Greyhawk History
The common folk know little of history, nor do they need to.
Most consider tales of ancient times little more than legend.
However, since the growth and development of the "adventuring"
class, the pages of history have been brought from
the realm of the legend. The wise explorer appreciates the
history of the ruins underfoot, for in that history lie secrets
of the ages, and a pattern that might be repeated all too easily.
THE GREAT WAR AND
TWIN CATACLYSMS
Just over one thousand years ago, two ancient western
empires, the Suel and the Baklunish, were enmeshed in
titanic conflict. The root of animosity between them is lost,
but the result of their final war haunts even the modern historian.
After sixty-three years of conflict, the Suloise Mages of
Power called down the Invoked Devastation on the Baklunish,
resulting in an apocalypse so complete that its true form
remains unknown. Entire cities, nations, and millions of
people were purged from the Oerth, leaving no sign of the
great civilization that once thrived north of the Sulhaut
Mountains.
In retaliation, a cadre of Baklunish Mage-Priests brought
the Rain of Colorless Fire on their hated enemies. The skies
above the Suloise Empire opened, and all beneath were
burned to ash.
These catastrophes came to be called the Twin Cataclysms,
and the Dry Steppes and the Sea of Dust are geographical
reminders of that unbridled power.
THE GREAT MIGRATIONS
Thousands survived the Twin Cataclysms by fleeing east over
the Crystalmists in the early years of the conflict. The Oeridians,
a confederation of tribes nestled between the empires,
took the wars as a sign from their gods to continue migrating
far to the east. They were the first to enter the lands they
called the Flanaess.
Soon, Suloise refugees followed, sometimes working with
the Oeridians, but more often warring with them. For more
than two centuries, Suel and Oeridian battled for conquest of
the Flanaess. The Suel often lost, and they found themselves
pushed to the periphery of the Flanaess.
Though some Baklunish folk migrated east, many more
fled north to the mountains, or to the shores of the Dramidj
Ocean, where their ancient cultures flourish to this day in
the lands of Ket, Zeif and Tusmit.
FOUNDING OF KEOLAND
The most successful union of Suel and Oerid was the Kingdom
of Keoland, founded some eighty years after the Twin
Cataclysms. Suel Houses joined with Oeridian tribes on the
banks of the Sheldomar River and pledged themselves to
mutual protection and dominion of the western Flanaess. Of
all the kingdoms formed during those tumultuous days, only
Keoland remains.
AERDY: THE GREAT KINGDOM
Far to the east, the greatest Oeridian tribe, the Aerdi, conquered
indigenous people and migrants alike. In time, their
kingdom, Aerdy, conquered the whole eastern Flanaess. The
Aerdy leader was crowned Overking and decreed that his
land should henceforth be known as the Great Kingdom. The
Great Kingdom declared the birth of a new calendar, and
with the Declaration of Universal Peace, the sun arose in the
east on the first day of the first Common Year.
Imperial Aerdy eventually encompassed holdings as far
west as modern-day Veluna, controlling the southern Nyr
Dyv with a small garrison at an insignificant trading post
known as Greyhawk.
Eventually, the Aerdi overkings grew lax, caring more for
local prestige and wealth than the affairs of distant vassals. As
sovereigns passed, each was replaced by one more dimwitted
and incompetent, until the outer lands of Aerdy began to
declare independence. Furyondy, Veluna, Perrenland, Tenh,
and others broke away from the ineffectual Overkings, creating
their own governments.
By 356 CY, the ruling dynasty was especially decadent. In
response, the western province of Nyrond declared itself free
from the Great Kingdom, and elected one of their own as
king. Armies gathered from all loyal Aerdy provinces to suppress
this treason. At this time, however, barbarians from the
north raided Aerdy's North Province, forcing the Overking
to divert troops from the western front. Nyrond survived.
Turmoil Between Crowns
The survival of Aerdy's loyal subjects, however, became very
much at risk in 439 CY, when the upstart House of Naelax
murdered the entire reigning House of Rax in a series of
gruesome civil wars. Within a decade, Ivid I of Naelax was
the undisputed Overking of Aerdy. Ivid was rumored to be in
league with powerful evil outsiders. The Malachite Throne of
the Great Kingdom became known as the Fiend-Seeing
Throne, and the once mighty kingdom became a bastion of
evil and cruelty.
IUZ THE EVIL
The lands of the Flanaess soon became acquainted with a less
subtle evil with the rise of luz in the Northern Reaches. In
479 CY, a minor despot in the Howling Hills left his domain
to his "son," a being known as luz. Within a handful of years,
luz conquered all neighboring domains, setting up a small
empire.
Tales told by fleeing refugees spoke of unmitigated evil,
luz, the stories went, had built a road of skulls from the
Howling Hills to his capital, Dorakaa. Worse, legend placed
luz, also known as the Old One, as the offspring of an unholy
union between witch and demon—a towering cambion
seven feet in height, driven by a thirst for blood and destruction.
Political struggles within Furyondy prevented its king
from acting decisively in this period when the evil of luz
might have been permanently checked. Instead, the cambion
lord flourished until 505 CY, when he appeared to have vanished
from Oerth.
In truth, he was imprisoned beneath Castle Greyhawk by
the Mad Archmage Zagig Yragerne, former lord Mayor of
the city of Greyhawk.
Two developments prevented Furyondy and its allies from
declaring victory over luz at this time. The first involved the notorious
Horde of Elemental Evil, a collection of cultists and villains
headquartered at the Temple of Elemental Evil. The Horde were
the puppets of Zuggtmoy, luz's abyssal consort, who instructed
them in bizarre teachings at the behest of her absent lover. The
Horde was finally vanquished at the Battle of Emridy Meadows,
in569CY.
Furyondy's second concern came from the north, where
former servants of luz developed into fanatical zealots. In
time, the leaders of these cults of luz displayed magical
power, giving form to Furyondy's worst fears. In 570 CY luz
was freed from his imprisonment, and returned to his lands a
demigod, more powerful than ever.
PRELUDE TO WAR (577-581)
The years between luz's return and 581 CY were a prelude to
war. Several destabilizing forces fomented strife. The most
insidious was the Scarlet Brotherhood, an occluded monastic
order first reported in 573 CY.
In this handful of years, semiregular skirmishes between
Aerdy's South Province and Nyrond erupted into open hostilities,
with Overking Ivid V finally declaring war on Nyrond
and its allies in the so-called "Golden League." Though the
war lasted only two years, it drained the coffers of both Aerdy
and Nyrond, crippling them when continental war erupted
only years later.
A truly important, though seldom noticed, event occurred
when an avatar of Vecna, the Whispered Lich of legend,
struck down the entire Circle of Eight, a collection of archmages
that included such respected names as Bigby, Tenser,
and Otiluke. The Circle had acted subtly as a balancing agent
for years, preventing any one power from dominating the
Flanaess. Though the Circle's leader, Mordenkainen,
returned his colleagues to life, the Circle was weakened
when the Greyhawk Wars finally erupted.
THE GREYHAWK WARS
In 582 CY, the god Vatun appeared to his subjects among the
barbarian tribes. Ancient legend told that the return of Vatun,
who had vanished centuries ago, would signal the rebirth of a
barbarian empire in the north. Unfortunately, the newly
appeared Vatun was a sham perpetrated by luz to whip the
northmen into war frenzy. It worked. The barbarians invaded
Stonehold, smashed through the Griffs, and overwhelmed
the Duchy of Tenh. The barbarian alliance crumbled soon
after, but the damage was done.
Returning to his homeland, luz conquered the Horned
Society, the Bandit Kingdoms, and the Shield Lands in quick
succession. Taking advantage of the chaos, Overking Ivid V
mustered his Aerdy armies to retake Nyrond. The nobles of
the Great Kingdom fell on each other, fearful of their increasingly
insane Overking and eager to steal neighboring land.
Ivid attempted to ensure loyalty by having his generals assassinated
and reanimated as undead with all the abilities they
possessed in life. In turn, he received the same treatment
from the church of Hextor, after which he became known as
Ivid the Undying.
Southwest of the City of Greyhawk, a half-ore named Turrosh
Mak united the tribes of the Pomarj. Mak's armies boiled
north, conquering several cities, and capturing nearly half of
the Principality of Ulek. The appeals of Prince Corond of
Ulek to Yolande, the elven Queen of Celene, fell on uncaring
ears. Celene closed its borders to even its most trusted allies.
By 584 CY, decade-old paranoia regarding the Scarlet
Brotherhood came true, as advisors in courts throughout the
Flanaess were revealed as Brotherhood agents. The Lordship
of the Isles, Onnwal, and the Hold of the Sea Princes fell
under the influence of the Scarlet Brotherhood thanks to
treachery or invasion. Barbarians from the Amedio Jungle
were used to secure captured lands. The Brotherhood was
revealed as an order dedicated to preserving the culture and
racial purity of the ancient Suloise Empire.
For three years, all of the Flanaess flew the banner of war.
Demons and devils from the Outer Planes were summoned by
unscrupulous wizards, and thousands died. Finally, the battleweary
combatants gathered in the City of Greyhawk to declare
peace.
Autumn of 584 CY saw the signing of the Pact of Greyhawk,
an event that would close various hostilities plaguing
the continent. On the Day of Great Signing, however, Greyhawk
suffered a great treachery, as Rary, one of the Circle of
Eight, destroyed his companions, Tenser and Otiluke, in a
great magical battle. Many suspected that Rary wished to
hold the ambassadors hostage, but instead, he fled to the
Bright Desert to form his own kingdom. Fearing further disruptions,
the delegates hurriedly signed the pact. Ironically,
due to the site of the treaty signing, the conflicts soon
became known as the "Greyhawk Wars."
RECENT DEVELOPMENTS
The peace lasted just under a year. In the fall of 585 CY, King
- Archbold III of Nyrond appeared to suffer a stroke. Divinations
revealed that he had been poisoned. Following a short
investigation, the guilty party was revealed to be his younger
son, Sewarndt. Fighting erupted, but Archbold's eldest son,
Lynwerd, won the day and the throne in Fireseek a year later.
In Coldeven 586, Canon Hazen of Veluna, perhaps the
most powerful religious figure in all the Flanaess,
employed the Crook of Rao, a powerful artifact, in a special
ceremony that purged Eastern Oerik of most of the fiends
inhabiting it. Nearly all foul outsiders in the Flanaess fell
victim to the Crook. Hazen was a hero, and the event
became known as the Flight of Fiends. Vast tracts of land,
previously uninhabitable due to demonic infestation, stood
ready for repopulation.
Immediately thereafter, priests of Hextor appeared in
Rauxes, the former capital of the Great Kingdom, and
announced that Ivid V was no longer Overking. Conflict
engulfed the capital in a matter of hours. Many of Ivid's generals
and nobles, filled with spite and ambition, marched on
Rauxes. No one can explain what followed, but the city itself
was engulfed by a strange magical warp. Few willingly
approach Rauxes now, and bizarre eldritch forces still prevail
where the city once stood.
The former lands of the Great Kingdom now ally themselves
with one of two mutually hostile powers. To the north,
Grand Prince Grenell of North Province has declared himself
Overking of the Kingdom of the Northern Aerdy. Overking
Xavener I rules the United Kingdom of Ahlissa from his new
capital of Kalstrand. Each would like to destroy the other, but
money problems and internal power struggles force them to
rebuild and fortify.
In the month of Planting, King Belvor III of Furyondy
joined with Veluna's Hazen in declaring the Great Northern
Crusade, an ambitious military action aimed at regaining
land lost to luz during the Greyhawk Wars. By the end of 588
CY, the armies of Furyondy reconquered these lands, as well
as the town of Critwall in the old Shield Lands. The signs of
evil left as luz's agents fled sickened the good crusaders to
such an extent that the leaders of Furyondy and Veluna
declared eternal war on the Old One, pledging to settle for
nothing short of luz's complete destruction.
As armies marched north from Furyondy in 586 CY, the
Scarlet Brotherhood, which gained much in the Greyhawk
Wars, began to suffer reversals. In that year, the people of
Onnwal rose up, reducing the Brotherhood's holdings to only
the capital of Scant. To the south, in the Hold of the Sea
Princes, monks of the Scarlet Sign fell on each other in a
bloody civil war in 589 CY. Though the reclusive master of
the Brotherhood gained much in the savage southern
jungles, his Flanaess holdings began to crumble.
THE FLANAESS TODAY
The Flanaess today stands within the portal of a dynamic
new age. The last decade has seen the destruction and arrival
of dozens of kingdoms. Refugee migrations have spread legends
and beliefs far and wide. Today the common person of
the Flanaess encounters a greater intermingling of cultures
than at any time since the great migrations. With this
tremendous upheaval comes opportunity for great profit and
gallantry. The Flanaess is rife with adventure, and awaits
those who would shape its future.
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Missing Chapter:
A small portion of Greyhawks recent history was omitted as the entire story is only known to a few. Shortly after the Gryehawk wars The arch lich Vecna returned to the world. Through worship he had become a demigod. He returned and upon doing so his presence was immediately felt by Mordenkainen. With no delay he along with the entire circle of eight set out to stop in. In only moments Vecna had slain the entire circle. Vecna’s cult had been aquiring many of Oerth greatest artifacts and placing them strategically across the face of the planet as part of a magical ritual which would create a web which would prevent the other gods access to their followers. He returned to the mystical suelese standing stone of Tovag Baragu in an effort to open a time gate in which he would gate his followers from the distant past. With their worship he would obtain supreme godhood of Oerth. Might heroes including Einhonder Dragonseed and Baalthazar the executioner rushed to stop him. They found themselves banished to a shadow prison where they found Kas the destroyer. He had been trapped in the negative plane for millenium and as a result had become a true vampire lord. With Kas’s aid they were able to return to stand against Vecna. As the conflict began the Wally the Bard summoned Iuz. Iuz came in oreder to gain true godhood for himself. Iuz was defeated but he provided enough destraction for the Greyhawk heroes to cast Vecna through his own time gate before the gate was fully tuned. Vecna was vanquished into a void of timespace. Virtually all of the circle of eight had magically precautions which saved them from true destruction. Mordenkainen rewarded the heroes when it was done but warned that spreaded any word of the being known as Vecna could be disastrous.
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