The History of Leeha
by JTR from Threshold Magazine issue 6A sneak peak into “The Open Arms of Leeha”
by JTR
With a few notable exceptions, the halflings have preserved an accurate history of the western bay over the last several centuries, yet other cultures, some now forgotten, inhabited these lands prior to their arrival. And the halflings do not speak truthfully about all things.
The Old World
Five thousand years ago, the region that now comprises the western bay area of Norwold was home to scattered outposts of beastmen, dwarves, and humans that lived in the lawless north beyond the now lost Empire of Thonia. Imperial authority eventually fell to an upstart former province, the Kingdom of Blackmoor, which led a newly refashioned Holy Thonian Empire under the Pax Technologica, a peacekeeping might that fused natural wild magic with once-alien technology.
The Pax pacified the barbarous north country – even expelling the beastmen and their brutish progeny as part of the First Beastman Crusade. Blackmoor’s direct authority did not last, though, as the nation eventually became embroiled in a global war with elves.
In BC 3150, both humans and elves launched major expeditions to reach the planetary poles and the mysteries that awaited them there. Several of the efforts produced base camps in Norwold’s interior mountains, while the forgotten settlements of the bay-region gained sudden prominence.
This activity coincided with an abrupt flare-up between humans and dragons. War ensued, and the brutal conflict raged for nearly fifteen years. In the aftermath of hostilities, dragons disappeared from the Norwold region.
The ancient world of science of magic came to a sudden and violent end in the century that followed. The Great Rain of Fire – its ultimate origins unknown even to the Immortals – bathed the world in poisonous fallout that obliterated Blackmoor and Thonia. Local survivors of the initial blast made their way south, but they too ultimately succumbed to the Rain’s effects during their sojourns.
Centuries later, vacant and crumbling cities bore silent witness as migrating glaciers laid claim to the western bay.
The Barbarian Ages and Alinor
Unable to rely upon their technology following the destruction wrought by the Rain, the sentient races had fallen back into near-stone age existence. Modern humanoids – the heirs to the beastmen – exploded outward from the continental interior and flooded through Norwold. In response to these population movements, southern barbaric humans migrated into the Candellar region. Other barbarians eventually spread along the Bay’s northern shore, and continued waves of humans pressured the local humanoids.
By BC 800, the local humans were organized in loose barbarian kingdoms that vied with one another for territory. Despite their proven prowess against the humanoids, they were unprepared for raiding frost giants and the environmental calamities that presaged the arrival of distant Alphatian colonists.
Alphatia was a magical empire to the east of Norwold across the sea. During an era of expansion, Alphatian wizards and their commoner subjects set out to colonize the Great Bay. Under the leadership of Alinor, Prince of Alphia, the conquering wizards established a far-flung kingdom that reached into the western mountains.
The Alphatians quickly built inspiring cities and retreats, but their pre-eminence was cut short in a testament to wizardly folly. Prince Alinor sought to transform the land that he ruled and magically raised mountains where fields and plains once stood. The dweomer failed, and the collapsing mountains destroyed Alinor’s capital and sent reverberations felt a thousand miles away. Whole areas had been thrown dozens – even hundreds – of miles away. Distant ranges collapsed, glaciers shattered, and the Bay shoreline was rewritten – most notably in the creation of the Leehan Gulf. The barbarians reasserted themselves after Alinor’s destruction, and surviving Alphatians either were absorbed or sought refuge in the unknown west.
During the Second Barbarian Age, humanoids returned to the area in a protracted invasion that severely weakened all parties. By the time the first Emperor of Thyatis was crowned, raiding frost giants had swept away the last permanent human settlements in the northwest, and humanoids had driven humans south of the Catbergs. The barbarians’ salvation came from the newly formed Thyatian Empire, which briefly traded weapons to them. With the might of steel in hand, the barbarians blunted further humanoid expansion into the south.
It was during this era that Weuwn, an Immortal troll (see Gaz F9), used Alphatian magic to remove his preternatural hunger, only to unleash it as a free spirit that became the legendary wendigo.
Arrival of the Halflings
The story of the western Bay now turns to the halflings. Far to the south of Norwold, in the coastal lands of the Known World, the shortfolk were being shipped as slaves by Minrothad traders.
In AC 383, one such expedition was intercepted in the Strait of Helskir by halfling raiders residing at Haldisvall1. Additional Minrothaddan vessels gave pursuit, and the raiders and their newly freed allies were unable to turn back south. A naval game of cat-and-mouse played out as the two fleets travelled further northward, eventually entering the Great Bay.
In a final confrontation, the halflings sank the Minrothaddan warships around the Isle of Bergholm in the east, but victory came too late to return home. Winter storms roiled the Bay and ice stretched outward from the northern shore cutting off any escape.
After a maddening two weeks, the halfling sailors maneuvered the fatigued vessels to the Gulf’s southern shores. There the shortfolk beached their ships and transformed them into makeshift shelters.
Remarkably, several hundred halflings survived that first winter on ship stores and the hunting and ice fishing of brave individuals. Unaware of their present location, and without the means to rebuild their ships, the surviving hin dispersed into the region by the late spring, each family or group left to fend for itself.
The halflings would have maintained their isolation from one another, but after nearly two decades in the Gulf, long-ranging Ostland reavers harried the peoples of the Great Bay. Many of the halflings gathered in common defense at what is now Nimbleville. Additional settlements – Goodfield and Grassy Knoll – would follow, but the first true fortress, Divotfoot, was commissioned only after the brutal First Orc War.
The Leehan Gulf halflings had little interaction with contemporaneous, short-lived Alphatian colonies in the south and east. The communities were not seriously threatened again until the Frost Giant War of AC 525 and the Second Orc War (AC 641-642), the latter of which had been prompted by conflicts still further to the north beyond the Jotunheimr Hills.
Lord Staley’s Vaults and The Hockey Wars
Modern hinuck culture and identity took shape in the 8th Century AC with the founding of the southern trade post of Maracope.
“Lord” Staley was an entrepreneurial spirit who had previously made contact with the southern barbarians. The tribesmen in turn visited Maracope to barter their wares. Staley was also an adventurer, and rumors persisted among the hinuck that he had discovered great treasures in the south and had stolen it away in hidden vaults.
In AC 726, the legend of Lord Staley’s Vaults enticed the forces of “Lord” Edmund Snook, de facto ruler of Nimble-ville, to attempt to kidnap Staley and force him to share his wealth. Between them lay a shanty-town derisively known as Hokie Town, and the Nimbleville krondar – or police force – mistakenly thought they could ride roughshod through the settlement en route to Maracope. The Hokies took umbrage at the trespass, and a massive fight erupted. Wielding a signature crooked club, the Hokies soundly thrashed the krondar.
In honor of their victory, Lord Staley presented them with a brass cup, allegedly from his Vaults. The Hokies proudly displayed this token, much to the consternation of Lord Edmund.
Edmund would have his revenge seven years later. Operatives wearing newly fashioned skates and padded armor used frozen streams to storm Hokie Town during winter. They stole Lord Staley’s Cup, set much of the shanties ablaze, and similarly terrorized other undesirable communities in the Second Hockey War.
The theft of the Cup stirred up passions throughout the Gulf, and vociferous arguments degenerated into brawls and eventually large scale rumbles between the krondar of neighboring settlements. During the Third Hockey War, Lord Staley’s Cup traded hands no less than five times. The krondar of Divotfoot finally wrested the prize from Barrydwell and returned it to Hokie Town.
The War of the North and the Founding of Leeha
The three brief Hockey Wars left a number of hinucks permanently crippled or slain, and the fight drained from the communities. Attention and energy turned outward once emissaries of the Kingdom of Essuria – a grand nation on the Denagothian Plateau (see Gaz F2) in the distant south – visited Maracope. A generation later, halfling explorers were traversing the barbarian lands of the south and the course of the White Bear River through the Valley of Ath.
With attention turned to the south and on personal matters, the hinucks were unprepared for a gathering war with the denizens of the Jotunheimr, Frosthaven, and other northern locales. The four-year War of the North ended inconclusively, but it claimed Barrydwell as a casualty and left the Gulf region sorely wracked.
The town of Leeha was born in the War’s aftermath as a neutral site among the halfling holdings and as a gateway into the southwestern interior along the Great Bear River. Leeha soon developed a mercantile, free-city feel as war-weary halflings relocated to the river port.
Influenced by Leeha’s example, the hinucks recovered and enjoyed a long period of peace and prosperity.
Map of Leehashire and the Western Great Bay
http://pandius.com/leeha_gazf11.jpg
The Neverending Winter
The Era of Good Hearth was brought to a close when a barbarian witch from the north country launched an ambitious gambit to conquer the whole of Norwold. Akra the Witch-Queen of Norwold and her Sisterhood of Ice Witches led an army of frost giants, white dragons, trolls, and myriad other creatures in invasion of the Great Bay and Norwold’s eastern coast. Regional temperatures plummeted, and the duration of growing seasons increasingly shrank.
Although this area was never a primary front for the Witch-Queen’s war, hardships beset the halflings. They fended off terrible attacks during the Third Frost Giant War, but the gravest danger came from within. Food stores throughout the Gulf had run low, but this was nowhere more true than in the community of Sunnyville. The appetite of the small folk was legendary, and in the face of starvation, deadly fights over mere crumbs erupted between fast friends. Yet worse was to follow.
The situation grew so dire that the Sunnyville hinucks took to cannibalism. First they consumed the frozen remains of those who had previously died, but it was not long before victims were openly murdered. A bloody madness descended upon the town, and the appalling and depraved actions stirred the ancient spirit of the wendigo.
Word of the carnage reached the other settlements and the local barbarians. At great personal cost, scores of heroes joined together in vanquishing the hunger spirit and its mortal shells.
Meanwhile, farmers discovered that a flower native to the region, the snow tulip, was not only edible but also worked as an appetite suppressant. The oddly-blooming tulips were quickly gathered and distributed among the holdings.
The Gulf region suffered even after betrayal shattered Akra’s reign and the frostfell beasts had withdrawn. For three years, the populations warred over sparse foodstuffs: human, halfling, humanoid, even wild beasts displayed unrivaled savagery in hopes of survival.
In early AC 878, a miraculous wave of heat swept over the western Bay (generated by the Great Sampo of Kaarjala Gaz F10). This was followed by returning migrations of uncountable geese and other fowl. Rejuvenated grass forced its way to the surface, and more fauna followed. With abundant sources of food at hand, the embattled populations disengaged and offered thanksgiving for their deliverance.
Century’s Turn
The Gulf entered a period of quiet and reflection. Hinucks too sickened by the events that transpired during the Age of Akra and the Hunger Wars went west into the mountains, starting communities such as Highthicket and Merrybrooke, as well as dozens of smaller outposts and individual holdings. Other hinucks looked south to re-establish Essurian trading relations, and adventurers known as Voyageurs2 set off into the wilderness to discover unknown opportunities.
Concurrently, naval science was slowly restored at Port Hinly, and sailors set east beyond the the Gulf. Port Hinly took advantage of its new power and raided barbarian and hinuck settlements alike. In 923, Nimbleville and Grassy Knoll tired of the raids and defeated the pirates and their allies in the Fourth Hockey War.
The Hin and Barbarians War
Homesteads had sprung up in the south during the intervening years, and initial relations with the local barbarians were generally peaceful. In the north, far-ranging hinuck prospectors found precious minerals and lodes of platinum and other metals in the Rimatasz and eastern Jotunheimr. They established shanty towns to ply their trade. These activities disturbed the northern barbarian tribes, who performed a number of rites at now-occupied sacred spots during the summer months. The barbarians unsuccessfully sought to persuade the halflings to return home. A number of inconclusive fights broke out, and relations deteriorated.
As word spread of mineral wealth in the north and fertile land in the south, more hinucks migrated to the frontiers. The sudden influx depleted game, and local forests shrank from clear cutting. The barbarians staged a number of raids against hinuck settlers, which provoked increasingly violent retributions. By AC 926, both the north and south were simmering, and calls rang out for greater protection of the homesteaders.
In AC 927 a band of angry, young roughnecks assaulted a northern barbarian settlement during the night, killing most of the inhabitants. The northern tribes took this as a declaration of war and banded together. Together they struck the largest shanty town in the north. The Battle of Pebble Trail was ferocious - the hinucks were soundly defeated, and the settlement was razed. Those who survived the attack urged their coastal brothers to come north and fight. At the same time, southern land disputes erupted into skirmishes.
The communities mobilized their krondar the following year, and the warm months of AC 928-929 were marked by numerous pitched battles that did little to affect the overall course of war. Separate agendas held back the hinucks as the krondar forces often operated at cross purposes with one another. This friction was most notable at, but not unique to, the Battle of Pinecone Crossing (AC 930), where Port Hinly forces reached an independent agreement with one of the barbarian tribes and helped them stage an ambush against a band of hinucks from Nimbleville.
As the community lords dithered, the Voyageurs and volunteers without allegiances rallied together. They marched out of the holdings under a unified banner and deployed in force. This Vanguard blunted a barbarian push and parlayed with their warlords. The barbarians would not end the war until those responsible for violating their sacred lands were handed over. Hunters were dispatched to track down the offenders. Some were captured in the hinterlands, while others were dragged out of the protection of the settlements over the objections of the local krondar.
The barbarians accepted the prisoners and ended the war. The dominant tribe also adopted the Vanguard fighters as brothers, and for several years thereafter, the hunters were permitted to seek out several particularly heinous barbarians among the tribes. The settlements were scandalized by the sudden end of the war, and many prominent families lost influence and were replaced.
The Whoop-It-Up Affair
In 936, the Empire of Thyatis withdrew its Legions from Provincia Gurrania, a territory west of the Gulf past the Icereach Range. Not all of the legionnaires returned home; some cashiered soldiers and bureaucrats instead sought their fortune in Norwold’s interior. The Thyatians and allied Essurian expatriots established Fort Borealis and began trading wine, spices, and other goods to the locals. Life at the fort was relatively easy, and the good cheer brought about by the fortified spirits earned the place the nickname “Fort Whoop-It-Up”.
Local hinuck homesteaders, who had previously been trading with the tribes, found themselves increasingly squeezed out by the aggressive newcomers. In the spring of AC 938, a halfling delegation visited Fort Borealis and demanded to negotiate a deal to share the trade with the barbarians. The Borealis traders dismissed them rudely, sparking an altercation that left several people dead. Surviving hinucks fled under pursuit, and several homesteads were burned down.
Many southern hinucks retreated to the relative safety of the Gulf, but the Voyageurs mobilized and marched on Fort Borealis that summer. The fort’s outnumbered inhabitants proclaimed their innocence and cited that the barbarians traded willingly and that no nation’s laws held sway in that region. The Voyageurs bided their time and seized the fort after a barbarian delegation entered the palisade and the inhabitants grew drunk and raucous in the evening.
The hinucks confiscated the trade goods, but the barbarian prisoners posed a dilemma. Word filtered out to neighboring tribes, and the halflings’ prospects were poised to suffer a reversal of fortune, until a solution came in the form of Samuel Ironside. The honest hinuck had earned his stripes during the Hin and Barbarians War, and he was wary of letting this situation spin out of control and spark another such conflict.
The Do-Gooder, as he would later be known, hammered out a treaty with the defeated Thyatians that allowed them to retain nominal control of Fort Borealis under the auspices of the Voyageurs network. Captured barbarians were given other face-saving measures. When the gates opened before the gathering tribesmen, they found a camp of subdued mirth and collegiality.
In subsequent years, Samuel Ironside would continue to make a name for himself – not only in the south but also in other parts of the Gulf region. In so doing, he became a model of upright standing whose strength was gloved by the velvet of civility, commanding the respect of human and halfling alike.
In AC 943, a threat to the entire region rode out of the mountains in the distant south. Fear spread like wildfire as barbarians told tales of fell beasts. Ironside organized a common defense based from Fort Borealis, and the newly-christened Western Bay Defense Force blunted incursions by monsters displaced by an invasion of the people known as the Vanatics (see Gaz F9). They also braved a direct assault by the mysterious Vanatics themselves.
Chaos and Order
As the internal affairs of the region sorted themselves out, the hinucks had undertaken numerous efforts to explore the wider world. It was only a matter of time then before contact was made with the halflings of the Five Shires on the continent’s southern coast.
Through secret negotiations with their southern cousins, the Gulf representatives acquired a small Crucible of Blackflame – a historic cultural relic absent to the diasporic halflings since before the pirate days of Haldisvall.
Blackflame proved a poisoned gift to the Gulf communities and the provocation for the Fifth and final Hockey War. Word of its arrival preceded the relic, and large numbers gathered at Leeha in anticipation. Thievery and other crimes grew rampant as the hinucks grew anxious, but this turned to elation and celebration when the crucible finally arrived.
The festivities were short-lived, for two nights after its arrival, the Blackflame disappeared. Accusations of theft shattered the harmony, with the legendary family of Edmund Snook, now ensconced at Grassy Knoll, garnering more than its fair share of allegations. The Snook family seat was besieged, but the local krondar beat back the attackers. The Gulf once more devolved into a chaotic free-for-all.
The conflict raged throughout the summer and early fall of AC 963. It ceased with the onset of frost, but not before claiming the legendary community of Old Hockey Town as a casualty. Renewal of fighting was imminent come second spring – a peculiarity of the region – but for the actions of a lone Snook scout – and former Hunter – that ventured into the Crumpled Lands.
In a location she refused to disclose, the scout discovered caverns in which streams of Blackflame ran like wildfire. She retrieved significant amounts of the magical substance, which was divided and presented to each of the major settlements in what is commonly known as Edmund’s Ransom. The scout herself retired to Fort Divotfoot.
The Force Comes into its Own
The Voyageurs had developed a reputation as an effective force for order through its successes in numerous conflicts and those of its predecessors. Samuel Ironside’s Western Bay Defense Force was preserved, and to its structure were added the Hunters and smaller groups such as the Legion of Frontiershin. Because their actions also benefitted the barbarian tribes, their respect was earned as well, and before long the Force was called upon to adjudicate inter-tribal disputes.
The hin constables who worked on the frontier developed strong ties with the human communities, and soon they were regularly receiving information from the tribes about developments further afield. As the information network improved, the “Lads” were able to deploy more effectively, and its Hunters were revered as the force that always caught its quarry.
In AC 967, a disagreement over hunting rights in the north country led to open warfare among the northern barbarian tribes. The summer was marked with bloodshed. The settlements stayed away from the conflict, but the Voyageurs recognized the risk of prolonged warfare and stepped in to defuse tensions. At first the enraged combatants attacked the interlopers, but years of training and experience had turned the hinucks of the Western Bay Defense Force into formidable opponents.
The Voyageurs blunted attacks from each of the major barbarian armies, and its call to truce was eventually heeded. Diplomatic members of the Force brokered a settlement that ended the Lesser Barbarian War.
Ten years later the Force interceded in another growing conflict - this time within Leehashire itself. Lord Staley's Cup had been stolen on the eve of the annual hockey tournament, and accusations were flying. Scuffles erupted in Leeha, where the cup had last been housed, as well as in other settlements. The krondar proved ineffective, as they supported their communities as often as they tried to break up the fights.
Samuel Ironside, then Chief Inspector of the Force, ordered his forces to seize control. In a matter of days, units assembled in every major community to separate and disarm the combatants, while investigators tracked down the cup. The Sixth Hockey War was arrested in its infancy, and remarkably – at least to the community lords – Ironside withdrew his units from the holdings.
The Third Orc War
The Gulf hin continued to live under an unspoken ambivalence toward the Force. The average hinuck enjoyed the stability and inspiration that it afforded, but many of the community leaders were wary of the Force’s apparent willingness to act with impunity without regard to the holdings’ rights. Worse, they feared that Samuel Ironside’s ultimate successor would not prove quite as honorable and would seize power in the Gulf.
Those worries were quieted during the orcish invasion of 984-85. Orcs marched out of the Catberg Hills under the command of an intelligent green dragon. The southern and western territories were hard pressed in the fight. Maracope, once the great trading and cultural capital of halflings, was destroyed in the war.
Throughout the conflict, the Lads of the Force gave aid and comfort to the dispossessed, rallied flagging morale, and went forth to face the orcs. When the orcs sought to capture the southern political figure – and Force-wary politician – Old John MacDonald, units under the authority of a dashing Captain named Collin Tremblay responded. Collin’s forces routed the orcs and gravely wounded their dragon overlord.
The Great Agreement
The fall of Maracope stung harshly in the hearts of hinucks everywhere. Even traditional rivals at Nimbleville were shaken. But Collin’s victory at Old Mac-Donald’s Farm became a beacon for the power of cooperation, and the Force had proved itself as a strong shield against external threats and as a calming influence on the naturally quarrelsome elements among the hinucks.
In AC 987, community leaders and businessmen conferenced at Leeha and produced the Articles of Agreement. The Articles fell short of establishing a unified hinuck nation, but it did lay out numerous formalities, laws, and bindings between the settlements. It also granted the Force a loose regional jurisdiction beyond the reach of the holdings, provided that it was also separated from the Voyageurs’ network.
The Shire Today
It is a time of great excitement in the Gulf. There are those who wish to further develop this commonwealth into a single nation, but independence runs deep among the hinucks. Political passions are burning, and several parties now vie to define the scope of the Gulf’s future.
And as the politics unfolds, new enterprises appear daily and trader barons hire rugged explorers to secure routes to far-away nations. Meanwhile, Ericall’s Kingdom of Norwold is poised to expand westward into the region, and Thyatian agents and Minrothad traders advance the interests of their own nations.
Sidebar: Leehan Timeline
BC 4000: Isolated beastmen, human, and dwarf enclaves survived in the region.
BC 3620-3330: Holy Thonian Empire and the Pax Technologica.
BC 3420: Expulsion of the beastmen.
BC 3150-3135: Human and elven polar expeditions. The Dragon War.
BC 3000: The Great Rain of Fire.
BC 2400-1800: Glaciers slowly covered the western bay region.
BC 2300: Giants dwelt at the glacial edge and in the nearby mountains.
BC 2200: Dragons and giants struggled.
ca. BC 1722: Humanoid tribes of the Great Horde settled the region.
BC 1650: Human barbarians settled the eastern Caudasteen and Candellar.
BC 1300-1200 BC: Human groups spread along the Bay’s north shore.
BC 1000: The western bay was mostly free of ice. Local humans expanded their territory. Post-Antalian men moved up into the southern bay area.
BC 900: The forgotten Nithians briefly explored the region.
BC 800: Rise of the barbarian kingdoms.
BC 600: Humans controlled the whole of the lowland region. Littonians controlled the north coast.
BC 500: Frost giants forayed against the barbarian kingdoms.
BC 400: A combination of earthquakes, subsidence, and rising water levels flooded the lowlands around the Jotunheimr Hills.
BC 345: Alphatians established settlements around the Great Bay.
BC 300: The Kingdom of Alinor was formalized. The kingdom allied with and conquered neighboring tribes.
BC 260: Destruction of Alinor produced the modern Leehan Gulf. Local populations reasserted themselves.
BC 115-105: Human conflicts to the north pushed refugees into the recovering western bay region.
BC 100-86: Surrounding humanoids invaded. Both sides weakened.
BC 11: Raiding frost giants destroyed most permanent settlements south of the Jotunheimr Hills.
BC 10-4: Humanoids pushed local humans south of the Catberg Hills.
0 AC: Crowning of the First Thyatian Emperor.
AC 3-7: Lornasen, leader of the Foresthome elves, journeyed through the area en route to the Sylvan Realm.
AC 5-14: Local barbarians procured Thyatian weapons.
AC 100: The presence of dragons increased substantially.
200 AC: Various shortfolk communities thrived at Haldisvall in Heldann.
AC 300: Littonia established marginal influence over the Viaskodans.
AC 370: Minrothadders shipped halfling slaves to Alphatia.
AC 383: Halfling pirates from Haldisvall intercepted Minrothad slavers, defeated pursuing warships, and landed in the Gulf.
ca. AC 400: Ostland raiders threatened the Norwold coast and the Great Bay. Halflings banded together to form the settlement of Nimbleville.
AC 452: Goodfield was established.
AC 453: Grassy Knoll was established.
AC 468: Alphatian colonies to the east conflicted with native Norwolders.
AC 468-469: The First Orc War.
AC 470: Divotfoot was established.
AC 473: Alphatian forces expanded the Empire’s holdings in Norwold.
AC 486: Barbarians renewed their attack on Alphatian outposts.
ca. 500 AC: Dragons rampaged in the south and east.
AC 507: Fall of the General. Elimination of Alphatian outposts.
AC 516: Port Hinly and Barrydwell were established.
AC 525: Elves formed small enclaves in the Lothbarth.
AC 532: The First Frost Giant War.
AC 640: A northern coalition turned back humanoid hordes.
AC 641-642: The Second Orc War.
AC 700: Maracope was established.
AC 726: The First Hockey War.
AC 733: The Second Hockey War.
AC 736: The Third Hockey War.
AC 741: Sunnyville was established.
AC 753: Essurians visited Maracope.
AC 786: Halflings explored the White Bear and the southern Bay.
AC 792-796: The War of the North and destruction of Barrydwell.
814 AC: Leeha was founded.
AC 846: Akra discovered a source of power within the ruins at Echalia.
AC 860-874: Age of the Witch-Queen of Norwold. Severe regional cooling. Cannabilism destroyed Sunnyville.
AC 869-870: The Third Frost Giant War.
AC 874-877: The Hunger Wars.
AC 884: Highthicket was established.
AC 901: Merrybrooke was established.
AC 910: Dawn of the Voyageurs.
AC 915: Port Hinly piracy.
AC 923: The Fourth Hockey War.
AC 926-931: The Hin and Barbarians War. Birth of the Hunters.
AC 938: The Whoop-it-Up Affair.
AC 939-942: The Adventures of Samuel Ironside.
AC 943: Southern troubles spurred the creation of the Western Bay Frontier Force.
AC 950-960: Halfling sailors mapped the Great Bay and parts of the eastern coast.
AC 950-990: Deep exploration of the White Bear.
AC 963: The Fifth Hockey War.
AC 967: The Force ended the Lesser Barbarian War.
AC 977: The Force prevented the Sixth Hockey War.
AC 984-985: The Third Orc War. Maracope was destroyed. Collin prevailed at Old MacDonald’s Farm.
AC 985: Alphatians settled Alpha.
AC 987: Articles of Agreement signed.
AC 992: Alphatian Empress Eriadna granted Ericall dominion over Norwold.
AC 993: Dragons destroyed many mountain communities.
AC 994: Alphatian trappers and diplomats reached the western bay.
AC 997: Collin elected Sheriff.
AC 996: Catberg Orcs deafeated at Lake Galasst.
AC 1000: The present era.
1 Currently, Freiberg in the Heldannic Territories/
2 Voyageurs are based on the homonymous French Canadian fur traders. See e.g., http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voyageurs