History of the World, Part 1
With my bare bones set, I usually start trying to figure out
how to put the pieces in order. I've got
some ideas floating around, unattached, as it were. Since I have to start somewhere, I find that
a rough chronology is as good a spot as any.
It'll end up changing in response to ideas I develop later, probably
multiple times. But for now, it'll do.
The way I usually do this is with a pseudo-timeline. I'm not going to try to assign dates yet,
just put events in order. At the end,
I'll have a pretty good idea of how the setting developed from the "Big
Bang" or whatever. (This being a
fantasy world, it could be a cosmic sneeze, or any number of other things)
What you're going to see below is actually a pretty poor
representation of my timeline. You'll
just see it all laid out in order.
There's no good way to show you the deletions, rewritings, and
additions. You will probably see the
uneven writing. I go pretty freely
between "game text" and dry (or occasionally sarcastic) descriptions
that just get the point across without being particularly pretty. This isn't the final product. It's just my notes.
The First Age
In the beginning, there was nothing. Father Sun and Mother Earth joined, and
created the world. The races of man were
few and scattered, and worshiped the Mother and the Father. They might have used different names, but
they worshiped the same entities.
There was a third being at the beginning of time, the
Darkness. The Darkness was opposed to
creation. The Light burned him. The softest earth was like daggers to his
feet. He retreated to the darkest places
and slept. In his sleep, his dreams were
of blood and fire and pain, of destruction to all that had been created. And because he was a god, his dreams were
real.
Father Sun and Mother Earth saw that their creation would be
despoiled by the creatures of Darkness, so they dreamed together, and their
dreams were of gods and angels to defend the earth. Father Sun and Mother Earth were exhausted by
their efforts and fell into sleep. Their
children, the gods, divided the tribes of men among themselves and shepherded
over them.
They young gods were dreams, and were shaped by the dreams
of their worshipers.
The Second Age
The foundations of modern civilizations were laid. Each god or group of gods "adopted"
a part of the world and the people found there.
Some gods roved around, and had different guises in different
lands. The rest, though, took on racial
characteristics - shaped by their people and in turn shaping them.
During this time period, the gods lived on the earth as
beings of flesh and spirit, just like humans, but vastly more powerful. They eventually forced all the demons into
the dark places, beyond the reaches of men.
(In point of fact, into a physical "Underworld" that can be
reached by going deep enough underground.
In a way, it was a golden age. But it was not to last. Warfare between neighboring states led some
people to wipe out others. The "orphaned"
gods sometimes died, but other times went mad. Among those who went mad, some were tempted to
the Darkness.
The Third Age
Eventually, as they always do, things went all to hell. The dark gods (those who had been corrupted
by the Darkness) unleashed the forces of Darkness on earth. They attracted worshipers to the Darkness,
which allowed for the Reign of Darkness.
This lead to years of plague, the release of fell beasts and goblinkin,
storms of ice and fire, and finally a global cataclysm as the Darkness tried to
destroy the earth and all life upon it.
Humanity found allies in the Fey, who entered the world to
battle against the Darkness. But even
so, the tide was turning against the light.
The gods realized they'd failed their worshipers and
sacrificed themselves to save the world.
They fell into dreams and used their dreaming power to preserve their
people's lives and keep the world from destruction. They forced the denizens of Darkness into the
Underworld, and by their blood sealed the Darkness away.
The Fourth Age
The world had nearly been torn asunder, and much of the
surface was still overrun with poisons, flames, and goblinkin. Many people retreated to the sky, on magical
islands born on the wind. Those who
remained on the ground had to be hard and fierce, or were corrupted by the
remnants of Darkness.
There were years of upheaval in the wake of the
cataclysm. A new order emerged. The sleeping gods could no longer protect
their servants directly, and further, they had learned that it was better to
inspire and guide humans than to treat them like sheep.
Or possibly they figured out that they couldn't lead them
around like sheep anymore. The only way
to influence mortal events was through living conduits -clerics,
essentially. Either way, this marked the
end of the age of the gods and the beginning of the age of man.
Some time into the fourth age is when most of the cool stuff
of the game will happen. There will be
modern countries, with their interrelations mostly worked out. Allies and enemies will mostly have the
battle lines drawn, and everything is more or less at a stasis point, with the
possibility for major change just a few key events away.
Where Do We Go From Here?
With the history done, I have kind of a road-map for future
developments.
- I know that the world is layered. There are sky islands, surface settlements,
and underdwellers. I also know roughly
when each came into being and what you're likely to find in them. The "Civilized World" is mostly
going to be found up in the sky, with things getting more dangerous (and
profitable for adventurers) as they get lower.
With massive geological upheaval, I also have a nice excuse for lost
cities and dungeons; always a good thing for a "Dungeons &
Dragons" game.
I know there are multiple pantheons of gods. I'll have to think about how they
interrelate. What happens when two gods
of the Sea clash? Or when a cleric
leaves his homeland?
I know where orks and goblins and monsters came from, by
and large.
I also know I'll probably be revisiting the history for more
work at some point.
- I still haven't figured out quite who the dragons
are. The easiest answer, though, is that
they're Faeries, just like the Elves and other demihumans - more powerful, but
of the same stuff. So I'll have to
figure out how they fit into the overall scheme of things.
- Exact details of which gods went to the Darkness and when
will also be important. That'll come
into play when I start designing the gods and their religions.
So, lots of work still ahead, but I can see how it's shaping
up now. My next step is likely to be
flora and fauna, which mostly means monsters.
But I could start with cultures or something if that strikes my fancy
instead.
Fourth Age history will be expanded more than any of the
previous ages once I start really writing the world's history. Before that, history was almost more myth
than fact. Different regions probably have
different takes on what happened. But
now that I have the basics down, I can start skipping ahead to the modern age
and working my way back along the path, rather than trying to build everything
from the most ancient past to the present in exact order.
In fact, I don't really want to get too detailed with
history until I have to. Leaving some
gaps gives me more options as I go along.