History - Building a Home

The same system of measuring time is used by the entire known world as in the real world there are 60 seconds in a minute, 60 minutes in an hour and 24 hours in a day. However, beyond that the time system is a little different; there are 12 months each of 30 days plus 5 festival days which are not considered to be part of months. These days are New Year’s Day (called freedom day) and each of the four equinoxes, once every four years there is an additional holiday after freedom day called the gods day. Different countries may also have their own religious or secular holiday’s scatter throughout the year. Each month contains three weeks each of 10 days; the days are numbered i.e. First day, Second day, etc. Fourth day and Tenth day are traditionally holidays with Ninth day often a half day holiday. By the system of reckoning the current time is 5479 AF (after freedom) although some refer to it as Empire year 622 or 486 PE (Post Empire).

There are four major time periods in the history of the known world, the time of legends, ancient history, the time of empire and modern history.

The time of legends

This is the mythic period before the rise of the gods and is often referred to as the pre freedom times. Humanity is originally described as living in a paradise on another world however they were kidnaped by demons and brought to this world as slaves. There they toiled for an unknown period of time before they finally rebelled. The leaders of this revolution, who later became the gods, learned that the demons kept their power, their divinity, locked away at the heart of their citadel and using guile the gods captured this power to become immortal beings. They then used their new powers to strike down the demons and free the humans, thus beginning the after freedom period.

Ancient history

Although the longest period of time coving almost five thousand years very little is known about this time and what little is known is held be a rare few scholars and archaeologists. Human civilisation rose and fell several times during this period passing from scattered tribes, to city states, to kingdoms to empires and back again. At some times humanity was relegated to stone weapons at other their skill with technology and magic may even have been higher than today.

Time of empire

The start of current recorded history begins in 4857 AF with the formation of the Methian Empire under the banner of the Empress Mawd the first. This represented the unification of almost all of the known world and a renascence in both Science and Magic. The organisation of the empire allowed wide spread magic to be used to control the climate providing food for all and large scale public works to provide a comprehensive road system and many well-constructed cities. A series of forts were built in the south and east to prevent incursions by the Orcs and Goblins. Although generally considered a golden age the empire allowed little freedom to its outlying provinces and practiced slavery on a massive scale. Eventually after 134 years the empire fell, no one reason brought the empire to its knee’s but was weakened by a number of slave rebellions allowing the border provinces to break away and finally a number of succession crisis lead to the empire fragmenting further. Although the empire carried on in name until 5401 AF when the capital became the kingdom of Royal Meath it is generally considered that the empire ceased to exist with the death of Empress Dory the 2nd and last in 4992 AF.

Modern History

The latest period in the world’s history started with the fall of the Meathian Empire almost 500 years ago. The various scattered provinces spent most of this time warning against each other with the number of kingdoms remaining changing on almost a yearly basis until just over a year ago it stabilised to the current 9 which continued various border disputes but remained more or less intact. The two most recent events of global importance were the Tombian Civil war and the orc wars.

Tombia has been the time of the empire a very religious and suspicious nation which has claimed that mages and Sorcerers have been behind all of humanities woes for their long history. To this end the majority of those capably of using magic in that kingdom are killed by lynch mobs and taken into custody by the organisation called the inquisition for unknown purposes. In late summer 4538 AF several of Tombia’s northern provinces declared independence, armies were organised to deal with the rebellion but bad weather and sabotage prevented a significant response until the spring of 4539. The Tombian generals found that the rebels has spent their time digging in and even worse had significant magical resources and were supported by many powerful magic users. The original forces were thrown back with serious casualties. Reinforcements arrived later in the year and managed to push the rebels back slightly before the weather prevented further attacks. The rebels attempted a counter attack during the winter but the loyalist forces were prepared and most were stopped. By spring 4540 hostilities restarted and it looked like the rebels would eventually be crushed although at a high cost, however, the rebels turned to diplomacy. Representatives from the new state of North Tombia met with various leaders of the other kingdoms and bit their magic power in exchange for military aid. As their campaign restarted the South Tombian forces found Frizian forces pushing towards them from the east and Kathamian’s raiding their southern provinces. Unable to fight on three fronts the south Tombian forces were forced to withdraw and North Tombia was formed. Since then there have been frequent raiding across the border and several near wars. Most recently a major south Tombian push was prevented when the forces were needed in the Orc wars.

Since before the age of the empire there have been periodic invasions of Orcs from beyond the barrier hills to the south. They occurred approximately every 20 years with variable intensity. The Meathian empire built a chain of forts along the hills to hold back these invasions and the people of the kingdom later known as Southron maintained these and held back the Orcs again. After the invasion of 5413 AF a great army was sent across the hills to take the fight to them, they were never heard of again. No invasion came in 5433 AF or even by 5453 AF and the very existence of the ORCs began to drift into myth and the people of Southron turned from war to culture. It is unknown when the Orcs returned but by 5474 contact had been lost with many of the forts and king Galen of Southron led a force south to investigate, they were slaughtered almost to a man. Within a few months the capital of the kingdom was overrun and the newly crowned king Rupert and the whole of his family were killed leading the defenders. By the end of the year the whole country was overrun. During 5475 orc forces moved into Galea, passed through Ironforge and burned the south of Somervale. These kingdoms had more warning than Southron due to the refugees that had been flocking into them for the last year, most of ironforge’s underground cities locked themselves up tight and although often besieged suffered few losses but took little action in the war apart from proving weapons to the other kingdoms. Sumervale managed to carry out an effective guerrilla war against its attackers and avoided a costly direct confrontation. Galea took the brunt of the attack and its capital was besieged for over a month before reinforcements lead by Duke Valen, king Gregor’s brother broke the siege. Meanwhile smaller groups of orcs bypassed the defenders and pillaged through Katham and Kimbala. Famously on the 20th day of November in 5475 Royal Meath itself was raided and princess violet along with a dozen men from her bodyguard were slain by the Orc raiding party. Furous king Julian of Meath met with delegations from each of the surviving kingdoms to create a council of kings to organise a counter attack against the orcs. However, it was not till mid 5476 that a combined army was organised, meanwhile a second larger and more organised wave of orcs moved in from the south smashing though Galean resistance and one again besieging the capital. The first test of the new alliance came on the 10th August 5476 when a force containing Kathamian, Meathian, Tombian and Frizian forces engaged an orc detachment moving towards Katham’s capital. The allies were hampered by poor communication between their constituent nations but eventually managed to drive off the enemies after taking heavy casualties. The situation was repeated several times up until the end of 5476 with the alliance driving the orcs back to the south of Katham and Kimbala by taking heavy losses doing it. During the winter alliance leaders met several times to better organise their forces and their attacks in 5477 were much more successful with the orc forces being driven back through Galea and into Southron. The second siege of Galea was broken in one of the largest battles of the war on the 2nd October 5477 which involved troops from all of the alliance nations. Much of the orc strength seemed to ebb away over the winter and when the campaign restarted in spring 5478 the alliance armies steamrollered through Southron and back to the barrio hills, the last major battle usually marked as the end of the war was the battle of trappers field on the 10th June 5478 although mopping up continued for several months. By the end of the year the alliance forces had returned to their respective countries. The war had several major consequences, Southron was left devastated with over half of its population slain and most of the rest homeless, Galea although mostly still intact had taken major damage and was severely weakened. The armies of all of the nations had been forced to fight side by side as one which has weakened national differences, likewise the council of kings was formed to allow communication between different nations and king Julian named as high king, although many nations are now questioning the necessity of this now the organisation still stands.