Post/Author/DateTime	Post
Alurvelve 03-20-07, 02:30 PM	Ok I am currently crating my first world and all that good stuff. I have a map drawn and colored, and a few other things done at this time, but I would like everyone's opinion on what I have so far on its current timeline. It's not very detailed atm but once I hash out some stuff I'll add more fluff to it. So here goes. -5000, Dawn of Dragons: Dragons rule the world -2000, Anceint Wars: Giants try to overthrow the dragons but fail. -800, Twilight Wars: Elves fight against dragons rulers. War end up with a truce called and the creation of the first 5 dragon riders. -500, Axe & Arrow War: Dwarves and the Elves fight one another. The 5 riders bing peace to the war. -400, 1st Bloodwar: Orcs, globliniods, and giants invade the lnd in large numbers. The combined might of the dwarves, elves, and the riders push them back. -200, 2nd Bloodwar: Same as before but the horde consists of Gnolls as well this time. 0, 3rd Bloodwar: Same as before, but the end of this war marks the arrival of the first large human settlements. 200, 4th Bloodwar: Humans join in againt the evil hordes helping to push them back. First human rider was born. 400, 5th Bloodwar: same as before but lizardfolk join the horde. 500, Migration: Humans high birthrate compared to the other races make them more numerous than the others. 600, 6th Bloodwar: same but non humans take heavy casulties. 700, Retreat: Non human races retreat back to their ancestral homes leaveingmost the land to the humans. 800, 7th Bloodwar: Hordes army wins takeing and burning much of the land from the humans. 830, Upstart: Dragon riders manage to push back the horde from the lands. 850, Serpeant in the Wake: One of the riders turns tyrant. 860, Dragoon Wars: Tyrant rider slays another rider and his dragon, causeing a cival war amongst the riders. 870, Broken Bond: Tyrant rider slays the remaining riders but one who flees, the Rider bond is thought broken for another rider is never bor again. 880, Emperor: Tyrant rider conquers known world. 900, GodsBane: Tyrant starts the creation of 2 powerful artifacts to help him gain godhood. The Gauntlet o Power, and the GodsBane. 920, God Wars: Tyrant enlists demons and devils into his army of evil creatures. He marries 2 Erinyes's, and a Sucubus, fathering many children from him in the following years. Has 3 generals of his army 1 Balor, and 2 Pit fiends. Also twists his dragon into a demonic beat of legend. 1200, Even Gods May Die: Tyrant lays 3 Godly Pantheons in the coming years (Olympic, Asgardic, and Phaoric). 1210, Hatred: Tyrant orders the death of every small person (gnome, and halflings) as he kills Garl, and Yondalla. 1215, Monster: The remaing gods creat a beast so powerful even they fear but, and unleash i upon the Tyrant. In this battle the sword is devowered by the beast, and the gauntlet is thought destroyed. The Tyrants is killed but his generals, wives, and dragon flee from the beast. Beast then goes into slumber to never be heard from again. 1225, Rebellion: With the tyrant gone and his generals in hideing the Knight Protectors drive away whats left of his evil army of darkness. 1235, Peace: With the majority of the evil force's gone human civalization may prosper once again.
Darth Syntax 03-20-07, 03:18 PM	Alright, I'll give it a go. Item 1: Why is your calendar based off of the begining of human civilization? If the calendar is of human design, it's unlikely that they recall in great detail the origins of their various civilization given the time depth involved. I see that the third "Blood War" ends at this time. What is a blood war in the context of your world, and why was the third one notable enough to, possibly, denote the begining of a calendar? Item 2: What was going on before the dragons showed up? What processes brought them into power? Item 3: What are Dragon Riders in the context of the world? Without knowing something about what they are, some aspects of the history are effectively meaningless. You don't need to offer up a doctoral thesis on them, just a brief clause will suffice. Something like: "The Dragon Riders, an immortal band of gourmet chefs who travel from town to town defending good taste and fine cuisine, are formed." Item 4: Why do the Elves and Dwarves of this region go to war? Is it a resource squabble? A war of Elven conquest? A holy war? Again, a short explanation would be beneficial. Example: -500: The Republic of Vathroikarle (predominatly elven) and the Dwarven Empire of Nupashuq go to war over access to the mountain passes which allow the gnomish spice traders of Har to pass into their territories. Item 5: Similar to item 4, Why do the orcs and goblinoids invade? Similarly, what are they doing working together? -- In general, more detail would be good. Even in a timeline, little details can really add to the flavor of the world. Currently, a sense of flavor and theme is somewhat lacking. I'm sure, however, that the promised additional fluff will sort things out.
Alurvelve 03-20-07, 06:11 PM	Thank you for the response, and I'll try and fill in some of those blanks to help clear things out. Also I posted this to maybe help get some ideas from exsperianced people who have created thier own world and maybe learn a few does and donts when creating a world's hstory. As your questions here goes. 1: The calender starts on the 3rd Blood War for that is when the humans finally got a organized civialization and started to keep track of time. I guess I should of stated that info before hand on that post. Also the time before the humans appear and thier events are only known to a few and will not show up on the pcs timeline when I hand them thier copy. This is a general copy for myself to have everything hashed out. Oldest records would be kept by the elves who arnt gonna share most thier knowledge with the rest of the world. 2: Currently it is unknown what happened before the dragons showed up. Some depict the dragons as gods themselves, while others think that they were the gods first creations. 3: Dragon Riders are a chosen set of 5 riders. They were brought about as a peaceful way to keep the alliance between the elves and the dragons. The riders are known as the peace keepers of the realms, and are chosen by the dragon. 4: The most well known reason for the war between the elves and dwarves was over mithral. The dwarves got to where they did not like or want anyone else useing "thier" special metal and hoarded it for themselves. It is also known that the dwarves held contempt for the elves for there had never been a dwarven rider or any other race besides elves. 5: The Blood Wars seem to come about at every 200 years or so when the tribes of these creatures grow to great numbers, and seek out more land for thier growing numbers. It is also driven by greed for they crave what the other races have but they do not. The true reason why these races join together every 200s years or so to invade the lands is not known to most if any mortal. Some mages think it is some kind of rage that over takes them, while others say it is some kind of divine intervention. 6: Dragons of the realms come in 5 types. Red, White, Blue, Black, and Blue. These are the only nown types of dragons in this realm. Thier alignment differs than that in the MM. At the younger stages of life they tend to be more chaotic, doing what it takes to survive. The middle part of thier lives most take some form of evil but that is to seek out thier place to make thier lair and to gather thier hoard by whatever means. In the later stages of thier life they think of themsleves beyond that of good or evil. They are creatures of power unlike any others and have no need for petty emotions such as those. Thier are exceptions to these like the dragons of the riders who from brith are taught the rights and wrongs of "civalized" life by thier riders.
Darth Syntax 03-20-07, 10:16 PM	Crafting a history can be a very time consuming project, especially if you want to create some degree of internal plausibility. History, like most things, is a process without a defined goal or end; so the way history happens can be complicated. It is important to understand that history works both chronologically and laterally. Lateral history is the sort of thing that one sees in the unlikely connections between events, connections that aren't necessarily apparent for some time. So you have a war between Dwarves and Elves over precious metals, but have you considered what effects this conflict might have had on parties other than the Elves and Dwarves? For example, mithril would have become scarcer during the period of conflict due to trade routes being cut off by warring factions; how might this have effected the metallurgical traditions of other cultures? Perhaps the halflings of X, who originally worked with mithril regularly, were driven to use some other material, iron perhaps. Eventually, the halflings of X develop superior steel which opens all manner of possibilities. Did the halflings create the equivalent of Damascus steel? Or perhaps they developed stainless steel, leading to the invention of cheap, widespread tableware. With commonplace tableware comes the invention of complex eating rituals (salad forks, soup spoons, shrimp forks, the whole table setting extravaganza) and before long, the halflings of X are hosting stuffy dinner parties, eating with absurd numbers of spoons, and creating a whole culture out of social eating. All because the war over mithril forced them to develop along different lines. This is the sort of thing that makes history interesting, and it can really spice up a setting.