Arrival of the Mannhr on Mondlokk.
The time before the Fall
After centuries of warfare and slaughter, the Alfhr finally largely withdraw from the mainland of Mondlokk, settling on the island of Råld.
Establishment by the Drughashi Empire of the fortified city-state of Geng-Ba'aat at the Straits of Hann, intended to control access to the Inner Realms.
Establishment of the city-state of Fucronavia, which soon coalesces into a kingdom.
Grand Sariya is established as a Drogasian Præfecture, encompassing the eastern half of the Inner Lands.
Hostilities erupt between the Kingdom of Fu and the Drogasian Præfecture of Grand Sariya. Concludes with Fucronavia being conquered, but being established as its own Præfecture, encompassing the western half of the Inner Lands.
The construction of the Bridge of Gingbatsching, intended to facilitate peace and trade between the Præfectures of Grand Sariya and Fu. The bridge spans the Straits of Hann.
For unknown reasons, the main channel of the Lower Vòhai River shifts, causing it to form a delta which inundates Old Carcosa and forces its inhabitants to flee. Old Carcosa is completely abandoned and its location is soon all but forgotten.
The temporary settlement established by the former inhabitants of Old Carcosa on the banks of the Vòhai, near the beginning of the delta, coalesces into a new city called Vòhaiville. The new city is de facto independent of Drogasia, though trade with the empire resumes soon after its founding.
The Præfecture of Grand Sariya declares independence from the Drogasian Empire, forming a kingdom under Asprus I. The Præfecture Fu, which is ruled by a close relative of Asprus I, follows somewhat half-heartedly.
The Drogasian Empire invades Mondlokk to re-take the rebellious Præfectures of Fu and Grand Sariya.
The Drogasian Expeditionary legion prepares to assault Gingbatsching to secure their southern flank. In a desperate measure to prevent the Drogasians from sacking the city, sappers break the Bridge that spans the Straits. The Legion is forced to abandon the attempt, and turns northwards.
Fucronavia is sacked by the Drogasian Expeditionary Legion. The Præfecture is re-established.
Erenn Voroshtii's Expeditionary legion arrives at Vòhaiville. Fearing Drogasian reprisals and oppression, much of the population has begun to flee onto the patchwork of artificial islands hidden in the delta. Vòhaiville is fortified, and enlarged, by the Drogasians.
Imperial Marshall Erenn Voroshti and his legion depart Vòhaiville, travelling up the Vòhai River, hoping to cross the Earth-Bone Mountains at its headwaters. A lone herald arrives back at Vòhaiville, reporting that Voroshtii is encamped at the confluence of two great rivers far to the north, but after that the legion is never heard from again.
For nearly three hundred years after the Fall, the world did not see the sun. A terrible, bitter cold seized all the land.
As a consequence of the loss of the Drogasian possessions in Mondlokk, the Fall, the Winter, and the consequent loss of lines of communication, the Empire essentially implodes, fragmenting into countless squabbling petty realms. Only the Imperial Præfecture Fu remains loyal to the Drogasian Emperor – provided that one is ever found, and crowned.
The birth of the man who would one day become the Hierophant in a cave shelter on an island north of Gingbatsching.
The Long Winter begins to thaw, leaving behind a landscape of utter devastation. Entire nations have been scraped off the map, their cities reduced to ruined foundations. Rivers have shifted, mountains ground to dust. The Inner Lands in particular were hardest hit.
The man who would become the Hierophant travels from his birthplace to the mainland, travelling alone or with but a few companions. Sheltering in a cave now known as the Hierophant’s House, an Emanation of Mælareèdh appears to him in a vision, commanding him to spread to mankind the doctrine of the Sins Inherent.
The accepted year when the seasons return to normal. Establishment of Three Sisters, and the foundation of its College, takes place at this time. Three Sisters, originally known as Slaver’s Town, becomes one of the dominant powers in the southern reaches, rivalling even Gingbatsching. The man who would become known as the Hierophant settles in Slaver’s Town, and begins to attract a following.
The Hierophant completes his first temple, which is built on top of a hill to the southeast of Slaver’s Town. His followers begin to settle nearby. The Hierophant assembles the Twenty Scholars, directing them to be the foundation of a new movement dedicated to Mankind’s Redemption and the purging of the Sins Inherent.
In the years following the First Dawning of Spring, the Hierophant gathered to him Twenty Scholars, who it is written between them knew all things that were known. To these, the Hierophant made plain what he had been shown, and the nature of the Sins Inherent in Mankind.
The Hierophant, having taught everything he would teach, passes from view into occultation.
With the Occultation of the Hierophant and the election of the first High Magister, The Holy Church of Mankind's Redemption is formally established in its current form.
After it is revealed that they have secretly been worshipping the Fallen One and yearning to bring about his return, hundreds of members of the Militant and Monastic Order of the Bringer of Starry Eyes are arrested and executed, including their ringleader, Léru, who claimed to pre-date the Fall.
A catastrophic eruption blows the cauldron of a volcanic island in the Corsair’s Reach wide open. The resulting breach creates a superb natural harbour, which Ekwara mariners soon discover. The eruption causes the collapse of a human-built fortress on the flanks of the old volcano. Nobody knows what the old fortress was for, nor who occupied it. For a long time, the Ekwara maintain their hidden sanctuary, sheltering refugees and runaways from Vicia’s predation. The Sanctuary becomes the core of the present Feathers district.
Fire, then pestilence strikes the Imperial Free City of Rhevensfurth. This is widely blamed on the actions of witches, sorcery, and heresy.
The Church, under High Magister Jùn, establishes the Most Holy Society for the Preservation of Sacred Knowledge – Under the guise of a Church library and archive Order, a new Inquisition is formed. Its role is to seek all hotbeds of heresy and purge them.
After years of mutual provocation, war breaks out between the Illuminated Empire of the Mòvadhi and The Sacred Magisterial Realm of Zarathenis. The object of the war is the domination of the buffer / frontier Grand Duchy of Lhünen / Forstmark, which the Empire seeks to conquer outright once and for all.
The merchant navies of Gingbatsching, Gispary, Pòran and Makliss convene to form the Hanseatic Confederation in order to have a joint forum to negotiate trade and naval protection policies. The Hanse comes to dominate economic policy for all those free cities, along with many others along the southern coast of Mondlokk.
Makliss, by this point under the influence of Thel-Hulun, leaves the Hanseatic Confederation. Maklissi ships are banished from Hanseatic trade routes. Eventually Makliss is simply not heard from again.
Second Great Pestilence comes to Vòh, eventually killing 60% of the population. The pestilence ravages the city for years. It is finally defeated with outside assistance, but the Church has suppressed any mention of the nature of that help or the party that rendered it.
A slave ship named Mórieèdh’s Wheel founders in a storm on a reef near the breach of the Cauldron. The survivors – on longboats, rafts, and wreckage – find shelter on the island. Soon they build a settlement which comes to be known to the inhabitants as The Cauldron. The Ekwara offer assistance and friendship.
A ship full of refugees from Vòh’s Great Pestilence finds The Cauldron by accident, and drops anchor. A party of exploration enters the old fastness on the rim of the caldera, and does not return.
The Illuminated Empire conquers the contested province Lhünen, wresting control of it from the Sacred Magisterial Realm.
Makliss is mysteriously abandoned; its inhabitants simply disappear.
Corsairs fill the power vacuum left by the much weakened Vòhene Navy; piracy becomes rampant; the Corsairs’ Reach gets its name.
The first Corsair Trading Company is formed by Arthur Grimsby and the vessel Pride of the Sea Mother.
Another Corsair Trading Company is formed in association with Herald Reinecke. Reinecke’s Trading Company secretly obtains Vòh’s only trading licence to Thèl-Hulùn; as there is no known sea route to that realm, the trading licence remains a mysterious curiosity not much remarked upon.
In a devastating blow, the Grimsby Family loses their flagship, the Pride of the Sea Mother, in a terrible storm up-reach of the Broken Spine Straits.
The Vòhene Corsair Trading Companies coalesce into the Brotherhood of Free Sailors. Nominally membership is open to all seafarers, but in practice it is confined to Vòh. The Brotherhood begins to purchase warehouses and other facilities in Vòh.
The Grimsby Trade Company purchases four new-built trade frigates and fits them out for a long distance expedition. They sail southeast down the Corsairs’ Reach, and then turn due east in search of lands beyond the sea, which had been hinted at on an ancient Drogasian map fragment found by Nelson Grimsby at a market in Lanyryck. He is not heard from again.
The Hanse embarks on an ill-fated expedition to bring Vòh to heel. The enterprise falls into a trap laid by the Vòhene Corsairs: a heavily-armed contingent of raiding vessels had sailed around Råld, even braving the Sea of Old Things, in order to trap the Hanseatic Navy in the Narrows of the Straits of Råld. The Hanseatic Navy is utterly defeated.
The Compact of Gispary brings the Hanseatic-Vòhene conflict to a close by accepting Vòh into the Hanseatic Confederation as a member in good standing. Dissenting elements in the old Hanse remain dissatisfied, but Vòh’s contribution to the Hanse’s prosperity is palpable.
The Wassermann family settles in Vòh, buying up warehouses, ships, and houses, attempting to force a seat on the Ducal Council.
While on a voyage to a plantation holding somewhere on the Corsair's Reach, Hans-Georg Graf von Wassermann's wife dies at sea. Wassermann returns aboard a different vessel than he sailed out on: the Pride of the Sea Mother. Upon his return, he marries Eveline, a young woman of unknown origin scarcely older than his own daughter.