A Timeline of Lurra

For use with Chronicles of Salbazan

Much of Lurra’s history was lost during the Divine Cataclysm. Fragments of scrolls and tomes recovered from ancient ruins hint at extraordinary advances in magic and science: flying transports, fully functioning prosthetic limbs, automations that were capable of doing the work of a dozen workers, communication devices that could deliver messages at any distance, and more. But little physical evidence of such things has ever been recovered, and so there is much debate regarding how many of these marvels were real and how many of them were merely the fictions of creative storytellers.

According to the oldest known tome on the subject, The Folly of the Gods, the Cataclysm was started because the gods were dying. The gods had grown proud and arrogant in their power and began to withhold their blessings from their people for petty reasons. The mortal races, unable to depend on the gods in their times of need, turned to themselves and developed magical and engineering feats of wonder. Then the mortal grew arrogant and believed they no longer needed the gods at all. This caused the gods to start losing power, as they no longer had the faith of mortals to strengthen them.

The gods promised great power to those mortals that would restore their worship among the people. Unscrupulous leaders, already greedy for supremacy over other countries, began using their newfound gifts from the gods to impose their will. Religious wars erupted across the world, with the followers of some gods all but wiping out the followers of others. Eventually, the gods themselves joined the battle to protect what followers they had left. But the natural world was not equipped to handle the immense energy of so many gods, and the fighting caused the planet to tear itself apart.

Entire continents crumbled into the oceans. The oceans boiled in some places and froze in others, destroying entire aquatic ecosystems. Lurrak was once twice its size, but by the time the Cataclysm ended, earthquakes, volcanoes, tsunamis, and other disasters had reshaped the continent to its current form.

Writing Dates

In the Empire, the year is written as Era + year in the era. Outside the Empire, the year is written as the year since the Divine Cataclysm. For example, the year 4047 would be written as 5E 47 (47th year of the 5th Era) in the Empire but written as 4047 AD everywhere else.

“AD” and “6E” are generally not appended to most recent events in mundane communications. A person born in 4980 wouldn’t recite their birthdate as 4980 AD or even 5E 980. They would probably just say that they were born in 80 (presuming they are human, and it is understood that they cannot possibly be centuries old). AD and E designations are generally only used in formal or legal communications, or when specificity of date is important (such as historical records).

Pre-Cataclysm and the 1st Era

In the immediate aftermath of the Divine Cataclysm, civilization completely collapsed. There are no known records from the first two centuries that followed. While scholars assume some people did attempt to chronicle events, without an infrastructure in place there would have been no way to preserve them. The oldest known document from the time period is The Folly of the Gods, written by an elven mystic named Fendelrethri. Fendelrethri’s account is written from his own memory of events and conversations with other survivors from the longer lived non-human races. Only a few dozen copies were produced before Fenderethri’s death. While considered a historical account, a complete copy of the tome has never been found and so scholars have been left filling in the blanks.

It is from Fenderethri’s account that Lurrak acquired the dating system currently in use. He used the date 1 AC to represent year one after the Cataclysm. BC refers to before the Cataclysm. Unfortunately, because Fenderethri himself was a child at the time of the Cataclysm, there are few events referenced in the BC era.

32 BC: Fenderethri’s birth. This would make him 32 when the Cataclysm struck, a child by elven standards.

20 BC: Grand Inquisitor Sebastian Flamebringer launches the Exalted War to convert the people of the lost nation of Kaldaban to the worship of the god Zenaph. Though there had been a series of smaller battles across Lurra for decades before this event, this was considered the largest and most aggressive incident and is considered “the beginning of the end” of the pre-Cataclysm era.

17 BC: Revered Mother Josephine of the Roses orders the armies of the lost nation of Cambadonia to attack the lost nation of Ceavos in retaliation for the assassination of her predecessor. The account references “airships raining fire” upon cities and “great missiles that split the earth asunder” and other weapons of mass destruction.

12 BC: Tomas of Kendry uses an unspecified weapon to collapse the mountains of Kern, devastating the Temple to the god Akdrosiav and wiping out the city-state of Kernshadow. This event also causes flooding of the Tischbole River and destroys several other towns.

4 BC: The god Paladori fully manifests on the island of Doros to protect his remaining followers from the onslaught of the Temple of Bright Moons, which followed the twin gods Elastrara and Gavanero. While Paladori is successful, most of Doros is destroyed in the process and his remaining followers later die at sea.

3 BC: A group of unidentified gods do battle across the Kagathi Plains on the lost continent of Kalaeuram. The continent is split in two by this event. This event also triggers a series of natural disasters across Lurra.

1 BC: The Year of Devastation. Unable to handle the weight of the gods fighting across the surface, the planet begins to self-destruct. Continents collapse into the oceans. Volcanoes erupt. Mountains crumble. The absolute devastation of this event is considered the reason why so few physical relics survived from the time period, as what was not buried under molten lava or massive mudslides was swallowed by the seas or collapsed into fissures in the earth.

1E 250/250 AC: Several nomadic bands join and form the settlement of Highcairn in the swamps of what would become Padura. Though the settlement will be razed and rebuilt dozens of times over the millennia, Highcairn is recognized as the oldest continually populated settlement on Lurrak.

1E 327/327 AC: Fenderethri cites this as the year that he completed Folly of the Gods.

1E 600/600 AC: The city of Obsidian is “founded” by Lautand Stormstrike, though archeological evidence shows that a settlement was already in the area by this time. Lautand is the first of many warlords to emerge in the region. Imperial dogma claims that Lautand is a direct ancestor of the First Imperial Dynasty, and the Empire is named in his honor. There is no direct evidence that proves this belief, and some scholars (outside the Empire) speculate Lautand was not even the most successful warlord of his time.

2nd Era

The second era is a time that sees the rise of the great powers of Lurrak. By the beginning of the second era, dozens of small countries have sprung up across the continent to restore civilization.

2E 33/1033 AC: Clavinus Titanmaul takes the title of King Clavinus I and establishes the Kingdom of Lautanda. The kingdom extends from the Obsidian City to the peninsula that includes Radu’s Watch.

2E 175/1175 AC: Queen Desdemona I leads her army into neighboring Rurdaran and conquers it with the help of King Frederick’s own brother, who becomes Archduke of Rurdaran and the first true “noble” house of Lautanda. This extends Lautanda’s borders north to the city of Northsea.

2E 227/1227 AC: King Solomon I conquers Turnamal.

2E 260/1260 AC: King Solomon II conquers Maldorn and declares himself Emperor Solomon I. The Kingdom of Lautanda becomes the Empire of Lautanda. The Obsidian Throne is crafted from obsidian glass mined near the city of Obsidian.

2E 263/1263 AC: By a charter from Emperor Solomon I, Captain Issak Darkwaters sails his ship, The Ebon Wave, completely around Lurrak and completes the first true survey of the continent. The following year, he begins his search for new lands. He sails north for four weeks before turning around emptyhanded.

2E 266/1266 AC: Captain Darkwaters sails west in search of new lands. Though he stays at sea for five weeks, he is finally forced to return when the ship suffers significant damage from an attack from a sea serpent. Half his crew is lost in the attack.

2E 270/1270 AC: Captain Darkwaters, with two Imperial Battlemages aboard for protection, sails south of Lurrak to search for new lands. He stays at sea for six weeks and identifies two archipelagos: The White Seal Islands (named for the native seal populations) and the Blood Archipelago (named for the blood red sand of the beaches). Neither island chain shows signs of civilizations or resources of value. He is forced to return to Lurrak due to low provisions.

Through a series of battles, the border of Lautanda extends to the site of Fort Valerian; but ignores the southern jungles of what would become Ohanea and the treacherous terrain of the God’s Spine Mountains.

2E 274/1274 AC: Captain Darkwaters leaves Lurrak for his final journey, heading east in search of new lands. He never returns.

2E 429/1429 AC: King Yaven the Scarab united the tribes of Mortuko and begins work on the Palace of the Sun.

2E 500/1500 AC: Construction of the Palace of the Sun is finally completed by King Cheros the Crocodile. Cheros also expands the borders of Mortuko through a series of skirmishes and political maneuverings.

2E 762/1762 AC: Imperial forces attempt to push into Mortuko but are repelled. This is the Empire’s first major defeat.

3rd Era

By the beginning of the third era, the borders of the five kingdoms begins to form as smaller nations and city-states join forces against the greater threats of Lautanda and Mortuko. This Era is also romanticized as the Age of Heroes, the time when the great mortal heroes begin to push back against the monsters that have plagued Lurrak and establish humans as the dominate force.

3E 100/2100 AC: Mortuko conquers the city-state of Semberlyn. This event causes the various city-states in the area to form the Republic of Padura to protect themselves from Mortukan aggression.

3E 175/2175 AC: The first installment ofTales of the Hunt. Roland Blackstake begins to chronicle his exploits hunting down various undead across the land. Originally meant as an educational resource for others that would do battle with the undead, Blackstake’s flair for the dramatic turned his chronicles into popular reading material. Several of the chronicles are later immortalized as plays by various playwrights. Blackstake would publish fourteen chronicles before his death at Ashen Hill in the Year of Black Blood.

3E 217/2217 AC: The Year of Black Blood. The vampire lord Valdar raises an army of undead and attacks several small communities at the foot of the God’s Spine Mountains. The undead horde’s march across Lurrak culminates at the Battle of Ashen Hill in what is now Ohanea. The town is destroyed and most of the combatants die, but Valdar and his horde are defeated. Because there were few survivors, little is known about the final battle. The battlefield is still considered cursed, and people refuse to settle there.

3E 350/2350 AC: Discovery of the Destatori Atlas, an almost complete atlas detailing the planet Lurra before the Divine Cataclysm. The Atlas is used to confirm details found in The Folly of the Gods. The original atlas is currently houses at the Red Citadel.

3E 374/2374 AC: Attempting to push into the God’s Spine Mountains, Imperial forces are stopped by the dwarves of Clan Mendiak, who had survived the Cataclysm and simply been hiding from the other races. By 2400, refugees from other areas fleeing Imperial aggression will settle in the mountains, and the dwarves eventually welcome these refugees in and formally declare the Kingdom of Mendiak.

3E 500/2500 AC: Imperial General Tamerus the Dragon-Blooded hunts down the red dragon Thromaxial and kills it. This is the first known account of a dragon being slain. Up until this event, most settlements troubled by dragons attempted to appease the creatures, and many lorded over mortal settlements like demigods. Over the next millennia, mortals will actively hunt dragons across Lurrak.

3E 437/2437 AC: The half-elf ranger Colaria Fernwalker of Malvantus, later known as Colaria Giant-Bane, hunts down and kills the fire giant that killed her family. She then begins the Giant Purge, spending the next five years hunting down the giants in the northeastern region of Lurrak. As word spreads of her successes, others are inspired to war against the giants as well. By the end of the 4th Era, giants are all but extinct on Lurrak.

3E 600/2600 AC: The First Imperial Dynasty ends when the Battlemage Cassius Aelius leads a rebellion against Emperor Sistenin, who had grown bloodthirsty in his conquest and even had some of his own nobles executed in horrific ways for minor failures. Aelius is accepted as the rightful Emperor when he is able to sit upon the Obsidian Throne, “proving” his own divine lineage. The Aelius Dynasty begins.

3E 620-652/2620-2652 AC: The Lizard Wars. In the swamps of Padura, the various human settlements begin to organize against the lizardfolk and other reptilian races in a competition for resources. Most of the reptilian races are wiped out by the end of the war. For centuries, the Wars were romanticized as tales of human spirit triumphing over barbaric monstrous races. Recent archeological discoveries, however, hint that it may have been a genocide instead.

3E 640/2640 AC: Emperor Cassius II establishes the Imperial Temple and declares his father Saint Cassius the Just. This begins the tradition of elevating members of the Royal family to sainthood.

3E 780/2780 AC: The last elven city, Albanashi, is destroyed by the black dragon Deltorventrax. The dragon is later slain by a group of elven survivors and Imperial mercenaries.

3E 851/2851 AC: The United Tribes of Ohanea officially forms to battle Imperial aggression.

4th Era

The 4th Era is a time of widespread war and aggression, with Lautanda and Mortuko expanding their borders and engaging in bloody skirmishes with their neighbors in an effort to seize more land.

4E 101/3101 AC: Lautanda absorbs the City-State of Bethessa.

4E 142/3142 AC: Mortuko conquers the City-State of Malvantus.

4E 200/3200 AC: After fifteen bloody years of battle, Lautanda defeats Mortuko for control of the nation of Kitshu. Fort Tamerus is built on the spot of the former nation’s capital, putting it almost directly on the border of Mortuko.

4E 289-304/3289-3304 AC: The Demon Wars. An orc shaman named Gruhkrag frees the demon Pamiu from its pre-Cataclysmic prison. The demon takes possession of the shaman and builds an army of possessed orcs, hobgoblins, and ogres to attack the kingdom of Cardiff. The royal family manages to escape the capital and pleads to Lautanda for aid. The war ends in 3304 when Daniel II defeated the possessed shaman in single combat and Imperial clerics manage to banish Pamiu and his demons back to the abyss. Cardiff becomes part of the Empire, expanding the empire’s range across the continent.

4E 768/3768 AC: The Aelius Dynasty ends when Emperor Daniel III dies without an heir. His wife Elara becomes Empress Elara I. She fasts for three weeks and prays to Saint Cassius the Just for his blessing before attempting to sit on the Obsidian Throne. When she successfully takes the throne, the Imperial Temple calls her Elara the Blessed.

4E 769/3769 AC: Empress Elara the Blessed married General Titus Manius. The following year, she gives birth to Prince Cassius.

4E 790/3790 AC: Empress Elara relinquishes the Obsidian Throne to her son, who becomes Emperor Cassius IV and officially starts the Manius Dynasty.

5th Era

5E 350/4350 AC: Pallamax, a green dragon that haunted the swamps of Padura, dies at the hands of a band of hunters. It is believed to be the last dragon; and there are no sighting of dragons after this time.

5E 875/4875 AC: The plague that would become known as the Red Death first appears in Ohanea. The plague wipes out a third of the Lurrak’s population before it is finally eradicated.

5E 900/4900 AC: With the rest of the Imperial family killed by the plague. Emperor Radru II ascends to the Obsidian Throne and immediately reaches out to the other kingdoms to negotiate peace. Working together, the five kingdoms are able to develop a cure for the plague. By 4904, the plague is considered eradicated.

5E 905/4905 AC: The Five Kingdoms agree to the Charter of the Red Citadel, a Council of scholars and sages that would serve to mediate disputes between the five kingdoms. The Red Citadel is granted a small island off the coast of Lurrak to serve as its fortress. Though the original members of the Council are appointed by the various kingdoms, the Charter grants it full autonomy to select, discipline, and remove its members in the future.

5E 907/907 AC: King Cormen Stonejaw becomes the ruler of Mendiak at the age of 92.

5E 913/4913 AC: The first formal Trade Coalition, The Golden Charter, forms in an effort to standardize the value of currency across Lurrak to ease trade across borders. Though originally a group of traders and merchants, within the first decade the Coalition almost exclusively deals in banking and providing investment funds for other businesses. By 4950 AD, coin houses operated by the Golden Charter can be found in every nation and major city-state.

5E 921/4921 AC: The Merchant Alliance forms as a response to the growing power of the Golden Charter, encouraging merchants to work together to negotiate terms for raw materials and resources instead of negotiating individually. The Alliance is successful in reducing operating costs for member merchants, but also results in the depression of revenue for farmers and mining operations as local providers find themselves competing against suppliers from across the continent.

5E 926/4926 AC: Construction on the Red Citadel is completed.

5E 927/4927 AC: The Smallholder Riots. Unable to compete and generate enough revenue to survive, many smaller farms begin to sell out to larger landholders, who are then able to leverage their larger farms to sell at even lower prices, causing more price deflation. Riots and sabotage of larger farms begins as family farmers begin to fight back against what they consider unfair practices.

5E 930/4930 AC: The Fair Trade Coalition in Padura forms in response to the ongoing unrest among small farmers. It spreads across Lurrak and by 4936 AD the group has enough leverage to mandate minimum pricing standards to protect smaller farms from unfair practices. By 4940, the group expands to including most mining operations and lumbermills as well.

5E 982/4982 AC: Empress Veda ascends to the Obsidian Throne at the age of 19.

5E 990/4990 AC: Empress Veda gives birth to Prince Acino. The Imperial Temple declares him Acino the Holy, as the child is born an assimar. His birthday is declared a national holiday within the empire.

5E 991/4991 AC: King Xarzaxi the Serpent becomes the ruler of Mortuko at the age of 27.

6th Era

6E 2/5002 AC: The Red Citadel sends formal missives to all the kingdoms that it intends to invoke the Right of Conscription starting in 5003. One of the forgotten sections of the original Charter allowed the Red Citadel to conscript workers for projects of importance to the Citadel’s purpose. The missives assure the various leaders that they intend to conscribe only condemned prisoners so as not to interrupt the normal economies or defenses of any specific kingdom, and that the Citadel accepts any responsibility should one of the conscripted escape while under their authority.

6E 4/5004 AC: Current year