Oltec Timeline
by JTRHere is the Oltec-related timeline that I use in the background for projects. (Note: this only extends to 2000BC)
There are clear similarities in the train of thought with Wilhelm's ideas; however, I go with a hard 6000BC sudden appearance of man rather than a longer (and more RW natural) development.
10,000 BC The Carnifex are banished. Guardian races (giants, dragons, actaeons) inherited certain domains in Brun and Skothar.
6000 BC: Forest of Ka stretches from northern Davania to southern Brun. Proto-Oltec groups such as the Protecs inhabit the Forest of Ka and the Addakian Sound.
5000 BC: The Mictec Gulf Culture briefly appeared in Davania.
4800 BC: Lotomec tribes supplanted the Mictecs in Davania.
4300 BC: Classic Oltecs appeared in the mountain forests of NW Davania. Related tribes reverted to a more primitive existence.
4000 BC: The Tenac Culture briefly challenged the Oltecs, but the later prevailed. They discovered the use of copper and bronze and began to conquer their rivals. Southern tribes brought legends of lizard-like beings and introduced the worship of Kalakataka.
3850 BC: A group of warlike, flatland rainforest tribes were conquered by the Oltecs. Originally a semi-nomadic people from the North Desert, these tribes clung to their distinct heritage.
3500 BC: A lowlander rose to position of military head of the entire Oltec Empire and proclaimed "I am the Azcan, the son of Azca." After a failed military coup, he retreated to the lowlands and led the "Azcan" cities in rebellion.
3400 BC: The ongoing Azcan-Oltec war forced many tribes to migrate. Some, like the Zumache, settled the eastern and southern shores of the Savage Coast. Others travelled east along the Davanian coast and across the waters. These were the ancestors of the Ethengar, the Jennites, and the Oceanians. The eastern tribes encountered Blackmoor explorers. Many of the northern realms, particularly Lumbrai, proved eager to exploit this potential source of labour. Slave ports sprouted in Bellissaria and Skothar.
3350 BC: Blackmoor explorers sailing from Zyxl discovered the legendary elven capital of Evergrun. The unwelcome intrusion ignited the Second Elven War (the Great War) - principally a naval-marine conflict while Blackmoorian land troops were engaged in the Thonian Wars. Bellissarian elves warred against the slavers.
3330 BC: The Concordance of Mohacs ended the Second Elven War and the Thonian Wars. It established the 4th Republic of Thonia under Blackmoor, established colonisation limits between Blackmoor and the elves, and ended the Oltec slave trade.
3000 BC: The Great Rain of Fire. Oltec and Azcan forests gave way to plains, and the Serpent Bridge was deluged. This was known as the End of the Fifth Sun. Bellissarian Oltecs, progenitors to the Jennites and Teslans, joined the Tanagoro and Janbu plainsmen in the region of the Minaean Coast.
Survivors of the Blackmoor Ice Station Outposts fled south into the Midlands. One group became the Urduks, nomadic hunters who followed large herbivores around the foothills of the Black Mountains to the recovering margins of the Great Waste.
2900 BC: Proto-Ethengars crossed from Bellissaria to the Isle of Dawn. They began to intermingle with the local Neathar population.
2800 BC: Oltec-Azcan war and ecological changes drove the two cultures to extinction. Northern survivors travelled east and sought refuge in the caves of the original Atruaghin Plateau.
2400 BC: The Ethengar people moved further north on the Isle of Dawn towards the land bridge to Brun. An offshoot group remained in the central plains region - ancestors to the Alasiyans.
2300 BC: Ilsundal elves settled among the Savage Coast Oltecs. Internal squabbles did not prevent the tribes from building and extensive culture.
It seems that my RW-group inspirations list didn't make the move, so these lists are guesses.
Protecs - Protomecs (sp?), an early Gulf culture
Mictec - Mixtec Gulf Culture of Mexico
Lotomec - another Gulf culture, I believe they were called the Lomecs?
Oltecs - Olmec/Toltec
Tenac - early Incan?
Azcan - Aztec
Zumache - a cross of Zuni, Hopi and Apache
FWIW, my Tanagoro list resembled:
Satum - Axum
Saku - First kingdom of Kush or the Nok culture
Tanagoro - Kalahari bushman
Janbu - Bantu tribes
Ibu - a group that was driven west by Bantu migration patterns (can't remember the name)
Karimari - pygmies, another victim of Bantu migrations
Kho - Berber-related group, name taken from a truncation of a language-family pertaining to that region
Yavi - Jamaican
For established Mystaran groups with Amerind inspiration the list was
Bear - Navajo, pueblo tribes
Elk - Iroquois/Algonquian
Turtle - Pacific
Tiger - amalgamation of Aztec culture in a Mayan environment with a major technological boost (steel) and South American use of poison (unaware of NA Amerind cultures or Mesoamerican ones that used poison weapons)
Horse: Plains Indians (Sioux, Cheyenne)
Yazi gnolls - Later spaghetti western Indians (when trade/peaceable relations were worked into the storylines)
Blackbelly goblins, etc - earlier spaghetti westerns
Los Guardianos (native Savage Coasters) - Mexican-Californian
"Pagans" (X9 encounters, between Baronies and Eusdria) - bandito Tex-Mex culture plus El Dorado [Think valley of Gwangi]
"Pagans" (X9 encounters, in what is now Bellayne and Herath) - doubtful this group still exists, but probably Yanomam-inspired
Here are some of my maps on the Vaults to better see what I'm talking about.