With pleasure:
I have first been tpying with the idea of creating a setting based on the High Forest 4,000 years before the standard Forgotten Realms timeline back in 2004, but soon realized that there is little reason to actually call if Forgotten Realms and instead could be a completely new setting.
I seriously started working on my
Ancient Lands setting 3 years ago, and the basic concept is that of a mostly "regular" fantasy world, but set at a much earlier time period than usual. Elves and gnomes have just started to establish their great realms and cities, dragons and giants are plenty, and humans are one of several barbarian peoples. But what little civilization there is is still rather tiny and the vast majority of the world is still covered by unsettled and unexplored forests and wilderness, where the fey people rule. The cultural level is that of the late Bronze and early Iron Age, but more similiar to Europe, Southeast Asia, and America, than to the cultures of Greece and Mesopotamia. The constant struggle of survival manifests itself in two ways. Keeping the monsters and other dangers of the wilderness away from the small villages and few young city states, and exterminating any corrupting influence of dark sorcery that is festering in their very midst. Two tasks that call for local heroes who protect their people with both courage and cunning. But vigilance is not always enough and there are countless of wonderous places hidden in the wilderness, that hold magical secrets that can bring both wealth and prosperity, but also terrible evil.
The setting covers the eastern coast of a large continent, which is an area about as large and varied as western Europe, the american East Coast, or the Chinese Sea. Just a relatively small portion of the world, but still a massive area too large for any single person ever to explore. Next to the world of mortals, there is also the Spiritworld, a place that is very similar in many respects, but also home to incredible forces of nature and ancient beings of imense power. Maintaining the peace between the world of mortals and the Spiritworld is of great importance, and every village has its own shamans who oversee the relations with the spirits, which makes them among the highest standing people in society. The spiritworld does not only mirror the world of the humanoid races, but also extends deep into the world below the ground. The Underworld is even more strange and dangerous than the mountains and forests of the Spiritworld and inhabited by creatures of alien minds that defy descriptions by mortals. While most people prefer to never think about these things, there are also those who consider the spirits of the underworld to be even more ancient and powerful than the spirits of the surface world, and attempt to seek them out to worship them as their true gods.
Even more alien and unknown is the Void, the infinite outer dark far beyond the stars. It's a realm without time, where even distance is a concept without meaning. But even in such a hostile place, there are still spirits known to mortals as demons. The demons have no physical form and rarely even take notice of the world of mortals, but occasionally some develop an interest into the realm of physical beings and attempt to enter it by possessing the bodies of both the living and the dead. Not all demons are evil, but all of them are careless of their unnatural influence their very presence in the material world has on those around them, and demonic corruption leaves a blight upon the land and can transform both people and animals into horrific abominations over time.
The history of the mortal races begins only about 4000 years ago, when the fey races of the shie and naga began to abandon their grand palaces and citadels they had build in the mortal world and returned to join their brethren in the spiritworld. As they disappeared, they left behind many of their enslaved servants, whom they had captured from the primitive savage people that lived in the hills and jungles. Some retained the skills they had been tought by their masters and rejoined their people to share the knowledge of farming, metalworking, and magic. Over the following millennia, the lizardfolk and the elves became the most successful among the humanoid races, but in the mountains and hills the gnomes and the kaas beastmen created their own societies, and some human clans spread throughout the great plains to the west, in the heart of the continent. The people of the Ancient Lands were only few, but fought fiercely over the best spots to grow grain and raise animals. But some 500 years ago, the methods of farming had become advanced enough that most clans chose to cultivate the land they already had rather than fighting others for their fields and pastures. And they also produced enough to not only feed themselves, but also to trade. The most valuable good were those from the places most far away, especially from the lands beyond the great plains in the west, which elven traders aquired from human nomads. Controling the overland trade routes was the most effective way to wealth and power and fierce wars started anew. But soon there were not enough warriors to both defend the lands at home and protect the caravans on their month long treks. So the elven merchant lords began to hire mercenaries from the human nomads. As these proved to be very effective, they were also used to assist the armies in the elven lands along the coast, which over the next two centuries led to a large scale migration of human nomads settling in the river valeys of the Ancient Lands. In the elven city states these humans are still considered savages by many, not better than the kaas or the wild lizardfolks of the outer islands, but they still have become the fifth major race to inhabit the region. While many of the human clans are still vasalls to elven lords, they have established many small realms of their own.
