Glorious Dawn: History circa 2000 DA

[00dlez]

This is the second in a series of covering the history of my setting from creation through the present day - sometime around 4500 CA, or Current Age. This post covers the earliest recorded history known to those in the present day and is the state of Primaterra circa 2000 DA, or Dark Age/Age of Darkness - the equivalent of -2000 CA.

The Creation/Cosmology/Mythology/Pre-Recorded History post is here as an fyi (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?481988-Glorious-Dawn-Cosmology-amp-Mythology)


As with all of my setting posts, this is very much a WIP and any/all criticisms, questions, comments, or suggestions ARE VERY WELCOME!

Map of Primaterra, Circa 2000 DA
http://i.imgur.com/acujpJ5.jpg
Dark Purple (southeast) - Realm of Istronen, Frost Giants, King Tordstemm
Yellow - The Firesands, Goblins/Kobald tribes under hereditary (and constantly changing) Kings
Red - Kingdom of Koot Atta, Duergar, Necromancer King Alnatkad
Pink - Isles of Wheynua, Twin Black Dragons Sundruth and Rul'Ihgntma
Light Purple (west) - Nesku Tribelands, Gnoll Slavers, Demon Prince Ark'Nal
Brown - Tliish Empire - Yuan-Ti and their Marilith Patroness, Kaz'Tzila
Orange - Obsidian Keep, Uozuemon the Demon King


http://i171.photobucket.com/albums/u296/Kazetan/FrostLichKing.jpg
In 2046 DA, the Frost Giant King Tordstemm allied several clans under his banner to fully subjugate often warring groups of Orcs, Duergar, and Svirfneblin, thereby stabilizing the rich mining production of the area. Using dwarven and human slaves brought from the western jungles, a series of mining camps that produced several precious metals including copper and silver as well as valuable diamond mines. Istronen became the seat of power and a wealthy trade center.


http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/25996/114782_CN_GL.jpg
Upstart dynasty of hereditary kings uniting nomadic tribes of desert goblins and kobalds. Founded in 2139 DA, when larger population centers are established in the interior and at least one western port city - but already in decline in 2000 DA. Slave labor from the Western Gnoll Tribes has propped up the larger population needed to produce food and materials needed for military rule.


https://sites.google.com/site/armoredpossum/_/rsrc/1302029654507/dmd-viii/donnies-xeph-campaign/baddwarf.jpg
Necromancer King Alnatkad was obsessed with death and the power of souls. Subjects consume captured enemies as primary meat source. Assumed power in 2217 DA and expanded slowly as his cult following gained regional power and strength. Though they did not like sailing much at all, their location necessitated it for raids on nearby lands for more victims. In 2021 DA, they began work on a “mainland” fortress city along the northern coast.


http://wallpapercave.com/wp/YHfQCdv.jpg
Though dragons are rarely so prominent on the stage of empires and kingdoms, not so was the case with Sundruth – Champion of the Black and Rul’Ihgntma – Queen of Cruel Darkness (brother and sister respectively). The twins took the opportunity and relative isolation of their archipelago to turn their worshiping cults into a true realm of their own. With the added power of the mortals in their domain, they were able to attain wealth and powerful artifacts from the world around without need to risk their own lives – with a few notable exceptions. As the sole dictators and patrons of their realm, it is unclear when exactly it’s founding occurred, but the earliest records of a unified banner of the Dark Twins attacking lands outside of the archipelago have been found as early as 2216 DA.


http://cdn.obsidianportal.com/assets/39232/Gnoll_Sacrifice.png
Though the capture and sale of slaves by the jungle gnoll tribes, it wasn’t until the half-Gnoll, Half-Demon Ark’Nal (aka The Demon Prince of the West) rose to power in 2289. His demon heritage gave him a very long lifespan and he was able to unify the tribes into quite a powerful entity. They made their home in the jungles, but the more open land across the continent made it ripe scavenging grounds to capture slaves and sell/transport out of their capital port city. Their principal buyers were the Goblins of the Fire Sands as well as the Frost Giant King Tordstemm, both needing the labor to prop up their enterprises.



http://img03.deviantart.net/9e97/i/2011/095/2/b/serpentfolk_priest_of_ydersius_by_gimaldinov-d3dafrn.png
Though Yuan-Ti populations had been pervasive on the southern continent for some time and generally around the world during the Age of Darkness, but around 2300 DA a new patroness Marilith called Kaz’Tzila resurrected the original Yuan-Ti religious cult and resumed breeding high blooded Yuan-Ti. Of her offspring, the finest female specimens were chosen and served as the Empresses over the growing Empire. With the new infusion of Yuan-Ti blood their numbers and military prowess grew exponentially and a fast, violent military campaign concluded in 2158 DA, consolidating their holdings on the continent. The Empire, of course, was based around the succession of female Yuan-Ti who often served a dual role as high priest of the Yuan-Ti religious order.


https://s-media-cache-ak0.pinimg.com/736x/bb/8d/b0/bb8db076b25fc2b748a5263367ddcced.jpg
Uozuemon the Demon King began construction of the Obsidian Keep in 2316 AD and his rule in Primaterra was one of, if not the, most influential in the waning millennia of the Age of Darkness. While very powerful and ambitious, he was also quite patient and was willing to wait to see his conquest of the material plane come to fruition. The Celestial gods were weak, and indeed, he predicted the weakness in the Fallen gods as well. Without wanting to raise the ire of those beings more powerful then he, Uozuemon cleared a stark, volcanic island and made it his own. With material and extra planer labor, he constructed a mighty fortress city, known as the Obsidian Keep. Attracting mortal disenfranchised Horde races to it, giving him the power and wealth needed to begin creating a deadly demon army to tear down the rest of Primaterra.

[avr]

Is that map a small regional map (UK size, or a medium size US state), a large one (Continentish), or something like a mercator projection of the world?

Under the Duergar, "Subjects consume captured enemies as primary meat source." kind of suggests that they're primarily herbivores. You just won't capture enough people. Unless their enemies are literally cattle.

It's an interesting selection of peoples for the first civilisations, certainly. Gnolls as an ancient power is a twist!

[00dlez]

Is that map a small regional map (UK size, or a medium size US state), a large one (Continentish), or something like a mercator projection of the world?

Under the Duergar, "Subjects consume captured enemies as primary meat source." kind of suggests that they're primarily herbivores. You just won't capture enough people. Unless their enemies are literally cattle.

It's an interesting selection of peoples for the first civilisations, certainly. Gnolls as an ancient power is a twist!

Thanks for the reply - some good points

Re: world size/map
It's a Mercator projection of a planet slightly larger than earth. For reference, the "c" peninsula is roughly the size of Western Europe + Britain.

Re: duergar flesh eaters
True, perhaps it was a little dramatically over stated... But it isn't far off. Between fish, livestock (captured and raised), hunting, and their captives... Interesting thought that they might indeed keep the faster growing captives (pre-teens and teens) as captive livestock to fatten up a bit. Feed them all the undesireable food like broccoli instead!

Re: first civilizations
You may or may not have caught the mythology/creation post for the setting I linked in the OP, but these are far from the first civilizations. In fact, some 30,000 years of civilization has already gone by, but so much has been lost from the collective record that this is as far back as the known history goes... For now at least... And by the by, gnolls are by far the coolest race ever... Friggin hyena men! Stay tuned to see what happens to our little demon prince and his slaving crew!

[avr]

Yes, I posted on your previous thread. I misspoke; first recorded civilisations.

As a world map it's got a lot higher land percentage than Earth. About 50%, twice Earth's? You'd expect it to be a lot drier and have much more variable climate; El Nino's from Hell.

If the frost giants are near or on the Antarctic circle then rectangular projections are distorting a spherical world severely in both angles and distances by that point. Which it might be simpler to ignore I admit.

It's hard to read for sure, but the Firesands may be too close to the equator to be deserts or even dry at all. The Sahara starts well above the equator by comparison.

The trouble with humans (and even more so most other D&D races) as livestock is that they breed slowly and put on weight really slowly. A year or two gets you a full size specimen of most herd animals. Not humans, unless weird magic is involved.

If hyena men are anything like hyenas, hyena women are the naturally dominant gender. Just a thought.

[00dlez]

The input is much appreciated


As a world map it's got a lot higher land percentage than Earth. About 50%, twice Earth's? You'd expect it to be a lot drier and have much more variable climate; El Nino's from Hell.

Yeah, there is a lot more landmass... mostly because wide open ocean is boring to me. I realized doing it that it would play hell with weather/climate... but this is also a world of fantasy and magic... As I don't play with any meteorologists I don't expect it to come up, but it's good to know - feel free to enlighten me (as your following comments did) as to "where I got it wrong" and I'll see if there's anything I can do to get it closer without jacking up the important bits of the setting.

I do have plans to name the sea east of the Firesands "The Abyssal Sea" named for its vast emptiness and size... didn't come across that way in the map - I might bump out the edges to expand the gap... Might not... thoughts?



If the frost giants are near or on the Antarctic circle then rectangular projections are distorting a spherical world severely in both angles and distances by that point. Which it might be simpler to ignore I admit.
Aye - the map presented is mostly a place holder and I plan to make more accurate local maps (of the various kingdoms, continent type scale). I'm using it as reference to guide my thinking through setting generation then I plan to go back and make final drafts. Indeed, with the general lack of world knowledge, the players having access to a quality world map are slim.



It's hard to read for sure, but the Firesands may be too close to the equator to be deserts or even dry at all. The Sahara starts well above the equator by comparison.
Ask and ye shall receive - I put a (roughly) to scale Africa on top of the world map and included an equator... Maybe it's not to far off? I'm not opposed to making the southern portion a bit wetter, maybe some coastal jungle and grasslands towards the south, but I had originally wanted the whole portion to be near-Saharan. With the "real world" context, is it close enough or would you want to see something more terrain wise there?
http://i.imgur.com/DX51eMA.jpg


If hyena men are anything like hyenas, hyena women are the naturally dominant gender. Just a thought.
I was aware of that, but had slipped my mind it until you brought it up (which is why I want folks input, after all). Went to look up a little more on Gnoll society (link below) and indeed, females are known the be the matrons of tribes, but it also mentions that the most powerful Gnoll is given deference of leadership... I especially see that being the case here with the Demon Prince Ark'Nal. However, it's good you brought this up - will certainly play a part in future Gnoll plottings I may have.
http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=web&cd=1&cad=rja&uact=8&ved=0ahUKEwjE34mRlNzLAhXixIMKHT6mDzMQFggcMAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.wizards.com%2Ffiles%2F367_pla ying_gnolls.pdf&usg=AFQjCNEydqbQ4DYTavo7hhuTCkjjxsDdTQ&sig2=nO5yy3AFHACEhdZB91oBZw

[avr]

I was thinking of the top/bottom of the map as being about the arctic/antarctic circles rather than the poles, so yeah, I was wrong, large parts of the firesands can be desert or semi-desert. Misread the map.

Polar continents hold glaciers well. Compare Antarctica to the Arctic. You don't need to run with that, apparently the right conditions like those a little after Pangaea's breakup counter the effect, just mentioning it. Also the frost giants are likely to hold more of their coast than shown, as a consequence of those projection problems making their coast closer to home than shown. Assuming they need to eat then fishing (sealing, whaling) is going to be important to them.

I'm in NZ. World maps with that much land look absurd to me - ours tend to be centered on the Pacific Ocean. Maybe less of an issue to someone with a different background.

[00dlez]

With the wealth of the Frost Giants - gems, precious stones, metals - I had more envisioned them trading/importing most of their food... I might give them more of the polar coast, though, there certainly isn't any greater plan for it other than fishing/whaling/sealing villages anyway.

As for the amount of land - I agree, it is a bit much.... Original drafts had even more and I felt compelled to draw it back. As I mentioned in a previous post - the "final draft" might extend the ocean in the far east/west to be more vast.

[avr]

The nearest large civ (the Tilish) is thousands of miles from the frost giants. At 50 miles a day that means months each way; faster sailing ships are possible, but this is the dawn of recorded history? That's a long way to haul the majority of a civilisation's food.

Closer sources can provide food of course, but to provide the majority of the frost giants' food they'd need to be much more numerous. More numerous + plenty of metal from trade + a food surplus when the frost giants run a deficit + close by makes these closer people a serious danger to the giants.

[00dlez]

http://forums.crackberry.com/attachments/news-rumors-f40/179809d1373210666t-apple-going-down-billions-tax-fraud-thread-necromancy.png

Back at it!

To respond to avr above after what I assure you was months of critical thinking (har har):

So maybe I wasn't clear about what the world map is displaying - the world is well populated, even outside of the located civilizations on my map. The Civ's I've named are the iconic, world impacting, world powers. Amongst and between them are a great many tribes, city states, and even lesser civilizations that scholars are simply quick to forget when regaling their novice students on the history of the ancient world - it's a very broad brush.

As an example - check out this map:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/a/a0/World_500_BCE.png

Say you were taking about 2 minutes to describe the state of the 500 BC world - there's a lot of these civs you'd quickly scratch off as unimportant, but at the same time a scholar could go into a whole lecture series on even the most minor on the map.

All that said - yes - their major trading partners are a fair distance away, but there are plenty of intermediary stops and smaller trading partners much closer. A silk road type set-up, perhaps, would be a good conceptual way to think of it rather than a strict point-to-point trade like you might have seen during the colonization of America... make sense?

Also - while their "iconic" ancestral homes are the desolate ice caves and mountain fortresses, the reality is that a good amount of their territory (or immediately adjacent protectorates/subjugated lesser tribes) would be taiga, which is farmable and productive enough when specialized crops and techniques are employed... agreed?