Difference between revisions of "The Unexpurgated History of Everything"

Revision as of 10:34, 14 February 2016

Editor's Note: This document is drawn verbatim from six different "histories of everything" created at different times for different campaigns. As the wiki expands, an effort will be made to retcon this into one coherent history, but that effort hasn't happened yet.

During the history of Thalassa, many different calendar systems have been used by different peoples. The current calendar is the Thalassan Consolidated Standard Daybreak Calendar with Year Zero being set to the casting of the Sunstone at Daybreak-en-Nord on the northern shore of Bitu-en-Sul. This calendar is by far the most commonly used within the Thalassan Sphere.

Dates from before recorded history and particularly those from before the Upraising of Men are approximate.

Before Time

In the beginning were the Void and the Silence.

From the Outer Dark, the demon Jieh was thrust into the Void to cool his madness. But the Silence drove in on him from every direction until he vomited it up into the Void and it became the chaos that is the cosmos.

Jieh reveled in the chaos, smashing it wherever he found it coalescing into order again. He did this for eons until the chaos had expanded farther than he could reach in time. From this new-found order came the stars and for every one Lord Jieh smashed, two more spun into life. He again descended into madness.

When he came to himself again, a thousand thousand stars had formed, spinning planets of themselves and the planets giving rise to the plants. Jieh set out to destroy them all, but they were a multitude and Jieh, powerful as he is, was only one. More, the stars had each given some small part of their own essence to form themselves a champion and that champion was Li Stardancer. (Alternately, some believe Jieh created Li for himself out of the burning hearts of a thousand shattered stars.)

Born of risen order, but touched by the chaos, Li first fought, then loved Jieh and became his bride. Together, they danced among the stars, sometimes leaving chaos and destruction in their wake, sometimes too enraptured by the rhythm of the universe to remember to do so.

Often they danced together, but from time to time, Li danced away from Jieh, dancing her own steps across the cosmos for a decade or two before returning. On one such trip, she danced close to Tierra and heard music for the first time. When she went closer to investigate, she found Yan the Starsinger in Yn-av-Agova, the City of Silk and Paper. Enthralled, she took human form and went to him. And in his madness, Jieh did not realize she had gone.

Yn-av-Agova and the First Golden Age

For thousands years before the raising of the Sunstone, the First Men lived in the swamps of Tunara, barely men at all, but subsisting on grubs dug from rotting logs and frogs caught in their bare hands. The sidhe came to them from their home beyond the seas, bringing knowledge of all things and using their powerful magicks to raise up the best among them to become modern men. At the same time, they also raised the dwarves to work on and beneath the land and to be companions to men. For three generations of men, the three races lived together in the city of silk and paper, Yn-av-Agova. When the sidhe returned to their fight against the Outer Dark, the dwarves retired beneath the Mountain called yr-Gorrha. Humanity teemed over the edges of the city and though they’d been taught to maintain, they had no skill in building anew. In a ring around Yn-av-Agova, the city of Mud, av-Nknur rose.

The First Men never rode out in conquest, but found a constant flow of humanity at their gates, seeking the civilization they offered. During the reign of King Yrol III in the sixtieth year after the Sidhe Exodus, an attempt was made to close and bar those gates, but the people of the city rose up, shattered the gates, and replaced the king with his son. After that, they sent out sages and teachers to share what they knew. Thus began the First Golden Age.

In that Age, humanity lived entirely around the Inland Sea. With the guidance of the sages out of Yn-av-Agova, they founded av-Nur (the City of Stone) and av-Nuk (the City of Clay.) At the same time, the descendants of sidhe and men built the forest city of av-Eles and named themselves elves.

71 FYA - The sidhe leave, having prepared the people as best they can to protect their world from demons.

366 FYA - Li Stardancer comes to Yn-av-Agova

In the nineteenth generation of the First Golden Age, Li danced away from Jieh and came close enough to Tierra to hear music for the first time. Intrigued, she sought out Yan the Starsinger, a young man who sang to the universe each night. She danced for Yan, who loved her instantly and she loved him. Masking her presence from Jieh, Li married Yan and had three daughters, Xi, Goa, and Pranna.

For three decades Li and the Starsinger live together in peace, out of the sight of Lord Jieh before he notices he can no longer sense the Stardancer. Dipping into the chaos, Lord Jieh creates the Chaosborn - twelve demigods created to hunt Li down where Jieh can not find her.

399-405 FYA - The Chaosborn War

Thoth Chaosborn, given dominion over death, was the first to discover Li’s whereabouts. Instead of sending word to Lord Jieh, he decides to have her for himself and raises an undead army to capture Yn-av-Agova.

He creates the first undead on Tierra to do so - raising human officers who ride under his banner to liches and vampires and emptying the cemeteries of their dead.

Having never seen an actual demon in their four-century history, the Ouiwu had dwindled in numbers and lost their focus. They rode out in defense and fought valiantly, but were ultimately destroyed by the Chaosborn armies, who sacked Yn-av-Agova, leaving only the broken ring of av-Nknur behind.

Li and her daughters rally humanity to fight the Chaosborn and eventually defeat and destroy Thoth. Knowing he won’t stay dead, Li drags his soul back to the Heart of Chaos and goes to take war to Lord Jieh so he won’t destroy Tierra. She takes her twenty-two champions with her and they become known as the Stardancers.

The Second Expansion - 5th-7th Century FYA

After the fall of Yn-av-Agova, the daughters of Li went their separate ways. Pranna forms the Ordoprani from the remnants of the Agovan defense force and sets them to hunting down the lesser Chaosborn and the undead who have escaped the final battle. Goa leads a select group south to Caldera Lake to further explore the magicks learned in fighting the Chaosborn War. Xi takes the bulk of refugees into the low plains to spread out and make less of a tempting target for Lord Jieh’s wrath.

In spite of the Ordoprani’s best efforts, some of the vampires and liches who fought for Thoth escaped and returned to av-Nknur where they ruled over those left behind by Xi and those who chose to leave the Low Plains or the other cities.

In 595 FYA, they founded ak-Thoth (the city of death) in the ruins of Yn-av-Agova and shortly thereafter began to extend their influence onto the low plains.

616-625 FYA - The Second Chaosborn War When the Ordoprani discover ak-Thoth and its plans, they invade in numbers. Xi refuses to believe her sister’s word and makes war on the Ordoprani before coming to realize that Pranna is right. She militarizes, is attacked, and goes to all-out war.

In the end, Xi sacrifices herself to destroy Marok Chaosborn, lord of war. Her essence goes to the Celestial Heart, where she remains, collecting pure souls for the final battle against Jieh and the Chaosborn.

The Silver Age - 7th-9th Century FYA

People spread out across the continents of Eideric and Avhan. Xi’s descendants Han I and Han II are emperors of the known world.

845 FYA - Humans discover the Dragonfires, attempt to settle there. The settlers are enslaved.

The Brood War - 9th-11th Century FYA

After they are invaded, dragons from the Dragonlands wreak havoc on the Han Empire, breaking up its political unity and enlisting humanity in their ongoing war for brood grounds.

The Age of Blood - 11th-17th Century FYA

Emperor Darl in the East, aligned with the Fifth and Sixth Claws, enslaves most of his people to his dragon allies. He controls all of Avhan and part of Eideric. Other kings and potentates make annual tributes of slaves to feed the alliance. The Fifth and Sixth claws become dominant and the first four scatter to the winds, holding only the northernmost portion of the Dragonlands.

The Second Brood Wars - 17th-19th Century FYA Starting with an elven refusal to send any more tributes to the dragons, elves, humans, and the first four claws fight to take back what’s been given to the Fifth and Sixth Claws. Elves unleash wild magic on the world and introduce golems, a long-lost art of the Sidhe.

The Accord of the Claws is signed in 1884 FYA, largely returning the dragons to Dragonlands, but granting them dominion over the humans who live there.

1936-1950 FYA - The False Return The Winter Sidhe, momentarily on top of a civil war against the Seelie arrive and set up Qovara. They start recruiting people to fight in their “final war” against Lord Jieh. Thousands of humans and elves rally to their banners and the world becomes a massive staging ground for an interplanar war. They build the Plaza of the Thirteen Gates.

The Dark Sidhe believe the dragons to be demons and make war on them at the same time they are fighting across dimensions.

20th-23rd Century FYA - The Winter-Summer War

The Summer Sidhe, having turned the civil war back in their favor, assault the stronghold at Qovara. Humanity and elves get involved in the war against the Outer Dark and learn powerful new magicks. This goes on until demons successfully destroy the Plaza of the Thirteen Gates, cutting Tierra off from any other worlds.

For the next eighty years, human armies raised by the Sidhe with no one to fight end up fighting each other.

23rd-25th Century FYA - The Third Golden Age

Using Sidhe magic and technology, people begin to reunite and rebuild their society into a cohesive whole. Peace and prosperity become the norm.

2480 FYA - The Piercing of the Mists Traders discover the continent of Veruaten and with it, the Aktothi Diaspora. The trading houses want to trade with them while the civil authorities want to go to war.

25th-26th Century FYA - The Aktothi Crusades

Under the leadership of King Vilhem of Tormenia, a series of crusades against the Aktothi are launched. As the Aktothi fall and more nations become involved, the wars gradually become more and more about conquest. Eventually, Eideric forces are fighting each other on the Veruaten continent.

As the magic used gets more and more dire, the elves eventually step in with their massive golem armies and enforce an armistice.

26th-31th Century FYA - The Age of Elven Monitors

Following the Aktothi Crusades, elves take tighter and tighter control of the world, forbidding war and trying to ban certain particularly dangerous magicks. The Nine Nations are formed.

Over time, trade becomes more important than civic government and the trading houses rise.

In 3041, sorceress Sida Kedith stumbles upon the secret to open a gate to the summerlands. People start traveling through and, in short order, a dozen more gates are opened. Because they’re not carefully controlled, demons start pouring through.

3045-3049 FYA - The Gate Sealer’s War

Sidhe return to Tierra, ready to burn the world to ash if it will prevent Lord Jieh from raising an army. Humans, elves, and dwarves fight back to keep them from doing so. Even some demons help close the gates to the Hell dimensions so he can’t escape that way.

31st-35th Century FYA - The Mercantile Age

During the Gate Sealer’s War, trading houses figure out how to rebind the golems the elves use to themselves. They strike against the monitors and take thousands of golems away. After a short war, trading houses take over the civil governments of the nine nations.

This age ends when someone figures out how to unbind the golems all together. They become the Kund and begin to rebuild Qovara.

35th-37th Century FYA - The Age of Kings

Over time, the civil governments of the nine kingdoms begin to reassert themselves and differentiate from the trading houses. While the nine kingdoms never properly form again, dozens of kings rise.

37th-41th Century FYA - The Vestari Consolidation

Founded in northeastern Avhan, the Vestari empire spread rapidly across the globe through a combination of economic and military imperialism. The Vestari conquered one nation after another until only Veruaten, Qund Qovara, and the Dragonlands remained independent.

41st-42nd Century FYA - The Qund Diaspora

Unwilling to remain emperor of most of the world, Vestari VI invades Qund Qovara with the intent of building a military base there in order to launch an assault on Veruaten.

The Qund (free golems) fight back and, when they are displaced, continue to fight in exile. They slow down the emperor enough that the Veruaten nations can bind together and build a big enough fleet to land on the western shore of Eideric.

42nd-50th Century FYA - The Age of the Lich Emperor

Vestari VIII, seeing his empire threatened, the nine ancient nations grumbling about revolt, and his sons weak, decides not to die. Harnessing dark magicks, he becomes a lich in 4109. To take and hold Qund Qovara, he raises an undead army and then launches them across the Sea of Mists to conquer Veruaten.

He conquers Veruaten in 4644 FYA and, in 4646, invades the Dragonfires. That was lasts until 4655 and eventually peters off into a most unsatisfactory conclusion.

As the Lich-Emperor gets older, he becomes less and less interested in the world, focusing on the accumulation of more and more dark magical power. The administration of the empire falls to vampires, necromancers, and other administrators.

The empire becomes more and more corrupt and again the Nine Ancient Nations begin to rise.

In 4916, the Lich-Emperor calls a conclave of kings, planning to break up the empire and choose the families who would run things as much as he could. Someone took the opportunity to attempt to assassinate the emperor and his lackeys in one fell swoop.

Instead, the spell meant to kill the conclave set off a huge stockpile of magicks that, in a massive chain reaction, obliterated Tearra, the imperial capital.

For the next several weeks, ash and dust blasted into the air, the earth shook, and a gray rain fell over the Low Plains. Then, something gave way and the ocean poured across the Plains, killing millions.

4916-4940 FYA - The Cataclysm

Over the next 24 years, dust blots out much of the sky, earthquakes shake the world, a thick, sludgy rain falls, and magic is rampant in the world. At the same time, the planet gets hotter and hotter. The waters rise. People struggle for food and constantly fight for higher ground. At the same time, many are being transformed into twisted versions of themselves, often called new goblins. Demons are pouring out of cracks in the world created by the destruction of Tearra.

The waters rise and town after town falls. One by one, the lights of civilization go out. The dragons of the Six Claws come to the Caldera Academy, surviving under its bubble and waiting, warning that the Sidhe have returned and they again mean to burn the world down.

4940 FYA / 0 DB - The founding of the Sunspire

After much debate, the Wardens of the Sunstone led by First Warden Ambrose D'Orosse decide they’re moving it to one of the last enclaves of humanity on Veruaten. They take it from the Caldera Academy and head across the ocean. There, they found First Daybreak on the northern shore of Bitu-en-Sul.

From First Daybreak, they gather together as much of humanity as they can find to fight back against the goblin hordes.

4 DB - The retaking of the stronghold at Vyz

The Orossai land on Vyz and break the demon siege there. The Vyzari petition to have the Sunstone moved to Vyz. Instead, they’re given Cloudbreaker Emilia Mordanis, who can provide sunshine most days.

5 DB - The retaking of Thalassa

Largely untouched by the goblinization that much of the rest of the world has faced, Thalassa is a stronghold for the seafaring Logeti. They conquered the local population a dozen years into the Cataclysm. The Orossai need Thalassa’s ports to land the ships of the Dragonfires.

8-14 DB - The Goblin Wars

The Orossai and their followers fight to liberate first Iona, then Shiya from the goblin hordes that largely populate them. They re-establish humanity’s grip there.

When the Orossai fully liberate the cities that ring Caldera Lake, the Calderans assume they will return the Sunstone.

15-22 DB - The First Sunstone Wars

The leader of the Calderans declares the Wardens of the Sunstone anathema and names a new batch. The Orossai, holding the Ring Cities, refuse to let the other Calderans out. Eventually, the Calderans hire the Logeti to break them out. They sail against First Daybreak and fail to take the city. Ordon is made the leader of the Calderans.

22-35 DB - The Second Goblin Wars

Humanity retakes Hagiv, Anovar, and Atan. During this time, the skies clear and the world starts to cool down a little again. The waters are withdrawing.

35-43 DB - The Rift War

Humans and Sidhe manage to land on Lagoa (the island of demons,) close the controlled gates they have and eventually heal the rift. Demons are no longer pouring into Tierra.

45-142 DB - The Retaking

Humans, elves, and dwarves start to spread out to many of the habitable islands of what will soon come to be known as the Thalassan Sphere. They will continue to do so until the reach the Rim.

50-53 DB The Second Sunstone Wars

A coalition fleet led by the Logeti lands on Bitu-en-Sul and demands the Sunstone be broken up and split among the nations. It become war.

To keep his city from being destroyed, Oros shatters the Sunstone and casts the fragments into the sea. He dies in the process.

First Daybreak is taken and sacked anyway. From 53-56 is generally known as the Divers’ War because it’s a lot of human groups diving into the Bay of Bitu trying to find bits of the Sunstone to salvage.

56-483 DB The Age of the Thalassan Empire

By far, the shards of the Sunstone went mostly to Thalassans, who had blockaded the harbor. Loyal men, they brought the pieces back to Thalassa where they were used to promote that city’s prosperity. Eventually, the Thalassans created a vast empire that covered much of the northern hemisphere.

480-486 DB The Ionan Revolution

A group of Thalassan stewards who have emigrated to Iona declare independence. They drive the Thalassans off their island.

486-615 DB The Age of Blue Coal

The success of Iona’s revolt emboldens other Thalassan colonies to revolt. Rather than trying to rule them, Iona trades with them and creates a powerful coalition that gradually becomes an empire in all but name.

615 DB - Present Day