifested and bargained with the Biesz, a powerful daemonic entity. In exchange for the service of the souls of his people upon their deaths, Targowac asked the daemon feed them power to help them survive. The Biesz agreed, filling a cup with the essence of its being, and bade Targowac to drink. Upon drinking, Targowac found himself sustained by the barest morsel of food, no longer in need of water even on the hottest day and able to walk for many days without rest. Amazed by the changes he had wrought upon himself, the warlock encouraged his people to drink, and so were the Roanfaille able to escape the Nizina Kosci, but in the process damn themselves and all their descendants.

It was those who made it through the Plain of Bones who first used the name their race is now known by to this day, Roanfaille, the Reborn.

The Bruin And The Death Of Sostenir:
Sostenir was the last surviving Aen'Cead known to history, the Great Bear of the Mountains, the Father of the Bruin. He retreated under the mountains on the southern coast of Norbayne, what would become known as the Oso Montanya, when the Fomoraigh arrived, hiding away with his people, who delved deep into the earth, hunting seams of gold and jewels.

The Bruin have always been distrustful of magic, perhaps a holdover from Sostenir himself, who did not approve of the open displays of power his kin were given to and preferred to make his own workings in a much more subtle fashion. When the Fomoraigh came, he forbade his people from dabbling in the arcane, and from working with daemons or communicating with the Sidhe, or, very much anyone from the outside at all.

For many centuries, the Bruin realm of Casaregne persisted in this way, ruled over by Sostenir, whose watchful gaze never relented, despite the eventual disappearance of the Fomoraigh. Any who were caught using magic were killed instantly, as Sostenir feared the attention of the outside world. This could not last.

A Bruin sorcerer named Enganar, the name of his family lost to time, had hidden his ability for many decades. Unable to practice his arts openly, Enganar his himself away in the deepest tunnels and there uncovered an ancient and powerful entity, an unseelie and tainted Sidhe, which wheedled its way into his embrace, filling his mind with venomous whispers.  It told Enganar that Sostenir was but a shadow of his former self, driven mad by paranoia and it was only a matter of time before the Great Bear of the Mountain lost his grip on reality completely, destroying the Bruin and Casaregne in the process. If Enganar slew Sostenir, his people would be free to fulfil their full potential, no longer bound by the strictures of their ruler.

Enganar agreed and the Sidhe placed a glamour on the sorcerer, making him invisible to the sight of all. It also gave the Bruin a powerful dagger, etched with many fell curses and runes. It would take a weapon of immense power to strike down one of the Aen'Cead, even one as wretched as Sostenir after all, and this was a weapon forged for that very task. Taking the blade eagerly, Enganar slipped away and performed the deed, cutting the throat of the Father of the Bruin as he slept.

But the Sidhe had deceived Enganar, and as soon as the stroke fell, the glamour failed and all Sostenir's guards witnessed the event. Enganar was slain immediately, but it was all too late. The dagger Enganar had used had been ensorcelled in such a way that when it pierced the hide of Sostenir, all his power and life-force was consumed by the unseelie Sidhe. The Sidhe had made an error however. Sostenir was nowhere near as weak as it had believed, and a weakened Sostenir's full power was far too much for even that ancient entity to withstand. The Sidhe was ripped apart in a roiling maelstrom of arcane power which caused the Oso Montanya itself to split in two. Casaregne was destroyed, the site of its destruction still visible to this day, a monstrous rent through the middle of the mountains.

The Bruin founded a new citadel when the quakes died down, Grimguarda, the Watchful Hold, and though Sostenir is long since dead, his people maintain a fervent distrust of magic.

Jaroslaw And The Ilaena:
The Roanfaille began to prosper in the years following their trek through the Nizina Kosci. Those who had survived were the very strongest of an already hardy people, and they found themselves blessed with long lives and increased vitality. The Roanfaille made great advances in this time, building a culture based around the rearing of horses, and developed the saddle and stirrups, inventions which made the Roanfaille cavalry some of the most feared shock-troops in the world.

Many years passed and the Roanfaille had increased in number enough to have split into many spearate clans which vied for dominance over the wide grasslands of northern Sothbayne. Widespread and numerous, the Roanfaille culture grew disparate and differed wildly from clan to clan, going so far as to not even share common language.

Clans rose and fell over the centuries, with plague and inter-clan strife both taking their tolls, but it was the coming of the Ilaena which almost led to the total destruction of the Roanfaille.

A nomadic and savage race from the south, the Ilaena too made the dangerous trek through the Nizina Kosci. Directed by their matriarchs, the Ilaena fell upon the unprepared Roanfaille clans in a tide of blood and death.

Physically powerful, possessed of a base cunning and able to coordinate their attacks through a link shared by their matriarchs, the Ilaena reaped a terrible harvest of Roanfaille lives and the clans were forced further and further north, towards the sea. It was there, on the Sunset Cliffs, with the Roanfaille desperate and leaderless, that a man named Jaroslaw arose and united his people.

Jaroslaw was the young chieftain of the Grass Wraiths, a northern nomad clan. He was born the seventh son of the late chieftain and never expected to rule over his father's territory, When the Ilaena attacked, he rode against them with his father and brothers with all their clan's warriors. Only three riders returned to their families, all gravely injured by the Carrion hunters. Now chieftain of the Grass Spectres, Jaroslaw led his people north and west, towards the sea.

Along the way, he encountered the scattered remnants of other Roanfaille tribes, and with the offer of safety in numbers, they joined Jaroslaw's convoy. One such tribe was the Night Dreamers, openly respected for the power of their seers, but feared for their Mournsingers and their connection with the dead. The Ilaena matriarchs were able to cloud the vision of the Night Dreamers' seers and shamans, and without their powers of precognition, they were easy prey for the Carrion. The survivors were still being harried by hunters when Jaroslaw's convoy found them, and the young chieftain personally led riders to the Night Dreamers' aid.

It was there, in the midst of battle Jaroslaw first laid eyes upon Szarlotta, the All-Seeing. He had heard tales of her of course as the Great Witch of the Night Dreamers, and had always assumed her title was an ironic jab at her blindness, but none of the stories had made mention of just how beautiful she was...

The Night Dreamers joined Jaroslaw's convoy and within the year he and Szarlotta were wed. With his wife's aid, Jaroslaw was able to find and save even more beleaguered Roanfaille, and one by one, the scattered clans joined him.

Finally, Jaroslaw and Szarlotta reached the Sunset Cliffs and their convoy joined the great gathering of the Roanfaille. With a great many clan chieftains gathered and the collected forces of the Ilaena approaching, a moot was called to determine who would command the united Roanfaille in battle.

Under a full moon in the dead of night, the chieftains gathered to decide the fate of their people. As the senior-most seer amongst the clans, Szarlotta presided over the moot.

There is a tradition amongst groups of nomadic Roanfaille meeting that the host of the gathering will provide a drink, often the fermented mare's milk favoured by the nomads, to the assembled guests after partaking of it themselves. The blame for any harm which may come to the guests who partake of the beverage is laid at the door of the host, and betraying this trust is one of the most heinous crimes one can commit amongst the Roanfaille clans.

That night, under the silvery light of the moon, Szarlotta did the unthinkable. After taking a draught herself, one by one, she presented the goblet to each chief, and one by one, they imbibed the liquid within. Jaroslaw was the last to drink, and when she reached him, she poured the remaining contents onto the ground.

When the dawn broke the next day, only Jaroslaw remained alive of the chieftains. Szarlotta herself had died alongside them, a final sacrifice to ensure her beloved's ascendancy. Heartbroken, but filled with wrath at the price this war had made him pay, Jaroslaw rode against the Ilaena and broke their power. Their clans scattered to the winds, and the Roanfaille reigned over the plains once more.

Jaroslaw himself died almost a century later, and was survived by his two daughters, Roza and Anetta. He never remarried and without a clear heir, the Roanfaille clans splintered once more.

[Phoenixguard09]

The Time of Maudh

The Rise of Maudh
A tainted Sidhe, Maudh escaped the Gealai Aisling upon its destruction and hid in the northern mountains of Norbayne for many years. Centuries after the Fomoraigh began their aeon-long slumber, Maudh emerged in the north. Fell spirits of lesser power amassed in the mountains, drawn from the dark places of the world by Maudh's malevolent nature and his sheer magnitude.

The first herald of his coming was the migration of the native Wrothdar mountain-tribes. Preyed upon by the spirits in Maudh's dominion, the Wrothdar sought escape. Those who did not seek safety and rather fought for their homes, were swallowed by the shadows which called the tainted Sidhe-lord their master. South the Wrothdar wandered, through hostile lands, away from the malevolent entity which had awoken in the north.

Many bands of Wrothdar were assaulted by the original  inhabitants of Norbayne's highlands, the Fyrst-Dynion, themselves just protecting their homes from what seemed like a savage menace coming down from the mountains. In retaliation, the Wrothdar turned to fire and stone-blade, razing villages to the ground, and the Fyrst-Dynion, not a particularly numerous people, never really recovered.

The Fate of the Swallowed Wrothdar
Many Wrothdar did not flee the forces of Maudh and attempted to protect their homes. They were unsuccessful, and the mountain-tribes provided the perfect foot-soldiers for Maudh's campaign. Taken by the unseelie Sidhe, the captives were changed, morphed by torturous processes into a ruined and terrible new form of life. Already powerfully built and blessed with exceptional hardiness and endurance, the Swallowed became hulking monstrosities.

Now the vanguard of Maudh's regime, the Swallowed flooded south, following the Wrothdar who had managed to flee Maudh's dominion, pillaging and burning as they went. Their numbers swelled by the dark magic of the Sidhe, they were inexorable and could not be stopped without great effort and loss.

The Midland Settling
The original inhabitants of the Midlands of Norbayne, the Fyrst-Dynion fled into the Wardenfells and the deep woods in their shadow, the marshes and swamps of Black Fen, the northern Ice Bays and other remote places where the Wrothdar could not find them. Many perished in the flight, due to famine, fatigue, the stone-axes of the Wrothdar or at the hands of those who already inhabited the lands they entered.

Ships began to arrive from the west, bearing a new people. Closely related to the Roanfaille of the south, these newcomers swiftly settled in the dales and valleys of what would become the Midlands of Norbayne. Physically they were only a little more powerful than the Fyrst-Dynion, but it was sheer numbers which saw them overcome the native peoples. These Midlanders became locked in a perpetual war with the Swallowed of Maudh, and sadly, with those remnants of the Fyrst-Dynion who had settled in the most remote valleys.

The Tale of Balor Olc-Suil
By this time, Balor Olc-Suil, the Traitor of the Ri-Foraiorse, had become very old. Many centuries had passed, and the ancient Danann was only kept alive by the residual power he had managed to glean from the destruction of the Gealai Aisling. Driven mad by what he had witnessed, Balor spent his days trying to find a safe place to hide from the Fomoraigh, convinced that they would not let him escape with even the minute power he had gained from the Midnight Dream.

In his search, Balor found the hidden palace of Maudh, and seeing a kindred spirit, a being in whom darkness ruled, Maudh took the Danann into its service, extending his life further and granting him more power. Now filled with malevolent and tainted Sidhe energy, Balor turned his attentions back to the south, leading Maudh's armies to war, all the while looking for signs of the Fomoraigh, for now he believed himself their equal...

Nyjarnverk
The great Dwergar city of Nyjarnverk was Balor Olc-Suil's first target, for the traitorous Danann knew that the Fomoraigh had retreated under the mountains to slumber and sought to find hidden and secret ways there himself. Over three months, by day and night, the Swallowed were hurled at the walls and were turned back by the stout defenders of the mountain halls. Eventually Balor called upon his new master to break the siege, and despite the valour of the defenders, they could not withstand Maudh's power and the gate finally gave way.

Passes leading south through the mountains and away from the fortress served to allow the Dwergar dwelling under the mountain to flee, and they became a scattered people, pushing ever south towards the distant mountains of the Dragon's Tail, the southern edge of the Wardenfells.

The ruins of Nyjarnverk still stand to this day, but it is an evil and accursed place, where the fell power of Maudh lives on.

The Great Emergence
It was at this time that the Dunscarth first took to the surface. With Maudh's armies troubling even their great underground city of Araecan, the ash-folk allied with several tribes of the Fyrst-Dynion and a handful of Valley Kingdoms of the Midlands, led by King Osric, self-proclaimed King of the Merigund, the subterranean realms of the Dunscarth.

King Osric's army was routed at the Battle of Maedelstede, a calamitous event in the extensive written histories of the Dunscarth, but one unrecorded in the histories of the other races involved. Scattered by the Swallowed under Balor Olc-Suil and with their king slain, many of Osric's Dunscarth fled into the Merigund, forming their own colonies in the darkened and abandoned corners of the labyrinth, hiding from the forces which followed them underground. The Merigund as a singular, continuous realm was no more, with even the northern city of Baewylm completely overrun by the invading Wrothdar, whereupon it was ruled for a time by Balor Olc-Suil himself as he searched the caverns for sign of the Fomoraigh. Their allies, the Fyrst-Dynion of the northern Gwyrai were slaughtered, and the petty Valley Kingdoms which had joined the cause were largely destroyed.

While Osric's personal force failed to defeat Balor Olc-Suil at Maedelstede, that battle signalled the turn of the tide of the war as a whole, as the races which were being assaulted by Maudh's forces began to look for alliances to combat the northern threat.  In the east, the Fyrst-Dynion of the Icebays joined with the High Danann of the northern Wardenfells and the Dunscarth survivors of the fall of Baewylm, and together were able to defend their realms. To the south and in the west, Midland kingdoms allied with the scattered remnants of the Dwergar of Nyjarnverk and the Woodsmen of the southern Gwyrai, and for a time were able to halt the tide, but they could not withstand the entirety of Maudh's power.

As defeat seemed imminent, a new player entered the game...

The Bovus Arrive in Norbayne
It did not take long for the Bovus to leave their mark on the continent of Norbayne. Driven out of their ancestral lands by a great menace, the identity of which has been lost in time, the Bovus fled over the ocean, seeking a new home. Like the Midlanders before them, they found Norbayne, and immediately set about making it their own. Numerous and physically powerful, the Bovus carved out an empire which stretched from the northern edges of Black Fen to the foothills of the Wardenfells in the east, a giant swathe of land through the centre of Norbayne.

The Bovus brought with them their culture, one of advanced technology, specifically metallurgy, and a highly militaristic society, with a culture of compulsory military service for all full citizens, highly ritualised honour-duels and an institutionalised slave trade. Their armies were predominantly heavy infantry, armed with broad shields, steel weapons and stout armour, but they swiftly proved to be opportunistic and expansive in mindset, adopting both the tactics and even the soldiers of the peoples' they came into contact with.

The Bovus Empire swiftly absorbed many of the Midland kingdoms in the west, along with Leathe and Woodsman clans in the southern Gwyrai, with some taken as slaves, but most becoming client states of the Empire, beholden to the Imperator. The scattered, divided and leaderless Dwergar exiles of Nyjarnverk however were rounded up and enslaved wholesale, for the Dwergar are a hardy race, suited to manual labour, and they were vulnerable after the loss of their home.

Assisted by auxiliary troops, many of which were veterans of the war already, the heavy infantry of the Bovus proved too powerful for the forces of Maudh and the Swallowed were broken, scattered across the north. The Battle of Laurea was the last recorded sighting of Balor Olc-Suil, who abandoned his army after the Woodsmen auxiliaries broke cover and assaulted the flanks of the Swallowed.

It is assumed that with his army shattered, Maudh must have retreated deep under the earth or over the seas where he eventually succumbed entirely to the madness of the Taint, which plagues the Sidhe who dwell too long in the material world. Thus ended the Time of Maudh...

[Phoenixguard09]

The Border Wars of Unterguardt

A History of Conflict
The lands of Unterguardt have always been beset by power struggles and warfare. The Hillmenn clans of the highlands, the Urskinn of the plains and the Dwergar of the high mountains have never held any great love for each other, nor necessarily for that matter, even their own kind. All three peoples have a propensity for war and violence, and so their shared history has been marked by a multitude of bloody battles.

Boldar Irondrake
In I.E 12 by the Midland Reckoning, the Irondrakes were a numerous, but not particularly powerful clan hailing from the far northern reaches of the Blackspine Mountains, the range which practically bisects the landmass of Unterguardt. Many Dwergar clans possessed holds in those mountains, the Goldmongers of Vardefull, the Ironfists of Knnytnaven and the Blacklocks of Haarden among the most powerful if them, but it was the Irondrakes of Forrad who would unite them to a common purpose.

Boldar Skaggsson was born to a lowly family of Clan Irondrake. As legend would have it, Boldar was neither particularly strong, nor a ferocious warrior, but he possessed a keen mind and ferocious cunning. Clinging to the fiery words of the Predikants, Boldar would grow to see himself in the role of the Raddare, the Saviour of the Dwergar who would lead them to their inheritance. Spurred on by the zealous preachers of his people, Boldar swiftly rose through the ranks of his clan's fighters, eventually granted a position on the Irondrake elder council in the year I.E 54 , a great feat at such a young age, for Boldar was scarcely forty years old at the time.  He was greatly loved by the people of his clan, and his bi-weekly sermons gathered a substantial following on the streets of Forrad.

Once on the council, Boldar pushed relentlessly for war with the neighbouring Dwergar clans of the mountains. He argued that the Raddare would only grant favour to those who would take their inheritance for themselves, that the conservative councils of the Dwergar were hindering the coming of their promised time. At first the council did not accept his view, but over time the most outspoken members of the council began to lose the respect of the common people. Whispers abounded and there was nothing they could do to win back those they had lost. All the while Boldar's star rose, until his voice was dominant in the council chamber, and it was he, and eventually he alone, that the King of Forrad, Storr Ivriggsson heeded.

Seeing what was happening to their carefully assembled power structure, the elders of the council tried to assassinate Boldar, but his position as a Predikant, and one of the most loved of the order in the hold kept him safe, and several of the would-be assassins chose to inform the preacher of the attempts on his life rather than carry them out. Boldar's vengeance was swift and brutal, and several of the elders were bodily torn apart by rabid mobs spurred into action by his own zealous rhetoric. Now unopposed, and possessing a largely unequipped and untrained army far greater in number than any others in the mountains, Boldar had no more need for the king, and it was not long before the Kingshall of Forrad was stormed and Storr Ivriggsson and his two sons slain, ending the line.  By I.E 56, Boldar was the sole and undisputed ruler of Clan Irondrake and had mobilised most of the population into war, following their Raddare.

His first action was to sweep south through the Blackspine, swiftly uniting Dwergar clans to his cause. Predikants from Clan Irondrake spread southwards before him, heralding his coming, and the word was taken up from hold to hold. Dwergar from many clans flocked to his banners, and swiftly he ruled all the clans of the mountains. Having taken the mountains, Boldar turned his gaze towards the foothills, and the lands of the Hillmenn clans.

Lansebrudd
Lansebrudd was a powerful Urskinn fortress established in the mountains, at the source of the Iceflow River, in the northwest of the Tarnetlander, the fertile lands in the shadow of the Blackspine to the north. Built into the side of a mountain and supplied by the Iceflow, which ran through it, Lansebrudd was considered impossible to storm.

Boldar Irondrake commanded his most powerful ally, Nilfrost Goldmonger to take the fortress, trusting that the mission would keep Goldmonger too occupied to plot against him. Irondrake might have been commonly considered to be the Raddare but his people were still Dwergar, and they would take every opportunity to further their own power and position.

Goldmonger knew that his own forces were insufficient to take the great fortress, but much like Irondrake, he possessed a great deal of cunning and intelligence.

Unification of the Hill-Clans

The Border Wars Conclude

The Founding of Drakon

[Jubal]

Ooh, new stuff!

[Phoenixguard09]

I've added some new information to the previous posts, and I have also added a new segment, which I will fill in, time permitting. Finally finished writing the story of Maudh and the rise of the Bovus Empire, which is good.

Reading back over some of this, I can't help but wonder if the vagueness of some of the information is 'artsy' or if I'm just a bit naff.

[Clockwork]

+1

Bear in mind I am that one guy that eats all the lore you lay down.

[Phoenixguard09]

That was one hell of a watch Rob, thanks man.

I think the most interesting thing he spoke of was how detail for detail's sake was unhealthy. I've felt for some time that mindset is detrimental to the creative process. Quite often I write out a detailed and expansive explanation of a concept or event, get it completely set in my head and then delete it because I don't like how the information flows.

So that was interesting as it seemed he had a similar idea.

The bit about lore being for the GM's benefit seemed to hit home as well. I'm under no illusions that it's basically just for me. :p