Decade of Storms!

[Crothian]

The following is four different versions of the same event as told by different races. I try to have give each a little twist on the thread that reflects the writer.

Decade of Storms as told by a Storm Mage

About 6,000 years ago a group of mages known to us as the coven of storms attempted to create a magical barrier around their island. They lived on a large island off the land of the frozen forest. The natives of the forest kept away because of the great natural storms that would contumely roll in. They used magic that they had come up with to control the weather around their island and to keep all but the best weather away so that they could do their work in peace. The island was kept storm free, but the area around it was not. This group of humans, elves, and minataurs spent over a month constantly casting powerful weather control spells. At the end of that time a great storm assaulted their island, but it was never able to approach within a mile of it. For ten years their island was surrounded by these storms, but none could enter. They went on with their magical experiments assuming their magical barrier was a success. At the end of the ten years the storms finally died down. That same day a great light appeared in the sky. The storm mages felt compelled to go to the center of the island where they stood in awe. From the great light a man came down and floated some 50 feet above the island.
“Fools!” he exclaimed, ”while you where so busy protecting your little island from nature, did you not realize that effects to the rest of the world! For ten years you have been protected while countless hurricanes, tornadoes, floods, and earthquakes besieged the rest of the planet. Millions of lives have been lost to your short sidedness!”
The mages quickly used their abilities to magically see the rest of the world and they saw destruction everywhere. All over the world two out of every five creatures had died. No civilization was untouched and many had been wiped out completely. After they realized what they had done and learn what the full extent of their mistake was the strange mage cast a spell.
That day, much farther to the south, the elves saw a great, blinding light from the north. They saw it as a sign that the decade of storms was over. Later that year all the maps of the north were redrawn as an island had completely disappeared and now there is just a very deep hole in the ocean.

A Thomas Underhaven, who claims to be the last descendent of the Storm Mages, wrote that. While there is no proof either way of him being related to any of the original Storm Mages, there is no doubt, at least in this historians mind, that Thomas is a Storm Mage. While Storm Mages are not totally unknown, he is the first one that I know of that has publicly admitted to being one. Storm Mages have always had a reputation of being unpredictable and dangerous. Few alive today know about the Decade of Storms, but the Storm Mages haven’t had the best record since then. An important note is that this is the only version of the reason for the Decade of Storms that blames Storm Mages. I’ve read many versions that blame the gods, with the reasoning behind those being that the gods took a hand in defeating the Shadowking in a way that no mortal was aware. The dwarves, who held a lot of distrust for the elves at the time, blame the elves even to this day. I did have a chance to interview Thomas Underhaven before he left. I wish a few of my colleagues could have been there. I would like to point out that Mr. Underhaven, in the interview, described in more detail the stranger who came to the island. Mr. Underhaven said, ”The Stranger appeared in a light that could not be looked at. The light radiated not just from him, but from the earth, the sky, the trees, and even from the mages. The Stranger was dressed in sailor’s clothes, but he also welded a staff. The staff was four feet long and 2 inches thick. On the top of the staff was a gem shaped like a large drop of water. The stranger cast the spell without any arm movements, his voice was the instrument of magic.” Now, I could not get a reasonable answer as to how he knew to this detail the look of the staff and of the spell. As a Historian I must admit that while the facts and proof are ultimately what determines the truth about past events, until the whole picture is known I also use a good bit of gut feeling. Not very professional, as my colleagues point out without delay, but I trust my gut and more often then not, it has been right. So, even though the facts are few and highly questionable, I believed him.

Historian Brandon Markius

 

[Crothian]

Decade of Storms as written by the Elves

During the years of rebuilding after the fall of the Stabklin Confederacy, things were once again looking good. The Shadowking hadn’t made a major move in over a thousand years, the humans seemed to be understanding that they weren’t the only ones the gods cared about, and the Dwarves had retreated back into their mountains where they belonged. The Sylvian (Wild Elves) had retreated from their borders to deep within their woods and the Hysunian (High Elves) had gone back to their lands in the south. I must admit that even I thought that peace had finally been won. The orcs were quieted and the giants to the north had been stopped. A few cults of the Shadowking had been destroyed, but it wasn’t anything major. The gods themselves seemed to get along as the first Festival of Adorth in 2,000 years was held.
Usually I’ve been wrong the other way. I’m a bit cynical according to my colleagues, course I say I’m a realist. So, I usually expect trouble and problems, and am proven wrong by nothing bad happening. So, after a time of peace I finally admit that maybe, just maybe, the world would be set back like it had been. The following week it began to rain. And then it stopped, over ten years later.
Thinking back on it, it was weird. It wasn’t like a 10-year hurricane or a decade of the worst storms either. Don’t get me wrong, there was a hurricane that stretched across our entire island and we were hit with tornadoes during that, but some days it was just light drizzle. Well, after a month of rain we knew something was wrong. Weather patterns were all out of whack and as we communicated with others across the world, we discovered that they, too, were suffering from the unending weather. For the next decade we looked into the problem. The storms seemed to be magical in nature, but due to a combination of the difficulties the weather presented and the unknown magical properties of the weather, we were never able to fully explain what happened. During that decade we were more pressed with attempting to save lives. Many areas were hit with massive flooding that the populace was unable to deal with. It is my belief that only our brothers in the seas were the only civilization total untouched by this. In fact talking to them afterwards, they had no knowledge of what had happened.
Some belief that it was a one in a billion billions chance line up of celestial objects and magical lines. Others, believe that a secret war between the gods that happened in realms unknown to mortals. It could have been some odd attempt by the Shadowking, or from some other sect like the Cult of Isis, the Witches of Shalott, or even the Nature Demons of the Portmore Forest. One of the most compelling facts that makes people believe that these storms where intentional was that at the end of the decade, when the storms had finally stopped, a great light appeared to the north. Many explorations have been sent to attempt to track down this mysterious light but no one has yet to offer any proof of what it was. Personally, though, I think after studying the weather patterns of the past thousand years, that big storms happen every hundred years or so. That is a fact. So, is it that hard to believe that perhaps every million years some huge storm could happen? I don’t think it is, and that is the theory I’m currently working on.

Glycius Drector, Sage of Weather

 

[Crothian]

The Decade of Storms as told by the Dwarves

In the years following the Stabklin Confederacy, when the Days of the Elves was slowly coming to an end and the world was finally realizing that the “great” elves were really not that great, another great doom was initiated. Now, I feel that this was a weapon disposed of by the elves because they were losing ground. A weapon that got out of hand and that hurt them as well. However, if you look at the facts, in every way it was designed to hurt the Dwarven Nations more then any other nation.
The world suffered from a ten-year storm. Not one day in ten years was spared from rain. It did not take long for my people to realize it was magical, but my people have a history of not being effective against spells, especially spells of this magnitude. In fact, as a race we are the least capable of dealing with such a problem. That is the first bit of proof that this was aimed at the dwarves. Secondly, were does the water finally run? It runs down, deep down. It flooded our caverns and trapped full cities in air bubbles until the mountains themselves where finally eroded away and collapsed upon themselves! At the end of the Decade of Floods, three of the twenty-five dwarven nations had been totally wiped out. All the others lost up to sixty percent of their populations. No other nation or group of nations suffered as badly.
The storms were magical. No one doubts that, for all nations with the ability to detect magical effects saw it as such. Magical storms do not happen on there own. Even the self proclaimed “Masters of Magic”, those O so intellectual elves admit to this. So, that brings up the question as to who did this horrific thing? Well, to do something on this scale, to effect the whole world for ten years, there are few, so very few, creatures that can do this. Some claim the gods are responsible. But we worship the gods as much if not so much more, then the others. The gods have never had reason to punish us like they have to so many other races. No, the gods are not responsible for this. So, who amongst the mortal creatures would do such a thing? Who has the power and would not even blink twice at the destruction they caused the other races to get back against their hated enemy? Only on race has the power to do such a thing, the self proclaimed “Masters of Magic”. And even when asked, they admit that if that had reason they could have done this. Had reason? Who has a greater reason? The elves and dwarves have been at each other’s throats since the beginning of time.
It is this dwarves opinion that we need to gather our strengths and do a preemptive attack, before they attack us again. Their forces are spread thin, atoning for their sins. They are all over the world helping out all the others that got hurt in their attack. You will of course take notice that no elf has yet to offer us any help. We have been left to ourselves to get through this. We, who have suffered the most, must once again rely upon ourselves to get through this.

Graken Flort, General of the Fort-Second Infantry Army



The war that General Flort purposed did happen, but not to the extent he wanted. For the next thousand years there was a long series of border clashes between the two races and hostilities were the highest in ages. No proof was ever brought forth that would prove or disprove the elves involvement in the Decade of Floods. Even 6,000 years later, I can not fully blame or trust the elves because of this.

Vraten Flort, Historian

 

[Crothian]

The Decade of Storms as told by the Humans

Humans have been on this world for a great amount of time. Perhaps not as long as the Elves or the Dwarves, but then it’s expected that the gods would make some mistakes before they got it right. Ever since the beginning of human existence, we have always held all gods in the highest esteem. Many races, like the Dwarves, seem to favor one god over the other. Other races, like the elves, seem to hold their own importance over the importance of the gods. With every crusade and jihad, humans have always been there to fight for their beliefs. And, as it always has been, there are humans fighting against these beliefs. Humans have always made it a point to defend all even to the point where we do not agree with each other. But since the other races were around first, they had an advantage. Sure, the gods blessed us with a shorter life span, and with that the will to do things now and not in a century. The best gift the gods ever gave anyone, they gave to humans. That is the ability to act and to not just react. Throughout history the humans do things, fight, conquer, and expand. The other races have always reacted to our movements. But, the other races had an advantage, until the great cleansing.
As the tales go, there was a ten-year storm that effected the world. All races suffered as the gods cleaned up the mess that the other races had been making. A great many died in that storm, but after that came the rebuilding. After the storm we were all on an equal ground, the humans, elves, dwarves, and orcs. The humans, though, with our ability to act and not just react to the storm, we were able to finally make a civilization that was worthy of us. While we built and expanded, the dwarves and elves fought. This, again, was an act of the gods. They hindered the abilities of the older races while we triumphed in the gods’ honor. And for the past sixty thousand years, humans have been a power upon the world and the gods have thanked us for it with every new generation.

Marc Karl, Historian of Calador

 

[Death_Jester]

Well done.

This is very good. I am sure that the campaign world is just as rich and inolved as this bit of history is.

I like the Dwarven conspiricy theoriest and the whole paranoia about the elves being the bad guys. That is a nice touch.


One last thing and then I have to go Marc Karl? you mean to telll me that Karl Marx is a history scholar in your world? Hahahaha that rocks.

 

[Crothian]

Re: Well done.

This is very good. I am sure that the campaign world is just as rich and inolved as this bit of history is.

I like the Dwarven conspiricy theoriest and the whole paranoia about the elves being the bad guys. That is a nice touch.


One last thing and then I have to go Marc Karl? you mean to telll me that Karl Marx is a history scholar in your world? Hahahaha that rocks.

First, thanks foer the kind words. The history is pretty good. We've played 4 campaings in this world so far (2 in second and 2 in third). We are taking a break from this world, so I'm trying to slowly gather together the notes and get orginized.

The human country I base the campaign in is going pro human. THe other races have taken some big hits in the past 100 years (huge war between good and evil that few humans involved themselves in). You can see this thread for some things going on with th Human country.

http://www.enworld.org/messageboards/showthread.php?s=&postid=126925#post126925

One of the things that is very hard, but I feel I need to do is give multiple sides to the same story. So, I create events in history like this one and try to figure out what really happened, and what all the races would interpret the event as from their unique point of view.