A Short History of Erebu

Written by Turadin Truesail, chief historian to the monarchs of Bal Anra

What follows is a short view of the planet’s history, particularly the northwestern landmass known as Erebu. This manuscript tries to explain long-term racial and geographical migrations. Much of this account derives from ancient beliefs and speculations rather than fact. However, ancient ruins and relics justify some of the findings.

[Futurist’s note: Many regard this narrative to be pure fiction, naught but a load of fireside tales, but researchers have discarded the more far-fetched parts of the document. We have transcribed modern date notations and race names in brackets or italics for ancient ones.]

Contents

A Short History of Erebu

Part I: From the Beginning to the First Cataclysm

Part II: Migrations and the Second Cataclysm

Part III: Recent History and the Third Cataclysm

Part I: From the Beginning to the First Cataclysm

Around two million years ago (MYA), goblins [Homo habilis] and hobgoblins [Homo rudolfensis], small-brained savages for the most part, are the dominant races. They occupy much of Bezwe [what is now Africa]. Also in existence are a number of older races, some of which are not humanoid. Although practically wiped out many ages earlier [c. 65 MYA], dragons and other reptilian beasts still roam parts of the planet. Around 1.6 MYA, the last great ice age [Pleistocene] begins, during which glaciers advance and retreat over much of the planet as many as 20 times until finally receding in the modern era.

Over one million years ago, gnomes [Homo ergaster] are the dominant species on the planet. They share it with larger, fiercer and less-intelligent races best described as ogrish or troll-like savages [Paranthropus robustus and boisei]. The ogres and trolls tend to prey on the gnomes, driving some of them underground or to distant continents, becoming “deep gnomes” [Homo erectus]. Some of these eventually attain legendary status, such as Vamana in Vendhya [India].

Sometime after this [c. 700,000 years before the current era (BCE)], taller humanoids begin to arise: the albar [Homo heidelbergensis]. An off-world race (cath-sidhe) visits the planet during this time. They transplant a large part of the albar to their alien forested home world, Sidhe. Around 600,000 BCE, dvergar or dwarves [Homo neanderthalensis] arise. Around 350,000 BCE, bugbears [Homo naledi] arise in Bezwe, eventually evolving into orcs [Homo denisova] in Erebu and beyond. These new races drive the gnomes further afield and underground, though they also interbreed with them. The albar have all but died out on earth, but the cath-sidhe have transplanted some from Sidhe to a neighboring world, Asgard. By 200,000 BCE, dwarves become the dominant race in much of the old world [Africa, Asia and Europe]. A colony of albar leaves Sidhe to settle yet another planet, which they name Vanaheim.

Around 150,000 BCE, the descendants of the albar start to return to earth. Their alien host world, having enjoyed a favorable climate and an enlightened civilization for many millennia, is slowly dying from radical climate change and geological upheaval. The first migration is that of the drow (svartalvar), who have lived underground on Sidhe for hundreds of thousands of years, being resentful of their alien masters and kindred elves who are friendly with the cath-sidhe. Being intolerant of sunlight, the dark elves quickly go underground on earth, displacing and coexisting with the deep gnomes.

By 120,000 BCE, light elves (ljosalvar) return to earth from Sidhe, the atmosphere of which is becoming unbreathable. They settle mainly in Murata, a heavily forested continent [in what is now the Pacific]. A dark elf contingent colonizes Zhibalba, an underground part of the same continent. The elves bring with them an advanced technology (some would call magic) that affects climate and spatial relations in some areas. Rumors of portals to other realms begin to arise. Necromancers begin to practice dark arts in their attempts to achieve immortality, but they cause only diseases resulting in vampires (draugar) and wights (vaettir). Around this time, the last glaciation in the great ice age begins.

Humans [Homo sapiens] arise about 300,000 BCE in Bezwe. Over the next several ages, they begin to displace dwarves in the old world and coexist with elves in Murata. Other alien races begin to visit earth, including the risar [nephilim] from Niphel [this may be both a “Planet X” and a region on earth named for it] and the nommos, amphibious beings from the great star [Sirius] who begin to influence culture in Pont [Asia Minor] and Bezwe. By 75,000 BCE, the planet Sidhe is a barren wasteland. The last survivors of the planet, cath-sidhe and aes-sidhe (albar who became the most enlightened) flee to earth, scattered in sparse outposts around Erebu and the Western Sea [Atlantic]. Although orcs have become a fringe race for the most part, preying upon humans and dwarves, half-orcs first begin to arise, as do half-dwarves, dwarf-orcs, and other crossbreeds.

Around 60,000 BCE a massive apocalypse obliterates the continent of Murata [Zhibalba] and leaves little of its technology behind, or its cryptic, dark religion and magical rites. The survivors flee to Buroga [Australia], Suvarga [Southeast Asia] and the western fringes of Zochitla [the American continents], seeking refuge underground from the destruction that continues to devastate the Muratan [Pacific] Rim. Some few Muratans survive on islands and preserve some of the Muratan culture.

During the next ten thousand years, great civilizations rise and fall, leaving behind only mysterious ruins and legends of catastrophic destruction.

Part II: Migrations and the Second Cataclysm

By 50,000 BCE, humans and other races have driven descendants of the risar out of Pont. These giants (jötnar) flee to the remote glacial mountainous regions of the world, which they name Jötunheim (also another word for their home world). Surviving Muratans in Suvarga discover a diminutive race called ebugogo or “halflings” [Homo floresiensis] due to their height in relation to humans. Aesir and vanir (offshoots of the albar and sidhe) arrive in the steppes north of Pont and east of Erebu. They move westward, calling their newfound home Midgaard, the “midworld” realm. Some humans and elves begin to worship them, observing their ability to travel between worlds using portals, one of which seems like a rainbow bridge (Bifrost). The aesir teach some of their secrets to humans, who take on heroic traits, making them the first einherjar.

By 45,000 BCE, some of the survivors of Murata have crossed the Zochitlan [Central American] isthmus and subjugated the natives on a continent in the Western Sea. Temples (and institutions even more sinister) spring up within years. Thus, Atalan [Atlantis] is born, having within it the seeds for its own destruction some 25,000 years later. These events affect Erebu only indirectly, by sending waves of various invaders eastward into it.

By 40,000 BCE, Atalani [Atlanteans] have immigrated to Erebu in the fertile regions of the west [what is now Iberia and southern France], calling the realms Bal Ascua (“kingdom of the sea”) in the west and Bal Anra (“kingdom of the sun”) in the east. Separating these is Piruñea [the Pyrenees], a glacial mountainous region populated mainly by dwarves. Another dwarven realm called Kalpea lies on the southern coast. The Forest Isbara lies to the southwest [much of what is now Portugal], populated mainly by elves. Atalan itself holds a stronghold in the south called Gador. They consider people living to the north and south to be largely barbarians and savages, unaware of the influence of the aesir and nommos. Half-elves first begin to arise [Cro-Magnons].

In 37,000 BCE, a minor cataclysm brought on by geology and dark magic cripples Atalan, but it rebuilds. The “Sons of Woden” (worshippers of the aesir) occupy much of Central Erebu, establishing a capital first called Midgaard, a name that later becomes associated with the realm of men in general. A king is crowned and a calendar established.

Later the capital is renamed Tharsbad after the founding chief, Thar. The Sons of Woden discover jötnar to the north [Scandinavian icecap], a region called Niphel (or Niflheim). Jötnar also inhabit mountains in the south [the proto-Alps], wherein colonies of dwarves and other races also live. Elves occupy many of the central forests, with dark elves and gnomes living in caverns far below. A colony of halflings lives to the northwest, beyond which is an untamed wilderness [including present day Britain and Ireland, joined to the mainland], in which the sidhe and jötnar wage war. Muspel (or Muspelheim) is a barren island of fire and ice to the northwest [Iceland].

Around 36,000 BCE, another minor cataclysm destroys part of an outpost to the east of Tharsbad, called Bezant. The drow arise briefly and sack Bezant from their underground city (Svartalfheim). Even deadlier creatures of the drow (such as the beholders of the underworld Avernus) may also have played a role in the destruction. The survivors of Bezant flee into the southeast deserts, where they establish the sultanates of Taz Bezant (New Bezant) and Ugrit. The last heir to the throne of Midgaard vanished soon after the sack of Bezant, and Tharsbad has been governed by an elected mayor ever since.

Part III: Recent History and the Third Cataclysm

Rumors of dragon sightings persisted in the north until around 35,500 BCE, but the village of Herot escaped any destruction. Indeed, it experienced a great expansion after the last sighting, and a prosperous district sprung up nearly overnight, known as New Herot. The Dragonlords of the Golden Citadel are a fierce yet noble order of knights. Allegedly, minotaurs exist far to the east, perhaps results of some ancient Muratan experiments involving humans and bulls. Seismic upheavals rend the world asunder—lands disappear, new ones appear and most of the population practically disappears. Many other changes have affected the world in the last 500 years, too numerous to chronicle here. It is now 35,000 years before the current era, or the year 1293 AK (after the first king of Midgaard). The few survivors of previous eras search for the Black Spire or Dark Tower—a mythical monument or realm never discovered but said to exist throughout the ages. Thus, a new history begins…