• The Days of Thunder

  • -35000 DR to -30000 DR

    Merrouroboros circa -35,000 DR

    This earliest days of recorded history begins at the end of a great Ice Age, some 37,000 years ago, when the last glaciations largely ended and the great ocean receded to reveal dry land. In this ancient time before The Sundering, the lands which would one day be identified as Faerun, Kara-Tur, Maztica, and Zakhara were each but one part of a much larger super-continent named Merrouroboros.

    While life spread quickly, none of the dozen or so common races which populate the world today existed in this distant era. Merrouroboros knew none of the civilized folk - elves, dwarves, halflings, or gnomes. Nor did the savage peoples - goblins, orcs, ogres and their kin - inhabit the land. Though humans did exist during this time, they were primitive and apelike, using only simple tools and living in caves. Unintelligent reptiles known as Thunderers ruled the land, sea, and sky. By the end of the first millennium post Ice Age, primitive bands of hunter-gatherer lizardfolk lived along the fertile waters of the Goldenwater in modern-day Durpar, exploiting game, lake-fish, and wild plants of all kinds. Unlike the Thunderers, the sauroids possessed superior intellect and tactical sense. In time they would become known as the sarrukh, the first of the mighty creator races, also known as Iqua-Tel'Quessir. »

  • c. -35000 DR

  • Rise of the Sarrukh Empires (sauroid creator race)
    The introduction of cattle, sheep, and goats revolutionizes farming in the Durpar region. Herdes are semi-nomadic, driving their animals between seasonal pastures. By -35,000 DR, desertifiation of Durpar begins perhaps in part because of overgrazing. The herders' respond by migrating northwest from The Goldenwater to a region of semi-arid savanna they name Okoth.

    In Okoth, south of modern-day Mulhorand, the sarrukh found their first permanent settlements. Early sarrukh villages are dominated by temple complexes dedicated to the worship of the World Serpent. Most sarrukh settlements of this period have a population between two and eight thousand people, though Daar Mundigak itself, the largest city in Okoth, has over ten thousand.

    Within a hundred years, most of Faerûn is theirs. »

  • c. -34800 DR

  • The sarrukh establish the realm of Mhairshaulk, on the Chultan Peninsula westward from the Lhairghal to the Jungles of Chult.  The Mhairshaulkans are believed to have created nagas, pterafolk, troglodytes, and yuan-ti, as well as numerous other races long since lost. »

  • c. -34500 DR

  • The sarrukh establish the realm of Isstosseffifil, based in present-day Anauroch. »

  • -34200 DR

  • The sarrukh empires, circa -34,200 DR

    The sarrukh civilization enters a new troubled phase as they had conquered so many races that they had became the minority in their own empire.

    Writing is invented as an aid to administration in communities that had grown so complex that sarrukh memory could no longer store all the information needed for efficient government. The earliest sarrukh signs are pictographs scribed on clay tablets then dried. The sarrukh writing systems are widely adopted by their slaves. »

  • c. -34100 DR

  • Fall of Okoth
    After a century of civil strife that drove many sarrukh of Okoth to the planes, the Okoth Empire collapses.

    The clans of Sarrukh wandered the planes for millennia but never found a plane where they wished to remain for more than a generation. This nomadic existence hardens them, turning them inexorably toward evil.

    As the sarrukh of Okoth increasingly embraced their darker natures, a few dissenters, despairing of their kindred's push toward evil, broke off from the main group. They entreated Jazirian, a fragment of the World Serpent, for succor, and it responded by transforming them into couatls. A bitter war ensued, but the couatls held their own against the more numerous Okothian sarrukh until Merrshaulk, a darker fragment of the World Serpent, finally slew Jazirian. At that point, the couatls were forced to flee to Abeir-Toril, where they eventually settled in Maztica. The god Qotal embraced them as his divine minions, and they acknowledged him as Jazirian reborn.

    After the war with the couatls, the sarrukh begin to explore the Barrens of Doom and Despair, where they happened upon the khaastas. Believing these creatures to be inferior and weak reptilians, the sarrukh attempt to enslave them. Much to the invaders surprise, not only were the khaastas extremely resistant to serving, but they also had powerful demonic allies willing to aid them. Thus begins a centuries long war between the sarrukh and the khaastas, which the sarrukh eventually lose. To escape the wrath of the victorious khaastas, the sarrukh secretly return to Faerun and begin skulking around the ruins of Okoth, on the shores of the Azulduth. »

  • c. -34000 DR

  • The otherworldly realm of Faerie is ruled by the fey (creators of korreds, sprites, and pixies).  The fey continue to rule to the present day. »

  • -34,000 DR

  • It is believed that the first human appear in the northern savannas of Katashaka. They soon migrate outward to populate the rest of the world.

    In the lands south of Mhairshaulk, human tribes depended on fishing, hunting and herding to sustain themselves. The tribes of Lopango, however, utilize irrigation techniques which allowed them to take up pastoral farming.

    Unfortunately the proximity of primitive human tribes to Mhairshaulk proved disastrous. Sarrukh raiding parties routinely patrolled Thinguth lands returning to Mhairshaulk with humans for food or slavery. A few are experimented upon by their sarrukh captors. Tainted and augmented by sarrukh magic, these unfortunate individuals in time become known as vrael olo, the yuan-ti. »

  • c. -33800 DR

  • Fall of Isstosseffifil:
    In an effort to drown the phaerimm of Phaerlin (known today as the Buried Realms in the Underdark) and dispatch their enemies in one masterful stroke, Isstossef wizards rerouted the Narrow Sea so that it ran from east to west, inundating the land around the chain of hills known today as the Tagorlar with water.  Although the Isstossef succeeded in driving the phaerimms deep into the Underdark, the massive ecological change resulting from their weavings of Art caused the Isstosseffifil empire to collapse.

    Although most of the sarrukh of Isstosseffifil died with the city's decline, many survived. The survivors retreated into lichdom in the depths of Oreme where they are protected by the asabis they had created. »

  • c. -33500 DR

  • Fall of Mhairshaulk
    Sarrukh-ruled Mhairshaulk, faced with starvation, declines gradually, sinking slowly into somnolence. The sarrukhs begin a cycle in which thousand-year hibernations alternate with brief periods of activity, during which food gathering and procreation could take place. The empire becomes the domain of the yuan-ti.

    With the fall of Isstosseffifil, this marks the Fall of the Sarrukh Empire. »

  • Rise of the Batrachi Empire

    Early batrachi. Sarrukh empire remnants.

    The batrachi (creator race) are also known as amphibioids or creators of the bullywugs, doppelgangers, kopru, kuo-toa, locathah, sivs, tako, and other shapeshifters, amphibious or piscine races. The first sea born batrachi begin to flourish in the mild northern currents of the Black Sea knwon as the Fertile Crescent. The supply of mussels and other shell fish are so rich that in some areas the hunter-gatherer population could settle in semi-permanent villages. During this time, many batrachi begins to undergo metamorphosis to walk upon the land. »

  • c. -31500 DR

  • Under the wise leadership of Zhoukoudien, batrachi power reaches its zenith. The High One's reign ends when he is slain in battle with the titan thane Omo. »

  • -31500 DR

  • The Batrachi empire, circa -31,500 DR

    War between the Batrachi and the Giants.
    Ostoria takes the offensive against the batrachi, supported by the titans of Lanaxis, they seize the fertile land between the Inner Seas. The batrachi battle the jotunbrud for centuries, neither side gaining an advantage. »

  • c. -31000 DR

  • End of the Batrachi and Giants War
    The conflict between the Batrachi and the giants of Ostoria comes to an abrupt end when the ice moon Zotha falls from the sky devastating much of the lands within central Merrouroboros. A large fragment of the moon carves a gorge so deep between the four Inner Seas, they merge together to form the Sea of Fallen Stars, an event the sarrukhs remark on as a "changing of the stars". Severe earthquakes rocked the region for weeks afterwards. The crystalline batrachi cities, though reinforced by magic, were unable to withstand the incessant aftershocks. Within a year, the Batrachi Empire had fallen into ruin.

    The impact of the moon threw up a thick cloud of dust into the atmosphere obscuring the sun for seven years. Without the sun, plant-life began to die out across the land, soon followed by the herbivores and finally the carnivores. Only those peoples possessing great magic or divine protection survived the mass extinction. »

  • In the weeks following the Tearfall, tens of thousands of dragon eggs begin hatching across Merrouroboros. These precursor wyrms are not the mighty dragons known today for they possessed no wings, no magic, no dragon breath, and in the case of seawurms no legs. Nor are they a new species of the great thunderers common in Mhairshaulk, for they are warm blooded and possess greater intelligence. »

  • c. -30700 DR

  • Lammasu Massacre
    One thousand Aearee-Krocaa lose their lives to a much smaller force of lammasu. Later experiments with domesticated landwyrms produce the first winged wyrms, which the aearee name wyverns. Thanks to its new wyvern armies, the Aearee-Krocaa empire expands rapidly. »

  • -30500 DR

  • Rise of the Aearee Empires (avian creator races).

    Aearee Empire, circa -30,500 DR

    The Aearee seize opportunity by occupying the fallen Batrachi lands.

    In the west, the Aearee-Krocaa, followers of the All-Father Krocaa, establish the grand aerie of Viakoo on Mount Havraquoar, which becomes the capital of their great nation, which stretches from as far west as Maztica and as far south as the Lake of Steam. Mount Havroquoar stood far west of where the Sword Coast ends today (Mount Havroquoar and much of the lands of the Aearee-Krocaa is destroyed many centuries later in the Sundering). The great kokra aerie at Viakoo governed its lands fairly and forges lasting friendships with couatl, fey and other denizens of Anchorome.

    In the north, the Aearee-Syran establish their capital at the aerie of Phwiukree, in the peaks of the Star Mounts and nested in the forests all around those mountains. A strong and majestic folk, their features were reminiscent of eagles and hawks. They enjoyed the special favor of Korcaa's daughter, Syranita, who they praised as their patron.

    In the southeast, the Aearee-Quor carve out the domain of Shara from their rookery in the Orsraun Mountains. These aearees bore the features of crows and jays. The Aearee-Quor's patron was Quolinn, whose wits and cunning preserved their flocks through the worst times of the Batrachi domination and inspired in their hearts a fierce pride and determined self-reliance. Spreading out from the Shara rookery on the Orsraun Mountains, they grew into a loose affiliation of floating city-states that would eventually span the breadth of the continent. »

  • -30400 DR

  • The Wasting Plague
    In a conflict between the gnolls of Urgnarash and rookery of Kookrui-Shara, shamans of Yeenoghu summons marrashi - spirits of pestilence from the Barrens of Doom and Despair - to blight aearee crops and spread a wasting plague among the avians.

    The Aearee War
    An Aearee named Sieska Waewielonn of the Okwalok-Shara rookery over the shores of the Great Sea discovers the name of Pazreal, a demon lord. With the fiends aid, Sieska becomes lord of Okwalok-Shara. Soon all the rookeries of Aearee-Quor abandones the faith of Quorlin and turns to Pazreal (all except the rookery of Tiennkoo-Shara, which flees to the farthest peaks of Kara-Tur, where their descendants yet thrive today as the crow-headed race known as Tengu, they are the only branch of the Aearee-Quor who never lost their wings). Pazreal teaches the Aearee-Quor how to summon Vrocks, but at a great cost, he took from them their power of flight. The Aearee of Shara never again ride the winds, except by spell or steed.

    Sieska then wages war on the other Aeraree nations to the north and west. Aearee-Krocaa is the first to fall. Aearee-Syran, defends with the aid of fey allies, winged treants, and soarwhales against Aearee-Quor's near-endless demon vrocks and battle rocs. In the end, Mornungongbarae (possibly the first treant), who had guarded the High Forest for nearly a thousand years, rises up and brings down the Quor floating city, but at the cost of his own life. His tragic sacrifice is still sung by treant skalds today, in a saga called The Lament of Mornungongbarae. »

  • The Dawn Ages / The Time of Dragons

  • -30000 DR to -24000 DR
    The empires of the creator races fade into memory, ushering in the Time of Dragons and the Time of Giants. Individual dragons and dragon clans rule large swaths of territory and battle with their rivals for control of the lands, seas, and skies. During this period of devastating warfare among the dragons of Faerun, isolated pockets of formerly dragon-ruled territory fall under giant control. Over time, such giant-ruled kingdoms come to threaten the hegemony of dragonkind, leading to great battles between giant kingdoms such as Darchar, Grunfesting, Helligheim, Nedeheim, Ostoria, and Rangfjell, and dragon-ruled realms such as Argissthilliax, Caesinmalsvir, Darastriverthicha, and Tharkrixghontix.

    This time of conflict plunges Merrourboros into a four-thousand-year-long "dark age". The fey are particularly active in Merrourboros during this period, using their small size and potent magic to aggrivate the wyrms at every opportunity. »

  • -30000 DR

  • Fall of the Aearee Empires
    The Time of Dragons is ushered in as dragons across Faerun swarm together in the first Flight of Dragons. They assail the avians in the air, on the land, and beneath the ground. They fall upon the home nest of Viakoo and burn the city from the sky.

    In the caverns beneath the Orsraun Mountains, the wyrm-general Nagamat rampages through the ancestral hatcheries of Shara and claims the kingdom as his own. Using the found magic, Nagamat founds the first dragon kingdom. Sharan aearee survivors escape deeper into the Underdark, where the feral and twisted descendants of the Aearee-Quor become the dire corbies.

    The survivors of Viakoo flee west across the ocean to the land called Anchorome. Five of their cities, all crafted from spelljamming helms, flee to the stars. Rulungwar, Donnakee, Phra'iskree, Oolatiel, and an unnamed fifth one, lost during the exodus, crosses the Sea of Night to the world of Coliar. These aeries float there still, among Coliar's manifold moons. Descendants of Aearee-Krocaa are known today as the aarakocra.

    Some few repentant Aearee-Quor begs Quorlinn for his mercy, and he leads them to Kara-Tur to find refuge with their long lost cousins of Tiennkoo-Shara, the tengu. Descendants of these people call themselves kenku. »

  • The Ba'etith create the Golden Skins of the World Serpent, known today as the Nether Scrolls »