SPOILER WARNING ........ SPOILER WARNING ......... SPOILER WARNING
Would the "alter egos" for Alisandro Manre, Cian Ionescu and Tanen Chossum please REFRAIN from reading any of the following text.
Okay, now that /that/ is out of the way ...
Here follows my "History of Ierendi (Modified)" for the reading pleasure of the MML. I hope it proves useful to some.
[and if Derek, Rich or RW have read this far -- SHAME ON YOU!]
First, a few notes regarding my campaign, which have had some effect on how I derived this modified timeline:
1. I have no intention of running WotI.
2. My campaign started at Klarmont 1, 1005 AC and the "Death in Freeport"
adventure was started early in the morning on Klarmont 8th.
3. I've attempted to merge useful and interesting details from the original
Ierendi timeline with significant details of the City of Freeport in
general and "Death in Freeport" in particular. I'm hoping that the
follow-up modules will snap in without further modification, but I
don't have them yet, so I make no promises. ;-)
Historical Timeline of Ierendi
by Jenni A M MerrifieldPre- 0 AC: Refer to Gaz 4, Kingdom of Ierendi, p5
0 AC: First Emperor of Thyatis is crowned
570 AC: First settlement on the islands is started on Island of Ierendi by cast-offs from The Five Shires. Island is already inhabited by small tribes of native aboriginal peoples.
571 AC: Thyatis establishes prisons on five islands where cast-offs settled
600 AC: Mad Creeg (aka Captain Creeg Drac) leads a rebellion among the prisoners found on the islands of Ierendi. With native co-operation, Mad Creeg's improvised army drives Thyatians from the islands.
602 AC: Mad Creeg goes about claiming all the islands of Ierendi to be under his control and declares himself the first Sea Lord of Ierendi.
604 AC: Mad Creeg forms the Captains' Council as a "cabinet of advisers". Consists of 12 Captains based out of Ierendi City (pirates and privateers really) who were appointed by Mad Creeg, future members will either be nominated in advance by their predecessor, taking over when they chose to retire (or died), or will be appointed by the other members of the Council.
625 AC: Mad Creeg realises that he can not start a dynasty as he is getting old and his only child, a son, is too young and inexperienced for the Captains' Council to accept. Creeg Drac names Captain "Black Toes" Cromey (another "old hand") as his successor. He also sets a law that says the current Sea Lord's nomination for his successor must first be approved by the Captains' Council.
634 AC: Black Toes assumes rulership upon the death of his friend Mad Creeg. He marries (a much younger) Kethy Matrongle from Glantri.
644 AC: Successive military expeditions by Thyatians are defeated by islanders with aid of Honor Island war fleets.
649 AC: Black Toes chooses to nominate his wife as his successor. She is approved by the Captains' Council.
650 AC: First naval school is established in main island to train sailors for battle.
681 AC: Ierendi navy is up to full strength and is capable of fully defending the islands.
691 AC: The Rise of the Ierendian Navy: With the help of the Honor Island magicians, the Ierendians develop magical-technological engines of war to enhance the power of the Ierendian Navy.
713 AC: The first advanced war ships and galleys of the navy engaged. They utterly destroy a Thyatian patrol. The Ierendian Navy achieves instant pre- eminence among the naval powers of Mystara.
775 AC: After a major uprising of merchants, the Sea Lord and Captains' Council agrees to some limitations on their power, and to the popular democratic election of the Sea Lord.
790 AC: The annual election ceremony becomes an established tradition for revelry and popular celebration. Once the results are announced, the city of Ierendi puts on a series of contests and tournaments in the name of the new Sea Lord or Lady. There are usually prizes that make participating worth an adventurer's while, plus winners gain the right to join the Adventurers Guild. The Honor Island magicians offer aid in sponsoring and designing the contests.
935 AC: The election for Sea Lord is officially opened up to any member of the Adventurer's Guild or any Sea Captain who is based out of Ierendi. In either case, they must also be willing to swear allegiance to the Captain's Council and Ierendi before being allowed to run.
957 AC: Haradith of the Tall Cedars is the first non-Ierendian to win an election as Sea Lady. Her repeated successes in 12 of the next 14 years make her a national heroine, and a symbol of Ierendi's open-door policy toward immigration.
967 AC: Haradith and the Captains' Council propose construction on a Breakwater to be built around the harbour for the city of Ierendi. It is expected to take six years to complete.
968-974 AC: Construction on the break water around Ierendi Harbour. It is completed on time and under budget.
975 AC: Marten Drac, a descendant of Mad Creeg Drac is elected as Sea Lord. He is rumoured to have used blackmail and assassination in his rise to power, and he most certainly does so to maintain his position. Most ominously, in his first year, he drove through a new law, over the objections of the Captains' Council, that abolished the free elections and /required/ that the Sea Lord of Ierendi be a descendant of the original Captain Drac.
989 AC: Marten Drac brings Ierendi to the brink of economic collapse: A series of burdensome duties and taxes fattened his coffers but drove away many merchants and tourists. The city and the nation it is the capitol of is saved from complete disaster by Marten's youngest brother, Anton, who becomes Sea lord on Marten's death at the relatively young age of 42 (as a result of his excesses and over-indulgences of almost every kind). Anton Drac proves to be cut from the same cloth as his illustrious ancestor Mad Creeg Drac and was able to undo the worst excesses of Marten's rule by abolishing the unfair duties, as well as providing incentives to win back lost trade and tourists. Anton's one failing was that he did not abolish Marten's succession law, despite regular urging to do so by the Captains' Council.
990 AC: The Academy of Naval Science is founded on site of original school to be used as the official training institute for the navy of Ierendi
994 AC: Anton, in a bold attempt to improve relations with the many international neighbours of the Islands of Ierendi, announces plans to sign treaties with Darokin, Five Shires, and Karameikos for the purpose of providing mutual naval aid in times of war. Preparations and meetings to discuss the terms are to happen over the winter. Toward the end of that winter, Sea Lord Anton Creeg is killed by a single yellow-feathered arrow enchanted with death magic while on a routine inspection of the Naval fleet. Ierendi is left without a Sea Lord for the first time since Mad Creeg united the islands. Captain Milton Drac, a distant cousin of Anton, appears as if from nowhere and is summarily installed as Sea Lord of Ierendi just a few days before the new year starts. Milton's first official act is to cancel the plans for all the shared treaties -- the Ierendi fleet will continue to restrict its activities to guarding its own waters and commerce and nothing more.
995 AC: Sea Lord Milton uses national funds to start the construction of The Lighthouse of Drac, a monument to his own ambition, on an islet located less than a quarter mile from the mouth of Ierendi harbour.
1000 AC: Tourism and Mercantile activities were revived with Anton, but have taken another serious downturn as Milton sinks more and more money into the construction of "The Lighthouse of Drac" or "Milton's Folly" as it is more commonly known. Despite Milton's obsession with the construction of "his lighthouse", the Captains' Council still tries to govern Ierendi as best they can. Their task is arduous, and some Services are degenerating, but the Islands of Ierendi are still hawked as "the place for adventurers to visit".
1005 AC: Time of my campaign. Milton's Folly, now under construction for ten years, is expected to be completed in the summer of this year. "Death in Freeport" occurs at the very start of the Shipping season (somewhere near the beginning of Klarmont)