Timeline (Rift)
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Age of Legend
The gods created Telara from a mass of sourcestone at the intersection of the planes. Tavril created the Elves and Bahralt created the Dwarves.
Arrival of the Humans
Humans were created by the all of the gods of the Vigil, originally in the area called Tavra. With the assistance of the Elves, the Humans soon developed basic civilization as nomadic tribesmen in the north (Mathosia) and south (Eth).
The Bloodstorm War
1600+ years ago
Amardis Mathos, the first Paladin, is born. Eventually Clan Mathos unites the norther Humans and forms the Mathosian Empire.
The Blood Storm invades Telara.
Crucia destroys the High Elven Heart Grove.
The lesser dragons of The Blood Storm turn against Regulos. The peoples of Telara rally against the Blood Storm, catching them off guard. The Shalastiri enter Telara from the Plane of Air and aid the Telarans. The Eth are the first to befriend the Shalastiri. With the aid of the Shalastiri, the Eth learn how to harness sourcestone as a fuel for their war machines.
All the dragons but Regulos are imprisoned on Telara. Regulos's body is destroyed, and his spirit banished beyond a Ward erected by the Vigil to keep Telara safe from planar invasion.[2] The Vigil forbids all use of Dragon magic.
1580 years ago
Niyol Cliffswind dies and gives The Prophecy of the Ascended.
A faction of the elves, known as the Kelari, turn from Tavril. This is known as the First Schism.
Clan Zardonis, led by Acia Zardonis, founds the path of the Nightblade.
Construction of Port Scion begins.
The Dragon Cults
Some humans seem naturally attuned to the Dragons and, over time, the Dragons found ways to influence these followers. Their primary goal is finding a way to destroy or neutralize the Ward, allowing their masters to return physically to the world.
Rise of the Bahmi
The Shalastiri settle in the Rhaza'de Canyons and intermarry with Humans, becoming a new race... the Bahmi.
The Eth apply their new sourcestone technology to their daily lives.
The Dragonslayer Covenant is formed, primarily of Eth and Bahmi, to keep watch over the Dragon Cults.
The Vigil demand that the Eth abandon sourcestone technology but they refuse.
The Ethian Empire
Statue of a Sorcerer-King
So great was their power that the Planes were openly traveled and all forms of magic, especially Dragon magic, were known and used by them. They were like gods in their power, and like gods in their hubris, and so sewed the seeds of their own destruction.
The Convocation
500 years ago
Not satisfied with god-like power, the Sorcerer-Kings decided that the next step was to become actual gods, literal Apotheosis. They built a machine that would gather the souls of all the Ethian peoples and, using an amplifier, they would ascend to godhood.
They spent decades researching and testing, and when they were ready they called home the elite of Eth for the Convocation, but their laboratories had been infiltrated by an agent of Maelforge and the machine was corrupted.
When they threw the switch the device began in-gathering all the soul-energy of the people, but instead of channeling it into the Kings as planned it released it in a single explosion so violent that it literally destroyed the Eth empire, leaving nothing of their civilization but ruins scattered around Telara. The desolation known as the Droughtlands was once the very heart of Eth.[3]
Mathosia
In the wake of the destruction of Eth, the next empire to rise was that of Mathosia. These northmen, once the conquering was all done, settled down, got "civilized", and actually turned out to be a pretty good thing. A new era of peace enfolds Telara.
25 years ago
King Jostir dies, and his two sons, Aedraxis and Zareph, become tangled up in a Civil War over who will take the throne.[4] Carwin Mathos, the youngest, sides with Zareph.
Aedraxis corrupts many of the nobles of Mathosia, forming The Endless Court.
Cyril Kalmar addresses the Elves, telling them of Aedraxis' corruption. Shyla Starhearth calls for the Elves to go to war in support of the Mathosians, but Prince Hylas Aelfwar, under the influence of Keelaodh, a corrupt druid, argues against saying that Tavril calls them to stay in Silverwood and defend the forest. This leads to the Second Schism. The rest of the High Elves, under Shyla, move to Sanctum but House Aelfwar remains at Overwatch Keep in Silverwood.[5]
While it is unclear why Orphiel Farwind chose to work for Aedraxis, the common foot soldiers of the Defiant were told that Aedraxis had promised them their own kingdom when the war was over.[6]
The Shade
20 years ago
With the civil war going badly for him, Aedraxis uses the machines built for him by Orphiel Farwind to crack the Ward, unleashing the power of Regulos onto Telara in an event that would become known as the Shade. This triggers the beginning of the rifts. The heroes of the Guardians (The Ascendeds) are returned for the first time to stop Aedraxis from completely handing Telara to Regulos. Carwin is killed by Aedraxis but Zareph, Cyril, Shyla, and an Ascended (you) kill Aedraxis/Regulos and destroy his body.[7] Many Ascended are taken up from Telara at that time to be presented with a vision from the Vigil. However, others, such as Cyril and Shyla, remain on Telara to defend it from the rifts.
At this time, Zareph and company go to Port Scion to be shielded within a great sourcestone barrier, erected by the Bahmi, defending it against the planes. From there, they waged a long and bitter war against the rifts.[8]
The Fall of Port Scion
1 year ago
An ancient Eth life factory is uncovered in Freemarch. Orphiel is able to get its Resurrection Forges functioning and returns Asha Catari from death. Unfortunately, hers would be the only soul returned with any sort of special powers, and hers were the product of a confrontation with Regulos and not true Ascension.
Shortly after that, Alsbeth betrays the people of Port Scion. She manipulates them into sending their forces out of the city, and then corrupts the city's magical defenses, allowing a massive death invasion in. The city falls and Zareph is lost, sacrificing himself to seal the evil inside.
Without Zareph to mediate, Orphiel and Cyril go their separate ways and take their followers with them. Thus you have the official division of the people of Telara into the Guardians and the Defiants.[9]
Defiant Future
8 years in the Future
Meridian is sacked by the Guardians. The surviving Defiants hole up within well fortified life factories to continue trying to solve the trouble of Ascension with machines.[10]
Orphiel realizes that time travel is possible when he discovers a method of creating a temporal anchor. Knowing it will take years to solve the rest of the problem he first creates the anchor, called Orphiel's Failsafe, so that when the ability to travel is found they will have a point in the past to send to.
14 years in the Future
Orphiel disappears without a trace.[11]
20 years in the Future
Sylver Valis discovers the means to creating Ascended with machines.[12] These new Defiants are sent back to try to avert the disaster they witness as they escape through the Failsafe to the past.[13][14]
The Defiant set out to 1) recreate Ascension using technomagic, and 2) create a portal back in time, a Failsafe, in case their worst fears became reality. The portal was the easy part, as it turns out, but it took Sylvar almost too long to find the secret to Ascension. The Guardians had already fallen and the Ward was in total collapse. At the last minute, with Regulus beating down the door, they created you and sent you back in time to the Temporal Anchor Orphiel had created on the day he realized Time Travel was possible.
Carrying documents that would tell them how to make more Ascended, they sent you back to a time when hope was still alive and The Ascended, you and others like you, might have a chance to stop the end of the world.
Now
The rifts are occurring with more and more frequency. Planar invasion forces are loose in the land, establishing footholds from which they hope to further weaken the Ward.
New ranks of Ascended Guardians return with a vision of Telara's destruction from the Vigil to guide their new crusade. All but simultaneously, Orphiel erects a Failsafe device, a temporal anchor by which Defiants might return if need be. As it is initiated, Ascended Defiants spill through from the future to tell of the world's forthcoming doom.[15]
- ^ Official timeline
- ^ Official timeline
- ^ Quest: Words of the Damned
- ^ Official timeline
- ^ Quest: The Meaning of Danger
- ^ Overheard from a Defiant Technician in Mathosia
- ^ Quest: A Dim, Dark Eye
- ^ Official timeline
- ^ Official timeline
- ^ Official timeline
- ^ Official timeline
- ^ Quest: Born Again
- ^ Official timeline
- ^ Quest: Into the Time Machine
- ^ Official timeline