Businori Timeline

A timeline of Businori (Busilar and Tefori) Lore

474 - Crodamics in Busilar. Repbulic of Tef becomes independent due to fall of Damaneth

475 - Akani War of Secession. Draconic Xhaz.

477 - Crodamic peoples settled in Akan.

480 - End Draconic Xhaz. Tef invites the Bulwari. Founding of Abtanuz (Port Jaher).

481 - Crodamic Kingdom of Akasik founded.

482 - Tef begins to exert influence in mainland Businor.

486 - First Canno war between the Bulwari and Tef.

487 - Peace between Tef and the Bulwari. Canno remains under Tef.

488 - Sedoric I becomes king of Kheterata.

489 - The Bulwari take over the Border’s Coast. Establishment of the Milcori Protectorate.

495 - Battle of Tellum between the Bulwari and the Wexonards.

503 - Stonehold ruler builds a proper fortress with Bulwari help.

507 - Hayarbar (Hapainé) is founded.

512 - Second Canno war between the Bulwari and Tef.

517 - Ovdal Tûngr intervenes in favour of the Bulwari.

518 - Peace of Canno. The region becomes an independent kingdom.

519 - Stonehold becomes an independent kingdom allied with the Bulwari.

543 - Prince Arameh of Kišakur is born.

544 - War of the Sapphire in Kišakur. (Civil War)

547 - The Milcori Protectorate falls to the Wexonards.

548 - Arameh and his mother flee to Ovdal Tûngr.

551 - Great gnoll raid on Stonehold and Cannohap.

552 - Second gnoll warband descends from the Busilar range and raids the straits.

554 - Siege of Abtanuz. The Ilatani pay a tribute to the gnolls.

556 - Arameh becomes king of Kišakur by killing his cousin in battle.

569 - King Arameh of Kišakur lands with an army in Abtanuz.

570 - Stonehold and Canno surrender to Arameh.

578 - Battle of Khenahap between Arameh and the gnolls. The gnolls lose.

579 - Treaty of Lorinhap between Arameh and Tef. Everything north of the Busilari straits becomes part of Itrahureš. Arameh moves the capital from Kišakur to Abtanuz.

603 - Great Border war between Arameh’s League and the Kingdom of the Wexonards.

605 - Siege of Wexkeep.

606 - Arameh and the Wexonard king die in a duel. The Wexonard kingdom collapses.

610 - Stonehold regains independence, and takes over Cannohap.

666 - The gnolls become aggressive due to the Xhaz, and raid Itrahureš and Stonehold.

667 - Kišakur falls to the Third Xhaz.

675 - Arameh’s son starts the building of the Ascajar in Abtanuz.

678 - Alliance between Stonehold, Itrahureš, and Tef.

681 - Stonehold starts upgrading many of the old castros to proper citadels.

687 - Last great raid of the gnolls is defeated by Stonehold, Tef and Itrahureš.

688 - Start of the Golden Age of Businor, with low gnoll activity.

732 - The Arameh dynasty is replaced by the Sel-Lara dynasty of Hayarbar.

745 - Rule of Anahid Sel-Lara. The Ascajar is expanded with cool gardens.

782 - Death of Anahid Sel-Lara.

890 - After months of preparations, Halfdal Henriksson, second son of Henrik Divenscourge, directs his army of reavers towards the Tef Republic. The host splits in two, each group under one of the major captains, and invades the main island from both ends. The coastal cities fall quickly to combined assaults from land and sea, fear tactics and negotiation with local magistrates, wiith the capital capitulating to Halfdan after a month of mostly bloodless siege as he offers them a peaceful takeover. The Tefori patricians pay for Halfdan to not sack the capital, and he picks a Tefori wife amongst the daughters of the patricians to seal the peace. Tefkora became the capital of the new Reaver Kingdom of Tef instead of being sacked.

9 months and six days after the fall of Tefkora and the marriage of Halfdal, Henrik Halfdalsson, first son of Halfdal, is born.

891 - New Tefkora, the last bastion of Tefori loyalists, falls to Gunnar Derhilding's reavers. With the main cities and all the coast of Tef itself taken, the Tefori Republic ceases to exist. The reaver hold over the inner parts of the islands is tenuous at best, however, and it becomes a refuge for those who refused to bend the knee or those against the law.

The next two years see Tef used as a staging ground for raids against Verne, Gnollish Busilar and Akan.

894 - A fleet of reavers, confident after the capture of Damerian cargo in the Busilar straits a month earlier, sails east and, by chance, find a royal ship of Yametses on its trip from Gemisle to the mainland. The band captures the ship and two crates full of sapphires, and soon the tale spreads to Tef itself.

895 - A significant number of reavers sail east towards the famed island of gems, with many groups landing on Gemisle itself while others try their luck on the Yametsesi mainland, even attacking trade posts and ships of Dwarven origin. The reaver raids and the attacks on his main source of income push the King of Yametses to action, and soon the entire Yametsesi navy engages the reavers in the entire gulf with the support of the Copper Dwarven fleet.

896 - A combination of both Yametsesi and Tûngric fleets and a gathering of 60 reaver ships led by a minor captain named Alfr Sigvaldsson fight a naval battle in front of Gemisle, with the Bahari side winning a decisive victory. Alfr is killed and the remaining reavers return to Tefkora, where Halfdal has been getting rich off of the raids on both coasts of the Divenhal. The Reaver King then made a new call for all reavers in the Divenhal… after getting in contact with the Yametsesi ruler via his court mage.

897 - Halfdal himself and most of the reavers personally loyal to him (more than 150 ships at this point) come to Yametses with great amounts of goods for trade and more than enough swords to fight a proper Bulwari army. This force, however, waits at a camp next to the Yametsesi capital as Halfdal and the king negotiate in private, and a deal is struck with Halfdal adopting the Bulwari custom of polygamy and taking one of the daughters of the ruler of Yametses as his second wife.

The Reaver kingdom of Halfdal and Yametses start what would eventually become the main naval route from Western Cannor to Bulwar in the following centuries, leaving the city Yametses under the protection of the Bahari kingdom and then crossing the Busilari straits under the vigilance of the Reaver kings (paying a toll, of course) before reaching Pearlsedge undisturbed, then going on towards their eventual destinations in the mainland.

And after such a deal was struck, Yametses and Halfdal allied against Aqatbar, the main enemy of the former. Both fleets combined soon achieved superiority in the Eastern Divenhal Sea, with the reavers focusing on cutting off all trade and naval connections of their common enemy and seizing the island of Pir Ail for themselves as an eastern base of operations. Drolas, the main ally of Aqatbar, is cut off with the fall of Pir Ail and the reaver dominance of the seas.

899 - Aqatbar defends itself well. The same cannot be said about Drolas, however, as a new reaver force leaves New Tefkora. After months of careful preparation, Gunnar Derhilding sails for the peninsula of Drolakand against a realm that has been entirely unable to defend its coastline ever since Halfdal's reavers dealt it a sound defeat at the Glass Isles months earlier. The Prince of Deranne landed on the northern tip of the peninsula and rushed in with his mainly Olavish force, entering the Drolasesi capital in a matter of weeks. Legend says he climbed the walls with a group of his best men as a solar eclipse darkened the skies.

901 - Gunnar controls more than half of Drolas, with more captains joining his victorious army as he aims to push south, take the isthmus and thus end the enemy kingdom. Meanwhile, however, Yametses and Aqatbar make peace as the king of Yametses dies, with the kingdom changing its ruling clan and making Halfdal’s second marriage lose most of its value (trade keeps flowing). The Reaver Kingdom gained Pir Ail and the right to toll Aqatbari ships in exchange for protection.

This peace lets Halfdal follow the tale of a land deep south where gods walk amongst men and great riches await. As such, he leaves Bulwar to raid the Kheteratan coasts, capturing the island of Ibtat and making it his main port to gather his ever growing hoard. This is where his second son, Sigvald Halfdalsson, was born in the year 902, grandson of the previous ruler of Yametses.

902/906 - Halfdal spends the next five years attacking the land of the Mother’s Sorrow, culminating in the great sacking of Aakheta. The destruction and chaos reach a point where the Khetarch himself sends messengers to Halfdal, offering yearly tribute in exchange for a stop to the raids. The reaver accepts, and while Gunnar and his men are still fighting wars in Bulwar, the wealth of Halfdal becomes a legend all across the Divenhal as he surrounds his throne with gold and jewels. Now known as “the Hoarder”, Halfdal Henriksson proclaimed the Kingdom of the Divenhal Sea, most commonly known as the Divenhal Kingdom, with its capital set on Ibtat. One of his first decisions as a proper king is to send his eldest son, Henrik, back to Tef with his mother to rule in his stead and secure the loyalty of the island.

903/908 - Meanwhile, on mainland Bulwar, the now isolated Drolasesi king offers vassalage to the Republic of Brasan in exchange for help, and the Bulwari realm joins the fray (904). Alongisde the Brasanni phalanx come numerous Gnollish mercenaries who engage in a great number of small skirmishes with the reavers, with the Brasanni turning to sieges and countersieges. Gunnar’s reavers do their best to avoid facing the phalanxes in the open, instead defending cities and attacking ports and supply lines.

909 - The Hoarder sat upon his throne in Ibtat, gathering more and more wealth in the form of tolls and tributes. He now looked at the unending conflict in Drolas as the only threat to his rule over the sea, both from a possible Brasanni victory or from Gunnar Derhilding gaining glory and more followers and challenging his rule after almost a decade in a war of his own.

It was then when Halfdal signed peace with Brasan, returning a number of cities in Drolas and confirming Brasan’s rule over the southern peninsula in exchange for his recognition as King of the Divenhal Sea and his rule over northern Drolas. Together, Brasan and the Divenhal kingdom establish a tribute to the Gerudians equal to 5% of the benefits from the trade going down the Suran, and in turn connected Brasan to their established trade route from Pearlsedge to Yametses, this one going from Tef to Ibtat then to Brasan itself. Halfdal took one last wife to settle the peace.

This peace made Gunnar furious, even more so when he found out that Halfdal had bought his non-Derannic captains with Brasanni gold. The king offers Gunnar himself one option: to accept a payment in gold for his efforts and leave the Divenhal sea to never return. Knowing that the only alternative would be to fight a bitter war against all the other reavers, Gunnar took the gold and all the followers who remained loyal to him and returned home, arriving at Deranne in the spring of 910.

910/930 - Trade flourishes between Cannor and Bulwar, with the Divenhal Kingdom becoming a guarantee for merchants who knew that, as long as they paid the toll, their safety was ensured by the dominant power in the area.

* Tef was mostly pacified by Henrik Halfdalsson during these years, with insurgent activity being reduced to bands of bandits in the center mountains of the island. One of his reaver captains, a Gerudian woman by the name of Estrid av Orstengard, did what no one had done ever since Daravan flooded the Folly and navigated the Dostanesck upwards, fighting off attacks from Flamemarked gnollish packs and reaching Bal Dostan after weeks of travel. The news was excellent for Castan LI, son of Castan XLIX Ebonfrost, who took this chance to invite Estrid and her band of reavers to Castonath. When she returned to Tef, she brought a treaty encouraging trade in the Dostanesck and assuring the Tefori reavers that Castanor would gladly pay for the protection of its merchants in the Dostanesck and the Divenhal itself.

Estrid herself would settle an island off the coast of the ruins of Corveld, a trade post that would be ravaged by the White Pestilence and, after Nathalyne’s intervention, would become the city of Nathalaire.

* In the east, the only resistance came from Bulwari people who resisted the reaver domination of Drolas, mainly in the form of locals and old veterans from the war against the Gerudians attacking patrols and tax collectors. Their leader was a mystery, known only as Išhilibar (Shardscar) because of a scar that ran across his right eye, leaving him one-eyed.

930 - Halfdal, rich and by then a 53 year old man, was returning from the border between his kingdom and Brasan with the riches from the last 3 years of the Brasanni toll when a band of warriors wearing old Drolasesi armor ambushed his entourage, with the feared Išhilibar leading them. The reaver shieldwall held firm against the hail of arrows and javelins that struck the defenders, yet they were surrounded by both sides in a gorge.

Išhilibar challenged Halfdan to single combat, and the reaver king accepted.

After a long duel, Išhilibar takes a deadly wound to the side and uses the space that gives him to drive his now broken spear into the Hoarder’s left eye, killing him instantly. He then collapsed on top of his victim and killer, and after a moment of silence both sides retrieved their leader and left with honor.

It was later known that Išhilibar was the brother of the last king of Drolas, (insert cool Bulwari name and surname), who apparently refused to surrender and kept leading the last loyal Drolasesi instead.

The death of the Hoarder sparks revolts in reaver-controlled Drolas. Brasan declares war on the Divenhal Kingdom, and the popular revolts together with Brasanni troops take over the countryside as the reavers hold onto coastal cities.

933 - Sigvald, the second son, inherits the eastern parts of a Divenhal kingdom in crisis and decides to surrender the remaining coastline cities to Brasan iin exchange for peace. He himself converts to a syncretic variant of the Cult of the Ešeral Mitellu in an attempt to improve relations with the Bulwari realms, yet it fooled few: the Divenhalic power had been broken in central Bulwar. The tides had turned and Brasan was now growing in power, but Sigvald still had more than enough gold and friends in Bahar and Tef to keep his power.

945 - Sigvald dies in a storm as he travels to Yametses to meet his family on the maternal side. The Divenhal kingdom splits, with the Reaver Kingdom of Tef becoming its own thing after being a de facto reality for more than a decade. The Reaver possessions in Bulwar split into Reaver Ibtat ruled by Sigvald’s oldest son and small reaver captains in the Glass isles and Pir Ail.

While the Reaver Kingdom of Tef keeps control of the Busilari and Tefori straits and the way to Yametses, maritime trade in Bulwar collapses as the entity that kept naval safety in the area turned into the very thing it kept in check. The independent reaver crews mix with the Drolasesi pirates they once subdued, and fishing suffered greatly from pirate attacks. The coast from Aqatbar all the way to Brasan fills with hideouts and smuggler dens.

1006 - Jaher cleans the islands and coasts of pirates shortly after arriving in Bulwar, ending decades of piracy and gaining great respect from the Bulwari even before landing.

1022 - Ibtat is the only pirate island left, ruled by a descendant of Halfdal. Will be ended by Jaher on request from the Khetarch, who graciously gifts it to the elf.