D&D Setting: Drolanar
Lands Once Drowned in Sorrow
A Brief History of Drolanar
1st Edition
Written, Compiled and Edited by: Saeed Heirasson
(IV.4990)
Retrieved from the Drana Dynasty Grand Archives
I. Primordial Era - Emergence
Our world was formed out of a primordial chaos between planes. Ancient legends from civilizations long gone tell us of the wild oceans, elemental rifts, and unruly landscape. Incomprehensibly ancient entities walked the earth in the company of gods and angels, who fought against demons and devils, clamoring for dominance of the chaotic plane. It was the magic of the divine, the elemental, and the unholy that seeped into the land, and it wretched in disgust at those who would violate it and twist it, and with all the magic within the worldsoul, the very elements rejected the divine and fiendish, and the land became calm, harmonizing with itself, no longer driven to war by angels and demons. In this calmness, mortals emerged, and the elementals of old hid themselves away within the world. In their seclusion, they named the plane Drolanar: “Lands Once Drowned in Sorrow”
II. Creation Era - The Dawn of Mortal Life
Ithlormest gazed upon the plane and saw that life was in short supply. He descended to the realm and walked among the mortals for some time, finding beauty in them. The elementals came to him, questioning his presence. He told them of his love for life on Drolanar, and he wished to present a gift. His form became like a high dragon with iridescent scales that glittered like gems. From these scales, all of dragonkind was born, chromatic, metallic, and dragonborn alike.
In like manner, Garmadon also visited the plane, and finding solace in the rocky terrain of the mountains, he forged the dwarves out of stone, showing them how to carve and mine, how to forage for themselves in the deep caves, and how to build mechanisms few other races could.
And so Allahita of the Fey, also known as the Deer God to her most devout, found serenity in the forests, and out of the wood she created the Elves, physical siblings to the spiritual dryads. However, Morgluk, the Stalking Shadow, eternal hunter of the Deer God and her Shadowfell counterpart was not far behind. Becoming jealous of the elves’ reverence of the Deer God, he took fire and mud and created goblins, fierce and vicious things with a hatred for elves.
Maksudra was drawn to Drolanar by the clash between the elves and goblins; she found it pleasing, and so took the fires of war and the chill wind of death, creating terrible cyclones of indulgent flesh and violent blood, known to us as the orcs.
We humans seem to have been created by three gods working together, birthing the most divine race, and regrettably thus, the most sinful. Known together as the Sovereign Trinity of Dransalko, three gods acting in concert. Dran is the head of the trio, calm and level-headed, the embodiment of logic and the mind. Sal is the strength of men, their resolve and toughness, the embodiment of physicality and the body. Finally, Ko represents the moralities and kernels of self-knowledge, the embodiment of the soul.
A particularly vicious orc tribal leader begins uniting other tribes under himself, Mogdral, the War leader. Slaughtering his opposition with his bloodied axe, Koltigraak, some say it was given to him by Maksudra herself, granting him immense strength and made him feared by all who opposed him.
An aside of note: the curious gnomes appear to have simply hopped right out of the fey. They don’t appear to have much in the way of religious inclination, simply following the religion of other major populations in their geographic vicinity.
III. Violent Era - War Ravaged Lands
As language emerged among sapient creatures like the elves and the humans, so did hunting and gathering, basic mathematics, and primitive writing. Observation of the solar, lunar, and stellar cycles produced timetables that helped guide migratory patterns and the first calendars were made.
The elves found themselves filled with wanderlust over the centuries, and many traveled far from their citadel, arriving upon the coast of Heijasan (known as Helasan to the Goblins who followed them there, continuing their conflicts of old).
Since this is a brief history, I can only mention events such as the Cataclysm War, the Plunder of Athragot, the discovery of the Lich Empire beneath Daug’sorol, the Sinking of Rantaria, Geila’s Demise, the rise of the Whisper Queen, the Eruption of Antioc, the Empty War, the Shattering of Malak’s Shield, the twelve swordsman of Xerophax, and so many more. For detailed accounts of these histories, certainly there are tomes and volumes abound to be research and rediscovered. Certainly, local elders and archives might serve you better than I ever could in knowing the history of your land, dear scholar.
Many technologies were developed in this era as well: siege weapons, the construction of fortresses, improved weapon-making at forges, and new armor designs emerged. Dwarven artificers, smiths, and alchemists came together to create what is perhaps one of the most marvelous achievements: the living soldiers known as warforged. The mastery of artificial life gave them dominance over the mountainous regions the would become the esteemed Kibadin Republic. However, as per usual, such magical knowledge was lost in fires of war, conflict, jealousy, and intolerance. As war subsided and kingdom boundaries were drawn with gallons of blood, the dwarves cast out the warforged, seeing them as taboo, as signifiers of savagery no longer fit for a civilized race like the dwarves believed themselves to be. Many warforged who wished to stay amongst their creators joined the ranks of the miners, and it was through their concerted efforts in the creation of an empire rather than the destruction of empires that the dwarves discovered metals and minerals commonly used today.
IV. Progressive Era - Technological Innovation
The holy wars begin, each area of human inhabited lands fought for who they believed to be the true gods to be worshiped, the followers of King Alfred Drana who fought for the Sovereign Trinity, win the holy wars and the Drana Dynasty begins, the bloodline of Alfred Drana has been unbroken to this day. The Dynasty’s rule expands through the use of force and religious crusades. Once the wars have calmed, and the dynasty reached the sea, we began working on ways to cross the vast sea with ease, finally creating the first large scale trade ships, in search of wealth in distant lands.
Kibadin Republic forms when many communities of dwarves inside the Kibadin Craigs decide to work together for the betterment of the masses, electing their first leader: Prime Dulga Stonefoot. The republic expands through vast mining operations, soon reaching the sea, and opening trade between the two kingdoms.