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History

2,500 years ago: Nearly myth

We breggles braved the Mountain Passes of the Myrdoom and found the great forest of Dolmenwood laid out before us. The woods slumbered in the deep rime of the Cold Prince, and we submitted to him.

–The Hlerrllandr, Book 1

Long ago did we wake from the body of the Sleeper Dvelnir, and the deeps beneath the Myrdoom were ours to carve. Today we mark that day, our first day.

–The Secret History of the Dwarrows

1,800 years ago: The first humans in Dolmenwood

Otanslip [meaning Isurholm] was named by the first kings who arrived four centuries past from Ruislip. But we, the humble folk, were the first to enter Dolmenwood itself, woodcutters and foragers were our forebears and we built small hamlets, long before the [Karselanders] landed and took our homes and our sons. The Wood Gods themselves granted us leave. The Karselanders would ask for none.

–Accounts of the Exiles by P. K. Goodwaithe, an interview with an Otani human villager regarding the first humans to enter Dolmenwood

1,500 years ago: The breggles rise

When the frost withdrew, we turned and served the Drune, for they wielded such great magic, taken from the very forest itself. But Ancestor Hraigl wrested that power from the Drune, and in dying, laid the foundations for our great noble longhorn houses and our rule over the High Wold.

–The Hlerrlandr, Book 3

1,400 years ago: An anchor point for the timeline

Argot defeats the Mineosi Empire in the Argoti-Mineosi War as recounted in The Annals of Argot

1,200 years ago: The Karselanders arrive

This was the beginning of the end, though we did not know it. That first battle on the shores would be the first of many. The Karselanders did not stop coming. They came with their ships, with their swords, and their ‘One True God’.

–Diary of an Unlikely Farmer’s Daughter by world traveler Gwen o’ the Glens, regarding the arrival of the Karselanders on Otanslip (later called Isurholm)

At this time, the Werriadi Empire spreads its influence across the Golden Gulf, including over Argot.

1,100 years ago (Year 1): The Founding of Brackenwold

In uniting our houses, we form the greatest kingdom Isurholm shall ever see.

–The Pact of Castle Brackenwold

This agreement, signed by the Karska lords and longhorn breggle lords, established the Kingdom of Brackenwold, one of many petty kingdoms the Karselanders created on Isurholm, but the only one that included breggles as well. In 100 years, this would be proven mostly accurate, as most of the southern kingdoms fell to the ever-encroaching Werriadi Empire. The Myrdoom, where most of the Otani were driven after the Karselanders’ arrival, was conquered as well, but Brackenwold and Dolmenwood was never invaded.

200s: Return of the Cold Prince

The Cold Prince returns to take back Dolmenwood, but is defeated by an alliance between the church, the kingdom of Brackenwold, and the mysterious Drune.

300s: The Werriadi retract

The Werriadi withdraw from their last foothold on Isurholm, the city of Luden. The settlement falls to ruin. The empire would decline over the next centuries, though today, a rump state remains in the Golden Gulf.

500s: Brackenwold a Duchy

The Kingdom of Gewisse, a Karska nation, consolidates power over all of Isurholm, incorporating Brackenwold as a duchy.

900s: The Sword Brothers’ crusade

Unspeakable things they did to us. Devils! All of them! In that abbey of theirs, that ill-gotten gold, they did strange things in those depths. None were to know. When the lords came and saw, they sealed it away and killed the last of them. Good riddance.

–Accounts of the Survivors of the Sword Brothers’ Last Crusade, as recorded by Saint Temerity

1,000s: The Aegerlaw

The Aegerlings [Attalanders] upon their dragon-ships would take our gold and people and animals, but they would return to their ships. I did not think what happened on Ruislip would happen here. But sure enough, one day, they did not leave.

–Accounts of the Northern Karska, interview with a Karska blacksmith living in the Aegerlaw

1089: Today

The year is 1089 in the reckoning of Dolmenwood.