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Age of Light Timeline(CY: 0 though CY: 1000)Although the Aldariah Calendar used today was not even created until almost 200 years after the Drow were driven from their great city by the human barbarians led by Amren Ap-Anoth, the timeline presented below is generally considered by most historians to be correct.
0 - This year is marked as the first year after the defeat of the Drow and their cult of hate devoted to the evil god Innoruk. After the defeat of the Drow at the hands of a barbarian horde led by the powerful warrior called Amren Ap-Anoth, the entire slave population of the Drow city of Aldariah; which consisted mostly of human slaves; were freed from bondage and immediately took up residence in the now abandoned city.Amren Ap-Anoth; the powerful warrior who had led the campaign against the Drow; is officially named the High King of all the tribes of the Land of Ritensa. After being declared High King of Ritensa, Amren Ap-Anoth takes up residence in the former city of his fallen foes and begins his life long work to unite the former Ritensa people into a single tribe of humans. By the end of his life, almost 30 years later, Amren Ap-Anoth has laid the ground-work of what would later become the Empire of Aldariah.
29 - The First High King of Ritensa; Amren Ap-Anoth; dies quietly in his home in Aldariah. By his funeral pyre stands his family, and the few still living companions of his campaign against the Drow. Among those companions is the still young Faedawn Warrior Alrinor Starbreeze. After the pyre light dies out, Amren's son, Arduin Ap-Amren is named High King of Ritensa. After several days of celebration for the ascension of the new king, it is discovered that Amren Ap-Anoth's fabled sword; Lightbringer; is nowhere to be found. It has always been assumed, though never proven, that the elves of Faedawn had stolen it when they departed immediately after Amren's funeral.
298 - Khabin, son of Odius, a direct descendent of Amren Ap-Anoth, becomes the new King of what has become known as the Kingdom of Aldariah. By this time, the former Ritensa people have all but left behind the old tribal systems of the Ritensa and adopted a slightly more stable feudal system. The people of the Kingdom of Aldariah have expanded their holdings throughout the entire Ritensa River Region of Landor, and have already moved outward to the banks of Fals River in the west.
302 - After a cache of powerful Drow magic is discovered in the extensive dungeons under the City of Aldariah, King Khabin of Aldariah sets his sights for expansion to the south, beyond the Rhilewood Forest into the lands of Rhiliah. It has become Khabin's goal in life to continue what his great ancestor Amren Ap-Anoth had begun and unite all humans under a single leader. He believed that this could be accomplished by leading humans out of barbarism and into the light of civilization. He would begin his conquest of civilization with the people known as the Rhile. At least that was the plan.
309 - After several failed attempts to expand his holdings beyond the Rhilewood Forest, King Khabin decides to lead an army into Rhiliah personally. The campaign is short lived however as King Khabin is slaughtered while he sleep in his tent by a wild and savage beast as what remained of his army slept around him. No sign of the creature that had killed him was ever found. The only evidence to the act was what remained of the broken and mutilated corpse of the once powerful ruler. After King Khabin's death, the survivor's of his army packed up camp and immediately headed back north into Aldariah, never to set foot in Rhiliah again. The few men who managed to make it all the way back to Aldariah alive tell tales of being pursued the entire way north by a pack of savage wolves who picked off the entire army one by one.After hearing of King Khabin's demise, many of his relatives, both close and distant begin to quarrel with one another over who would succeed him, as Khabin had never sired any children, or bothered to name a successor.
310 - The quarreling over Khabin's successor grows more violent as open battles begin to play themselves out in the streets of Aldariah.
311 - The relatively minor battles grow in to all out civil war which soon engulfs the entire kingdom. Ruler's of most settlements choose up sides and begin to form armies to enforce their chosen successor's right to the throne.
315 - After a brief, but bloody, civil war the new King of Aldariah is chosen from among King Khabin's many distant relatives. With the support of his fellow mages in the wizard's guild known as the Son's of Argelis, Daliyan Vennyr is named King of Aldariah and soon puts a violent end to the destructive conflict engulfing his kingdom.
318 - King Daliyan begins reinforcing settlements along the Rhilewood Forest against possible repercussions following King Khabin's failed attempts to conquer the Rhile. Leading this effort are the mages known as the Son's of Argelis, who; with their new found royal backing; set up a formal wizards guild based in the City of Dyvers.
326 - The newly named Emperor of Aldariah, Daliyan Vennyr chooses from among the most loyal of his friends within the Sons of Argelis and founds the Imperial Battlemages.
468 - Civil war threatens to engulf the young Kingdom of Aldariah once again as the High Lord of Krakenheim; Ostler Seabore; sets his sights on the throne of Aldariah. Seabore begins his power play by first rallying support from the High Lord of Irongate and then massing an army to subjugate his neighbors. Several short months after the coup begins, Ostler Seabore's ally, the High Lord of Irongate is overthrown by the mercenary guild known as The Arm of Rojan. In return for putting an end to a small part of Aldariah's problems, Emperor Sarjen Tyro of Aldariah grants the Arm of Rojan vast land holdings within the City of Irongate itself. After beheading the former High Lord of Irongate, the Emperor allows the former High Lord's son to become the new King of the Protectorate of Irongate in return for a renewed oath of loyalty as well as the promise to provide financial support for the Arm or Rojan, who would in turn provide military support for Irongate.
470 - With the problems to the east dealt with, The Emperor of Aldariah turns his full attention to the west, and to Ostler Seabore himself. The High Lord of Krakenheim however proves to be a far more challenging opponent than the High Lord of Irongate had been. Several years, and many thousands of lives would be wasted before Ostler Seabore is brought to heel.
474 - After several years of the worst civil war in Aldariah's short history, the disloyal High Lord of Krakenheim, Ostler Seabore is finally brought down. Seabores defeat however comes not from the Emperor's armies; who were then massing outside Seabores lands; but by the very people who had been subjugated by Seabore in the years since his failed coup began.Because of Seabores overpowering desire to become King of Aldariah, he had squeezed his subjects to the breaking point. His tactics of kingship included little more than military might and the inability to rule through anything other than fear and intimidation. After several years of tyranny the people under Ostler Seabore finally decided to rise up against him. So instead of keeping out the Emperor's army, Seabores vast military was relegated to little more than sentry duty guarding against constant peasant uprisings. The Emperor saw this and knew it was only a matter of time before his planned invasion became little more than a mop up operation as the peasants of Krakenheim did all the work for him.
475 - Once Ostler Seabore was finally brought down, the Emperor of Aldariah decided to allow Ostler Seabore's nephew to take the title of King of the Protectorate of Krakenheim and keep the holdings his ill-reputed uncle had conquered. In return for an oath of loyalty, the Emperor's gave his full support to the new King of Krakenheim against the people of that province, who had decided that they had quite enough of a Seabore as their ruler.
596 – The eastern barbarians known as the Cir are finally subjugated under the banner of Aldariah. There society is all but destroyed in the coming centuries.
883 – The easternmost province of Altara breaks away from the greater Empire of Aldariah forming its own kingdom. During the following century a few other outlying provinces follow suite, thus beginning the time known in history as The Breaking of the World.
(900) – The Breaking begins to gain more momentum as tensions between the humans of the now independent Aldarian provinces and the elves of Faedawn begin to rise.The ever-expanding humans begin encroaching on the sacred forest known to the elves as Syldrich Trae. Quick skirmishes followed by hasty treaties are a common occurrence for the rest of this century.
(1000+) – Finally reaching a breaking point at sometime in this century, the Kingdom of Ethengar attacks Faedawn and manages to conquer the elven city of Qeynos before turning their greed on the elven Holy Temple of the Stars located in Taurë tel' qualin. After the elven temple is burned to the ground, the elves retaliate and all out war is the result.At some point during this century the elves slowly begin to realize that their cause is lost. In a last ditch effort to save their culture, the combined forces of Faedawn and Deriahn launch an all-out assault on the humans capitol city of Aldariah. When the city is destroyed and the imperial line wiped out, the humans begin to fight one another over the right of succession to the imperial throne.
The elves use this distraction to their advantage and evacuate the last survivors of their respective empires deep within the vast expanse of the Vyalliah Forest. There they found the city of Vyalliah and withdraw from the world leaving the humans to destroy the rest of the world, and each other.
So ends the so called Age of Light, and so begins a dark age for humanity. The coming centuries will see many changes to the world. Kingdoms both great and small will rise and fall to the ebb and flow of time. The great knowledge and achievements of the previous age will be all but lost to the chaos and anarchy that follows the destruction of Aldariah.
The barbarian people known as the Cir, driven from their plains by the land hungry Altarans will travel east to the lands of Talous-Zek and claim the once proud empire of the Ogres as their own. Eventually, the Cir will become a civilized people, but never quite loosing their ancient warrior spirit.This warriors spirit will help see the people of the Kingdom of Ciriah through the invasion of their country by the Padishah Mage Kerevaks. This invasion, which would lead to a decade long war between the Kingdom of Ciriah and the Magiocracy of Ryliah would see the common people of Ryliah freed from the oppressive yoke of their arcane masters, and the Kingdom of Ciriah as the heartland of what may well become a new Landorian Empire.
The strong and proud Rhile, the people that even the full might of the Empire of Aldariah could not conquer, will eventually find themselves conquered by a foreign invader. Izondia, a vast power from across the ocean will do what the Empire of Aldariah could not and bring the brutal Rhile to heel with the might of the all powerful Padishah Mages. The cowed Rhile people served as the under caste of the new Magiocracy of Ryliah for a time before the Padishah Mage Kerevaks attacked Ciriah and started a war which would eventually leave Ryliah nothing more than the first of a expanding list of Protectorates in the ever growing Empire of Ciriah.
The rebellious province of Altara will remain largely untouched through not only the Breaking of the World, but also the Great Burning and the total chaos of the Dark Age. Although without the economic or military support of Aldariah to back them, the people of Altara had to go it alone and as a result did not expand as they could have otherwise. The boarders of the now Most Holy Theocracy of Altara are in fact smaller than they were when they broke away from Aldariah over a thousand years ago. However, since the recent popular uprising of the Children of the Light that saw to the overthrow of the king of Altara, and the installation of the Grand Patriarch of Alainus as leader, the boarders of Altara have once again begun to expand. |
Please note that I have respectfully borrowed some details and descriptions for my campaign from Bruce A. Gulke and his Realm of Mythosa Campaign. You should click the banner below and go check out his awsome campaign.
All maps on this site were created using Profantasy's Campaign Cartographer 2
Web Site Created and Maintained by Thrylax Site Last Updated on: Sunday, September 11, 2005 |
