Common Timeline

Two centuries before Common Unification, the great dwarf smith Durgeddin the Black and his clan were driven from their home in the southern Crowncrest Mountains by a horde of fierce orcs and trolls. The horde plundered the dwarves' ancestral halls and slew all they could catch. Fleeing his enemies, Durgeddin led the destitute remnants of his clan in search of a new home. After years of wandering, the dwarves discovered a great cavern system beneath the Stone Tooth: a rugged, forested hill crowned by a bare rocky crag.

There, Durgeddin and his followers founded the stronghold of Khundrukar, and used the fort as a base with which to wage decades of raids on orc tribes to the mountains north of them, coordinating with the Griffon-keepers of Skypeak to employ guerilla-like tactics on the tribes. Eventually, a member of Durgeddin's clan was captured by a powerful orc tribe during a raid, and the orcs learned of their enemy's hidden stronghold. The orc chieftains raised a great army and marched on Khundrukar. In a hard-fought siege lasting months, the orcs tunneled around the dwarven defenses. When they finally stormed the place, they put all within to the sword, then carried off wagonloads of booty.

In the years since the great battle, various creatures occupied the fort and used the place as a base for their raids. At other times, the caverns remained empty, save for the mindless and bloodthirsty monsters that haunted such places. Legends of the extraordinary blades forged in anger still surfaced from time to time in the lands near the Stone Tooth, inevitably resulting in adventuring bands exploring the tunnels, such as in Forge Of Fury.

Nearly five years prior to Common Unification, Iodun Myrdinn had united much of the continent under one banner. He set his sights north to conquer Scycaen Imperium, which had consolidated under the rule of the Terrescel family in response to Common League expansion. Occupied with eastern expansion, Iodun tasked his northern general Yilmaz Mylenthalas to lead the battle against Riyissan Terrescel and take the Wyrmhorn Reach. 

The resulting battle was the largest ever recorded between two largely-Human armies. In an initial skirmish pushing up to the Snoutridge, Mylenthalas' army overwhelmed a prominent Scycaen camp stationed south of the Sylphglade. Larger in number and drilled well by their leader, they soundly defeated their smaller foe, who almost immediately broke rank and retreated north into the forest. 

Though they were outnumbered, the next battle was ultimately a resounding victory for Scycae. While following their foes into the woods, the Common army stayed uniformly compact, not wanting to have battle communications interrupted by the trickster Fey of the Sylphglade. The density of their formation allowed a small Scycaen garrison, led by Riyissan Terrescel himself, to slip past them undetected. Having made a deal with Fairy allies, Terrescel's garrison rounded the glade using a hidden Fey Crossing and were able create a pincer at the regiment's rear.

This maneuver created chaos; fighting on two fronts in a dense and magical forest, the Northern army was tactically overwhelmed. Before they could reach Scil-Torrenae, their attentions were split, and not enough of their force was able to commit to the assault. They were forced to retreat from the Sylphglade but lost many of their number in doing so, and the Imperium's forces followed them out of the woods into the rocky southern field.

This last battle ended when an enormous blast from Terrescel's Soulflare Sword Scyseti struck a nearby mountain. The mountain split in twain from the forces, creating what became known as Scyseti's Cut, and the remaining Common forces completely lost morale at the sight of such power. Mylenthalas ordered his army to stand down, and the last of his decimated forces were captured.

The conclusive loss at the Battle of Sylphglade permanently halted Commona's northern expansion. Scycae began to build further mountain defenses at Scil-Torrenae to further ensure that ground attacks were all but impossible, and the Common League declared Unification without the northern nation. A treatise between the two was established nearly four years afterward, agreeing the borderline was placed at the "Ironhold".

In the years leading to Common Unification, Iodun Myrdinn faced his greatest resistances in the eastern reach leading to the Neck of the Greatwyrm. Much of the region was populated with tribal forces descended from Orcs, Goblins, Gnolls, and the Giant-descended, such as Giantborn and Ogres. These disparate tribes had complex relationships with each other; however, all the forces in the region shared a love of warfare, and a refusal to surrender to a Human force.

Given the size of the steppe, a lack of natural resources, and the nonstop danger of night raids, the progress of the full  Common League army would likely be slowed to a crawl in the plains. Iodun decided to not waste the lives of his soldiers to squabble for scraps of land; instead, he sent much of his forces back to assist with other battles, and decided the matter himself. Accompanied by a small regiment of highly-esteemed warriors, he conducted a 44-day campaign across the plains, utilizing the tome Cometfall to an extent he never resorted to in the West.

The result of this campaign read less like a battle, and more like a massacre. The vast majority of the population was slaughtered, and the landscape was forever altered, sundered into the region now known as the Dotted Plains. Eventually, the few remaining tribes were forced to surrender, and Cometfall became renowned as a weapon that could change the face of the world. Many of the remaining settlements retreated back into the Pikes of Uzuk, leaving the Dotted Plains to become an incredibly sparse region.

To the few who remained in these lands, the Eastern Sundering became known as the "Great Skyfire," and remained a controversial subject.

The Unholy Siege of Fort Verdane was the instigating event that lead to the signing a true declaration of Common Unification. Months prior having its borders officially established, the southern Common Leage regiment continued its expansion into Elthys. It passed by historical borderlands down the Flat of Elaedh in an attempt to treatise with the historic house of Merellien, hoping to add Elthys to the League by coercion rather than force.

Before their regiment could approach the capital City of Merellien, however, they were set upon by a horde of Undead, composed of numbers greater than any standing army in the world. Facing down a slowly-moving tide of bone and flesh, the southern army was forced to retreat. As they made their way back up the Flat, their teleporters reported their situation to the Common bastion of Emblem. Wizards and Artificers from the capital moved quickly, setting up a series of magical gates with a strong fort behind it, designed to withstand a ground siege. Strategically, the fort was built to occupy the space between the Farmouth Bight and the Jawstone Divide, and was constructed just in time before it was set upon by the horde.

The newly-named Fort Verdane stood strong against these forces of darkness for nearly a calendar month, with supply lines being shipped from other nearby territories of Commona. With much of the undead tide decimated and the Fort still intact, Merellien's remaining forces diverted east through the Sea of Trees, attempting to circumvent its gates via a mountain pass. The undead abandoned their siege and attempted to enter Commona through the Howling Hollowland. No trace of the enemy was ever seen again; most speculate that they were consumed by an even deadlier enemy in the forest depths.

The Unholy Siege was considered a landmark battle in Common history and a testament to the military might of the united League. However, since the building of the Fort, the alliance between Commona and Elthys remained uneasy. While no formal battles were declared after the Siege, whispers remained that Merellien harbored an intense grudge against their northern neighbors.

Considered to be the most momentous piece of legislation in written history, the Common Unification was formalized by the Court of the Torch in Emblem at year 0, on the first day of Crossover. For a half-generation prior to Unification, Iodun Myrdinn led a campaign across the Somnum to unite the continent. He succeeded in persuading or conquering most of the regions west of the Giantlands, though was unable to overtake the Elthysi Sovereign or the Scycaen Imperium, and was not aware of the protected island of Ty-Pharess.

With all members of the new Common League present to witness its ratification, the Unification marked a new beginning. Though the many nations counted amongst its banner remained culturally disparate, over decades, cultures began to amalgamate. The Common Language became dominant, a Common Calendar was made, and the world of Mortalkind grew more stable.

For centuries, the once-great Dwarf bastion of Brazenthrone had been declining. Successive generations of the Brasshand house had mismanaged their kingdom's relationships along the Snoutridge, and every generation, more dwarves were leaving the capital. The riches once held in the foothills were drying up, and folk went to where the work was. Some left to become artisans, smiths, or miners in the newly-established human nation of Commona , while soldiers went to the wilderness, seeking refuge with other clans in the Kingdom of the Twelve Mountains. Though life was harder in the hills, work was plentiful, as growing bands of orc raiders were constantly threatening dwarven settlements in the mountains.

The rule of High King Thimdorlum Brasshand was the worst of this. Ill-equipped for statecraft and prone to letting his pride guiding his decisions, Thimdorlum made enemies both outside of his domain and within. Constantly fretting over his houses' diminishing status in the region, he gave near-autonomy to any Brazenthrone soldiers patrolling the region. His soldiers acted with the authority he gave them, pushing around villagefolk and making enemies with the northern hill-tribes. Within the city, he believed in only using the dwindling historical shifts to produce ore, as opening new shafts could potentially create structural risks to the city. This conservative decision lost him popularity with the traders and the miners, who needed to excavate the kingdom's signature brass to continue making a living.

This came to a head when Brufomura Blondebeard attempted a raid of the capital. Incredibly large for a dwarf, Brufomura had made a name for herself as a warrior in the hills. Despite her tender age, her name was beginning to become legend in the northern Snoutridge, as she began to unify long-squabbling mountain and hill dwarf clans under one banner. She took with her some of the finest warriors in the mountains to Brazenthrone, planning to raid the city and confront it's leaders, but on arriving found no garrison awaiting battle.

All guards in the city had been summoned to protect only the High King's inner sanctum, leaving the rest of the colony virtually undefended. She probed around the hallowed halls of the city and did not find a fight, but instead political opportunity; despite the natural lawfulness of the dwarven people, all were sick of the ruling house. She petitioned the other High Clansmen to allow her a chance to win the seat as Queen. By Brazenthrone law, anyone could earn the right to rule by challenging the High King in combat, but few ever did so. Regardless of the challenger's might or the High King's frailty, the house possessed the legendary Baraztul Zan-Thangul, which guaranteed victory against any opponent.

Brufomura's request was not only granted by the High Clan elders, but a historic decision was made: Thimdorlum would be forced to fight without his familial armor. They contacted an organization called the Golden Vault, who's operatives broke into the throne room sight-unseen and delivered the Mantle to the elders. With their biggest threat removed, the hill-tribe stormed the inner sanctum and conferred the High Clan's ruling to the guards. Taken aback by this, High King Brasshand attempted to don the armor hidden within his throne, but found that the chamber was empty.

Trembling with rage, Thimdorlum still had the finest war gear in his kingdom at his disposal. He donned his kingdom's finest Supreme Enhanced plate armor, bore a shield of Adamantine, and held aloft his Superior Enhanced battleaxe. The High King declared his status as the only deserving sovereign, yelled a war cry, and charged down the thronehall to his opponent. The unarmored Brufomura stove his head in with a single swing of her hammer. 

The Kingdom of the Twelve Mountains knew they had to act quickly to prevent absolute turmoil, as Thimdorlum bore no children. They began spreading word of the a Queen who would restore glory to the dwarves, and reunite the Twelve Mountains. Within the span of a day, the ceremonies to crown a new ruler were placed, and Brufomura was given the clan name "Brassbreaker", as well as the right to don the Mantle of the First Forge. This marked a great change in leadership, as the Kingdom of the Twelve Mountains had never been ruled by a Mountain Dwarf, but so broken was their power that even the famously stubborn dwarven leaders allowed the change to occur.

Almost immediately, brufomura made changes to put Brazenthrone in a better position; their "Barbarian Queen" mended relationships with the hill-tribes and used the resources of her new queendom to beat back the encroaching Orc hordes. Her fearless mentality encouraged the dwarves to dig ever-deeper, increasing mineral production to levels not seen in centuries. Though it took on significant risks under her rule, Brazenthrone was finally booming again.

Founded decades earlier by the Gnome Rogue Nessa Nina Quickpick Rumbauld Pennyluck, the Whistledrop Crew had operated out of Phyracress with a reputation for skill tempered by an internal code of honor. For a time, the thieves' guild was famous throughout the Fencrest Foothills, and none could figure out the location of the Whistledrop Hideout. As Nessa aged and took fewer jobs, however, the Crew’s activity slowed. Though it still had talented members such as Punmiri Tel-Phaeun and Merc Firewater, the leadership of the Crew was uncertain.

Hope for continuity emerged when Nessa took on a masked Vistani thief known as Dee, whose talent and discipline marked her as a potential successor. Around this time, the Crew also took in a young runaway noblewoman traveling under the name Elle, later known to be Ellenor Breathamof Fang's End. Trained primarily by Dee, Elle proved adept, and the two grew unusually close. Their similar builds and shared use of masks allowed them to imitate one another convincingly, a tactic they used during jobs and to protect Ellenor’s identity. Nessa Nina came to see the pair as the future of the Crew, believing leadership and legacy might pass to them together.

Unbeknownst to the Whistledrop Crew, Ellenor’s family had hired mercenaries to retrieve her and erase the scandal of her flight. The pursuit was led by her brother, Nigel Breatham, who followed her trail across western Commona to Phyracress. When much of the Crew was away on a heist, Nigel and his band located the Whistledrop hideout; in the dead of night, they descended the well and launched an attack against the reduced defenders. In the chaos, Dee hid Elle and used their resemblance to delay Nigel, allowing her friend to remain undiscovered.

The ruse ended with Dee’s death, killed by Nigel in a fit of rage, along with several other members of the Crew. The hideout was left in ruins, and by morning little remained but ash. Ellenor vanished entirely in the aftermath, leaving no word of her fate, and Nigel was left without a trail, disappearing as well. Faced with the loss of her chosen successor, the deaths of her rogues, and the exposure of the hideout, Nessa Nina formally disbanded the Whistledrop Crew.

However, some members of the Crew would later connect, particularly in the Break-In At Bleak End.

On an expedition into the Murkmire Marshlands, Doctor Cassee Dannel and an archaeolical team from the Whiteharbour Academy unearthed a strange object. Light green, opaque, and with a gemstone-like sheen, this ovoid stone was covered in strange furrows. The stone seemed ritualistic in nature, but it matched no recorded historical practices, and no one could identify its composition. The more Doctor Dannel studied it, the more she became convinced this object, which the archaeologists dubbed the Murkmire Stone, was not created by any known civilization.

Doctor Dannel tried to convince the dig's archaeologists to isolate the Murkmire Stone until she could learn more about it, but word of the discovery spread quickly. When the Cliffsunder Museum of Natural History offered a generous price for the stone, it was soon whisked from the dig site to the museum.

Doctor Dannel continued to research the strange stone. Her concern turned to dread when she found descriptions of similar objects in her occult tomes. These objects were, in fact, the eggs of eldritch creatures. She learned that such Abberations lay dormant for generations, but once the eggs are unearthed, the creatures within rapidly developed and hatched. The resulting creatures were ravenous for raw meat and grow exponentially as they feed, eventually overwhelming entire villages. The eggs were nearly indestructible, but the tomes claimed encasing them in crystal could neutralize them.

According to Dannel's research, the Murkmire Stone was due to hatch in a matter of days. She frantically presented her findings to the university's administrators, who deemed her work pseudoscience and refused to interfere with the upcoming exhibition of the Murkmire Stone. Desperate, Doctor Dannel snuck into the museum after hours and tried to steal the stone, but she was caught. The Academy disavowed her actions and fired her.

With mere hours left in the Murkmire Stone's gestation period, she reached out to Golden Vault to reclaim the stone.

Two centuries ago, the great Dwarf smith Durgeddin the Black and his clan were driven from their home in Mountain's Meet by a horde of Orcs. The horde plundered the dwarves' ancestral halls and slew all they could catch. Fleeing his enemies, Durgeddin led the destitute remnants of his clan in search of a new home. After years of wandering the Dotted Plains, the dwarves discovered a great cavern system beneath the Stone Tooth: a rugged, forested hill crowned by a bare rocky crag. There, Durgeddin and his followers founded the stronghold of Khundrukar, and used the fort as a base with which to wage decades of raids on orc tribes to the mountains north of them.

In the midst of these assaults, a member of Durgeddin's clan was captured by a powerful orc tribe during a raid, and the orcs learned of their enemy's hidden stronghold. Their chieftains raised a great army and marched on Khundrukar. In a hard-fought siege lasting months, the orcs tunneled around the dwarven defenses. When they finally stormed the place, they put all within to the sword, then carried off wagonloads of booty; this became known as the Smith's War.

In the years since the great battle, various creatures occupied the fort and used the place as a base for their raids. At other times, the caverns remained empty, save for the mindless and bloodthirsty monsters that haunted such places. Legends of the extraordinary blades forged in anger still surfaced from time to time in the lands near the Stone Tooth.

One such legend reached the ears of Yannick Azizi, the young Third Rider of Khazalet. He received word that orc raiders had been pillaging isolated farmsteads and camps in the hills north of the town. His squadron captured an orc warrior left for dead by its comrades and brought it back for questioning. Under the influence of enchantment magic, the orc divulged the location of the monsters' lair, a lonely hill called the Stone Tooth.

Now knowing its location and the possible magic within, Yannick put out a call for Adventurers to oust the orcs from Khundrukar. 

As the owner of an adventurer's guild, the retired Adventurer Tybus Steelborn learned a litany of ancient secrets over the years, and had become obsessed with a mythical group called the Azure Paragon. The name of this ancient organization continually cropped up in seemingly unrelated quests, but he had formed connections between them. The group was potentially responsible for shaping the modern world as they knew it, and likely created the Epochal Artifacts.

He began offering rewards for any information regarding this secret group, and eventually learned of a group of knights who were also interested in the Paragon. The Order of the Silver Dragon had disappeared over twenty years ago, supposedly dogged in their pursuit of the truth. From his scout network, Tybus received intel that the Order had discovered a secret Paragon fort beyond Giantsbane, hidden somewhere in the mists of the Crowncrest Mountains, but had not been heard from again.

With only incomplete maps and hearsay to work from, he put out a call to his guild. He needed to find the Silver Dragon's Hideout, and offered great riches to any who would take on this nebulous and dangerous quest.

A skilled Three-Dragon Ante player and a shrewd Devilborn entrepreneur, Duplicity Kye toured the western Commona gambling circuit for years, making a name for herself and winning numerous large tournaments. While on the circuit, Kye met a gambler named  Quentin Togglepocket Whee Quickweasel Witt. The two hit it off, and they formed a plan to save enough winnings to open their own casino. But just as they seemed poised to put their plan in action, Quentin disappeared, taking all their money with him.

He resurfaced years later, having built the Afterlife Casino using the stolen money. Based on the Mythological idea of the Nine Hells, the Afterlife Casino was set to hold a three-dragon ante tournament. Dubbed the "Grand Minauros Invitational", Quentin recruited the region's best players and offered a golden statuette of an Erinyes being awarded to the winner. To get revenge on his betrayal, Duplicity contacted the Golden Vault, requesting skilled thieves to break into her former partner's vault and steal the erinyes statuette.

For Duplicity, it was not the money or the stauette that truly mattered; it was ensuring that Quentin's betrayal came back to haunt him, and that he knew that the person he betrayed had made him pay.

Count Strahd von Zarovich was once the conqueror of Barovia, a valley nestled deep in the Balinok Mountains. Never satisfied, Strahd made a dark bargain for utmost control over death, and both he and his lands were turned into something unholy. The lines partitioning the Prime Material were thinner in some places than others, and in such locations, Dark Powers could tempt creatures into the Deepmists. When he gave in to this temptation, mists surrounded his lands, peeling the valley away from the reality Strahd knew and into the Umbral Realms; he had become a Darklord. 

Barovia became a domain of dread, a dismal place untouched by sunlight and filled with death. Its lands were inundated with Ghosts, Werewolves, and other fell creatures. Many secrets lay hidden in its Svalich Woods, including forgotten ruins and battlefields that held the story of Count Strahd's life as a conqueror. Those adventurous enough to brave the wilds could find discarded relics and the remnants of Strahd's ancient enemies, though not all his foes were as dead as one might expect.

For the people of Barovia, hemmed in by impenetrable mists, there was no escape from the harsh world he created. The town of Vallaki stood ready to defend itself against the servants of Strahd, but it was far from the sanctuary it purported to be. The fortified village of Krezk lay near the edge of the valley, its Abbey now in the clutches of evil, misguided creatures. But of all the settlements in Strahd's domain, the Village of Barovia was by far the most oppressed. Cowering in the shadow below Castle Ravenloft and terrorized by its ageless overlord, the village's people succumbed to despair. 

As adventurers traveled near the Count's domain, those bearing the Mark of Strahd watched them closely. When the time was deemed right, Strahd invited his "guests" to Castle Ravenloft, and they often became a focus of his obsession. For his own amusement, he looked to turn them against one another, torment them, and kill them. Some become his undead thralls. Some never rose again, their souls forever trapped under Barovia's heavy mists.

As long as he remained the lord of Castle Ravenloft, dawn would never come to Barovia.

After a botched Lizardfolk ritual left his people stranded in the Prime Material, Coriander Thorn decided to spend his decades with intention. The Fairy made a name for himself as the "Don" of the Glitterati, which would grow into one of western Commona's most notorious crime gangs. In his dealings, he became familiar with all manner of law enforcement across the Fencrest Foothills, and even more familiar with the region's criminals.

[insert backstory of treasure and Dwarf-door when revealed to players]

Having long known of their hoard, but only now possessing an idea of where to find it, the Don sought to collect the key from Bleak End. If his sources were right, the Glitterati would have enough wealth to buy several kingdoms; but the Glitterati were planning something much, much grander than that.