Ready for More????

Ok, we are going to make this the last one.....

But it's in a couple of different parts.

So, without further ado....

Her Most Awesome Fairy-ness's es es....

Heck.  How to get along on Ansalon Part 4 - Geography, Major Holidays, and a quick timeline up until now

General geography, especially for you folks who expect more islands and a huge Maelstrom......

Surprise, this is happening BEFORE something large and fiery came down on a certain city that starts with Is and ends with Tar.

Spoilers......

We are one big, relatively happy family here on Krynn, at least we have one big happy continent when it comes to Ansalon.

So, I'm just going to give you a few basics, cause the DM sometimes has some problems with East vs. West (and she's a former Geology Major!).

  

Solamnia is in the NorthWest and is where those tin cans, er Knights of Solamnia are housed.  It's mostly humans around here, but you can find some.... other folks too, just not too many.

Abanasinia is sort of in the Middle, South, West of Anasalon, ok, right on the other side of the mountains from Ergoth. Mostly humans here too, although the plains also support centaurs and the hilly regions near the mountains have some hill dwarf communities. Darken Wood is also here..... ooooooh, scary.

No one famous lives in this part of the country....

Or ever will......

Take that Kit!!!!!!!!!!!

Pbbbbbbbbbpt!!!!!!!!!

Ahem, ok, sorry about that.  I'm over it.

Where were we?

Oh, yeah.  Ergoth.  Ergoth is in the Southwest. They are a primarily human empire (not nation, EMPIRE).  Their biggest claim to fame was that they were soo eeeeeeeevil that that Vinas Solamunus person said "Thank you, but no thank you to that bridge to no where...."

Oh no, that's not right.  He said "These three Gods told me to take my toys, move north and leave your sand box."

The bestest thing here is this AWESOME monument/tomb/mountain thingy where Huma is buried that's shaped like a dragon...

AWESOME!

Ok, so you have the Qualinesti (Western Elves) that are jammed up next to Ergoth and the Silvenesti (Eastern Elves) that are kinda in the middle of the continent, near Thorbardin, the dwarven underground nation. 

Wow, that was three in one little sentence!

Istar is the jewel of the East (and still exists!).  It is also mostly a human nation.

Those are the major ones, sure, there's Kendermore, and Blode and Icereach and all those other fabulous places, but those are more cities in mostly unincorporated areas, not real nations, and since this supposed to be more of an overview...

There ya go.

Are we ready to party?

Really, are we ready to party? The one holiday that I'm going to focus on at this point is the following (cause everybody loves a party and everyone has a few of their own).

The Night of the Eye is kind of Krynn's version of Halloween, but with COOKIES!!!!  In times past, fledgling Wizard of High Sorcery (and can we PLEASE shorten that to WoHS? Thanks!) went from house to house performing magic tricks in exchange for cookies. The children of Krynn saw this and figured the WoHS were on to a good thing, so they started doing the same thing.

But where does this Eye thing come in?  Well, if you remember from the Gods section, each of the gods of magic is represented by a moon in the sky.  Every year (generally in late "October") the three moons form a conjunction.  These conjunctions aren't usually that spectacular because the moons are generally in different phases when this happens, but once every 117 years all three moons are full on the Night of the Eye.  This is what's known as the "Great Conjunction" and it's an awesome sight.

Yule is also big in Solamnia and Spring Dawning is pretty popular all over Ansalon.

Which brings us to my patented shortened timeline....

Way, way, back many centuries ago......

Wrong story AGAIN...

Let's try again.

A long, time ago in a .....

No, still not right.

Ok, so there is nothing new under the sun.

The history of Krynn is divided into Ages, the first Age is known as the Age of Starbirth.

All sorts of interesting things happened, The High God called Paladine, Gilean and Takhisis from "The Beyond". Those three called a bunch of others and created the pantheons.  Reorx created Krynn by forging (or taming if you will) a bit of Chaos.

Time is pretty fluid during this time before history, so all we really know is that there were three other major events, The All Dragons War, which resulted in the creation of the three outer planes where the gods reside.  The Dome of Creation was created for the good gods, the Hidden Vale for the neutral gods and The Abyss for the gods of evil.

This was also the time frame when the Gate of Souls was created. This was the way that the souls of the dearly departed could pass from Krynn to the realms of their gods.

The other two things were another war, the All-Saint's War.  This was fought between the gods over the souls.  During this time the first three races of Krynn (humans, ogres and elves) were created.

Then there was this little problem with the GreyGem.  This is a long story, but it boils down to the creation of all of the other races on Krynn.

The next Age is the Age of Dreams.  Really, not alot to say.  It's mostly everyone moving around, spreading out and trying to get along.  Except for the ogres, THEY decided to enslave the humans for a while, until an orge named Igraine decided to lead the slaves in a revolt because he didn't believe in slavery.  This caused the break between the "good" ogres and the "evil" orges that lead to the founding of the Irda.

Around 3,057 years ago or so, the first Council of the High Ones was called by the elf Silvanos.  “High Ones” would be the elves. This is the founding of the first elven nation.  They unite behind Silvanos to fight dragons invading the forest that will be come know as Silvanesti.

Between 2557 and 2407 years ago there was the First Dragon war.  This was mostly fought between the dragons and the elves for control of the forests of Krynn. At the end of this war the City of Silvanesti is founded.

Between 1747 and 1702 years ago was the Second Dragon War.  You guys ever get the feeling that the Dragon's are the cause of much trial and tribulation on Krynn?  Once again the Dragons are picking on the elves, but unlike the last time when the Gods of Magic helped out, the Gods of Magic aren't really able to help until the very end this time, it'll take almost 400 years for Wizards to get themselves in order.

Approximately 1,657 years ago the Empire of Ergoth is founded.  It takes them about a century, but they are in dominant on Krynn for over 300 years.

Around 1,207 years ago the Hylar clan begins develing the city that will become Thorbardin.  They only take 150 years to devel this chamber.

1249 to 1197 years ago was the Kinslayer Wars (one of the FEW wars that can't be blamed on the dragons).  The nation of Qualinesti is founded at the end of this war.

Around 1,057 years ago Pax Tharkas is founded to commemorate the Swordsheath Scroll agreement that brought and end to both the Kinslayer War and the War of the Mountains (between Ergoth and the dwarves).

Starting 856 years ago, and lasting EIGHT WHOLE years was the Rose Rebellion.  This was the breaking away of Vinas Solamnus and what would become the KoS from the Ergothian Empire.  The KoS are officially founded 832 years ago.

117 to 75 years ago was the Third Dragon War (what's WITH these Dragons!) also known as Huma's War.  The end of this war caused all of the evil dragons to be forced off of Krynn.  The Good Dragons withdraw to the Dragon Isles.

6 Weeks ago, the Night of Eye featured a Grand Conjunction.  This was one of the coldest in known history, at least in Southern Solamnia.

4 and half weeks ago.....