Prior to the existence of Time it is difficult to order events, so the earliest parts of the timeline are, by necessity, simply ordered in a fashion that is comprehensible to minds accustomed to the existence of Time, though this is not, technically speaking, accurate.
First, there is Chaos. Chaos is all things at once, simultanious and eternal. Nothing lasts, though measuring existence changes depending upon the means Chaos has created, or not, to measure it.
From Chaos comes the Gods, beings of sentience, awareness of their own existence. They are not the first, nor the last such beings, yet they are both. Determined not to be reabsorbed, to return to the nothing and everything from whence they came, they band together to shape from Chaos the one thing it cannot create. Permanence, stability, order. From the raw stuff of Chaos, and from their own flesh they create a Haven amidst the great and endless sea.
From Chaos comes other beings, both younger and older than the Gods, but separate from them. Whether their purpose is to destroy Haven, this irritant upon their Father and Mother, or to seek shelter from the Storm, they invade Haven, to take if for their own.
The God War begins and ends. A God dies, as does a Demon, their natures forever lost to Mortals who have never known them. Death is born, and the Gods weep, for they know now that Chaos has won. Time is born and event become ordered for the first time, though only between the two points, where Death is Born, and where Death kills Time itself, ending Haven and all within. A host of other Gods, and strange demon-gods are born from this event. The Great Treaty is created by the God mortals call the Sun, and the lost corpse of the slain lies hidden in the lands that will one day be called Irem. All of this happens in an Instant, and an Eternity. THe Demon Princes accept the Great Treaty and impose it upon their Lineages, retreating to the unused half of Haven, creating for themselves the Demon Realm.
Millions of Years Ago: Only the Gods, and the Demons, exist in Haven, walking the face of the world as they will. War is sealed away for a time by the Gods, and an uneasy peace with Death is formed. In this time many of the legends of the Gods are true, the Sun scorches the Land and is judged by Death, losing half of himself and creating Night, the face of the Moon is burned when she attempts to hold the Fire of the Sun that was cut away, losing most of it. The Sea grows jealous of the land. A thousand such stories exist. In time the Gods realize that Haven is shrinking, slowly eroding around the edges as Chaos reclaims her, despite the Barrier. They turn to the God of creation (not Creation) to devise a clever plan to undo this, and the God, later known to Mortals as the Smith crafts the Great Engine, to slowly replenish the energies and substance of Haven.
Millions of Years Ago: The Time of the First Men begins, as God create the Mortal Races, be they like men or beasts. All manner of life is created to fill Haven, and from these new creations the Gods elevate new, younger Gods.. In time Death claims the lives of the First Men, leaving the world empty. The Souls of the Dead wander the face of Haven for a time. The Gods create the Lands of the Dead to hold the souls, and create the Second Men in the images of the First Men, and give them the gift of life, allowing them to procreate. Some have called this the time of the First Women.
Millions of Years Ago: Verra gives to the First/Second Men the gift of Elder Sorcery, becoming the patron of wizards. Her gift kills as many as it saves.
In response, or so it is said, Crom steals the secret of Fire from the Smith and gives it to the First Men. There is some dispute who acted first, even amongst the Gods.
Millions of Years Ago: The First Men, fearful of Death and finding the Lands of the Dead to be less pleasant than life, create Necromancy. For a time the Gods watch in wonder as the souls of the dead freely return to the lands of the living, but eventually they issue the Commandment Against Necromancy, banning it forever from Mortal hands. The Sun, Death and the Sea become the fiercest champions of this Commandment.
Millions of Years Ago: The First Men discover Diabolism, and begin summoning Demons to the Mortal Realm for the first time. In time this practice results in the utter destruction of their civilization. THe Gods, from time to time, refresh the world of Mortals with new races, as old ones are lost, and civilizations continue to rise and fall.
A hundred Thousand Years ago, more or less: The Lizard Folk, children of the God Reptile, raise a mighty civilization, and begin rejecting Elder Sorcery for newer and safer forms of magic, wizardry and miracles gifted by the Gods.
A Hundred Thousand Years Ago: Chaos, perhaps inspired by the God's use of Miracles to inspire worship and obedience, forms avatars of itself, new Gods that exist without the Barrier, beyond Time, and begins seducing Mortals to its service. The Lizard Folk suffer the first of many disasters to befall their civilization as temples to these new Gods arise, and entire cities are lost to madness and evil.
Fifty Thousand Years Ago: The Titans Arise. At first they are as any other civilization, any other race, using a combination of Elder Sorcery, wizardry and divine miracles, as well as the Gift of Fire, to run their cities and warm their lands. In time they rise to heights beyond other civilizations and begin conquest of their neighbors, enslaving and forever altering the Races of the world, those that they do not expunge. They create the first Dragons as mighty war machines, the Elves as concubines and pleasure slaves, the Dwarves as doughty workers, and the Orcs as soldiers and gladiators. These are the Titanic Races, along with others, some lost to history. The Titans turn away from the Gods, as the Gods are said to turn away from the Titans. It may be said that the Titans exploited the Gifts of Chaos without serving it, a measure of how arrogant and how successful they were.
Ten Thousand Years Ago: The Gods determine to strike the Titans down before they destroy the Great Engine in their arrogance. As the Gods bicker about how to best do this, Verra whispers secrets in the ears of certain Elvish slaves. The Elves free the Dragons and perform a great ritual, stolen and perverted from the Titans, stripping their masters of all magic. The great floating cities of the Titans cease to exist, not simply falling as some suggest, but their very construction out of the forces of Magic cannot be sustained. Millions die, the surviving Titans flee, living amongst loyal Orcish slaves for a time before disappearing from History.
Cast into the wilderness for the first time, the Elves retreat into the embrace of the mighty forest that has grown to cover the lands where the Titans once arose, before their cities took to the Skies. The Dwarves settle primarily to the East, quickly forming tight knit farming communities. The Orcs retreat to the South and North, taking their former Masters with them.
Elves begin stealing food and sundries from the Dwarves, the Dwarves retaliate by defending their communities, killing a few Elves (it should be noted that the elves had no problem killing dwarves during their raids...). In return the Elves and Dwarves fight the first war between their kind. The Elvish Hero, Dealy'reath and his followers are some of the most aggressive and determined of the war, and they advocate using weapons stolen from the Titans to end the War, they are opposed by the King of the Elves. Dealy'reath and his followers steal two such weapons and unleash Pestilence upon the Dwarves, and are exiled from the rest of Elves, forming the first Tribal Schism amongst the Elves. The Dwarven Women are hardest hit by the disease, dying or becoming barren in vast numbers. The dwarves retreat underground, finding some succor from the godlike entity stalking them behind thick stone walls.
Inspired by the power of the first Weapon, Dealy'reath decides to drain the power of the second weapon to become a God. During the process he determines to betray his followers, consuming their souls to power his apotheosis. Before he can finish the King of the Elves interrupts the ritual, attacking him in a magical duel. Dealy'reath kills the King of the Elves, but his surviving followers turn on him, consuming his flesh and spirit in a perversion of his own ritual. They retreat from the wrath of the other Elves, now known as the Siti, in honor of their slain King.
Without the Dwarves to work the fields, the Elves have no one to steal food from, and they suffer the Lean Times. They blame Dealy'reath and his followers for this periord, but are lead by the daughter of Siti, the last Elf born in the Time of the Titans, who teaches them to live in harmony with the Forest, and thus to survive, preventing further Schisms for a thousand years.
9500 years ago: The Orcs of the far north are plagued by Ice Demons, and begin forming larger armed camps to defend themselves. The first Orcish City of Mar'karth is formed, with thick stone walls to keep the Demons at bay.
9400 Years ago: An unknown Orc discovers the secrets of the Great Treaty and begins shaping the City of Mar'karth into a vast Diabolist symbol designed to cast the Ice Demons into the Demon Realm. In order to complete the ritual, the orc gives up his Name, and is forgotten by all Mortals and Gods.
Verra becomes the Demon Queen through means unknown around this time. She takes up patronage of the Orcs for the first time, and is said to have taught the unknown Orc the secrets of the Great Treaty herself.
9300 Years ago: The Dealy'reath retreat through the bowels of the earth, seeking the Demon Realms. Discovering a sealed portal amidst a great underground city of a previously unknown race, the Goblins, the Dealy'reath curse the Goblins with a terrible hunger, destroying their civilization and unlocking the portal. A Goblin Shaman beseeches the Gods for succor from teh Curse. Death is the only God who cares enough to respond, and he grants the goblins a unique reprieve. Goblins do not truly die, their souls constantly reborn into new bodies, so that their people shall never perish from Haven, until the End of Time. Why Death proves so merciful is unclear. The Dwarves and Goblins begin and endless war through the dark places of the earth.
9200 years ago: The Orcs of Mar'karth have prospered, freed from the demons and encounter the Elves for the first time since the Titanfall. Despite initial mistrust, the Orcs eventually attempt to open trade with the Elves. In response the elves slaughter the orcish merchants and take their wares. The Elf known as Danu begins drawing followers to his cause, declaring the Orcs to be the inheritors of the hated Titans.
9150: After a generation of War, the Orcs are on the verge of defeating the Elves on the field of battle. The Queen of the Elves sends and emissary to the Orcs to discuss an honorable surrender, but when the orcish general arrives at the meeting place his is murdered, sending the Orcs into disarray. Before they can recover, the wizards of the Siti elves cast a terrible ritual that destroys Mar'karth, killing all that live within it. The Northern Orcs are slaughtered and scattered by the victorious elves. Danu, appalled at the Slaughter rejects his own followers and declares a Path of Peace, leading like minded Elves south, eventually to cross the sea to the Southern Continent in magical seashell boats, in the second recorded Schism. His former Followers become the Tuatha, and remain with the Siti for a time.
Eight Thousand Years Ago: The Danu Elves encounter the three great orcish cities in the South. Despite misgivings about the Orcs, and the Orcish hatred of the Elves, for many of the orcs from Mar'karth had settled in the South after the war, the Danu refrain from destroying the Orcish cities, instead deliberately using their presence to unite the Orcs against the Elvish threat, letting them grow stronger.
7500 years ago: The Goblins reach the surface of Haven for the first time and destroy in turn the orcs of the south and the city of Danu, the first Goblin War Begins, as endless hordes of starving beasts pour from underground into the light. The survivors of the south band together as refugees, the first act of true peace between their races since the Titanfall, but they are lost to history in the process.
7000 years ago: The Dwarves return to the Surface, marching in gleaming formations, breaking the Goblin Hordes and saving the surface races in the process. The Queen of the Elves bends her knee to the Dwarvish king and apologizes for the actions of her Race, so long ago. In outrage, the highly Militant Tuatha elves leave the Siti, and eventually migrate south, following Danu.
6800 years ago: The first race of Man appears on the island of Tibor. They are tall and proud and strong, skilled in war and magic. The Tibor spread across the south, forming new cities and nations.
6500 years ago: The Tibori conquer Dragons and become known as Dragon Riders. They sweep across the world, demanding tribute from all the races of the surface, and receiving it. The Tuatha declare their hate for all Men in return, but they pay their tribute just the same. The Tibor end the second Goblin War on dragon back almost as soon as it begins.
6450 years ago: The great Dragon City of Tibor is ended in a single night of blood as the Dealy'reath return to the Mortal Realm for the first time in recorded history, killing the women and children of the Dragon Riders, and stealing their secrets. Some say they did so on behalf of the Tuathans.
Across the Southern Continent the Tuatha Elves wage war on the Cities of Men. They are never successful in exterminating them, but they keep the Men of the south weak and few in number.
3000 years ago: Bolvard becomes the first hero of Man, and unites seven cities of the South into a great kingdom, defeating the Tuatha in battle several times. He eventually earns the epithet Elf-slayer, and is known as the First King, at least among Men. Bolvard is elevated to Godhood upon his death, and is said to be (innaccurately as it happens) to be the first God of Men. Upon his death he is buried in the Temple of Death on the Island at teh edge of the World, the first time that place is recorded in history, the first time it was used since the time of Titans.
Irem begins to rise in the far north, a city of Men, alchemists and scholars, and unique among the world at the time they reject wizardry in favor of their alchemy as the basis of their civilization.
2500 years ago: The Iremi discover the World Egg and their civilization leaps and bounds above all others as a result of the knowledge they glean from it. Previously unknown to the other races of the world, the Iremi soon seem to replace the Tibori and the Titans as conquerers of the known world. The Tuatha begin to march north to oppose this new threat as they rebuild their numbers following their loss to Bolvard.
2200 years ago: A number of Tuatha and Siti elves form a city on the borders of Irem as a staging base for their long war. These elves eventually become the Illycli, the Elves of the Towers.
1500 years ago: Studying the World Egg, the Iremi discover the true nature of the Great Engine, and the role of Men and Gods in the world of Haven. In horror they reject this truth and determine to make the world in their own image, setting themselves against the Gods. It may be argued that Chaos clouds their minds, offering them promises of divinity and more, and certainly they make deals with the avatars of Chaos in return for greater knowledge of its nature. Despite this, Haven grows wildly during the time of the Iremi, new lands added.
1100 years ago: The Gods join the Tuatha in battling the Iremi, openly stalking the lands of Irem. In response the Iremi summon the God Killer, which stands watch over their city. Gods die, among them Crom, who brought Fire to the First Men, though what happens to slain Gods is unclear. It is believed to be the first time Gods have died since the God War, though this is hard to verify.
1050: The Iremi begin their great ritual of Apotheosis, ahead of schedule. Despite the power of the Godkiller, they now stand oppossed to all the gods and all the mortal races, even the Demons have begun to turn on them. Using the World Egg as a component of an Elder Sorcery Ritual, shaped by their alchemical arts, they seek to transcend their entire people.
Instead they tear open a hole in reality, and Chaos pours through. The Tuatha elves are destroyed as a people, several Gods present are utterly destroyed (worse than killed, they cease to exist, as if they had never been!), and all the Gods stop whatever they had been doing to contain the threat. Magic ceases to work in the entire world as the Lesser Sea of Chaos swallows Irem.
The Banality Begins. Without Magic, almost all of the great cities begin to fall apart. Elder Sorcery continues to work, but that practice was virtually unknown outside of Irem at that time, though a few ancient Elves recall the art. In the far south the civilian portion of Tuatha retreats to the Sea of Grass, leaving the ruins of their City behind, becoming the Fortress Elves and the nomads of the grasses. The Tower Elves rebuild their city outside the newly formed wasteland, in sight of their ruined towers of old.
Paravail is settled in the middle of the Banality, with the Rise of the OathStone.
Only the dwarves are unharmed, for their magic of 'engineering' seems immune to the Banality. For the first time Dwarven Merchants, instead of Dwarven Armies, march upon the face of Haven, and so the mortal races survive and learn new ways to prosper.
Magic begins to return only slowly, and weakly, in the wake of the disaster, taking fifty or more years before its return is felt. The Current Era begins.
PB 50, The orcs having recovered fastest, for they had always relied least on Magic, conquer parts of the North and levee taxes upon the humans they find there. In the small fishing village of Nornsa, a young Man named Vasilimatu strangles the orcish tax collector and flees to the City of Towers.
PB 56: Vasilimatu returns to Nornsa with his Companions, both human and elvish and wages a war against the Orcs of the north.
PB 63: The Tenebrian Horde rides out of the Sea of Grass and begins conquering the cities of what will one day be the Tenebrian Empire. While there is some question as to the exact origin and nature of the Horde, it is currently believed by modern scholars that the original Tenebrians were mixed race, predominantly orcish and human, with full blooded members of both races as minorities.
PB 75: Having conquered the entire western coast, Vasilimatu declares himself King over Men and settles in his capital. Some dispute over the location of this Capital is had, as both the northern and southern halves claim it. Most historians believe he settled in the southern city of Renbluve, upon the Rock, but returned North frequently.
PB 77: The Reve first make their presence felt on the waves. Historical records indicate that they were around before the Banality, but had lain quiet and dormant during it. Spada and the Kra both feel the lash.
PB 80: The first Heshite Temples rise in the desert lands. Heshite Slavers enter Spadan lands looking for workers. It is likely that other neighbors of the Hesh were taken as well, but no records remain to say whom exactly were struck.
PB 90: On his deathbed, Vasilimatu is elevated to Godhood. The sons and companions of Vasilimatu fall to fighting over the Empire, and the great Nornasan Empire falls into squabbling kingdoms. The Avante reassert their independence, killing their king, the oldest son of Vasilimatu.
PB 127: The Tenebrian Empire strikes across the waves and begins conquering lands to the North.
PB 132: The Tenebrians conquer the Kra, turning that 'nation' into an armed camp facing against the Spada. The Reve continue to raid the Kra lands, despite the Tenebrian presence. Surrounded on all sides by enemies, the Spada begin turning their people into an army, with no civilians.
PB 150~: The Tenebrians begin pressing into the great forest, antagonizing the Elves. The Siti, along with a few Tuatha warriors living amongst them march to War. The Tuatha swear not to sleep as long as a single Man stands against them, leading to the legends that Elves do not need sleep. Despite the impressive skill of the Tuatha war-wizards, it is the Elvish assassins creeping in the dark that finally break the Tenebrian Army, ending their westward march. This defeat, combined with increasing decadence back home leads to a slow collapse of the Tenebrian Empire, as satrapies stop paying tribute and tithes to the Empire. Without orders to the contrary, the Tenebrian Armies in the north continue to wage war against the Spada, eventually absorbing and becoming the Kra nation as known today.
PB 200: The City of Ys is settled, south of Renbluve. As a major port it steals much of Renbluve's revenue and becomes known, for a time, as the Jewel of the South.
PB 220: The Tenebrian Empire finally collapses entirely, as the last northern satrapy declares itself a sovereign kingdom. Even on the Southern Continent the Tenebrian Empire has lost vast swaths of territory, including the lands of the Dragon Desert, and the tribute, if not fealty, of the Fortress elves.
PB 687: The Warlord appears in teh far north, gathering an army of monsters, bandits and outcastes around him.
PB 702: Having completed his conquest of the north through force of arms and sewing discord amongst his enemies, the Warlord splits his forces in two, going around the Great Forest, personally leading his armies to the west.
PB 705: Retreating from the Warlord the humans, dwarves and elves form a great alliance. Upper Renbluve seals herself away, abandoning the Lower City, and taking orcs and 'gelded' goblins (that is, Goblins who have been magically lobotomized to make them tractable) as slaves. In the north religious zealots revolt against the appointed governers of the Warlord, and the Fire Cults begin to gain promenance. To the East, the Warlord's horde stalls out east of the Pepper Savannahs, having failed to conquer Hesh, Spada, the Kra and others, and finding little to do in teh Savannah's themselves. The survivors of this 'wing' of the Warlord's Army eventually turn to Demon Worship and savagry, further blighting the lands they occupy.
PB 715: The Army of Three Races makes its final stand at the fortress of Ysithideri, at the very southern tip of the Northern Continent. The Queen of the Elves gives her life and soul, along with the human general and the dwarven smith, to form the Sword of Peace, which is used, as legend has it, by a pure maiden, to kill the Warlord, scattering his army. Despite the magical blight on the land caused by his march, a great city is built around the Warlord's Sepulchure, named after the fortress. The Siti Elves, blaming Men for the loss of their beloved Queen, withdraw into their forest, retreating from the world. Those elves who disagree with them do not rally under any given leader, but simply live among the humans in their own cities.
With the rise of Ysithideri, the great shining city, full of scholars and wizards, Ys begins to decline, a process that continues to the current day. As many of the dwarven residents responsible for keeping Ys from sinking into the swamps surrounding her migrate to Ysithideri, the decline is inevitable.
PB 778: Believing that the Ysithideri are studying ways of taming dragons, after the Tibori, the Dragons form, for the first time, a massive flight of their own kind and burn the city to ashes in a single night. Only the Warlord's Tomb is unscathed, for Death Himself appears before the doors and kills any dragon that approaches too close.
PB 968: The So Called "Last Emperor" of Tenebria, and his entire family are murdered in a single night in the Imperial City. Only a single slave-concubine survives. Upon reading the Augers, and with a divine visitation from Verra (held by many Tenebrians as a patron of the Empire), the surivivor is elevated to Empress. She immediately begins a bloody pogrom of the corrupt Imperial Beaurocracy and the worst, most ambitious Nobles, gathering power to herself. Within the year the Empire is stable, and the Armies begin marching across the South, demanding ancient Tribute be paid.
PB 980: Current Day.
The dates are somewhat shaky, and I've left a lot of events out, like the invention of 'gunpowder', the Airships, the rise of the sky pirates and so forth. To be honest, some of the events I detailed and dated over five years ago, and I haven't done the research of my own work to keep everything on track. Ya, I'm lazy. Sue me.
First, there is Chaos. Chaos is all things at once, simultanious and eternal. Nothing lasts, though measuring existence changes depending upon the means Chaos has created, or not, to measure it.
From Chaos comes the Gods, beings of sentience, awareness of their own existence. They are not the first, nor the last such beings, yet they are both. Determined not to be reabsorbed, to return to the nothing and everything from whence they came, they band together to shape from Chaos the one thing it cannot create. Permanence, stability, order. From the raw stuff of Chaos, and from their own flesh they create a Haven amidst the great and endless sea.
From Chaos comes other beings, both younger and older than the Gods, but separate from them. Whether their purpose is to destroy Haven, this irritant upon their Father and Mother, or to seek shelter from the Storm, they invade Haven, to take if for their own.
The God War begins and ends. A God dies, as does a Demon, their natures forever lost to Mortals who have never known them. Death is born, and the Gods weep, for they know now that Chaos has won. Time is born and event become ordered for the first time, though only between the two points, where Death is Born, and where Death kills Time itself, ending Haven and all within. A host of other Gods, and strange demon-gods are born from this event. The Great Treaty is created by the God mortals call the Sun, and the lost corpse of the slain lies hidden in the lands that will one day be called Irem. All of this happens in an Instant, and an Eternity. THe Demon Princes accept the Great Treaty and impose it upon their Lineages, retreating to the unused half of Haven, creating for themselves the Demon Realm.
Millions of Years Ago: Only the Gods, and the Demons, exist in Haven, walking the face of the world as they will. War is sealed away for a time by the Gods, and an uneasy peace with Death is formed. In this time many of the legends of the Gods are true, the Sun scorches the Land and is judged by Death, losing half of himself and creating Night, the face of the Moon is burned when she attempts to hold the Fire of the Sun that was cut away, losing most of it. The Sea grows jealous of the land. A thousand such stories exist. In time the Gods realize that Haven is shrinking, slowly eroding around the edges as Chaos reclaims her, despite the Barrier. They turn to the God of creation (not Creation) to devise a clever plan to undo this, and the God, later known to Mortals as the Smith crafts the Great Engine, to slowly replenish the energies and substance of Haven.
Millions of Years Ago: The Time of the First Men begins, as God create the Mortal Races, be they like men or beasts. All manner of life is created to fill Haven, and from these new creations the Gods elevate new, younger Gods.. In time Death claims the lives of the First Men, leaving the world empty. The Souls of the Dead wander the face of Haven for a time. The Gods create the Lands of the Dead to hold the souls, and create the Second Men in the images of the First Men, and give them the gift of life, allowing them to procreate. Some have called this the time of the First Women.
Millions of Years Ago: Verra gives to the First/Second Men the gift of Elder Sorcery, becoming the patron of wizards. Her gift kills as many as it saves.
In response, or so it is said, Crom steals the secret of Fire from the Smith and gives it to the First Men. There is some dispute who acted first, even amongst the Gods.
Millions of Years Ago: The First Men, fearful of Death and finding the Lands of the Dead to be less pleasant than life, create Necromancy. For a time the Gods watch in wonder as the souls of the dead freely return to the lands of the living, but eventually they issue the Commandment Against Necromancy, banning it forever from Mortal hands. The Sun, Death and the Sea become the fiercest champions of this Commandment.
Millions of Years Ago: The First Men discover Diabolism, and begin summoning Demons to the Mortal Realm for the first time. In time this practice results in the utter destruction of their civilization. THe Gods, from time to time, refresh the world of Mortals with new races, as old ones are lost, and civilizations continue to rise and fall.
A hundred Thousand Years ago, more or less: The Lizard Folk, children of the God Reptile, raise a mighty civilization, and begin rejecting Elder Sorcery for newer and safer forms of magic, wizardry and miracles gifted by the Gods.
A Hundred Thousand Years Ago: Chaos, perhaps inspired by the God's use of Miracles to inspire worship and obedience, forms avatars of itself, new Gods that exist without the Barrier, beyond Time, and begins seducing Mortals to its service. The Lizard Folk suffer the first of many disasters to befall their civilization as temples to these new Gods arise, and entire cities are lost to madness and evil.
Fifty Thousand Years Ago: The Titans Arise. At first they are as any other civilization, any other race, using a combination of Elder Sorcery, wizardry and divine miracles, as well as the Gift of Fire, to run their cities and warm their lands. In time they rise to heights beyond other civilizations and begin conquest of their neighbors, enslaving and forever altering the Races of the world, those that they do not expunge. They create the first Dragons as mighty war machines, the Elves as concubines and pleasure slaves, the Dwarves as doughty workers, and the Orcs as soldiers and gladiators. These are the Titanic Races, along with others, some lost to history. The Titans turn away from the Gods, as the Gods are said to turn away from the Titans. It may be said that the Titans exploited the Gifts of Chaos without serving it, a measure of how arrogant and how successful they were.
Ten Thousand Years Ago: The Gods determine to strike the Titans down before they destroy the Great Engine in their arrogance. As the Gods bicker about how to best do this, Verra whispers secrets in the ears of certain Elvish slaves. The Elves free the Dragons and perform a great ritual, stolen and perverted from the Titans, stripping their masters of all magic. The great floating cities of the Titans cease to exist, not simply falling as some suggest, but their very construction out of the forces of Magic cannot be sustained. Millions die, the surviving Titans flee, living amongst loyal Orcish slaves for a time before disappearing from History.
Cast into the wilderness for the first time, the Elves retreat into the embrace of the mighty forest that has grown to cover the lands where the Titans once arose, before their cities took to the Skies. The Dwarves settle primarily to the East, quickly forming tight knit farming communities. The Orcs retreat to the South and North, taking their former Masters with them.
Elves begin stealing food and sundries from the Dwarves, the Dwarves retaliate by defending their communities, killing a few Elves (it should be noted that the elves had no problem killing dwarves during their raids...). In return the Elves and Dwarves fight the first war between their kind. The Elvish Hero, Dealy'reath and his followers are some of the most aggressive and determined of the war, and they advocate using weapons stolen from the Titans to end the War, they are opposed by the King of the Elves. Dealy'reath and his followers steal two such weapons and unleash Pestilence upon the Dwarves, and are exiled from the rest of Elves, forming the first Tribal Schism amongst the Elves. The Dwarven Women are hardest hit by the disease, dying or becoming barren in vast numbers. The dwarves retreat underground, finding some succor from the godlike entity stalking them behind thick stone walls.
Inspired by the power of the first Weapon, Dealy'reath decides to drain the power of the second weapon to become a God. During the process he determines to betray his followers, consuming their souls to power his apotheosis. Before he can finish the King of the Elves interrupts the ritual, attacking him in a magical duel. Dealy'reath kills the King of the Elves, but his surviving followers turn on him, consuming his flesh and spirit in a perversion of his own ritual. They retreat from the wrath of the other Elves, now known as the Siti, in honor of their slain King.
Without the Dwarves to work the fields, the Elves have no one to steal food from, and they suffer the Lean Times. They blame Dealy'reath and his followers for this periord, but are lead by the daughter of Siti, the last Elf born in the Time of the Titans, who teaches them to live in harmony with the Forest, and thus to survive, preventing further Schisms for a thousand years.
9500 years ago: The Orcs of the far north are plagued by Ice Demons, and begin forming larger armed camps to defend themselves. The first Orcish City of Mar'karth is formed, with thick stone walls to keep the Demons at bay.
9400 Years ago: An unknown Orc discovers the secrets of the Great Treaty and begins shaping the City of Mar'karth into a vast Diabolist symbol designed to cast the Ice Demons into the Demon Realm. In order to complete the ritual, the orc gives up his Name, and is forgotten by all Mortals and Gods.
Verra becomes the Demon Queen through means unknown around this time. She takes up patronage of the Orcs for the first time, and is said to have taught the unknown Orc the secrets of the Great Treaty herself.
9300 Years ago: The Dealy'reath retreat through the bowels of the earth, seeking the Demon Realms. Discovering a sealed portal amidst a great underground city of a previously unknown race, the Goblins, the Dealy'reath curse the Goblins with a terrible hunger, destroying their civilization and unlocking the portal. A Goblin Shaman beseeches the Gods for succor from teh Curse. Death is the only God who cares enough to respond, and he grants the goblins a unique reprieve. Goblins do not truly die, their souls constantly reborn into new bodies, so that their people shall never perish from Haven, until the End of Time. Why Death proves so merciful is unclear. The Dwarves and Goblins begin and endless war through the dark places of the earth.
9200 years ago: The Orcs of Mar'karth have prospered, freed from the demons and encounter the Elves for the first time since the Titanfall. Despite initial mistrust, the Orcs eventually attempt to open trade with the Elves. In response the elves slaughter the orcish merchants and take their wares. The Elf known as Danu begins drawing followers to his cause, declaring the Orcs to be the inheritors of the hated Titans.
9150: After a generation of War, the Orcs are on the verge of defeating the Elves on the field of battle. The Queen of the Elves sends and emissary to the Orcs to discuss an honorable surrender, but when the orcish general arrives at the meeting place his is murdered, sending the Orcs into disarray. Before they can recover, the wizards of the Siti elves cast a terrible ritual that destroys Mar'karth, killing all that live within it. The Northern Orcs are slaughtered and scattered by the victorious elves. Danu, appalled at the Slaughter rejects his own followers and declares a Path of Peace, leading like minded Elves south, eventually to cross the sea to the Southern Continent in magical seashell boats, in the second recorded Schism. His former Followers become the Tuatha, and remain with the Siti for a time.
Eight Thousand Years Ago: The Danu Elves encounter the three great orcish cities in the South. Despite misgivings about the Orcs, and the Orcish hatred of the Elves, for many of the orcs from Mar'karth had settled in the South after the war, the Danu refrain from destroying the Orcish cities, instead deliberately using their presence to unite the Orcs against the Elvish threat, letting them grow stronger.
7500 years ago: The Goblins reach the surface of Haven for the first time and destroy in turn the orcs of the south and the city of Danu, the first Goblin War Begins, as endless hordes of starving beasts pour from underground into the light. The survivors of the south band together as refugees, the first act of true peace between their races since the Titanfall, but they are lost to history in the process.
7000 years ago: The Dwarves return to the Surface, marching in gleaming formations, breaking the Goblin Hordes and saving the surface races in the process. The Queen of the Elves bends her knee to the Dwarvish king and apologizes for the actions of her Race, so long ago. In outrage, the highly Militant Tuatha elves leave the Siti, and eventually migrate south, following Danu.
6800 years ago: The first race of Man appears on the island of Tibor. They are tall and proud and strong, skilled in war and magic. The Tibor spread across the south, forming new cities and nations.
6500 years ago: The Tibori conquer Dragons and become known as Dragon Riders. They sweep across the world, demanding tribute from all the races of the surface, and receiving it. The Tuatha declare their hate for all Men in return, but they pay their tribute just the same. The Tibor end the second Goblin War on dragon back almost as soon as it begins.
6450 years ago: The great Dragon City of Tibor is ended in a single night of blood as the Dealy'reath return to the Mortal Realm for the first time in recorded history, killing the women and children of the Dragon Riders, and stealing their secrets. Some say they did so on behalf of the Tuathans.
Across the Southern Continent the Tuatha Elves wage war on the Cities of Men. They are never successful in exterminating them, but they keep the Men of the south weak and few in number.
3000 years ago: Bolvard becomes the first hero of Man, and unites seven cities of the South into a great kingdom, defeating the Tuatha in battle several times. He eventually earns the epithet Elf-slayer, and is known as the First King, at least among Men. Bolvard is elevated to Godhood upon his death, and is said to be (innaccurately as it happens) to be the first God of Men. Upon his death he is buried in the Temple of Death on the Island at teh edge of the World, the first time that place is recorded in history, the first time it was used since the time of Titans.
Irem begins to rise in the far north, a city of Men, alchemists and scholars, and unique among the world at the time they reject wizardry in favor of their alchemy as the basis of their civilization.
2500 years ago: The Iremi discover the World Egg and their civilization leaps and bounds above all others as a result of the knowledge they glean from it. Previously unknown to the other races of the world, the Iremi soon seem to replace the Tibori and the Titans as conquerers of the known world. The Tuatha begin to march north to oppose this new threat as they rebuild their numbers following their loss to Bolvard.
2200 years ago: A number of Tuatha and Siti elves form a city on the borders of Irem as a staging base for their long war. These elves eventually become the Illycli, the Elves of the Towers.
1500 years ago: Studying the World Egg, the Iremi discover the true nature of the Great Engine, and the role of Men and Gods in the world of Haven. In horror they reject this truth and determine to make the world in their own image, setting themselves against the Gods. It may be argued that Chaos clouds their minds, offering them promises of divinity and more, and certainly they make deals with the avatars of Chaos in return for greater knowledge of its nature. Despite this, Haven grows wildly during the time of the Iremi, new lands added.
1100 years ago: The Gods join the Tuatha in battling the Iremi, openly stalking the lands of Irem. In response the Iremi summon the God Killer, which stands watch over their city. Gods die, among them Crom, who brought Fire to the First Men, though what happens to slain Gods is unclear. It is believed to be the first time Gods have died since the God War, though this is hard to verify.
1050: The Iremi begin their great ritual of Apotheosis, ahead of schedule. Despite the power of the Godkiller, they now stand oppossed to all the gods and all the mortal races, even the Demons have begun to turn on them. Using the World Egg as a component of an Elder Sorcery Ritual, shaped by their alchemical arts, they seek to transcend their entire people.
Instead they tear open a hole in reality, and Chaos pours through. The Tuatha elves are destroyed as a people, several Gods present are utterly destroyed (worse than killed, they cease to exist, as if they had never been!), and all the Gods stop whatever they had been doing to contain the threat. Magic ceases to work in the entire world as the Lesser Sea of Chaos swallows Irem.
The Banality Begins. Without Magic, almost all of the great cities begin to fall apart. Elder Sorcery continues to work, but that practice was virtually unknown outside of Irem at that time, though a few ancient Elves recall the art. In the far south the civilian portion of Tuatha retreats to the Sea of Grass, leaving the ruins of their City behind, becoming the Fortress Elves and the nomads of the grasses. The Tower Elves rebuild their city outside the newly formed wasteland, in sight of their ruined towers of old.
Paravail is settled in the middle of the Banality, with the Rise of the OathStone.
Only the dwarves are unharmed, for their magic of 'engineering' seems immune to the Banality. For the first time Dwarven Merchants, instead of Dwarven Armies, march upon the face of Haven, and so the mortal races survive and learn new ways to prosper.
Magic begins to return only slowly, and weakly, in the wake of the disaster, taking fifty or more years before its return is felt. The Current Era begins.
PB 50, The orcs having recovered fastest, for they had always relied least on Magic, conquer parts of the North and levee taxes upon the humans they find there. In the small fishing village of Nornsa, a young Man named Vasilimatu strangles the orcish tax collector and flees to the City of Towers.
PB 56: Vasilimatu returns to Nornsa with his Companions, both human and elvish and wages a war against the Orcs of the north.
PB 63: The Tenebrian Horde rides out of the Sea of Grass and begins conquering the cities of what will one day be the Tenebrian Empire. While there is some question as to the exact origin and nature of the Horde, it is currently believed by modern scholars that the original Tenebrians were mixed race, predominantly orcish and human, with full blooded members of both races as minorities.
PB 75: Having conquered the entire western coast, Vasilimatu declares himself King over Men and settles in his capital. Some dispute over the location of this Capital is had, as both the northern and southern halves claim it. Most historians believe he settled in the southern city of Renbluve, upon the Rock, but returned North frequently.
PB 77: The Reve first make their presence felt on the waves. Historical records indicate that they were around before the Banality, but had lain quiet and dormant during it. Spada and the Kra both feel the lash.
PB 80: The first Heshite Temples rise in the desert lands. Heshite Slavers enter Spadan lands looking for workers. It is likely that other neighbors of the Hesh were taken as well, but no records remain to say whom exactly were struck.
PB 90: On his deathbed, Vasilimatu is elevated to Godhood. The sons and companions of Vasilimatu fall to fighting over the Empire, and the great Nornasan Empire falls into squabbling kingdoms. The Avante reassert their independence, killing their king, the oldest son of Vasilimatu.
PB 127: The Tenebrian Empire strikes across the waves and begins conquering lands to the North.
PB 132: The Tenebrians conquer the Kra, turning that 'nation' into an armed camp facing against the Spada. The Reve continue to raid the Kra lands, despite the Tenebrian presence. Surrounded on all sides by enemies, the Spada begin turning their people into an army, with no civilians.
PB 150~: The Tenebrians begin pressing into the great forest, antagonizing the Elves. The Siti, along with a few Tuatha warriors living amongst them march to War. The Tuatha swear not to sleep as long as a single Man stands against them, leading to the legends that Elves do not need sleep. Despite the impressive skill of the Tuatha war-wizards, it is the Elvish assassins creeping in the dark that finally break the Tenebrian Army, ending their westward march. This defeat, combined with increasing decadence back home leads to a slow collapse of the Tenebrian Empire, as satrapies stop paying tribute and tithes to the Empire. Without orders to the contrary, the Tenebrian Armies in the north continue to wage war against the Spada, eventually absorbing and becoming the Kra nation as known today.
PB 200: The City of Ys is settled, south of Renbluve. As a major port it steals much of Renbluve's revenue and becomes known, for a time, as the Jewel of the South.
PB 220: The Tenebrian Empire finally collapses entirely, as the last northern satrapy declares itself a sovereign kingdom. Even on the Southern Continent the Tenebrian Empire has lost vast swaths of territory, including the lands of the Dragon Desert, and the tribute, if not fealty, of the Fortress elves.
PB 687: The Warlord appears in teh far north, gathering an army of monsters, bandits and outcastes around him.
PB 702: Having completed his conquest of the north through force of arms and sewing discord amongst his enemies, the Warlord splits his forces in two, going around the Great Forest, personally leading his armies to the west.
PB 705: Retreating from the Warlord the humans, dwarves and elves form a great alliance. Upper Renbluve seals herself away, abandoning the Lower City, and taking orcs and 'gelded' goblins (that is, Goblins who have been magically lobotomized to make them tractable) as slaves. In the north religious zealots revolt against the appointed governers of the Warlord, and the Fire Cults begin to gain promenance. To the East, the Warlord's horde stalls out east of the Pepper Savannahs, having failed to conquer Hesh, Spada, the Kra and others, and finding little to do in teh Savannah's themselves. The survivors of this 'wing' of the Warlord's Army eventually turn to Demon Worship and savagry, further blighting the lands they occupy.
PB 715: The Army of Three Races makes its final stand at the fortress of Ysithideri, at the very southern tip of the Northern Continent. The Queen of the Elves gives her life and soul, along with the human general and the dwarven smith, to form the Sword of Peace, which is used, as legend has it, by a pure maiden, to kill the Warlord, scattering his army. Despite the magical blight on the land caused by his march, a great city is built around the Warlord's Sepulchure, named after the fortress. The Siti Elves, blaming Men for the loss of their beloved Queen, withdraw into their forest, retreating from the world. Those elves who disagree with them do not rally under any given leader, but simply live among the humans in their own cities.
With the rise of Ysithideri, the great shining city, full of scholars and wizards, Ys begins to decline, a process that continues to the current day. As many of the dwarven residents responsible for keeping Ys from sinking into the swamps surrounding her migrate to Ysithideri, the decline is inevitable.
PB 778: Believing that the Ysithideri are studying ways of taming dragons, after the Tibori, the Dragons form, for the first time, a massive flight of their own kind and burn the city to ashes in a single night. Only the Warlord's Tomb is unscathed, for Death Himself appears before the doors and kills any dragon that approaches too close.
PB 968: The So Called "Last Emperor" of Tenebria, and his entire family are murdered in a single night in the Imperial City. Only a single slave-concubine survives. Upon reading the Augers, and with a divine visitation from Verra (held by many Tenebrians as a patron of the Empire), the surivivor is elevated to Empress. She immediately begins a bloody pogrom of the corrupt Imperial Beaurocracy and the worst, most ambitious Nobles, gathering power to herself. Within the year the Empire is stable, and the Armies begin marching across the South, demanding ancient Tribute be paid.
PB 980: Current Day.
The dates are somewhat shaky, and I've left a lot of events out, like the invention of 'gunpowder', the Airships, the rise of the sky pirates and so forth. To be honest, some of the events I detailed and dated over five years ago, and I haven't done the research of my own work to keep everything on track. Ya, I'm lazy. Sue me.
Spike's World: A rough timeline
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