History of the Kingdom of Arkosia-Timeline

All dates are noted as either BF (Before Founding) or AF (After Founding), referring to the Arkosian calendar which uses the date of the founding of Arkosia as a chronological reference.


Approximately 200,000 BF: The gods walked the earth, interacting directly with their mortal worshippers. They built great empires and massive monuments to their glory. Rivalries brewed between the divine empires and before long war broke out between opposing deities. Humans were used as little more than weapons and slaves in the bloody conflicts that became known as the Pantheon War. Millions died, and after over a century of war, peace was at last reached. The gods agreed to retreat from the mortal realm and allow humans to control their own destiny, with only minimal interference from the gods.

700 BF: The great and tyrannical Warlock Kings of Noros rule much of the world, and using slave labor they colonize the area that will one day become Arkosia. Millions of slaves and laborers are shipped to Kalador to strip the continent of its resources.

650 BF: After Goshai's trading fleets are threatened by the Norosi, they launch a surprise offensive on Norosi territories in Arkosia. Elsewhere, other enemies of Noros strike, causing Noros to abandon its colonies and retreat to their main territories, far cross the northern sea.

645 BF: Freshly liberated from Norosi control, the freed slaves fracture into dozens of warring factions. Native barbarian tribes and monstrous clans arise and create kingdoms of their own amidst the chaos left by the Norosi defeat. Goshai, not wanting to be involved in such a quagmire, retreats from Arkosia. Noros, having lost most of its colonies, collapses.

612 through 402 BF: The freed slaves, various barbarian tribes and monstrous races are united under the rule of a Goshai exile, the Archmage Thauros, who uses foul magic and an army of war golems to enforce his rule. He builds the mighty fortress of Soroth and constructs an army of warforged to enforce his will. Using magic, Thauros extends his lifespan and rules over the Thauron Empire for over two centuries before he is assassinated by an unknown assailant.

402 through 336 BF: Thauros' apprentice, a sorceress named Mara, assumes control and does away with many of Thauros' more oppressive and brutal policies. The disbands the armies of war golems and opens up the ports of the Thauron Empire to foreign trade. She instituted great public works programs, including a massive nation wide road network that still exists. She, like her predecessor, was mysteriously murdered. The kingdom fell into utter chaos following her death.

336 BF through 178 BF: A period known as the "Age of Blades." With Mara and Thauros dead, the empire fragments, and old hatreds are reborn. Foreign glory-seekers and mercenaries flock to the fractured land in search of wealth and power. People from Goshai, Shatterwall and Hong Kao all arrive seeking to stake out a claim in the splintered land. Hundreds of thousands die in this bloody period. Only an invasion by the draconic rulers of the city state of Pylos of Korobackis ends the fighting. And even then the fighting is only ended in blood and fire. Dragons scour the land, wiping entire cities off the map and instilling a brutal rule.

178 BF through 47 BF: In what is seen by many as an act of divine intervention, a horrible plague that affected only dragons swept through the ranks of the land's draconic rulers. Slowly but surely, the dragons began to die off. Dying by the score, the dragons hid within their keeps and caves in order to quarantine themselves. Their rule began to fall apart soon after.

47 BF through 1 AF: A young shepherd named Arkos, who was conscripted into the armies of the draconic invaders, decides to desert when his draconic overlord retreats into its keep. He then organizes his former squad in a mission to slay the beast while it cowers in fear from plague. The daring deed succeeds, and Arkos gathers a force of elite and dedicated men who roam the occupied country slaying the dragonic occupiers. Thousands flock to join him, and over the course of forty years, he and his followers manage to kill or drive off the surviving dragon lords. Fearing the return of the plague, the dragons of Pylos retreat from the continent. In the city of Crownkeep, freshly freed from the dragons, Arkos is crowned the kingdom of Arkosia is born.

1 AF through 35 AF: King Arkos the First consolidates his reign, and by the time he dies of old age he has united the entire continent under one ruler.

35 AF: King Yosef is crowned. Since his father lived so long, Yosef is already a relatively old man when he is crowned. The stress of his duties cause him to succumb to sickness and old age within a year. History knows him as Yosef the Quick due to his short reign. His son, Prince Harvos, is crowned King.

37 AF: Desperate to prove his mettle as a king and a warrior, Harvos decides to end the threat of raiding ships from Shatterwall once and for all. He orders entire forests cut down in order to build a massive fleet, and raises a massive force of over twenty thousand men. They set out in a massive expedition to crush the barbarian raiders of Shatterwall and assert royal supremacy. His fleet arrives at Shatterwall and disembarks.They win several easy victories, but the Shatterwall natives elude them and flee into the mountains.

39 AF: Harvos' men have chased after the Shatterwall raiders deep into the Shattered Mountains. There, guerilla tactics by the defenders grind the invaders down.

41 AF: Having lost over half his men and having lost the war, a defeated Harvos returns home.

45 AF: With the kingdom bankrupted by the Shatterwall invasion, dissent grows, culminating in a rebellion lead by the city of Malec, a royal territory governed by men who worship the stars and make their decisions based on astrology.

49 AF: Civil war is in full swing as Harvos conscripts thousands of peasants to help his depleted force fight the Malecan rebels.

52 AF: Sensing weakness and opportunity, an enterprising Hong Kao warlord named Shai Qo decides to invade the soft underbelly of Arkosia. He lands in the desert that will one day be known as the Purged Lands, and begins to move north towards Ashaad. The horse tribes of Sunke and the merchant-lords of Thask also rise up in revolt.

53 AF: With Harvos off fighting rebels in the West, Ashaad is helpless save for their famed mage academy. Desperate to defeat the invaders, a cabal of mages (secretly lead by the Council of One) conduct a foul ritual that opens a gate to hell near the Hong Kao invaders. The Hong Kao force, along with hundreds of square miles of countryside, is utterly destroyed. The land tainted by that infernal spell is incredibly twisted: its lands are scarred and its inhabitants mutated. It soon becomes known as the Purged Lands.

55 AF: Harvos is killed in a battle with Sunkan raiders and his army retreats back into Kalador, essentially ceding the western half of the continent to the rebels. Harvos' son Geralt is crowned, and he quickly makes peace with the rebels and Hong Kao. Thask, Malec and Sunke effectively become independent.

55 AF through 87 AF: Geralt's reign is a quiet one. He spends most of his efforts in trying to reach out to foreign nations to build relations and economic partnerships. His deal with Goshai brings great wealth to his people and opens up Arkosia to goods from around the world. He dies and is succeeded by his unwed daughter because he has no sons. Queen Elsa strives to emulate Mara, the great and loving Empress of Thauron of ages past.

87 AF through 122 AF: Queen Elsa dips deep into the royal treasury to fund massive public projects, including the construction of mage academies in every major city of her kingdom. Her efforts do much to help and educate her people but when she dies after a riding accident, she leaves behind a bankrupt kingdom.

122 AF: Elsa's husband, a lesser nobleman named King Justinian, assumes the throne. Desperate to raise money, he places a tax on ale. Angry citizens riot and he is deposed within months of enacting the new policy. He is deposed and allowed to live out his life in exile.

122 AF through 145 AF: Elsa and Justinian's son, a young and bright man named King Uriah, takes the throne. He gains immense popularity by doing away with ale tax, but does little to fix the royal deficit. In 145 AF, he is among the first people in Arkosia to die of the terrible new plague known as Thauron's Revenge.

145 AF through 187 AF: A brutal plague of magical origin rips through Arkosia, killing over a third of the population. Some superstitious folk believed that it was the work of the long dead Emperor Thauron, come to wreak his revenge on his former subjects. Whatever its origin, it killed off the king, the royal family and over a third of the people of Arkosia, Sunke, Malec and Thask. Six different kings, known as the Plagued Kings, ruled during this period, and each was killed off by the Plague.

187 AF: One of the claimants to the throne, a distant cousin of King Uriah named Rygar, refuses to take the throne and disappears on a mysterious quest. He returns in 189 AF with a cure for the plague soon after the last of the Plagued Kings dies. He takes the throne and distributes the cure to his people. Known as Rygar the Healer, he is hailed as the greatest of Arkosia's kings.

187 AF through 228 AF: Rygar rules peacefully over his realm until his death by old age. Arkosia begins to recover from the plague and grants mass asylum to Korobacken refugees who are fleeing the wrath of the dragon kings. This move helps boost the population and economy of Arkosia, but causes some friction with native Arkosians. After Rygar dies peacefully, his son, King Jarl, takes the throne.

228 AF to 255 AF: Quite simply, Jarl cannot live up to his father's name. He refuses to take a firm stance on any of the pressing issues facing his kingdom, and as such his kingdom suffers. Korobacken refugees form ghettos and semi-autonomous towns to protect themselves from nationalists and racists. Monstrous races from the wilds unite and take advantage of royal weakness. Shatterwall ships begin raiding the rich trade routes between Ashaad and Goshai.

255 AF to 267 AF: Unknown to all but a few Arkosians, stirring beneath Arkosia is a vast army of Underdark creatures that have been united by duergar mages dabbling in infernal and hellish magic. Empowered with the strength of demons and devils, the Underdark force gathers its strength and sends agents to Arkosia to encourage weakness and spread ignorance of the threat from beneath the surface.

267 AF: The Underdark force strikes at Ashaad using a network of long forgotten caves and tunnels that riddle the cliffs of the city. Within a day, the city falls and is under complete control of the invaders. They ransack the city and massacre its residents, killing thousands. Four adventurers, already having forged their strength in previous quests and battles, take upon the dangerous task of infiltrating the city and assassinating the duergar demon priests leading the invasion. Korlash, Arik, Zedath and Decius, succeed and are hailed as heroes for stopping the invasion. The Underdark force, without strong leadership, falls apart.

268 AF: A derelict warforged named One Eye reactivates the ancient warforged forge at Soroth and begins amassing an army of warforged, golems and monstrous beasts. He swiftly carves out a small empire in the Badlands in the vacuum left by the royal forces as they left to fight at Ashaad. Korlash and Decius lead the counterattack against him.