The Unofficial Timeline of Mystara
by Daniel BoeseThe Dark Ages, The Age of Rebuilding, Alphatia
1000 BC: The Broken Lands are overpopulated. Broken Lands orcs, ogres, trolls, gnolls, and goblins migrate outward, especially southward, displacing other humanoid tribes before them. All forces join and raid Rockhome; they are defeated by dwarven King Blystar III. Minor raids go on for 500 years.
Orcs from the Broken Lands invade and conquer the region now known as the Five Shires. Their reign is brutal, to say the least.
Gnolls cross southern Darokin and invade Traldar lands, destroying their Golden Age. Most of the Darokin humans flee north, right into orc territory, where few survive. The Hutaakans retreat to their valley while the Traldar and gnolls practically annihilate one another. By the time the gnolls retreat, the Traldar population is 20% of its pre-invasion amount. Many seafaring Traldar, led by a lesser king named Milen, flee south across the Sea of Dread, and reach the southern continent to the east of what would later be called the Hinterlands. They travel far upriver, and establish a new kingdom there. (GAZ1)
Elsewhere, non-human tribal movements pit tribes of orcs and goblins against the dwarves.
Gruugrakh gnolls, fleeing their Nithian masters, first come to the Plain of Fire and settle there.
In the wake of the humanoid invasions, the Immortals are quite busy selecting endangered cultures for preservation in the Hollow World. The Traldar and many other cultures are preserved in this fashion. The Traldar are placed on the coast of the Aztlan Ocean right where the great equatorial mountains reach the ocean; they call that body of water the Atlass Ocean. They're south of the Schattenalfen and north of virgin territories. They quickly spread out to inhabit all their mountainous seacoast lands. Not cooperative enough among themselves to form an empire, they occupy themselves with pirate raids into Azcan territories. (HW)
The Nithian Empire is at its peak; it is the first post-Blackmoor empire in the world. It features monumental architecture, large urban complexes in the delta region of the River Nithia, conquest of neighbouring states, establishment of more remote colonies, and the development of sophisticated arts and culture. Colonies are planted in the Makai islands (south of the Five Shires area), where they conquer the aboriginal natives. The humans of the Northern Reaches areas are conquered and enslaved by the Nithian Empire. The Nithians, made curious about the southern continent by the Traldar flight in that direction, transport many Northern Reaches slaves to Harbortown and thence to the southern continent, to colonise there. This is the southern limit of Nithian expansion, and it isn't very successful; The Northern Reaches slaves soon rebel and slay their Nithian overlords. These tribes carve out their own territory in the southern continent, and are the forefathers of the Thyatian, Kerendan and Hattian tribes who later found the empire of Thyatis.
Many Makai are transplanted to the Hollow World to preserve their culture in the face of Nithian assimilation. Placed in an archipelago south of the equator, they resume their carefree, peaceful existence. (HW)
Black explorers from Tangor find and colonise the Pearl Islands.
Meanwhile, an expedition of Shadow Elves leaves the City of Stars in an effort to find the path to the surface world. Instead, they find their way to the Hollow World, where they are fatally poisoned by the rays of the eternal sun. Some of them make it back to the City of the Stars with news of their voyage, but all soon perish. (KW/HW) On the Alphatians' world, the war between the Followers of Air and Followers of Flame reaches its zenith. The Followers of Flame are defeated. Alphaks is banished. Old Alphatia is destroyed; the Followers of Air come to the Known World to settle on the great continent they name Alphatia, bringing along natural strains of wolf and tiger lycanthropy. They proceed to build a mighty empire based on magic. (DotE)
1000 - 610 BC: Orcs, part of the migration from the Broken Lands, invade the Five Shires region and enslave the halflings. The Gentle Folk elves of the Five Shires region disappear or are destroyed by the orcs. Over a period of four hundred years, the halflings are conquered and reconquered by orcs, dwarves, and bandits of different races; eventually they reclaim their land and establish Shaerdon, a strong nation of hin.
900 BC: Atruaghin returns to the Hollow World briefly. He visits the ruins of Quauhnahuac and uses his ever increasing power to create Atruaghin's Mystic Conveyor, a powerful magical artifact that links the Known and Hollow Worlds. (KW/HW)
896 BC: First shadow-elf exploration to the surface world ends in disaster with few survivors.
801 BC: Orcs conquer Shaerdon once more.
800 BC: The ice finally recedes to the north of Glantri.
Elves led by Mealiden Starwatcher leave the Sylvan Realm via the magical rainbow; they carry nine seedlings of the tree of life with them. They land in the forested regions of what would later be called Thyatis, but are driven out by the warlike humans there, and flee northward. The Callarii clan settles in Traladara territory; most of the rest settle in a windy steppes area. Elvish wizards begin to alter those steppes with their magic, changing the land nearly overnight into terrain where a mighty forest could flourish. In the process, they drive orcs from the open lands to the west.
One of the elf-clans, the Shiye, listens to the guidance of the elf-immortal Eiryndul and makes a dangerous crossing to the continent of Alphatia, where they set up their own kingdom in the deep central forests of that continent. (DotE)
Using the artifact he constructed at Quauhnahuac, Atruaghin returns from his exploration of the Known and Hollow Worlds to lead his adopted people in a revolt against the Red Orcs. The conflict is savage, but in the end the Children of Atruaghin are successful.
Deep in the southern continent, the Milenians, descendants of the Traldar, are flourishing, conquering the surrounding tribes, and establishing a strong empire.
Human clans begin building permanent settlements in Darokin.
795 BC: Atruaghin recalls the memory of that great plateau that once stood in the lands of his people. Using magics and powers that he has acquired from his travels throughout the Known and Hollow Worlds, he calls it back into existence that the Children of Atruaghin might never again fear invasion. Atruaghin, having completed the Path of the Polymath, becomes an Immortal in the Sphere of Thought in recognition of his lifelong struggle against entropy.
792 BC: Atzanteotl begins to turn Danel Tigerstripes against Atruaghin and his followers. Atruaghin sends Hattani Stoneclaw, leader of the Bear Clan, to prevent his corruption. The intervention is too late, the Children of the Tiger begin to worship Atzanteotl and Hattani Stoneclaw becomes an Immortal.
Second shadow-elf expedition to the surface lands emerges in the Broken Lands. Failure of this expedition leads to abandonment of further attempts to reach surface.
744 BC: Hin rise up against their orcish overlords; the Time of Heroes begins.
700 BC: Thanatos, Immortal of the Sphere of Entropy, helped by the Immortal Ranivorus, corrupts the Pharaoh of the Nithians. The Pharaoh turns the Nithian empire toward worship of Entropy.
The Nithian colonists in Thothia turn away from the Entropic faith of their homeland and increasingly turn to a new form of mysticism.
Nithians arrive on the Savage Coast. They interbreed somewhat with Oltecs. Elves of the eastern coast establish settlements in and around what will eventually become Torreón and Narvaez. (RS)
Mealiden is acclaimed king of Alfheim.
610 BC: Inspired by the example of Atruaghin and his people some two centuries before, the Hin revolt against the humanoids and reclaim their place as an independent state. The modern Five Shires are born.
609 BC: The Restoration of the hin nation; Gunzuth the Clanless becomes the first (and last) Sheriff of the reunited Shaerdon.
600 BC: Three warrior-tribes from the southern continent (the Thyatians, Kerendans, and Hattians), hard-pressed by the Milenians to the south, migrate to the northern continent.
572 BC: The hin formally organise their land into five semiautonomous Shires, each ruled by an elected Sheriff.
572 BC: Gunzuth dies, splitting the rule of Shaerdon among his five sons; the Five Shires are founded.
556 BC: A boy named Yav is born to an elven mother and a Tanagoro father in the Serpent Peninsula. He is the strongest seer yet known in the area, and his many timely warnings of hurricanes and other disasters make him a hero.
529 BC: A series of abuses by the Serpent Peninsula seers cause a major revolt. Elven purists slaughter every seer they can find. Some take more extreme measures, killing people of mixed elven and human blood regardless of their precognitive abilities. The unrest ends with the power of the seers broken and the Sheyallia elves fleeing the wrath of the Tanagoro people. Yav vanishes; it is thought the elves killed him.
528 BC: 3,000 Sheyallia elves fleeing from the Serpent Peninsula stumble into the Plain of Fire and discover the intricate networks of caves and tunnels beneath. The settle, war with the gnolls, and eventually cooperate with them.
500 BC: The Traldar are in the midst of their Dark Age. Communication between communities is infrequent. Local dialects begin to differ widely. The national epic of King Halav is the only thing which gives the people a sense of unity. Linguistic changes are already advanced enough that the people consider themselves Traladara, descendants of the Traldar, the people of King Halav. (GAZ1)
Oenkmar Rock sinks into the earth.
Elsewhere, the Nithian Empire, having incurred Immortal dislike, abruptly ends; the Immortals alter the climate, divert the headwaters of the River Nithia, promote social unrest, deny magical powers to their clerics, and take other actions which cause the Empire to collapse catastrophically. The Immortals use magic to ensure that almost all trace of the Empire is wiped from the face of the Known World. The colonies are systematically destroyed - except for Thothia, which has already turned away from the Entropic faith which led to the destruction of Nithia.
The Immortals gather up great numbers of Nithians, those untouched by the evil of Thanatos and Ranivorus, and transport them to the banks of a great river similar to the River Nithia on the outer world. They swiftly rebuild their civilisation. They are near only to the Tanagoro warriors and Jennite riders to the west; then begin on-again, off-again wars against the Tanagoro and Jennites to seize their fertile plains and acquire slaves. (HW)
With the destruction of the Nithians, the Immortal Pflarr, insulted by the Nithians' betrayal , turns his back on the outer world, He turns his attention to the Hollow World Nithians, and sets up a colony of Hutaaka in a sheltered valley of the Hollow World - west of the Brute-Men, north of the Nithians. (HW)
Ancestors of modern Alasiyan peoples withdraw to desert basins and establish a nomadic culture. Weak mainland human tribal cultures in the Northern Reaches are at the mercy of giantish clans. The remaining Black Moon gnolls scatter east and west.
In the Ierendi islands, the Malpheggi lizard men, doomed to extinction by a parasitic plague brought by the Nithian colonists, wipe out the Nithians before dying themselves. This is part of the Immortal plan to destroy the Nithian Empire.
The Immortals cure and transport remnants of the Malpheggi lizard man race to the Hollow World, placing them in the great swamp between the Azcans and the Oltecs. Both the Azcans and the Schattenalfen find mercenary allies among the Malpheggi. (HW)
By now, the steppes where Mealiden's elves settled have become the mighty Canolbarth forest.
By now, the Thyatians, Kerendans and Hattians have conquered and assimilated the human tribes who opposed them; they are now in full control of the region which will one day be called Thyatis.
Yav, known as Mulogo, convinces the Tanagoro people of the Serpent Peninsula to sail across the Western Sea and settle on the Immortal's Arm.
Herath wars with Wallara; manscorpions betray the enduks and take possession of Nimmur; Nithians disappear, leaving little evidence other than a few relics and pyramids. The Red Curse is created, but confined by Herathian mages in portions of the eastern Savage Coast. (RS)
493 BC: Queen Ubdala of the Broken Lands raises Great Horde again. She recruits goblins and gnolls in the Altan Tepes, and marches north.
492 BC: At the battle of Sardal Pass, they are routed, the orcs utterly massacred. Ubdala dies. Hordes routed south and west, crowding Cruth mountains and Altan Tepes. Gnomes kicked out.
The Immortal Karaash takes pity on a band of particularly valiant orc-warriors led by their chieftain, Krugel. Trapped by the dwarves during their assault on Rockhome, surrounded in the Sardal Pass, and in imminent danger of being wiped out, they demonstrate ferocity and gallantry unusual in orc warriors, Karaash transports them to the Hollow World, to the arid plains north of the Kogolor Dwarves. (HW)
490 BC: Kobold clans are driven into the uplands of the Northern Reaches from the west. They overrun and exterminate the gnomes, and occupy their subterranean kingdoms.
480 BC: Yav leaves the Tanagoro and sails back to the Serpent Peninsula to search for what was causing the unnatural greed and selfish thoughts (not to mention precognitive abilities) of residents.
475 BC: Dwarves begin exploration and colonisation of neighbouring territories.
452 BC: Mahmatti Running Elk becomes an Immortal after becoming one of the most powerful shamani ever to exist atop the Atruaghin Plateau.
450 BC: Dwarves arrive along the eastern Savage Coast and build small colonies. (RS)
Krugel, leader of the Hollow World orcs, dies. In his lifetime, he has transformed a couple of hundred followers into a well-trained, well-motivated, well-supplied horde of conquest-minded plains riders, who now take his name to honour him: They will be called the Krugel Horde. They continue to attack and sack communities of the Neathar to the west and the Kogolor dwarves to the south. They do not want to conquer lands; they wand loot. (HW)
400 BC: The prophet Mulogo (actually Yav) reappears and leads the People of Yav from the Immortal's Arm back to Thanegia Island.
350 BC: Mealiden abdicates the throne to follow Ilsundal's path to Immortality. Alevar of the Grunalf clan becomes king of Alfheim.
322 BC: A Schattenalfen attack annihilates the southern Azcan city of Axateotl for the seventh, and last, time. (HW)
251 BC: A legendary gnome craftsman named Glimreen Gemeye discovers a jet engine artifact of the destroyed Blackmoor civilisation.
250 BC: Mealiden becomes an Immortal of the Sphere of Energy.
The Immortal Korotiku, charmed by the cleverness and ruthlessness of the pirates of Thyatis, transplants several communities of them to the Hollow World, establishing them in equatorial islands not far from the territories settled by the Traldar. He has conceived an interesting experiment for the Hollow World. He's decided that it would be interesting to populate one area of the Hollow World seas with pirates, creating a new culture which is exclusively piratical. (HW)
200 BC: Tritons fleeing from their devilfish enemies enter the Sunlit Sea and establish the Kingdom of Undersea in the waters between the islands of Ierendi and Minrothad.
By now, orcs control the land to the west of the Streel River, as far south as Akorros. They also control the Broken Lands, southern Glantri, and most of Ethengar. Humans control the areas south of Akorros; elves control Alfheim to the east.
Alphatians begin settling the region of the Peninsula of Esterhold. They use their magic and sophisticated military forces to drive most of the Jennites back several hundred miles and enslave the rest. (DotE)
The centuries-old Milenian Empire begins to weaken.
192 BC: The Alphatians, annoyed by the piratical activities of the Thyatian tribes, launch a campaign to conquer Thyatis. (DotE)
190 BC: The Alphatians complete their conquest of Thyatis; Thyatis is now part of the Alphatian empire. (DotE)
150 BC: The outer-world Shadow Elves contact the humanoid tribes of the Broken Lands, spreading their hatred of the above-ground elves and persuading the humanoids to attack Alfheim. (GAZ13/GAZ10)
Tortle civilisation rises on the central Savage Coast. (RS)
100 BC: The Milenian civilisation has grown soft and decadent. It enslaves surrounding tribes and nations; most soldiers in the Milenian army are conscripts from conquered tribes. The Immortals decide to preserve the Empire in its earlier, more heroic form; they transport to the Hollow World all Milenians who adhere to the earlier Milenian goals and desires. Depriving the Milenians of their few remaining true warriors and uncorrupted government leaders sends the empire to its doom even more swiftly.
The newly-transplanted Milenians begin to reforge their civilisation along its original lines. Placed on the virgin seacoast far south of the Traldar lands, they have the warlike Tanagoro and Jennite races to their east. They build their empire on the coast and in lands seized from the Tanagoro and Jennites, who become their recurring enemies. (HW)
Newcomers reach Skothar's southwestern shores. They come from the continent of Davania, fleeing the collapse of the Milenian Empire and seeking to establish a colony where their way of life could survive. They find the coast already inhabited, and ask and are granted permission by the nearby natives to settle a stretch of wilderness between two prosperous Jennite cities.
In the Lost Valley of the Hutaaka, the descendants of the Traldar finally free themselves from Hutaakan rulership and begin warring on their former masters. This racial war is destined to go on for another 1,100 years. (GAZ1)
98 BC: Rebellion against the corrupt King Bollo of Rockhome - the Rockhome Senate is established.
50 BC: The decadent Milenian civilisation collapses utterly under the attacks of surrounding tribes.
2 BC: Lucinius Trenzantenbium, a
Thyatian-born, Alphatian-trained wizard, kills the Alphatian
wizards in Thyatis and declares himself King of Thyatis; war breaks
out between Thyatis and Alphatia. (DotE)