Thoughts on Contracting the Mystara Timeline
by Anarion_ElendiliYet another idea was to have Nithian collapse in 500 BC, but ignore the Beast-Men for now. Instead, the Traldar homeland is in what is now Thyatis, and they become the Milenians over 500 BC - 0 AC. Instead of the Milenians chasing the proto-Thyatians out of Davania, the proto-Thyatians arrive with a massive fleet while Milenia is in terminal decline, and those wolf/jaguar/whatever pelted barbarians (garbled oral stories makes them into beast-headed humanoids) overrun the cities and the land, driving the remnants of the Traldar to the untamed forests of modern Karameikos. Where they then displace the local humanoid tribes of orcs, pushing them into the Five Shires, starting that history about a millenium late in comparison to the Gazetteer. Actually, there could be the original Beast Men invasion, and Halav, Petra and Zirchev belong in 500 BC, and Halav's Dynast task is to see the Milenian Empire flourish for a couple of centuries. But then the stories get all jumbled up with the later invasion.
I think the above is kinda what I would go with now.
Something like this:
1000 BC Nithian Empire at its height. Traldar palace kings (comparable to Mycenean Bronze Age) rule over what will be the Thyatian mainland later on.
800 BC Elves settle Alfheim and start playing with the weather. Nithian decline begins.
750 BC With the creeping desertification of the Alysian basin, Nithians invade the lands of the Traldar, forcing them to pay tribute, and take over the large island of Hattias (as it is now known). They enslave the relatively few inhabitants and bring more slaves from the Northern Reaches to work to grow wheat for the Nithian Empire. These slaves become the forefathers of the tribes of Thyatis, Kerendas and Hattias.
500 BC Nithia collapses. The memory of them is wiped out, and Traldar culture resets to what it was a couple of centuries earlier. The slaves of Hattias suddenly find themselves to be free, thinking that they have always lived here. Within a generation, the Gnolls, without their Nithian overlords, invade the Traldar Lands, and Halav, Petra and Zirchev lead the Traldar in a heroic defense, defeating the Gnolls. There is no exodus of King Milen, though. Instead, Halav embarks on his quest of immortality, and helps his descendant, King Milen to weld together the whole of Traldar into the Milenian Empire.
300 BC Milenian Empire formed.
200 BC The start of the Golden Century of the Milenian Empire. Island of Hattias is raided for slaves.
100 BC Height of the Milenian Empire, but the rot is already starting to gnaw at its underpinnings. Coasts of Hattias have been colonized by Milenian empire, but the resistance continues in the interior. Vanya achieves her immortality around this time.
50 BC Milenian Empire has become soft, relying more on foreign mercenaries, many of them from the tribes of Thyatis and Kerendas. Island of Hattias revolts, the tribesmen overrunning the colonies in a taste of what is to come.
1 BC Immortals take the best and the brightest of the Milenian Empire to the Hollow World, causing the Milenian Empire collapse almost overnight.
1 AC The Tribes of Thyatis, Kerendas and Hattias cross over the narrow sea separating them from the mainland, and sweep over the shell-shocked nation. Their familiarity with Milenian military doctrine and siege warfare, as well as the long period of peace leaving the cities mainly unwalled, leads to a shockingly quick conquest of the mainland. Milenians in the west, receiving the news from the panicked refugees fleeing westwards, decide to pack everything and move to what now is Karameikos. It is mainly inhabited by Orcs and Goblins, but the number of the Milenians and their iron weaponry is enough to turn the tide, albeit during the exodus, the Milenians shatter into various village-clans, consolidating around charismatic local leaders, rather than acting as a single entity. The struggle against the 'Beast-Men' draws parallels to the Song of Halav, so the people adopt the name of their ancestors, and thus Traladara. Meanwhile, the first King of Thyatis is crowned, in the palace of the last Milenian king. Tribe of Hattias stays on the island, and their fierce hatred of the Milenians means that unlike the two tribes who moved to the mainland, they keep themselves separate from the Milenians (and thus why their names are Germanic and the people are blondes, while the Thyatians and Kerendians are more Mediterranean with Greek/Latin names; which also explains why the Traladarans have Romanic (a Romance language) names...)
1 AC Far off to the East, Alphatians make Landfall.
10 AC The orcs and goblins displaced by the Traladarans swarm into the Five Shires, enslaving the recently-arrived Halflings and exterminating the Gentle Folk. (Basically, the interesting bit of the Five Shires history starts here.)
250 AC Alphatia, having been expanding westwards, makes contact with the Thyatian pirates.
300 AC Alphatia, tired of the Thyatian pirates, launches a successful invasion.
430 AC Around this time, Five Shires formed.
500 AC Thyatis rebels and the First Emperor of Thyatis is crowned.
And basically squishing 1 AC - 1000 AC into 500 - 1000 AC.