This is part of a series of posts on about an old D&D campaign world called Malbeth.
Go to the original Ruins of Malbeth post or to the overview of the Micel Kingdoms.
According to the elves, they arrived on Malbeth’s some 10,000 years ago. While they found signs of civilizations — ruins — the continent was sparsely populated, mostly by hunter-gatherer tribes of goblinoid races, along with pockets of giants, fey, and a few aberrations. Based upon their exploration of the ruins and what they could piece together from the stories told by the goblinoids and giants, elven historians believe that Malbeth was once ruled by two vast empires: dragons and their dragonborn representatives in the east (the FIRST KINGDOM OF SHARMENSHARIK) and the Valaraukar (Shadow people) in the West. Goblin oral tradition tells the story of a dragon victory which coincided with a devastating plague that killed off the dragonborn population as well as much the goblinoids who served both the dragons and the Valaraukar.
As various humanoid races appear as hunter-gatherers, the elves establish their forest fortress of ALCARINBAR. Small tribes of humans first appear about 8,000 years ago. Non-elven agriculture is first established some 7,000 years ago by goblins living in the Mickelgeflowan River Valley. Dwarf and gnome legend claims that around the same time, the smith god Moradin forged dwarves and gnomes from the rock of the VILLAR CAVES and taught them the secrets of mining, forging, and engineering. Using this knowledge, the dwarves and gnomes establish the mythical KINGDOM OF VILLAR in the Fullangr Mountains. It will be another 2,500 years before elves have any contact with dwarves and gnomes. Meanwhile, some 6,400 years ago, a dragonborn society calling itself the SECOND KINGDOM OF SHARMENSHARIK mysteriously appears on the ruins of the original KINGDOM OF SHARMENSHARIK.
Age of First Empires
Roughly 6,200 years ago, the goblins of the Mickelgeflowan River Valley unite into a goblin empire. According to dwarven and gnomish legend, around this time orc tribes of the Fullangr Mountains unify, attack, and eventually overwhelm the KINGDOM OF VILLAR. Small humans populations, largely formed from people who escaped enslavement by the goblin empire in the west and the dragonborn SECOND KINGDOM OF SHARMENSHARIK in the east begin to settle in to southern Malbeth.
Some 5,800 years ago, the SECOND KINGDOM OF SHARMENSHARIK falls as the fertile plains upon which it stood turn to desert wasteland overnight. The dragonborn population is decimated, and its surviving members settle along both sides of the Gulf of Sharmensharik and northeastern Malbeth. Around this time, the first human cities are founded in what is now southern Ngwolne and northern Thramia.
About 5,600 years ago the goblin empire of the Mickelgeflowan River Valley splinters into rival kingdoms, plunging the region into 400 years of constant war. At roughly the same time, orc tribes move east out of the Fullangr Mountains and into the Wilwarin Steppe, driving out all dragonborn settlements west of the Gulf of Sharmensharik. Around 100 years after the orcs sweep through the Wilwarin, thri-keen and push back against the orcs. A war of attrition ensues, reducing the population of both. Also around this time the humans in southern Ngwolne and northern Thramia develop bronze working and unify into seven kingdoms.
Age of Second Empires
Around 5,000 years ago, a hobgoblin war leader unifies the goblinoids of the Mickelgeflowan River Valley, establishing the second goblin empire, while in the northeast of Malbeth new dragonborn kingdoms emerge, and war breaks out in the human kingdoms in southern Ngwolne and northern Thramia.
Roughly 4,700 years ago, human cities appear in the northwest of Nor. Not too long later, centaur appear in north Wilwarin Steppes as dwarves and gnomes move into the border region of the western steppes and the Fullangr Mountains. Humans also on the move begin to settle in southern Wilwarin. As these populations grow over the next hundred years, they increasingly come into conflict with orcs, who again unify under a war leader.
Humans, centaur, dwarves, and gnomes form an alliance, but even together they are not powerful enough to withstand the orc armies. Eventually, the elves of ALCARINBAR end their isolation and join the war against the orcs, drving them back into the Fullangr Mountains. Dwarves and gnomes teach their new human allies the secrets of engineering and of iron and steel working, and the elves teach humans, dwarves, gnomes, and centaur the secrets of arcane magic.1
Around 4,500 years ago, humans settle the southern region of the Mickelgeflowan River Valley along the coast of the Southern Sea, and in southern Malbeth the human THRAMIAN EMPIRE is founded. Aided by the knowledge of iron, steel, and arcane magic, humans begin to push north into goblin-held lands of the Mickelgeflowan River Valley.
4,300 years ago the kingdoms in Nor begin to unite, and roughly 4,100 years ago the human KINGDOM OF SYNDAL is founded in the southern region of the Mickelgeflowan River Valley. Also roughly 4,100 years ago. the elven fortress of ALCARINBAR Uplift, turning the once beautiful sylvan forest into the Gwathimlad.2 Malbeth’s elven population is decimated and the elven diaspora begins.
The Age of Nor and the Dragons’ War
Around 4,000 years ago, humans, dwarves, gnomes, and elves work together and take the eastern half of the Mickelgeflowan River Valley, from the Southern Sea all the way north to the Cir Falls. Dwarves found the KINGDOM OF FRANGANG in the Fullangr Mountains, and high elves found the CIRTOL north of the Cir Falls. The EMPIRE OF NOR is founded by the High King of Nor, an archmage who sought but failed to find the secrets of becoming a lich. Around this time the elven and gnomish KINGDOMS OF EDHIL and EDHILDUN are established.
One-hundred years after the High King of Nor founded the EMPIRE OF NOR, his grandsons, powerful wizards all, discover the secrets of undeath and become the Lich-Kings of Nor. They raise powerful armies humans, goblins, giants, and undead to expand their empire south and east into Mickelgeflowan River Valley.
Roughly 3,500 years ago, the THRAMIAN EMPIRE disappears overnight, with hundreds-year old ruins left where the human empire once stood.3 Some 3,300 years ago the Lich-kings of Nor have conquered all of western Malbeth except for the human KINGDOM OF SYNDALA and the dwarven KINGDOM OF FRANGANG.
Roughly 2,400 years ago, the KINGDOM OF FRANGANG was attacked by the powerful united armies of the Underdark, while in eastern Malbeth the dragonborn of KHELEKDRAUG suffer a mysterious plague that decimates its population.4 Within a year, the Lich-kings of the EMPIRE OF NOR attacked the human KINGDOM OF SYNDALA, so neither the humans of Syndala nor the dwarves of Frangang could come to each other’s aid. The KINGDOM OF FRANGANG falls, and its survivors flee, resulting in the dwarven diaspora.
Meanwhile, the war between NOR and SYNDALA wages for a few years, and as forces of NOR seem to be on verge of a decisive victory, dragons appear in great numbers, coming to Syndala’s aid, marking the start of the Dragons’ War. The war lasted 7 years. While the forces of NOR were devastated, the victory was costly. The power of SYNDALA was greatly reduced, and few dragons survived the war. The Lich-kings themselves were never accounted for, nor heard from again, and few who traveled deep into the lands of Nor returned.
The Mickel Kingdoms
Today, historians mark the start of the MICKEL KINGDOMS with the birth of High King Tslantyr, 1,504 years ago. In the Mickel Kingdoms, dating conventions indicate the year of Tslantyr’s birth as MK 1.
Go to Thoughts on the Pre-history of the Micel Kingdoms
- The scholarly magic of wizards as opposed to the innate arcane magic of sorcerers and pact-based arcane magic of warlocks, both of which were already practices in those communities.
↩︎ - The Uplift was and creation of the Gwathimlad (Shadow Valley) was inspired by the Lake County uplift in the New Madrid seismic zone and other devastating effects of the earthquakes along the New Madrid Fault of 1811-1812 (USA). The uplift is 50 kilometers long and 23 kilometers wide, and raised the earth up to 10 meters. What was once woodland became a geothermally active land of chaparral and fens, with frequent eruptions of geothermal and volcanic activity that create temporary boiling mudpits, fiery fissures (resulting in wildfires), and clouds of noxious and toxic gases that kill the surrounding flora and fauna.
↩︎ - If you’re noticing a trend of cataclysmic events happening overnight (and I mean literally rather than figuratively) — the lands of the Empire of Sharmensharik turning to desert, the Thramian Empire existing as a thriving empire one day to nothing but old abandoned ruins the next — you’re not imagining it. The material plane upon which Malbeth resides is unstable. By design, I included this to create both a sense of mythic history — legends and stories to be assumed figurative rather than literal — and an existential threat to reality itself that could come into play with cities, populations, kingdoms, geography, all disappearing or becoming something else in the blink of an eye. Obviously, one doesn’t want to overdo this, unless your setting is a plane of dread, but it’s the kind of thing that will capture player’s attention. How they respond, on the other hand, is up to the players.
↩︎ - Deep history for players to discover should the campaign go in that direction: Both the Underdark attack the led to the fall of the dwarven kingdom of Frangang and the plague that decimated the dragonborn of Khelekdraug were orchestrated by the Valaraukar. And, actually, the Valaraukar also taught the Lich-Kings of Nor the secrets of undeath, too, as well as caused the cataclysmic Uplift that created the Gwathimlad, because seriously, if you’re going to create a shadowy, planar existential threat to your campaign world, they need to be doing things. And yes, they’re also the reason why Malbeth’s reality is itself unstable, though that is an accidental consequence of the Valaraukar breach into the material plane rather than one of their designs. ↩︎