The Formation of Thain – Unknown Years Ago
The Island of Thain forms in the center of the ocean around a wondrous and terrifying heart of power. It teems with magic and unexplored wild potential.
Left alone for centuries untold, it births terrible and wondrous monstrosities that roam it, preying upon one another.
The Kenku: 5000+ years ago
The Dawn of the First Age sees the Kenku arrive upon the land. Today they are strange and barely known pioneers, in a magical world that they arrive on in unknown circumstances. They bond with the island, exploring its mysteries and untapped secrets for many centuries.
The First Elves: ~4000 years ago
The first elves arrive upon the island on boats, sailing from distant and dying lands. These First Elves feel the island’s deep wellspring of power and settle what will become the great elven city Elissara, their new hope in a new world, before setting about tapping into the island’s tremendous magical potential.
The Titans Arrive: ~3000 years ago
The Titans arrive upon the island from beyond the world, harnessing much of the raw magical power within the world and bending it to their wills. They begin to compete with the elves in shaping the island – to do so they make humans their servants, and in the distant Northlands, they create the First Dwarves and Giants.
The Disappearance of the Kenku: ~2500 years ago:
The Kenku disappear into obscurity. Where they go from this point onward is shrouded in mystery. The First Gnomes awaken, some stories say as part of the Kenku disappearance.
The First Cataclysm: ~2000 years ago
The First Elves’ battles with the Titans for the shaping of Thain’s lands results in great High Magic being used. The Rift, a parasitic force bent on corrupting life across the world emerges for the first time, and civilizations fall across the island. A global cataclysm sweeps the world. What is left is raw and chaotic.
Divine Ascension: ~2000+ years ago:
Buoyed by the raw and untapped magics of the first cataclysm, a pantheon of mortals ascends to divinity across the isle, from Orcs to elves to Dwarves to humans. The Old Gods are born.
~Rise of Vongottstein: ~1800 years ago:
Vongottstein, first great city of men, is founded upon the “Divine gift of inspiration” from Andarus, Lightbringer. Across the island, mortals begin to reorganize around the Old Gods, birthing a new era. The Second Age of civilization begins.
~Rise of Karistad: ~1100 years ago:
The tribal wildmen of Drakamyre are liberated from Draconic captivity under the guidance of an Ascended, Karishma
The First Bloodguard Founding: ~700 years ago
The first Bloodguard are founded, following the discovery of the Heart of Thain – a power that both Karistad and Vongottstein seek to know and understand, and the Bloodguard seek to keep.
The Second Cataclysm ~600 years ago
A growing war lasting for years between Karistad and Vongottstein ultimately results in great and terrible magic once again shattering the realm. The Rift re-emerges, and a global cataclysm sweeps the world. The Titans vanish. What is left is raw and chaotic.
-The Dawn of the Third Age-
The arrival of the Third Age begins “recorded history”, for memories before this point are uncertain even among elves, and matters before it are the stuff of uncertain legend. The notation “TA” or “Third Age” denotes time that has passed since this age began.
Second Founding of Greenvale ((2003/2004)) 530 TA
Location: South Coast, Greenvale
Queen Yu’syu defects from the Poisonwood, a land of strange shadows and wild powers – she and many others fight to retake and resettle the Greenwood, re-establishing the ruins of the great First Age elven city of Elissara as “Greenvale”.
The Death of Rugar Greathammer XIV ((2008) 532 TA
Location: South Coast, Mt. Hammersong
King Rugar Greathammer XIV, fourteenth in the line of the Greathammer line of Kings, is captured and slain by the Duergar in the tunnels beneath Hammersong. His body is found by his most loyal warriors, who spend months warring upon the Duergar and pressing them back from the tunnels below Hammersong, a conflict that rages to this day. His son, Prince Rugar XV, reluctantly takes the crown.
Felkhorn attacks Hamley ((2008)) 555 TA
Location: Northern Thain, Hamley
The last Great Chromatic Dragon, Felkhorn of Drakamyre, descends upon the farmers of Hamley. Through the combined efforts of Hamley’s allies, Felkhorn is killed by Zantar, the last great Metallic Dragon of Greenvale.
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Fall of Davenshire ((2009)) 560 TA
Location: South Coast, Lumenshire, Sandburrow
Davenshire’s growing naval fleet is challenged by a group of rogue human mages living on the outskirts of Thain’s islands, culminating in the village’s destruction with terrible necromantic magic that zombifies all the inhabitants and curses the land. The remaining fleet of hin, led by Admiral Yarland, later lays siege to and destroys the rogue nation. Through a strange twist of magic, many of the hin are released from their curses and brought to settle Sandburrow.
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[Sandburrow Founded and Named]
Disappearance of the Kampfer ((2010)) 570 TA
Location: Central Island, Steinkreis
Frustrated with constant court politics and the expectations it contains, Lord Helmut Kampher departs the Kingdom of Steinkreis, leaving its throne empty and no successor behind. The throne is taken over by the King’s regent and close friend, Bargus Telmoran, who later appoints a Steinkreis Council to help govern the city.
The Last Dragons ((2013)) 574 TA
Location: The Island of Thain, The Wastes
Verifax, Great Black Dragon, awakens and traverses the island of Thain, raining destruction upon those who wander the isle unexpecting and laying low whole patrols of knights in wyrm-ridden wrath. For months, agents of various settlements across the island who have been slighted by the beast hunt it – often to their disaster. At last it is cornered in the far Wastes, and slain there by the combined efforts of several of these individuals and the assistance of Wy’tear’rap, great celestial Metallic Dragon, who is killed in the act. The passage of the duo marks the absence of living dragons from Thain, and they are believed to be extinct.
The Great War / The Kinswar ((2017-2018)) 578 TA
Location: Global, Central Island, Crater Lake
A great alliance between the island’s many power players in the Iron City, Raven’s Watch, and more threatens to upset the balance of power on Thain. In response, the cities of Greenvale, Hammersong, and Steinkreis forge temporary treaties. The war culminates in a sorceress named Nayritha engineering hundreds of Dragonkin from the body of a great General, the First Bloodwinged. Nayritha’s “labs” far beneath the Crater Lake, where the war is centered, are the subject of many battles. Ultimately the allied settlements dislodge the Iron City and Nayritha, leaving behind only her strange and uncanny laboratory far beneath the lake, though the efforts take a high toll on many of the settlement’s greatest generals and leaders, and are no small source of argument and economic blame.
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[The Rise of the Labs]
The Death of Krel, Rise of Nayritha ((2018)) 579 TA
The Kinswar results in a small tactical incursion into Raven’s Watch, ending in the assassination of its founder, Krel. In the power vacuum that follows, the sorceress and highly decorated war-mage Nayritha seizes control with her experiments and soldiers, dubbing the new settlement “Dragon’s Watch”.
The Fall of Qui Vive ((2018)) 581 TA
Location: Southern Island, Heartwood
The jungles of the Poisonwood open up in the Heartwood, unveiling the most distantly related of the First Elves to survive the First Age through strange pacts with the Nightmare Court of the Fey, the tribal and wild Tel’mordere. Their arrival upon the South Coast is accompanied by the destruction (and ritual cannibalization) of one of the few still-standing Vongottsteinian settlements on Thain – the Qui Vive Monastery.
The Second Bloodguard Founding ((2019)) 582 TA
Location: Western Island, Grey Iron Mountains, Castra Aurelia
Ne Plus Ultra! The battlecry of zealous Celestial-Crusader-turned-Avenging-Knight Cassia Aurelia rings across the island in one of the island’s many fitful attempts to retake the wilds of the lands beyond civilization through force. It is also one of the few successful attempts, as Cassia herself taps back into the ancient Blood of the World and creates a semi-religious movement of monster hunters who successfully re-inhabit an ancient Karistadian fortress in the Grey Iron Mountains.
Cassia is later martyred in single combat against the second Bloodwinged, Vaurin Emberbrand, and her body cast into the Blood of the World. The order of the Bloodguard lives on, carrying out her mission in the Grey Iron Mountains in the retaken Bloodguard Keep.
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The Iron City Siege ((2019)) 583 TA
Location: Western Island, Drakamyre Canyon, The Iron City
The resurgent Bloodguard and the activity of the Empyrean Templar Crusaders in and around Hamley results in a sudden and decisive strike against the humans of Thain by several of the monsters they have hunted across the last several wars. The resultant battles are reinforced by Kreisian knights, and the battle reaches the walls of the Iron City, where supply lines stall and a protracted siege begins. The battle finally ends with the invaders repelled, and tentative treaties struck between Hamley and the Iron City.
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The Death of the Iron Queen ((2020)) 584 TA
From within (and in propaganda, from without) the Iron Queen (known by many following the siege as the Mad Queen) of the Iron City is killed, forcing rapid regime change and the ascent of the Iron Senate – a collection of opportunistic humans, devils, and power players within the city who control its various functions and keep it operating smoothly.
The Poisonwar ((2019-2020)) 588 TA
Location: Southern Island, Greenvale, Ashwood, Poisonwood
The Lady Syfana of the Poisonwood seals a necromantic pact and, powered by an undying army of ever-rising elves, launches an assault upon the walls of Greenvale, seeking to forcibly reunite the elves who left and now recolonize the ruins of Elissara. The ongoing battle between the two forces threatens to consume the wild Poisonwood, as assassins of the wood struck back against the defector’s queen. With the arrival of a terrible phoenix-fire-invoked magical bomb that burns much of the Poisonwood to ever-undying Ashwood, the two sides ultimately resolve to peace, with the surviving Poison elves living in the Ridgeshield, the Greenvale elves taking in many defectors, and those loyal to Syfana residing in the undeath-marked Ashwood.
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The Crossroads Attack ((2020)) 589 TA
Location: Central Thain, The Crossroads
From the caves of the southern mountains, a colony of Dragonkin calling themselves “Sons of Felkhorn” descends upon the Trade and Tackel in the Crossroads, occupying the place, capturing all merchant traffic, and killing the Trade’s founder, Bence. The arrival of Bloodguard forces from Castra Aurelia and Kreis Knights results in the liberation of the Crossroads, but the island’s relationship to Dragonkin worsens from where it already struggled post-kinswar. The chaotic and dangerous nature of Kinblooded individuals results in nearly every settlement on Thain barring their presence to some degree or another.
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Shadowguard Attack / Longest Night ((2021)) 590 TA
Location: Central Thain, Steinkreis
An ancient Second-age splinter faction of the First-Founding Bloodguard, Shadowguard, under the control of Vexious Illandrius, is freed from a tomb in which they were once imprisoned by Vongottsteinian soldiers. With a mission of revenge upon their captors, Vexious Ianril and his Shadowguard appear suddenly within the streets of Steinkreis and begin killing the descendents of Vongottstein. They are ultimately repelled by a collective effort of freedom fighters from across the island.
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Underking Battle ((2021)) 591 TA
Location: Underdark, Lower-Thain, Hammersong, Chudrak’dum
An ancient Underdark vault of endurian, a Duergar metal, is opened by a band of treasure hunters, releasing a Shadow Dragon named the “Underking” upon the Underdark and the lower caverns of Thain. The Underking lays siege to Hammersong and the Duergar city of Chudrak’dum, forcing the two hated factions to reassemble the keys to his aether-bound prison and assault him directly. His forces crash upon Hammersong, killing many before his spirit is finally killed and the siege of Hammersong ended.
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War of the Watch ((2022)) 592 TA
Location: Central Thain, The Watch
Sparked by internal politics, Dragon’s Watch’s ruler queen Nayritha begins a war with one of its notorious and powerful residents, Kallista D’Mora. The Drow sorcerress escapes Nayritha’s net and regroups with armies of the Iron City whose troopers were ensnared during the Kinswar by Nayritha, and with a wide variety of other monstrous creatures she attempted to bring to heel during her rule. The resultant Iron City march causes the end of the city’s treaties with Hamley, and the armies arrive at the gates before laying waste to the city. Nayritha is killed in the resultant conflict, and the subsequent power vacuum results in the rise of The Watch, a leaderless and lawless city of districts.
[Forum Link]
Feywood Battle – Cycle’s End ((2022)) 593 TA
Location: Northern Thain, Feywood, Gerdamesh
The maddened dark elven witch known as Kallista D’Mora cut a path of destruction through the north of Thain. After slaying Nayritha of the Watch within her tower, D’Mora then pushed north alone – bringing a storm of shadows that engulfed Feywood and split the land in two. With most of their forces wiped out in the ensuing battle, the Feywood elves and their defenders performed a desperate ritual to invoke Inaris, greatest of the fey. This last defense renewed the trees and banished the shadowed storm, and saw the lost people of Gerdamesh revived from their ancient slumber. When the storm ended, the witch disappeared, and is presumed dead.
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The Mithril Rail ((2022)) 594 TA
Location: Hammersong, Steinkreis
A great train is devised by the scholars of the Stone Temple Circle and constructed by the Dwarves of Hammersong, led by King Rugar Greathammer XV. The young King seeks to grow the bonds of fellowship that began between his own people and the humans who lent their assistance to him during the battle with the Underking. Kreisian forests are cut to power the train, while the Dwarves supply mithril – together the two form a commerce line spanning from Hammersong to Steinkreis.
Death of the Sun and Moon ((2022)) 595 TA
Location: Southern Thain, Greenvale
A pair of living saints among Elven culture, scholars and priests with the titles of The Sun and The Moon, are heinously slain by a Drow outsider – but not before the findings of their research come to light – that the city of Elissara’s elves are losing their memories of the distant past not as a result of any dark magic, but because they have taken in outsider Dwarves and Humans to live among them, “shortening their sight”. This results in the re-emergence of the Order of Ceriana, a powerful religious faction of Greenvale Elves who now push for the expulsion of all non-elves and the return to a mission of Elven-guided prosperity upon Thain once that work is complete.
[Forum Link]
The Riftwar ((2023)) 598 TA
Location: All of Thain, Hammersong Mountain Peak
The Rift reemerges following the terrible magical upheavals of Cycle’s End, its agents rapidly crossing the island and corrupting many of the isle’s most noble-minded and powerful rulers. In the face of these assaults, strike teams from across the island seek to halt the imminent arrival of another cataclysm, and make an ultimate decision to close all planar rifts into and out of Thain off in order to prevent the Rift ever returning. A final battle of those Rift-forces that had arrived upon the island takes place upon the top of Mount Hammersong against armies sent by every settlement upon the island in the face of imminent destruction, and the peak is blasted by the concussive magics, costing the lives of many who stood fast. The battle is ultimately won by the varied forces of Thain, and the Riftfire finally extinguished forever.
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The Migration of the Empyrean Templars ((2023)) 599 TA
Location: Northern Thain, Hamley, The Wastes
With the death of the great Paladin Order’s most recent leader Colonel Darienne at the hands of the Rift’s servants during the Riftwar, the disappearance of the Adumbral Forest’s formidable Kallista D’Mora, and the death of many of the Feywood elves at her hands, the people of Hamley must choose a new direction for their people. In the absence of a great number of former high-level threats, they vote into power not an Empyrean Knight but an ordinary farmer: mayor Huren Dael for the first time in a century. Dael runs upon a platform of gradually phasing out the Empyrean Templars with homegrown Hamley outriders, who he plans to strengthen the forces of with small strike teams of Castra-Aurelia trained Rangers and Wayfinders. Following his election, many Empyrean Knights are recalled to strengthen the wounded numbers of Kreis Knights after disastrous casualties during the Riftwar’s final battle – many others relocate following Commander Boone Rothe to an outpost within the Wastes, where they monitor Iron City activity.
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[Forum Link]
Fires of Hammersong ((2023)) 600 TA
Location: Southern Thain, Mt. Hammersong
The closure of the riftwells across the island results in the Dwarven Fires of Hammersong extinguishing, resulting in the Dwarves of Hammersong seeking an alternate means of maintaining their forges. After a variety of options are pursued, a party of Hammersong-interested investigators manages to capture one of the few descendent Noble Giants of Agnar, bringing the unstable and unstudied Titan Fire to the forges.
[Forum Link]
Return of the Kampfer ((2024)) 601 TA
Location: Central Thain, Off-Thain, Steinkreis
A collection of Kreisian-interested parties set sail with only a few clues into the unknown, pursuing rumors of where the Kampfer now dwells. They discover him upon a remote island, trapped by strange magics tied to the island’s very stones, ageless and perpetually trapped in branching alternate realities. Though he has outlived his natural life and will die if he leaves the island, he entrusts those who ventured to find him with his twin children: Anselm and Adela Kampfer. The children are returned to the Kreis, and Anselm retakes the Kreisian throne, in spite of an attempted assassination by the Iron City and its secret agents within the Kreisian council. Anselm’s return to the city marks a shift in its politics toward crime and corruption, a renewed focus upon its Vongottsteinian history, and the ultimate ascent of Andarian Worship as the state religion of Steinkreis.
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