Campaign History idea:

back to Old Continent

Ancient Powers at war

     In all of the World, well before the time of the 1st Miraborian Empire,  there were 10-12 extremely powerful godling/wizard-emperor/magical beings, each with many more powerful underlings. They constantly feuded with each other, and at times things escalated into open warfare. They grew in power until each was so strong that they had the ability to destroy the world with their firepower. At that time 3-4 of the "powers" realized that the wars would never end, and that eventually the world would be destroyed, bombarded into lifeless rubble. So the Four banded together, and did their best to end the situation. Alas, in the end, all they could do was to divide the world into multiple parts, and seal them away from each other. They created  walls around all of Emmenoru, Arastha and Hereddikh, subdividing each into 5 or six different regions. Miraboria and Mistland they left intact, as a single region, wherein they initially dwelled. In this way they hoped to enforce some sort of stalemate on their feuding compatriots. Once they had created their barrier, they discovered it was far more permanent than they had imagined, and they realized it would endure for tens of thousands of years, in all likelihood.

The powers who had isolated those areas were either trapped within, or, perhaps wishing to give the world a chance to heal, they left this plane and went elsewhere. No one is certain which, because they apparently left no records behind. Of course, the powers who were not part of the cooperative group who created the barriers, were caught within the walls wherever they happened to be at the time. What they did when they realized they had been trapped is, of course, also unknown. But by now tens of centuries,  have passed.

What Did Come to Pass:

There were once two "Powers" that were feuding over this part of the world (Bessair). They were not the greatest Powers, but rather some of their vice-lords, wizards or dragons or similar beings of immense but not overwhelming power. They raised armies, fought, decimated each other, and then subsided, only to arise again a few generations later; even after the great barriers rose, this has happened again and again. In fact, there have been eight separate periods of warfare, and at least two periods of "peace" during which one or the other power was in almost complete dominion. Once, the evil Power was caught, caged, and nearly destroyed; in fact, it is impossible for either the good or evil Power to destroy the other - they are bound in eternal servitude to their Greater Powers, and their souls are not here - much like liches, their life-preserving souls are stored elsewhere to keep them service. This, and the barrier, has ensured that neither side can truly win permanent victory. But for nearly a thousand years, peace and prosperity ruled here, and all was well. Then some evil or misguided souls freed the evil Power, possibly thinking they could control it and gain its powers for themselves. They were, of course, wrong; the evil overwhelmed them and was able to eventually seize control of most of Bretannia after a short, brutal conflict. For many generations, the good forces were knocked down, overwhelmed and outnumbered. Eventually, however, they came back, and fought again to a standstill. 

In the last phase of war (about 300-500 years ago), there were at least three "good" or neutral forces, each led by a powerful dragon or wizard. They were allies, but did not always see eye-to-eye, even though they ultimately all served the same Good Power. And there were at least two evil forces, one led by a wizard, and one by a three-headed Dragon, who both served the Evil Power. The good forces had many human, elf, fey, giant and dwarf groups on their side, as well as other creatures. On the evil side were arrayed orcs, goblins, hobgoblins, some demi-humans and humans, and many giants. On both sides were powerful wizards and priests of many gods; note that their gods were quite different from the gods of Miraboria today, as their faiths had diverged over the ages.

Eventually, the "good" side of the equation realized that they were NEVER going to defeat the evil side. They were certain that at some distant time in the future the barrier around their world would be breached, and their divinations encouraged them to believe that when this happened, Good would prevail, both in their realm and elsewhere. So they decided that it made more sense to attempt to prevent war, death and suffering until such time as that breach occurred. The most powerful leaders of the Good forces thus decided at a time when it seemed that evil was rising again, that they would hide away and protect as many of their own "good" peoples as they could, enchanting them in some way, effectively "storing" them away safely where evil could not reach them, in such a way that eventually they could be rescued and restored to their natural condition. The general population had little idea what was to happen, and were blindly convinced they were being rescued in some way. The Good Power used all of its energy to complete the transformation, and fell into somnolence for some indeterminate time. What actually happened was that the "good" peoples were gathered into specific places (the largest cities?) and pulled into pocket planes. There are perhaps as many as several dozen of these, each with an entrance hidden in a "fairy mound" or similar magical place. Getting into and out of these pocket domains is almost impossible. Within them, time has passed very slowly, on a ratio of about 30 to 1, so while 300 years has passed in the real world, about 10 has passed inside.

The forces of evil were also affected by what was done - the Great Evil Power was somehow drained of much of his vital energy, which was used to power the transformation of the "good" races. In the time since, the minions of evil have slowly grown to dominate the otherwise vacant island, but they are essentially leaderless and without focus. At least, as of yet. The "good leaders" were able to use a powerful magic artifact that had originally been created by the "evil leaders" - they were able to drain magic from them to power their pocket domains. What they did not realize is that at some point, the "evil leaders" will realize what is causing the drain, and they will attempt to direct their minions to destroy the artifact. Once that happens, the pocket domains will rupture, and all the folk in them will be returned to their current positions in the prime. The good leaders also drained themselves to create this effect. 

That was 300 years before the current campaign began.

Around 50 years before the campaign start, Baroness M'nea Touchstone, her henchmen and her magical island have (in some as yet unknown way or for some unknown reason) managed to penetrate the barrier around Bessair, and reconnect it to the rest of the world. Aricum has been rebuilt, the Barony of Touchstone established, and this change is causing everything on the island to begin to stir... What ended up weakening the barriers was the actual creation of the pocket domains. They stretched the walls of existence beyond what the original ritual could possibly endure, and the protective wall split in its weakest spot. If the pocket domains are not closed, eventually they will cause enough stress on the multiverse that all the walls will come crashing down; this may include barriers between other planes of existence, as well as the walls dividing up the world.

Language in Bretannia:

Bretannia, and the rest of the "old world" continents were cut off from Miraboria at the time of the Interregnum, a thousand years before the rise of the First Miraborian Empire. The languages that were used on Bretannia were diverse, but there are two major ones that remain on many ruins, and in rare written documents that have been found. After the separation of the two halves of the world, their languages continued to develop and diverge.

Scholars today in Aricum have named these languages as Elder Script One (it is called Uruul by its speakers) and Elder Script Two. Elder Script One is known somewhat better, and shows some linguistic connection to the tongue spoken during the First Miraborian Empire; both probably had the same root language, but are evolved in significantly different directions. Anyone who studies Ancient Miraborian and the scholarly treatises that have been written on this tongue can educate themselves (ie thieves can use Decipher Script on it).  It is believed that an approximate pronunciation is known, partly due to the use of magical command words that have been found with the use of Identification Magic. Magic can be used to translate this language into readable form. The symbols that are sometimes found engraved in ruins across Southmoor are related to Elder Script One. 

Elder Script Two  is even stranger. It appears only in a few places, on carved stone tablets and stelae. It is not speakable, by humanoid throats, and it is not known what creatures used it. Only magic has successfully translated any of it, and that imperfectly at best.