Timeline of the Realms

Symbols: YM - Years after Mystic's Arrival (aka the beginning of time)

Some world wracking devastation and catastrophe (Legends believe it was technology's worst creation known them as nuclear weapons) utterly alters and destroys the world. These radiations caused different peoples to seek shelter in different places. Most people died while a select very few survived. The few that survived found they had a certain gift. They were able to create and destroy things at a whim. Many destroyed one another accidentally and purposefully and of the very few that had originally survived only a small number remained. Still of this small number others again died unable to understand the powers they were harnessing. Finally seven survived and six of these left this ravished world to search the galaxy for other desirable places and perhaps to simply create their desirable places.

Having been at the exact center of an explosion, Mystic's body underwent an extreme change that can only be called ecstasy. He found that he held the very power of life. The power to alter atoms and even to utterly destroy them which goes against all physics of the time. Nothing is known of Mystic's life before this explosion, but after it, he had the utter knowledge of all existence and so he set about to create the perfect world. In so doing, he created nature itself. The power of the elements infused in a glorious combination. He adopted his home world as his own and he began the cleanup process of the failure of the generations before him.

Mystic finally had the world cleaned and he accelerated its growth with his power over the atoms and in just years nature consumed the continent which Mystic declared that it would be called Palthius. And Palthius became his home.

The creation of the perfect being, the wild elf, seemed the next step to Mystic and so he created them. They had total control over the world and free will. Since the world this far was mostly flat and forested, the wild elves flourished and kept nature in its original state.

Mystic now settled upon his next creation. He created new beings that were capable of both beauty and destruction. These creatures should be designed to keep destruction in reign through free will in order that all life my continue. He called these dragons! He made them in the colors of precious metals (gold(Lighte), silver(Cloud), brass(Fury), copper(Maize) and bronze(Seabin)) reserving platinum for himself when he decided to take their form. He gave these creatures a portion of the power of life and showed them how to tap into a 'weave' of exceptional life energy that he had created around the world for the purposes of magic. He even allowed them to call upon him for power should they need it. In 349 he realized that in order for his dragons to be happy they would need mates. So he made the first set of female dragons (gold (Blaze), silver (Frigid), brass (Heat), copper (Acidra), bronze (Electra)).

The next creation that Mystic began was actual a recreation of beings that were like himself. Humans. He gave these free will but he also cleared a small portion of the globe in order to give them a place to live. Plains now covered a portion of the world and the humans frolicked in these places. They were not many and their existence was merely for Mystic's desire that all races should exist and thus he restored humanity.

For many centuries the world carried on in peace and harmony. Mystic watched over his creations with great pride, joy and love. He also decided however that the world was entirely too bland. There was only one continent and the races were far too few. He created giant versions of all animals which did create some peril for the elves and humans. He also spiced up the world by throwing down huge natural disasters. Earthquakes erupted as mountains formed in just ten years. Humans were devastated by this but in their variety they managed to survive. Often they called this period the cataclysm. Legends call it the rearrangement.

Mystic was watching the humans with special interest. He was noticing that there were all types of people and so he began his creation based on these people. Half-elves had sprung up on their own although they were few and often outcasts. He created dwarves to dwell in the mountains to be warriors, smiths and miners, halflings to dwell in hilly areas to flourish, eat, and generally be rougish, svirfneblin to dwell in the deep caverns of the earth to create, spelunker and explore. Before he released these beings on the land, Mystic created a 'perfect' being of each of the races and raised them as 'Gods' so that they could oversee the races. He did this for Elven and Human kind as well. These gods were created in 1000YM and are named Serten (human), Lenthius (elven), Barlenbelly (halfling), Kardak (dwarven), and Svenlin (svirfneblin). They were to oversee their races and they were given certain nondestructive secrets of the atom.

The band of wild elves had flourished, but they also began to differ in many ways. Large groups of elves headed off to the south and found natural caverns "Cavern Elves". They began to live around and sometimes even in the caverns. Still other elves went north and encountered the humans and built large crystalline cities that blended with nature while doing small amounts of trading with the humans "City Elves". While many remained content with their forest homes and solitude "Wild Elves." There was much contention between these elves and the wild elves began to believe it would be the undoing of elvenkind. In so, they prepared for war as much as possible, creating axe, spear, and shield for the purposes of battle. The battle never came so they let down their guard although not their hatred.

The second generation of dragons were now very old and about to enter their second millennia and a gold named FireBlossom after years of servitude to his forefathers, led a large group (2 of each color, one male and one female) away from the band of dragons and into some dark caverns. Here he captured wild elves from the surface for food and slowly demented the minds of the band of 10 that he had brought here.

The now evil dragons' scales even deteriorated and the second generation of chromatic dragons were born. FireBlossom became a great red wyrm but his entire history doesn't belong here. FireBlossom's first egg was named BlightMaker. The chromatic dragons hatched as chromes rather than metals and even the colors of FireBlossom and companions changed to chromes.

First Elven War. The "Cavern" Elves returned to the land of the wild elves to take back the environment which they felt was rightfully theirs. Then again, cavern elves felt everything was rightfully theirs. Knowing wild elven tactics, the battle was gruesome with heavy losses on both sides. Wild elves won, but only after the city elves led an army of gleaming metals into the fray and viciously slew the cavern elves, driving them back to the south.

First Dragon War. Unbeknownst to the elves, the dragons also held their first war sometime around this year. Cloud and Lighte left a powerful good realm of dragons behind and FireBlossom now saw it as a time to rid of the world of the stupid good dragons. FireBlossom failed in his venture and was fatally wounded, but before he died he passed the essence of his life form into a gem and he gave this to BlightMaker and BlightMaker ate it, keeping it within him always. BlightMaker also laid her first eggs in 2554 and cast a spell on them to make them hatch quickly.

BlightMaker's eggs hatched with the leader being a viscous male who held the gem of FireBlossom within him. His name was Varinzthedelanae and his name would be known throughout the realms to anyone who was smart enough to fear the evil dragons.

Mystic develops secondary continents off to the other side of the world and several elderly wild elves are teleported there for the conclusions of their existence. This begins the migration of elders to the "Elven Isles" In this area there are also created "Dragon Isles" where Mystic has laid to rest Cloud and Lighte who died in the First Dragon War. Some elder dragons migrate here too. Both places are heavily magically warded. There were several other continents created here as well on which he left bland and to the wills of nature.

The "Cavern Elves" again planned the ultimate demise of the Wild and City elves by attacking both places. The victims were prepared this time and turned the battle into an utter slaughter. They pushed the cavern elves down into the UnderWorld where the cavern elves were forced to live or die. Down here, the cavern elves met the svirfneblin who soon decided that the race was utter evil and forced the weakened elves further into the underworld into a depth were the radiations of the core of the earth (and probably uncleaned nuclear areas) allowed special tapping into the weave for purposes of enchanting and casting magic. Over the centuries, these elves grew attuned to the magic and became masters of it, making incredible weapons. They demented over the centuries too and are now only known as drow as their skin and culture turned utterly black.

In their dominating presence, BlightMaker and young Varin began to experiment with the possibilities of all life forms. He created draconians, manscorpions, duergars, ogres, orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, kobolds, bugbears, trolls, basilisks, medusas and many other evil creatures which he used for wars and simple pleasures if need be. He also changed the very earth by creating nasty environments like swamps, deserts, vicious seas and volcanoes.

Now for thousands of years Mystic had been the only creature to possess the power to create new races. Seeing all of these new spawns of evil, Mystic decided to employ his favorite mortals. In return for this employment the mortals would be given the gift of immortality and the ability to further see the power of the atom that Mystic had control over. They would not be using magic from the weave, but rather from existence itself as Mystic did although not to Mystic's ability. Mystic however attempted to limit their connection to the destructive magics, but he was not successful this time. These were the first Gods and they are called Legends. There were many at first. One for every thinkable facet of life! There were already elder Legends of Elvenkind, Humankind, Halflingkind, Dwarvenkind and Svirfneblinkind but now sprung up those of Death, Disease, War, Strength, Weakness, Life, Dragonkind, Endurance, Charisma, Nature, Forests, Rivers, Seas, Oceans, Springs, Flowers, Trees, etc etc and even Magic. Through the creation of these legends, protective magics were given to mortals who helped further the specific dieties causes. The Legends walked the mortal realms and often spent days gathering the interests of any who would listen. In less than 30 years practically 50% of the legends were dead by the hands of other legends. Costs to all mortal races were very high and the wild elves were almost completely wiped out.

The Legend of Curses decided he would plague all races with the affects of what is now called Lycanthropy. In this he created many different types. All races were affected and virtually any type of animal was including. This marks the creation of Werebears, werewolves, wererats, weretigers, etc etc. These began as a mortal challenged the legend unknowing that he was the legend of curses. This challenge soon turned the man into a raging werebear forever cursed with goodness and loyalty.

Mystic had studied the lycanthrope for 35 years. After this time, he set about creating a new race for the realms. The race was to have the grace of a cat and the intelligence of an elf. They would be speak their own language. These creatures are shorter lived than humans or elves, but longer lived than their feline counter parts. Faelings can live from 60-80 years old and reach sexual maturity around 13. Children rarely come singly, but a range of 2-4 children is common. Male faelings stand upright between 4'5 and 5' tall for males and 4'1-4'8 for females. Males weigh typically 200-300 pounds while females weigh 150-250. Faelings are naturally chaotic creatures. Neutral faeling will be very rare and a lawful faeling would likely be unique indeed. Like cats, faeling are often impartial to those not of their kind. This is much like humans. The majority of faeling are in fact CN and act on whims. Due to this chaotic and impartial nature, faeling are not greatly welcome (although generally allowed) in most civilizations. Faeling are medium sized and have a speed of 30'.

It didn't take long for Mystic to realize the fault of his actions. The weave was still available to the more intelligent beings and Mystic personally helped several mortals use the weave properly, not to mention giving out magics himself. Mystic banished the remaining legends to various locations hopefully to never return. In their place he decided on new rules and restrictions for those he employed. They would live only on the immortal planes and control the planes through the uses of avatars. Mystic would personally give them magics, but only as he desired and they wouldn't have direct control over the atom. These new Gods were now called Ancients and they were to further their causes only by convincing others that theirs was the path. Usually this just meant giving magics to those who already followed their cause and were faithful.

After centuries of dormancy of the Ancients, Mystic realized that the Ancients that he currently employed were mostly a greedy lot. This was marked by the stealing of the "Atoms of Creation" which Mystic had told the gods gave them their power. These were diamonds of immense size and perfect cut which Mystic had created to show his power over atoms. These items had no actual magic in them, but they were stolen by some unnamed Ancient. In response to this Mystic threw all the Ancients to the mortal planes with their original avatar and ripped them of all immortality. Some Ancients released some Legends to help them in their wars. The Ancients waged war on the mortal battle fields and even ripped holes in the very weave with their might. In the end, few Ancients remained, but these were hand picked Ancients which Mystic had known to be faithful to him and the mortals. The weave was left ripped and shattered and this led directly to the next period. -Varinzthedelanae was encaptured in a dragon orb in 4123 by Ancients Dingar, Doradin, and Braken with the help of elven magess Braerloon. This marked the beginning of the creation of dragon orbs.

Destruction on the mortal realms stayed as it was although Mystic vowed that he would never toss the gods out in such a way again due to the toll on the races. The magical weave slowly began to melt and nobody was willing to fix it. Finally the weave was down to one taught thread. There was a brief period of no magic but Salan's daughter combined with the wizard ring of maerlin fixed it to solve the time of magic loss. However, Wild magic was forever released onto the realms. New Gods were risen to replace the old, and Mystic made sure a system of checks and balances occurred to hold them at bay. Age and worshippers determined the influence of a God or Ancient on the mortal planes. New Gods were known as simply Gods while the Ancients continued to be called Ancients.

Nilrak's might seems to have created a blockage of the sun in some way. Mardington was being crushed when the sun was fixed by some mighty heroes, but they left it too hot!! In 6376 Cloridon was repeatedly slayed by the Shadow Cin until the Betrayeress finished him off (forever?).

The sun was fixed to its proper brightness due to another set of heroes

Mardington's leader is being harassed by black plated figures who simply say they are after Muide's "ability" or whatever item gives him this ability. They sometimes use drow weapons and armors which leads people to believe that drow are funding this somehow.

The oldest great red wyrm known to exist has long been under the sole control of the great elven dragonlords. Somehow, this dragon, Varin, has found a way to escape the control and power of the dragon lords. This freedom has allowed Varin to begin a full scale war against the elves which eventually leads to the destruction of most wood elves on all of Palthius. Eventually, the archpriest of Levias, Bridgitte manages to enslave herself with Varin near the ancient forest she created. The mountains grew up in this area of enslavement and soon became known as Dragon Mountain.

Unrelated to Varin's freedom, the agent of chaos, Sundow, banded the orc hordes in the west. With these, he banded them into a cohesive front with himself at the head. He brought down several major human western cities and then left the mortal planes for more interesting endeavours. The orcs floundered slightly without his leadership but managed to keep the lands they gained under Sundown's reign. Later, Varin collects these orcs and uses them in a focused campaign against elven civilizations.

Quietly, the undead minions of Strom migrate from the continent of the dead to infiltrate Palthius. Most disregard the rumours of undead on the eastern shore, but visitors to the country do not return.

The cataclysm which is the Staff of Dreams was succesfully put together, sending the city of Devanaugh straight to hell. This unrecoverable city resides there still, under the infernal direction of Jordan. Along with the affects of this direct event, a cult calling themselves worshippers of Mystic appear at the site of the Staff of Dreams. Before any demons can pour onto the prime material, these priests close the portal, forcing Strom through his own gateway with strange powerful magic.

Angered by what appeared to be the arbitrary nature of Magic, Ralin began a full campaign against the agents of magic. For a long time the war was one sided. Eventually Ralin managed to break down the barriers into the plane of Magic. This break down began the real deterioration of magic. The evil gods banded together in a conspiracy to back Ralin.

Grog entered his investment with Varin to destroy the elves.

Dahlia died officially in this year. As the evil gods bickered over the spoils of war, Cryl took control of the plane of magic completely, altering arcane magic into a force for death. Eventually the other gods put pressure on Cryl to relinquish his hold on magic, but even after, arcane magic became a force for evil.

As most wizards went mad and evil from the fall of Dahlia, some held their ground. While few and far between, Alora maintained her head as leader of the Ring of Maerlin. However, the ring betrayed her and gave her soul to Cryl on the plane of death. There he drank her soul dry and used her power to fuel his evil plans. Ulek searched for artifacts to rescue his beloved mother, but was unsuccessful. destroying layers of the Abyss, Ulek grew epic in power. Having spent his life only in the pursuit of power, he began to lament the lack of light in the world. Then he met Therylin who took him from his path of vengeance and let him to a destiny of greater proportions.

Guldella begot a demonic child of chaos and evil. This child was released into the imbalanced southwestern region. It breeded, grew armies, and otherwise prepared for the centuries to come. In 6427, it became apparent that the time for gathering was at an end. The demons began to establish their own sphere of terror. Destroying any who did not submit and enter their cause.

The dragonlord's lost a very poewrful weapon when Varin escaped. Usually laying low in the affairs of men and elves, it became apparent that the elves were outmatched with the power of Grog standing firmly and directly against them. they confronted the orcish armies and battle dragon versus dragon above Brigitte's Forest. The epic battle was a loss however. Varin called off his dragons and allowed the orcs to stand alone against the elves. The elves won an easy victory after that.

Varin was not finished however and plotted to again take Brigitte's mythical mystical forest. Once there however, Levias used the last of his power combined with Brigitte's rather powerful priestal might and encaptured Varin in some sort of earthen grave spanning thousands of miles. There she and he sleep.

The elves ultimately win the battle over the dragons. The elves take a treacherous turn towards evil as their leader, Solnith, presides over elven kind and presumably, the world, wielding a crown of gold dragon control and commanding a fleet of other various dragon types. Elves once again rule the lands and enslave all other creatures to do their bidding. Humans are hunted as if they are rodents, but are never used as slaves as they are too troublesome.

Dragons, Elves, Undead, Demons, Mages, Frost, Devils, Mindflayers? The human lands are devastated. As Wizards abuse their power, the world grows weaker. The tree of life recedes to its continent, leaving the rest of the world to rot due to its own infestations. The Undead rule one continent and have a large sphere of power on Palthius. The Demons run amock in the south western quadrant of the region. Mages have turned the south east into a desert wasteland with all obeying their will or dieing. Giants from the frost lands have bonded with devils to create an infernal giant menace amongst the north. The Elves and Dragons continue to fight, devastating the countryside with their battles. The gods have all fallen and the nature of the planes themselves seem to have been changed by the meddling of the mages. In this time of conflict, a haven of mindflayers has also appeared. While their battle seems to be primarily with the races of the underworld, should they win, their power will not remain there long.