A Brief History of Time

A Brief History of Time

The Second Age began when the Old Gods uplifted the natives to sentience. Everything before then is the First Age. Not much happened in those hundreds of millions of years, though there are rumors of civilizations from before the official "Dawn of Time".

The following "stages" are roughly how civilization spread across Lithgar. Keep in mind that there is no strict timetable for these events, as the first two stages took hundreds of thousands of years each. Later events used a smaller timeframe, but still happened over thousands of years. There is little recorded history for this time, much as we have little record of the heroes from 4,000 years B.C. When references are made to 'organized' events, it refers to a general trend towards such actions by hundreds of widely scattered tribes, occurring over hundreds if not thousands of years. The concept of a national government - indeed the concept of a society beyond a few hundred people - had yet to develop.

The general technology level is also fairly low. Stone tools were common, smelting was beyond most societies until only a few thousand years before the end of the Second Age, and hunter-gatherer societies dominated much of the planet.

While each civilization does indeed have its own name for each of the continents and seas, for convenience a consistent labeling system will be used in all references.

The Old Gods raised the five races across the world: The dwarves claim the central Jacon'Ais highlands as their home, the skaven awoke in the Aldrinar plains, the dragons rose in the central Molnai rainforests, the merfolk were birthed in the warm central Ga'Thalbon Ocean, and the orks first bloomed in the vast forests of southern Jacon'Ais. Immediate expansion was east-west, following similar climates, river valleys and (for the merfolk) ocean currents.

The five races spread across the continents, and as population pressure increased the skaven were the first to cross narrow sea lanes to neighboring landmasses - followed closely by the dwarves to Dil'Gotha and later by the orks to the western Molnai.

The first interaction between the firstborn races was between the dwarves and orks in central Jacon'Ais, in and around the Golaz Desert. While the dwarves preferred the northeast coast, the orks crossed the desert and settled in the temperate forests of the Dwarven homelands. This intrusion into their major food-producing lands provoked the dwarves into their first organized military campaign. While successful in preventing extensive orkish settlement, the descendants of the orkish tribes remember the events to the present day.

Later interactions were more peaceful (well, as peaceful as interactions between people competing for the same food and land can get), between the merfolk and the draconics off the eastern coast of Molnai, the skaven and the draconics in northern Molnai, the dwarves and the draconics in eastern Molnai, and the skaven and the dwarves in northern Jacon'Ais. Later interaction between the draconics and orks in the western Molnai deserts is limited as neither race preferrs the climate, and contact between dwarves and the merfolk off the western Dil'Gotha coast is late in coming only because of the prevailing currents.

The central positioning of the draconics influences their later merchant culture, and the eager exploration of the skaven promotes their marine and herding skills. The population pressure that drives the need to expand into different environments leads the dwarves to producing several sub-species, and ultimately a series of fractures in their society.

At the end of the Second Age planetary populations had settled scross the planet, and population pressure was motivating advances in agriculture - in order to support the increasing population without the outlet of expansion.

While isolated populations of every race could be found on every continent, the concentrations are indicated on the map at left. There are no population densities given for merfolk, only the areas they are known to live off the coast (plus their homeland - a known archiplego).

Technology at the end of this age was advancing from the Stone Age to the Early Bronze Age, especially among the dwarves (who have invented case-hardened stonecutting tools). The sail is in use among the skaven, who use it in oceangoing rafts (e.g. Kon-Tiki).

The Third Age

The Third Age began the the coming of the elves. They arrived simultaneously all across the planet roughly centered on major population regions, arriving through great glowing gates or rings. Exact numbers are difficult to calculate, as the phrases "without number" and "too many to count in a day" aren't helpful. From the volumes of their sleeping areas it is estimated that several million arrived in the space of a day.

It is fortunate that the elves were capable of feeding and sheltering themselves, preventing mass starvation and warfare from displaced populations. They were also friendly and (for the most part) willing to interact with the locals. They taught many things, effectively uplifting the natives to the mid-Bronze Age, including math and the abacus, papermaking, the wheel, the triereme, bronzemaking, the horse-collar, the potter's wheel, the jib sail, crop rotation and the scientific method.

These advances allowed population densities beyond anything previously known, and the changes, upheaval and associated instability in the various native societies allowed one clan of elves to try and take over. They failed, and in failing they condemned themselves to exile. It was not long thereafter that the vast majority of the elves departed to lands unknown, though references to the "Eastern Shore" can be found.

The elves remaining were changed, both in appearance and attitude. Where once were pale skins and blonde/light brown hair, now there was ebon skin and pure white hair. Where the elves had once offered the hand of friendship and the role of teacher, they now demanded obedience with a sword in one hand and a whip in the other. They were furious at being sealed to a single world and displayed their anger on the natives.

Perhaps worse, the elves were no longer able to feed themselves and their marvelous floating cities had departed. There was a rather nasty period in which the elves - now calling themselves the Drow - laid claim to many of the richest and most fertile regions on the planet. Even at greatly reduced numbers, the Drow were sufficient to drive most of the natives away and enslave the rest. This of course did little to make the natives think fondly of the Drow, and a semi-permanent state of war existed for centuries.

After a long period of conflict, in which sometimes the natives pushed the Drow into small regions and sometimes the Drow held dominion over vast expances of territory, an equilibrium was reached. Some significant changes are listed below, and most major elvish fortresses and zones of control are shown on the map.

The orks were pushed into the draconic homelands, proving extremely difficult to remove from the lush, dense jungles despite the efforts of the territorial draconics. The orks, skaven and elves competed for southern Molnai, forming a series of small kingdoms generally dominated by the Drow. The orks and draconics were also pushed northward into the traditionally skaven lands of northern Molnai, leaving a legacy of invasion, enslavement, relatiations and vandettas. Much the same occurred in northern Laskin, and less so in the southern Laskin jungles between the orks and draconics.

The dwarves and skaven manged to push the elves almost completely out of the homelands, leaving only hardened outposts across their respective continents. Southern Jacon'Ais remains in the hands of the orks, but a strong elvish presense remained in the east, along with dwarvish, skaven and even draconic settlements. Northern Jacon'Ais was held firmly by the Drow, who had negotiated more acceptible terms with the skaven - mostly in order to prevent the dwarves from pushing the elves out of the eastern mountains. The draconics in the region were forced further west into the desert.

The upper Dil'Gotha vallies also remained under elvish control, though allied dwarves and draconics reclaimed much of the lower continent, and dwarvish strongholds in the eastern mountains held out against even the initial elvish assaults.

While the skaven reclaimed central Aldrinar, the Drow mainteined strongholds in the Leth'Flin River Valley, the Jaicon Range and the Devlon Hills. Again, displaced skaven from the Skeel Plains pushed the draconics further into the Kithral Desert and Southern Aldrontir foothills. Orks were settled in the Albar'Cis forest, brought by the Drow as slaves to protect them from the skaven warbands, though many soon escaped.

This was a time of uneasy peace for the Drow - every three or four generations the natives would rise up in revolt and manage to kill a few elves before being brutally crushed. To the long-lived elves, this was the equivalent to "every time I turn around" and their methods became increasingly drastic in their attempts to break their exile.

Their last significant attempt involved nearly every elvish spellcaster, the ritual sacrifice of tens of thousands of natives and the expenditure of the vast majority of their remaining power sources. It failed, and the backlash devastated the elvish power base. The majority of their spellcasters were dead or dying, their armies of loyal natives had been killed in the procedure and the automated defenses maintaining their safety had little if any power remaining. Needless to say, the locals took advantage of this vulnerability.

However, while weak the elves remained a significant force, a single elf was more than a match for a dozen natives at once, and even the low-level elvish spellcasters were capable of descimating a warband. Unfortunately for the elves there were hundreds of natives for each elf, proving once again that quantity is a quality all of its own. Added to this large-scale conflit were countless smaller conflicts as revenge, hatreds and feuds suddenly saw an opportunity. Thousands of armies, battles, sieges, warbands, bandits, raids and murders occurred across the face of the planet.

It was into this that the humans came, yanked from Earth by the dimension-sundering spells of the Drow.

Hello, humans. Welcome to Lithgar. Have a nice day.

The Fourth Age

The Fourth Age began with the coming of the humans. It was a time of fire and destruction, when the natives took back what was theirs. It was a time of rebirth, of great sadness and pain, and a time of joy, in which everything changed.

All of the origional elvish gateways and over a dozen more places across the planet became unstable gateways that transported not only humans, but entire villages and population centers - houses, livestock and in a few cases their ships as well. Please note that not everything in the orange circles became human - those are simply the locations into which humans were gated.

Humans did not have a pleasant welcome to Lithgar, as the natives assumed they were yet another elvish minion and the elves attacked all things not elvish. Given the fact that the highest concentration of human arrivals was near the elvish strongholds, casualties were high and many groups were completely wiped out. Others successfully defended themselves, most fled and a few joined forces with whoever was closest.

Following was another period of resettlement, warfare and further displacement as a tribe / clan / village would move into an area, come into dispute with the folks already there and fight, and the losers would (assuming they weren't slaughtered or enslaved) move on to another area - repeating the cycle. Humans were most often the losers and eventually the majority of them drifted to the harsher climates, where their livestock advantage allowed them to live comfortably in lands that the natives found inhospitable. The default complaint started with the words, "It was when the humans arrived...". While not as bad as discrimination against the Jews in 1938 Germany, it was on the order of racial discrimination in the 1970s - still strong in areas but generally low. Many humans argued unsuccessfully that it was the elves who are at fault, but the elves were a distant concept while the humans were right there to hate - an easy choice.

This was also an era of heroes, kingdoms and legends, thousands of years before the present day. Most modern civilizations and nations were founded at this time, as were most of the historical alliances and enemies. The city of Northpoint was taken by a combined skaven & ork army, and is currently settled by a human majority.

Eventually equilibrium was reached, resulting in the map to the left. Aside from a few significant concentrations (such as the dwarvish and ork homelands) it is intentionally a smear of color as all races have been able to wander across the globe. Read about the native races to learn their environmental preferences, but keep in mind that both environmental and cultural shifts occurr on a regular basis. A few things to keep in mind, however:

Humans can prosper in near-desert, alpine and boreal forest climates in populations that would cause other races famine. This leads to their living primarily in such climates.

Dwarves for the most part live at altitude (3,000 feet and up). Because of this they are particularly sensative to another race taking over their sparse food-producing low-lands.

The merfolk have separated into multiple sub-races and vary widely from region to region.

The elves were still very much a threat and managed to re-establish a number of fortresses across the planet. However, the war significantly dropped their population and power base, and they became extremely conservative in their practices.