LetsBuild5e:History

The Turning Years

We don't have a calendar or exact dates thrashed out yet, but we have got an agreed narrative of local history. The earliest parts are very much broad strokes, while the more recent events are more precisely described and more localised to Gartihann. (Main decision: [1])

Mythic History

There are some legendary events which are believed to have happened untold ages ago. In approximate order, they are:

• The gods created intelligent life.
• The Elder Dragon God Shesipev gave the light side of the world to the dragons and their kin.
• The warm-blooded elder race tried tunneling through the world to reach the light side, and were shattered into the current range of races.
• The present chief god, Ranganir overthrew Shesipev, which is why the Elder Dragon God is now also known as Kugbazel (nothing-king).
• Metepes the Trickster bound Ligen, chief of fiends, with a pact which also prevents the gods from intervening too directly in the world.
• The first sorcerers were created by drinking Kugbazel's spilled blood.
• The first warlocks were created by learning enough of the Divine Language to make pacts.
• The first wizards were created by learning to shape the Divine Language into new magic.
• The priest-queen Moburene was healed by the travelling hero Lises-Huvnamunu.

Before the Fall

It's widely known that the current 'dark side' of the world was once the light and fruitful side, and vice versa. It's also widely suspected that this has happened many times previously, back into prehistory. Several things are known or believed to have happened before the sides most recently changed:

• Gnomes settled on the Axalvo plateau, east of the Sellumeverni mountains, before other warm-blooded people.
• The Kumötib orcs settled on the plateau and the steppes. The lands north of the steppe and east of the mountains become the nucleus of the tribal kingdom of Brugo.
• The elves had a great and flourishing empire on the far side.
• On the far side there was also a magic-using culture that spoke the Old Mystic tongue and wrote in cuneiform.
• Dwarves started leaving the far side before the other races.

The Conquest

The flip occurred some 700-1000 years ago, plunging the elven empire into darkness and ruin. Since then:

• Shortly after the flip: After the dwarves show up, many others from the new dark side follow: refugees from the fall of the elven empire, its neighbours and dependents.
• More than 500 years ago: Human and half-orc warlords unite the area north of Brugo into a small dukedom named Gartihann.
• About 500 years ago: Mage guilds are founded, and rapidly become the exclusive preserve of wizards. At this stage, the guilds are just trade associations.
• About 425 years ago: The dukes are overthrown in Gartihann, and a form of representative democracy is established.
• About 350 years ago: The great half-orc conqueror queen Kuhetzib, descended from the clan-lords of Brugo in the southwestern mountains, unites most of the region, driving the elven state of Giel-Tanierolla down into the coastal region. She crushes opposition ruthlessly, and establishes a strong empire centred on Gartihann. Slavery is abolished, and many modern institutions are founded.
• About 300 years ago: Brugo secedes from the empire not long after Kuhetzib's death.
• About 275 years ago: The empire begins to crumble. Province after province drops off, either seceding without significant opposition or being conquered by others. In the absence of both mage guilds and imperial infrastructure, folk turn to the previously-ignored insect-people for aid. A form of rudimentary communication is established, and the insect-people build great earthworks around many towns and cities in exchange for food and unimpeded travel.
• About 220 years ago: As Gartihann becomes a single nation again, the imperial family are deposed and replaced by several successive short-lived dynasties of dukes founded by imperial generals.

The Rise of the Magocracy

The disappearance of the empire led to the events which have shaped the modern world:

• About 230 years ago: The mage guilds start infiltrating the governments of the empire's successor states. Some states simply accept a guild as their sole supplier of high-level magic. Others are taken over completely, and become magocracies.
• About 150 years ago: Gartihann is taken over entirely by a guild specialising in the schools of evocation and abjuration. All public offices are made exclusive to wizards; the traditional quasi-military civic government is suspended.
• About 140 years ago: The mages in Gartihann dissolve the local bardic colleges and outlaw bardic rites and traditions. This mirrors similar restrictions in other magocratic states.
• About 120 years ago: The Dragonborn experience a mysterious religious renewal, and start settling in small communities around Axalvo.
• About 100 years ago: Extremists in the coastal elven nation begin agitating for the restoration of the ancient elven empire.
• About 60 years ago: A faction appears which argues that gnomes, rather than elves, are due for an imperial age.
• About 15 years ago: A claimant to the half-orc empire appears, equipped with some of the lost regalia of state. She has attracted a reasonable following, travelling between the nations which are not full magocracies.
• Less than a year ago: The magocracy in Gartihann is challenged by a popular revolution. The movement is fostered by the Bardic Colleges, and warlocks and sorcerers rush to join it. After some brutal street-fighting, the civic militia defects en masse to the rebel side. The mage guild hires mercenaries to replace the militia. Many mid-ranking guild mages are killed before the surviving local guild leadership are recalled by their superiors. Since then, there has been wary peace between the mages and the ad hoc rebel government.

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