This page is currently at version 3.0, reflecting the state of things on Uurth in the Spring of the year 542 AC6.
If you encounter bad HTML or just would like to nudge the completion or improvement of something please feel free to email me at alcore@uurth.com.
(Last Major Modification of this page occurred on Friday, January 20, 2007.
The last minor revision was on Tuesday December 26, 2017.)
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This region is significant in that it is the "Cradle of Civilization" for this (the 7th age. Era dates in the 7th age begin with the day that Varlas Entorre and a pair of companions founded what was to become Entorre City, the first major settlement of the age. Entorre City grew rapidly as survivors were discovered and brought in, drawing upon rich local resouces and the re-emerging bounty of Lake Ald. By the 5th year of Entorre City's growth, satellite communities had appeared all around the lake and down river.
Contact with survivor groups of the Elves, Dwarves, and Gnomes was made shortly aftwards.
The Entorre Conferation was formed to provide structure and support for the burgeoning regrowth. The Confederation grew and prospered for 145 years, holding direct power over much and influence over all of the rapidly rediscovered world.
In the year 150 AC6, Senator Jolius Phonicon of the Entorre Commonwealth led a bloody coup in an attempt to size power over the known world. The outer areas of the Commonwealth fell away, desperately seeking independance and self-sufficiency. Jolius Phonicon declared himself "Emperor" and proceeded to take steps to sweep away all reminders of the egalitarian Commonwealth that had preceeded him. His first official act was to rename Entorre City to Phonicon City as it remains to this day. He and his descendants were notable for thier ruthless imperial aims, crushing over time border nation after border nation and enslaving any or all that stood in thier way.
The aggressive outward spread of the Phonicon Empire was ultimately halted in the year 390 AC6. Although, the Empire continued to attempt further expansion, the problems of internal unrest and limitations of central command and control prevented it. During this period, the pinnacle of Empire power, the Empire estblished and grew the routines and institutions that typify its day to day culture.
The Empire can be described as having "Oppressive Big-Brother Government". In general, there is always somebody above you in the official food chain who must be kept happy in order to do business. Individuals have no rights, freedom, or privilige except those he/she may secure for themself. Although the government is nominally an hereditary aristocracy (Monarchy + lesser royals) the actual lines of power are arbitrary and have often been in the hands of non-royal military officers, high church officials, or even (rarely) mechants or businessmen. Historically, whenever it became clear that Imperial power had drifted too far out of the hands of the royalty, the condition has been corrected by after the fact by granting these people new royal titles.
In the year 503 AC6 the peoples of the Eanf River Basin (in what was then the North-East corner of the empire) rose up in revolt. The Empire committed the bulk of its ready mobile forces to suppressing this revolt, to little effect. (With each brutal Empire victory, more of the local population was convinced to join the rebels.) The rebellion dragged on for several years.
In the fall of 505 AC6, Emperor Phallis IV died, apparently the victim of murder by a conspiracy headed by his younger son Edmund. Before the Elder son William could return to the capitol to be crowned, Edmund siezed the crown for himself. A 4 sided war erupted rending the empire to pieces. Edmund headed the heavily armed well organized core territorries and William the bulk of the "middle" empire. The other two factions were the established On-going rebellions in the Eanf River Basin, and the Lakefort Holdfast, which sensed weakness and the opportunity to recapture it's historical lands lost in the war of 390 AC6.
The Northern Eanf river province broke away completely (their insurgent rebellion now suddenly and unexpectedly successful) to form the Eanf Republic. The Southern Eanf River province (also known as the Lake province) was successfully overrun/reclaimed by the forces of the Lakefort Holdfast. (Both of these regions basically "returned" to their owners prior to the Empire's conquest 120 years earlier.)
The war went poorly for the forces of William Phonicon and by 510 AC6 William surrendered to/allied with the new Eanf Republic in an attempt to protect his remaining territorries. These conditions persist through the current day.
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The Lakefort Holdfast was founded in the year 105 AC6 by human explorers who reached the area with the aid of the Dwarves who lived in the mountains between Lake Ald and Grand Lake. The Dwarves considered Grand lake and all the lands adjacent to it be cursed. Many dwarven expeditions to the area in the prior century had simply failed to return. The single dwarven attempt at a settlement ended when nighmarish "water demons" attacked, killing more than 90% of settlers.
The reason for the "curse" is that there is an uncontrolled inbound rift from the elemental plane of Water at the bottom of Grand Lake. Without this source of water the lake would not be able to support the outflow it dumps into each of the major rivers that emerge from it. Along with water, the rift frequently provides a gateway into Uurth for native life from the Plane of Water, most notably Water Elementals of all shapes and sizes. The rift is a by-product of the 1st Cataclysm. Many scholars beleive that this defect is one of the major flaws that must be repaired to end the Cataclysmic cycle.
The leader of the human expedition of 105 AC6 was a powerful Half-Elven wizard named Evan Vaspor. He had uncovered the cause of the problems in this area in his researches into the ancient times and had trained to deal with the expected challenges. Although he knew that repairing the rift was beyond his ability (and had led to disaster for experimenters at the end of the 5th Age) he had a plan designed to leave the area less hostile to settlement. He crafted a magical device that had the power to invert the flow of a small area of the rift. Additional enchantments were placed on it to act as a beacon to any being from the Elemental Plane of Water. The device was then placed on a specially constructed and enchanted ship and sailed out into the center of the Lake. The plan was that this would have the effect of luring most of the elementals to a location from which they would naturally be sucked back to their home plane.
Upon activation, the device created a great maelstrom which continues to wander the Lake into the present time. It is assumed that the ship that carried the device must still be intact in the bottom of the whirlpool, but no one has ever successfully observed it. The Maelstrom consumes less than a tenth of the output of the rift, but is highly attractive to the misplaced elementals that continue to arrive frequently. Most return home before they can cause problems for the residents of the shoreline.
Once the lake and rivers leading away from it became safe enough to use for travel and trade, the Halflings from the Selodon Shire (independent survivors of the most recent Cataclysm) moved inland, and along with the Humans founded a highly structured merchantile society and named the new nation the "Lakefort Holdfast" in the year 195 A6.
Lakefort prospered until the wars against it by the growing Phonicon Empire cost it half of it's territorry in the great war of 387-390 AC6. Phonicon was never able to penetrate beyond Grand Lake to the Holdfast's Southern and Eastern settlements however and a stable stalemate line develped. By the early decades of the 420's the official and continuing state of war was more tradition than ongoing reality and the Holdfast's people returned to doing what they did best, Trade.
Relations with the Phonicon Empire again became tense as the 4th century AC6 grew to a close. When Edmund siezed the Imperial throne and the Empire entered into civil war, the Holdfast moved to reclaim it's historical lands. Lakefort was again whole by the end of 510 AC6, though it continues to claim some lands that were settled and developed more recently, specifically including the city of Gasd. Gasd is now part of the Eanf Republic, and this has led to occasional low-level warfare between the Holdfast and the Eanf Republic.
Although trade is healthier for both nations, as of Spring in the Year 542, they are at war again.
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The Halcyon Freestate was founded in the year 96 AC6 by explorers from the Entorre Confederation. It's original boundaries included a significant area that is now part of Phonicon Empire. This included the cities of Achilles, Esden, and Malgor, as well as the lost cities of Fetranth and Grey Harbor, located at the center of what is now the "Desert of Eternal Death". It was originally a collection of free merchantile city-states bound by a mutual defence pact called the Halcyon Compact.
Beginning in the year 290 AC6, the Phonicon Empire began conquering the Halcyon Compact Trade Cities. First Achilles, then Esden, and then Malgor. Though overwhelmed on land, the Halcyon Compact was greatly superior on the seas. The Empire pressed it's advantage by land. Laying seige to the inland city of Fetranth in the year 298 AC6.
Fetranth was the home of a powerful dark wizard who's name is lost. He was commonly known as the High Necromancer. As the armies killed each other and the people starved, the High Necromancer built an army of his own. He placed a curse upon all the land within 50 miles of the city, such that any that died there, rose again as undead under his rule.
Though not apparent at first, because he hid what he had done, once enough casualties had fallen into his army, he unleashed it, utterly destroying the besieging Phonicon Empire army. Not content with this act he then killed all the remaining living defenders of the city and it is assumed all the surviving residents as well. Having restored a perfect peace, he returned to his researches.
In the year that followed, numerous expeditions to Fetranth attempted to learn what had happened there. None returned intact. Stories of a half shattered city of the dead began to circulate. Meanwhile the High Necromancer was growing progressively more annoyed at the intrusions. In the year 300 AC6 he unleashed a new curse, creating a powerful wall of magic around the perhiphery of "his domain". All plant and animal life in the area withered. Anyone who sets foot in the desert that resulted is subjected to a powerful disorientation effect that requires an "Intuit Direction" check of DC 20 to stay oriented or re-orient. There is also a powerful illusion that prevents anyone standing in the desert from seeing outside of the desert. Then, to make his point and insure that the world would understand that it should not trifle with him, he destroyed the Halcyon coastal city of Grey Harbor, and made it part of his domain. He allowed most of the people to live, but gave them no safe passage or route of escape. Very few made it out, but those that did gave horrific tesimony to what would happen if the affairs of the High Necromancer were again disturbed.
The formation of the Necromacer's domain provided a robust barrier to further invasion from Phonicon, and Halcyon has continued in relative peace ever since. Halcyon's loose alliance of independent city-states has gradually solidified over time, and in the year 412, most of the remaining city states agreed to form a more organized government under the name "Halcyon Freestate". Over time the remaining Halcyon Compact cities have joined the union as well.
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The Killearn Elven Reserve is a survivor enclave of Elves. At the end of the 6th Cataclysm the Elven Nation began to rebuild. The Elves made contact with the expanding human settlements of the Entorre Confederation in about 50 AC6. Across the "Middle Lands" of the Lake Ald plains, the Elves and Humans lived together in peace and mutual support. This cooperative peace ended shortly after Jolius Phonicon reformed the Entorre Confederation into the Phonicon Empire. In the year 156, the young empire began the first of it's bloody expansions, conducting a gruesome massacre of Elves across the region, enslaving any of the half-bloods that survived.
The bloody war that followed poisoned the goodwill of the Elven Nation and they closed their borders to all humans and other outsiders. The Killearn Elven Reserve remains closed and mysterious to outsiders into the present. There is a heavily fortified border between the Killearn Elves and the Phonicon Empire. No soldier or other human dares approach within bowshot range of the Even forest, and the humans allow no expansion of the forest, maintaining a miles wide barren waste along the border, with many stone fortresses and outposts.
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The Dwarven Freehold is a survivor enclave of the dwarves. It has remained largely apart from outside contact and only became moreso when the peaceful and cooperative Entorre Confederation was replaced with the Phonicon Empire. The dwarves of the Dwarven Freehold can be characterized as "deep dwarves" and have even less contact with or need for life on the surface than most. There have been several attempts by the Phonicon Empire to conquer the Freehold, but none have been successful.
The Dwarves have been on good terms with the nearby Gnomes since initial contact, and maintain a mutual defence treaty with them.
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The Gnomish Freehold is a survivor enclave of the Gnomes. Contact with the human settlements was early, perhaps preceding the formation of the Entorre Confederation. The Gnomes formed a close partnership with the Humans and joind as members of the Confederation.
The Gnomish Freehold announced it's secession in response to Jolius Phonicon's seizure of power and was immediately subjected to a brutal war. The gnomes had originally occupied or shared most of the land south of Lake Ald. In the first 15 years of the Empire, the Gnomes were driven back into the enchanted valley where they had ridden out the 6th Cataclysm.
The entrance to the Valley is protected with a powerful layered wall illusion (and possibly other) magic. It would be impossible to even find it if the Phonicon military had not carefully plotted it before the enchantments were completed. No soldier of the Empire has successfully penetrated the Illusion Wall and lived. Even the warrior wizards of the Empire have had little success. Apparently the Gnomes have better ones.
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The Selodon Shire is a survivor enclave of the Halflings. The Halflings of Selodon Shire have a much longer history than most. The Haflings have ridden out cataclysms in the Shire ever since it was founded by Paxil Treldan, who subsequently Ascended to become their patron Diety.
The Shire is not immune to Cataclysms. But the earthquakes aren't as bad. The meteors almost never hit inhabited structures. The flooding seems to only occur in predictable areas. Attacks by enraged dragons and various ancient horrors seem to end more quickly and do less damage. It's possible that the Shire has simply been lucky through 3 consecutive Cataclysms now. There are always areas that take less damage. Sometimes these areas take even less than the Shire does. (As was the case with the Humans around Lake Ald in the most recent Cataclysm.)
The Halfings beleive this is divine providence. The extent of this good fortune seems to be limited to areas inhabited solely by the Halflings, though regardless of the growth of each era's Halfling Nation, never extends much beyond the traditional boundaries of the Shire. For these reasons, the Halflings of the Shire are somewhat Xenophobic and content to remain within their borders.
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This page is owned and maintained by: Eugene H. Pharr, Jr.
All original material presented in these pages copyright © 1997 - 2017 by
Eugene H. Pharr, Jr. and may not be reused for profit without express consent.
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E-mail: alcore@uurth.com
