I thought I would post the first portion of my timeline for the Northern Wildlands, as a way of introducing the subject. Please note that this is not an attempt to undercut the work on Wendar; it is intended to complement it. Perhaps a more detailled writeup of the region could become an "add-on" to the Wendar gazetteer.
Note: I have used parts of Shawn and Marco's Wendar timeline for this portion
*******
Timeline of the Wendaran Northern Wildlands:
At various times in the past, the elves have claimed the northern wildlands for their own, some undertaking the perilous task of settling the dark forests and building strongholds. In times of prosperity, new realms were carved out of the wilderness, and the border crept northwards. In darker times, evil things swept down from the Mengul Mountains, and from the fearsome Adri Varma Plateau, and in their wake there was nothing but ruined fortresses and towns, and streams of refugees fleeing south, telling their brethren of the horrors that stalked them. Even during the worst times, the heartlands in the south remained free for the most part, made secure by a network of fortresses and towers, but always the wildlands beckoned, promising fantastic things to those with the strength and courage to find them.
Gylharen, wishing to usher in a new era of strength for Wendar, has called on the bravest souls - human and elven - to cross the frontier into the wildlands, and retake that which was lost many times before. This time, Gylharen has the Elvenstone, and the guidance of the Korrigans, to strengthen him. Legends abound of lost elven cities, hidden deep in forbidding ancient forests, filled with priceless lore and treasures: many-towered Soreth, Thalion, with its bridge of unsurpassing beauty, and silver-domed Nimbeth. All were built and held by the elves in times past, and, perhaps, they might be retaken by the men and elves of modern Wendar.
The First Realms: Forenath and Soreth
BC 2100: The elves of Genalleth discover a broad, heavily forested valley north of their own lands, sandwiched between the Mengul Range and what will one day be known as the Adri Varma Plateau. Although initially promising, the land they explore contains treacherous moors, unwelcoming ancient forests, and powerful monsters. Naming the region the Northern Wildlands, the elves regard it as a dangerous land to be avoided. Unfortunately for them, they do not venture far enough north to discover the more hospitable regions.
BC 1725: King Loark raises Great Horde at Urzud (which is located at a fork in the Borea River in central Brun) and migrates eastward, continuing his quest for the Blue Knife.
BC 1724: Akkila-Khan, believing he is working off better knowledge than Loark, raises an appreciably smaller horde and moves southeastward from Urzud on his quest for the Blue Knife.
BC 1723: Akkila-Khan comes across the northern edge of the Denagothian plateau and starts ravaging the Denagothians.
BC 1722: The Great Horde of King Loark crosses the Icereach Range and ravages the Antalians of Norwold, sending them into a dark age.
BC 1721: Local resistance forces Akkila Khan to move on southward, entering the elven territory of Genalleth (modern Wendar). Using their superior magic and knowledge of the region, the elves drive Akkila's forces out of their land, and he ends up in Ethengar. Some of his forces are separated from the horde and driven north, into the Northern Wildlands. Unbeknownst to the Genalleth elves, who are certain that the horde will never make it out again, a bronze-age human culture lives there. The humanoids, eager for plunder, fall on the humans and devastate their towns, initiating years of vicious warfare.
BC 1700: The humanoid horde is destroyed, but at great cost. More than three-quarters of the humans have been killed, and almost all of their towns and villages are in ruin; their nascent civilisation collapses within a generation, as people come to depend more on their clans for survival. Matters are made worse by the change in climate brought on by the explosion of ancient Blackmoorian artefacts in what are now the Broken Lands.
BC 1500: Elves of the Lothenar Forest discover a great, untamed land, west of the Mengul Range. Amazed by their discovery, they explore the area.
BC 1470: The Lothenar elves return to their homes, telling tales of a vast land of pristine river valleys bounded by ancient forests, as well as the seemingly magical properties of certain lakes, rivers, and plants found there. Some of them migrate to the newly discovered land, including reclusive clans hoping to avoid further contact with other races. Some Geffronell elves, eager to settle new lands in the aftermath of recent climate changes that resulted in the loss of much of their forest, join them.
BC 1450: The elven settlers discover that their new home is not uninhabited. In the far west, in the shadow of the Adri Varma Plateau, primitive humans are encountered (the remnants of the culture that was ravaged by part of Akkila-Khan’s horde a few centuries earlier). Although most of the humans avoid the elves out of fear, some make contact with the newcomers, and, awed by their strange beauty, revere them as powerful earth spirits.
BC 1400: Some of the more open-minded elves, having discovered ruins indicating that the humans were more advanced at one time, learn the humans’ language and customs, and try to guide them to a higher level of civilisation.
BC 1300: Realising that, after being separated from their brethren in Lothenar and Geffron for almost 200 years they have become a different people, the elves found their own realm in the lands they claim, naming it Forenath. It encompasses the northern half of what are now the Northern Wildlands, and contains a handful of both elven and human villages. No effort is made to expand beyond the Muil River (named after the elf who first crossed it), as the forests south of it are more forbidding, and filled with dangerous monsters.
BC 1200: At the foot of the mountains in the northern reaches of the land, several reclusive Lothenar clans, disgusted by their compatriots’ increasing involvement with the human clans, found the town of Soreth on a large forested hill girded by a great river. They fortify their settlement, and allow only elves to enter.
BC 1100: By this time word of Forenath and Soreth reaches the elves of Genalleth. Although there is no lack of space in their valley, news that elves have settled the Northern Wildlands (which have until now been considered fearsome and monster-infested) inspires those who wish to found their own stronghold to venture north.
Over the coming centuries, word of this rich land eventually reaches humanoids to the north and west, who then try to take the Northern Wildlands for themselves. They are driven back by the elves and their human allies.
The human tribes of Forenath have, under elvish guidance, recovered much of their lost civilisation, but in doing so have adopted the elvish language as their own. Many tribes have adopted elvish customs as well, even to the point of worshipping the Korrigans. Occasional intermarriages also produce offspring with both elvish and human blood – they are called “the Children of the Korrigans” by the elves, but their human brethren call them “half-men”, even if they appear totally human.
BC 1000: Several minor strongholds have been established south of the Muil River by Genalleth elves, and direct contact has been made with the elves of Forenath. The southern strongholds, however, do not fare as well – dangerous monsters are far more common, and some elves disappear if they venture too deeply into many of the forests.
Elsewhere, Antalian tribes, fleeing what are now the Northern Reaches to escape Nithian encroachments, arrive in the Genalleth Valley.
BC 950: Many humans living in Forenath begin to fall ill with a strange rotting disease. Alarmed, and recalling similar diseases that struck them in Lothenar centuries ago, the elves consult their surviving records to determine what the cause might be. The disease was brought to the region by the Nithians, by way of the fleeing Antalians. It is not magical; the only reason why the Forenath humans are dying of it is that they have no immunity against it, unlike the Antalians and Nithians.
BC 940: It becomes clear that the disease affecting the humans is not like that which plagued the elves – the elves are not susceptible, and none of the traditional remedies seem to work. The disease is also highly contagious, and kills its victims quickly. The elves of Forenath contact their cousins in Geffron, asking for their help in using the Elvenstar to cure their human allies. The Geffronell refuse, citing the treachery of the Denagothians as precedent. The elves of Soreth declare that any human entering their lands will be killed.
BC 920: Despair spreads rapidly among the humans of Forenath, as it becomes clear that their elvish friends cannot help them. Some seek to isolate themselves in order to avoid the plague, while others leave the area entirely, hoping to start anew. Others still grow embittered against their elvish allies. One fact that goes unnoticed is that humans with even the smallest amount of elvish blood, the so-called “half-men”, are unaffected by the plague. Roughly one-third of Forenath’s human population has died of the plague over the previous 30 years.
BC 914: In one of the larger towns of Forenath, a human named Maeglath claims that he has evidence that the plague was created by the elves as a means of killing their human compatriots. He urges his countrymen to take up arms and seek vengeance, before the plague claims too many lives. While many human elders denounce him for spreading dangerous lies, his message resonates with a large number of those who hear it. In later years, the elves will recall this event as the beginning of Forenath’s fall.
BC 910: As more humans continue to sicken and die in Forenath, Maeglath’s beliefs gain acceptance. Those humans who have embraced elvish ways (and who, more often than not, have some elvish ancestry) urge their countrymen to reject Maeglath’s message of hatred, but they are increasingly denounced as traitors to their own race. The fact that many of these humans are not suffering from the plague (due to their elvish blood), only casts more suspicion upon them.
BC 900: In Genalleth, the recently arrived Antalian refugees make contact with the elves, and together the two races begin laying the foundations of modern Wendarian society.
In Forenath, tensions have risen to the point that mobs begin attacking elves and humans thought to be traitors. The first attacks surprise the elves due to their viciousness and level of co-ordination. The violence, thought to be orchestrated by Maeglath, escalates over the following years.
BC 891: Maeglath is killed by a band of elvish heroes who had been hunting him for several years. The movement he started does not dissolve upon his death, as the elves had hoped, but instead is whipped up to new levels of fervour, as mobs attack their victims regardless of the danger to themselves.
BC 890: Owing primarily to the dangers posed by the wilderness, a series of successful humanoid offensives, and the unexpected difficulties in maintaining their settlements, the Genalleth elves abandon many of their strongholds, save for a handful immediately north of Genalleth proper. Contact with Forenath, sporadic at best, becomes increasingly infrequent.
By this time, Forenath is in a state of chaos. Although the plague had now killed more than three-quarters of the realm’s human population, violence is still widespread. Desperate elvish clan elders authorise their warriors, and hired adventurers, to do whatever is necessary to end the threats to their people’s safety, which results in wholesale slaughter on some occasions as entire human villages are wiped out for sheltering known “traitors to the realm”. This only incites the human mobs to even greater acts of violence once word spreads of the deeds.
BC 887: Able no longer to see the realm they worked so hard to build descend into further chaos, many Forenath elves seek shelter in Soreth, Lothenar, Geffron, or even Genalleth. Times become very difficult for the “half-men” – they are persecuted by other humans, and are often treated with suspicion by the elves because of their racial ties with the rebels, unless they have proven their loyalty.
BC 880: By now, Forenath has been largely emptied of its elvish population, save for a handful living deep within the forests. The remaining humans, numbering no more than a few thousand, fall upon any of their countrymen thought to be sympathetic to the elves. In the ensuing battles, the faint remnants of Forenath are destroyed utterly. Humanoid tribes living on the Adri Varma Plateau and in the northern mountains, kept at bay by the elves for centuries, now enter the lands of Forenath largely unopposed. The next 200 years will see the Northern Wildlands revert to being considered a perilous, undesirable land. Some “half-man” clans who survived the chaos migrate south to Genalleth, where, they have heard, humans and elves co-exist peacefully.
*******
More to come....comments welcome!
Geoff
1) The Moors/Swamps to the northwest of Denagoth/north of Wendar are inhabited by Toad-men. These are an offshoot of the Blackmoorian frogmen, adapted to the northern climes (a crossbreed/hybridization of men and Rock Toads), and they are worshippers of Stodos, Lord of the Icy Wastes (from module M1: Blizzard Pass). They are a plague on the northern lands- particularly the people of Ghyr, but also on the inhabitants of the Northern Wildlands.
2) At least some of the people that inhabit the Northern Wildlands are of the same racial stock as the Ethengarian people- the Ethengarians are a group that emigrated somewhat more southwards, and the two cultures have probably gone in different directions since. This idea is mainly borne of a plan to explain the strange Ethengarian ethnic stock that seems to have no connections to any other in the Known World. The northern end of the Adri Varma and some of the far northern Wildlands (near the Icereach Mountain marker on the Twilight of the Dawns map) would seem to correspond to the sort of climate the Ethengarians live in.
3) Northern "barbarians" are occasionally united under a ruler, called the "North Lord" by outsiders. (This is to tie in the action figure Northlord with the other action figures of the LJN series that live in Ghyr, which I have placed to the north of Denagoth- of course, that figure is a blond haired, blue-eyed white man, and that wouldn't fit in too well with #2, above, so he may just be a member of some Antalian "barbaric" tribes that make their homes in the northlands, like the ones described in CM1: Test of the Warlords). It might work better as that, and have him be the leader of a group of barbarians that straddle the eastern passes between Ghyr and Norwold, actually, in which case disregard this idea completely.
Just a random idea.
Maybe one of the horrors could be a Gakarak that hides deep in the ancient forests. From what I remember reading, they aren't too friendly to anyone except forest folk. Not sure if that includes elves. Correct me if I'm wrong.
Just a random idea.
Perhaps a couple of crusty old gakaraks live in the southern forests of the Northern Wildlands (i.e., the northern portion of the Forest of Baamor, etc.). They could be one reason why the Genalleth elves' colonies in the south had such a hard time of it.
Geoff
1) The Moors/Swamps to the northwest of Denagoth/north of Wendar are inhabited by Toad-men. These are an offshoot of the Blackmoorian frogmen, adapted to the northern climes (a crossbreed/hybridization of men and Rock Toads), and they are worshippers of Stodos, Lord of the Icy Wastes (from module M1: Blizzard Pass). They are a plague on the northern lands- particularly the people of Ghyr, but also on the inhabitants of the Northern Wildlands.
This could certainly work. They might inhabit the southern portions of the Northern Wildlands, which I envision to be marshier - if we had a map, I would have the portions of Wendar's moors/swamps be quite substantial. Enough good land is available to make the region a desirable place to settle, but resident frog-men might have something to say about that...
The northern portion of the Northern Wildlands (separated from the south by the Muil River, which flows down from, or in the area of, the Adri Varma Plateau) is drier, with several tributaries of the Muil, but no marshes to speak of. I would go as far as to say that the Muil probably feeds the swamps/moors.
Toad-men will be a factor in part 2 of the timeline...
2) At least some of the people that inhabit the Northern Wildlands are of the same racial stock as the Ethengarian people- the Ethengarians are a group that emigrated somewhat more southwards, and the two cultures have probably gone in different directions since. This idea is mainly borne of a plan to explain the strange Ethengarian ethnic stock that seems to have no connections to any other in the Known World. The northern end of the Adri Varma and some of the far northern Wildlands (near the Icereach Mountain marker on the Twilight of the Dawns map) would seem to correspond to the sort of climate the Ethengarians live in.
We could argue the the original bronze-age culture that inhabited the Northern Wildlands is that Ethengarian offshoot. Some of them later migrated to what is now Wendar, and so, perhaps, in the northwestern region of the kingdom, there are small communities of these people, but most would likely have intermarried with the more numerous Antalian-descended people.
Geoff
One question: it seems as if you have a pretty good picture of the area in mind. Are you looking at a particular map, or what? As far as I can see, the only sources I can find are X11 on the official side, and Christian and Thibault's various maps on the unofficial side.
One question: it seems as if you have a pretty good picture of the area in mind. Are you looking at a particular map, or what? As far as I can see, the only sources I can find are X11 on the official side, and Christian and Thibault's various maps on the unofficial side.
Don't forget the Dawn of the Emperors map, though that one is admittedly sketchy (having left out, for instance, the entirety of the Denagoth plateau).
This is all very interesting. Nice work!
Thank you!
One question: it seems as if you have a pretty good picture of the area in mind. Are you looking at a particular map, or what? As far as I can see, the only sources I can find are X11 on the official side, and Christian and Thibault's various maps on the unofficial side.
I've checked Thorf's 8-mile hex map of the region, and I think it's a good start. I have a fairly clear mental image of how the Northern Wildlands are laid out (from an 8-mile hex format, roughly), and perhaps now it's time to start putting it to paper.
Basically, it has several swamps and moors to the south (with some scattered forests), which are fed by the Muil and its tributaries (thus explaining why the moors are there in the first place). Towards the north, the land rises slowly, and becomes hillier, with several valleys to the west leading up to the Adri Varma Plateau (which overshadows everything). Forests also become more extensive, interspersed with several tiny lakes that are fed from mountain streams, which then go on to the Muil. Running northwest to southeast is a narrow mountainous spur (or very tall hills) that may connect with the Mengul Range (but has another name). Anyhow, I'll see what I can create.
Geoff
This repost contains changes made following the first round of comments.
Geoff
*****************
The First Realms: Forenath and Soreth
BC 2100: The elves of Genalleth discover a broad, heavily forested valley north of their own lands, sandwiched between the Mengul Range and what will one day be known as the Adri Varma Plateau. Although initially promising, the land they explore contains treacherous moors, unwelcoming ancient forests, and powerful monsters. Naming the region the Northern Wildlands, the elves regard it as a dangerous land to be avoided. Unfortunately for them, they do not venture far enough north to discover the more hospitable regions.
BC 1725: King Loark raises Great Horde at Urzud (which is located at a fork in the Borea River in central Brun) and migrates eastward, continuing his quest for the Blue Knife.
BC 1724: Akkila-Khan, believing he is working off better knowledge than Loark, raises an appreciably smaller horde and moves southeastward from Urzud on his quest for the Blue Knife.
BC 1723: Akkila-Khan comes across the northern edge of the Denagothian plateau and starts ravaging the Denagothians.
BC 1722: The Great Horde of King Loark crosses the Icereach Range and ravages the Antalians of Norwold, sending them into a dark age.
BC 1721: Local resistance forces Akkila Khan to move on southward, entering the elven territory of Genalleth (modern Wendar). Using their superior magic and knowledge of the region, the elves drive Akkila's forces out of their land, and he ends up in Ethengar. Some of his forces are separated from the horde and driven north, into the Northern Wildlands. Unbeknownst to the Genalleth elves, who are certain that the horde will never make it out again, a bronze-age human culture lives there. The humanoids, eager for plunder, fall on the humans and devastate their towns, initiating years of vicious warfare.
BC 1700: The humanoid horde is destroyed, but at great cost. More than three-quarters of the humans have been killed, and almost all of their towns and villages are in ruin; their nascent civilisation collapses within a generation, as people come to depend more on their clans for survival. Matters are made worse by the change in climate brought on by the explosion of ancient Blackmoorian artefacts in what are now the Broken Lands.
BC 1500: Elves of the Lothenar Forest discover a great, untamed land, west of the Mengul Range. Amazed by their discovery, they explore the area.
BC 1470: The Lothenar elves return to their homes, telling tales of a vast land of pristine river valleys bounded by ancient forests, as well as the seemingly magical properties of certain lakes, rivers, and plants found there. Some of them migrate to the newly discovered land, including reclusive clans hoping to avoid further contact with other races. Some Geffronell elves, eager to settle new lands in the aftermath of recent climate changes that resulted in the loss of much of their forest, join them.
BC 1450: The elven settlers discover that their new home is not uninhabited. In the far west, in the shadow of the Adri Varma Plateau, primitive humans are encountered (the remnants of the culture that was ravaged by part of Akkila-Khan’s horde a few centuries earlier). Although most of the humans avoid the elves out of fear, some make contact with the newcomers, and, awed by their strange beauty, revere them as powerful earth spirits.
BC 1400: Some of the more open-minded elves, having discovered ruins indicating that the humans were more advanced at one time, learn the humans’ language and customs, and try to guide them to a higher level of civilisation.
BC 1300: Realising that, after being separated from their brethren in Lothenar and Geffron for almost 200 years they have become a different people, the elves found their own realm in the lands they claim, naming it Forenath. It encompasses the northern half of what are now the Northern Wildlands, and contains a handful of both elven and human villages. No effort is made to expand beyond the Muil River (named after the elf who first crossed it), as the forests south of it are more forbidding, and filled with dangerous monsters.
BC 1200: At the foot of the mountains in the northern reaches of the land, several reclusive Lothenar clans, disgusted by their compatriots’ increasing involvement with the human clans, found the town of Soreth on a large forested hill girded by a great river. They fortify their settlement, and allow only elves to enter.
BC 1100: By this time word of Forenath and Soreth reaches the elves of Genalleth. Although there is no lack of space in their valley, news that elves have settled the Northern Wildlands (which have until now been considered fearsome and monster-infested) inspires those who wish to found their own stronghold to venture north.
Over the coming centuries, word of this rich land eventually reaches humanoids to the north and west, who then try to take the Northern Wildlands for themselves. They are driven back by the elves and their human allies.
The human tribes of Forenath have, under elvish guidance, recovered much of their lost civilisation, but in doing so have adopted the elvish language as their own. Many tribes have adopted elvish customs as well, even to the point of worshipping the Korrigans. Occasional intermarriages also produce offspring with both elvish and human blood – they are called “the Children of the Korrigans” by the elves, but their human brethren call them “half-men”, even if they appear totally human.
BC 1000: Several minor strongholds have been established south of the Muil River by Genalleth elves, and direct contact has been made with the elves of Forenath. The southern strongholds, however, do not fare as well – dangerous monsters are far more common, and some elves disappear if they venture too deeply into many of the forests. Particularly dangerous are the frogmen of the swamps and moors, who quickly unite in the face of elvish advances.
Elsewhere, Antalian tribes, fleeing what are now the Northern Reaches to escape Nithian encroachments, arrive in the Genalleth Valley.
BC 950: Many humans living in Forenath begin to fall ill with a strange rotting disease. Alarmed, and recalling similar diseases that struck them in Lothenar centuries ago, the elves consult their surviving records to determine what the cause might be. The disease was brought to the region by the Nithians, by way of the fleeing Antalians. It is not magical; the only reason why the Forenath humans are dying of it is that they have no immunity against it, unlike the Antalians and Nithians.
BC 940: It becomes clear that the disease affecting the humans is not like that which plagued the elves – the elves are not susceptible, and none of the traditional remedies seem to work. The disease is also highly contagious, and kills its victims quickly. The elves of Forenath contact their cousins in Geffron, asking for their help in using the Elvenstar to cure their human allies. The Geffronell refuse, citing the treachery of the Denagothians as precedent. The elves of Soreth declare that any human entering their lands will be killed.
BC 920: Despair spreads rapidly among the humans of Forenath, as it becomes clear that their elvish friends cannot help them. Some seek to isolate themselves in order to avoid the plague, while others leave the area entirely, hoping to start anew. Others still grow embittered against their elvish allies. One fact that goes unnoticed is that humans with even the smallest amount of elvish blood, the so-called “half-men”, are unaffected by the plague. Roughly one-third of Forenath’s human population has died of the plague over the previous 30 years.
BC 914: In one of the larger towns of Forenath, a human named Maeglath claims that he has evidence that the plague was created by the elves as a means of killing their human compatriots. He urges his countrymen to take up arms and seek vengeance, before the plague claims too many lives. While many human elders denounce him for spreading dangerous lies, his message resonates with a large number of those who hear it. In later years, the elves will recall this event as the beginning of Forenath’s fall.
BC 910: As more humans continue to sicken and die in Forenath, Maeglath’s beliefs gain acceptance. Those humans who have embraced elvish ways (and who, more often than not, have some elvish ancestry) urge their countrymen to reject Maeglath’s message of hatred, but they are increasingly denounced as traitors to their own race. The fact that many of these humans are not suffering from the plague (due to their elvish blood), only casts more suspicion upon them.
BC 900: In Genalleth, the recently arrived Antalian refugees make contact with the elves, and together the two races begin laying the foundations of modern Wendarian society.
In Forenath, tensions have risen to the point that mobs begin attacking elves and humans thought to be traitors. The first attacks surprise the elves due to their viciousness and level of co-ordination. The violence, thought to be orchestrated by Maeglath, escalates over the following years.
BC 891: Maeglath is killed by a band of elvish heroes who had been hunting him for several years. The movement he started does not dissolve upon his death, as the elves had hoped, but instead is whipped up to new levels of fervour, as mobs attack their victims regardless of the danger to themselves.
BC 890: Owing primarily to the dangers posed by the wilderness, a series of successful humanoid and frogman offensives, and the unexpected difficulties in maintaining their settlements, the Genalleth elves abandon many of their strongholds, save for a handful immediately north of Genalleth proper. Contact with Forenath, sporadic at best, becomes increasingly infrequent.
By this time, Forenath is in a state of chaos. Although the plague had now killed more than three-quarters of the realm’s human population, violence is still widespread. Desperate elvish clan elders authorise their warriors, and hired adventurers, to do whatever is necessary to end the threats to their people’s safety, which results in wholesale slaughter on some occasions as entire human villages are wiped out for sheltering known “traitors to the realm”. This only incites the human mobs to even greater acts of violence once word spreads of the deeds.
BC 887: Able no longer to see the realm they worked so hard to build descend into further chaos, many Forenath elves seek shelter in Soreth, Lothenar, Geffron, or even Genalleth. Times become very difficult for the “half-men” – they are persecuted by other humans, and are often treated with suspicion by the elves because of their racial ties with the rebels, unless they have proven their loyalty.
BC 880: By now, Forenath has been largely emptied of its elvish population, save for a handful living deep within the forests. The remaining humans, numbering no more than a few thousand, fall upon any of their countrymen thought to be sympathetic to the elves. In the ensuing battles, the faint remnants of Forenath are destroyed utterly. Humanoid tribes living on the Adri Varma Plateau and in the northern mountains, kept at bay by the elves for centuries, now enter the lands of Forenath largely unopposed. The next 200 years will see the Northern Wildlands revert to being considered a perilous, undesirable land. Some “half-man” clans who survived the chaos migrate south to Genalleth, where, they have heard, humans and elves co-exist peacefully.