Sunday, January 16, 2011

History of the Dark Country

About a month ago I made a post about history in sandbox games.  I thought I'd share my campaign setting's history.  Note to current/potential players: your character wouldn't know about anything before 2000 BP.  If you don't feel like you can keep player and character knowledge separate, don't read this.
  • Time Immemorial -- The War in Heaven.  The God of Law casts rebellious angels into the Pit and creates the material plane to house the ones too cowardly to join in the fight.  In this way fairies were loosed upon the world.
  • After that -- The first race of non-angels comes into existence.  They are the Cyclops.  They build a great empire and wield terrifying magics.  They create the race of Men to serve them as slaves.   The demons trick them into allowing them to enter the material plane.  The Cyclops' civilization crumbles, but without worshipers the demons grow dormant.
  • Later -- The Dwarves separate themselves from fairy-kind and begin to worship the God of Law.  They become mortal (though they have ridiculously long life spans by human standards).  Their kingdoms cover the World.  One kingdom delves too greedily and too deep and finds a demon.  Some begin to worship it.  Thus Goblins are created.  Dwarven civilization crumbles due to wars without end.
  • Even Later -- Humans crawl out of the muck of their origins and find civilization.  Some worship the God of Law, but most just pray to the Old Gods so that they are not eaten.  The origin of the Old Gods is unclear.
  • c. 2000 BP -- The Empire is founded.
  • c. 1500 BP -- The Empire invades the Dark Country.
  • c. 1000 BP -- Barbarians come over the mountains and expel the Empire. The Empire collapses shortly thereafter.
  • c. 250 BP -- The Sword Brothers enter the Dark Country with an army of clerics and merchants.
  • c. 200 BP -- Recognizing the corrupt nature of the Sword Brothers, the people of the West marshal a crusade against them.  Nightwick Abbey is destroyed.
  • c. 100 BP -- The Seven Cities start loosing ground against the pagans.
So that gives me Cyclopean, Dwarven, Imperial, Pagan, and Sword Brother ruins to scatter about the map.

2 comments:

  1. sounds like you could paraphrase judeo/christian myth -

    the dragon swept its tail and 1/3rd of the angels fell from the sky (Rev 12:4)

    Some of the fallen angels (demons), were so rebellious and vile, that they would not follow the command of the great dragon; therefore, they were driven from hell and reside in the abyss or great pit (Rev 9).

    Devils are more commonly encountered then demons, because of their alignment (LE), they still follow the commmands of the great Law giver.
    ( Job 1: 8-12 , Matt 4)

    like it,hate it,
    believe it, dont believe it,
    or mostly neutral
    the midieval church of our earth

    serves as a great inspiration for campaign design.

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  2. Nice and tidy. What I like most is that it's skeletal, so you've incorporated appropriate detail without painting yourself into a corner. I find the ability to add details later is important, so this structure is very appealing.

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