Trolls of the Hraathreach
by OneEyedZealShadow elves are far from the only nation found within Mystara’s Deepearth. Ancient tunnels and caverns lie far below the mountains of Vestland and Rockhome, home to breeds of strange fungi, exotic and monstrous insects, and veins of gemstone that have never seen the sun. These caves are the Hraathreach, ruled by a breed of troll that is smaller and more clever than their surface kin, who fled the sunlight thousands of years ago and have no desire to go back.
The legendary progenitor of the Hraathkhild nation was Hraakth (sometimes called Hraathk, Hra’akth, or Hraath), who was born an ordinary troll in what would one day be the mountains of southern Vestland. Though not as large or fierce as most of their kindred, Hraakth had a knack for survival and a penchant for trying strange and peculiar things, which resulted in a fateful encounter that jammed a faceted hunk of quartz into their brain. Bizarrely enough, this accident managed to gradually increase Hraakth’s intelligence, memory, perceptiveness and ability to plan and consider consequences.
As the most (some might say ‘only’) intelligent troll in their tribe, Hraakth soon rose to a position of authority in fact if not in name. Eventually, desperate for competent subordinates, they began attempting to recreate their enlightenment in other trolls of their tribe. Not all their trials were successful, but many were, and Hraakth might have found themselves at the center of a trollish empire on the surface, had it not been for certain newly-intelligent trolls steadfastly and violently rejecting the circumstances of their newfound uplift. Rather than fight a civil war, Hraakth and their like-minded compatriots fled into the depths of the earth.
The new homeland that Hraakth and their fellow trolls found for themselves in the Deepearth was mysterious and strange, perilous in many ways, but also offered its own opportunities. Gradually, through strength, cunning, resilience and raw stubborn persistence, the Hraathkhild adapted themselves to their environment and shaped it to their needs. Nearly two thousand years later, the Hraathkhild are undisputed masters of their small corner of Mystara, and for possibly the first time ever hungry for something more.
948 BC: Hraakth the Progenitor is exposed to quartz and undergoes accidental uplift in the mountains of Vestland.
940-920 BC: Hraakth, now in charge of their tribe, begins implanting quartz in the brains of other trolls.
920-915 BC: Dissenters violently object to Hraakth’s experiments. Hraakth and their supporters flee into the Deepearth.
912 BC: Founders’ Cavern discovered and settled.
797 BC: An elderly and infirm Hraakth is deposed and consumed by their grandspawn Zvaarkz, who promptly names themself the Second Hra’ath.
503 BC: Khiirhz, Seventh Hra’ath, proposes a return to the surface. They are promptly deposed and consumed by the Eighth Hra’ath.
464 BC: The Grand Cavern settled and proclaimed as the new capital of the Hraathreach.
388 BC: First contact with the northern Deep Dragons.
387-373 BC: First war with the northern Deep Dragons.
372 BC: Hzaartkh, Tenth Hra’ath, deposed and consumed in order to allow the Eleventh Hra’ath to sue for peace.
291 BC: First burrowworms tamed and bred.
0 AC: The first Thyatian Emperor is crowned. The Hraathkhild trolls neither notice nor care.
143 AC: Aakzhiitk, Eighteenth Hra’ath, orders the summary execution and consumption of a faction advocating for theft of shadow elf soul crystals. The shadow elf nation remains largely unaware of their neighbors to the east as a consequence.
456 AC: Khraatzh, Twenty-Third Hra’ath, accepts an embassy from the archmage Barimoor. A small but lucrative trade in cut gemstones, metalcrafts and burrowworm silk in exchange for magical trinkets and surfaceborn slaves begins.
569 AC: First cavern seeds devised and tested.
603-636 AC: Second war with the northern Deep Dragons. The Hraathreach is ultimately extended into formerly contested territory beneath what will one day be the southern Heldannic Territories.
638 AC: Rkiiztrk, Twenty-Sixth Hra’ath, is deemed too elderly and infirm to effectively rule, and is accordingly deposed and consumed.
773 AC: Attempted slave rebellion suppressed. Shadebloom infection becomes mandatory for all slaves of consequence.
898-902 AC: Third war with the northern Deep Dragons. The Hraathkhild trolls withdraw from contested territory, but not before seizing and looting several large dragons’ hoards.
994 AC: Hktaazht, Thirty-Third Hra’ath, approves the theft and subsequent study of soul crystals from the Shadow Elf territories under conditions of absolute secrecy.
1000 AC: The present day. All D&D game gazetteers are set in this period.