Tyrnavalle History section 1: prior to year 1 RT
People from Shurlind, the western continent, settled the southern parts of Tyrnavalle while the God-Emperors still ruled in Sangrithar. After Hali’s fleet arrived, the spotlight turned north and stayed there. Based on the south playing little to no role in The Tale of Ages, I’ve kept my comments brief.
Note: BR stands for “Before Renk”. After Hali settled Tyrnvalle, the numbering of years started. Of course, this is a decidedly northern point of view. If you were to look at the Shurlind calendar, the years would be counted entirely differently.
| 800 BR | Settlers from Shurlind begin a three century migration to the southern regions of Tyrnavalle and the islands off the southern coast. These people look Asian, nothing like the more Mediterranean looking Sangritharians. |
| 726 BR | The Shurlinders found Azmerath, the greatest of the five cities they built on Tyrnavalle. By the time the Prophecies were fulfilled, only Azmerath still stood. The other cities founded by the Shurlinders had long since fallen into ruin. |
| 502 BR | A great war breaks out between Tyrnavalle’s southern colonies and the motherland across the ocean to the west, resulting in their independence, much like America’s fight for freedom from Britain. When the conflict is over, the colonies name Azmerath capitol of the new southern kingdom and break off relations with Shurlind. |
| 342 BR | War of the Jungle Lords. By this time, the people of the south had splintered into small tribes. Two powerful leaders, Jag Irontooth and Dax Wolfheart unite the splintered tribes and make a run at Azmerath, but ten tribes or a hundred, it makes little difference. Azmerath sends the interlopers packing and running back into the jungle after making an example of Jag and Dax, whose mummified heads adorn pikes at the city gates for several centuries. Afterwards, the tribes scatter and never again unite. |
| 287 BR | Ulgarja and goblins bred to live underwater attack Azmerath. Cilamog the Green, King of Azmerath sends a delegation to the Fair Folk living off the coast. Tolandyr, a blue-skinned throwback to the Sea Elves of old, leads these Elves after sailing them through the storms of the Remaking to settle the islands long before Umbar ever fell to earth. With Tolandyr’s help, Cilamog fends off the Dark Ones’ attack. |
| 126 BR | Archiraemus the Abominable seizes power in Azmerath from Tineus, Finbardin’s high priest (Tineus was Azmerath’s big man on campus back then). Archiraemus started out as one of Finbardin’s priests, but turned to the dark gods after his wife ran away with another man. When Tineus’s back was turned, Archiraemus struck, forcing the high priest to run for his life. Archiraemus quickly solidifies power and then reveals his true colors – white and amber, the colors of Cthar, the Stealer of Souls. Archiraemus summons a demonic horde and lays waste to southern Tyrnavalle, conquering the neighboring cities settled by the Shurlinders in the space of a few years. Then, he sets his sights on the Quendi Forest and the Fair Folk, but Tineus throws a wrench into the mix. Finbardin’s high priest took a beating the first time he’d gone up against Archiraemus, but he’d been surprised. The second time, he came prepared. With the help of the Chains of Finbardin (a little present from his patron), Tineus vanquishes the demon hordes and sends Archiraemus on the Short Walk. Not hard to guess which direction Bangal’s thumb turned for him, is it? Short as Archiraemus’s reign is, it comes at high cost – he decimated the settlements of the Shurlinders before Tineus put him down. Of the five Shurlind cities, only Azmerath is rebuilt and it never regains its former stature. |
| 12 BR | A great tidal wave destroys Azmerath. The determined survivors start rebuilding it, again. |
Hali leads the colonists south from Sangrithar in 1 RY. The rest of this chronicle focuses on the northern Tyrnavalle kingdoms settled by those traveling with Hali. A handful of events occurring during those first few centuries in the southern regions are worth noting.
Note: RY stands for Renk Years, which was the most common standard for keeping track of the years during the Age of Mankind.
| 162 RY | Blackblade, a pirate based out of the islands in the Strait of Rabyn near Erinport, sails his huge fleet all the way down Tyrnavalle’s eastern coast and doesn’t drop anchor until reaching the harbor at Azmerath. The ancient Shurlind city has little in the way of defenses, leaving it open to plunder by the pirates. Eventually, Blackblade returns home to the islands, but not before he and his crew make sure that the next generation of Azmerathian children have plenty of Fanarian blood. |
| 426 RY | More visitors from the mainlaind, this time from far-off Jeheris, plunder the southern lands. Now, Jeheris was almost as far away from Tyrnvalle as you could get, so you might be wondering how they landed near Azmerath. It’s a fair question. They were exiles – malcontents and petty criminals banished from Jeheris for ill-done deeds. Upon landfall, they tried to set up shop outside of the southern capitol, but Azmerath didn’t want new neighbors. The leaders were captured and executed, but the rest of the exiles were allowed into the city. The northerners had some strange customs, by Azmerath standards, which leads a period of social unrest and ultimately, the founding of Khantai, Azmerath’s sister city in the southern reaches of the Sandstorm Seas a century later. |
