New Theory for Belcadiz and Ispans
by Marco DalmonteOkay, roughly speaking this is the chronology:
1700 BC: Some elves trigger a big Blackmoor device on the border between Glantri and the Broken Lands, creating a nuclear catastrophe. Many elves flee beneath the earth, but the Belcadiz clan manages to use a special device they had been experimenting in the last years: a magical Gate (think about a Stargate). The whole clan (except those elves infected by the nuclear disease, who are left behind on purpose) passes through it and emerges in an unknown land, destroying the Gate after the passage to prevent a future invasion by unknown forces.
1699 BC: The Belcadiz elves discover they are now living on a big island whose whereabouts are unknown. They rename it ALVAR. After exploring Alvar, they discover there are no other sentient races living there, and proceed to settle it, trying to discover their whereabouts (for all they know they could be on another plane, since their experiment was targeted on exploring the Multiverse through the use of magical gates).
1650 BC: the Belcadiz elves have tried to use their magics to scry this world and have indeed discovered that they are still on Mystara, although their exact location is uncertain (bear in mind they have no clerics among them). They try to use mundane means of exploration, and go seafaring.
1600 BC: After some major disasters at sea (due to the bad weather, aquatic monsters, hostile aquatic races and unskilled shipwrights), the Belcadiz conclude they are not a seaborne race, so they instead spend the following centuries exploring the island and adapting to it, building new cities and growing their already dwindling numbers (the survivors of the Glantrian Catastrophe were only 2000 Belcadiz elves).
1600 BC - 500 AC : During this period the Belcadiz of Alvar thrive on the island (whose dimensions are roughly similar to Trader's Isle and it's located between Thanegioth and Ochalea), becoming a very unique culture of bold, touchy, fearsome elves. They love to make mock wars and duels among themselves, have a superior craftsmanship for swords and develop a unique form of sorcery called witchcraft.
In BC 990 a large group of Nithian explorers passes nearby but doesn't notice Alvar, which is then left alone, especially after the Nithian colonies on Davania rebel and throw their masters out (or maybe the Belcadiz are indeed invaded by Nithians but are able to drive them away of Alvar...).
500 AC: Following the conquest of the Tel Akbir Peninsula and the following wars in Ylaruam, many Kerendan noblemen are put in front of a difficult choice: to go warring against the Alphatian in the Ylari desert or to try to settle into new lands in the southern continent or in the western isles (Ierendi). Many of them take the route southwards and finally find Thanegioth, Alvar and the Hinterlands, relocating there with their belongings and their slaves (mostly Alasiyan of Tel Akbir). Some colonies fall after just one decade (Thanegioth and Davania), while on Alvar the newly come Kerendan are able to come to terms with the elves.
510 AC: Fearing an all-out invasion, the Belcadiz (using the charming powers of their witches) are able to persuade the Kerendan leaders to beguile the Thyatian government. After the total collapse of the colonies in Davania and Thanegioth, the Kerendan nobles of Alvar tell stories of diseases, cannibal savages and a bleak land to discourage new settlers and throw off Thyatis' attention on their dominion. They are then encouraged to resist and fend off for themselves, levying taxes yearly.
The Kerendans and elves cooperate to remain independent, and gradually the Kerendans mix with their Alasiyans slaves, changing their skin tone and language in the following 4 centuries, thus becoming the Ispans. Moreover, they share their love for bullfights and cavalry with the elves, as well as their history, and the elves discover that there are whole new continents north and south of Alvar to explore.
AC 510 - 690 : After 2 centuries of intermixing, the flamenco elves and the Ispan culture have been created. Ispans are adventuresome folks who venture often by sea and take with them the Belcadiz elves, who in turn discover new lands and come back to report.
During one of these explorations in the Broken Lands, the elves discover remains of their old sites and their magical Gate, and understand that their ancestral home is now inhabited by pale humans with tremendous magical knowledge called Flaems.
AC 700 : the isle of Alvar shows worrying signs of instability. Earthquakes shake its mountains and lowlands, water becomes incredibly hot and fishes die around its coasts. The Belcadiz and Ispan scholars determine that the ancient volcano has indeed come to life once again, and many families are worried.
AC 705 : It is now clear that Alvar will experience a serious earthquake or probably something more terrible in the near future. Many Ispan settlers abandon their estates and move to nearby Thyatian colonies or return to the mainland, hoping to find a place to live (and some are forced to settle on the Ylari border). Belcadiz try to use once again magic to have an escape route just in case the situation grows worse, refusing to abandon the isle where they've been living in the last 2000 years. Some elves are dispatched in the Broken Lands where they must try to rebuild the old Gate, while other mages in Alvar build a similar one.
AC 720 : Disaster strikes when the isle of Alvar starts sinking into the sea after a terrible earthquake awakens the ancestral volcano. The few Ispans remaining on the isle plea the elves for help, and they both leave the island using the Magical Gate, coming once again in Brun through the one in the northern Broken Lands.
Here, (as GAZ3 says) braving the dangers of the Broken Lands, southern elves (around 15,000) find a trail back to Glantri and settle in modern New Alvar (Nueva Alvar) along with their human followers (no more than 1,000).
AC 900 : The displaced Ispans, in search of a new home after the Thyatian colonies in Ylaruam have been destroyed by Al-Kalim, accept to sail westwards and settle west of the Gulf of Hule, in the new world. Here they create the Barony of Narvaez under the leadership of the Narvaez family.
AC 910 : The obsession of the Narvaez family with the cult of Ixion and their persecution of the witchcraft leads many Ispans to revolt and causes other baronies to be founded by secessionists. Thyatis is too far to intervene and Narvaez must cope with insurrections the best it can.
During the following years new Kerendan, dwarvish and Ylari settlers come to the area of the Savage Coast and join the Ispans, finally creating the Savage Baronies.