1. Ancestral Homelands
Historians don't agree much about prehistory, but it is generally held that contemporary societies exist precisely where their ancestral homelands lie. The argument goes that each race has held its own territory for the duration of time. However, this is not true, with the exception of the human groups to arrive on Evanoch's shores; Faninites are largely clustered around their arrival point on the northwest coast, and Daltoners are most plentiful in their capital of New Dalton on the eastern coast. In reality, homelands have changed, sometimes multiple times.
These shifts can be grouped into three general categories. The first is migration. Migration was the main cause for the current state of the easternmost parts of Evanoch. The dwarves began at the center of the Kallett Mountains, not at the tip as believed today. Rather, on the plains surrounding the believed dwarven homeland were gnomes. Further up the coast were halflings near the forests, which were uninhabited by people. However, due to climatological changes, certain crops became ungrowable in their former homes. This led to massive migrations along the eastern coast, where these changes were most severe. First, the halflings moved west across the Kalletts and into central Evanoch, where their home in the Heronal Forest remains today. As this movement ended, the gnomes sought to move north and try to tame the northern forests, carving out what would become their capital of Vestry today. The dwarves, seeking a warmer climate, and knowing that the gnomes had vacated the area, moved south and recreated their previous lives where Underhar is today.
The second category of territory shift is from war. Elves are popularly believed to have come originally from the northern volcanic islands called Lathien, and orcs are believe to have originated on the southern rocky island of Grob. The reality is switched: elves' original homeland was the rocky island to the south, while the orcs came from the volcanic islands to the north. The switch came just before recorded history, and the effect was that all evidence was destroyed, leaving little indication of the truth. After centuries of warring, both orcish and elven leadership decided to launch all-out assaults on each others' capitals. A new leader for the enemy capital, a small delegation of advisors and leaders, and almost the entire military force of each nation was sent along a circuitous route to the enemy capital. The elven and orcish capitals fell within days of each other. Most of both cities were razed. Each had to learn to live in the other's treacherous environments, and both found that in some ways, they were better-suited to life in their new homes.
The third category is more conceptual: genetics. A few researchers have put forth the surprising but true fact that all of the races of Evanoch are actually descended from the same common ancestor. Unknown even to those researchers is the origin of this common ancestor. In fact, it was descended from a nearly feral creature that lived on the opposite side of the planet. Increasingly intelligent ancestors burrowed deep under the sea to arrive at Evanoch, some staying beneath the surface and evolving into distinct subterranean races first splitting into a smaller, nimbler ancestor and a larger, more powerful ancestor. These two ancestors further divided and evolved. The smaller ancestor became a taller version called the Drow and a smaller version called the Deepling (psychically-linked and armored beings); the larger ancestor became a stouter form called the Duergar and a stranger long-necked form called the Gant (magical and intelligent creatures). When those groups adjusted and evolved to life on the surface, there was one further notable change. Widely, these new races were less prone to violence and less naturally deadly, though they used their striking intelligence to counteract this deficiency. The Drow became the elves; the Deeplings became halflings; Duergar divided once more, now into smaller gnomes and hardy dwarves; the Gant became stronger and lost their long necks to become orcs. So, from a more distant perspective, all Evanines' true homeland is a terrifying place that the earliest people rallied together to escape.
2. The Formation of the Continent
It was long held in folklore that the shape of Evanoch was the product of a wrestling match between the gods--its mountain peaks were said to stirred up by a bout between Kord and Gruumsh, for instance, and its valleys mined away by the greedy likes of Vecna, searching for hidden treasure. Over time, this folk belief has disappeared in most places, replaced by faith that shifting earth and erosion can explain why the continent looks the way it does. In fact, the myth is closer to the truth. The shape of Evanoch comes from fortifications for the battle between the gods that never occurred--something of a cold war between deities. In the time before humanoids lived on Evanoch, it was a stomping ground for a gods, a kind of paradise for only them. Their actions to protect it changed it forever.
The preparations for battle happened generally in three phases. In the first phase, actions to secure the island continent were made carefully and under cover so as to be able to make movements without alerting the other gods. Initially, Erythnul began to create camps near some of the less martially-inclined deities; Hextor mimicked this strategy in opposing his twin brother Heironeous's headquarters; and not long after, Vecna established control of various libraries that contained information needed to oppose him. This set the stage of the conflict, which was only further fed by Vecna's discovery that the continent itself had magical energy. Vecna tried to keep this information secret, but Olidammara discovered the secret and spread it to everyone. With each god in full awareness that the fate of massive magical energy was up for grabs, the cold war properly began.
The second stage of the diverted conflict involved almost unanimous fortifications from the gods. The evil gods who established footholds early as described above furthered their strongholds (Erythnul building more bases around the weaker gods, Hextor creating a massive fort around Heironeous, and Vecna attempting to broker a deal with Boccob). Many of the good-aligned deities forged an alliance to combat the presence of the evil deities. With some difficulty, the good deities established a base at the center of the continent, and they were soon surrounded by evil forces. The good deities created an emergency team--Yondalla, Pelor, and Heironeous agreed to act as healers in case battle came. Evil forces dug in around them, especially on the east side of the continent and in the ocean to the south. The gods pressed in on each other, magically and physically. From this, the center of the continent gained its mountain ranges on the eastern and southern edges.
The third stage of the preparations for battle was the execution of a few strikes launched by both sides which caused permanent consequences, but did not result in a full-blown war. Once it was clear that the good deities and their defenses in the center of the continent were not vulnerable, Erythnul suggested appealing to the more neutral deities. This action was further polarizing to the neutral deities, who increasingly chose sides (Fharlanghn, Kord, and Obad-Hai leaning importantly to the good, while Gruumsh, Nerull, and Wee Jas tended to side with the evil gods). Under cover of darkness, Hextor killed an incarnation of Fharlanghn, and this caused a group led by Heironeous to drag Hextor to the same spot and kill him. This site is now the Kraal Desert, and little to nothing grows there. The racial deities tended to help the good gods, but only Yondalla explicitly chose a side. Olidammara helped both sides, and this nearly prevented her from being able to broker a peace. After the deaths, Olidammara (at Boccob's urging, their knowing that only Olidammara could be trusted by both sides, ironically) brought together the gods and agreed that they would leave without further action and allow the island continent to persist without their interference. The heavens were far more spacious than the island, after all. The gods agreed, and they left the continent looking as it does today.
3. The Magic War
I've written previously about The Magic War, a massive and contemporary struggle fought over the regulation and use of magic. Today, only a generation after the war, there are already considerable misconceptions about it. The most common modern conception of the magic war is that it was a struggle fought by volunteers to end the use of magic which ended with unregulated magic. The reality is that there are three fundamental mistakes in the previous sentence.
The first mistake is that the war was not a struggle fought by volunteers. It is true that a great many Evanines put their lives on hold and went to fight in an idealistic war. But it is also true to say that a great many of the soldiers who fought in The Magic War were not volunteers. It is estimated by informed historians that over 80% of soldiers were enlisted by either a provincial military or a group of mercenaries, meaning that more than four fifths of the people who served in the war were professional soldiers, paid for their service. Further investigation by historians reveals that the common complaint that ideological organizations were the most frequent to appear on battlefields is unfounded--in fact, the most common organizations represented on any given battlefield were city and town militaries. Contrary to the belief that individuals fought the war independently, the truth is that official local organizations dominated the war effort.
The second mistake is that the war's central question was not just to end the use of magic. At the outset of the war, the central question of the debate that led to tensions was basically, "Should magic use be free, regulated, or abolished?" And it is true that for the first few months, this was the basis of the struggle. But quickly forgotten or covered up were the changing demands by some of the sides. While it is unequivocally true that the pro-magic side never changed their demands or terms, their opponents did not hold to the same. The regulation cause shifted from public oversight of magic use to private oversight of magic users relatively early in the war, making the regulation cause more in line with the anti-magic cause, and thereby less open to compromise with the pro-magic cause. Later in the war, the regulation camp would shift further, adopting a stance that all magic would need to be cast in the company of an official--many historians believe this to be retributive for the often bloody victories of the pro-magic camp. The anti-magic cause was even more prone to changing positions, getting so progressively aggressive that even moderate members of the army clamored for the execution of all magic users. By the war's end, the anti-magic position called for the immediate imprisonment all of known spellcasters and the execution of anyone casting a spell in the future. So it was not precisely an end to magic, but also the punishment and/or surveillance of magic users.
The third mistake is that the war ended with unregulated magic. It is officially true that the war ended with pro-magic accepting surrender from the opposing sides, consenting to the terms that magic would be freely available as before without additional terms. However, as many spellcasters in Evanoch can tell you, it is not the actual law of the land. Because the war was ended by representatives of ideas rather than governments with standing armies, the enforcement of the freedom of magic is uneven. In major cities, it is observed, but in smaller towns and less progressive places, magic users are still moved to practice in secret, or at least out of sight. So without a governing body to execute the pro-magic victory, there is little in place to practically protect some magic users from repressive governments.
One of the things that's most fun to me about the development of information like this is that it's unlikely to be known even by people in the gameworld. That means that I could potentially use this for something. I might build a campaign around being a historical researcher who discovers truths like these, which can be really valuable to a player. I just ran a one-person campaign with a friend and fellow DM in which he personally uncovered evidence that gnomes and dwarves come from the same ancestor, and he said it really struck him to be such a part of the world that way. I think a campaign structured around this information could be really fun.
Or I could use it to create some real characterization and worldbuilding in-game. I might have characters talking about the world, and have a character who shares one of these ideas and gets called a conspiracy theorist. It would leave an open place for the players to jump in and ask questions and learn more and decide for themselves. Even if they just shrug off the person who shares the information, that's still a far more interesting detail to add than most things that would typically take place.
Or I could just keep it as out-of-game lore that hold onto. You never know when it might come in handy down the line. Or perhaps just share it out-of-game with your players when the time is right, like after a campaign (players love DMing secrets most of the time). Or use this to build further lore--I could easily write another five pages about the cold war between gods or about the fateful switching of capitals between elves and orcs. I'll say it forever: worldbuilding helps you every time, whether you see the payoff now or later.
That's all for now. Coming soon: why you don't have to recreate the real world's problems, how to make an in-game newspaper, and why I use a combination of 3.5e and 5e. Until next time, happy gaming!
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