Recent Timeline of Khevoran – Updated 3/11/09

(P.K. = Pre-Kisharan Invasion)

• -220 PK: The Elves of the Ar’Marinwe Forest convene a Grand Council and order a census of the Elven people.
• -215 PK: The Elven census is concluded, proving unequivocally that the race is in a steady decline. The Council agrees to build Tir’Asa’Demit – the Great Vault – in an attempt to preserve the race’s knowledge, lore, and culture.
• -10PK: King Thane Ironfist of the Dwarves begins the great quest to find Karak’Mithril. Vast resources are dedicated to discovering the proper location to dig for the ancient city and to the excavators themselves.
• 0 New Calendar:
  • An ancient and long-forgotten ruin comes to life northwest of Penshin and within hours five separate armies numbering in the tens of thousands have appeared and are mobilizing to march. High Lord Altair mobilizes his troops in Penshin and has them on the move three days later. He arrives to find the Kisharan forces still mobilizing and manages to do substantial damage to Cyan Marinetta’s army before the massive armies can react. Penshin’s army is slaughtered to a man and Altair is missing, presumed dead.
  • Thane Ironfist’s expedition breaks into the old tunnels, unleashing an unparalleled horde of Druegar dwarves and goblins into the higher and more populous tunnels.
  • Penshin surrenders to Cyan Marinetta without a single drop of blood spilled.
• 1: Teribain surrenders to Aril Flambeau after a six-month siege.
• 2: Ari Stonehand’s army arrives at the Masaan Mountains and encounters no resistance from the dwarves. He deploys his forces throughout the mountains to begin garrisoning any entrances to the Dwarven strongholds large enough to pass a sizable force. Stonehand takes possession of High-Guard Fortress, effectively cutting off all communication and trade between the Northlands and the Southlands.
• 3: Tor’Ellian Tahl’Mearis begins the siege of Evereach. The siege lasts nearly three years until Cyan Marinetta can secure, staff, and mobilize Penshin’s navy to complete the blockade.
• 4: Whisper splits his forces leaving the bulk constructing a fortress around the Waygate and takes the remainder to Lachtanburg. The people of the city, largely descended from the vicious and deadly native inhabitants of the jungles to the south, provide fierce resistance. A small band of Gnomes makes contact with Whisper’s force and in exchange for the safety of themselves and their families, directs the Kisharan Lord to a vulnerability in the city’s defenses. After a two-month siege, Whisper’s army breaches the city proper and slaughters every man, woman and child of the city not of Gnomish descent.
• 5: The Dark Times begin. The social backlash to the new order imposed by Kishara’s Lords and priests and the decimation of Lachtanburg is fierce. Rioting is commonplace. The Kisharan Lords reinforce their control, establish enough of a foothold to maintain their authority and a fully-staffed military. They form the Peacekeepers from the elite companies of Marinetta and Flambeau’s armies and charter them with nearly carte blanche authority to restore and maintain order.  It takes nearly two decades for the iron fists of the Ringwielders to suppress the populace into relative quiet.
• 15: The construction of Tablenhelm Keep is complete.
• 20: Tahl’Mearis and Whisper begin retraining and restaffing their armies in Evereach and Teribain.
• 21: Tahl’Mearis and Whisper’s armies march into the Northlands. Tahl’Mearis begins the systematic capture and control of any town and village he comes across, while Whisper makes a forced march to Harfoot Downs.
• 21: The Extermination. Whisper’s army flattens Harfoot Downs, slaughtering thousands of Halflings. At the same time, Halflings are rounded up and slaughtered in all Kishara-controlled lands.
• 21-22: Tahl’Mearis’ march across the sparsely populated Northlands proceeds unhindered.  Hillcrest and Clearwater fall with only token resistance.  Whisper’s force secures Mountainwatch and marches to Karak’Tem.  The Ringwielder of Air and the men who marched into the mountains with him have not been seen nor heard from since.
• 23:  Tahl’Mearis’ army meets Stephen Tyr’s force at Harrowburg and sweeps them aside suffering moderate losses due largely to their commander’s overconfidence.  Kironius Mengst, a local sheriff acting as captain of a company of local conscripts, is captured and enslaved.  The army marches on Westergarde and lays siege.
• 24: Mengst coordinates an insurrection amongst the Southland troops and between them and the remains of Lord Tyr’s forces, break Tahl’Mearis’ army and slay the Lord.
• 25: Mengst forms the Black Rose Society and begins a quick march across the Northlands, getting recruits as he goes and liberating the populaces of the cities and their undersized garrisons.
• 26: Mengt’s army arrives at High-Guard Fortress and are repelled – suffering incalculable losses to Ari Stonehand’s troops and artillery.
• 28: (Khevoran I: The Cult of Riverton) The city of Riverton, the major inland trade hub of the Southlands, is quietly liberated from its civilian government and Peacekeeper garrison by members of the Halfling resistance movement led by Harfur Stoutfoot and Peruppi Dentkettle. They manage to cover up the entire coup from the local populace, who continue to believe that nothing has changed.
• 29: Vladimir Korgramssen is ejected from the Court of Westergarde (for sleeping with Duke Tyr’s wife).
• 30: Jacob Mengst born of Kironius and Annabelle Cirrus.  He lives with his two uncles, Frederic and James, cousin Severin, and Sebastien Bineau of the Knight’s Leopold at a small farm at the edges of the Ar’Avariel forest.
• 32: (Khevoran 2: The Lord of Ash and Stone):
  • A detached operations unit of The Black Rose Society discover Emperor Joseph Altair enslaved in the Southlands.  They free him, as well as Corky Bogbottom, the true inventor of the Bubblesneezer Cannon, and decimate an invasion fleet of troop transports moored off Penshin.
  • Harfur Stoutfoot and Peruppi Dentkettle, the liberators of Riverton, are killed when Aril Flambeau retakes the city.  Peruppi grievously wounds the Ringwielder, leaving her crippled.
  • Annabelle Cirrus is killed in a raid on the Northern Army camp at Hillcrest.
  • The same unit, after hunting down thousands-year-old clues amongst the Elves and Dwarves, discover the true nature of Ringwielder Ari Stonehand and stage a daring raid on High-Guard Fortress, neutralizing the Ringwielder by transferring the ring to King Thane Ironfist of the Dwarves.  The North secures High Guard fortress.
  • Banagher the Breaker uses the Ring of Spirit to call down fire and destroy Tablenhelm Keep, burying the Waygate under millions of tons of stone.  For reasons unrevealed, the act causes all of the priests of Aluviel to go mad.
• 33:  The Breaking.  In the North, all of the priests of Aluviel have gone mad or comatose, and in the South, nearly all of the Kisharan Stranglers suffer the same.  The powers of the North and South are distracted the majority of the year putting down the rogue priests at obscene loss of property and lives.  Many mad priests still terrorize the world.
• 34: Emperor Joseph Altair dies.  Frederic Altair is crowned Emperor in Hillcrest.  The Great Way is restored by Ar’Kaz t’Thun: The Lord of Ash And Stone, the goblins of the deep are pushed back further than they had been in over ten years.
• 35: Sir Robert Kirk dies.  In his last days, he trains and swears Warder Vladimir into the Order of Leopold.
• 36: The Second Council of Westergarde – Emperor Frederic Altair and Duke James Altair, accompanied by Sir Gavin, Captain-General Kironius Mengst, Warders Thomas and Vladimir, honor guard and retinue travel to Westergarde to meet with Duke Stephen Tyr and the Lords of the North.  Stephen Tyr betrays the party in a well-coordinated ambush.  Kironius Mengst is assassinated, along with Duke James and Warder Thomas and a majority of the retinue.  Jacob Mengst is taken hostage.  Leaving a trail of bodies in their wake, Sir Gavin and Warder Vladimir escape Westergarde with Emperor Frederic.  They become separated from Sir Gavin, and are eventually hunted down in a rural farm a week later after being magically tracked using a lock of hair from Duke Tyr’s son (who, as it turns out, looks a lot like a massive northman).  After putting up a valiant defense for several days, the barn is overrun and Emperor Frederic Altair is slain.  Warder Vladimir is presumed dead.  It is assumed that the Ring of Spirit is in Duke Tyr’s possession.
• 37:  Sergei Volkov and Smoot march from High Guard with a majority of the loyal Northlands Army under the banner of Emperor Severin, Frederic’s young son.  Sergeant Major Alton refuses to leave, and convinces a majority of the Black Rose Society to stay with him.  Lord General Isaac Vane is given command of the combined armies of the Southlands by Cyan Marinetta.
• 38: The loyalist army clashes with the self-proclaimed King Tyr’s army at Harrowburg.  The week-long battle becomes known as The Battle of the Faded Hills.  Both armies are decimated and twelve-year-old Severin Altair is captured, tortured, and killed.  The civil war descends into guerrilla conflicts and over the next few years cools to sectarian hostility, but the absence of an Imperial heir takes the winds out of the sails of the loyalists.
• 39:  Highguard Keep is once again taken by the South.  General Vane executes a brilliant and complex assault that would’ve left the defenders decimated had it not been for the sacrifice of Colonel Alton and the remaining Society Warders.  The Black Rose Society deploys their remaining forces under Captain Tennyson in order to prevent the South from mounting an invasion of the North, but are severely under-manned for the job.
• 40:  Dwarven traders and artisans begin trickling back into the North from the mountain holds.  Karak Ven re-opens its surface town.  There are rumors that the Dwarves under Borin Ironfist have retaken Karak Fel.
• 41:  General Vane’s attempts to gain a foothold into the North overland are regularly thwarted by the Society…barely.  He has, without a doubt, attempted access through the mountains, but has not had any success.
• 44: Sergei Volkov launches a renewed series of raids against King Tyr’s military targets, primarily from the Ar’Avariel forest and the Mountainwatch region.  Tyr has consolidated most of his power in the central plains of the North, while the fringes of the Northlands remain friendly to the old empire.