Aside from the information contained in the Italian MMB write up of Norwold, though, I know nothing about Akra, Quesa, etc.
If anyone can provide any synopses, historical points, and character or locale descriptions I will be very grateful.
thanks,
OldDawg
Recently I had very few time to write on the MMB, so I failed to congratulate with You for the wonderful work You did on Heldannic Territories and southern Norwold. And thanks for mentioning us on the kudos!
Back on Rogues to Riches, on the Italian MMB time ago we made up a story for Akra and some of the minor characters mentioned in the novel (Frota, Quesa, etc.). I have included all these details in a timeline of Norwold. At the moment I've the timeline in Italian, and I'll not be able to translate it into English for another week at least.
Tell me if you're interested and I'll have it translated as soon as I can. ;)
Recently I had very few time to write on the MMB, so I failed to congratulate with You for the wonderful work You did on Heldannic Territories and southern Norwold. And thanks for mentioning us on the kudos!
Many thanks for the kind words. Obviously there are (and will be) divergences in Norwold's treatment, but the overall product info you guys have put out is consulted regularly as a basis for the GazF line.
Back on Rogues to Riches, on the Italian MMB time ago we made up a story for Akra and some of the minor characters mentioned in the novel (Frota, Quesa, etc.). I have included all these details in a timeline of Norwold. At the moment I've the timeline in Italian, and I'll not be able to translate it into English for another week at least.
I think I can handle the Italian, so if you want to link to what you've done thus far, that'd be fine. Va bene.
-OldDawg
I think I can handle the Italian, so if you want to link to what you've done thus far, that'd be fine. Va bene.
So, ready done! :D This is the link to the page of the thread who hosts the timeline:
http://www.25edition.it/forum/topic.asp?whichpage=15&Forum_Title=Ambientazione+%5BMystara%5D&Topic_Title=Demografia+Mystarana%2F22+%28Regno+del+Norwold%29&CAT_ID=23&FORUM_ID=98&TOPIC_ID=28497
On that page (15), you'll fine the timeline on my post of 23.10.2006. Beware becouse there's another timeline on page 1 of the thread, but that's not updated. The timeline I linked above has been updated also with the corrections you can read on the following pages (16-17) of the thread.
I hope this helps! And feel free to ask me anything you need about the timeline.
Anyway I'll try to translate all the timeline in English as soon as possible so that also other who are interested could read it. ;)
Anyway I'll try to translate all the timeline in English as soon as possible so that also other who are interested could read it. ;)
Yes please
Havard
Here's what it gave me so far:
TA-DA!!!!
As it is said: “sometimes they return”, and sooner or later it had to succeed that this ill-famed one topic returned in first page in order to come completed. I am finally working to the definitive version of the Norwold, and am also rielaborando some details of the map, inserting the last things (like those marked ones from Zompa and found in “Rogues to Riches”); unfortunately still me it is not possible to mail the map for problems with the serveur that accommodates mine files, but while I subject you the new modernized chronology, that it obviously takes in consideration the last version of the positioning of modules CM-M and tries to insert the details of “From Rogues to Riches” (in particular the speech of the Ice Witches, that I have legacy to the Crones of Crystykk).
Dategli a reading and you say to me if you aggrada:
CHRONOLOGY OF THE NORWOLD
I. the first civilizations
* Before the 3000 DEVOUT ones: In this age the Norwold is not found to the latitudes puts into effect them, but zone subartica and moderated, full is one of mountains and rigogliose forests, and situated a lot to north of the Empire of Blackmoor. Numerous razze they inhabit this earth vergine, more or less in competition between they for the dominion of territories and resources.
Between the antichi inhabitants of the region there are dredges and the giants. The first, pertaining ones above all to the razze of dredge of gold and white men, inhabit mountains and the ghiacciai of the higher peaks or the settentrione. The giants instead are scattered on all the region (above all giant of mountains); they live in large knows them in mountains, where they accumulate their treasures. Most numerous between they they are the giants of ices, that they threaten this region from their polar bases in pressed of the old North Pole (puts into effect them Ethengar).
To flank of these two razze ancestral the preistorica age (approximately 14.000 DEVOUT) and uniforms in the razze live since rakasta, present of the Pardasta of Snows, the Rakasta di Montagna and the Lincidi. In the zone of the Ice Chain they closely find to contact and in competition with the Dena (hybrid emigrated Neathar-Man Beast towards the 3200 DEVOUT ones from the Brun center them in the Ice Chain).
Important and equally numerous they are the antichi dwaries, that they have their main centers in the slopes and in goes them of the Chain of the Teeth of Dredges, where cohabit friendly with dredges of gold and fight the giants for the dominion of mounts.
In the last centuries of this period, pushes from the crusades of Blackmoor against the Men Beast, groups sparuti of troll antichi are settled down in the montuose chains of the Norwold, having tried to survive between strongest and numerous dwaries, giants, dredge and rakasta.
* 3000-2800 DEVOUT: The Great Fire Rain. The Norwold changes its latitude entire, ending in wraps subartica; the settentrione of it is come to find beyond the Arctic Polar Circle, and begins to freeze. The serious climatic changes us, the winter nuclear and the caused radioactive contamination from the outbreak of the blackmooriani devices in the Borea put in serious danger the existence of the razze of this region. The entire zone of the Norwold comes invested from one small local freezing that of it hits above all the region centers them, that is that one comprised between the Great Bay and the Gulf of Kamminer.
The giants of ices are first to being hit from the effects of the planetary catastrophe; the old North Pole (puts into effect them Ethengar) begins to scongelarsi, becoming like they habitat inadatto. Therefore they abandon their centers and begin to migrare towards the new North Pole, than hour to settentrione of the Norwold is found. Many clans of giants of ices exceed the valichi of the Ice Chain and, after a long migration, they are settled down in the great and cold island of the Icy Shelter; some other clans remain more to south, settling down themselves in the ghiacciai of the Ice Chain.
The troll antichi they see moved their montuose lairs in the icy north, where they risk to perish; many clans of these creatures die, while those who succeeds to survive emigrates in the montuose chains of the meridione of the Norwold, and some reach quite in the Known World northern.
The antichi dwaries, at last, are pure they hit hardly from the climatic change, and prostrati from the disease caused from the radioactive contamination more of the others razze. Many members of this race perish between orribili suffering, others emigrate towards south, in try of better places where living; the race of the antichi dwaries is moved towards the Known World, but it will not be resumed never completely: gradually their dwellings will come abandoned and left empty, until the entire race will not be extinguished completely towards the 1800 DEVOUT ones, replaced from the Immortale Kagyar with the reinforced progenie of the Denwarf.
The unexpected reduction of the resources and the gotten worse living conditions cause also sour conflicts between dredge and the giant presents in the Norwold; these last ones, at last puttinges to the grips, emigrate in wide part towards the north and the south of the Norwold, leaving to dredges the dominion of the region centers them. These battles between dredge and giants last centuries and figure still today in some legends of the Barbarian populations of the Norwold.
* 2900 DEVOUT: The next day of the Great Fire Rain a human population reaches in the Norwold from the northeast, descendant of the Barbarian people who lived to the north-west of the Skandahariani to the age of Blackmoor. This people settle down themselves in the tundra and northern plains of the Norwold, along the course of the Spartiterre river, and christen this Autuusmaa place (“earth of the salvation” in its language) and if same Kansajaa (“people of the ice”). In the course of some centuries they, block to you in the expansion towards south from the local freezing that has hit the Norwold centers them, gradually pass to the life allocate them, practicing agriculture of subsistence in these cold lands of the north. These centuries for they are also connote you from the crash with the giants of ices, that they attack more resumptions beginning from the Icy Shelter.
* 2700 DEVOUT: The Dena, after decades of competition and contese with the Pardasta of Snows and the Rakasta di Montagna, slowly begins soccombere. They, under the guide of the guerriera Jotakk, decide to abandon their lairs in the Ice Chain and emigrate in the Denagothiano Plateau.
* 2500 DEVOUT: The local freezing that has hit the Norwold centers them diminishes gradually, making to withdraw the perennial ice towards the summits of mountains, and leaving the place fertile and rigogliose it goes them where wide prati large forests bloom and.
* 2400 DEVOUT: The Antaliani, a human population, reaches in the Norwold centers them and one true constitutes you and own civilization; they are a population of feracious blond guerrieri that imbracciano bronze crews, skillful in navigation. In the entroterra they are struck tenaciously against the rakasta, the populations of the giants and the troll antichi, by now in decline, and against it dredges. Shortly time, taking advantage of the supremacy that the use of the bronze grants they, is expanded in all the Norwold, but above all in the coastal zones, where they construct the large one of their takeovers. Towards south their expansion is blocked from the presence of a frightening one reame of the giants and of the troll antichi, that occupies puts into effect it them region that extends as far as Freiburg and Landfall.
At the same time, the Antaliani comes in contact with the humans of the Autuusmaa, than to they time, seeing the lands of the Norwold center them free from the ice, have begun one slow expansion towards south; this slow migration has been but blocked from the arrival of the Antaliani, so that the Kansajaa remains confines to you in the region of the Spartiterre and consolidates their dominion on this region, defending it from the giants of ices and constituting a unified reign to you, the first one of such kind to rise in the Norwold.
* 2100 DEVOUT: The Antaliani has by now colonized great part of the coastal Norwold and immense regions of the entroterra; their blocked expansion towards south, they begin to expand themselves overseas, founding takeovers in the Island of the northern Dawn.
To this date, the etnia antaliana by now one has differed in two stirpi different: the Antaliani of the coastal zones, skillful navigators and you burn yourself guerrieri, and the Vantaliani (diffuse above all in the zone of the Norwold center-meridional separated from the coasts from the montuose chains), descendants of the pioneers spintisi in goes them of the entroterra, than still they practice to life seed-nomad but they are becomes to you skillful expert hunters and of wild lands.
* 2000 DEVOUT: From the Island of the northern Dawn, the first Antaliani, guides the hero to you To donate, reaches to colonize Lands of the North and the islands of the Ostland future. In the continental zones, they meet aboriginal tribes of stirpe neathar and olteca, with which some clans stir themselves, giving to life to the so-called thantaliane tribes (ancestors of the Thyatiani and the Kerendani).
This age the draconica history of Mystara marks the point more low than all: as a result of the tremendous losses endured during the war against the Getlteman of blackmooriano Draghi and because of the Great Fire Rain, the draconica population enormously has been reduced of number. Some groups of dredge dispersed for the Brun find shelter in the Chain of the Teeth of Drago, and decide to assemble in gorges of these impervie mountains their similar ones scattered for the near regions. It dredges they fuse the city of Windreach like center of the draconica population of the Norwold, and accommodate in their new dominions elements of the declining population eldar, for which still they conserve esteem and friendship. The afflusso more and more large of it dredges in this repeated region cause and violent crashs of these great ******s them with the giants; the wars between these two razze weaken both ulteriorly and allow them the human cultures of the Norwold to bloom nearly indisturbate.
* 1900-1600 DEVOUT: During this age, known like the Age of the Heroes in the history normanna, the enterprises of epiche figures hour adored like Immortali - which Donar, Fredar and Fredara - cause the definitive fall of the reame of the troll antichi and of the giants in it puts into effect them northern Heldannici Territories. These creatures, a lot diminished of number and power, withdraw themselves gradually from go them, trying escape in the coves, mountains and the darker forests, and leaving she goes to them opened them to the colonization. Little little, coming from antaliane tribes from the Island of the northern Dawn and from Lands of the North settle down themselves in this earth, that they christen Nordurland.
* 1725 DEVOUT: Grande guided umanoide Orda from King Loark leaves from Urzud, directed towards east and crossing the Borea. The tribes neathar pertaining to the etnie seed-nomads of the Vaeltajaa escape of forehead to the immense arrival of orda the umanoide one, crossing the Ice Chain and finding icy escape in tundra the northern one of the Norwold, where they survive with difficulty. Here they come in contact with the reign of the Kansajaa, that it consents to accommodate them in lands limitrofe, where the Vaeltajaa continue their existence of hunters and nomads to the continuation of the herds of reindeers and caribù that cross the tundra.
Other tribes neathar of the southern Borea, pushed from the umanoidi, withdraw anch' they beyond the Ice Chain, occupying she goes them to them inner of the Norwold, or in the Denagothiano Plateau.
II. The Dark Age
* 1722-11 DEVOUT: Grande Orda di Loark invades the Norwold, crossing the Chain of Ice to the height of the Great Bay and carrying dead women and destruction on the antaliana civilization and kansajaa.
The northern reign of the nomadic Kansajaa and its ally Vaeltajaa to you are first to being hit: orde of umanoidi they reach from the west and they attack the reign more resumptions, with one experienced violence more from the times of the wars against the giants of ices; the civilization of these humans is put to hard test from the war, and endures serious damages, but it survives. Many tribes of umanoidi of hyboreana race succeed to settle down themselves in the tundra of the north, where the Vaeltajaa and the Kansajaa enter in feracious competition against.
The large one of Grande Orda flows in the Norwold centers them, giving for eleven years the hunting to the antaliana population, slaughtering it or reducing it in slavery, and having completely the antaliani villages and takeovers. The Immortali Odino and Thor, thinking to reason in danger the same survival of this human civilization, of it transport various communities in the World Cable.
The enough shrewed tribes are become account of the danger escape before from the region that worse she has arrived: the tribes of stirpe vantaliana shelter themselves in go them of the south-western Norwold (where the presence of dredges of the Teeth of Drago saves them indirectly) or emigrates completely from the region - exceeding the Chain of Ice to north of the Denagothiano Plateau and heading in Lands of Means, or towards south, trying escape between own the similar ones in Lands of the North (like the tribe of the Vandari). Other tribes of stirpe antaliana, hearing instead regarding storys the pr0sperity of the Dena of the Denagothiano Plateau, emigrate there in mass, trying the salvation from the destruction of their civilization and one new native land in which settling down itself.
Also the rakasta perlopiù are sheltered on mountains of forehead to the arrival of Grande Orda; the umanoidi, mainly interested to the pillage that to stanare the tenacious ones rakasta from their inaccessible residences it mounts some, do not annoy them lassù.
In the southern Norwold the giants and the troll antichi, hunted from the Antaliani decades before from their lands, pick the occasion of the arrival of Grande Orda in order to exit their lairs and to together attack in mass the humans to the umanoidi. Several communities of the Nordurland come devastate parimenti, but, thanks to the aid of the leggendari heroes Fredar and Fredara, the Antaliani of this region succeed to survive along the coasts and to little reject little the large one of the adversaries towards the south-west. The plan of invasion of steppes of the shown Ethengar to King Loark from Akkila Khan saves in last request these clans from the end of their similar ones.
* 1710-1700 DEVOUT: After the passage of Grande Orda, the Norwold and its inhabitants fall in a Dark Age of misery and barbarisms; many of the acquaintance antaliane by now gone lost, the antaliani and vantaliani clans imbarbariscono, reverting to one life style seed-nomad based on the hunting and the pastorizia.
Also several umanoidi tribes (above all orchi, goblin, bugbear and troll) separated in vent' the slid years from Grande Orda remain in this cold and immense region, contendendo to the humans the insufficient resources and fighting with they for the survival. The umanoidi tribes acquire various features of the local cultures, in particular of that antaliana, and orde that they settle down themselves the more neighbors to the coast succeed with the time in padroneggiare the art duffle-coat thanks to the acquaintances of the aboriginal population.
In the north, the reign of the Kansajaa exits from these wars against the umanoidi a lot weakened. The giants of ices of the Icy Shelter pick the occasion in order piombare on it the north and to invade the Autuusmaa. They succeed easy, with the aid of some umanoidi tribes, to impose their dominion on all the northern Norwold, reducing the slavery the Vaeltajaa, the Kansajaa and also those umanoidi that are not ally to you with they. The giants of ices constitute a reign of terror and fear, reducing in slavery the humans, whose reign comes practically destroyed.
* 1700-1500 DEVOUT: After approximately two centuries of pitiless dominion from part of the giants of ices, the Kansajaa and the Vaeltajaa are rebelled to the giogo of the giant ones guide to you from some of their greater heroes, and even help you from some insofferenti umanoidi tribes of the dominion of the giants. In the turn of some bloody ones it battles the giants of ices they come rejected towards north, and they return in the Icy Shelter.
Passed the danger, the Kansajaa and the Vaeltajaa their ancestral lands are resumed, around the Spartiterre river and in the tundra polar; the Kansajaa, whose reign is by now a memory of the past, assumes in the course of the centuries a style of sedentario life however, insediandosi in lacustrine lands situated around the Spartiterre river and in the zones limitrofe (comprised some goes them on the depositor orients them of the Ice Chain); they live in villages of agriculturists, hunters, fishermen or boscaioli, everyone commant from a head and labilmente re-united from assemblies of heads ally to you. The Vaeltajaa instead conserves their style of life seed-nomad and follows the great herds of reindeers and caribù, moving itself between tundra and great plains of the northern Norwold. Here they continue to compete with the tribes of hyboreani umanoidi.
* 1700-1400 DEVOUT: Tribe of ogre and coboldi coming from from the Brun centers them, and remained behind regarding the large ones orde of the previous period, reaches in the Norwold, causing ulterior conflicts with their similar ones and derelitte the human tribes.
* 1400-1100 DEVOUT: The constant crashs with the human tribes and the sparsity of resources push many orde umanoidi to take advantage of the techniques marinare learned from the Antaliani in order to practice raids via sea; the territory deputy to these pillages is above all the northern part of the Island of the Dawn. With passing of the time, some tribes, noticing the presence there of a climate and a more favorable land much and rich one, transform their true raids in and own emigrations, that they carry in the Island of Alba orchi, goblin, bugbear, coboldi, troll and ogre.
* 1000 DEVOUT: The Nithiano Empire enters in its phase of greater expansion under Pharaoh Tokoramses V, pushing its armys towards the cold north, conquering the populations of continental Lands of the North and, beginning from the Island of the Dawn, founding bridge witness on the coast of the Norwold, in order to reach in the Great Bay. It is in fact interest of the Pharaoh to enter in contact with the elementali entities of the Plan of the Fire and it wishes to establish a connection directed between its empire and this plan of existence, being founded a colony in the pressed ones of the zone of the Fire Arc - where they give little has been discovered the presence of a passage to glide down direct just in the Plan of the Fire. The main nithiane colonies come founded in the Island of the Trichechi, to the mouth and in the islands of the Great Bay, in the peninsula of Alpha and to foce of the river the Bear White man. Pharaoh Tokoramses V os later on of person in this last colony, and of them he os in pilgrimage near the fabulous Fire Arc (970 DEVOUT ones).
A branch of the migration of the gnoll, spintosi towards north, crosses the Nordurland and reaches in the Norwold, where spande for the territory, provoking itself ulterior conflicts with the other human tribes and umanoidi presents.
* 1000-900 DEVOUT: The Nithiano Empire deports numerous slaves halfling in its norwoldesi colonies; these umanoidi small in fact are thought more resistant to the northern climate and above all easier to tame in case of revolt in far places therefore. The greater part of these slaves halfling comes assigned to the colony situated to foce of the Bear the White man.
* 700-500 DEVOUT: The decline of the Nithiano Empire gradually marks the destiny of its norwoldesi colonies; the minds of sedotte governing its from the dreams of being able insinuate you from Thanatos and Ranivorus, they engage in useless wars with the umanoidi populations and human aborigines, impoverendo their dominions and causing pain to the population. Some takeovers come destroy to you in the course of revolts serve caused them from the spossatezza of the population, others soccombono under counterattack of the human and umanoidi tribes who same they have instigated.
To the term of this period, all the nithiane colonies in the Norwold are by now passings or reduced in misery and also those that with difficulty succeed to survive they have lost every contact with the madrepatria, by now in preda to the wars registers some. In the course of the decades, the small part of nithiana population allocated here comes gradually absorbed from the local populations and of fact to scompare.
* 600-500 DEVOUT: Many small groups of elfi clear of the Shiye clan abandon the Reign of Shiye-Lawr (in Alphatia) as to result of the conflicts intestines and to the discord matured with politics of their monarch. Sea They exceed and they scatter for the Norwold center-northerner, settling down itself in the more driven in forests; their greater concentration is found in the great situated Forest to the north-west of foce of the Bear the White man. These Soon elfiche communities become notes to the others inhabitants of the Norwold like the “Houses in the Forests”. In the following centuries (500-200 DEVOUT), as a result of the enterprises of the powerful elfica wizard Lornasen (which ago return from the Reame Silvano with a seed of the Tree of the Life), between the elfi of the Norwold diffuses the cult of Ilsundal and the increase of Trees of the Life.
* 490-300 DEVOUT: Big waves and big waves of coboldi invade the civilization basement of the gnomi, situated under the Hardanger Mounts in the southern Soderfjord. The gnomici clans, of forehead to the war of extermination triggered against of they from the coboldi, soccombono progressively; many clans of gnomi emigrate towards the north abandoning their native land. Some are settled down little more in the countries to north, where they fuse some great cities (like Cascades of Torkyn in the Wendariana Chain); others o instead in the low Norwold, where they enter in alliance with the local tribes of lupin Snoutzer Gnomici whom they live in the forests; gradually they will become you notice like the gnomi of the forests.
*350 DEVOUT ones: In Lands of the North, of the caverns of the gnomi to extermination and the invasion work coboldi of their race descendant of slaves puts in crisis the local population halfling (imports you from the Nithiani), than they were themselves supports you to the gnomi sin from their liberation from the giogo nithiano. Tightened between the feracious ones gnoll, aggressive coboldi and the powerful giants, the halfling decide to follow the omens send they give the High Heroes to you: they communicate they that in the lost native land of the Antaliani, in the deep north, a clan of halfling was enduring enormous suffering and threatened to disappear; if they had helped it, together they could have constructed one new native land that would have been in order always prospers. It guides you from the profezia and from their Usamigaras hero, the halfling they are put in march from Lands of the North and, crossing the dangers of the Norwold, they come directed from the Sums Heroes until foce of the river the Bear White man. There, they rejoin themselves with their similar ones, remained here after the fall of the local nithiana colony, and they help them to reconstruct one native land. He comes founded the County of Leeha.
That's the point where (for some reason) Google stops translating, so I'll toy around with it and see if I can't get the rest.
III. The age of the empires
* 125-33 DEVOUT: Prince Alinor, a most powerful wizard smaller son of the king of Haven, being destined not to inherit the hereditary throne, decides to gain itself just reame in wild lands of the Norwold. With the money derivantegli from its possedimenti and with the aid of the father - that he hopes therefore to earn a colony for just the reign -, it puts with a nourished formation of follows to us: simple pioneers, mercenari very armed, guards of the body and connect wizards, adventurers and expert technicians of the logistics, the risen building and every of necessary field. Alinor confida above all in its immense magical acquaintances and one portentosa verga of the Victoria in its possession in order to make sure the happened one of the enterprise. To edge of one flotilla of flying ships, Prince Alinor leaves therefore for its shipment. The armys of Alinor disembark in the peninsula of Alpha, where it comes founded Alpha Head, a harbour takeover where to berth the ships with the provisions, the vettovaglie, the materials, and to use like bridgehead. In the turn of little years, thanks to the powerful magic of Alinor, its exercise make themselves wide between the Barbarian tribes of the surrounding zones, making sure itself go dominions to you on the coast of the Great Bay are to north that to the south-west of the peninsula, along it goes them of the river Sabre. Alinor christens this new Alphia reign and ago to construct a great city-port to the height of the neck of the peninsula of Alpha, with a its great palace that dominates the entire city and from which it means to govern over a long time span; many other takeovers come found to you and many noble alphatiani immigrate in this region in order to buy up new lands (most southern between the palaces constructed in this period are found to foce of the river the Sabre). Expansionistic and aggressive politics of the Alphia - and the necessity of numerous slaves in order to put into effect the construction works that Alinor has in mind - carry against reame the always new enemies: the aboriginal human tribes, the umanoidi, at last of even dredge of the Teeth of Drago. Thanks to its powerful magic, Alinor succeeds to prevail, but it dredges often attack in way much destructive express and, and the prince does not succeed to being ovunque in the just moment. The meschine rivalry and inimicizie that they oppose the Haven to the alphatiana court, where scellerato emperor Kerothar IV spends immani amount of money in the preparation of the millenium of its empire, prevent the constant and effective shipment of imperial aids to Alinor. The situation is made truly critical around the 40 DEVOUT ones, when it dredges carry out the first attack against the same one understood them of the Alphia. Alinor decides to once close for all the game with dredges: after assiduous searches in the alphatiane libraries and the plan of the Old Alphatia, it gives itself to the elaboration of a incantesimo epico that would have to destroy the entire feature of the Teeth of Drago where it inhabits the greater concentration of dredges. After years of crashs to malpartito against the feracious ones he dredges, it discovers the incantesimo that he tried and begins along rituale in order launch it. Unfortunately for he, he dredges they come in some way to knowing of its attempt and deliver the most violent attack against the understood one them of the Alphia that memories to living memory of: Alinor, picked to the unprovided one in its palace, does not succeed to complete the magic correctly and the rilasciate magical energies act in opposite way to the previewed one, making to raise from the earth a sour montuosa chain under the ground of the understood one them. The port insabbia, great part of the city sinks in the earth or comes destroyed Travolta and, while the palace of the prince comes submergeeed from the crest montuosa and buried them under; note like the Crest of Alinor is born the montuosa chain. Same Alinor remains crushed from the ruins while it tries disperatamente to seize its verga of the Victoria, last symbol of its passes happened to you.
Without the protection of their powerful getlteman, the population of the rest of the reign is defenseless in the comparisons of not only dredges, but also of the Barbarian tribes and umanoidi premises, than, heard the news of the destruction of the understood one them, attack those who vendicativamente have hunted them from their reduced lands and in slavery. In the turn of three decades (the 33-0 DEVOUT) greater part of the alphiani takeovers has been destroyed and shaved to the ground, or conquered from Barbarians and umanoidi; also those that survive, in the best one of the cases not reduced to small villages. To the part of alphiana population that has not succeeded to escape in time the same treatment comes classified that same it had classified the Barbarians: the slavery and the dispersion. Only a takeover, that one of Alpha Head, succeeds to survive like city, and comes saved from the fury of dredges. The city is so jolt from earthquakes caused from the failure of the incantesimo of Alinor that great part of its fortifications and its greater buildings collapses, but the elevation of the new montuosa chain that separates the peninsula from the rest of the coast if not other the protegge from the incursions of the Barbarians. In the following years the fall of the Alphia, the city res-establish labili contacts with the Alphatiano Empire, than however it is only lose interested in immiserita Alpha Head, taking advantage of it of when in when like base of frontier for the commerce of pellicce.
*5-14 OF: As a result of the good matured relationships of alliance during the thyatiana Fight for the Freedom (2-0 DEVOUT) and to the relationships of friendship of many jarl with thyatiano emperor Zendrolion I, the Ostlandesi together lead to the Thyatiani a series of colonization campaigns in order to found takeovers generally trade them and strategic along the coast of the Norwold - small cities or rocche, where in means to the sussiste majority normanna one small but influential enclave thyatiana political-cargo vessel. These colonies are ostlandese distributions of this or that clan, governed from sons or relatives of the single guerrieri heads; therefore, after or two generations, they completely become independent, with to head an own dynasty and lacking in some relationship of sudditanza in the comparisons of the origin clan. On some of this modest city-fortress, the Thyatiano Empire more maintains a dominion tightened (generally draft of those stretegiche ones), with just a representative. One of these takeovers comes constructed from the Thyatiani on the situated one of Alpha Head - an old alphatiano takeover in full decline conquered from the Thyatiani - and equipped of fortifications and a discreet port (12 OF). Alphatiano emperor Alphas YOU protest against this violation of the Treaty of Edairo, but receives from Zendrolion one answer beffarda: the breakers of the treaty are the Alphatiani, from the moment that Alpha Head like takeover already existed at the moment of the company of the treaty (that, according to Zendrolion I, he contributes to render it before null) and however that they arrived the Thyatiani.
*14-16 OF: Disagreeable dissapori perhaps - it provokes to you from the alphatiana infuence - rise between several ostlandesi heads and Thyatis; the situation degenerates and many jarl reach to appeal before to the Alphatiano Empire against the allied one of some year, and to giving beginning to actions of war against the Thyatiano Empire. The fast ostlandesi ships above all hit the coasts of the Norwold, destroying the thyatiane positions (Alpha Head come destroyed in the 15 OF); the alphatiano money finances these raids. The thyatiana reaction is fast and capillary: the ostlandese fleet shortly time comes destroyed, the jarl riottosi captured and replaced with filothyatiani monarchs - shortly Thyatis establishes protettorato one risen of indirect on the clans of ostlandesi islands (16 OF). The Thyatiano Empire resumes the direct possession of the takeovers before founds years to you on the coast of the Norwold, but more to north of the Island of the Trichechi is not pushed, date the difficulty protect those bases from the Alphatiani and the local Barbarians; Thyatis wishes to hold of the bases above all in order to watch the income of the Sea of the Western Dawn and to hold to you outside the Alphatiani there.
# 50-300 OF: In this period, thanks to the demographic resumption, the Norduresi begin theirs graduate them expansion towards north; in the turn of a pair of centuries, their pioneers are themselves pushes until the bay of Oceansend, trade with the Thyatiani and with the Normanni and their clans they fuse small farms, rocche and villages in all this region. At the same time, also many halfling coming from from the south (are last clans remained in Lands of the North and the Nordurland) insediano in the Norwold, allocating themselves between the human communities or going to increase the population of Leeha.
*112 OF: One young sacerdotessa vatski of Marzanna (Hel) from the innate magical abilities, of Akra name, comes hunting from its tribe being be accused to have some charmed the head. During its exile she imbatte for case in the ruins of a going back alphiano takeover to the times of Alinor; exploring it, scova a warehouse of antichi magical volumes belonged to some great wizard of the age - perhaps to same Alinor. With the aid of its Immortale female saint, it perfects and widens its magical powers, becoming the many powerful in padroneggiare magic tied to the cold energies.
*136 OF: After years it passes to you to collect follows to us and to study the magic of the ice, Akra re-unites around himself one confraternita secret of witches, all follow us of Hel and experts of the cold energies. It obtains also the aid of an enormous one dredges white man of Quesa name. This Sorellanza of the Witches of the Ice begins to extend its infuence on many tribes vatski and norsene, and to enlist to its service umanoidi, creatures of the ice, giants and dredges white men in order to get hold of the entire Norwold. Akra establishes its residence in the Ice Cavern, in the depths of the Massive one of Quesa.
*164-336 OF: Joining the infuence of its Sorellanza to its it goes magical powers to you and to the force of its armys, Akra imposes its dominion to great part of the Norwold center-northerner and proclama Queen-Witch of the Norwold. Clan of giants of ices and groups of dredges white men submits to the wish of Akra the tribes of the Kansajaa and of the Viaskoda, other tribes norsene and vatski fall under the control of its witches and progressively Akra becomes mrs. of great part of the Norwold. Only the southern tribes of the Vatski, of the Norseni orient them and the draconici clans of the Teeth of Drago oppose themselves to its dominion.
*Akra uses its powerful magic in order to transform the Norwold in one chain plate ghiacciata in honor of its female saint Marzanna (Hel); snow storms and tormente imperversano for months and months also in the zones of the Norwold they centers, while on the montuosi peaks they form themselves ghiacciai that which yeti, giants of ices become the shelter of creatures and dredge white men. The presence of this hostile force of the Norwold limits the thyatiana penetration strongly, that it remains circumscribed to the coasts. With passing of the time, groups of sciamani and clergymen pertaining to the tribes who oppose themselves to the dominion of Akra they together put the own forces in order to reject perfida Queen-Witch. After years of battles to the periphery of its dominion, a group of three ambitiouses making witches part of the continuation of Akra is rebelled to she and, with the aid of clergymen and coming from guerrieri from the hostile tribes to Akra, they catch Queen-Witch and they kill it definitively; I dredge Quesa white man remains caught in the Ice Cavern from a powerful one sortilegio of the three rebellious witches. The dominion of Akra crushes, the human tribes quickly and umanoidi they buy back the freedom while the counter-offensive to the damages of the creatures of the ice is get loosed that has been follows us of Akra. The witches membre of the Sorellanza come everywhere braccate and exterminated; some survive and it gives to the spot, losing the contacts with their companions. The three witches who have contributed to the fall of Akra take dwelling in Monte Crystykk, to north of the ill-famed Ice Cavern from where signoreggiava Queen-Witch. They become one risen of protecting of the secrets of Akra, sluices together to Quesa in the Cavern of Ice, and the human tribes of the Norwold against the eventual one to revive of similar threats. With passing of the time the trio assumes the role of protecting of the Norwold and becomes famous like the Witches of Crystykk. The feracious one I dredge Quesa white man remains bound to the Ice Cavern from the magic of the Witches of Crystykk; with the time it succeeds to force these incantamenti, that he allows it to go away for short periods from the Ice Cavern to which its spirit remains mysteriously tied. In the following centuries Quesa he reconstructs a small reign of terror around the Ice Cavern: the mountain where dwelling becomes famous like the Massive one of Quesa, and various tribes of Viaskoda of the Flag White woman come soggiogate this feracious one to be, inviandogli it pays and sacrifices and serving it in the hope of placare its ira.
*200 OF: He diminishes the thyatiana infuence on the jarl ostlandesi, many of which they approach themselves the Alphatia progressively and they try the alphatiana protection against the empire avails again. Thanks to these developments increase the alphatiana infuence in the Sea of the Western Dawn, much to allow to the empire the foundation of colonies in Alasiya many neighbors to those of avail again (250 OF).
*200-500 OF: Some pioneers coming from dwaries from the Cliff House explore mountains of the Norwold, and discover that they accommodate rich I placed you of minerals and metals. Many lead the own families here, and constitute with passing of the own years clan, than they are settled down in more points of the montuose chains of the Norwold, above all in the feature centers them of the Final Chain. Generally these dwaries are in optimal relationships with the human inhabitants civilizza you of the region, while they stretch to be to the wide one from the Barbarians.
*316-328 OF: In the Empire of Thyatis civil war (313 bursts OF); while it generates them and political contendono the control of the throne and are fought between himself, the Alphatia picks the occasion in order launch an offensive against avails again (316-28 OF). During the long war that follows, Thyatis loses its colonies norwoldesi, plundered and destroyed from the Alphatiani, or conquered from the local Barbarians. To the end of the war the thyatiana presence in the southern Norwold is destroyed and the Sea of the Western Dawn finally opened to the alphatiana penetration.
*450-510 OF: Alphatiano emperor Volospin III undertakes the first attempt of colonization of the Norwold after the fall of the Alphia, five centuries ago; the scope is to found a colony that resupplies of raw materials (precious metals, lumber) the madrepatria and can eventually act as in the decades succeeded to you from tenaglia in order crushing the World Known from north. Taking advantage of the relative tranquillity of the relationships with Thyatis, the shipment comes prepared with cure; alphatiana bridgehead in the Great Bay is decided to install one, to foce of the river the Sabre. The planning and the weakness of the clans and the local tribes favor the resolution of the enterprise, than in the turn of little years it leads to the foundation of some alphatiani takeovers on the Southeastern sides of the Great Bay and in the peninsula of Alpha. The founded main alphatiana colony to the foce of the Sabre becomes endured a takeover of important dimensions, equipped of defense magical and point of departure for the imperial forces directed to control goes it them of the Sabre.
Decided to strengthen with this conquest the prestige of its dynasty, Volospin III ago to transfer strong sums of imperial money in the new norwoldese colony; some ancient going back ruins to the age of Alinor come recovered and transformed in I placed you of the treasure. After the consolidation of the coastal dominions, an immense military, aiming campaign comes organized to extend the alphatiani dominions beyond goes it them of the Sabre. The campaign, entrusted to an able general, proceeds well, with the conquest of numerous local Barbarian outposts and the dispersion of the hostile tribes. In these crashs the Alphatiani the elfi are made however enemy of the near Houses in the Forests and above all their protecting ones, dredge of the Teeth of Drago, that they remember the attempt of half happened Alinor millenium makes. In native land the oppositori of the imperial dynasty do not see of good eye its strengthening, above all when a fact is discovered that Volospin III has transferred part of the imperial treasure in its norwoldesi forts, without the permission of the Great Council - that exposes it to the damages to theft accusations of the state treasury. While in Alphatia he infuriates the scandal and he comes blocked every bottom dedicated to the continuation of the military campaign in the Norwold, the Barbarian tribes gather and march in a deprived of hope counterattack against the army alphatiano, lacking in refueling and dispersed in one immense zone. The imperial armys, abandoned to if same because of the veto tax from the Great Council on the continuation of the campaign, comes rejected on the sides of the river Sabre, where, in a great battle, the alphatiano army comes massacred and the same general curses the region of the river, where it falls with its magical sword (507 OF). The attack comes continued from dredges, that they attack the founded alphatiana city to the foce of the Sabre and force the imperial staff, the alphatiane troops and the inhabitants to escape from region (509 OF). Volospin III convinces the Great Council to send the imperial fleet in the Norwold in order to recover the colony before that all the deep expenses go lost; the great fleet comes however faced from dredges and destroyed in waters of the Great Bay. After this failure, whose guilt comes on purpose made to fall back on the emperor, the campaign of the Norwold comes abandoned and the plan of creation of a new reign shortly fails there. In the turn of average century (510-560 OF), the alphatiane positions come nearly all abandoned, destroyed from dredge or conquered from the Barbarians, a lot that the Alphatiani is forced to abandon quite part of the imperial treasure there (than, second the legends, still lies in some abandoned fort of the region).
* 846-874 OF: One of the last descendants of the Witches of the Ice follows to us of Akra, a norsena of Frota name, succeeds to penetrate the magic of the Witches of Crystykk and to discover the secrets leaves you from Akra in the Ice Cavern. Directed from I dredge Quesa white man, Frota risveglia the spirit of Akra and it comes some possessed. The rediviva Queen-witch begins to assemble to its continuation cospicuo a number of creatures of the ice in the Ljallenvals Mounts, in the hope to resume its dream of dominion of the Norwold laddove had been forced to abandon it centuries ago. Under the sembianze of Frota, it comes helped from a large one dredges white man of Niveous name. Thanks to its powerful magic and the labor of local the umanoidi tribes, build up a powerful ice castle in the Ljallenvals, a person who has been baptized a christian the Tomba di Ghiaccio. In the following years it succeeds to extend its infuence, assembling giant of ices, yeti and dredges white men and submitting the populations of the northern Norwold, the Viaskoda and the Kansajaa. Freezing the Great Bay thanks to its magic, Frota succeeds to expand its reign of terror also to south of the Great Bay, reducing in slavery the tribes norsene, the villages and the possedimenti isolate to you. To the end its dominion collapses when the rebellion of the subject people to it defeats its armys, freeing the northern Norwold and forcing the witch to withdraw itself in its Tomba di Ghiaccio. In the final battle, faced from powerful magic, the spirit of Akra comes forced to abandon the body of Frota and comes finally destroyed; its “host” Frota however survives and succeeds to escape to the collected one of the people of the Norwold; from its hiding place in the Tomba di Ghiaccio, he continues to meditate vendetta against the Norwold and its inhabitants, being tried to escogitare new plans of dominion.
IV. The tenth century
* 895-904 OF: Imperial prince alphatiano Tylion receives from the mother, emperor Tylari III (engaged in the search of Immortality), the task to expand the alphatiana infuence in the Norwold. Prince Tylion, rather than to give beginning to an expensive and uncertain military campaign, sendes its agents and given a degree to to us near the capoclan local, obtaining the permission to make to in general terms allocate small enclave of Alphatiani in their takeovers, helping the more reliable heads against the riottosi or ambitiouses and giving to the aborigines the idea of the Alphatiano Empire like that one of large benevolent a protecting one of the Norwold from the dangers. Its succeeded one is such that to some noble alphatiani that have been distinguished in the aid lend to the capoclan local they come entrusted lands in ricompensa; here they constitute the first alphatiani dominions of this century in the norwoldese region. They are to all the formally independent effects, also maintaining tightened ties inform them with the madrepatria.
*900 OF: Thyatiano emperor Gabrionius IV begins one new age of expansion; it above all is preoccupied from the first signs of alphatiano expansionism in the Norwold, and fears that the Alphatiani can succeed to get hold of the two sides of the Channel of Helskir (in fact already dominates same Helskir). The emperor is yearning to before reinforce the thyatiana presence in the Norwold center-meridional that that happens, operating in the first instance a serious riavvicinamento to the Reign of Ostland and therefore enticing the monarch of this country with promises of conquests in the Norwold and on the Island of the Dawn if the Thyatiano Empire had helped in the enterprise. After which Gabrionus IV entrusts to the heroin Aline Sigbertsdatter - that it has supported its father Gabrionius III in the period of torbid experienced civilians from the Thyatiano Empire in the previous years - the task to found one thyatiana bridgehead in the Norwold. Aline had obtained from Gabrionius III the promise of one region where to be able to constitute just a dominion. With the full support of the civil employees and the imperial army, let alone with the support of the ostlandese fleet, Aline chooses like place in order to construct to the colony the repaired before bay the islands of the Dogs and the Trichechi; thanks to the friendships matured in youth and during its years of adventures succeed diplomatically to obtain the consent of the capoclan local, and come finally founded the city of Oceansend, than Aline it makes to equip endured of powerful fortifications and that it becomes an important point of exchange between the local Thyatiano Empire and populations.
*900-04 OF: Energetic politics of Gabrionius IV in the comparisons of the Norwold put the Alphatia on who live, and come indetto an encounter to Newkirk in order to once sanction for all who belong the Norwold, on which the two empires encamp rights; these arguments, that they will pass to the history like the Process of the Norwold, end in order to become one document presentation antichi to suffragio of one or the other thesis rather than one true and own conference in order to ask for the war, in which fioccano accusations more or less free than tradimento, malafede and deceit.
*904-12 OF: The Process of the Norwold degenerates in the War of the Marshes between Thyatis and Alphatia; the neofondata Oceansend, under it knits guide of Aline, demonstrates endured its tenacity, rejecting a alphatiana offensive aiming to its conquest. The war, fought mostly in the Island of the northern Dawn, sanctions the forfeiture of the Confederation of Dunadale. To the end of the war, Thyatis maintains all north-west of the Island of the Dawn (comprised Helskir); the two empires are come to an agreement in order to prevent ulterior expansions beyond the respective areas of infuence in the Norwold (Thyatis from Oceansend towards south, Alphatia from Oceansend towards north).
*919 OF: After the definitive passing of the mother, Tylion IV becomes emperor of Alphatia. Its immediate interests are revolts to the Norwold, where it continues the work of penetration and alphatiana infuence on the local small capoclan begun during its reggenza, years, and ago blocked from the explosion of the war against Thyatis. Making sure the good thyatiana will with a series of it deals to you with its avails again, the Pacific Gabrionius V, regulating the expansion, the spheres of infuence and the commerce, he proceeds hour to the allocation of a series of feudi in the zone of the Great Bay (one of which it comes assigned to the Meredoth Baron, a alphatiano necromancer), legacies directly to the alphatiana crown. This politics endure however one strongly opposition inside of the Great Council, in how much are believed that new base is aiming to constitute one of the imperial power; given the imposition to limit the deep ones it dedicates you to this plan, many feudi as soon as constituted they come abandons to you, others have life grama, others fail completely (like that one of Meredoth, in the 921 OF). The takeover of noble in the Norwold slows down until becoming exile rising which they are deputies those who they are spotted of some failure or they are incurred in the political misfortune of some powerful one.
*920 OF: After ventennio of government a test and noticed and to have obtained the title granducale it, Aline leaves in tries of its path towards Immortality, leaving in the hands of just the grandson the government of the city from founded she. During these Oceansend years it has become a emporio important of the north, and the thyatiane hinge of the defense in the Sea of the Western Dawn; the territory of the city has extended to comprise also the islands of the Dogs and of the Trichechi, while in the norwoldese coast to south of the new city thyatiani takeovers are fates or dominions ally you of Thyatis or the Ostland.
*930 OF: Thanks to the consolidation of the way trade them that from the Ghyr it arrives in the Bay of Kammin, some small coastal heldannesi takeovers that are found in the pressed ones of the crossing of this track with which it goes from Haldisvall (puts into effect them Freiburg) to Oceansend they are developed and they grown. Eclatante it is that one of the village that grows until becoming the city of Landfall, that it attracts coloni coming from from Free Lands of Heldann, the Westrourke and even from the thyatiani and alphatiani takeovers in the Norwold. The city becomes independent soon from its heldannese getlteman, but its disordinata increase city favors the income also of several little recommendable elements (rinnegati, smugglers, pirati, etc), than the procurano the unpleasant reputation that it has still today.
*959 OF: Great war between Thyatis bursts one new and the Alphatia. While from alphatiana part residual interest for the Norwold gets lost every, in how much the war sucks all the energies of the imperial court, from granducato thyatiana part the independent one of Oceansend makes appeal to its alliance between the capoclan circumvicini in order to attack the alphatiani scattered ones feudi, some of which come effectively conquered or abandon to you.
*960 OF: During the war between the two empires you avail again, a directed alphatiana offensive against Oceansend gets hold of the before islands the city and threatens to assault same Oceansend. After talks graduate to us with alphatiani commanders, Oceansend it declares independence from the Thyatiano Empire in this way, guaranteeing itself from the alphatiani attacks while Thyatis is engaged in a difficult war against avails again it (and presumablly it will not be in a position to reinforcing the city). The son of the thyatiano governor - with the support of the father, than this is made from part and ritene the only way in order to save the city from the Alphatia -, Yarrvik, acronym one peace with the Alphatia and proclama king of the city.
*962 OF: Signed the peace between Thyatis and the Alphatia, thyatiano emperor Thincol recognizes independence of Oceansend - its old native land - is like part of the peace treaty, is in order to restore the bases for an eventual future alliance with the city. Always second the agreements, the Alphatiani clear the before islands the city of Oceansend.
*985 OF: Alphatiana emperor Eriadna resumes the expansion in the Norwold, firm by now from decades; it firmly is convinced of the importance strategic and economic of the Norwold and the necessity to increase the expansion field so as to to cause the dispersion of the thyatiane resources on more foreheads. Eriadna continues is politics of its father, favoring the alphatiana penetration with alliances and concessions, is, where that is not possible or favorable, using the force of the crews in order to submit to the alphatiano wish the local getlteman, chief and populations. In the peninsula where a time rose Alpha Head, Eriadna orders the construction of the city-port of Alpha, that it becomes the hinge of alphatiano expansionism in the Norwold and the center of a Governor remitted to supervisionare the operations in this new Protettorato. Thyatiano emperor Thincol answers unexpectedly to this renewed expansionism declaring war to the Alphatia; the war, than protrarrà in order nearly vent' years between pauses and armistices (985-1002 OF), will come above all lead from the province and the vassalli of the two empires, and fought above all on the Island of the Dawn and in the seas it orients them (first phase, 985-992 OF) and subsequently in the Norwold (second phase, 1001-1002 OF).
*990 OF: To this date the overwhelming majority of the communities of the coasts, from Landfall to Alpha, has recognized, at least formally, the alphatiana supremacy on the region; only the city of Oceansend stubbornly remains independent, but the Alphatiani, in war against Thyatis as they are, cannot be allowed to besiege the city - also because that would cause a riavvicinamento of it to Thyatis. Frattanto comes inziata to Alpha the construction of the majestic Real Castle.
*992 OF: Eriadna emperor, to the next day of a relative stagnazione of the hostilities with Thyatis, assigns to the Protettorato of the Norwold to its Ericall son with the title it of king; it chooses Alpha like understood them. The emperor hopes that, with the just degree of autonomy, the Norwold not only succeeds to develop itself and to progress, but also to supply alone to the own defense - so as to to save the resources of the empire for the war on other foreheads. Annexed to the Reign of the Norwold, the city of Helskir in the Island of the Dawn comes parimenti granted to Ericall - to I add scorno of its governor Eruul Zaar, not consulted before the decision.
*995 OF: King Ericall entrusts to just the Lernal stepbrother the government of the southern city of Landfall; Lernal, than earns the nickname soon de `the Boozer', inept and completely corrupt like governor, sight to only become rich and leaves the government of the city in hand the Gilda omnipotent of the local Ladri.
*997 OF: King Yarrvik di Oceansend, rejecting every thyatiana proposal of an alliance with the empire for tutelarsi from the Alphatia, begins a series rather than talks graduate to us with Ericall, regarding its eventual oath of vassallaggio to this last one (but only if he will be able to maintain to the title regal it). Thincol, comprising the impraticabilità of the diplomatic way, begins to send to Oceansend spies of every kind.
*998 OF: In autumn, King Ericall index the Race to Lands, emanating a decree with which allows to all gi adventurers who will introduce themselves to its court to the next Spring Fair of candidarsi in order to receive feudo a monarch and to attempt in the colonization of wild norwoldesi lands; many coming from adventurers from every angle of the world (but also spies) accorrono to the court of Alpha in the months succeeded in order to demonstrate itself to you worthy to receive a feudo in the Norwold and to swear fidelity to the king. With this Ericall gesture faithful nobility to he hopes to only consolidate the existence of one.
*999 OF: King Ericall, in the course of the Spring Fair (1° of thaumont), receives the adventurers and the noble joints from all the Known World and proceeds to the allocation of feudi to those between they that more skillful valorosi have been shown and during the tornei and the tests indette during the festivity. The prechosen ones o in theirs feudi where they take possession of the existing structures or they build up some of new. During a diplomatic visit near its brother greater Ericall, alphatiano prince Tredorian comes captured from a group of thyatiane spies and lead to Thyatis; with to he he comes captured Farian, stepbrother of king Yarrvik di Oceansend, than he found himself to Alpha for siglare an alliance between the city and the king of the Norwold. Thincol threatens Yarrvik with the dead women of the stepbrother, and the king is forced to renounce to its plan of alliance with Ericall. Viceversa, the emperor sourly reproaches the gesture in the comparisons of Tredorian (in how much risks to drag the two empires in one war total) and ago to execute the kidnappers; instead sending back Tredorian in native land, Thincol it perhaps sendes to Sundsvall as against-ostaggo the own smaller daughter Asteriela (thinking about being able to use Tredorian as expecting to the opposing imperial throne in an eventual future - better than how much Eriadna it could make with Asteriela). As a result of ennesima the occupation from part of the forces of the two empires (than by now contendono the city from years), the governor of Helskir, Eruul Zaar, declares its independent city from the Reign of the Norwold and both the empires. At the beginnig of the winter a terrible coming from red fog from the east hits the Norwold, killing persons and animals to its passage; Ericall receives a ultimatum from King Norland di Qeodhar, that it demands its abdication. The monarch of the Norwold refuses and gathers together its noble ones, putting with one fleet and heading to the direct attack of Qeodhar. All the event in reality has been planned from the Immortale Alphaks, yearning to trigger one war on wide scale: thanks to the enterprises of some getlteman of the Norwold, the diabolic one slowly comes blanketed and the Immortale Vanya filler all the persons been involved behind in the fine time at the beginnig of the winter of this year. The getlteman of the Norwold convince Norlan, decided to rapire alphatiana prince Mariella, to return in Qeodhar. Towards the end of the year, the giants of ices of the Icy Shelter launch one massiccia invasion of the Norwold, having the lands of the Kansajaa, meeting with the Viaskoda and reaching to threaten the feudi northern of the Reign of the Norwold and Leeha.
1000 OF: The bands of the giants of ices, being useful for the fact that the Great Bay is frozen this winter, exceed it and place besiege to the understood one them, Alpha. The army of the giants comes rejected from the combined forces of some feudatari of the Norwold and the giants withdraw themselves before towards north that the winter ends. It comes finished to Alpha the construction of the magnificent Real Castle. In the understood one them it comes celebrated the wedding between King Ericall and Christina Marie Alanira, one alphatiana prince.
Ta daaa!
If I get a chance, I might go back and edit it a bit, but I think that looks like it should give the gist of the timeline.
I think the Google translation can make the overall story more or less understood (ask freely here if you don't understand some words leaved in Italian by the translator).
I'll give it a reading and eventually I'll post a more "precise" version, so that Shawn could put it in the Vaults also. ;)
Thank you for the effort, Chtulhudrew!
I think the Google translation can make the overall story more or less understood (ask freely here if you don't understand some words leaved in Italian by the translator).
I'll give it a reading and eventually I'll post a more "precise" version, so that Shawn could put it in the Vaults also. ;)
righteo, I'll hold off for that Zendrolion.
Please note that everything you'll find here is to be linked with the material previously published about the "Italian" version of Norwold, which you can already find at the Vaults (http://pandius.com/nrwldreg.html).
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TIMELINE OF NORWOLD
[b]I. The first civilizations:[/b]
Before BC 3,000: At this time Norwold isn’t found at modern latitudes, but it’s located north of the Empire of Blackmoor, in a subarctic and temperate area filled with mountains and luxuriant forests. Many races live in this virgin land, more or less in competition among themselves for the control of lands and resources.
Among the most ancient inhabitants of this region are dragons and giants. The former, belonging mostly to the species of gold and white dragons, live in the mountains and in the glaciers of the highest peaks or in the northernmost lands. Giants are instead scattered all over the region (mostly so the mountain giants); they live in great halls inside the mountains, where they collect their treasures. Among the most numerous of them are the frost giant, which threaten this region from their arctic lairs near the old North Pole (modern Ethengar).
At these ancestral races’ side live the rakastas, found here since the preisthoric age (about BC 14,000) and divided between the species of Snow Pardastas, Mountain Rakastas and Lynxmen. In the Icereach Range area they’re close neighbours and rivals of the Denas (Neathars-Beastmen mongrels, migrated here in the Icereach Range around BC 3,200 from central Brun).
Likewise important and numerous are the elder dwarves, whch have their holds in the foothills and valleys of the Wyrmsteeth Range, where they live in friendship together with the gold dragons and fight the mountain giants for the control of the mountains.
In the last centuries of this age, pushed by the Blackmoor crusades against Beastmen, spare bands of elder trolls settle in the mountain ranges of Norwold, struggling to survive among the most numerous and strong dwarves, giants, dragons and rakastas.
BC 3,000-2,800: The Great Rain of Fire. Norwold changes its latitude, ending wholly in the subarctic zone; the northern part of it ends beyond the Arctic Circle, and begins to freeze. The drastic climatic changes, the nuclear winter and the radioactive pollution caused by the explosion of Blackmoorian engines in Borea put in serious danger the existance of the races of this region. The whole Norwold region is invested by a small local glaciation, that hits mostly the central areas of it, i.e. those found between the Great Bay and the Bay of Kammin.
Frost giants are the first to be hit by the global catastrophe’s effects; the previous North Pole (modern Ethengar) begins to thaw, becoming unfit as their habitat. Becouse of this, they leave their lairs and begin to migrate toward the new North Pole, that is found north of Norwold. Many frost giant clans cross the passes of the Icereach Range and, after a long journey, they settle in the large and cold island of Frosthaven; some of them stay south, settling in the glaciers of the Icereach Range.
The elder trolls find their mountain lairs moved in the frozen north, where they risk to perish; many clans of these creatures die, while those who manage to survive migrate in the mountain ranges of southern Norwold, and some of them reach even the northern Known World.
Also the elder dwarves are hit by the climatic changes, and more so than the other races they're pulled down by the disease caused by the radioactive pollution. Many members of this race die among terrible sufferings, other migrate south, searching better areas to settle; the elder dwarves’ race migrates toward the Known World, but it’ll never recover completely: gradually their halls’ll be abandoned and emptied, until the whole race’ll disappear utterly around BC 1,800, replaced with the fortified Denwarf stock by the Immortal Kagyar.
The sudden reduction of resources and the worsening of the living conditions cause also fierce conflicts between dragons and giants in Norwold; the latter, eventually losers, migrate mostly toward north and south, leaving to the dragons the control of the central region. These battles between dragons and giants last for centuries and are represented even today in the legends of the barbarian peoples of Norwold.
BC 2,900: A few time after the Great Rain of Fire comes from northeast a human people, offspring of the barbarian people which lived to the north-west of the Skandaharians in the Blackmoor age. These people settle in the northern tundras and plains of Norwold, along the Landsplit river, and name this land Autuasmaa (“land of bliss” in their tongue) and themselves the Jääkansa (“ice peoples”). In a few centuries, halted in their expansion toward south by the local glaciation that hit central Norwold, they gradually turn to sedentary life, practicing subsistence farming in these cold northern lands. For them these centuries are also characterized by clashes againts frost giants, who attack from Frosthaven several times over.
BC 2,700: The Denas, after decades of competition and fights againts the Snow Pardastas and the Mountain Rakastas, begin to lose ground. Under the leadership of the she-warrior Jotakk, they decide to leave their lairs in the Icereach Range and migrate in the Denagothian Plateau.
BC 2,500: The local glaciation that hit central Norwold begins gradually to lessen, with perpetual snow receding toward the mountain peaks and leaving place to fertile and luxuriant valleys where great forests and large meadows flourish.
BC 2,400: The Antalians, a human people, come in central Norwold and built a full civilization; they’re a people of fierce blonde warriors which use bronze weapons, skilled in seafaring. Inland they fight viciously against the rakastas, the giant and elder troll peoples – now in decline – and against dragons. In short time they get the upper hand thanks to the knowledge of bronze and they expand all over Norwold, but mostly along the costal areas, where they built most of their settlements. Toward south their expansion is blocked by a strong realm of giants and elder trolls, that is found in the area that goes from modern Freiburg to Landfall.
In the same time, Antalians meet the Autuasmaa humans, which, seeing the lands of central Norwold freed from ice al last, have begun a slow expansion toward south; this slow migration has however been blocked by the Antalians’arrival, so that the Jääkansa stay confined in the Landsplit region and consolidate their hold on this land, defending it against frost giants and building an unite kingdom, the first of this type to be raised in Norwold.
BC 2,100: Antalians have eventually settled in most of costal Norwold and in large areas of the hinterland; their expansion toward south blocked, they begin to explore and conquer oversea, founding settlements on the northern Isle of Dawn.
By this time, the Antalian race has almost distinguished in two different stocks: the Antalians of the costal areas, skilled seamen and brave warriors, and the Vantalians (living mostly in the south-central area of Norwold divided from the coast by the mountain ranges), descendants of the pioneers who settled in the inland valleys, which still have a nomad lifestyle but have become skilled hunters and wilderness experts.
BC 2,000: From the northern Isle of Dawn the first Antalians, led by the hero Donar, come to settle the Northern Reaches and the isle of modern Ostland. In the mainland region they meet native tribes of Neathar and Oltec stock, with which they intermarry, giving birth to the so-called Thantalian tribes (forefathers of Thyatians and Kerendans).
This age marks the lowest spot in the whole draconic history on Mystara: following the terrible losses suffered during the war against the Blackmoorian Dragonlord and becouse of the Great Rain of Fire, the draconic population has enormously been reduced in number. Some groups of dragons scattered all over Brun find shelter in the Wyrmsteeth Range and decide to gather in the caves of these unapproachable mountains their brethren living in the nearby regions. Dragons built the city of Windreach as seat of the draconic population of Norwold, and invite in their new domain members of the declining race of the Eldars, for which they still preserve respect and friendship. The ever-increasing migration of dragons in this area causes repeating clashes between these great reptiles and the giants; the wars between these two races weaken thoroughly both of them and allow the human cultures of Norwold to flourish almost undisturbed.
BC 1,900-1,600: During this time, known as the Age of Heroes in Northman history, the enterprises of epic characters now revered as Immortals – like Donar, Fredar and Fredara – bring the definitive fall of the realm of elder trolls and giants in modern northern Heldannic Territories. These creatures, much reduced in strenght and number, gradually retreat in the valleys, seeking refuge in the caves, in the mountains and in the deepest woods, and leaving the valleys open for settlement. A few at a time, the Antalian tribes coming from the northern Isle of Dawn and from the Northern Reaches settle in this land, which they call Nordurland.
BC 1,725: The Great Horde of King Loark leaves Urzud, aimed toward east and passing through Borea. Neathar tribes belonging to the demi-nomad stock of the Vaeltajat, flee in front of the arrival of the huge humanoid horde, crossing the Icereach Range and finding shelter in the cold tundra of northern Norwold, where they hardly survive. There they meet the Jääkansa kingdom, which consents to host them in its bordering lands, where the Vaeltajat continue their life as hunters and nomads after the reindeer and caribous herds that cross the tundra.
Other Neathar tribes of southern Borea, pushed by the humanoids, retreat beyond the Icereach Range, settling in the innermost valleys of Norwold or in the Denagothian Plateau.
BC 1,722-1,711: The Great Horde of King Loark invades Norwold, crossing the Icereach Range at the latitude of the Great Bay and bringing death and destruction upon the Antalian and Jääkansa civilizations.
The northern kingdom of the Jääkansa and its nomad Vaeltajat allies are the first to be hit: the humanoid hordes come from the west and attach over and over again the kingdom, with a violence never seen since the days of the wars against the frost giants; the culture of these humans is hard-pressed by the war and suffers serious damages, but it survives. Many humanoid tribes of Hyborean stock manage to settle in the northern tundras, where they come in fierce competition against the Vaeltajat and the Jääkansa.
The larger part of the Great Horde descend upon central Norwold, hunting for eleven years the Antalian population, killing or enslaving the peoples and utterly ravaging the Antalian villages and settlements. Immortals Thor and Odin, rightly thinking this human civilization to be on the fringe of extinction, bring some of its communities in the Hollow World.
The tribes shrewd enough to have realized the danger flee in the region before the worst has come: the tribes of Vantalian stock seek shelter in the valleys of south-western Norwold (where they’re indirectly protected by the dragons’ presence) or migrate at all from the region – crossing the Icereach Range north of the Denagothian Plateau and journeying toward the Midlands, or going south to seek refuge among their kins in the Northern Reaches (the Vandars tribe is one of these). Other tribes of Antalian stock, hearing rumors regarding the prosperity of the Denas in the Denagothian Plateau, migrate in mass there, seeking salvation from the destruction of their civilization and a new homeland to settle in.
Also the rakasta mostly hide on the mountains when the Great Horde arrives; the humanoid, more interested in plundering than in driving out the vicious rakastas from their unapproachable mountain lairs, don’t bother them up there.
In southern Norwold the giants and the elder trolls, driven out decades ago by the Antalians from their lands, seize the chance of the Great Horde’s arrival to come out of their lairs and attack the humans alongside the humanoids. Many settlements of Nordurland are totally devastated but, thanks to the aid of the legendary heroes Fredar and Fredara, the Antalians of this region manage to survive along the coasts and to drive back a few at a time the larger part of the enemies towars south-west. The invasion project of the Ethengar steppes shown by Akkila Khan to King Loark saves at last those clans from the end of their kinsmen.
BC 1,710-1,700: After the passage of the Great Horde, Norwold and its inhabitants fall in a Dark Age of misery and barbarity; most of the Antalian knowledge has been lost, Antalian and Vantalian clans revert to a barbarous state and to a demi-nomad lifestyle based on hunting and herding.
Also many tribes of humanoids (mostly orcs, goblins, bugbears and trolls), separated in the last twenty years from the Great Horde, stay in this large and cold land, contending to the humans the few resources left and fighting against them for survival. The humanoid tribes acquire many traits of the local cultures, of the Antalian one in particular, and the hordes that settle nearer to the coast manage with time to master the seafaring skills thanks to the knowledges of the native population.
In the north, the Jääkansa kingdom comes out much weakened from these wars against humanoids. Frost giants from Frosthaven seize the chance to descend on it from the north and invade Autuasmaa. Thanks to the aid of some humanoid tribes, they easily manage to impose their domination on all northern Norwold, enslaving the Vaeltajat, the Jääkansa and also those humanoids that haven’t allied with them. The frost giants set a reign of terror and fear, subduing the humans, whose kingdom is practically destroyed.
BC 1,700-1,500: After abut two centuries of ruthless frost giant domination, the Jääkansa and the Vaeltajat rebel against the giant yoke, led by some of their greatest heroes and aided even by some humanoid tribes intolerant of the giants’ domination. With some bloody battles the frost giants are reppelled to the north and return to Frosthaven.
With the danger passed by, the Jääkansa and the Vaeltajat retake their ancestral lands, along the Landsplit river and the arctic tundra; the Jääkansa, whose kingdom is by now a memory of the past, assume a still sedentary lifestyle, settling in the lakeside lands around the Landsplit River and in the neighbouring areas (included some valleys on the eastern slopes of the Icereach Range); they live in villages of farmers, hunters, fishermen and woodsmen, each led by a chief and loosely united by councils of allied chiefs. The Vaeltajat preserve instead their demi-nomad lifestyle and follow the great reindeer and caribou herds, moving around in the tundra and the great plains of northern Norwold. There they still clash with the Hyborean humanoid tribes.
BC 1,700-1,400: Tribes of ogres and kobolds coming from central Brun and left behind by the great hordes of the past decades, come to Norwold, beginning more fightings against their kins and the forsaken human tribes.
BC 1,400-1,100: The ceaseless clashes againts the human tribes and the scarcity of resources force many humanoid hordes to make use of the seafaring tecniques learnt by the Antalians to begin oversea raids; the land chosen for these plunderings is mostly the northern area of the Isle of Dawn. In the following centuries some tribes, seeing there a climate and a terrain much more favorable and rich, change their raids in true migrations which bring on the Isle of Dawn orcs, goblins, bugbears, kobolds, trolls, and ogres.
BC 1,000: The Nithian Empire starts its age of greatest expansion under pharaoh Tokoramses V, driving its armies in the cold north, conquering the peoples of the Northern Reaches and, from the Isle of Dawn, founding bridgeheads on the Norwold coast, in order to reach the Great Bay. It’s in fact a goal of the pharaoh to have contact with elemental beings of the Plane of Fire and he wishes to set a permanent link of his empire with that plane, building a colony near the Arch of Fire area – where recently has been discovered a planar gate leading to the Plane of Fire. The main Nithian colonies are founded on the Walrus Island, at the mouth and on the isles of the Great Bay, on the Alpha peninsula and at the mouth of the White Bear River. Eventually pharaoh Tokoramses V himself visits this latter colony, and from there he goes in pilgrimage to the fantastic Arch of Fire (BC 970).
A branch of the gnoll migration, going north, passes through Nordurland and arrives in Norwold, where it scatters over the whole region, giving birth to other wars against the human and humanoid tribes.
BC 1,000-900: The Nithian Empire deports many halfling slaves in its Norwold colonies; these small humanoids are in fact considered more resistent to the northern climate and most of all easier to crush in the event of an uprising in these distant lands. The majority of these halfling slaves are awarded to the colony at the mouth of the White Bear River.
BC 700-500: The decline of the Nithian Empire gradually dooms its Norwold colonies; the minds of their rulers seduced by dreams of power suggested by the Immortals Thanatos and Ranivorous, they clash in useless wars against the humanoid and human peoples, impoverishing their domains and causing sufferings to the population. Some settlements are destroyed during slave uprisings caused by the exhaustion of the population, other fall in front of the counterattacks of the human and humanoid tribes that they themselves have angered.
At the end of this age, all Nithian colonies in Norwold are disappeared or reduced in misery and also those who hardly manage to survive have lost every link to the mainland, by now ravaged by the civil wars. Within decades, the small Nithian population who settled here is gradually absorbed by the local populations and disappears.
BC 600-500: Many small groups of fair elves of the Shiye clan leave the Kingdom of Shiye-Lawr (in Alphatia) after domestic clashes and the disagreement they’ve nursed against the policy of their king. They cross the sea and scatter among north-central Norwold, settling in the deepest forests; they’re mostly found in the great forest located to the north-west of the White Bear River’s mouth. Soon these elven communities come to be known to other inhabitants of Norwold as the “Foresthomes”.
In the following centuries (BC 500-200), after the enterprises of the powerful elven she-mage Lornasen (that comes back from the Sylvan Realm with a seed of the Tree of Life), among the Norwold elves spreads both the worship of Ilsundal and the growing of the Trees of Life.
BC 490-300: Waves and waves of kobolds invade the underground civilization of the gnomes, located under the Hardanger Mountains in southern Soderfjord. The gnome clans, in front of the slaughtering war begun against them by the kobolds, gradually perish; many gnome clans migrate toward north, abandoning their homeland. Some of them settle in the countries of the near north, where they built some cities (like Torkyn’s Falls in the Wendarian Ranges); other instead go to southern Norwold, where they ally with the local tribes of Gnomish Snoutzer lupins that live in the forests; with time these gnomes’ll be known as the “forest gnomes”.
BC 350: In the Northern Reaches, the kobold invasion of the gnomes’ underground realm and the slaughtering of their race has put in danger the local halfling population (descendants of slaves brought here by the Nithians), which was allied with the gnomes since the times of its freedom from the Nithian yoke. Packed between the fierce gnolls, the aggressive kobolds and the powerful giants, the halflings decide to follow the omens sent to them by the High Heroes: they tell them that in the lost homeland of the Antalians, in the far north, a halfling clan was enduring great sufferings and was threatened with extinction; if they’d have helped it, together they’ll have built a new homeland which would have been forever prosperous.
Led by this prophecy and by their hero Usamigaras, the halfling set for the journey from the Northern Reaches and, braving the dangers of Norwold, they’re guided by the High Heroes to the mouth of the White Bear River. There, they reunite with their kin, who stood here after the fall of the local Nithian colony, and they help them to rebuild their homeland. The County of Leeha is born.
BC 125-33: Prince Alinor, a very powerful wizard, younger son of the King of Haven, being destined not to inherit the father’s throne, decide to build a personal realm in the wilderness lands of Norwold. With the money coming from his properties and with his father’s aid – this way the king hopes to gain a new colony for his kingdom -, he assembles a numerous flock of followers: simple settlers, well-armed mercenaries, bodyguards and mages, adventurers and experts of logistics, building and every branch of knowledge he requires. Alinor trusts mostly in his vast arcane knowledges and in a wonderful rod of victory he possesses to assure the success of his expedition.
Alinor’s armies land on the Alpha peninsula, where Cape Alpha is founded, a harbor where the ships loaded with food, provisions, materials can dock and to use as bridgehead. Within a few years, thanks to Alinor’s powerful magics, his armies open their way between the barbarian tribes of neighbouring areas, conquering large domains along the coasts of the Great Bay, both south-west and north of the Alpha peninsula, and along the course of the modern Sabre River. Alinor names this new kingdom “Alphia” and he have a great port-city built at the neck of the Alpha peninsula, including a large palace of him that overlooks the whole city and from which he hopes to rule for long time; many other settlements are built and many Alphatian nobles migrate in this region to grasp new lands (the southernmost of these aristocrat palaces is found at the spring of the Sabre River).
Alphia’s expansionist and aggressive policy – and its need of slaves to put into practice the building projects Alinor has in mind – bring continuously new enemies in conflict against the realm: the local human tribes, the humanoids, and eventually even the dragons of the Wyrmsteeth Range. Thanks to his powerful magics, Alinor manages to preserve the upper hand, but the dragons attack often in swift and destructive way, and the prince can’t be everywhere at the right time. The mean rivalries which oppose Haven to the Alphatian throne, where the foolish Emperor Kerothar IV dissipates huge amount of moneys in the preparation of his empire’s millennium, hamper the regular and useful sending of imperial funds to Alinor.
The situation grows truly serious around BC 40, when the dragons carry their first attack against Alphia’s capital itself. Alinor decide to close definitely the war against the dragons: after diligent researches in the Alphatian libraries and in the outer plane of Old Alphatia, he begin to create an epic spell which will destroy a whole area of the Wyrmsteeth Range where the majority of the dragons lives. After years of lost clashes against the fierce dragons, he discover the spell he researched for and begins the long ritual to cast it. Unfortunately for him, the dragons someway learn his intentions and carry out the most violent attack against Alphia that was remembered in living memory: Alinor, taken unawares in his palace, can’t complete the spell correctly and the released arcane energies work in a way opposed to what he thought, raising from the earth a harsh mountain range under the soil of the capital. The harbor is buried under the rocks, most of the city sinks under the earth or is overrun and destroyed, while the prince’s palace is covered by the mountainslope and is left buried under there; the mountain range known as “Alinor’s Ridge” is born. Alinor himself is crushed by the debris while trying to catch desperately his rod of victory, symbol of his past successes.
Without the protection of their powerful ruler, the kingdom’s population is helpless in front not only of the dragons, but also of the barbarian tribes and the local humanoids which, hearing the new of the destruction of the capital, seek revenge against those who have driven them out of their lands and enslaved them. Within three decades (BC 33-0) most of the Alphian settlements is destroyed and razed to the ground, or conquered by barbarians and humanoids; also those who survive, in the better case are reduced to tiny villages. To the Alphatian population that couldn’t escape in right time is reserved the same treatement that she reserved for the barbarians: slavery and scattering.
Only a settlement, that of Cape Alpha, manage to survive as a city, and is saved by the dragon’s rage. The city is totally shaken by the earthquakes caused by the failure of Alinor’s spell and most of its fortifications and buildings crumbles, but the raising of the new mountain range nevertheless wards it from barbarian raids. In the years following the falla of Alphia, the city resumes loose contacts with the Alphatian Empire, which however is not interested in the poor Cape Alpha and uses the city only once at a time as border site for the fur trade.
AC 5-14: Following the fastening of good relationships and alliances during the Thyatian Struggle for Freedom (BC 2-0) and thanks to the friendship of many jarls with Thyatian Emperor Zendrolion I, Ostlanders begin together with the Thyatians a series of colonization campaigns aimed to the founding of trade and strategic settlements along the coast of Norwold – usually small towns or strongholds, where in the middle of the Northman majority lives a small but influent political and trading Thyatian enclave. These colonies are branches of this or that Ostlander clan, ruled by sons or relatives of the single warrior-chiefs; thus, after a generation or two, they become utterly indipendent, with an own ruling clan and without any subjection to the clan of their founders.
On some of these fortress-towns the Thyatian Empire preserves a more strict control (usually they’re the more strategic ones), sending there a Thyatian rapresentative. One of these settlements is built by the Thyatians on the site of Cape Alpha – the old Alphatian settlement in full decline is conquered by the Thyatians – and provided with fortifications and a good harbor (AC 12). The Alphatian Emperor Alphas VI protests against this violation of the Treaty of Edairo, but receives from Zendrolion I a mocking answer: the breakers of the treaty are the Alphatians, becouse the settlement of Cape Alpha was already in existance when the treaty was signed (and that, according to Zendrolion I, makes it useless) and in whatever way before the Thyatians’ arrival.
AC 14-16: Unpleasant misunderstangings – perhaps spurred by Alphatian influence – are born between many Ostlander chiefs and Thyatis; the situation degenerates and many jarls even appeal to the Alphatian Empire against the ally of some year before, beginning war actions against the Thyatian Empire. The swift Ostlander ships hit mostly the Norwold coasts, destroying Thyatian holde there (Cape Alpha is destroyed in AC 15); the Alphatian money is behind those raids. Thyatis’ counterattack is swift and thoroughly: the Ostlander fleet is quickly destroyed, the rebel jarls captured and replaced with puppet rulers favorable to Thyatis – in short time Thyatis estabilishes a sort of indirect protectorate over Ostland isles (AC 16). The Thyatian Empire reestabilishes its hold of the settlements founded years before on the Norwold coast, but this control doesn’t extend anymore north of Walrus Island, given the difficulty to protect these bases from Alphatians and local barbarians; Thyatis wishes to have bases there mostly to overlook the entrance of the Western Sea of Dawn and keep the Alphatians out of it.
AC 50-300: At this time, thanks to the demographic recovery, the Nordurish peoples begin a slow expansion toward north; within two centuries, their settlers have reached the Oceansend Bay, trade with Thyatians and Northmen and their clan build farms, keeps and villages in this whole region. At the same time, many halflings coming from the south (they’re the last clans left in the Northern Reaches and in Nordurland) settle in Norwold, living in the human communities or going to increase Leeha’s population.
AC 112: A young Vatski priestess of Marzanna (the Immortal Hel) who have from birth arcane powers, named Akra, is cast out of her tribe after being accused to have charmed the tribe’s chief. During here exile, she stumbles upon the ruins of an Alphian settlement by the times of Alinor; while exploring it, she finds a hoard of ancient arcane tomes belonged to some great wizard of that age – perhaps to Alinor himself. With the aid of her patron Immortal, she perfects and augments her magical powers, becoming very powerful in the mastering of the magics regarding cold energies.
AC 136: After years past gathering followers and studying frost magics, Akra assembles around herself a secret fraternity of witches, all followers of Marzanna and skilled in the use of cold energies. She gets also the aid of an huge white dragon named Quesa. This “Sisterhood of the Ice Witches” begins to expand its influence on many Vatski and Norsenian tribes, and to enlist to its service humanoid, ice creatures, giants and white dragons in order to come to rule the whole Norwold. Akra sets her residence in the Ice Cavern, in the depths of the modern Quesa’s Massif.
AC 164-336: Joining the influence of her Sisterhood to her great magical powers and to the strenght of her armies, Akra imposes her domination to a large part of north-central Norwold and proclaims herself “Witch-Queen of Norwold”. Clans of frost giants and flocks of white dragons subdue to Akra’s will the Viaskoda and Jääkansa tribes, other Norsenian and Vatski tribes fall under the control of her witches and more and more Akra comes to rule most of Norwold. Only the southern Vatski tribes, the eastern Norsenians tribes and the dragon clans of the Wyrmsteeth Range oppose her rule.
Akra uses her powerful magics to transform Norwold in a land of ice to honor her patron Marzanna; snowstorms and blizzards run for months even in areas of central Norwold, while on mountain peaks glaciers are formed which become the shelter of creatures like yetis, frost giants and white dragons. The presence of such hostile force in Norwold poses a strong limit to Thyatian expansion, which is limited to the coasts. With the passing of time, groups of shamans and priests belonging to the tribes who oppose Akra’s rule assemble their force to repel the evil Witch-Queen.
After years of battles at the borders of her domain, a group of three ambitious witches belonging to the entourage of Akra rebel against her and, with the help of priests and warriors coming from the tribes who fight Akra, trap the Witch-Queen and finally kill her; the white dragon Quesa is entrapped in the Ice Cave by a powerful sorcery of the three rebel witches. The domain of Akra crumbles swiftly, the human and humanoid tribes recover their freedom while a counterattack begins against the ice creatures that were followers of Akra. The witches who were part of the Sisterhood are hunted and killed everywere; some of them survive and take the bush, losing contact with theyr fellows.
The three witches that helped the fall of Akra go to live on Mount Crystykk, north of the infamous Ice Cave from where the Witch-Queen ruled. They become a sort of protectors of Akra’s secrets, which stay closed together with Quesa in the Ice Cave, and ward the human tribes of Norwold against the resurgence of similar threats. After some time, the three takes the role of protector of Norwold and become known ad the “Crones of Crystykk”.
The fierce white dragon Quesa is binded to the Ice Cave by the spells of the Crones of Crystykk; with time he manage to force these dweomers so that he can leave for a short time the Ice Cavern to which his soul stay mysteriously linked. In following centuries Quesa builds a small reign of terror around the Ice Cave: the mountain where he now lives becomes known as “Quesa’s Massif” and many Viaskoda tribes of the White Banner are subdued by this fierce being, sending him tributes and sacrifices and serving him in the hope he spares them from his rage.
AC 200: Thyatian influence over Ostlander jarls declines and many of them begin to approach Alphatia to seek her protection against the rival empire. Thanks to these developments the Alphatian influence in the Western Sea of Dawn increases, enough to allow to the Alphatians the building of colonies in Alasiya much close to the ones of the rival (AC 250).
AC 200-500: Some dwarven settlers coming from Rockhome explore the mountains of Norwold and discover that they host rich deposits of minerals and metals. Many of them lead there their families and build after some time their own clans, which settle in various points of the mountain ranges of Norwold, mostly in the central part of the Final Range. Usually these dwarves are in good terms with the civilized human population, while they keep at bay the barbarians.
AC 316-328: Civil war breaks out in the Thyatian Empire (AC 313); while generals and politicians fight among themselves for the control of the throne, Alphatia seize the opportunity to launch an offensive against the rival (AC 316-328). In the course of the long war which follows, Thyatis loses its Norwold colonies, sacked and destroyed by the Alphatians or conquered by local barbarians. At the end of the war the Thyatian presence in southern Norwold has disappeared and the Western Sea of Dawn is finally opened to Alphatian penetration.
AC 450-510: Alphatian Emperor Volospin III begins the first attempt at colonizing Norwold after Alphia’s fall, five centuries ago; his goal is to build a colony that will provide the mainland of raw materials (precious metals, timber) and, if successful, could eventually function in following decades as a base for the conquest of Norwold and as a pincer to crush the Known World from the north. Taking advantage of the relative calm in relationships with Thyatis, the expedition is prepared with care; it’s decided to found an Alphatian bridgehead in the Great Bay, at the mouth of Sabre River. Alphatian planning and the weakness of local clans and tribes favor the success of the enterprise, which in the turn of few years leads to the building of some Alphatian settlements on the south-eastern coasts of the Great Bay and on the Alpha peninsula. The main Alphatian colony is founded at the mouth of the Sabre River and becomes soon a town of good size, provided with magical defenses and starting point for imperial forces going to ensure the Sabre’s valley.
Wishing to augment the fame and power of his dinasty with this conquest, Volospin III have large sums of imperial money transferred in the new Norwold colony; some ancient ruins dating to the age of Alinor are recovered and converted into treasure deposits.
Alter the consolidation of the coastal domains, a vast military campaign is planned, with the goal of expanding the Alphatian control to the Sabre River’s valley. The campaign, entrusted to a skilled general, goes on well, with the conquest of numerous local barbarian outposts and the scattering of hostile tribes. In these clashes the Alphatian estranges the elves of the nearby Foresthomes and most of all their protectors, the Wyrmsteeth dragons, which remember Alinor’s attempt of five centuries ago.
At home the opponents of the imperial dinasty don’t like her strenghtening, mostly when it’s discovered that Volospin III has brought part of the imperial treasury in his Norwold fortresses without the permission of the Great Council – a happening which exposes him to charges of theft against the imperial treasury.
While in Alphatia the scandal rages on and any fund dedicated to the continuation of the Norwold campaign is blocked, the barbarian tribes march in a desperate counterattack against the Alphatian army, lacking provisions and scattered in a large area. The imperial armies, abandoned to themselves becouse of the veto imposed by the Great Council on the campaign’s prosecution, are repelled on the banks of the Sabre River where, in a great battle, the Alphatian army is slaughtered and its general himself curses the river’s course, where he falls with his magical sword in hand (AC 507). The dragons continue the attack, raiding the Alphatian city at the mouth of the Sabre River and forcing the imperial personnel, the Alphatian troops and the inhabitants to escape from the region (AC 509).
Volospin III manages to persuade the Great Council to send the imperial fleet in Norwold to recover the colony befor all funds expended are lost; the great fleet is however intercepted and destroyed by the dragons in the waters of the Great Bay. After this failure, the responsibility of which is charged to the emperor, the Norwold campaign is abandoned and the project to create a new kingdom there swiftly fails. Within half century (AC 510-560) the Alphatian settlements are mostly abandoned, destroyed by the dragons or conquered by the barbarians, so that the Alphatian are even forced to leave there part of the imperial treasury (which, according to the legends, still lays in some abandoned keep of the region).
AC 846-874: One of the last descendants of the Ice Witches of Akra, a Norsenian by the name of Frota, manages to break beyond the spells of the Crones of Crystykk and to discover the secrets leaved by Akra in the Ice Cave. Under the suggestions of the white dragon Quesa, Frota awakens the spirit of Akra and is possessed by her. The Witch-Queen, returned to life, begins to gather around her a great number of ice creatures in Ljallenvals Mountains, in the hope to resume her dream to rule Norwold where she war forced to leave it centuries ago. Under the seeming of Frota, she enlist the aid of a large white dragon named Nievous. Thanks to her powerful magics and to the labour of the local humanoid tribes, she raises a powerful ice castle in the Ljallenvals Mountains, which she names the Ice Tomb.
In the following years she manages to expand her influence, gathering frost giants, yetis and white dragons and subduing the peoples of northern Norwold, the Viaskoda and the Jääkansa. Freezing the Great Bay with her spells, Frota manages to expand her reign of terror also south of the Great Bay, enslaving the Norsenian tribes, the villages and the lonelier domains.
At the end her rule crumbles when the uprising of the peoples she submitted defeats her armies, freeing northern Norwold and forcing the witch to retreat in her Ice Tomb. In the final battle, faced with powerful magics, the spirit of Akra is forced to leave Frota’s body and at last destroyed; her “host” Frota however survives and manage to flee the insurrection of Norwold peoples; from her hiding in the Ice Tomb, she continues to meditate revenge against Norwold and its inhabitant, trying to work out new plans of domination.
AC 895-904: Alphatian imperial prince Tylion is given by his mother, Empress Tylari III (busy in the search for Immortality), the duty to expand Alphatian influence on Norwold. Tylion, instead of starting a costly and risky military campaign, sends his agents and diplomats to meet the local clanheads, winning consent to settle small groups of Alphatian in their communities, helping the more trusted chiefs against the more rebel or ambitious ones, and generally presenting the Alphatian Empire as a great benevolent protector of Norwold from dangers. The success of this policy is enough that to some Alphatian nobles are awarded lands in reward for the help they gave to local clanheads; there they estabilish the first Alphatian dominions of Norwold in this century. They’re in all regards formally indipendent, even if they preserve close informal links with the motherland.
AC 900: The Thyatian Emperor Gabrionius IV begins a new age of expansion; he’s mostly worried by the first signs of Alphatian expansionism toward Norwold, and fears that the Alphatian may manage to dominate both sides of the Strait of Helskir (they already control Helskir itself). The Emperor wishes to strenghten Thyatian presence in south-central Norwold before this happens, first of all working for a reapproach to the Kingdom of Ostland and then alluring its king with promises of conquests in Norwold and on the Isle of Dawn if he’ll help the Thyatians in this enterprise. After that, Gabrionius IV gives to the heroine Aline Sigbertsdatter – who have supported the emperor’s father, Gabrionius III, during the time of civil disorders that have upset the Thyatian Empire in the last years – the duty to found a Thyatian bridgehead in Norwold.
Aline had been given by Gabrionius III the promise of a region where to build her own dominion. With the full support of imperial officiers and armies, and also with that of the Ostlander fleet, Aline chooses as location to build her colony the sheltered bay facing the Walrus and Dogs islands; thanks to the friendship developed during her youth and during her years as adventurer, she manages to peacefully win the support of the local clanheads, and finally she founds the city of Oceansend, which Aline has immediately provided with powerful fortifications and which becomes an important trade site between Thyatis and local peoples.
AC 900-904: The energic policy of Gabrionius IV regarding Norwold warns Alphatia, and a diplomatic meeting is summoned in Newkirk to fix once and for all to whom Norwold – over which both empires assert their right - will belong; these talks, that are recorded in history as the “Trial of Norwold”, eventually become an introduction of ancient documents in support of one or the other argument instead of a true conference aimed at preventing the war, in which accuses of treason, bad faith and trickery hail.
AC 904-912: The Trial of Norwold degenerates in the Bog War between Thyatis and Alphatia; the recently founded Oceansend, under the rule of Aline, soon demonstrates its firmness, repelling an Alphatian attack aimed to conquer it. The war, fought mostly on the northern Isle of Dawn, brings forth the decline of the Confederacy of Dunadale. At the end of the war, Thyatis preserves the north-western Isle of Dawn (Helskir included); the two empires agree to halt further expansionism beyond own areas of influence in Norwold (the Thyatian one from Oceansend to the south, the Alphatian one from Oceansend to the north).
AC 919: After the definitive disappearance of his mother, Tylion IV becomes Emperor of Alphatia. His first interests are direct toward Norwold, where he continues the work of penetration and influence over local clanheads begun during his regency years before, and halted by the burst of the war with Thyatis. Assured of Thyatian goodwill thanks to a series of treaties with his rival, the peaceful Gabrionius V, regarding expansion, spheres of influence and trade, he proceeds with the awarding of a series of dominions in the area of the Great Bay (one of these is awarded to Baron Meredoth, an Alphatian necromancer), answering directly to the Alphatian crown.
However this policy must stand against a strong opposition within the Great Council, becouse many think it’s aimed to form a new base for imperial power; given the restraint imposed over the funds allowed for this project, many dominions recently founded are abandoned, other have a difficult life, other utterly fail (as the one of Meredoth, in AC 921). The settlement of noblemen in Norwold slows until it becomes a sort of exile reserved to the ones who have been charged of some failure or that have fallen out of some powerful man’s favour.
AC 920: After twenty years of wise and cunning rulership and after having been awarded the title of Archduchess, Aline start her journey in search of Immortality, leaving to her grandson the rule of the city founded by her. During these years Oceansend has become an important trade center of the north, and the pivot of Thyatian defenses in the Western Sea of Dawn; the city’s territory has been expanded to include the Walrus and Dogs islands, while new Thyatian settlements or dominions allied with Thyatis or Ostland have been formed along the Norwold coast south of the city.
AC 930: Thanks to the strenghtening of the trade route that from Ghyr goes to the Bay of Kammin, some small Heldanner coastal settlements located near the crossing of this trail with that going from Haldisvall (modern Freiburg) to Oceansend enlarge and develop themselves.
The most exceptional of those is that village wich grows until it becomes the city of Landfall, drawing colonists from the Heldann Freeholds, from Westrourke and even from Thyatian and Alphatian dominions in Norwold. The city soon frees herself from her Heldanner lord, but her chaotic grow favors the arrival of many not-so-desiderable elements (outcasts, smugglers, pirates, and so on), which win her the unpleasant fame the city has still today.
AC 959: A new great war bursts out between Thyatis and Alphatia. While on the Alphatians’ part every remaining interest for Norwold is lost, becouse the war drains every energy of the imperial court, on the Thyatians’ part the autonomous Grand Duchy of Oceansend appeals to its alliances with the neighbouring clanheads to attack the scattered Alphatian dominions, some of whom are in fact conquered or abandoned.
AC 960: During the war between the two rival empires, an Alphatian offensive aimed against Oceansend seizes the islands in front of the city and threatens to assault the city itself. After diplomatic talks with Alphatian commanders, Oceansend declares her indipendence from the Thyatian Empire, this way preventing Alphatian attacks while Thyatis is busy in a difficult war against the rival (and likely wouldn’t be able to reinforce the city). The son of the Thyatian governor – with the support of his father, which steps aside thinking this is the only way to save the city from Alphatia -, named Yarrvik, signs a peace treaty with Alphatia and is crowned king of the city.
AC 962: After the signing of the peace between Thyatis and Alphatia, the Thyatian Emperor Thincol recognizes the indipendence of Oceansend – his old homeland – both as part of the peace treaty and to restore the bases for an eventual future alliance with the city. Still following the peace treaty, Alphatians leave the isles in front of the city of Oceansend.
AC 985: Alphatian Empress Eriadna restarts the expansion in Norwold, halted now by decades; she is firmly convinced of the strategic and economic importance of Norwold and of the need to widen the Alphatian expansion in order to have Thyatis dividing her resources on many fronts. Eriadna continues both the policy of her father, favoring Alphatian penetration with alliances and concessions, and, where this is not possible or useful, using the force of arms to subdue the lords, the clanheads and the local peoples to Alphatian will. On the peninsula where in ancient times was located Cape Alpha, Eriadna commands the construction of the port-city of Alpha, which becomes the center of Alphatian expansion in Norwold and the seat of a governor with the duty of overlooking the operations in this new protectorate.
The Thyatian Emperor Thincol answers to this renewal of Alphatian expansionism suddendly declaring war to Alphatia; the war will las for nearly twenty years among truces and armistices (AC 985-1002), will be waged mostly by provinces and vassals of the two empires, and fought mostly on the Isle of Dawn and in the eastern sea routes (first phase, AC 995-992) and then in Norwold (second phase, AC 1001-1002).
AC 990: At this time the vast majority of the coastal communities from Landfall to Alpha has subdued, at least formally, to Alphatian rulership over the region; only the city of Oceansend stubbornly preserves her indipendence but Alphatians, being in war with Thyatis, can’t afford to besiege the city – also becouse this would cause a reapproach of the city to Thyatis. Meanwhile in Alpha the building of the grand Royal Castle begins.
AC 992: Empress Eriadna, after a relative halt in the war against Thyatis, awards the Protectorate of Norwold to her son Ericall with the title of king; he chooses Alpha as his capital. The Empress hopes that, with the right level of autonomy, Norwold not only could develop and progress, but also provide to its own defense – this way saving the resources of the empire for the war on other fronts. Annexed to the Kingdom of Norwold, the city of Helskir on the Isle of Dawn is granted to Ericall – a great offense for its governor Eruul Zaar, who has not been consulted at all before the decision.
AC 995: King Ericall awards to his half-brother Lernal the rulership of the southern city of Landfall; Lernal, who soon wins the nickname “the Swill”, is an unfit and utterly corrupt ruler, which has the only goal of enriching himself and leaves the effective rulership of the city in the hands of the local Thieves’ Guild.
AC 997: King Yarrvik of Oceansend, repelling every Thyatian proposal for an alliance with the empire to ward off Alphatia, begins instead a series of diplomatic talks with Ericall, regarding his eventual oath of vassallage to the latter (but only if he could preserve the royal title). Thincol, realizing the failure of the diplomatic ways, begins to send in Oceansend every kind of spies.
AC 998: In autumn, King Ericall declares the Land Rush, issuing a decree saying that all adventures who will come to his court in the next Spring Fair could aspire to win a dominion from the king and to try the settlement of the Norwold wilderness; many adventurers coming from every corner of the world (but also spies) come to the court of Alpha in the following months to prove themselves worthy to receive a dominion and to swear obedience to the king. This way Ericall hopes to consolidate the existance of an aristocracy loyal only to him.
AC 999: King Ericall, during the course of the Spring Fair (1st of Thaumont), receives adventurers and noblemen coming from all the Known World and proceeds to the awarding of dominions to those who have proved themselves most valorous and skilled during the tournaments and the tests played during the festival. The chosen ones go to their dominions where they take possession of the existing buildings or build some anew.
During a diplomatic visit to his greater brother Ericall, Alphatian prince Tredorian is captured by a group of Thyatian spies and brought to Thyatis; with him Farian, half-brother of King Yarrvik of Oceansend – who was is Alpha to sign an alliance between the city and the king of Norwold – is also captured. Thincol threatens Yarrvik with the death of his half-brother, and the king is forced to renounce to his project of alliance with Ericall. On the other hand, the Emperor reproves hardly the abduction of Tredorian (becouse this could begin a total war between the two empires) and has the kindnappers executed; instead of sending Treadorian back home, Thincol sends to Sundsvall as counter-hostage her lesser daughter Asteriela (perhaps thinking to be able to use Tredorian as claimant to the Alphatian throne in the future – anyway better of how Eriadna could do with Asteriela).
After the umpteenth occupation by the forces of the two empires (that have contended the city among themselves for years), the governor of Helskir, Eruul Zaar, declares his city indipendent from the Kingdom of Norwold and from both empires.
At the beginning of winter a horrible red mist coming from the east reaches Norwold, killing persons and animals to its passage; Ericall receives an ultimatum from King Norlan of Qeodhar, who demands his abdication. The king of Norwold refuses and gathers his noblemen, assembling a fleet and going directly to attack Qeodhar. In truth all this event has been planned by the Immortal Alphaks, who wants a large-scale war to break out: thanks to the enterprises of some lords of Norwold, the diabolic plan is foiled and the Immortal Vanya returns all the peoples involved in this event back in time to the beginning of this year’s winter. The lords of Norwold persuade Norlan, determined to kindnap the Alphatian princess Mariella, to go back to Qeodhar.
Toward the end of the year, frost giants from Frosthaven begin a major invasion of Norwold, ravaging the Jääkansa lands, clashing against Viaskoda and threatening northern dominions of the Kingdom of Norwold and Leeha.
AC 1000: The frost giant bands, taking advantage of the freezing of the Great Bay this winter, cross it and besiege the capital, Alpha. The giants’ army is repelled by the joined forces of some dominion rulers and the giants retreat north before the winter ends. In Alpha the construction of the grand Royal Castle is completed.
In the capital is celebrated the marriage between King Ericall and Christina Marie Alanira, an Alphatian princess.
I've started a new thread here to post comments, criticism and suggestions regarding the timeline, not to jam this thread with too many OT posts. ;)
In my opinion Zendrolion's timeline makes a really good job in trying to merge the info about the Witch Queens with the rest of the Norwold's known hystorical events. ;)
Basical plot of "Rogues to Riches" novel:
The novel is entirely set in Norwold, and it depicts the travel of two beleagured thieves (Tooles and Rengie) from Landfall to an area in the plains north of the Great Bay. It is set in the summer of AC1010, after the conquest of Landfall but before the removal of King Lernal the Swill. The events of the novel roughly cover a couple of months.
The two escape from the Landfall's dungeon (guarded by half-orcs) and seek shelter in a tavern (the Green Door Inn) owned by a friend of them (Wade). Here, the two rob a scroll from a couple of very idealisitic Heldannic Knights (Noren and Vald, the latter being the senior knight of the couple). The scroll explains that King Lernal will offer a "treasure" to any knight who will accept a difficult quest in Northern Norwold (without specifying the details of the task).
The thieves, attracted by the trasure, manage to stun the knights with a poisoned drink (two glasses of "Milk Mickeyes" added with some sleeping powder) and rob their armors. After an escape from the knights themselves (who woke up to early) and from a group of "Madkap" women (see below) they hurry to Castle Landfall and introduces themselves as the two Heldannic Knights, hoping to receive at least part of the treasure in advance and hoping to sell it in the city.
King Lernal explains that they have to free his young and beautiful daughter Erise - also called the "Hearth of Norwold" for her kindness - that is kept in the Ice Tomb, the castle of the evil witch Akra. The princess was kidnapped five years ago, and recently a group of adventurers managed to enter the Ice Tomb and slay the evil witch. They saw the body of Erise encapsulated in a block of unbreakable ice (as most of the monsters and minions of Akra in the castle). Some divinations showed that it was not possible to free the body in the ice by usingh physical strenght or magic. The only way to breack the block is to touch it with a still alive rose from the garden of Erise (the princess is an exceptional gardener and she loved so much her garden in castle Landfall that the garden itself was named "The heart of the Heart of Norwold").
The king make the two knights swear that they will bring a rose to the Ice Tomb and that they will bring back Erise. Lernal's mage, a man called Faldron, brings them a rose in a glass recipient: the rose is still alive and the glass case is prolonging its life force, even if the flower is still slowly dying. Moreover, the rose is cursed. Together with the swearing, it obliges the two thieves to complete their quest: if they try to turn back or to distract themselves from their task, some events - a road block, a ship sinking, a landslide, etc. - will happen forcing them to proceed to the Ice Cave. Luckily, the curse also helps the thieves to pass through some obstacles, if they are en route to the Ice Cave.
So, the two thieves (pursued by the two Heldannic Knights who explained the truth to King Lernal and now wants revenge) are obliged to accomplish the mission, and they travel to Oceansend, Alpha and to the Ice Tomb. In Oceansend they are reached by Noren and Vald: they lose the armors and the rose and they are imprisoned. Soon the thieves realise that the curse is still in action due to their swearing, and so they have to reach again the rose and finish their task, otherwise they will be struck by bad fortune and possibly they will die. They evade from the dungeon and continue their travel.
They are joined by Mara, the daughter of King Olaf Yarvikkson (and also a skillful ranger) and by Fruz, a young frost giant who was very impressed by Rengie and Tooles when they stubled into the lair of his clan. Just before entering the Ice Cave, they reach the two Heldannik Knights, who agree to forgive the thieves and join the group.
In the castle the group manage to bring the rose to Erise and free her, but they soon discover that the body locked in the ice was that of the witch Akra, who self-entrapped herself and most of her minions when the spell used to kidnap the princess (and to build for herself a staff of immense power made from "the heart of Norwold") ran amock. The princess, however, is still entrapped somewhere else in the castle. The minions of Akra are freed as well and the witch is able to complete the staff by using the rose from Erise's garden.
The group barely manage to escape from the Ice Tomb: the two knights bravely stand behind to cover the escape and they are lost in the castle. The rest of the group ran to Alpha to alert King Ericall that an army of humanoids and frost giants is assembling in the castle and will crush the city within days.
Akra's huge army arrives before Ericall manages to organise a strong defense: morevoer, the witch tells him that - thanks to her new staff - she controls the minds of the people of Landfall and now an army of Landfall's peasants is marching to siege Oceansend.
Everything seems to be lost, but Rengie manages to trick Akra and her personal white dragon Niveous, pushing one against each other. During the fight he manages to get the staff and to break it, causing the sudden icing of the witch, the dragons and her minions. The people of Landfall are freed as well.
Moreover, the two Heldannic knights reach Alpha with the princess Erise (they hided in the castle and freed her in the ice Cave after the departure of Akra and her minions). Noren and Erise are in love and they plan to marry as soon as they will reach Landfall.
Rengis and Tooles are forgiven by King Ericall and they get a great treasure in reward. Rengis plans to use his part of the treasure to become a merchant, for which he feels to be skilled enough.
This is, in short, the plot of the novel.
Here you are some excerpts form the book with interesting info:
LANDFALL:
they rounded the last curve of the winding approach to Castle Landfall. This was a very literal name: the fortress of King Lernal the Swill stood on a rocky pinnacle, surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs that fell to the sea.
The only access to the castle came by way of a sneaking elevated approach, requiring anyone who neared the fortification to weave back and forth in crossbow range for some fifteen minutes before reaching the gates. And some gates they were. Rengie could not remember ever feeling so small. The black, wooden doors, studded with iron bolts, sttod behind two wiked-looking gates, currently raised and threatening to crash down on any unwelcome guests.
The battlements above bristled with a hundred guards, their crossbow loaded and aimed at the paladin pretenders.
"Enter now, noble warriors, and await the king's audience in the royal rose garden" ... The garden beyond those doors was as magnificent as it was famous. In all the squallid lands of King Lernal the Swill, there was but one spot known for its beauty, it ceaseless splendor - the garden of Princess Erise. It was gorgeous. The beds of tulips, the trellised roses, the walls of lilacs, the ivy-covered fountains, the lily-bordered walks - all of it proclaimed a grace and beauty and innocence utterly lost to the castle in five years since the princess's abduction.
Yes, she was gone. The garden's flowers still bloomed under the diligent hand of a dozen master gardeners, the waters still splashed merrily in the fountains, but somehow the splendor of it all was diminished. Without Erise's lovely and solitary hand, the life had gone out of the place.
Not that the princess's fingers held some pristine magic; they were callused and soiled from her ceaseless labors among the poor of Landfall. No. It was said the flowers responded more to Erise's kind heart than her hardened hands, for she had the same effect on people as on flowers. Throughout Norwold, even as far north as Alpha, where King Lernal's depravity was (deservedly) legend, the folk loved Erise.
I heard that King Lernal might be on his last legs, politically, that is... Word is the Heldannic Knights'll be deposing him and setting up a regional governor.
Fair Erise? Princess of Landfall and Heart of Norwold?
One year later... word reached me that some intrepid explorers in Frosthaven, land of giants and dragons, had happened into an ice cave. It turned out to be the subterranean palace of Frota, the Ice Witch. She was in the midst of long preparations for a powerful spell and, recognizing her evil, the adventurers slew her. Only then did they discover my darling Erise magically imprisoned in ice. She was to be the final ingredient in concocting the Ice Witch's horrible spell, and had been kept there since her abduction for that very purpose.
Madkap was among the most powerful and fearful charities in Landfall. It's purpose was simple: to sweep through the alleys once a week and beat the snot out of any drunken knight or paladin they might find. Such warriors provided terrible role models, the moms argued, and being so near to the heart of the Heldannic Territories, Landfall had alleys brimming with them.
The Temple of Thor in Landfall was no great shakes, but neither was the temple of any other Immortal. It had once been a reading room for Odin until his one-eyed priest was caught doing more than reading in the back room. Since then, the building had become the abode of cleric Sven Yakva,a scrawny little fellow (a gnome) whose body did no justice to that of his muscle-bound patron, Thor. Sven had lately migrated north from Soderfjord and was, by all accounts, a bit whacked when he arrived.
OCEANSEND:
they show up at the gates of Oceansend with the intention of presenting themselves as the greatest knights in Norwold. It wasn't after a month, however, but ten grueling days, and the wilds of Norwold hadn't turned out to be a paradise, but a kind of purgatory.
(Oceansend) was a large and gray city, unhappily buried in snow some ten month of the year. Luckily, this was one of the good months. The thickly thatched roofs and half-timbered walls had been decorated with spring garlands in celebration of the short season of warmth. The folk who circulated amidst these buildings seemed pleasant enough, perhaps a bit shorter and fatter than average - a useful compactness in a cold, stay-indoors land such as this. The streets brimmed with merchants and craftsmen, with a few poor and a few scamps - nothing like the thieving city of Landfall hosted.
They silently entered the castle gates and afterward the throne room of King Olaf Yarrvikson. He was a middle aged monarch built like a miner. Unlike drunken Lernal, Olaf was obviously a man in the prime life - muscular physique, blond hair neatly trimmed, a fastidious, gray-tinged mustache and beard, and sparkling blue eyes.
Apparently these jousts had been plagued in the past with spies and intrigues galore, for the guard was doubled that night and the castle locked tight as a drum.
Mara (the daughter of King Olaf Yarvikkson) was the best hunter, warrior, trapper and tracker in all Oceansend
ALPHA:
In ten days (from Oceansend, guided by Mara) they reached the gates of Alpha, northernmost city of Norwold and the gateway to the frozen tundra of Frosthaven.
Though Alpha was a very liberated city with a very liberated king, its dungeon was just like any other.
The king (Ericall) was a statuesque figure with bronze skin, piercing brown eyes, and dark hair that covered his head like a large bowl.
King Ericall keeps at least an ocean galley manned by prisoners from its dungeons. The ship is called the Valesares; a man called Bristle Beard is its captain.
King Ericall's court mage is an elf called Ori, who acts also as the royal writer (what happened to Madiera the Counselor of CM1? She died during WotI?)
The King's librarian is Friar Ran, a Thor's follower (no hairs, with bold glasses, and "he seemed part halfling, part hedgehog": a new subrace of Norwold?)
QUESA AND AKRA:
They are mentioned just once in a tale that Rengie tells to Oceansend's people. The people seem to know very well both charachters, possibly as epical evil beings of Norwold's legends.
I marched to find Quesa, the great white dragon left behind (in the Ice Cave) when the Witch Queen Akra was slain. Mention of the Witch Queen brought a number of hisses from the audience.
THE ICE TOMB:
Farther north (from the northern shore of the sea strait of Alpha), the terrain slowly sloped up toward rounded, wintry mountains that huddled on the horizon. The rogues marched doggedly for these mountains, remembering that the Ice Tomb was said to be nestled amidst high crags.
(The Ice Tomb is found after 3 full days of travelling NE among the plains and the mountains from the coastline, so the tomb should be located somewhere in the mountains just north of the mouth of the Great Bay)
Tooles traversed the wide plain that lay below the camp and achieved the summit of a ridge on the other side. There... Tooles saw it.
Rising clear and glassy, a hundred great towers of ice jutted from the frozen moorlands below. The towers, thrice the height of towers in Landfall or Oceansend or Alpha, shimmered with cold beauty. They were tapered like inverted icicles, and their rippling walls reflected the fierce sun. The moors, frozen though they were, sent great columns of mist that draped the fortress like white veils.
The Ice Tomb turned out to be more a palace than a tomb. To be completely honest, it was more a mountain than a palace.
Only as Tooles and Fruz (a young frost giant) approached did they begin to see the true size of the thing. Portals that, from a distabce, looked like dungeon windows became full sized doorways, then grand entries one could march an elephant through.
Spires that Tooles had thought wide enough for a single stair were in fact wide enough to hold a huge throne room. The curtain wall of ice was no mere 50 feet high, but a sheer 150.
Man, it was big.
As they neared the icy drawbridge, which lay across a steep-sizeded, frozen moat, Tooles got the sense that the Ice Tomb had once been a normal size castle that, after centuries of icy build up, had grown three times too large. Clearly, this was not the case; the walls themselves were tranlucent.
Its halls stretched on in a vague, formless way more like a cave than a building, and countless sets of stairs appeared seemingly at random across the walls.
Tooles and Fruz saw the princess. She was, indeed, beautiful. Not the way Mara was, with strong features, large lipsand boyish cut, but the way a flower is, delicate, gentle, hopeful. As with all things in this castle she was encased in ice, though the sphere that sourrounded her seemed more like crystal. The sphere hovered some 20 feet above the floor in the direct center of the chamber, obviously suspended by some awesome magic.
Black hair haloed the princess's pale features.
Tooles quoted the immortal bard Don Ovan, saying: "That can't be good"
THE ICE WITCH:
Princess Erise (the girl in the ice sphere) was not a princess, but the Ice Witch. Her eyes glowed red and her voice roared with evil, and she said she was the Ice Queen Frota, now freed to descend on your city. She will besiege it with armies of bugbears and ogres and frost giants and trolls and orcs and dragons.
(the true Princess Erise was kept somewhere else in the Ice Tomb)
The soldiers who (at the beginning of the novel) slew the Ice Witch said she was an old hag... the soldiers did not kill the Ice Witch, but one of her hag minions. It was not Erise trapped in the ice, but the Ice Witch.
Ogres and goblins and yeti and orcs and trolls and gnolls... don't like water. Even the white dragons that floated in angry clouds above the armada looked unnerved to be over so much liquid.
She's treading Ericall underfoot. Next, it will be Yarrvikson, and then Lernal himself. And she'll be queen of all Norwold, as she was to be, as she is to be.
You are outnumbered two to one, for I have emptied my Ice Palace for this conquest. And I know this: an army of equal sizew marches this day from Landfall, to the south, to take Oceansend and crush any final resistance here. For, by this wand, made from the heart of the heart of Landfall, I command absolute sway from the folk of that region - living and dead.
Well, that's all. Hope it helps ;)
they rounded the last curve of the winding approach to Castle Landfall. This was a very literal name: the fortress of King Lernal the Swill stood on a rocky pinnacle, surrounded on three sides by sheer cliffs that fell to the sea.
Sounds like a perfect fit for the Palace of Prince Joffa, and it makes sense from the Heldannic position. If they are going to conquer Landfall, they aren't going to allow the only complete, defensible structure of the city to remain in the hands of a gangster. Lernal could be held here rather than the simple jail across from the Governor's Mansion. Some of the garden's should be relocated after its take over.
Strange that the novel referred to Lernal as "King."
The Madkap Women could easily spring up before the invasion. I can just see an army of angry women in petticoats armed with umbrellas whacking the arms of off-duty Stevedores. Probably shouldn't appear until the Friends in Mead prove they can stand up to La Familia.
Erise's age doesn't quite square with what I wrote in Lernal's description. At the start of 1000 AC, she should be 6-20 months old. Thus 6 1/2 when kidnapped, and 12 when rescued. Not quite marriagible age (and that assumes aging during captivity). Of course an HK thinking of marriage is a big no-no in the Order, so numerous integration problems on this score.
If you want, Erise could be born 1 year after Lernal took over. That would add four years to her age, and 16 for the period would be suitable for courtship and marriage. That also means she's getting old enough to start running with the Filchers - who are den-mothered by her aunt Molly.
Oceansend) was a large and gray city, unhappily buried in snow some ten month of the year.
Seems excessive. Given what he also wrote about Alpha and Frosthaven, I think the author just over adjusted for the northern latitudes.
Did the novel give any indication as to Mara's age?
On the matter of Akra and Frota, you wrote the synopsis to seem as if Akra was the one kidnapping Erise, etc, but then you say Akra and Quesa are only mentioned once in the telling of a story. I know Zendrolion's timeline says Akra's spirit took over Frota, but was this actually in the story? I'm a bit confused here.
also, are the Ice Cavern and the Ice Tomb supposed to be the same place in the novel? (I know the map you guys did have them opposite ends of the Bay).
On Zendrolion's timeline, he has the Crones beginning as Ice Witches that ultimately betray Akra. Was this entirely supposition or was there some indication of this in the novel?
Finally, whereabouts is the clanhold of the the frost giants to which Fruz belongs? In the Peaks of Snorri?
Thanks again for all your help,
-OldDawg
Seems excessive. Given what he also wrote about Alpha and Frosthaven, I think the author just over adjusted for the northern latitudes.
As it is fiction, it could easily be read as exaggerations. Buried in snow half the year, while also possible to see snow during the summer months might be more acceptable, also when thinking about the locations usefulness for gaming purposes. Furthermore, that would have much more severe consequences for the climate further north than is even hinted at in the novel.
The fact that the city is on the coast will also suggest a milder climate than what may be found inland at the same latitude.
Let me add my thanks to Zendrolion and LoZompatore for their contributions to the thread. A very interesting read!
Havard
Did the novel give any indication as to Mara's age?
IIRC she should be at least 18-20 years old, but I'm not quite sure if there is an explicit info in the book. She should be older than Erise, anyway. Remembre that she is an accomplished ranger, trapper and warrior so she should not be very young.
On the matter of Akra and Frota, you wrote the synopsis to seem as if Akra was the one kidnapping Erise, etc, but then you say Akra and Quesa are only mentioned once in the telling of a story. I know Zendrolion's timeline says Akra's spirit took over Frota, but was this actually in the story? I'm a bit confused here.
Ooops! There is a typo in my synopsis! The kidnapper of Erise was FROTA, not Akra. The hypotesis in Zendrolion's timeline about Akra's spirit taking over Frota is just a supposition, it is never mentioned in the story.
(TO STANLES: would you mind to modify the file you uploaded in the Vaults as well? Just edit this sentence of the synopsis: "King Lernal explains that they have to free his young and beautiful daughter Erise - also called the "Hearth of Norwold" for her kindness - that is kept in the Ice Tomb, the castle of the evil witch Akra" by substituting the word "Akra" with the word "Frota". Thanks ;) )
Notice, also, that the book speaks about Frota in this way:
She's treading Ericall underfoot. Next, it will be Yarrvikson, and then Lernal himself. And she'll be queen of all Norwold, as she was to be, as she is to be.
Which suggests that Frota ruled over Norwold sometime in the past.
also, are the Ice Cavern and the Ice Tomb supposed to be the same place in the novel? (I know the map you guys did have them opposite ends of the Bay).
No, they are two separate places.
In the story that Rengie tells to the Oceansend's people he introduces himself as the trickster of the legendary dragon Quesa, that is supposedly still alive (he claims he stole a tooth from the dragon's mouth). The Ice Cave is inhabited only by the dragon and Quesa himself is not able to go outside (possibly due to some curse or other magical barrier, but this is never specified in the novel). Notice that Rengie is just telling a story, so the details about the dragon and the Ice Cave are fictional (but the legend about a dragon called Quesa that is trapped in an Ice Cave is not a fiction because the people of Oceansend already knew about it).
The Ice Tomb, instead, is the home of Frota, of her army and of her personal white dragon, Niveous.
On Zendrolion's timeline, he has the Crones beginning as Ice Witches that ultimately betray Akra. Was this entirely supposition or was there some indication of this in the novel?
It is a supposition. There is no mention in the novel. Considering the hints about a previous "ice witches" domination of Norwold that appear in the novel, it seemed suitable to connect the Crones to the Ice Witches.
Finally, whereabouts is the clanhold of the the frost giants to which Fruz belongs? In the Peaks of Snorri?
No, they are placed in a cave under a patch of snow that is carved in a low hill in the plains north of the Great Bay. The clan itself is very small, barely an extended family, so you may easily assume that this is a temporary lair, or just an average "random encounter" group of frost giants.
(TO STANLES: would you mind to modify the file you uploaded in the Vaults as well? Just edit this sentence of the synopsis: "King Lernal explains that they have to free his young and beautiful daughter Erise - also called the "Hearth of Norwold" for her kindness - that is kept in the Ice Tomb, the castle of the evil witch Akra" by substituting the word "Akra" with the word "Frota". Thanks ;) )
done