Historical Events

Eldar Wars - A historical term for the inexactly recorded conflicts of the First Age. Mostly between the First Velascan Empire and the elven nation of Argens as the latter overcame the former and cast it down. But also refers to the long past feud between elves and dwarves that split both groups into the nations we know today as Rohall and Makaan on the dwarven side and Flaeaness and Argens on the elven side. Racked by the Upheaval elven culture was left vulnerable to dwarven aggression and while the Argenian culture remains extant in many smaller enclaves it has become almost completely defunct as a polity.

The Upheaval - Four thousand years ago at the end of the Second Age, a massive meteorite struck northern Ortugan and changed the face of Rakendawn. Ash filled the air, quickly plunging the planet into a full-blown ice age that lasted a century and caused havoc with the fairly primitive societies of the time, some of whom have never recovered. Volcanic lava flowed over the Worldspine and destroyed most of northern Ancalamar outright. Ortugan itself was seemingly tilted, causing its eastern coast to rise hundreds of feet in the air in some places.

Ullda Gap Incursions - The Upheaval created a fourth route through the Worldspine, broad and flat. Almost as soon as the massive lava flow cooled enough to walk on, demons from Mount Korah began stampeding over it in large numbers. The first Incursion was devastating to the dwarven tribes of Ancalamar, who were forced to flee underground in large numbers, but served to motivate the chieftains to create the nation of Rohall. Since then each successive Incursion has been less damaging than those that came before, primarily due to the stout defense mounted by the soldier-citizens and resident levies of Rohall.

Wars of the Troika - A series of conflicts between Cameleopardis, Emlund, and Rohall that centered around control of the Sea of Olaris and the Straits of Fiobar out of it into the Dopelier Ocean to the west of Ancalamar and Haringia. Territory between the three nations and occasionally others was traded back and forth for the entirety of the first half of the Fourth Age without a conclusive result.

Olaris War - Late in the Fourth Age the nation of Makaan had become the dominant power in Rakendawn. Though Emlund and Sarcasionne had traded dominance of the seas back and forth for centuries, recent advancements in magic and materials had granted the dwarven nation control of a new frontier: that of the sky. While mages had ventured into the stratosphere since the time of the Circle of Nine, it had not been the province of the mundane until now. The crafty dwarves had tested their designs in secret during the conquest of the adamant-rich steppes of Gurkhul and constructed their fleet with the slave labor of the goblins who lived there. Now overseen by a fleet of militarized airships, Makaan's heretofore formidable armies became almost invincible and swept across Haringia faster than any before. Almost every nation on the continent fell under the thumb of Makaan, with only the Cameleopardan hippogriff cavalry able to make any headway against the dwarven menace. It was only when Rohall came into the fight against their ancestral brothers that the tide turned. The war was long and bloody and left most of Haringia a burning ruin, both from the normal effects of violent conflict as well as mana-sealed areas on a scale never seen before that resulted from battles on scales never seen before.

The Treaty of Threshold - The end of the Olaris War left most of the demihuman world in shambles, but the victorious nations of the Troika (Rohall, Emlund, and Cameoleopardis) made a valiant attempt to forge some good out of that devastating conflict. The nation of Velasco was created as a safe haven for the few remaining draconians, who migrated from all corners of the world to live there in what was intended to be peace. Similarly the nation of Rectifii was brought into being in an attempt to quell the long-running conflicts in the area. The Makaanian occupation of Gurkhul was ended, although the region is still suffering from the fallout of that to this day. And lastly the Camelan Union was formed in a mostly successful attempt to prevent another conflict on the same ghastly scale.

Bargle Subjugation - For thousands of years Bargle the Black had menaced the civilized world with invasions, rebellions, and reality-threatening dark rituals. Sequestered in the wilds of Styria, his reign eventually came to an end at the hands of the Rohall Republican Guard who in a daring midnight raid airdropped onto the summit of his mountain holdfast and put an end to his evil for all time, interrupting yet another occult ceremony designed to increase his personal power.

The Sundering - Less a singular event and more a series of troubles that marked the end of the Fourth Age and the beginning of the Fifth, the Sundering is the most significant event of modern times. While most remember the attack on the Skyway that caused such horrific devastation in the Rohall city of Kinhaven, historians point to the departure of divine magic as the true start of the Sundering. By the end of the Fourth Age, civilizations were much less dependent on divine magic for medicine and sustenance but its sudden absence still sent shockwaves throughout most cultures. The Pristine Frontier has also begun to decay faster than it can be repaired, allowing more frequent demonic incursions into Ortugan. The fact that the 'civilized' nations of that continent have been prioritizing their own defense has lead to a dramatic exodus of goblinoids from the southern regions, primarily over the World Spine to Haringia and the newly created Camelan Union. The one positive was the apparent death of Bargle the Black, an immortal wizard who had caused a great deal of strife over the millennia.

Goblinoid Migrations - Conditions in Styria and Gurkhul have caused a surge of economic migrants from those areas to other places in Rakendawn. Not accepted in neighboring Serovan or the Ortugani Shogunate, modern technology has enabled them to travel to Haringia in numbers heretofore impossible. Hobgoblins, goblins, and even ogres have flooded into the wealthy nations west of the Worldspine in a peaceful echo of the violent invasions of their forebears. While many of these migrants are simply pursuing a better lifestyle the unfortunate truth is that they are bringing an entirely different set of societal mores incompatible with the laws and culture of Haringia. The various nations of that continent are handling the influx in different ways: some well, some badly, and some disastrously.