Teredahar History & Mythology: The Conquest

(Rob: I'd like to point out that 2015 had two Friday the 13ths in a row. Neat.)

The Conquest was a series of wars fought between the Legion Drakoni and the Empire of Tan'Rar. In only 20 years the Drakoni armies were able to surge outwards from their island homeland and, through a combination of superior weaponry and tactics, bring the Empire to its knees. I'm going to focus on how they were able to do this and a few key events that made it possible.

After the Age of Settlers

The Age of Settlers was a great and prosperous time for Tan'Rar. The Spellweavers had successfully conjured the entire continent of Teredahar for the Empire to claim. Cities were being founded, resources discovered, and trade routes established to bring those resources back to fuel Tan'Rar's industries. This rapid expansion had a major drawback, however: defense.

Tan'Rar established a second capitol in the region called Tannock in Teredahar's north. Between the two capitols the Empire was able to effectively govern but not control Teredahar's massive territory. The Drakoni saw this weakness and used it to great advantage. When their airships first arrived in the skies of what would become Kurudar in TR 6183 they were met with only token resistance as the Elvish forces were too spread out to challenge them.

Invasion

Since their last war both the Elves and Drakoni knew the advantage of airships in battle, but whereas the Elves development focused on mounting ever-more-numerous guns and carrying increasingly large cargoes to and from the new continent, the Drakoni built lightly-armed carrier ships and invented boarding tactics taking advantage of their natural ability to fly (called "dragon drop" by the elves). Their fast, agile airships allowed them to easily capture defending Elvish ships, deploy rapidly, and keep their supply lines moving.

As the Drakoni gained territory they would enslave the local peasantry to produce food and materiel for their armies under threat of starvation. The Drakoni also used slave labour to construct several keeps, airship facilities, and engineering projects throughout their occupation of Tan'Rar. By winter of TR 6188 the Drakioni controlled all of southern and western Teredahar and were closing around Syldar and Tannock, both regions now cut off from supplies coming from Loraida.

The Legion Drakoni quickly conquered the remaining large settlements in Syldar in the spring of TR 6189, the northern capitol region of Tannock was much better defended. The Tannock Shield Mountains are high enough to be nigh-impenetrable by airship and the climate of Tannock is much colder than the cold-blooded Drakoni were used to dealing with. Instead of sweeping through Tannock as they had the rest of Teredahar, they were forced to lay siege to Elvish strongholds guarding the passes through the mountains.

Counterattack

During the invasion of Teredahar the Empire kept a sizable portion of its navy and airship fleet around Loraida to defend the homeland. Several small incursions were successfully repelled but the Legion seemed to be fully occupied with conquering Teredahar and showed little sign of desiring to invade Loraida as well.

In Spring 6189 with seemingly the full force of the Legion occupied holding territory in Teredahar, the generals commanding Loraida's forces planned a decapitation strike: They would bring as large a force as they could as quickly as they could to the Drakoni home islands, capture their cities, kill their leaders, and force them to withdraw from Teredahar.

A force of fifty ships and a dozen airships were mustered from Loraida's defenders. Under the command of General Näsir they voyaged into the uncharted waters where the Drakoni home islands were known to rest. No Elvish ship had ever traveled into this region and returned; a record that would remain unbroken for centuries more.

Notes released later by the Drakoni ruling council recount that due to Drakoni universal conscription and the widespread arming of populations throughout their home territory, the Elves were never able to hold a safe port for very long before being driven out by well-trained and -armed local militias. The Elvish fleet survived for five months harrying Drakoni coastal cities with hit-and-run tactics until the need for supplies and continuous damage to their ships forced them to attempt a retreat. By that time it was early fall and an ocean storm is believed to have destroyed what remained of the fleet.

Catastrophe

The failed counterattack drew the focus of the Legion down upon Loraida, where it fell like a hammer. Few records exist of what happened next, but it is known that in mid-autumn an immense force of Drakoni and even Dragons themselves descended upon Loraida bent on wiping Tan'Rar out as they had failed to do ages before. Survivors tell of fire falling from great black storm-clouds and sundering the great stone towers at Rakos Bridge, black-armored Drakoni death-squads dropping from airships and massacring entire villages, and great red Dragons burning acres of countryside to ash. When it was all over, Loraida was completely depopulated and the continent that once cradled  the weary Elvish race now holds nothing but ruins.

The capture of Tannock in 6191 and the utter destruction of cities on Loraida ended the Empire of Tan'Rar. The Elves would suffer under Drakoni rule for nearly 200 years before seeing freedom.

Gameplay Notes

• Teredahar is dotted with numerous small built by Elves or Drakoni during the fight for Teredahar. 
• Ancient battlefields and relics of the war are numerous.  
• The entire continent of Loraida (South of Teredahar) is full of bones and ruins. The Ashram Academy has a permanent expedition there constantly bringing back interesting trinkets.

Next Week

Next week we'll have some lighter fare and talk about an unambiguously-good (something rare if you're paying attention) faction: The Wayfarer Guides.

Teredahar History & Mythology - Dragonblight

No force in history is more powerful than disease. In real-world history disease is a far more effective killer than battle and war. The same is true in Teredahar. Disease is inescapable, and no disease has had a greater impact on the world's history than Dragonblight.

Dragonblight is a rapidly-spreading airborne fungus that grows on and under the scales of most lizards. If allowed to grow, the blight secretes chemicals that cause the scales to become brittle and break off prematurely. Most lizards shed scales often enough that the blight's effects do not cause any significant harm. Dragons, however, live so long and grow so slowly after reaching adulthood that they cannot regrow scales fast enough to keep up with scale loss caused by the blight. As the blight spreads, dangerous gaps in an afflicted dragon's scales begin to open up. Dragonblight itself is not deadly; rather these scale gaps leave the dragon vulnerable to injury or infection which eventually prove deadly.

It is believed that Dragonblight was brought to the Dragons' homeworld Prime when the Teredahar continent was conjured. The Elves of Tan'Rar built Teredahar by intentionally merging several Shards drifting in the Void into Prime. Elvish scholars suspect that the Dragonblight fungus came from one of these shards. Regardless of where it came from, it first infected dragons and drakoni during their wars on Teredahar.

The infection spread quickly through ranks of drakoni footsoldiers and their true-dragon masters. It takes weeks for an infection of dragonblight to start showing symptoms. The delay meant by the time its effects were first noticed among the forward troops the blight already had already spread to the Home Islands and had much of the high command in its sights. Rampant dragonblight infections proved disastrous for the dragon forces, causing the collapse of their occupation of Tan'Rar. Efforts to eradicate the fungus from the Home Islands were unsuccessful. Untimately, more than three-quarters of dragons over 150 years of age and nearly all of the Acnient dragons died in the following millennia. Drakoni, who can resist the blight's effects, became the ruling class of dragon society. Their culture eventually replaced that of dragons in the draconic-speaking world.

Gameplay Notes

• Dragons. Are. Rare. There's less than a handful of great wyrms left in the world. Most dragons don't live through adulthood. 
• Blighted Dragons have reduced natural armour and physical stats depending on how advanced the blight's damage is. 
• Advanced dragonblight leaves the sufferer open to other diseases. Common secondary symptoms of dragonblight are blindness, lethargy, and insanity. 
• Surviving wyrms seclude themselves from other dragonkin (Dragons, Drakoni, Lizardfolk, etc.) who can carry blight spores and disease without knowing it.
• An example, Kezzadraz the Desert King is a blue great wyrm who secludes himself inside a cave overlooking the Drakoni city of Voltac. Nobody has seen him in years. He only allows select personal handlers into his presence and rumor has it his mind is going.

Next Time

This concludes Dragon Week. Bit of a downer ending, I know, but the Drakoni have a rich culture that carries on the dragons' legacy. I've got articles planned that will explore their culture in exquisite detail and I guarantee it will make them stand out from other races like the Dragonborn of D&D.

Next week will premiere the second new article-series of 2015: Cities in-depth, wherein I'll describe one of the major cities of Teredahar complete with notes on its architecture, layout, culture, and a stat block for use with Pathfinder.

Teredahar History & Mythology - Drakoni Religion

During the millennia of living as a worker/soldier underclass among Dragon society, the Drakoni were unwelcome in Dragon religious circles. During this time they formed their own spiritual beliefs more suited to their place in society.

The Way of the Forge

Kos Szar ha kos Széth

The Drakoni religion is centered around the notion that work itself is sacred, and that all objects of artifice are imbued with a bit of divine power. The blacksmith at his forge creates a sword imbued with a fragment of divinity using tools that are themselves religious objects. The symbol of a blacksmith forging weapons, armour, and other tools is commonly used in religious teachings, giving the faith its common name, The Way of the Forge.

Priest-Masters

Vánáhaek

It is expected that when a follower of The Way of the Forge can no longer practice their profession due to injury or age they become priest-master. Priest-masters are part cleric, part teacher, and part judge. It is the duty of each priest-master to ensure that his or her profession keeps a healthy number of apprentice and journeyman members and maintains high standards of both instruction and product quality. Priest-masters evaluate apprentices and journeymen and decide when they may move up in the ranks. They are also able to reprimand bad teachers and shoddy workmen, imposing demotions, fines, or in extreme cases banishing members from their profession.

Tools are divine.

Haß-sen Hrak

Any craftsman's tools are considered religious artifacts, because they are used to perform work in sacred professions. The Way of the Forge recognizes any crafting profession as an expression of faith, but primarily its practitioners are weaponsmiths, armourers, scribes, tanners, fletchers, and alchemists. Practitioners' tools are often of the finest quality, built of durable materials and adorned in ways that do not impede their function. Retired crafters who become priest-masters often posses less functional, decorative versions of their tools made which they display or carry as religious icons.

Crafting is worship.

Váháleth kha Shenéth

Certain recipes, designs, and methods are sacred to the Way of the Forge. Using these are akin to performing religious rites. They are precise and must be followed correctly or risk reprimand from a priest-magister. These recipes do not encompass all products; rather they are a standardized set of commonly-needed artifacts. Examples are sword blades, armour plates, and inks.

Divinity is made.

Shenéth-sen Haßkar

The act of making some piece of artifice imbues it with with a piece of the craftsman's soul, as well as the souls of the makers of all of that craftsman's tools. The combination of these souls is called the kash verséth (lit. "small power"), the power of the souls in the artifact. Craftsmen make tools for other craftsmen who use them in their own trade, spreading the power of their souls throughout the world.

Gameplay Notes

Followers of The Way of the Forge are primarily Drakoni, but some Dwarves identify with and follow the Way as well. Here are some notes for playing followers of this religion.

• Practitioners of The Way will be invested in a crafting skill and own a masterwork set of tools for their craft.
• The religion's alignment is Lawful Good.
• The religion's domains are Artifice, Law, Rune, and Knowledge.
• If a follower uses a holy symbol, it will be an ornate but functional tool of their chosen crafting skill. Golden holy symbols are often steel with golden inlays rather than pure gold as it is a soft metal generally not suited for tools.
• A follower will know at least one priest-master either directly or through their teacher
• Priest-masters function as a psuedo-governmental / regulatory body for most crafting professions in Drakoni-controlled regions

Next Time

Next week's article will introduce a new article series: Factions. It will cover the Drakoni caste system and the factions within it.

Teredahar History & Mythology: The First & Second Dragon Wars

Happy New Year! Welcome to Dragon Month. All this month I'll be writing about Dragons an their bloody history with the Elves. 

Planar Collisions

Ten thousand years ago the Elves' homeworld was shattered by the wars of its would-be stewards. This cataclysm flung pieces of their world outwards into the Void, becoming what are called Shards. These Shards carried terrain, raw materials, and even survivors of the cataclysm outwards across the Void in all directions. Currents in the Void brought some of these Shards to Prime, where they collided with it.

A plane collision isn't like a meteorite. They don't fall from the sky in balls of fire or create massive explosions when they land. Rather, a collision is more like stacking sheets of transparent plastic. One minute there's an ocean, the next there's an island. Whatever was there before is displaced, either out into the void or to somewhere else on the same plane (usually in a million small pieces).

What does this have to do with the Dragon Wars? Well, the Dragons had never seen a plane collision before. If one minute there's a city and the next there's a mountain, would it not be reasonable to think you were under attack? The cataclysm caused hundreds of shard collisions all over Prime.

First Contact

The Elves arrived on Prime in the year zero their calendar (TR 0), early in the wave of shard collisions that would continue until TR 317. In TR 40 the Elves' new civilization caught the interest of the Dragons. First contact was made that year when the Dragons' council sent the Gold Dragon Praetor Khalizanth to meet with the Elvish King Amastatica. Khalizanth granted the Elves a broad tract of uninhabited land on the world's southern continent (Goldgrace, Loraida) as their domain, and let them be.

Disaster and War

By TR 150 the Elves had outgrown Goldgrace and claimed more territory on Loraida without the Dragons' leave. This did not yet attract the Dragons' ire, not until three things happened: A wave of plane collisions across the south transformed large swaths of dragon-held mountain steppes into grassland, Elvish settlers began openly worshiping their own gods and built their first temples, and a plane collision erased the Grand Citadel of Bahamut from existence, replacing it with an inland sea (The Eye of Eternity). The highly religious Dragon deemed that the Elves' gods sought to destroy their own, and ordered the destruction of the Elves.

The First Dragon War was a near-total rout for the Elves. By some estimates three quarters of Loraida was burned when the Dragons struck. Only intervention by Khalizanth and his Golden Army saved the Elves from being wiped out. Once again the Elves were boxed in on Goldgrace; forced to renounce their gods and live meagerly.

Aside: Time & Generations

It may seem a little preposterous to have a civilization exist for 2000 or 10000 years and not advance further than this. To that I say, "what a very Human perspective." Elves are not humans. Dragons are not humans. Both races have average lifespans an order of magnitude longer than Humans. Why should their society advance at the same speed as ours? Elves don't even reach adulthood until they're 110 years old! Dragons are about the same. Both races can live to be over 1000 years old. Two lifetimes from grass huts to massive cities seems pretty fast now, doesn't it? For some parts of the real world that's about spot on.

Peace

By TR 317 the plane collisions stopped. Two years later the King of Tan'Rar negotiated control of more territory for the Elves (mostly grassland) to expand their kingdom. Centuries of relative peace followed and Tan'Rar continued to grow. As long as the Elves were good tenants, the ruling council of the Dragons allowed them to live and flourish.

The Elves were forbidden from settling outside of their land grants, but allowed to travel and explore. This peace became the Age of Exploration. There were four key discoveries during this age: The locations of the Dragons' capital and major colonies (ca. TR 440), Humans (ca. TR 655), The Mana Well (ca. TR 1000), and Levistone (ca. TR 1530). In two thousand years (~17 generations of Elves) the Elves had gone from living in grass huts to having massive cities of stone, mages, cannons, and airships. Tan'Rar was bursting the bounds of the Dragons' land grants, and the Dragons were becoming uneasy with the Elves advancement.

The Battle of Rakos Bridge

A show of force was called for to put the Elves back in line. Arsaan the Red was sent with a dozen of her brood to destroy the Elves' grand academy and burn their library at Rakos Bridge. It was thought this would set the Elves back a few hundred years and discourage them from expanding further. Things did not go as the Dragons had planned.

The Elves had invented divination and knew the attack was coming. When Arsaan and her red brood descended upon Rakos Bridge, they were greeted with airships armed with hooked net launchers, harpoons, drug-raged Human berserkers and Elvish wizards hurling acid and lightning. Arsaan and her reds were wiped out. The Elves mounted Arsaan's head above on the gates of the Rakos Bridge academy and used the scales of her brood to make armour and plate airship hulls. The Second Dragon War had begun.

The Conquest of Loraida

Using their new weapons the Elves were able to expand out in all directions, pushing the Dragons clear from the southern continent (which the Elves call Loraida). Only when they reached the ocean were the dragons able to hold. Elvish airships of the time were vulnerable without mages on the ground for support, and their sailing ships had all been burned in the first stages of the war. A truce was reached: The Elves could have Loraida and continue trading with the Humans, but any ship within 100 miles of Dragon territory would be destroyed on sight.

By TR 2110 the Kingdom of Tan'Rar had expanded into an empire controlling all of Loraida and the Elves were once again at peace with the Dragons.

Gameplay Notes 

(Rob: I'll be including sections like this with bullets on storytelling, roleplay, and game rules in all future history & mythology articles.)

• Dragons and Elves hate eachother, almost universally, and to a far greater degree than any other race. Dragonkin and anyone else raised in Draconic-speaking culture have probably been raised to hate Elves as imperialist conquerors. Elvish- and Human-speaking cultures likewise raise their members to fear Dragons as tyrannical monsters. 
• The world's southern continent, "Loraida", is littered with ruins of old Elvish settlements dating back to the expansionist days of Tan'Rar. 
• Planar collisions still happen from time to time. They rapidly and permanently change the terrain and can bring features with them including new terrain, buildings, and life forms. 
• Planar collisions can be caused intentionally by powerful magic, though the precise knowledge of how to do this is lost to the ages. The continent of Teredahar was created in this way.
• Planes and Shards can also have a "glancing blow" or pass through each other without merging. This can create any number of effects including slight weather changes, hauntings, natural portals, and invasions of Outsiders.

Next Time

In TR 2300 a new race emerged amongst the Dragons: Drakoni. This isn't a modified race but rather my own take on the "humanoid dragon race" trope. I'll profile this race, their history, and provide both racial stats and monster stat blocks.

Teredahar History & Mythology: The Thirteen Hebdomad

Taking a break from kingdoms and races to talk a little about religion. Religion plays an important role in the lives of many people on Teredahar. Some still pray to the long-dead Ceratharidoun, but many have chosen instead to pray to his immortal disciples, the thirteen Hebdomad. Each of the Hebdomad was a mortal living on Ceratharidoun's world. He chose these individuals to receive fragments of His power for reasons that remain unclear. Disagreements between the Hebdomad led directly the the cataclysm of the Elves world. Some of them feel guilty for this and are trying to help mortals in their own ways. Others don't care. None of the Hebdomad were in positions of power during their mortal lives, and while some have risen to prominence,  a few remain reclusive and hidden from mortals.

 
Name: Headmaster Azan
Alignment: Lawful Good
Appearance: A stout, bald, male Syldarri Elf with dark skin and pale eyes
Mortal Background: Bounty-hunter
Known For: Founder of Ashram Warmage Academy, military leader
Domains: Law, Knowledge, Magic, War
Weapon: Longsword
Symbol: Triflame
 

Name: Sif Atlon, The Thrice-Born
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Appearance: Pale, extremely thin, female Grey Elf with green eyes and black hair
Mortal Background: Healer-turned-lich
Known For: Patron of healers and physicians
Domains: Repose, Healing, Darkness, Death
Weapon: Rapier
Symbol: Cross

Name: Elidrianna, The Wanderer
Alignment: Chaotic Good
Appearance: Female fey creature with purple skin and golden hair and eyes
Mortal Background: Noted explorer and cartographer
Known For: Created a portal network between Shards, founded guild of planar guides
Domains: Travel, Chaos, Void, Liberation
Weapon: Shortbow
Symbol: Compass

Name: Zero, The Great Unifier
Alignment: Lawful Neutral
Appearance: Enormous male Grey Elf with blank eyes, white hair and a long beard
Mortal Background: Traveling Monk
Known For: United peoples on several Shard worlds under one empire
Domains:Law, Community, Nobility, Strength
Weapon: Sai
Symbol: Plain Circle

Name: Lord Karkasiss
Alignment: Lawful Good
Appearance: A wizened and kingly Grey Elf
Mortal Background: Architect
Known For: Created and rules over his own artificial Shard
Domains: Protection, Good, Earth, Rune
Weapon: Greatsword
Symbol: Plotter 

Name: Moragan Ironskin
Alignment: Neutral
Appearance: Blonde-haired, male Mountain Dwarf with silvery, metallic skin
Mortal Background: Blacksmith
Known For: Patron of craftsmen and artists, protector of Dwarvenkind
Domains: Artifice, Fire, Strength, Protection
Weapon: Warhammer
Symbol: Hammer

Name: Marren Cinderstaff
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Appearance: Young, tall, female Drow with flaming eyes and white hair
Mortal Background: Prodigal Sorceress
Known For: Patron protector of Drow and Mountain Elves all over the multiverse
Domains: Magic, Darkness, Chaos, Fire
Weapon: Quarterstaff
Symbol: 8-pointed star

Name: Silveryn
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Appearance: Young, female Syldarri Elf with olive skin, brown hair and eyes, and an athletic build
Mortal Background: Roguish thrill-seeking adventurer
Known For: Patron of adventurers, treasure-hunters, and climbers
Domains: Luck, Glory, Destruction, Chaos
Weapon: Dagger
Symbol: Piton

Name: Välásir of Colvarren
Alignment: Neutral Good
Appearance: Wizened and old Grey Elf with pale skin, grey eyes, and flowing white hair
Mortal Background: Inventor
Known For: Created libraries of hidden knowledge scattered around the multiverse
Domains: Knowledge, Artifice, Water, Good
Weapon: Spear
Symbol: Book

Name: Guile, The Bard
Alignment: Chaotic Neutral
Appearance: No fixed appearance, but often female.
Mortal Background: Musician
Known For: Patron of performers and enchanters
Domains: Charm, Chaos, Air, Madness
Weapon: Rapier
Symbol: Guitar

Name: Grenn Overhill
Alignment: Neutral Good
Appearance: Middle-aged male Syldarri Elf with tanned skin, brown eyes and black hair. Often dressed as a peasant.
Mortal Background: Peasant farmer
Known For: Patron of harvests, reclusiveness
Domains: Plant, Sun, Good, Weather
Weapon: Scythe
Symbol: 4-leaft clover

Name: Almáz of the Deep
Alignment: Neutral
Appearance: Frequently appears as an earth elemental, sometimes as a male dwarf
Mortal Background: Miner
Known For: Built an enormous extra-dimensional maze and hides in it from the rest of the multiverse. Said to be guarding untold riches.
Domains: Earth, Luck, Travel, Madness
Weapon: Battle Ax
Symbol: Pickaxe

Name: Tannog, The Highwayman
Alignment: Chaotic Evil
Appearance: A young male Mountain Elf with black hair and red eyes, almost always wearing dark-coloured leather armour
Mortal Background: Mountain bandit
Known For: Patron of mercenaries and tricksters
Domains: Trickery, Evil, Strength, Animal
Weapon: Shortsword
Symbol: Swords

Next Time

Next week's article will return to the people/places rotation, covering the Halfling races who inhabit Teredahar's southern lowlands. 

Teredahar History & Mythology - Spellweavers & Building a Continent

The previous history entry talked about how the Elves had to adapt to using magic without power from their God. After generations of learning about the world they settled upon, explorers charting the world's great ocean found a massive fount of magical energy: a crack in the world itself where power was spilling in from the Void. This place was called the Mana Well. Through studying the power spilling from the mana well the Elves rediscovered cosmic or divine magic, but they did not stop there.

The Spellweavers

What the Elves found at the Mana Well was a window into the Void. The power they learned to tap came directly from the great currents of raw magical energy that flow through it. Beyond just learning to harness that power, researchers at the Mana Well began to learn to  control its flow and shape it. The art of shaping the inflow of cosmic energy became a third kind of magic altogether. Its practitioners named themselves "Spellweavers".

The art of spell-weaving gave rise to many new technologies that helped the Elves thrive. Spellstones imbued with power from the Mana Well were brought back to Tan'Rar to fuel magical artifice the world had never before seen. Shifting the flow of energy could create fierce storms or extend a growing season by months. The power of the Spellweavers allowed the Elves of Tan'Rar to conquer their own continent and threaten the Dragons for supremacy over the world.

The Mother of Invention

After generations of unbridled prosperity and growth, the Elves were faced with a dilemma: their numbers would soon outstrip what the lands of Tan'Rar could produce. Would they face famine or be finally forced to make war upon the Dragons for territory? The grand-master Spellweaver Alderast Concellarii proposed a solution: make new land.

Grand Spellweaver Concellarii proposed using the power of the Mana Well to pull one of the Shards near Prime off its course and cause it to merge with Prime itself, bringing with it land-mass that could be used to fill in part of the great ocean around the Mana Well. The plan was ambitious. Great anchors containing immense spellstones would need to be placed on the ocean floor to help steer, "grab" and old on to the colliding plane and prevent it from crashing into Tan'Rar territory.

It took almost eighty years for the preparations to be complete. When the day finally came, ships were bursting with settlers ready to claim new land. Meanwhile, spellweavers at the Mana Well had been carefully guiding their chosen Shard closer to Prime for years.

The actual event was almost anti-climactic. One minute there was a vast ocean a few hours' sail north of Tan'Rar's continent, the next there were several-hundred square miles of alien landscape to conquer. Over the next several years the spellweavers would pull through more and more land. The newly-created continent was named "Teredahar" which means "glorious discovery" in archaic elvish. With two continents under their control, the leaders of Tan'Rar named their main continent "Loraida", which means "harbour" in the same archaic dialect.

The New World

The Elves weren't the only ones to notice the appearance of an entire continent where once there was ocean. Dragons, early Humans, and even the then-purely-subterranean Dwarvish ancestors raced to claim lands on the new continent before the Elves could. They would find that creatures living on the Shards had also been brought through. Magical beasts plagued the would-be conquers while utterly bewildered Gnomes and Halflings struggled to come to terms with what the Elves had done.

Battles over territory quickly escalated into the first all-out war between Elves and Dragons, one of the things Concellarii sought to prevent. The new land would be fought over by various races many times over the following millennia and to present day.

Next Time

The next article will continue the series of Teredahar locales.

Teredahar History & Mythology - Origins of Magic

I realize this isn't quite the topic that was promised. I think this is more interesting, though.

Who discovered magic?

In the time of Ceratharidoun, before the cataclysm [1] destroyed the Elves' homeworld, each of the two worlds had its own sort of magic shaped by the world's nature and the races that arose there.

On their world the Elves first discovered magic when Ceratharidoun gifted a tiny sip of its power to the most devout worshippers. These priests-turned-magi became the first clerics. In time they formed sacred orders, split over disagreements, and reformed again and again. Different paths of worship evolved. Some chose to study their power as an intellectual pursuit, shaping it and discovering new uses for the raw divine power that was gifted to them. Always this power came from Ceratharidoun, regardless of what form it took or how it was used.

On the other world, the world of Dragons, magic took on a distinctly different form. With no all-powerful deity to beseech for power the Dragons has to look within themselves to find it. Centuries of introspection and study gave rise to the first magi among the dragons. Over centuries cunning dragons honed their natural affinity for magic into a fluid, expressive art and with it each mage could shape the world to his or her own taste. This expression has a cost, though. Just as one muscle can be over-trained at the expense of others, many Dragons followed their natural affinities to far. They fell from a vibrantly varied and colourful race into ten ideologically-stagnant camps, so separated and overspecialized that their bodies began to change into the Dragon "races" we know now.

The Coming of the Elves

When the first Elves arrived on the Dragons' world, they found that with Ceratharidoun dead and the Hebdomad missing they could no longer use magic as they were used to. It was not until their first encounter with Dragons that the Elves ever dreamed there could be magic from a source other than a god.

Life on the Dragons' world was not peaceful. For generations the Elves' growing nation of Tan'Rar was constantly besieged by the Dragons and their minion races trying to wipe out these otherworldly invaders. It was at some point during this conflict that scholars studying the Dragons finally learned how to use magic in the new world. These scholars became the first true Wizards and in time they trained others who continued to study the world's magic. With this new power the Elves of Tan'Rar were able to fight the Dragons to a stalemate. For the first time since the cataclysm Elvish civilization truly prospered.

Discovery of the Mana Well

During the Golden Age of Tan'Rar, Elvish scholars began to come to grips with what had happened to their homeworld and study the very nature of the multiverse. They learned of the great magical current that flows through every world and how to shape it to their will. They learned how to store raw magical energy in crystals for later use. And they learned how to trace magical currents back to their source. Eighty years of searching the great seas of the new world yielded a single point where magic was stronger than anywhere else: The Mana Well.

The Elves who stayed to study this well soon became imbued with leaking cosmic power. By studying the few remaining texts saved from the cataclysm the researchers at the Mana Well rediscovered Divine magic an brought the discovery back to Tan'Rar. To this day magic retains this dichotomy: arcane power from within oneself, and divine power from the Void.

[1] See previous blog post, Origin of the Elves


Next post will talk about the continent of Teredahar itself. I'll have a map of some sort to show you.

Teredahar Hisotry & Mythology: Origin of the Elves

I'm starting a series of articles covering my personal campaign setting (not to be confused with the one being worked on in the Twitch stream). This setting is called Teredahar and I've been using it on-and-off for over 10 years. These articles will be answering questions that my players have that are out of scope for the actual game sessions, and helping me organize 10 years of notes into something sharable. Like everything on my blog this is all Creative Commons so if you want to use it go right ahead but please say where you got it.

Mythology of Teredahar: Origin of the Elves

Genesis

In the beginning there were two worlds adrift in the river of magic: one where events were shaped by nature's cause-and-effect, and one shepherded by a singular cosmic will. When it invented language the will named itself Ceratharidoun. When it invented living things with a need to worship, they called it their God.
For ageless millennia the two worlds ran their course. Cause-and-effect shaping one world, and Ceratharidoun's will shaping the other. In time, each produced life capable of thought and inquiry. Dragons, cunning and powerful, rose to become the dominant creatures of the natural world. Elves, inquisitive and cautious, became Ceratharidoun's favourite children and thus came do dominate their world.

Exodus

The oldest legends of the Elves tell us of the time Ceratharidoun made itself known to them. It came to thirteen chosen of its children as a being of countless faces. As a chorus, they spoke "I am your creator god Ceratharidoun. My will shaped this world and all things that live are my children. Just as children must outlive their parents, so must this world outlive me. I place now, into the hands of yourself and twelve others equal fractions of my power and charge you with shaping the future of this world." And the chosen knew this was true, for at that moment the sun went black and the stars fell from the sky.
A year of absolute darkness followed. Death and destruction ran rampant as the thirteen found each other and learned to master their newfound power. When at last their powers were brought together they returned the cosmos to their world, the people named them Hebdomad, world-shapers, and worshipped them each as lesser gods.

Yet gods the Hebdomad were not. Just a year before they had been common people. Not a single king, priest, or grandmaster was among their ranks. Leaderless they began to quarrel and started wars that would last for generations and tear asunder all that Ceratharodiun had made.

It began as a great shaking, toppling buildings and tearing open great holes in the ground. Instead of stone beneath these holes, it is said you could see the blackness of eternity, the howling void between worlds. With a great crack, the world of the Elves shattered, its fragments propelled outward into the void. Aghast at the cataclysm their fighting had wrought, the Hebdomad vanished to places unknown.

The void is said to be timeless. It is not known how long they drifted, but in time a lucky few Elves rode a fragment of their shattered world until it collided with the other. On that alien shore they founded a new home and called it Tan'Rar, "guiding star".

Next Time

The next article will cover what the present-day aftermath of the Elves cataclysm is like.