Building a Fantasy Timeline, Part One

 

Getting Started with the Kingdom of Nerath!

I have a project where I am building a timeline based on use D&D modules and adventures as the key events of the world's history. While these events serve as the major occurrences and happenings of their era, it helps to have a base timeline built for one's campaign, thus they know where to place these events.

The Kingdom of Nerath

In Fourth Edition, the world revolved around the idea that the last great kingdom to exist was Nerath. This was a human nation that expanded over most of the known world (however big we eventually decide that to be).

From it's founding to collapse, Nerath lasted around 500 years. Then, the D&D setting is supposed to take place “around 100 years” after Nerath fell. So, for the sake of simplicity, I will state that Nerath established the Common Year (CY) calendar with its founding. As such, we have a baseline timeline that looks something like this:

CY 0

The Kingdom of Nerath is founded, establishing the Common Year (CY) calendar.

~CY 500

Following the death of the King Elidyr of Nerath at the hands of the White Ruin, the Kingdom of Nerath falls into petty squabbling and disputes between is remaining noble houses and wealthy merchant guilds. Eventually the kingdom completely dissolves.

CY 600

[Current year?]

...

Now to offset the current year placement of the calendar, since it would be odd to start things exactly 100 later, we fudge the numbers with some fun facts. The first Fourth Edition D&D module (Keep on the Shadowfell) was released on May, 2008. That's around 100 years after the fall of Nerath, so lets use that...

CY 608

Fifth Moon: The death priest Kalarel begins his machinations to open a portal to the Shadowfell beneath the ruins of Keegan Keep.

[The events of “Keep on the Shadowfell” begin]

...

Now that we've established a pseudo-link between the fantasy world calendar and the real world calendar, we can use that to place some fun events. For example, I am a big fan of Neverwinter, especially with all the stuff they did with the location in 4e and onwards, following the eruption of Mount Hotenow and eventual reconstruction by Lord Neverember (16 years after the eruption).

When 4e started, it mentioned that Mount Hotenow erupted “about 30 years ago.” Huh, you know what other famous volcanic eruption happened around that same time? The May 18, 1980 eruption of Mount St. Helens! So, using our method, let's add that to the timeline...

CY 580

Fifth Moon 18: Mount Hotenow erupts, as the primordial Maegara is awoken. Neverwinter is devastated, prompting a mass exodus of the city.

CY 596

Sensing opportunity in Neverwinter, Dagult Neverember hires workers to rebuild the city and mercenaries to help defend it from bandits and monsters. He establishes himself as “Lord Protector” of the city.

...

We can, of course, expand the “current year” of the timeline to be equal to our current year (2021, as of this writing), using this system. For those who don't like 4e material (try not to laugh here), they can expand to the release of Fifth Edition D&D, and it's first adventure: Hoard of the Dragon Queen: August 19, 2014. This gives us a final timeline set up that looks something like this...

CY 0

The Kingdom of Nerath is founded, establishing the Common Year (CY) calendar.

~CY 500

Following the death of the King Elidyr of Nerath at the hands of the White Ruin, the Kingdom of Nerath falls into petty squabbling and disputes between is remaining noble houses and wealthy merchant guilds. Eventually the kingdom completely dissolves.

CY 580

Fifth Moon 18: Mount Hotenow erupts, as the primordial Maegara is awoken. Neverwinter is devastated, prompting a mass exodus of the city.

CY 596

Sensing opportunity in Neverwinter, Dagult Neverember hires workers to rebuild the city and mercenaries to help defend it from bandits and monsters. He establishes himself as “Lord Protector” of the city.

CY 608

Fifth Moon: The death priest Kalarel begins his machinations to open a portal to the Shadowfell beneath the ruins of Keegan Keep.

[The events of “Keep on the Shadowfell” begin]

CY 614

Eighth Moon 19: The Cult of the Dragon assaults the town of Greenest, intending to sack the town for its treasures, in a massive campaign to bring the dragon queen Tiamat to the world.

[“Hoard of the Dragon Queen” campaign events begin here]

…

For this point on, adding events to the timeline is simply based on the historical information presented in the individual modules. Let's take a look at “Keep on the Shadowfell” as an example. We have several historical events to look at based on its background setting. Each of these events should be placed in the timeline based on the placement of the adventure module's “current year,” not the campaign's. So, each historical event for Keep on the Shadowfell is placed using the year 608 as a timeline placeholder.

200 years ago...

CY 408

A cult of Orcus purposefully creates a gap connecting one of Orcus' unholy Shadowfell sites to the world. Undead flood through the gap. The empire of Nerath dispatches legions to destroy the undead and seal the opening. A keep is then build to watch over the location and contain the threat.

??

Decades after the building of the Keep, the town of Winterhaven is founded. [[The timeline placement of this event is not clearly defined enough to provide a specific date. The module merely states the town being created “decades later.” As such, I place it after the significant event on the timeline with a “??” notation. This notation can be better defined later, as the timeline grows closer to being finalized.]]

80 years ago...

CY 528

Driven insane by evil emanations from the Shadowfell portal beneath the Keep, Sir Keegan begins to systematically slaughter every resident of the keep, starting with his wife and children. Unable to best the mighty knight, the surviving garrison mounts a united defense and drives Sir Keegan into the lower catacombs of the Keep, sealing him into a room, where the insane man finally perishes. Fearing others will be driven mad, Keegan's Keep is abandoned, and its secret charge is forgotten.

3 years ago...

CY 605

The death priest Kalarel discovers the truth of the portal beneath Keegan's Keep, after finding records dating back to the time of the original opening of the rift. He begins searching for a ritual the he can use to shatter the seal on the portal and once again open the rift.

Which brings us to the start of our growing timeline looking like THIS...

CY 0

The Kingdom of Nerath is founded, establishing the Common Year (CY) calendar.

CY 408

A cult of Orcus purposefully creates a gap connecting one of Orcus' unholy Shadowfell sites to the world. Undead flood through the gap. The empire of Nerath dispatches legions to destroy the undead and seal the opening. A keep is then build to watch over the location and contain the threat.

??

Decades after the building of the Keep, the town of Winterhaven is founded.

~CY 500

Following the death of the King Elidyr of Nerath at the hands of the White Ruin, the Kingdom of Nerath falls into petty squabbling and disputes between is remaining noble houses and wealthy merchant guilds. Eventually the kingdom completely dissolves.

CY 528

Driven insane by evil emanations from the Shadowfell portal beneath the Keep, Sir Keegan begins to systematically slaughter every resident of the keep, starting with his wife and children. Unable to best the mighty knight, the surviving garrison mounts a united defense and drives Sir Keegan into the lower catacombs of the Keep, sealing him into a room, where the insane man finally perishes. Fearing others will be driven mad, Keegan's Keep is abandoned, and its secret charge is forgotten.

CY 580

Fifth Moon 18: Mount Hotenow erupts, as the primordial Maegara is awoken. Neverwinter is devastated, prompting a mass exodus of the city.

CY 596

Sensing opportunity in Neverwinter, Dagult Neverember hires workers to rebuild the city and mercenaries to help defend it from bandits and monsters. He establishes himself as “Lord Protector” of the city.

CY 605

The death priest Kalarel discovers the truth of the portal beneath Keegan's Keep, after finding records dating back to the time of the original opening of the rift. He begins searching for a ritual the he can use to shatter the seal on the portal and once again open the rift.

CY 608

Fifth Moon: The death priest Kalarel begins his machinations to open a portal to the Shadowfell beneath the ruins of Keegan's Keep.

[The events of “Keep on the Shadowfell” begin]

CY 614

Eighth Moon 19: The Cult of the Dragon assaults the town of Greenest, intending to sack the town for its treasures, in a massive campaign to bring the dragon queen Tiamat to the world.

[“Hoard of the Dragon Queen” campaign events begin here]

…

Now that you get the idea of how to build the timeline using this concept, we can add adventure modules individually and grow our timeline from here.