Timeline of the realms

Some vague myths and legends with a timeline for my 3rd age campaign.

First Age

The Ogre Magi Qesnef flees from his home, White Plume Mountain and  drives the Aebolith to the seas.

Second Age

The first influx of dragons.  The Ogre King, with the use of Black Razor, defeats them and uses their magic to establish the Ogrish Empire, which lasts 1000 years.

During the dragon wars, the Stronian Empire is also established.  The two empires vie for domination, but neither gains the upper hand.

Third Age

The second influx of evil dragons.  The war lasts 100 years and devastates the realm, causing the fall of the Stronian and the Ogrish Empire.  The ogre King is banished as ancient grudges catch him off guard.  The world is ruled by Skyfire, an ancient red dragon who arrived at the beginning of the Second Age.  She now demands the first born of every ruler as tribute.

Hobgoblins pledge fealty to Skyfire and help eradicate the other dragons.  When Skyfire sleeps, they become somewhat peaceful, developing deities of progress.

With the banishment of Qesnef, the Aebolith and their minions the sahuagin begin making efforts to reclaim their world.  They breed Kuo-Toa with humans for this purpose.

The hobgoblins develop ways of trapping air elementals into their ships, and take to the skies.  Using Al'Quinian technologies, their cannon are fearsome weapons used against the gnoll barbarians.

Arrival of the Heroes of the Circle and the return of Elves, Dwarves and Men.  They vanquish the serpent people and establish their realm.

800 years pass.

Present day.

Giants!

Despite the Ogrish Empire being one of the larger political powers during the second age, when Qesnef (he says he was banished for 1001 years) fled during the end times, things had changed drastically.  With Blackrazor nolonger around to keep the client kingdoms in line the Ogrish Empire fell to infighting, and soon dissolved during the wars of the 2nd age.

The Hobgoblins, allied with the Dragon Cults of Skyfire moved in with their massed armies and looted the Ogrish Empires, inheriting their wealth and power and using it to fight the influx of dragons.

The cowardice of the giants has cursed many of them to wander the astral plane, seeing only vague shapes of the mighty kingdoms they used to live in fall to ruin over the ages.  Looted by goblins, torn down by the industrious hobgoblins, and neglected by time, very little of the mighty empire is left.  The only reminder is a few scattered ruins of oversized buildings that leave many to wonder what kind of being could have created them?  This has left many of the giants to become enraged, cursing the realm and seething with hatred in order to get revenge.

They do have a way of exacting that revenge.  Once the Ogrish armies were broken, leaving King Izar alone and under siege, the dread king cursed them and banished them to an unliving hell in the Astral Plane.  Astral visitors are wary of traveling near to the realm, and Gith try to steer clear of it as titans, frost giants, ogres and the like all surround the orb and wait for their chance to get back in.  When somebody shows cowardice, their fear opens a portal to the astral plane, and allows one of these frenzied giants to enter the prime material plane (mechanically, when someone's being a coward, they get a saving throw to compose themselves).  Sometimes this can have cascading effects, and is something that the Hobgoblins use to great effect in controlling the rampant gnoll barbarians in the West.

3rd Age Gods.

I'm starting up a 5th edition game soon and have been working on some of the gods.  I've decided to go with two large pantheons among the civilized realms.

The first pantheon is that of the Hobgoblins, who were mentioned in previous posts.  In my setting, they eventually conquored the world and drove out the other major races, and experienced a golden age that allowed them to mellow out quite a bit.  They renamed themselves the Inheritors and ditched their association with Asmodeus and developed their own gods:

Zah Hon, goddess of community

Zuh Hon, god of trade

Zih Hon, goddess of knowledge

Zoh Hon, god of war.

I've left most of their reptoirs blank to develop through game play, but the Inheritors have a much different focus than do their ancestors. I was toying with using GURPS for this campaign and came up with some codes associated with each diety:

Inheritor Code: (3pts for each deity)

Code of Zah Hon(goddess of community):

• Shelter must be given to those in need for 3 days
• Guests must respect their hosts, otherwise they lose their right to shelter 
• The first born must be devoted to the needs of the Empire and the family.

Code of Zuh Hon(god of trade):

• It is cowardly to exploit a competitor’s weakness, unless it is during war when tactics are acceptable.
• Stealing from an inheritor is the same as stealing from the state.
• Always offer a fair price to an Inheritor.

Code of Zih Hon(goddess of knowledge):

• It is an inheritor’s duty to learn to read.
• It is an inheritor’s duty to teach those willing to learn.
• It is an inheritor’s duty to discover new things.

Code of Zoh Hon(god of war):
  

• It is the duty of every inheritor to prepare for war.
• Obey one’s superiors in a time of crisis.
• Take responsibility for those under you.

 There's still a lawful aspect to them, but they're not really 'evil' anymore. Their prosperity has let them develop into a Lawful neutral society. I like the idea of having just 3 basic ideas for a code, I'll probably do the same thing for Paladins in order to iron out what conduct is "Lawful".

The second group of deities are ancestors of the realm the PCs are starting in. They were originally a planescaping adventuring party who became trapped and established themselves, driving out the goblins from the territory they settled.

Yalli Thunderhammer.  Dwarven god of chaos. Yalli is recognized as the most powerful of the dwarven gods and is also the first to arrive in the realm. Usually invoked as a warning of what not to do, or by learning from one's mistakes, Yalli was very chaotic and brought misfortune upon himself time and time again, but grew to great power by living through such trials.

Qestor Mistreaver. Elven god of drinking and nature, the bounty of the forest and animals. Qestor was a Hero of the Circle who had a falling out with Zendas the Orc after Zendas decided to cut down a tree to build a house. Qestor attacked Zendas for violating the forest and started the rivalry between the two peoples. Taking on the aspects of animals, many elves will eat their worthy enemies. They prize being self sufficient and are often multiclassed, unless they are druids, which form the ruling elite of eleven society.

Zendas. Orc god of warriors. Once a Hero of the Circle, Zendas feels betrayed by Qestor for attacking him when he tried to build a home for his family. Now, Zendas and his people roam the plains on horseback, and keep the elves in their precious forests. They are famous horsement and valued soldiers.

Takir Lufast. Halfling god of trickery and drink. A friend of Yalli Thunderhammer, Takir uses Yalli as a fall guy for his schemes and hides behind Yalli when trouble happens. Often invoked as an example of a false friend, or a betrayer, Takir is the god that thieves and charlatans pray to.

Ober Underburrow. Gnome god of crafting and community. Ober is the offspring of Takir and Yalli, following a trick Takir played on Yalli that involved a polymorph spell. A charitable sort, Ober would sneak into people's homes and leave them boons if they were good people. This has influenced the gnomish tradition of leaving gifts for neighbours they admire.

There are also no human gods yet, though there may be some revered ancestors. One of the realm quirks is that there are no half-breeds. if an elf and an orc get together, their child is a human, and anybody mating with a human will have a human baby. The only exception to this seems to be the divine creation of the gnomes. So the humans use their ancestors as gods just like the demi-humans do.