by Sully

Preface

In this history, the term "world" will refer to the open mapspace of the land itself, which is bounded by mists on four sides, and the term "realm" will refer to the present modern period, from the establishment of the Court of Trueheart.

Prehistory of the World

It is apparent from both paleontological and zoological evidence that this world was first inhabited by huge prehistoric beasts, such as immense insects and reptiles. The bones and exoskeletons of these creatures are sometimes uncovered, and, in addition, this strain of biological gigantism lives on in the varieties of Giant Wasps, Giant Cockroaches, and Giant Rats which may be found in less settled areas of the world.

There is some reason, therefore, to include the race of Giants-- which still inhabit some areas of the world-- as among the oldest native races on the known map. Archaeolgical evidence also points to the extreme antiquity of the Dwarven and Elven races. The Orc race, which is also met frequently among the inhabitants, seems to be of a more recent arrival, having emigrated eastwardly over the past several thousand years.

Additionally, there is evidence of even older races, some of whom have been previously considered to be only mythological in nature i.e. satyrs, minotaurs, etc.) Artefacts of these extinct races are frequently uncovered in previously buried tombs, caves and other geological and constructed locations.

The Elven Period

What little is known of the eons of sentient history before the arrival of humans in the world has been gathered mainly from Elven sources and folklore. So far, it is the great and long-standing Elven culture which has provided the oldest timeline extant. According to Elven time, known as the Sylvandor system, we are at the present date (519 Human Era, or HE) at 2679 Sylvandor. The Sylvandor calendar apparently dates from the founding of a great (perhaps mythical) Elven kingdom of Sylvandor, which, according to legend, exists in deep forests far to the south, beyond the ocation of the recently fallen wall of mist. In any event, the five elven clans (Amros, Glendoriel, Midiar, Sethic, and Turgon) which affiliated themselves into the Eldar Coalition in the year 2098 Sylvandor were already of ancient origin.

Elven records indicate that before humans lived in this world that the major forest areas of the south and the central regions were inhabited by elves, with members of the Giant race inhabiting a region that spread across the north, from the Claw Mountains in the west, and as far south as the present site of Tantallon. Giants were much more involved in world events at this earlier than they are today. For example, Giants were responsible for the imprisonment of the Sihklas, very ancient elemental spirits, in fourteen concealed pits around the world. (The one pit so far identified was discovered at a later period by a now-defunct clan of dwarves.) A highly developed Dwarven culture, which is still being investigated, was and still is situated in a group of deep caves and excavations within the Claw Mountains themselves.

Before the arrival of humans, all three major races lived in relative respect, if not harmony, and were able to co-exist peaceably because of differences in geographical preference. In addition, there appears to have been a loose confederation of the three humanoid races at times of peril, probably at times of attack from orc kingdoms to the West.

Orcs have apparently been depised by all three indigenous races from time immemorial, because of their rapacity, propensity to violence, and general foul behavior and appearance. Being short-lived yet rapid breeders (in these respects resembling humans) they were constantly in search of additional land. In addition, orcs apparently used their smaller and weaker racial cousins, the goblins, as slave labour, and for this were despised. (The ancient underground goblin community of Ravel has been rumoured to have been founded in approximately the year 900 Sylvandor by a group of runaway goblin slaves.)

Elves, however, were the preeminent race in the area. It is obvious from the affinity of elves to this world, and from the importance that magic-users have played throughout the world's history, that this area of land has some particular closeness with the forces of the unseen and the invisible. The drow elves, for example, have refused to abandon their ancient ancestral cave-temple to their ancient deity Losoth, because they apparently believe that this land, and only this land, possesses that occult and spiritual significance which permits the god to reveal itself to the believers in some visible form.

The Arrival of Humans

The history we have certainly reveals to us that the humans who first settled here found an immediate affiliation and strength in becoming users of magic. The first human landing in this world occurred approximately 1000 years ago, in the year 1642 Sylvandor, in the harbour which is now the site of the ancient town of Tantallon. Much of the earliest history of human habitation and settlement is still unknown, but what is obvious from the evidence is that humans came into immediate contact with the elves who were inhabiting the surface forest areas. We can ascertain this from the rapid appearance of half-elves, as well as the increasing number of human magic users among the human populations.

Apparently a mutual fascination between human and elves kept the two races living in increasing proximity for the first two centuries after the founding of Tantallon. However, humans are by nature short-lived, questing and imperial, and the rapid growth of the human population, combined with territorial expansion and human treatment of the land itself, seems to have resulted in almost inevitable human-elf conflict.

The Elf-Human War(s)

A long series of Elf-Human Wars (considered by the near-immortal Elven race to be in actuality one War) erupted in approximately 1850 Sylvandor, and continued for over 300 years. It is apparently during this period when necromancers first emerged, the original necromancers being drow elf mages who developed spells which could revivify human corpses and then turn them back upon their own troops. (The shifting of necromancy from drow to predominantly Dwarven occurs later, when cave-dwelling Drow traded their knowledge of necromancy to dwarves in exchange for various mage caves. Necromancy has since fallen out of favor with most elves.)

The Elf-Human Wars were not just physically destructive, but were also psychically debilitating for both races. A peace movement was eventually begun by like-thinking elves, half-elves, and humans, who consolidated themselves into the community called the Eldar. After years of negotiation, the Eldar were able to encourage Bardoz, a legendary half-elf, to broker a peace between the Elven forces and the human tribes, who had been banded together and fighting under the leadership of a mighty khan, Rogan.

The peace treaty stipulated that the majority of Elves would emigrate southward, towards the forests around Sylvandor, and that humans would retain territoriality over the present world. Those elves and half-elves who wished to remain within this world could do so, with their center in the village of Duendar. However, emotions ran so high between the elves and humans that is was determined necessary to physically separate the most bellicose. Therefore, powerful Elven mages raised an impassable mist to the south, which began just beyond Duendar, to guarantee that bloodshed between the races could be stilled for a time. The technique of elven "mist-battlements" was an old one, having been used by elves to defend themselves against the encroaching orc tribes of the west, and against barbarian tribes from the north. (These mist-battlements remain in place.)

The Beginning of the Human Era

Bardoz chose to remain within this realm when the southern wall of mist was raised and the elves retreated south. He assisted Rogan in building Nepeth Castle, which is the present home of the Court of Drin and present seat of human rule in the realm. The construction of the Castle, the signing of the Human-Elf treaty, and the consolidation of human dominion over the world form the basis for the beginning of Human Era. Our present timeline dates back to this founding year 0 HE (2159 Sylvandor).

The Orc Conflicts Begin

Once the rumors of the Elf-Human truce reached the Orc kingdoms, however, the orcs began renewed forays into the world. Apparently series of tunnels hidden within the Claw Mountains allowed the orcs passage beneath the western mist-battlement.

At first, these parties were sporadic and unprofitable. The orcs who ventured east never returned home, being either killed or captured and enslaved by humans. (Orcs, being tough, strong, and unintelligent, were considered to be excellent brute slave labor by humans.)

Within a few decades, however, a few orcs managed to escape their slavery and return to the western orc lands, where the news of their enslavement brought a fierce cry for a war of liberation to be waged against the humans. (One interesting note s that it is apparently the knowledge of orc enslavement which created the impetus for greater civil rights to be granted to goblins by the orcs. Goblins became second-class citizens in orc kingdoms at this time, and were also admitted into orc fighting forces.)

Records of the earliest orc wars have apparently been lost, as they were kept in the library of Nepeth Castle, which was burned in approximately 350 HE. However, we do know from records found at Fort Vaughn, the major Fort guarding the central passage west through the Claw Mountains, that the Elven Guard, elite fighters from Duendar, were stationed there as late as 214 HE, and were already inured to frequent orc attacks.

This fort, which is now located in a desolate area frequented by brigands and dwarven rogues, was once the main defense for a thriving region. It included the now vanished villages of Kasico and Danil, which were even further west. A combination of orcish ravaging and a terrible plague decimated this region in 214, driving back human colonization towards Tantallon. This retreat ushered in an apparent Dark Age which lasted until 386 HE.

The Rise of the Truehearts

It is in this year, 386 HE, that Bardoz, long absent, returned and helped to establish the Trueheart line and rule. He persuaded Arutha, a scion of the line of Rogan, to establish a city around Nepeth Castle, which would serve as a cultural and economic bastion for humans. Bardoz also advised Arutha to establish a unified realm out of the several separate human kingdoms which had grown up since the landing of humans. These former duchies, still ruled at times by titular kings, became the basis of the fourteen noble families of the realm, whose banners an still be seen hanging in the audience hall of Nepeth Castle. Of the original fourteen families, three are extinct and one has since fallen into disgrace. See ADDENDUM for details.)

Once humans united their disparate kingdoms under the banner of Trueheart, a process not without some conflict, they rapidly took control of much of the region that had been terrorized by orc patrols and raiding parties, and periods of relative peace ensued.

The War of the Frost Giants

Human population burgeoned during the peacetimes, and this resulted in increasing immigration into northern areas. Humans were now brought into direct conflict with the race of Frost Giants, who had formerly remained removed from much of the fighting taking place along the southern and western frontiers. Frost Giants, although relatively peaceable, were already under pressure due to changing climactic conditions. They took up arms to actively resist the encroachment of humans upon their territory. The War of the Frost Giants (416-435 HE) ensued, with the Giants' being defeated by the stronger organization and tactics which the humans developed as they united under Arutha's son Ywin (who had assumed the throne in 414 HE). There is also some evidence that humans were assisted in their battles against the Frost Giants by a mysterious type of fire weapon, developed for Ywin by Bardoz. The exact elements of this "Lethiferous Fire", however, have yet to be recovered. Following the retreat of the Frost Giants to more northerly realms, both the towns of Neville and Hobbitat were established.

The War of Faith

The orc wars continued, but the unification of the realm was the decisive factor in the eventual victory of the humans. The last great Orc War, the War of Faith, began in the year 484 and lasted three years. It was begun when the mountain orcs united under a vengeful half-orc, Alzarov (formerly Garath), and began to pillage villages to the south, north and west of Tantallon. Alzarov, the son of a human woman raped by orcish invaders, had been turned out of his human village when still young by humans who bore great prejudice against orcs. This humiliation made him determined to revenge himself against humans, by driving them away from this world altogether.

The War of Faith was perhaps the most destructive of all orc wars. The abandoned mages' tower and the Haunted Manor north of Tantallon are ruins dating to this war. It was bitterly fought, and there were tremendous numbers of casualties on both sides. The chance of the complete eradication of human life in this world was quite strong.

Arnog Trueheart the Fierce (son of Tim) created an alliance of human and dwarven forces, which finally lay siege to the Mountain Orc stronghold. In the ensuing battle, Alzarov either vanished or was killed. The orcs, left without their charismatic leader, were defeated and surrendered to Drin, Arnog's son. (Arnog had been killed in battle a few months earlier, in 487).

Drin's Knights and "The Reign of Order"

A peace treaty was signed between Drin and Kazarov, the new King of the Mountain Orcs, and the Mountain Orcs were brought under the nominal control of Drin. It is to celebrate and honour the victory of Drin that the order of Knights of Drin was officially founded, formalizing a knightly tradition that had been in effect since the time of Arutha. Laws became more codified and enforced, and the might of the Paladins became more prominent.

Halforc and the Rise of the Scythe

However, some orcs refused to accept the surrender of Kazarov-- which was viewed by many orcs as a betrayal of all orcish history. In addition, many humans and dwarves grew uneasy under what was viewed as an increasingly imperial tendency in Drin, who although generally considered kind, can also be quite stern and is decidely expansionist.

A group of these renegades, driven out after the fall of Alzarov, rallied together under the leadership of a fighter named Halforc. Halforc was also the product of an orc-human mating, but, in this case, of a lovematch. Halforc's father had left his own village after being ridiculed for his ugliness and poor hygiene habits, and had married an orc woman whom he had met in his wanderings. Halforc himself was motivated by his convictions of the similarities shared by both humans and orcs: their hungers, physical drives, sexual predilections, and rugged individualism. He was contemptuous of both the new "Reign of Order" proclaimed by Drin, and of the Mountain Orcs whom he felt had scurrilously surrendered to that reign. He gathered a band of like-minded thinkers in a group called the Scythe. (The name of Scythe refers to the brutal and swift blade which decapitates the field of identical and orderly stalks of grain.)

Halforc sought the advice of the orc shaman,who told him to move his group south to a site just next to Asyvan's domain. The Scythe camp has grown as additional disaffected subjects of Drin have flocked to the group. Halforc himself has been absent for the past few years, apparently having travelled to the west to search for allies among the western orc lands. His lieutenant still leads the Scythe, however, and the group continues to ravage the forces of Drin. Sometimes they have even managed to sway the very forces of Drin himself, as when they won over the heart of a now-nameless knight who surrendered the once-impregnable Knights' Stronghold to the forces of evil.

Scythe orcs distance themselves from the Mountain Orcs, whom they view as traitorous and bootlicking, and instead practice the old orcish religion as continued by the orc shaman in Dalair.

Dalair: Chaos in the Midst of the Realm

Dalair, situated between the Mountain Orcs and Nepeth, has grown over the past sixty years from a small farming community (apparently new at the time that Nepeth town was established) into a source of continual peril to the realm at large.

Dalair, being orcish and thus self-governing, was removed from the long arm of Drin's law. It became a natural magnet for many of the less savory citizens of the realm. Necromancers, hated by so many of the virtuous Knights and Paladins of the realm, have found Dalair to be the perfect home for their center. It is also here that a group of evil spellcasters first met, in order to conduct research into summoning entities from other planes in a power-seeking venture. These spellcasters discovered the previously unknown access point into the Plane of Chaos, a little-understood phenomenon. Over the past few decades, this loose-knit band of seekers has become an organized if nihilistic millennialist religion, known as the Courts of Chaos. Although dismissed as a cult by the more established forces of Drin, Chaos is growing into a challenge to the major world religion, Antana.

The Religion of Antana

The religion of Antana has spread since the arrival of the earliest human settlers. It now wields great power within the realm, especially through its main instrument of proselytization, the Monks of Antana. While there are evidences of the other indigenous religions in the world which may predate Antana, most are either now viewed as cults, as in the Cult of Losoth, or are completely lost, as in the Gnoll religion. Antana as a faith came to these shores with the first human settlers, and originally admitted only humans. However, since the treaty of the Elf wars, the rules have gradually been relaxed, so that at first half-elves, and now elves, are also welcomed as adherants. The secular power of the religion is reflected in its many structures, which include a monastery and a convent.

Conclusion

As the realm has expanded, it has also grown in its sophistication and civilization. Neville, once a tiny, semi-inhabited village, now has a bustling population and a busy marketplace. Hobbits, ever looking for expansion of the trade that is the lifeblood of these sociable middle-class burghers, have made Hobbitat into one of the premier towns of the realm. Other towns, such as Zhamarr, which were originally separate duchies outside of the realm, are also falling deeper into the sphere of influence of the Trueheart court.

Perhaps most important in recent years is the dismantlement of the southern wall of mist, the result of a diplomatic agreement between elves and the Court of Drin. The collapse of the mist has revealed both Elven settlements, such as Listhalia, and vast unexplored regions of desert, swamp, and jungle forest. Rangers exploring the northern parts of our world have also reported strange sounds emerging from the wall of mist to the north, as well. It may well be that our northern boundaries are becoming unstable.

I anticipate that as our adventurers and seekers venture ever farther into the exploration of the world which our realm inhabits, that ever more fascinating indications of the history of Ancient Anguish will merge from the mists of history and geography.

Written 514; updated 519

ADDENDA: Trueheart Chronology

Drin : born 452, current age 55
Alisha: born 459, current age 48

Arnog: born 433, died 487, age 54, slain in the War of Faith
Unaquia: born 433, died 489, age 56, the grief over her husband's death drove her to an early death.

Tim : born 401, died 478, age 77, he left the throne to his son Arnog two years before his death due to weak health. Died in his bed, peacefully.
Aaida: born ca. 350, died 492, age almost 150, Aaida was a halfelf. She possessed great healing powers.

Ywin : born 382, died 447, age 65, he left the throne to his son Tim seven years before his death. He retired to a temple high in the mountains. He lost his sight in a tournament in 426.
Michaela: born 379, died 401, age 22, she died giving birth to Tim. Yet another sad chapter in the more or less cursed life of Ywin the Blind.

Arutha:born 364, died 414, age 50, died from wounds he got during a fight with the dragon Horg

Recent history of Nepeth: [taken from Knight History]
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In the years 485-487 the last great Orc-war was fought. It is also known as the War of Faith. The war lasted for nearly 3 years. Hoards of orcs came in from the southwest and the west. Humans from all over the Realm gathered in Nepeth and the castle. And an army was equipped by King Arnog, Drin's father. Arnog himself died from the wound of a stray arrow mere months before the war ended, leaving Drin in charge of the troops in those final battles. A task King Drin were more than able to handle. It is said that in the final battle, which raged for three whole days, Drin single handedly killed close to two hundred orcs, leading his troops on to a grand victory.

ADDENDA: The Fourteen Noble Families

The family surname is given, along with the manorial estate or town which the family rules or ruled.

Talinqar is the family name of the great evil warlock Asyvan, who attempted to poison Drin early in his realm, in the hopes of leading a coup which would overthrow the Trueheart line. Discovered before his evil plans could succeed, he fled, and is rumored to be dwelling in caves hidden in the Claw Mountains near Nepeth Castle. His ancestral manor was razed by the troops of Drin, and all that remains is a ring of stones. It was located near the present Scythe camp. (Scythe lore maintains that the site of the Scythe camp was selected specifically to draw from the powerful forces of evil, anti-Drin magic which permeate the region there.)