Part 54: Regarding the Count of Years in History

Regarding the Count of Years in History

The first history which is known to the dwarves which can have its time estimated is, I estimate, about eleven hundred years before the formation of the Confederation. At that time dwarven tyrants ruled over little city-states on Dvergursheim, and any other race was unknown to the dwarves. Over the next four hundred years, the tyrants were cast down, free dwarven kingdoms established, and dwarven settlement established on Osterland, as well as the eastern portions of Westerland and Trollsheim, there encountering the western limits of settlement of trolls and beastkin. At this time the six dwarven kingdoms of antiquity were all founded, two each on Dvergursheim and Osterland, and a single kingdom each on Osterland and Trollsheim. Over the next three hundred years the kingdoms of the dwarves had various little wars, but time was largely dominated by trade and the slowly increasing perfection of crafts and knowledge.

Then, about four hundred years before the formation of the Confederation of Wizards, the dark elves arrived in Myrror, marking the first connection made between Arcanus and Myrror. By the time they came, it had been about one hundred years since elven wizards and their followers had cast down Rjak the Defiler, who had reigned for about a hundred fifty years before that over an empire forged with the aid of the orcs he had created. The five hundred years following the arrival of the dark elves saw the surging power of the Dark Elven Empire, which subjugated the whole of the Great Archipelago, enthralling beastkin, dragonkin, and dwarves. The four remaining dwarven kingdoms had by the end formed a great alliance, ready to fight for their freedom, and it seemed that a great final war loomed between the oppression of the Dark Elven Empire and the free kingdoms of the dwarves.

It was then, in the year of the Confederation 102, that the Confederation of Wizards completed the great towers they had prepared to permit an invasion of Myrror. The might of many wizards was set against Myrror, and, by 128, the whole of Myrror belonged to the Confederation. The Confederation reigned on Myrror for nearly five hundred years until Harglak the Red Sorcerer, an orcish wizard-lord of the Confederation noted for his skill in Sorcery and in Dark magic, performed some act of magic whose intended effect remains, at this point, a mystery. What is not a mystery is that the true effect of his actions was a surge in the powers of magic across both worlds, summoning disasters and monsters that ran rampant through all of the worlds. Every wizard of the Confederation perished in the chaos, and folk of all kinds died in terrible numbers. Many lands were entirely depopulated- one such land was Osterland, which was resettled by dark elves and dragonkin fleeing devastation to the east. Much learning and skill was forgotten amidst the dying of the learned and the skilled, the constant peril to survivors, and the destruction of records, documents, and tools of old. The dangers of the years following the collapse slowly lessened, however, and, by approximately 1300, the worlds were once again more or less stable, although recovery of the pockets of settlement that remained was slow. Many of my own dwarven or elven readers will remember the years before then. Over the next century, the emergence of true wizards with an ability to master magic on the deepest levels once again came to pass- Sss'ra was born in 1344, I was born in 1365, and Horace Truesteel was born in 1377. Although the year of Tauron's birth is unknown, he was advising kings of the low men since about the 1340s. As the survivors of the worlds rebuilt, settlement and trade has flourished since about 1400, and many of the monsters threatening the worlds have been destroyed. Many of the secrets of magic have once again been researched, and civilization has again made strides of progress. Now, in the present day, we have various strong and expansive kingdoms, supported by the skills of wizards. It is my sincere hope that the folk and the wizards of the worlds shall be blessed with wisdom, such that all the folk of the worlds might find prosperity and happiness, and that the shadow of war shall not trouble us in the future.