Ancient History

Legend has it that Iourn was once ruled by dragons. However, the other common races including dwarves, halflings, gnomes and elves have all left their mark on the world. Remember that the Iourn year is four times the length of a year here on Earth. The moniker PL stands for "Pre-Lunar".

4,000 PL

The dragon god Io acts against the Custodians of Concordance and destroys the nine temples constructed to his worship. The temple of Ashardon is cast below the Arakandal (the Barrowmoors).

2,500 PL

Man has reached the stone age. The race has mastered primitive weapons, loincloths and language, but has no knowledge of magic. The numbers are fairly small (roughly 2,000,000 throughout the world) and Man is prey as much as he is predator.

1,500 PL

Buildings discovered within the Wraith Haunt date from at least this time, perhaps indicating that a great civilisation once stood there.

1,250 PL

A much more sophisticated man now exists. Trading communities exist and in some parts of the world a written language has been developed. The druidic tradition has already been in existence for many years and for the first time Man has the power to wield magic. Some myths date the first contact between man and elves as coming from this time.

750 PL

After a thousand seasons of building, trade and commerce the tropical human city of Hadras is the most advanced in the world. A society of sun worshippers, the Hadradans are very advanced in ways of science, navigation and technology. They have a thirst for exploring and for conquest. Over the next few hundred years the Hadradan empire will grow and encompass most of the northern world, including the fractured continent they called Barbrasa. The Hadradans, in common with most of the other humans on the world are remarkably short lived compared to the other races. They are Arabic in appearance.

700 PL

The Hadradan, Belsinor discovers the thin mountainous continent that follows the equator around Iourn totally separating northern and southern hemispheres. One day it will be called Belsinor's Girdle in his honour. Over the coming decades none of the parties of explorers sent by the Hadradans ever return. The empire doesn't give up but they are a little more cautious as time progresses.

350 PL

Life on the fracture continent changed in 350 PL when the Hadradan empire invade from the south. They are a highly proficient, magical and organised culture who look upon the people of the fractured continent as little more than symphilitic barbarians merely there to provide the Hadradans with an addition to their empire. In fact the Hadradans call this new land Barbrasa (meaning Land of Barbarians). The natives cannot put up an organised or coherent defence of their homes and most don't particularly care they are being invaded. Soon the continent is owned and run from Hadras. The local people have never seen people like the Hadradans before and, although they are slaves, their living conditions improve remarkably. The Hadradans teach farming, architecture and engineering to the people. They give them literacy and a written language for the first time. The life expectancy of your average peasent greatly increases and the Hadradans build roads, bridges and great cities.

Not all the inhabitants of the future Urova were easily quelled. The Hadradans were quick to make peace with the dwarves, explaining to the small folk that they were only on the continent to control the human domains and promised to leave the world beneath untouched. The dwarves were sceptical, particularly since the Hadradans had no qualms about enslaving halflings along with humans. But the status quo was maintained for many years, and for nearly a thousand seasons the Hadradans ruled the fractured continent with a grip that was seemingly of steel.

The conqueors did not share all their secrets with the oppressed. One closely guarded mystery was their control of wizardly magic. It was a crime to teach such skills to a barbarian and Hadradans caught doing so were very publicly put to death. As a result very few of the natives had ever even attempted a cantrip, and what sorcerors there were faced being hunted down and killed, along with the ever-diminishing druidic orders. Then in what would be the last years of the Pre-Lunar calender, a number of events conspired together to throw the Hadradans off the fractured continent all together and give the natives their own country for the first time in history.

20 PL

At this time there were a number of pressures on the empire that were completely unrelated to the situation on Barbarasa. The Hadradans were once again trying to make a move to the south. Despite many attempts over the years, they had never been able to push through Belsinor's Girdle and see what was on the other side. The thin strip of land that divided the northern and southern hemispheres had taken on a mystical reputation within Hadradan society. Some believed that it marked the edge of the world and that God himself had placed the obstacles found on the Girdle in their path for a reason. This opinion had reached cult status by 20 PL, and its very existance threatened a schism in the Church of the Sun. The Hadradans had always been a monotheistic culture built around the worship of one god, and of the sun as an earthly representation of that god. Disagreement between different branches of the priesthood (although not uncommon) had never degenerated to the degree that was now obvious on the streets of Hadras.

The military wanted to press on through the Girdle. They believed that untold riches and prizes lay on the other side for the taking. Magic had revealed that this was not an enormous continent, but a barrier and that something lay on the other side. Worryingly, wizards were not able to scry beyond the girdle. This should, perhaps, have told them the folly of venturing beyond it. The greatest cartographers of the land had plotted the point where they believed the girdle was at its narrowest. The plan was to send an overwhelming force onto the girdle, secure the area and then press on to finally see what lay beyond it.

16 PL

The order to send a force of 70,000 troops to breach the girdle was taken by the Hadardan Emperor in the early Spring of 16 PL. After leaving port no message was ever heard from them again. This was political (and literal) death for the emperor, who was swiftly replaced by a rival. The new emperor soon proved to be equally as mad as the first, and sent a second force - this time of 100,000 troops. Some of these troops did indeed return. However, hot on their heels was an overwhelmingly aggressive force of humans the like of which the Hadradans had never seen before.

These natives of the world to the south were called Mannenites. Their skins were the deepest ebony and they wielded magical forces that the Hadradan wizards could not hope to match. A terrible war ensued, and the Hadradans had to pull back all but a token force from Barbarasa to meet this new threat. After a long and bloody battle lasting nearly two Iourn years the invaders were driven off, but Hadras had been sacked and the Imperial family butchered (and eaten). The empire was in flames.

It was a defeat that the Hadradans never truly recovered from. Even in 204 LE (when the campaign starts) their empire is a shadow of its former self. The events to the south had removed the bulk of the troops from Barbrasa. The scene was set for an uprising, all that was missing was a charismatic leader. This figure appeared in 11 PL, he was called Uros, and his exploits would call for a continent to be named after him.

11 PL

Uros was born in the northern sheep farming region that is now Norandor. He was the youngest of six brothers and the only one to survive to adulthood. Uros harboured deep resentment of his Hadradan masters. Legends of the time are as variable as they are numerous, but they all agree that he was orphaned and sold as a slave to work in the capital, then called New Hadras. In some tales he was the plaything of a rich noble woman, in others he was a fearless gladiator. In most he is aided in his adventures by a brave halfling daredevil called Nero Beredaire, which (along with the mutual suffering of both races) goes a long way to explain the affection that the Halfling and human populations of Urova still hold for each other. But what made Uros so memorable was not the people he slew or the nation he toppled, but the gods he created and the fact that he put moons in the sky.