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History of the Isle of Dawn

by Giampaolo Agosta

I've started drafting a more detailed history of the Isle of Dawn. For now, here is the pre-Thyatis part.

• Before the Great Rain of Fire, the Giant Kingdom of Gandhar occupied the entirety of the northern Isle of Dawn, at the time still connected with Brun.
  The Giants had limited dealings with the Fey, which predated even their arrival, much like humans and demihumans have in modern times.
  As for humans, the Asyidhi originally lived in the southern portion of the Isle of Dawn, although many fell under the sway of the Giants after the Great Rain of Fire.
• 2500 BC Gandhar declines, due to a malady brought forth by the Great Rain of Fire, not unlike the one that affects the Dwarves. Cyclopes, Athachs, Fachans and Verbeegs are one outcome, collectively known as Fomori. The Fir Bolgs are the other. Relations between the two groups are tense. The few true giants remaining take sides, leave the area, or retreat from society.
• 2400 BC The Fomori leader, king Indech Fota, is persuaded by his advisor, Mug Caith, that the Sidhe have a land beyond the rainbow (Tír al stuaigh nime) that is free from the wasting malady that is affecting the Giants. Indech sends ambassadors to the Sidhe Queen, Ildatach Samrigain (Ildatach the Summer Queen), to request that the Sidhe share their land and healing powers. The Summer Court balks as such an influx of gigantic, misshapen mortals, so Ildatach is forced to refuse. Ildech Fota summons his warriors, and declares a war of conquest. Fomor champion Béimnech, wielder of the Eye of Humbaba, lays waste to the Sidhe armies.
  The Summer Queen calls upon her previous bargain she had with Fir Bolg leader Erc Fechtnach. Erc's son, Nimeth mac Eirc, leads a Fir Bolg army against the Fomori. In a duel with Béimnech, he manages to dislodge Humbaba's Glaring Eye from the Fomor champion's eye socket with a slingshot, kills him, and uses the Eye to lay waste to the Fomorian army.
  King Ildech flees west across the land brigde to Brun, bringing with him thousands of surviving Fomori and Asyidhi slaves.
  In Brun, the Fomori settle in the Altan Tepes mountains.
• 2300 BC Antalians (Dunael) arrive in the IoD, and settle among the Fir Bolg, mostly in the coastal areas.
• 2200 BC The Taymoran civilization expands northwards, entering in contact with the Fomori. Initial contacts are hostile, and the Taymoran armies, supplemented with Sheyallia mercenaries, route the Giants. In awe of the Taymorans' magical prowess, king Ildech agrees to pay tribute to the northern Taymoran sorcerer kings. Giants are sent to build megalithic fortresses for the Taymorans. The cult of Tanyt spreads among the Fomori, while that of Sethlans (Wayland) wanes.
• 2100 BC In spite of the flight from Gandhar, the Giants' malady does not improve. Indech Fota, counseled by the High Priest of Tanyt, Máel Aidche, leads a new Fomor army to the Isle of Dawn, enlisting the help of Taymoran wizards and the Tanyt priesthood. Rather than fighting another bloody war, Ildatach Samrigain removes the Sidhe Protectorate from the mortal world. The Fir Bolg, led by Obd mac Deled ua Neimidh, grandson of Nemith, fight back the Fomori. Obd kills Indech Fota in battle, and the Fomori retreat to Brun.
• 2100 BC Aranea found Aran
• 2000 BC Taymor is destroyed in a cataclysmic volcanic event that sinks the Taymoran heartlands.
  Led by their own sorcerer king, Crom Liath, the Fomori return to the Isle of Dawn, attack and defeat the unprepared Fir Bolg, killing their king Umor mac Obd. Umor's son, Genann mac Umoir, retreats south, fortifying Dun Geanainn (Dungannon). The Dunael are subjugated by Crom Liath.
• 1700 BC Glantrian cataclysm.
  Antalian Northmen migrate to the Isle of Dawn. The Northmen, led by Harald Tormundsson, raise an army of Dunael, but after a few years are defeated by the Fomori superior strength and magic. Harald Tormundsson dies, and the Northmen disperse and settle along the coast, paying tribute to the Fomori king Crom Buidhe mac Crom Liath.
• 1600 BC Most Antalian Northmen leave the Isle of Dawn, and settle in Ostland. Jarl Hruthrek settles in Helskajord and the nearby area.
  Fiacha mac Geanainn of the Fir Bolg obtains the help of the Fir Gallein (Gyerians) of the Fengallen Marsh. The Fir Gallein, traditionally seen as non-threatening by the Fomori, who often employ them as jesters, act as go-betweens allowing Fiacha to contact Jarl Hruthrek of Helskajord and the Dunael chiefs. A coalition is formed, which expands to include also the Centaurs. The allied army defeats the Fomorians in a massive battle along the coast of the Eastern Sea of Dawn. The Fomori, decisively defeated, are forced to flee underground to the Shadowdeep, since the land bridge to Brun is no more.
  On the site of the battle, Fiacha mac Geanainn founds Dun na Dáil, the Fort of the Assembly, as the capital of a new allied polity comprising Fir Bolg, Humans, and Gyerians. Fiacha mac Geanainn becomes the High King of the Rígdacht na Comhaire (Kingdom of Dawn).
  The Summer Court returns to the mortal world from their centuries-long exile.
• 1500 BC With the death of the last king, Crom Buidhe, Fomori leaders Máel Ega and Máel Oighidh once more beg Tír Tairngire from Nyx. Nyx accepts their plea, but exacts powerful promises from the Fomori chiefs -- they will serve her until their own fortress will be completed in Tír Tairngire.
  Nyx takes the mortal form of a beautiful young girl, and travels to the Summer Court, endearing herself to Queen Ildatach. Nyx's avatar tricks Ildatach Samrigain into leaving her rule Tír al stuaigh nime for one day. Nyx then imprisons the Summer Queen in a Entropic plane of temporal stasis of her own design, and rips Tír al stuaigh nime from the spirit plane.
  Máel Ega, Máel Oighidh, and their followers enter Tír Tairngire, only to discover that Nyx has filled it with entropic energies, which turn them into Nightwalkers, the Stygian Giants. Tír Tairngire becomes Inis Aidche, the Isle of Night. The entropic nature of the place prevents the Stygian Giants from ever completing their construction, yet they bring thousands of Asyidhi and Dunael slaves with them, turning them into zombies to work at the construction sites.
• 1400 BC Following the disappearance of the Summer Queen and Tír al stuaigh nime, a powerful Warrior Sidhe, Dunn, establishes the Winter Court and the Four Hidden Fey Cities in the Isle of Dawn, taking the mantle of the Gaimrig (Winter King).
• 1200 BC Asgall mac Ìomhar Ua Ruairc, a descendant of Jarl Hruthrek of Helskajord, founds the polity of Dál Ruairc, which remains part of the Rígdacht na Comhaire, but increasingly challenges the rights of the High Kings. With the decline of the Fir Bolg, the Ua Ruairc achieve the rank of High Kings within one century.
• 1100 BC Nithians under Prince Ramenhotep establish the colony of Thothia on the Isle of Dawn. This is the eastern extent of Nithian colonisation. The Nithians absorb or enslave the local Asydhi, transferring large numbers of them to Nithia proper.
• 1000 BC Alphatian Landfall
• 994 BC Reign of Tokoramses V of Thothia and High King Dubhgall Ua Ruairc.
• 800 BC The Trueflower Elves reach the IoD and settle there, not following Eyrindul to Alphatia.
• 700 BC The Nithian colonists in Thothia turn away from the Entropic faith of their homeland and increasingly turn to a new form of mysticism.
  Contacts with Nithia and Alphatia cause internal unrest in Comhaire, leading to the fragmentation of the kingdom. Derdriu nic Daill, an Alphatian-trained Dunael sorceress, founds the splinter kingdom of Deirdren, which breaks away from Comhaire as the conflict between the Gall-Dunael and the Fir Bolg intensifies, with numerous cattle-stealing raids ending in bloody feuds among the lesser kings. The Ua Ruairc kings are replaced by the Dunael Finnegar mac Domnaill, who is able to control the feuding clans. After twenty years of reign, Finnegar, fearing the encroaching of the two superpowers, Nithia and Alphatia, consults the Immortals. He builds Finnegar's Watch, then disappears never to be heard of again (he failed his quest for Immortality). The Ui Domnaill dynasty continues with his heir, Conall mac Fhionnagair.
• 500 BC Destruction of Nithia, which is erased from Thothia's and Alphatia's history.
  Thothia becomes a vassal kingdom of Alphatia.
  The Alphatians initiate the conquest of the Isle of Dawn. Derdriu joins the Alphatians willingly, but the population rebels, and the sorceress is killed in the fight that ensues. Alphatian troops soon march on the town and raze it.
  War between Berisarde and Huldra in Frisland.
• 426 BC Tokoramses XIV Builds the Temple of Dawn
• 400 BC The Alphatians complete the exploration and subjugation of the Isle of Dawn.
  The last High King of Comhaire is vaporized by Alphatian magicians in the Battle of Dunadale. A large portion of the Dunael and Gall-Dunael population is enslaved by the Alphatians and deported to Alphatia and Bellissaria to provide slave labor for the wizards.
• 192 BC Alphatia initiates a campaign to conquer Thyatis
• 190 BC Alphatian completes its conquest of Thyatis
• 2 BC Thyatians rebel, expel the Alphatians and invade the Isle of Dawn.
• 1 AC Treaty of Edairo between Thyatis and Alphatia
  Act of Protection. Most Fey leave Frisland for the Isle of Dawn. Aglion establishes Ardulla, the 5th Hidden City, as a vassal of the Winter King.

History, part II

• 1 AC Treaty of Edairo between Thyatis and Alphatia Act of Protection. Most Fey leave Frisland for the Isle of Dawn. Aglion establishes Ardulla, the 5th Hidden City, as a vassal of the Winter King. Many Huldrafolk fey, however, have developed a deep resentment against mortals, and so have many of the native fey of the Isle of Dawn. In the next century, the number of exiled fey grows.
• 15 AC Alphatia instigates Qeodharan raiders to destroy Cape Alpha, a recently-built Thyatian outpost in Norwold. Thyatis retaliates by attacking Alphatian holdings on the Isle of Dawn, leading to the Bog Wars.
• 100 AC Construction of Redstone finalized. The Filwarf are cursed by Kagyar.
• 150 AC With the consolidation of the Alphatian and Thyatian hold on the Isle of Dawn, the Leprechaun hero Iubadan decides to open relations with the Empire of Thyatis. Faylinn becomes the 6th Hidden City.
• 192 AC Ramenhotep X discovers Aketheti
• 300 AC Dlochtán, an adventurous Sidhe Rogue from the Winter Court discovers Aran while travelling with a group of Trueflower elves.
• 400 AC Dlochtán's tale of Aran raises the curiosity of displaced fey. A group, led by the sprite Geilt Airdrech, settles among the Aranea. These desperate faeries, having seen the destruction of the Huldrafolk and the Bog Wars, turn to the Immortal Arachne Prime to return to "Tír na stuaighi nime". Arachne Prime gives them a way to return, and the gift of spiders. However, the entropic energies and accelerated time of the Isle of Night transform the faeries into Night Imps (the Isle of Night's version of Wood Imps). Dlochtán, enraged by the fate of Geilt and her followers, becomes an exile.
• 450 AC The exiled fey, bitter and turned to evil, but too proud to deal with the Immortals, form the Unseelie Court (Tech Deórad) in the Shadow Coast, led by the Rígan Daill (Queen of Darkness) in her own Hidden City. Dlochtán serves as her chief hunter and minister of war, under the name of Fer Benn, the Horned Man. The Wild Hunt troubles the Shadow Coast for more than a century.
• 544 AC Baron Magnus Furmenglaive, a powerful necromancer, turns the table on the Wild Hunt. Using werewolves as hunters and undead and outer planar servants as baiters, he closes down on the Fer Benn and kills him. This gives him the power he needs to set in motion plans that will change the fate of the Caerdania region and the Furmenglaive family forever.
• 551 AC Magnus Furmenglaive dies. His descendants are cursed with lycanthropy.
• 900 AC The Thyatians conquer several areas of the Isle of Dawn, and build and settle the city of Oceansend in Norwold.
• 959 AC Alphatian attack on the Thyatian possessions in the Isle of Dawn.
• 960 AC Spike Assault, ascension of Thincol and reconquest of the Isle of Dawn territories by Thyatis.
• 1000 AC The present day.

I've used Zendrolion's Caerdania Gazetteer for details on Magnus Furmenglaive.