Home				AlexMUD timeline *??? The world as we know it is created by Nen.   ??? The rise of the Dark Empires (Nephilim, Fifth Circle) as well as a handful of "peaceful" ones (Gorvanee).   ??? The arrival of the Suvath and The Downfall of the Dark Empires.   *78 BDH Mukurak sacked for the final time. Survivors flee north to found Haven. The first Dwarf-Orc Undermountain War begins.   *18 BDH Treason at the battle of Shimmering Glen. The elven kingdom of Dark Forest falls in bloodshed. Arak founded. Uruks assault the remnants of the Dwarven Undermountain kingdom for the first time, starting the second Dwarf-Orc Undermountain War.   8 BDH The second Dwarf-Orc Undermountain War ends in utter defeat for the dwarves, who flee above-ground to the peaks over their fallen kingdom.   1 DH After years of building, the new dwarven city of Duur-Halla is officially declared "built". This is the starting point for the Duur-Hallan calendar.   48 DH The military outpost of Arak-Kur founded on the southeastern frontier of Half-Orc lands.   *74 DH The last stronghold of the Gorvanee people is surrounded and sacked. Most of their great works are destroyed in the process. A handful of refugees escape to wander the world.   101 DH A band of adventurers, led by a powerful warrior-mage, arrive at a small village on the banks of the Arden River. Not long after, they have an obscure altercation in the catacombs under the village, in which more than half the band dies. The survivors, including the warrior-mage, return to the surface and begin to organize the village and surrounding lands into a small principality, with the warrior-mage, Ulmark, as its King. After only a handful of years, the other members of the band wander off, leaving Ulmark alone.   108 DH First meeting between advance scouts from Arak and Ardenia ends badly, with the Ardenians being executed and their heads sent back to Ulmark.   112 DH The First war between Arak and Ardenia begins. The Ardenians, led by the powerful Ulmark, quickly defeat the Half-Orcs in a matter of weeks, despite being vastly outnumbered.   *123 DH A Gorvanee exile arrives in Ardenia, and is given refuge in return for services   120-183 DH Continuous border skirmishes in the dust plains between Ardenia and Arak.   *159 DH The Gorvanee exile breaks down and begins teaching a single human pupil her knowledge.   *167 DH Gorvanee exile dies of extreme old age. Her single pupil begins gathering a small group to teach, only one every other year being selected.   *177 DH The pupil/master is slain by a poisoned Half-orc arrow, likely with the assistance of his second-most advanced student. This traitor moves immediately to Arak. The Pupil/master's eldest student, Hirantus the Wise, founded what would eventually become the Mage's Schola of Ardenfall. His newest student, Dunter Hammer-Thew, founds a loose school of smiths and craftsmen who learn from him what he learned of the building arts. The other two students perish within a year of the Master's death, by foul play.   *183 DH In a public ceremony by the Half-Orc king's side, the Traitor announces the creation on his master work, known only as "The Chain", which can be used to control all innate spell- casters. The Traitor dies under mysterious circumstances only days later. The period of time known as "The Consolidation" begins in Arak.   184 DH With virtually all the innate spell-casters in his kingdom under direct royal control, the Half-Orc King launches a sneak attack on Ardenia, starting the second war between Arak and Ardenia. It carries on for 3 years in a virtual stalemate, with Ulmark's power on one side and the combined Half-orc spellcasters on the other.   187 DH The second war ends in stalemate, with both sides wearily making their way home to redress their wounds.   198 DH Duur-Halla opens as a major trading center between itself and the two major kingdoms of the region, after large quantities of various metals are found in the nearby mountains.   201-218 DH During this period, the various free trading companies of Ardenia slowly form, thriving on the new movement of goods.   231 DH Ulmark inexplicably collapses and falls into a deep, coma-like sleep. As soon as word of this reaches the Arak court, they immediately organize and attack Ardenia, starting the 3rd war between Arak and Ardenia. They quickly take large pieces of Ardenian territory from the vastly unprepared and over-powered humans. Ardenfall itself is sacked within a season. The half-orc army settles into northern Ardenia and consolidates their hold, while continuing to fight Ardenian rebels in the south.   232 DH Ulmark awakens in a hidden Ardenian camp and though weak, quickly organizes a counter-strike, forcing the half-orc army out of the ruins of Ardenfall. Ardenian territory is cleared of any half-orc presence within the year, and war moves onto half-orc territory for the first time since the First war. The dwarves of Duur-Halla secretly begin digging new underground caverns in an unspecified location.   233 DH After a year-long retributive campaign on half-orc soil, Ulmark leads his weary and rag-tag army home to rebuild their shattered kingdom.   247 DH Ardenfall is declared "rebuilt" and the temple is officially re-consecrated. An obviously weary Ulmark retreats to his castle and is rarely seen from that time on. Over the next thirty years, the kingdom falls further and further into decline and anarchy, and the number of self-proclaimed "adventurers" rises every year, spreading violence.   277 DH Ulmark reportedly collapses. Ten days later, a horde of demons descends on Ardenfall and Ulmark's castle, sacking and destroying both. Over half the population of the city dies within an hour, the rest fleeing in all directions. Ulmark is presumed dead. Ardenian refugees begin gathering in Haven and the dwarven city of Duur-Halla. The demon horde, led by a powerful Denengloth named Sarigar, shows no signs of expanding beyond Ardenfall.   282 DH The traveller Jura Avari arrives in Duur-Halla from far-off lands, claiming to be a distant relative of Ulmark's. He is quickly embraced by the remnants of the Ardenian leadership, most notably the Archmage Malaq.   283 DH Jura Avari is proclaimed Regent of Ardenia-in-exile. He begins the work of gathering an army to attempt to drive the demonic forces out of shattered Ardenfall.   284 DH Travellers from far to the east arrive in Duur-Halla, claiming to have come to help the Ardenians. They bring with them a statue which they say will keep the demons out of the city. Not long after, several unusual individuals begin to have dealings with he exiled Ardenians, offering all sorts of aid. One of them, Morden eventually leads an attack on the statue, followed by a nearly successful invasion of Duur-Halla by demons. Morden is declared persona non grata in all lands under Ardenian control for the rest of time by Regent Jura.   284-287 DH Several plans and projects are worked on during this period with the aim of driving the demonic hordes of Sarigar from Ardenia, most of which fail to various degrees. Many skirmishes between the demons and various Ardenian forces occur. Morden is seen often at the start of this period, but vanishes abrubptly at the start of 287. Regent Avari continues to gather his army, many recruits coming in the form of refugees from the same lands as the travellers with the statue, who bring tidings of war with demonic hordes there as well. Strife and antagonism grows in Duur-Halla between the refugee Ardenians and the native dwarves, and riots and lynchings by both sides occasionally erupt.   288 DH Ardenian spies report a lull in demonic activity in and around Ardenfall. Regent Jura Avari, deciding that it is a good time for action, leads his large army to Ardenfall and finds it destroyed, but also completely empty of demonic presence. Victory in the Demon War is proclaimed and Regent Jura Avari is crowned in Prince Regent of Ardenia and Demon-Bane, refusing Ulmark's Ruby crown when it is offered to him.   289-290 DH The rebuilding of Ardenfall begins. Though it will be many decades, even centuries, before the city fully recovers, much of the center of the city is hastily resurrected and made livable in a short time. Jura moves the headquarters of the Grand Army of Ardenia to the village of Astar, changing the village overnight from a sleepy bordertown into a bristling, armed camp. He places his trusted second, Kelnak, in command of the Army.   290 DH A young, orphaned eastern refugee girl named Mira Qintasi is found by Ardenian adventurers to have the power to tell the future through her dreams. The Prince Regent quickly takes her under his protection.   291 DH In a surprise move, the dwarves of Duur-Halla, declaring their hatred for humans and all other top-landers, leave their ancient city and move into their now nearly-completed hidden underground kingdom, moving completely out of sight and contact of all surface-dwellers. Word leaks from Arak of plans to seize the city and its valuable mines for the greater glory of the half-orc kingdom.   292 DH Prince Regent Jura sends a small expeditionary force to Duur-Halla, ostensibly to protect the growing human population of refugees there. The force is led by a trusted confidant of the Prince's, Sir Alxar Algado, who is named to the position of Praetor and protector of Duur-Halla. Several royal miners and traders accompany the force and immediately begin assessing the surrounding lands.   293 DH Praetor Alxar's forces are lured out of Duur-Halla by a half-orc ruse, and the city is attacked and nearly burned to the ground. The half-orcs are driven-off before the assault is completed by a hastily returned Alxar and his forces.   294-** Prince Regent Jura Avari, childless and unmarried, adopts the young seeress Mira as his daughter and heir. Princess Mira Avari has the first of her famous vision-dreams, and upon awakening, writes The Prophecy of the Eye, telling of a coming darkness. The Ardenian Schola creates a branch in Duur-Halla, the first time the school has expanded in nearly two centuries.   296 DH Morden is seen again in Ardenian lands for the first time in nine years, accompanied by strange, unseen beings. Unexpected and deadly random attacks begin occurring about the land, often ending in the slaughter of hundreds. The perpetrators are never seen by survivors.   297 DH The unseen attacks, now known to be the work of Morden and an new ally, a race known only as the Kii, continue. At the same time, the various clans, nations and groups surrounding Ardenia begin to close their borders and turn their backs on Ardenia. All indications are that Arak and the orcs of Orc Mountain are making preparations for attack. Morden and the Kii are often seen among these various enemy groups.   298 DH Jura Avari sends an mission to the distant and fabled city of Moonbridge, led by the aging Archmage Malaq's apprentice, Lamari, seeking allies or new magics to aid Ardenia's cause. Enemy forces continue to gather on the kingdom's borders, and skirmishes break out between Arak and Ardenia patrols. The Archmage takes a new apprentice, Sheol, and then goes into seclusion.   299 DH Prince Regent Jura Avari is abducted by a large Arakan force while on patrol, leaving his sixteen year old daughter, Mira, as his only heir. A brief power-struggle ensues between the Princess and Kelnak, Lord Marshall of the Ardenian Army. During the confusion, a group of adventurers lead an attempt to rescue Jura Avari from Murgarak, which ends in failure. A week later, (three weeks before the end of the year), an eye-like comet appears in the sky, visible even during the day. The forces of Arak immediately launch their assault, fulfilling part of Mira's Prophecy of the Eye. The Fourth Ardenian-Arak War begins. The first battles of the war are bloody, as the Arakan and orcish forces assault south towards Ardenia through the passages of Orc Mountain. At the same time, they lay siege to the northern end of Duur-Halla Pass (the south end of which was blocked by heavy snows), cutting the city off from all aid. Just as the Ardenian forces are about to collapse in their bloking of the southern entrance to Orc Mountain, the Mage's Schola, led by the Archmage, causes the passage to collapse, temporarily blocking the invading forces and providing a reprieve.   Early 300 DH - The mage Lamari alone returns of all those sent to Moonbridge, without any allies, but with some new ideas and magics. He quickly vanishes into the warrens beneath the city after his arrival. Duur-Halla withstands several assaults, though food runs out in the late winter. Sounds of digging can be heard on the other side of the collapsed rock blocking the southern entrance to Orc Mountain. After the results of the disastrous first part of the war, and the fact that her prophecy helped the Archmage to think of the cave collapse, Mira Avari is confirmed as Princess Regent of Ardenia, until her father's return. As the spring thaws begin, the blockage at the southern entrance bursts, and the combined hordes of orcs and half-orcs quickly breaks through the vastly-outnumbered forces of Ardenia, moving south into the Plains of Strife.   Mid 300 DH - The outpost village of Watchtower, near Orc Mountain is sacked and utterly destroyed by the marauding army, as is the village of Astar, headquarters of the Ardenian Army. The enemy forces continue to drive the tattered remnants of the Ardenian defenses towards Ardenfall, nearly unopposed. The Battle of the Bloodstand is fought before the walls of the city, as a last-ditch effort to defend it is attempted. As the Arakan forces were about to break through the city gates, a huge red dragon burst up through the southern part of the city from the catacombs beneath, striking at the Arakan and orcish army with a deadly rain of fire before moving off northwards to attack first Arak-Kur and then Murgarak. The Arakan Army is quickly recalled to attempt to slay the beast, the cowardly orcs, bereft of most of their allies, turn back towards their mountain, pillaging on the way. On the way back, they are met by a combined force led by Praetor Alxar, comprised of the Militia of Duur-Halla and the warriors of the reclusive eastern plains tribe, the Cuwat. Few orcs survive to return to Orc Moutain. The red dragon is finally driven from Murgarak, after destroying half the city and killing fully three-fourths of the half-orc army. Victory in the Fourth Ardenian-Arak War is declared by Princess Regent Mira, and the decimated population of Ardenia returns to the remains of their homes and attempt to rebuild once more. The Kii attacks, absent during the war, begin once more.   301 DH - The Archmage returns to his seclusion with his apprentice once more, as both the rebuilding and the Kii attacks continue. One night, a flare of light is seen from his study, and bystanders report visions of a great battle between a dark, scaly being and a returned King Ulmark, which seems to end in stalemate. Sheol, the Archmage's apprentice, is seen to flee the Archmage's household immediately after. The next day, Malaq emerges, declaring Sheol a traitor to Ardenia. He also declares he has discovered a way to defeat the Kii, and departs quickly to places unknown with most a large group of "adventurers". That day, the sky grows dark at noon, and the Eye comet, still in the sky, grows blood-red. An army of undead rises up from every grave and battlefield in the land, and moves on Ardenfall. The remnant of the Ardenian Army, led by Lord Marshall Kelnak, does its best to face the horde, but is quickly overcome, its own dead joining the ranks of the swelling force. The undead horde enters the city unopposed, and begins slaying the citizenry enmasse, only to pause an hour later and collapse to the ground as the sky lightens again, and the Red Eye fades from the heavens. Fully one-third of the citizens of Ardenfall are determined to have died in this one day, including the Archmage Malaq, who died defending the temple of Zzaliss.