Chronology

Pre-Ascension

In the beginning, Terre does not have a lot to offer. There are scattered civilizations and settlements around the continent, with primitive weapons and tools. Constant warfare between tribes, civilizations, and races taints the land with bloodshed and suffering.

One of the few exceptions to this is the dwarven kingdom of Untergebirgsreich, who has been excavating the Hollunberg mountains for generations. The dwarves however keep to themselves and do not interfere with affairs outside of their city.

There is little arcane energy and mana flowing in the atmosphere, but some concentrates around a peninsula that is nowadays Labyrinthine, forming a swirling tempest of arcane. The few practitioners of arcane magic converges to this corner of Terre, establishing a society that would later be known as the Mages’ Guild of Labyrinthine.

At a time, a fairy oak sprouted under Hollunberg, irrigated by the mountain springs, and grew into the Viridian Grove. Wood elves are initially largely nomadic and hermitian, but over time converges to the shades of the great fairy oak, practicing druidic magic. Slowly the leylines of Terre rerouted themselves to focus under the roots of the Viridian Grove, and would later gave rise to the druidic legion of Verza.

The Empire

In the beginning year of the Ascendant Calendar, a Gate to the Nether realms is forged by the god of arcane, Zelarch, in nowadays southern Verza. Tieflings through the Gate escaped the Nether in an act of Ascension, and brought order onto Terre for the first time in thousands of yaers. The Forgotten Empire - then simply known as ‘The Empire’ - under the rule of Ascendants, divided western Terre into a dozen provinces, each with its own imperator, while the Ascendant rules over all of them in their palace in the now-Shattered Gate.

The Tieflings are not intrinsic evil creatures. In fact, they are much more civil than the inhabitants of Terre at that time. The Empire’s settling down was met with resistances, numerous but futile, as stone and cold iron are no match against netheric arcana. The aboriginals soon found out that the rule of the Empire is more of a boon than a misfortune: society advanced rapidly with the Empire’s help, as blades are forged and spells are cast.

The Empire’s expansion left two points of interests intact: The dwarves of Hollunberg by then has already established Untergebirgsreich under the mountain, and the jungle of Yharn proved too unruly to conquer. In the land under the Empire’s rule, Tieflings have largely established themselves as nobles and local aristocrats, and while racial hierarchy exists, for the most part Tieflings and aboriginal races get along rather well, and many Tieflings slowly adopted the local culture and merged with their own that they brought from the Nether realms.

Meanwhile, just to the other side of Verza, the residents of Viridian Grove are not exactly in accord with the Empire’s use of Netheric arcane energies, considering them unnatural and invasive, as opposed to the leylines’ life forces, but to seek conflict with the Empire will not benefit anyone.

Tides of Steel

The collapse of the Forgotten Empire started in the coastal province of Okeanos. Sitting on the north-western most corner of the Empire and Terre, Okeanos is renowned across the aristocratic hierarchies of the Empire for its natural beauty and bountiful lands, and throughout the years attracted nobles around the Empire to tour, reside, and eventually settle down. In the last hundred years of the Empire’s rule, the demographic concentration of Tieflings in Okeanos has risen to an alarming state, with little to no other races, and its original inhabitants almost completely ousted. Those within Okeanos slowly succumbed deeper and deeper into the euphoric abyss of this paradise land, while those without more than ever only care about their opportunities and possibilities to relocate to their promised utopia. As an obvious consequence, the Empire declined rapidly into staleness, with more and more unrest and more and more unjust that follows each other.

The introduction of firearms only exacerbated the Empire’s downfall. The dwarven craftsmen of Untergebirgsreich fueled their forges and polished their anvils, and brought powder and steel to the people of Terre at a convenient time. The aristocrats of the Empire scoffs at the idea of cold steel against their magic and arcane, and dismissed the technology without much thought - like they always do - as another trinket of minimal threat.

By the time the Empire realized the gravity of their mistakes, it is already too late. With firearms in hand, soldiers and adventurers, both martially and magically inclined, flooded Empire territories like a tide of sulphur and steel. The Verzae Legion under the Viridian Grove seized the opportunity to join in the by this time justified rebellion, and within a few years around AC 951, the Empire shrunk under martial and arcane assaults, as the partakers of its downfall sign treatises, set borders, and establish new orders upon western Terre.

The final remnants of the Empire fled to Okeanos, the only province untouched by warfare and conflict, thank to its geographical and demographical defense and impracticality of annexation. Losing all prowess and morale and will to recover, the Empire sealed shut its gate and succumbed to the peace and safety of the coastlines of northwestern Terre. The collaspe of the Forgotten Empire started in Okeanos, and finally ended in Okeanos.

The Awakening

The Awakening in AC 1273 is a cataclysmic event, speculated to have originated from somewhere deep within the Lost Lands. It brought the Iris Corruption to the playing board, but the Corruption does not intend to cease its agression and expanded westward, devouring and corrupting everything in its path. Verza and Maltross are the firsts to respond, mustering their strength into the eastern front, and political entities further west sent what they can to help, but the Corruption holds power over many aspects, unstoppable and undefeatable, and for some time hope seemed to be lost.

The march continues west, until an unknown figure wielding a blade, now known as the Old Guardian, appeared, and led the battle against the Enemy on the plains. In a miraculous and decisive fight, he punished the Enemy for their advances, with no casualty but his own vanishment. With the enemy weakened, the heroes of Terre constructed the bastion of Bladefall in memorial of the Old Guardian, and extended its east walls into the High Wall of Bladefall, now the border between civilized Terre and the Lost Lands, where deep within the dark Iris mists the Enemy slumbers, waiting for its chance to reenter the stage, patiently, inevitably.

The Cataclysm

Call of the Blade

The late spring of AC 1411 started an uneventful one, but soon descented into chaos as the Old Guardian of Bladefall rises from his suspension in stasis, and wreaks havoc in the central field of Bladefall. It is thanks to the current Guardian and a group of heroes that he was stalled for long enough to allow a orderly evacuation of Bladefall, Viridian Grove, and eastern Verza and Maltross. Now, lost to the Corruption, the Old Guardian and his citadel waits along the High Wall, heralding the beginning of the end.

The Blade falls, and along with it the Grove. The land weeps, as old threats reignite, and new plans unfold.

The curses of the Iris Corruption is also unveiled to those with such curiosities: While death by ordinary means is gruesome, not only for yourself, but also for friends, families, those that hold you dear in their mind and memory, death by Iris Corruption is one that transcends mortal comprehension. Instead of being killed, you will be erased from existence: your name will be forgotten, memories and stories about you will slip away from the minds of others, as if you are never there to begin with. No one has ever died, and no one will ever die, to Iris Corruption, for when one suffers such fate, they will fade into oblivion, and never exist in the first place. Some may call this a fate worse than death, but perhaps the blissful ignorance is a twisted, malicious form of mercy in itself.

Crimson Crime

As Terre musters its forces to retake the lost lands of Verza and the Viridian Grove, shadows of new threats are cast upon the western parts of the continent.

Stories and tall tales tell of a curse, crimson and sanguine, plaguing the far western reaches of Terre. Heralded by a scarlet tint in the moonlight, this Crimson Curse drives the accursed, be it beast or men, into a primal state of frenzy bloodlust, mutating the flesh and the mind alike. Despite the horrid tales, the Crimson Curse still does not match the apocalypse presented by the Iris Corruption, yet more and more, the inquisitive mind cannot help but ponder the origin and purpose of such a timely disaster.

Sovereignty Lost

The mid summer wind brings hope to Terre, as a party of adventurers commissioned by the Verzae Legion disrupted a ritual vital to the Iris Corruption’s plan. Cultists and agents who call themselves Acolytes of the Harbingers have wreaked havoc in the lost forests in southeastern Verza, attempting to summon some entity within long forgotten ruins dating to the reign of the Forgotten Empire. Yet they are unsuccessful: The ritual broken, the leaders slain, and the Grove one step further away from the Enemy.

Yet with these victories come a question long lost to time, whose absence was taken for granted for centuries long. The ruins are not of the Forgotten Empire, and whatever the cultists are trying to summon is certainly no simple as a mere fiend. From atop the Shattered Gate, generals of the Verzae Legion gazes towards the Iris Mist to the East, and finally ask themselves: What was there in the Lost Lands, before the Iris claimed it all for oblivion?

It is an question one cannot expect an answer from any time soon. Knowledge stricken from history come with great costs, if it can be recovered at all. For the moment, all that is known is an once all-powerful elven empire, whose real name erased from the history of this land, now under the assigned pseudonym Austella Sovereignty.

What was in the Lost Lands? What is the Iris Corruption, and how did it come about? What happened to the Sovereignty in the Awakening? And what of the scarcity of elvenkind in what remains of Terre? These are questions that call for answers, perhaps as soon as possible, and one can no longer deny the fact, that before it is too late, perhaps expeditions into the Lost Lands are finally in order.

Hollow Dreams

As the Festival of Fire rages on across Terre - celebrations with a hint of uneasiness in these turbulent times - the Verzae Legion launched their assault on their occupied capital, Viridian Grove. Their victory is not without costs, but thanks to groups of adventurers, some of them with first hand experience fighting the Corruption at Bladefall at the time of the Cataclysm, a herald of the Enemy was slain, leaving occupying forces without a leader. Thus strategies and tactics can fall into place to circumvent the brute force of the corrupted beasts.

The unsung heroes of Terre however uncovered more than means to enable this assault. Their journey through the underground caverns between Unterbergstadt and the roots of the Viridian Grove has been intertwined with a realm most phantasmagoric, like a reflection in the mirror to the material world, surrounded by silvery mist and unseen dangers to the body and the mind alike. Not much is known about this dream realm just yet, other than that the druidic leylines of Terre flows freely through this dimension, and that immense dangers lurk within the deep stretches.

Traces of dream eaters, mythical monsters found only in tall tales and bedtime stories who leeches upon the dreams of others, turning them into nightmares, have bothered the heroes in their journey, with a couple of close encounters, and countless many more implications.

The universe seems to keep an eye on this realm as well - one that is attentive and malignant. The drow-elven society that retreated underground long before the Awakening kept Secrets related to the dream realm, and vowed to safeguard the world from what lurks within. While the heroes convinced a drow elder to teach them Power Words, keys to the dream realm, they are also met with the malignity of the Cosmos, and only barely managed to meet what’s best interpreted as a test sent their way. The Cosmos turned their attention elsewhere for now, but there is no doubt that something beyond mortal comprehension is approching, rapidly, soon to advent onto this world.

Despite being shrouded in mystery, the dream realm presents itself as a key to the secrets of this world - why are so many forces, some seemingly opposing and others in alliance, watching the realm with such interest, and what does the Corruption want from it, if their actions and rituals around the Grove is to be interpreted this way? Among these forces is an intriguing individual of draconic ancestry, master of arcanes, self-proclaimed tavern keep, watching from the shadows cast by her demi-planar Ataraxia, Tavern Between Time, who at least for now seems willing to communicate and cooperate with the residents of Terre. Perhaps she can lead us to the true secrets that have evaded us for so long.