Southern Vulcanian Timeline
by Ethan DeneaultBC 6000 - Ordana creates the Elven race from the forest which she once called home. She shelters the young race until she is sure they can survive on their own.
BC 5000 - The Elves' infancy is over. The forests of Sylvanyor are closed to them forever. The Elves create their first civilisation in the forests of Evergrun.
BC 4000 - The Beagle crash-lands on Mystara. Blackmoor begins its technological dominance.
BC 3600 - Ogdoban Treel's actions destroy the Beagle.
BC 3500 - Blackmoor discovers the Southern Elves, and conducts intermittent trade and warfare with them. The Elven civilisation flourishes with the Blackmoorian technology, and 4 clans of Elves move to Skothar to be closer to Blackmoor. Blackmoorian cities start to appear near Elven lands. Garal Glitterlode crates a race called the Ice Gnomes in the mountains in the extreme south of Vulcania.
BC 3499 - The City of Thimhallan is founded as the most 'Blackmoorian' of the Elvish cities. It's real claim to fame is its use of an Immortal's artifact to power the city.
BC 3436 - The Elf-Prince Aetharion is born.
BC 3000 - Blackmoor experiments in high science destroy Blackmoor, and shift Mystara's axis. After the initial shock, the surviving elves abandon many of their cities and move northward to Grunland. Among the lost Elves is Aetharion.
BC 2900 - The Ice Gnomes migrate north to the Vulcanian March. Garal, fearing destruction of his race, takes a few clans and transplants them to what is now Rockhome, instils false memories in them, and hopes for the best. The Gnomes left in Vulcania learn much about Blackmoorian technology from the Elves.
BC 2800 - The Elven Separatist movement gains speed. Ilsundal takes many of the Elves with him to abandon Blackmoor altogether.
BC 2600 - The City of Thimhallan's power source fails mysteriously. Within months the entire populace is dead. Four of the last Elven scientists of Thimhallan seal themselves in stasis, guaranteeing their survival.
BC 2500 - The rest of the Elven civilisations are falling apart. A second separatist group leaves the lands.
BC 2400-2300 - The Elven civilisation is destroyed by volcanic upheaval. The six Gnomish clans, Zarka, Drassar, Gemeiyr, Pegdhart, Skyras, and Snarta move into the remains of the ancient Elvish cities.
BC 2053 - A lich named Ektarmorag and his undead armies of Elves suddenly appear in the far south near the polar opening. His kingdom borders on many Gnomish clan-lands, and his undead armies ravage the Gnomes. Only later is it discovered that Ektarmorag was in life the Elf-Prince Aetharion.
BC 1754 - Clan Zarka's stronghold is utterly wiped out in an assault by undead. There were no survivors of the assault. King Borodar of Zarka, who was away at a clan meeting, vowed revenge. Fearing that simple Gnome-power could not stand up to the undead, he proposed the construction of 5 giant war machines that he called the Earthshakers.
BC 1780-1785 - The War of the Earthshakers. In less than 30 years the five machines were completed. Each were to be each controlled by the five remaining clans of Gnomes, headed by King Borodar. The Earthshakers were each designed differently, though they were all basically human shaped, and between 800-1200 feet tall. These massive devices succeeded in destroying Ektarmorag by collapsing his palace around him. Of the five clans represented in the battle, only four survived. King Borodar sacrificed his Earthshaker to destroy Ektarmorag, costing the lives of the last of Clan Zarka and all of Clan Drassar.
BC 1790 - The four remaining Gnomish clans decided to leave their cursed
lands. Knowing that they could not all travel together, the clanmasters
drew lots to see which clans should band together. In the end, Clan
Gemeiyr and Clan Skyras took their Earthshakers and headed east, while the
other two clans headed west.
Clan Pegdhart and Snarta head toward the Ice peaks. However, neither
Earthshaker was resilient enough for the journey, and both broke down in
different valleys deep within the mountains. Clan Gemeyir settled in the
Lost Valley. They used the parts from their Earthshaker to build the great
Gnomish city of Berren. Clan Skyras' Earthshaker never made it out of the
Vulcanian Marches, as the clan disintegrated over succession rights in BC
1791.
BC 1400 - The factions that were once Clan Skyras no longer remember why they are fighting. By now there are at least 30 different clans battling for superiority by building more advanced weaponry. These groups are the ancestors of the Earthshaker clans of the Vulcanian Marches.
BC 1200 - A large Tanagoro colony is founded on the tip of the Vulcanian Peninsula, the black skinned human tribes soon spread through most of the forested areas of eastern Vulcania, and periodically war with the gnomes of the marches. Clan Snarta moves northward, out of the mountains, and into the Meghala Kimata Plains.
BC 1000 - Oriental colonists arrive from central Skothar. Their culture integrates with that of the Tanagoro. Many colonists move far inland, toward the Marches.
BC 790 - Clan Snarta integrates itself into Milenian culture.
BC 765 - Three Alphatian wizards crash land on the city of Thimhallan, claim it as their own and begin to uncover it's secrets.
BC 633 - The School of Technomancy is founded in Thimhallan.
BC 600 - Clan Snarta leaves Milenia, and heads back south.
BC 580 - The human colonies have expanded to cover most of Vulcania. In the marches, clans of Gnomes and Human nations fight each other with swords and Earthshakers.
BC 542 - The Snartans arrived back at the Brasol range. They dismantled their ancient Earthshaker, and constructed a new city-version, and founded the Hoplite republic. Soon after arriving, the Snartans discovered their cousins, Clan Pedhardt, and swiftly assimilated them into the Hoplite republic.
BC 300 - Clan Gemeye (a corruption of Gemeiyr) suffered a great schism over the use of technology. A large population of Gnomes left Berren and moved to Thimhallan.
BC 275 - Clan Gemeye founded the School of Gnomish Invention in Thimhallan., the first graduate was a young gnome named Glimreen Gemeye (in BC 261)
BC 262 - Glimreen received a dream from Garal Glitterlode. A dream of a flying city of Gnomes. He immediately set off with a few friends to the North. He never returned to Thimhallan.
BC 200 - King Dorfin I "The Great" began the Snartan conquest of Vulcania.
BC 178 - The "hoi gnomoioi" Snartan Troops rolled through Northern Vulcania, creating the Snartan Empire. Dorfin battled against the Humans and gnomes to the south, with limited success.
BC 175 - Dorfin I dies, and becomes an Immortal in the Sphere of Time. He created his own dynasty by actually artificially creating Harwin III during one of his time-trips.
AC 34 - Zodiak Mentrix and Matoia Pendrax, discoverers of Thimhallan, are denied Immortality. The College of Magic and Technology closes.
AC 40 - Serraine visited Thimhallan for the first time. Glimreen's statue was placed in the Hall of Heroes in The College.
AC 84 - The College of Magic and Technology re-opened.
AC 120 - A force of humanoid raiders attacked Berren. The city was obliterated before reinforcements from Thimhallan could arrive. The Thimhallaners drove off the humanoids, but there were no survivors in Berren. The ruins were left as a memorial.
AC 356 - Emperor Harwin III was chosen as the Snartans "indivtali perfectii" His clone becomes the standard reproductive element among the Snartans.
AC 577 - The last free-born Snartan died. Snarta is now one.
AC 690 - The cloning process began a massive overpopulation problem. The Snartan Empire could no longer fit in northern Vulcania. To gain more land, the Snartan Empire begins the campaign to conquer the southern marches, but met resistance from the humans and the many Gnomish Earthshaker clans of the marches.
AC 701 - The Snartans won decisive victories against the relatively unprepared human armies, but they themselves were harried by the primitive hit and run tactics of the other Gnomish Earthshakers.
AC 712 - Snartan troops pushed the human populations out of their cities and farther south, toward the dark lands of the polar opening. Many of the survivors became barbarians, while others eked out a tenuous survival just north of the darkness.
AC 720-800 - Snarta asserted dominance over the lands of Vulcania, beating back the rogue Gnomish clans, and claiming the Marches as their own.
AC 800 - Snartan Emperor Irkin II hatched a plan to conquer most of southern Davania. In the intervening decade, he authorised the construction of more Earthshakers, and the cloning of thousands of Snartans.
AC 810-830 - Snarta's grand plan came to fruition. The newly minted Earthshakers slowly roll north and west leaving a path of destruction in their wake. However, by 815, the Snartans vastly overextended themselves, and in the winter of 816, the Humans who were displaced a hundred years earlier and the Gnomish Earthshaker clans quickly retook Vulcania. Word of the coup takes nearly a year to reach the front lines, and by the time the first Snartan reinforcements return home, the combined Human and Gnomish forces are more than enough to obliterate the battle-weary Snartan forces. In the next intervening three years, the Snartans lose half of their remaining Earthshakers to sabotage, sieges and grand earthshaking battles between the mechanical beasts.
AC 831-900 - The Snartan Empire slowly reasserted its territory, but it is a shadow of its former self. For the next century, each Snartan Earthshaker-city becomes much more independent from the Emperor's direct control.
AC 1000 - All Gazetteers take place at this time. By now, the Snartan
Empire is almost in name only, as each city battles for survival against
the dozens of other Human and Gnomish Earthshakers of the Vulcanian
Marches.