This post continues my timeline of the Wendarian Northern Wildlands. As always, comments are welcome!
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The Great Realms of Nimbeth and Thalion (BC 662 – AC 113)
BC 662: While exploring the Northern Wildlands in search of his ancestral homeland, a human adventurer of “half-man” descent is attacked by orcs and grievously wounded. Near death, he discovers a spring and drinks its water, and is healed. Excited, he notes the spring’s location, and hurries back to Genalleth to share his discovery.
BC 660: The adventurer’s tale of a magical spring with many curative properties reaches Beldareth, a powerful elf lord of southern Genalleth. Accompanied by his most trusted companions, he embarks on a quest to find it.
BC 648: Beldareth and his companions locate the magical spring after many trials. The forested hills in which the spring is located are of such rare beauty that he decides to establish a new stronghold here. Over the following years, most of his clan migrate to the lands near the spring, founding the town of Nimbeth. The local humanoid tribes are driven away or annihilated.
BC 600: By this time the wondrous powers of the magical spring of Nimbeth become widely known to the elves of Genalleth. Elves, and a handful of Antalians, from all over the realm go to Nimbeth over the following decades to witness its effects, and in some cases to settle. Within 100 years Nimbeth grows into a small city.
BC 560: So many people visit the spring of Nimbeth that Beldareth orders the construction of a complex to protect it, and to provide accommodations for its visitors. This structure, almost a palace, is renowned for its elegance, and its beautiful silver domes. Over time, other buildings in Nimbeth copy this design.
BC 500: Some elves of Nimbeth, yearning for new lands of their own, migrate westwards. They eventually find a broad, lush valley, through which a river flows down from the Adri Varma Plateau. They discover a fortified human village, whose inhabitants react with anger at the elves’ approach, and attack them. After a long battle, the elves are victorious, and drive the surviving humans into nearby caves, sealing them up afterwards. The town of Thalion is founded on the ruins of the village, ruled by Aranael, the most senior clanmaster present. Unknown to the elves, the villagers are descended from the humans of Forenath, who had been driven south three centuries earlier by invading orcs.
BC 487: Denagothian tribes living in the western Mengul Range witness the powers of Nimbeth’s spring, and, coveting it for themselves, band together to attack the elves and humans to drive them away. Many homesteads and villages are burned.
BC 486: Lord Beldareth gathers his clan’s warriors, as well as many men from the human families who live under his protection, and mounts a campaign to drive back the Denagothians. Many bloody battles ensue throughout the forested hills claimed by Beldareth’s clan.
BC 479: By dint of discipline, determination, and elven magic, Lord Beldareth and his armies manage to push the Denagothians back to the Mengul Range. The most decisive battle is fought at Alvar’s Stead, in which four Denagothian chieftains are killed, after which the tribes are routed. Beldareth’s surviving warriors hail him as a king, thus beginning the dynasty of the House of Nimbeth.
BC 477: After many difficult years of wandering underground, the humans exiled by the elves of Thalion reach the surface world once more, in what are now the Moors of Chlyras, southwest of Nimbeth. There, they encounter the indigenous frogmen, who forge a wary peace with them once it is clear that the newcomers are not elves, and in fact bear a grudge against them. The frogmen have been eyeing Nimbeth warily, fearing an invasion, and see the humans as potential allies.
BC 460: After ensuring that his lands are secure, Beldareth orders the construction of a series of towers near the Mengul Range, and expands his dominion southwards to control the trail connecting Nimbeth with Genalleth.
BC 454: The humans and frogmen of the moors launch a series of probing attacks in autumn against Nimbeth, to test their enemies’ resolve. Not expecting an attack from the west, the kingdom is caught off guard, and the town of Eredhon is captured. The conquerors fall upon the inhabitants with a vengeance.
BC 453: King Beldareth leads a campaign in early spring to retake Eredhon, from which his enemies are launching more daring attacks. The town is retaken, and Nimbeth’s armies pursue the frogmen and humans back into the moors.
BC 448: After several years of fighting in the moors, during which many of their tribes were decimated, several frogman chieftains submit to King Beldareth in exchange for their survival, promising never to march on Nimbeth as long as the city stands. The king annexes part of the eastern moors as a buffer zone for his realm. Dismayed by their losses, the frogmen force their human allies to leave, blaming them for their misfortunes. Vowing never to ally themselves with another race ever again, and recalling that their people were once spread far and wide north of the River Muil, the humans head there in search of a new home.
BC 440: Some elvish lords of Genalleth, having watched events in the north (particularly the defeat of the frogmen), venture northwards to settle new lands, and to re-establish strongholds that had been abandoned centuries earlier. Unwilling to arouse Nimbeth’s ire, the frogmen refrain from attacking the elves, and retreat to their northernmost territories.
BC 420: The twice-exiled humans have by now resettled north of the River Muil, and have also located some of their kin, helping them fend off orcish incursions from further north. A handful of strong human settlements are established east of Thalion; although they are unaware of how close they are to the town.
BC 400: Thalion has, by now, grown into a small, well-defended town of great beauty. Inspired by the surrounding landscape, and by the majestic river, Aranael designs and begins to construct a grand bridge connecting Thalion with the trail that leads, ultimately, to Nimbeth.
BC 382: Thalion’s bridge, a true work of art, is complete. Its beauty and magnificence soon become almost as well known to the elves of Genalleth as the silver domes of Nimbeth. Some artistically inclined elves, as well as those who seek new lands to explore, settle in the town and the surrounding hills. Aranael crowns himself king of Thalion; no one opposes him.
BC 350: By this time the Kingdom of Nimbeth encompasses what is now northern Wendar and the southeastern portion of the Northern Wildlands. At its southernmost extent, and bordering other elvish realms, King Beldareth orders the construction of a sister city to Nimbeth, naming it Amoleth.
BC 313: A band of elvish settlers heading for Thalion comes across a human hunting party, and is attacked by them. The survivors are chased to the edge of the lands controlled by the town, but the humans are driven back by Thalion’s army. Enraged at the presence of elves so close to their homes, and realising that they inhabit the valley that once belonged to them, the humans begin attacking small elvish parties, and raiding outlying settlements.
BC 300: The Kingdom of Nimbeth is at its peak. With his borders secure, King Beldareth looks north, remembering the tales of the lost realms of Forenath and Soreth. Although he had heard of Forenath’s fall when he was young, neither the king, nor anyone else in his court, has heard any news out of Soreth for almost 600 years. Eager to know of the great city’s fate, the king embarks on a secret quest with his closest friends. His wife, Queen Miriel, rules in his stead.
BC 298: King Beldareth and his companions reach the city of Soreth, after braving the many perils that are now found in the former realm of Forenath. The city’s formidable gates are open and intact, and there is no sign that anyone has lived in Soreth for a long time. Many of the city’s treasures remain, and its grand buildings are untouched by anything save for the passage of time. Disturbed, the elves return home, and tell no one of their discovery.
BC 297: The human attacks against Thalion intensify. Thalion’s soldiers are not nearly as battle hardened or organised as those of Nimbeth; they are not able to vanquish their foes, nor are they able to secure safe routes to other elvish realms to the south and east. Fearing that they will soon be cut off entirely, King Aranael sends messengers to Nimbeth, Lothenar, and the northern realms of Genalleth to plead for aid, some of whom manage to pass through enemy-held territory.
BC 292: The Battle of Thalion is fought between the human armies, and those of Nimbeth and Thalion, as well as volunteers from Lothenar and Genalleth. Confident that their enemies would not be able to obtain aid, the humans are unprepared for the ferocity and scale of the attack against them, and they are routed. Determined to eliminate their hated enemies, Thalion’s armies go on the offensive, locating and destroying any human settlement they find. Hundreds of people are also captured during this campaign – many of these are put to work in Thalion.
BC 267: A delegation of human clan leaders approaches Thalion in peace, offering to surrender their claims to the valley forever in exchange for the return of all prisoners. King Aranael, who has by now developed a deep hatred of humans, refuses. Thalion’s destructive campaign against the humans, which had all but ceased for many years, resumes.
BC 260: The surviving humans of the Northern Wildlands have by now retreated to a handful of secret havens, where many hope to live unmolested. Some clan heroes, wishing to mete out vengeance, recall that a system of caves and tunnels, through which their ancestors were forced to travel, connects the valley of Thalion with many other places throughout the region. Many of them embark on quests to locate entrances to this subterranean realm.
BC 221: King Beldareth dies of old age, succeeded by his son Geldarion. It soon becomes apparent that, while Geldarion is charismatic, he is not a warrior at heart. Under his rule, the armies of Nimbeth watch the Mengul Range less and less, and some fortifications are unmanned for years at a time.
BC 217: After three generations of searching, human adventurers of the Northern Wildlands clans find an entrance to the tunnel system that runs under a large portion of the region. The following years will be spent in exploration.
BC 200: The elves of Thalion have, by this time, commenced a steady slide into decadence. Confident that their human enemies have been utterly vanquished, surrounded by many luxuries, and attended to by a fearful human slave caste (the descendants of the prisoners captured over 80 years previously), Thalion’s inhabitants turn inwards, thinking only about their own self-gratification. Even the Immortals are no longer venerated as They once were.
BC 184: The elves of Thalion are caught off guard by a slave revolt. Although the rebellion is crushed brutally within days, complete control is never re-established, as similar revolts occur over the following months. Events come to a head when large numbers of armed humans, who spent almost 20 years digging their way under the city from the nearby tunnels and caverns, emerge from cellars and sewers, freeing and arming their kin and leading an organised invasion of the city from within. Their senses dulled by decades of excess, and not expecting an attack from within Thalion’s walls, the elvish guards are overwhelmed within hours. Desperate to save his city, King Aranael leads a counterattack, but is forced to withdraw to his opulent throne room, where he is killed. In the ensuing panic, hundreds of elves flee the city for the relative safety of Nimbeth and northern Genalleth. Regarding the city, and the valley it occupies, as tainted, the humans loot and burn Thalion, but cannot bring themselves to tear down the bridge.
BC 80: Sporadic raiding by the Denagothian tribes of the Mengul Range, little more than a nuisance since the Battle of Alvar’s Stead, begins to intensify at this time.
BC 50: The Denagothian raiding has become an invasion – thousands of warriors, sensing that the elven kingdom is weak, descend from the mountains and lay siege to Nimbeth’s towers, in many places breaking through and wreaking havoc throughout the kingdom. King Geldarion personally leads many counterattacks, but his lack of skill becomes evident to friend and foe alike. Many humans, isolated on farms and in small villages, are slaughtered by the invaders.
BC 42: Emboldened by a series of successes against the elves, the Denagothian tribes lay siege to Nimbeth while King Geldarion is fighting in the south. The king’s closest cousin, Arendyll, leads the defence of the city, and manages to drive back the Denagothians. Afterwards, he musters enough troops to mount a counterattack.
BC 38: Prince Arendyll defeats the main Denagothian horde near the town of Aelmar, which it had been looting. Although victorious, Nimbeth’s losses are great. Arendyll has a tower built on the ruins of Aelmar, both to protect the road and to serve as a memorial – it becomes known as Arendyll’s Tower. Nimbeth endures, but in a reduced and weakened state. No longer feeling safe, many humans and elves leave Nimbeth’s capital for Amoleth, and cities in other realms.
AC 39: The Denagothian tribes of the western Mengul Range recover sufficiently to resume their vendetta against the elves and humans of Nimbeth. Although many warriors attack the now ill-defended lands around the city of Nimbeth, the bulk of the force invades what is now northern Wendar, near Amoleth.
AC 50: Busily defending Amoleth from Denagothian encroachments, King Geldarion entrusts the defence of his kingdom’s remaining northern territories to Arendyll, who soon establishes his own court at Nimbeth.
AC 78: The Denagothians are again defeated; although Nimbeth’s losses are not as severe this time. The tribes retreat to their villages and watch their enemy.
AC 103: The Battle of King’s Sorrow. Convinced that his cousin is unfit to be king, Arendyll musters his forces to march on Amoleth. Crown Prince Lerian hears of this treachery, and informs his father, who leads an army to meet Arendyll. The two forces meet near Arendyll’s Tower, where a bloody battle ensues. So many lives are lost that the battlefield and the surrounding lands are called the Gap of Tears ever afterwards. Arendyll, who was killed by Lerian, is struck from all known records for his treachery. Arendyll’s Tower is renamed Lerian’s Tower in honour of the Crown Prince, who gives up his right to rule in order to protect the weakened kingdom, using the tower as his base. In allowing this, King Geldarion effectively renounces his claims to the northern territories, outside of the city of Nimbeth itself.
AC 110: The city of Nimbeth falls to a combined host of Denagothians and orcs, the latter of whom were enticed from their northern lairs by promises of loot, and by assurances that the elves and men of Nimbeth were no longer a threat. Few of the remaining inhabitants manage to escape. With the loss of Nimbeth, and having no immediate means of regaining it, King Geldarion officially moves his court to Amoleth, and renames his kingdom accordingly.
AC 113: Having heard of the fall of Nimbeth, the frogmen consider their treaty with the kingdom (and by extension all elves) ended. The tribes muster their forces and march south, attacking the nearest elvish dominions, aided in part by wider-ranging Denagothian and orcish incursions.
Geoff
Very nice work. I really like how you tied in and expanded on the story of Lerian's Tower and the Gap of Tears.
Thanks! I had the story in the back of my mind when I was writing this part of the timeline. Basically, a key part of the story of the Northern Wildlands is that the elves were beaten back as much by treachery and greed as they were by external forces. The greed element continues in part 3 of the timeline, part of which is very loosely based on one historical event.
Geoff
Thanks! I had the story in the back of my mind when I was writing this part of the timeline. Basically, a key part of the story of the Northern Wildlands is that the elves were beaten back as much by treachery and greed as they were by external forces. The greed element continues in part 3 of the timeline, part of which is very loosely based on one historical event.
This really is very good, Geoff! I like the idea that the elves, in many ways, brought about their own downfall. Can't wait for the next installment!
Geoff