History of Dage

Overview

The great Kadian Empire has crumbled. In its wake lay scattered provinces, some ruled by kings and tribal chieftains, others ruled only by force and barbarism. The long straight Kadian roads that once moved millions of goods over thousands of miles are nearly empty and falling into disrepair. An entire continent now lies in fear and darkness.

For five hundred years, the Empire brought peace and prosperity to the peoples within its borders. For five hundred years, its armies were the strongest and most successful in the world. But the Empire was corrupted from within, after centuries of conflict over the imperial throne drained the Western lands of men and wealth. With Kadian population declining, barbarian settlers were conscripted into the army, and soon rose high in the legions.

When barbaric hordes of Dakans from the North and Huturls from the East swept over the borders, these legions could not fight their own people. Soon the Kadian emperors had to buy their protection from these new armies and the emperors became beholden to their barbarian generals. The invaders became Kadians, but the Kadians became barbarized in the deal.

Now, the descendants of these tribal chieftains hold the land throughout Dage and are the primary unit of power. While kings and emperors may reign over regions, the new lords of mixed barbarian and Kadian lineage rule. As kinship and honor are valued higher than any other duty, power and government remains localized.

Transportation is hazardous, reducing trade to a mere trickle. The predation of brigands, pirates and monsters no longer held in check by organized government has made any journey of more than twenty miles over land or water a deadly threat. As such, cities tend to be heavily fortified and rural settlements few and far between. Cities maintain a watch over their immediate roads and waters, but safety is only guaranteed by one's own protection.

With the destruction of the Empire, the tolerance the mystic arts enjoyed is gone. Many blame magic-users for the downfall of the Empire, and kill "witches" and "warlocks" on sight. Very few persons practice the arcane arts openly, and few students join the cabals now that the great schools of magic have been sacked and their secret knowledge lost.

As a result, the gods and their clerics have risen in strength. The priesthood is among the new elite in the remains of the Kadian Empire, with gods freely granting powers to their followers to increase their temporal authority. While some temples seek to preserve the knowledge of the Empire, many others use this power for material gain. The abbots and high priests of churches and temples often are not men of faith, but successful warriors or aristocrats inducted into the religion for their mutual benefit. With physical and spiritual power, the clergy is often the only authority that local lords will bow to.

The North

Comprising the former provinces of Britannia, Frisia, the Danegund, Gallia and Saxony, the North is home to the Alemanni peoples and many remaining Celts, as well as the dwarves of the Northern Wastes and the halflings of Frisia. The orcs, ogres and giantkin make their home in the Wastes, and strike at the civilized races to their south for plunder.

The North is the homeland of the Dakar who swept from above the mountain ranges and down into the fertile lands of central Dage. The Dakar are only the most recent of the Alemanni peoples to come from this area. Dwarven teachings have strongly influenced these people, and there is a close bond between the Alemanni and the dwarvish civilization of the region.

The walled cities of Londinium (in Britannia) and Trier (in Gallia) are here, along with a scattered handful of human towns and settlements along rivers and near forests. Trier served as the Imperial residence outside Kadia, and still boasts the strongest center of former Imperial power in the North and West. Three legions are stationed there, along with four auxiliaries to keep Gallia and Saxony safe from attack.

Londinium has only local militia to defend it after it fell to Celtic and Alemanni invaders, followed by Frisian barbarians from the north and east. It serves as the last major center of trade in the North, bringing goods from the Middle Sea to the icebound mountain provinces.

Eastern Plains

The provinces of Ularia, Thuringia, Valeria, Scythia and Tervingia make up the Eastern Plains. This is the "source of all peoples" - Kadians, Celts, and Telvars all trace their roots to the lands north and east of the Dark Sea. The Huturl tribe called this their homeland before being driven westward into central Dage by subsequent Ular and gnoll invaders from the Great Steppes.

Few peoples settle for long in this vast plains. Most arrive from the east and depart to the west on horseback or by foot. The dark elves make the Savian forest their home, savagely killing intruders, and tribes of trolls make the Greutung Swamps inhospitable to civilization. The Ulars have settled in the lands south of the frozen Wastes and north of the Dereb River, eking out an existence from nomadic hunting, gathering and raids upon the more prosperous peoples south of the river.

The walled city of Carnuntum is the lone presence of civilization here. Sitting on the banks of the Ostroda River near the border of Thuringia and Noricum, it is the gateway through which passes trade and armies from the West to the East. Most of the population of the Eastern Plains lives on the Ostroda within the protection of Carnuntum's two legions and militia patrols.

Reportedly, there are kingdoms of great wealth and power beyond the Great Steppes to the east, but none have returned to tell of them if they exist.

Thracian Empire

Kadian civilization continues in the East more than anywhere else. The provinces of Thrace, Galatia, Lycia, Illyricum and Aegyptus became the Thracian Empire when Constantine declared himself independent of Kadia in 1192. The greatest cities still stand here, with the greatest wealth and remaining Imperial power in Dage. Nubians, the Illyar and Kadians live here in safety and prosperity compared to the rest of Dage. Gnomes still make their home in the hills of Lycia and the Illyricum, and high Elves live secluded in the vast Pannonian woods.

Adrianopolis boasts six legions and as many auxiliaries at its command, many patrolling the Pannonian and Dacian borders for gnoll war bands. Its warships cruise the Sea of Marmara between Upper and Lower Thrace, keeping the trade lines open. Antioch holds three legions and two auxiliaries to protect its farmers, fishermen and merchants, along with a strong force of priests and templars who defend the city. Alexandria holds the only remaining Imperial Advisory of mages, who serve to keep the advancing desert sands at bay from its walls and the Leshe river delta. Its two legions guard the city and patrol along the Numidian border.

Few monsters remain in this region, with only the trolls of the distant Tal-Aziz plateau actively threatening cities. However, the length of civilization and history breeds a population of undead higher than anywhere else. From whispered stories of stone-white vampirus in the tombs of Aegyptus to ghosts of long-dead warriors in Antioch and the disturbed (and well-guarded) cemetaries of Adrianopolis, the past haunts the darkness here.

Middle Provinces

The provinces of Kadia, Dacia, Aemilia, Numidia and Tingitana were once the center of civilization. Now this region is home to warring independent city-states and lordships. Kadians live on the Ionian peninsula and Dacia, along with Nubians on the south coast of the Middle Sea.

Kadia's walls stand around a center of trade and government, but its two legions and auxiliary are a pale shadow of its former might. Conscripted mainly from the Huturl tribes settled in Ionia, its armies frequently clash with those settled in Aemilia. There new city-states have developed and practice trade with Provence and Noricum to their west and north. Kobolds harass travelers through the northern mountains, having grown stronger with the demise of Imperial patrols through the passes.

Tegaste in Tingitana still sends its ships through the Middle and Western Seas on trade routes, but fewer and fewer sail each year as the farmlands to its south are swallowed by the advancing desert. Its lone legion and auxiliary serve to keep the walled city free from piracy, but its merchants suffer many losses from brigands on land and at sea. It maintains a cautious alliance with Kadia, more for need of manpower and protection than desire for shared government.

The near-empty province of Numidia is a wasteland of sand, bandits, and monstrous denizens of the desert. Few people live there, having fled to Ionia or Tingitana after Shalielan's walls were buried in the desert by Imperial mages nearly a thousand years ago.

Dacia is home to warring gnoll tribes, Kadian settlements reduced to near-barbarism, and mercenary armies of the Aemilian city-states and Kadia. The forces there fight through its rocky hills and mountains, turning the once-prosperous farming province into a shattered war zone.

The West

The last best hope for civilization may lie in the western provinces of Aquitania, Provence, Baetica and Noricum. Celts, Alemanni, Kadians and hobgoblin tribes share these lands, slowly recovering from centuries of succession wars. The migration of peoples into fertile farmland has produced a rise in population in the West, much unlike the slow decline in most other regions.

The walled city of Massilla was virtually untouched by the violence that marked the fall of Kadia. It still commands two legions and five auxiliaries, and is fast becoming the largest trading city on the Middle Sea. From here, goods come and go from the fertile farmlands upriver. Its warships patrol the nearby seas in an uneasy peace with the Aemilian city-states, but piracy still plagues waters beyond its reach. Its armies stand on patrol along the Pyrhennian mountain border with Baetica, keeping the hobgoblin tribes there at bay, and along the mountain passes leading to Aemilia.

Aquitania was home to numerous provincial warlords who have since settled into its rich lands, and is now part of Clotavis' new united kingdom with Gallia and Saxony. Many smaller towns here were formed by settled soldiers whose military expertise has been passed down to the present day.

Baetica has a long military tradition dating back to its Celtic settlers, who maintain no legions or auxiliaries in Tagus but defend its walls with well-trained local militia. Their strength is estimated at between two and three auxiliaries, which is often brought to bear against the marauding trolls of the Iberian Plateau. Relatively isolated, its people are fiercely independent of authority and tend to be overly suspicious of foreigners.

Noricum fared the worst through its history of wars, torn apart by the civil conflict following the dissolution of the Grand Alliance and invaded by both the Dakar and Huturl warriors in the last wave of barbarian migrations. Its forests still house many dark beasts, and its roads are plagued by bandits hoping to gain plunder from the merchants traveling between Trier and Carnuntum. Its people tend to live close by the forts and strongholds of their warlords.

A Timeline of Events in Dage

(BK = Before Kadia, KY = Kadian Years)

Excerpts from the writings of Uluthat Kindore, gnomish historian, ca. 2520 KY

Ch. I, "An Overview of the Era of Darkness"

No one definitive event marks the end of antiquity and the beginning of the Dark Ages. Neither the sack of Kadia by the Huturls nor the deposition of Marcus Terlius, the last Kadian emperor in the West, impressed their contemporaries as epoch-making catastrophes. Rather, the culmination of several long-term trends, most notably a severe economic dislocation resulting from the ongoing succession wars for the throne and the invasions and subsequent settlement of the various barbarian tribes within the borders of the Kadian Empire had changed the face of Dage. For the next 300 years western Dage remained essentially a primitive culture, albeit one uniquely superimposed on the complex, elaborate culture of the Kadian Empire, which was never entirely lost or forgotten....

Ch. VII, "The Process Leading to Fragmentation of Authority"

Although during this period the loose confederation of tribes began to coalesce into kingdoms, virtually no machinery of government existed, and political and economic development was local in nature. Regular commerce had ceased almost entirely in favor of the caste-bound gift system, although the money economy never entirely vanished. In the culmination of a process that had already begun in the Kadian Empire, the peasantry became bound to the land and dependent on landlords for protection and the rudimentary administration of justice. These landlords were primarily Kadian and Celtic in ancestry, but as the Alemann and Telvar peoples gained ascendancy in the Kadian military, they successfully integrated themselves into this caste. Among this warrior aristocracy the most important social bonds were ties of kinship, but feudal connections were also emerging, which may have been rooted in the old Kadian patron-client relationship or in the Huturl 'party', the group of fighting companions. All such connections impeded any tendency toward political consolidation....

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4004 BK	Legendary arrival of the Kadian people to the eastern shores of the Middle Sea from the Great Steppes. The mythical city of Alladia is said to have been constructed in Lycia by the early Kadian peoples.
3420 BK	First records of human contact with Dwarven peoples in the Danegund. The Alemanni peoples of the north trace their runic alphabet to this date.
3167 BK	The gnomish tribe of Finshat joins with the Illyar peoples against the Ma'klibiat hobgoblins. The hobgoblins are defeated at High Ashant, north of Antioch on the Tohma river, and are driven from the lands south of the Dark Sea.
2600 BK	Damanhur (now Alexandria) founded by Al-Ramesis, first King of Aegyptus.
2285 BK	Numidian trading ships arrive at Antioch; first recorded contact with Nubian peoples.
1800 BK	Kobolds are driven from the Lyean River in Ionia by Illyrian settlers; they retreat to the mountains of northern Aemilia.
1142 BK	Kadian peoples spread to the Ionian Peninsula and Dacia after the Second Illyrian War.
850 BK	Celtic peoples settle in Britannia and Baetica after migrating from the East; Celtic tribes stretch across most of central Dage.
723 BK	Trolls of Iberia are decimated at the battle of Tagus; Celts fortify the city to protect against further attacks from the plateau.
681 BK	The crowns of Tingitana and Numidia are won by Ars Shaliel in the Desert Wars.
674 BK	Ars Shaliel's armies claim victory at Damanhur and conquer Aegyptus and Galatia.
559 BK	Illyrians fortify Tol Sardan (Adrianopolis) against Pannonian high elves.
438 BK	Halflings driven from Frisian lands by the orcish armies of Dal'nar the Tall.
299 BK	The High Alliance of Celtic kingdoms, Britannian elves, Northern dwarves and the halflings of Gallia and Aquitania defeat Shalmara III at Nothgar Firth in Frisia. Many halflings return to their homelands, and the orcish armies are driven into the Wastelands.
257 BK	Aelixsandra the Great of Pannonia conquers Tol Sardan and Antioch, starts her conquest of the eastern world from the Illyrian peoples.
255 BK	Aelixsandra captures Damanhur and renames the city Alexandria.
254 BK	The city-fortress of Shalielan in Numidia falls to Aelixsandra's armies.
252 BK	Ionian settlers pledge fealty to Aelixsandra and the Illyricum surrenders. The Pannonian Empire stretches over the eastern half of the Middle Sea and the known civilized world. For the first time, Dage is ruled by two empires of the civilized races.
1 KY	Kadia is founded on the banks of the Lyean River in Ionia.
37 KY	The High Alliance breaks when Aelixsandra II attacks Carnuntum; the Celtic kingdoms of Noricum march on the city with the elves, but the Gallian and dwarven defenders keep the city. Aelixsandra II is killed in battle.
44 KY	The dwarves of Carnuntum return to Danegund as civil wars sweep the Celtic and Pannonian lands. Many halflings of Gallia and Aquitania flee to Tingitana.
80 KY	Hobgoblin armies from Thuringia capture Carnuntum. The Fallen Age descends upon the Celtic lands as barbarians and monsters assault human and dwarven settlements.
128 KY	Carnuntum is liberated by Baedrick of Saxony. Alemanni peoples from the Danegund start to migrate into Celtic lands as mercenaries and settlers.
231 KY	Kadians conquer Aemilia from kobold and Celtic tribesmen.
356 KY	The Dacian Kingdoms pledge fealty to Kadia when Tallian of Illyricum is defeated.
380 KY	The Trolls of Greutung and hobgoblin tribes from Scythia and Tervingia attack Tol Sardan. Kadian legions sail to its defense as it comes under seige, and drive the attackers into the Pannonian Forest, where Aelixsandra III destroys them. Kadians take control of Tol Sardan and rename it Adrianopolis.
395 KY	Aelixsandra III cedes Illyricum to Kadia in exchange for Kadian fortification of the Tervingian border.
411 KY	Kadian Senate is dissolved by Iulian Caesar, who declares himself Emperor of Kadia.
418 KY	Provence, Aquitania and Gallia fall to Iulian's armies. Massilla and Trier are established.
420 KY	Lower Britannia is invaded and conquered by Iulian's legions, Londinium is founded.
423 KY	Saxony and Noricum are conquered by Iulian Caesar. Carnuntum surrenders without a battle and invites the Kadian legions to stay and protect the Thuringian border.
428 KY	Iulian Caesar returns to Kadia and is assassinated by former members of the Senate. Augustus Caesar succeeds him and maintains the Empire after murdering his rivals for power.
430 KY	Numidian mercenaries attack Kadian settlers in Illyricum.
434 KY	The city of Shalielan is swallowed by the desert after Kadian armies and Imperial mages destroy its Numidian defenders.
449 KY	Aegyptus is conquered by Kadian legions.
450 KY	Kingdoms of Galatia and Lycia pledge fealty to Kadia. The Pax Ionia begins - for five hundred years, no lands of the Empire are ever conquered by outside enemies.
653 KY	The Ascension Wars begin after the death of Septimus Danerus. Lasting on and off for two hundred years, Kadian armies clash in the Middle Provinces and the West to decide the Emperor's throne. While a stable government persists in the east with the Consul at Adrianopolis, the western and northern provinces decline in trade, population and wealth from the conflicts.
847 KY	Emperor Marcus Argentum comes to power and rules for fifty-two years over the last long period of peace inside the Empire.
879 KY	Greatest territorial expansion of the Kadian Empire. At Marcus Argentum's death, it reaches from Britannia to Tingitana, from Galatia to Thuringia, and encompasses all civilized lands in Dage.
966 KY	Upper Britannia falls to Celtic and Alemanni attacks.
1019 KY	The Declining Emperors come to power; Huturl (Telvar) barbarian tribes start to ransack Kadian lands in the East.
1134 KY	Massacre of Tortuga in Noricum. Dakar (Alemanni) barbarians and orcish armies reach the northern mountains of Aemilia after crushing five Kadian legions in open battle on the Tortugan plains. Mages of the Imperial Advisory are blamed for the defeat and their leadership is publicly immolated in Kadia.
1175 KY	Kadia is sacked by Dakars and Huturls. Targus IV, emperor of Kadia, swears fealty to the invaders and is assassinated for his troubles two months later.
1191 KY	Marcus Terlius is deposed from the Kadian throne and executed by Octavius, warlord and chieftain of the Huturl tribes. Octavius names himself Emperor.
1192 KY	Consul Constantine of Adrianopolis declares himself Emperor of Thrace. The remaining Kadian provinces under Imperial control join the Thracian Empire.
1200 KY	Approximate end of Kadian power in the West. Octavius the Pretender dies at the hands of his step-brother, and no legitimate emperor ascends to the Kadian throne as Ionia is thrown into civil war.
1232 KY	Britannia is invaded by Frisian barbarians.
1267 KY	Tervingian princes are overrun by gnoll and Telvar shaman attacks. Organized rule disintegrates in the province.
1293 KY	Antioch survives an attack by trolls from the Tal-Aziz Plateau, but many Galatian farmers lose their lands in the siege.
1306 KY	Clotavis of Gallia unites Saxony, Gallia, and Aquitania under his rule.
1315 KY	Current year.