Need a little help with timeline/history

[War Cry]

After several years of no gaming, I have suddenly found myself with a potential group. Granted, it's only 2-3 players, but it has prompted me to finish work on a campaign I've been working on periodically. Right now, my major hurdle is the timeline and history of the region in which the game will take place. Some feedback and input would be greatly appreciated. The person that usually helps me proof read and fix inconsistencies really, really wants to play this time and while I trust him, I'd like to surprise him as much as the other players with the development of the story arc.

 

TIME LINE/HISTORY OF REGION

 

1. Humans push into orc lands. The orc people steadily lose territory

2. Orc Prophet rises in popularity. Shares new rituals and visions of a "promised land" with his people

3. Mass migration of orcs to the south

4. orcs tribes move into and settle on the plains

5. orc tribes continue to spread and settle south and west.

6. Orcs and humans of region make contact. human city states are very few and centered along rivers and near mountains

*occasional skirmish and war between the two. Humans see no real threat and orcs consider

the small fights necessary and good*

7. Human/orc relations take a severe turn. Humans prey on orcs for slave labor

8. The last of the Hungry Talon tribe of orcs dissapears into slaverey.

9. The Twelve Eagle tribe is caught unaware wintering in its traditional grounds. The massacre all but

destroys the tribe.

10. A second prophet rises up among the orcs.

11. The holy man preaches unification and war

12. The orc tribes gather and unite under one banner

13. Open warfare begins between humans and orcs. The open countryside belongs to the tribes

14. City #1 far to the north is attacked and destroyed

15. Orcs rampage up and down the river valleys and through the foothills and mountains. Humans

flee south

16. City #2 in the south is attacked and destroyed. Orcs now control the entire plains and the lands

west of the Little Pig River

17. Orc horde pushes east. Meet little resistance as most humans have fled further east and south.

18. City # 3 in the south east is attacked and destroyed. Remnants of humans flee the land and leave

the orcs the sole people in control of the entire region

19. Orcs face no outside threats. Tribes grow and prosper as each claims/is given territory within the

conquered lands. Warfare resumes its traditional role of relatively bloodless combat between clans and tribes.

20. Dwarf/Elf explorers sail upriver and land at ruins of city #3. Orcs stay hidden but watch.

Explorers winter there but leave in spring.

21. 2nd expedition. larger and better provisioned. use ruins of city#3 as base camp and explore west and north along rivers. discover deposits of wraith stone. 1st contact with orcs

22. Some members of expedition stay while others return home to get more people and supplies

23. 3rd and largest expedition reaches land. No signs of members of second expedition. settlement established.

24. Humans have observed river traffic. some return north to reclaim ancestral lands.

25. uneasy peace between various races and factions. most of displaced humans return and establish rule of city. outsiders continue to settle in city and surrounding lands

25. exploition of wraithstone deposits. trade flourishes. settlers continue to swell the population

26. conflicts between orcs and new peoples escalate.

27. a third prophet arises among the orc nations.

28. the present

 

* minor game info -

a) - only one of the ruined cities and the surrounding land have been re-populated. The other ruins are rumored to be cursed.

- the humans need the other races that have settled here. do not have the numbers or strength for full warfare if orcs go on the warpath, but do outnumber the other races within their lands.

c) - wraithstone is very valuable. known supplies in old world are mostly exhausted.

d) - little to no unity among orcs currently. some alliances may exist, but for the most part, its each tribe for itself.

e) - the above timeline and history is flawed. There is a 4th "lost" city. the 1st city destroyed is this city. The last city attributed to being destroyed was all but abandoned when the orcs reached it. No changes need to be made to the timeline however. it is simply a matter of mis-identification of city states.

f) - orcs are not the real threat. I have other, much more subtle and powerful baddies planned.

 

The big concern I have is the state of the ruins. They are mostly stone structures, but as I have loosely modeled orcs after North American Plains Indians for this game, the weapons and magic they possess will not be able to do significant damage to structures. Setting fire to the city will resolve much of this. My vision is a city that is relatively intact (such as key structures and larger buildings, much of the wall and towers) but also bears the appearance of disrepair and ruin in parts (such as haphazard stonework to repair holes in the wall or towers topped with log/wooden parapets). Also will have new construction of dwarve and elven design. How much time would reasonably pass between the fall of the city and re-settlement to have it in this condition?

I imagine a few centuries would do, but I'd like to keep the timeframe to approx 300-700 yrs (500 ideal, but i dont know if that is a realistic or feasible number)

Issue number 2 - distance between "old" and "new" world. Needs to be close enough that trade, though dangerous, is profitable. Same for new people to travel and settle. However, it needs to be a great enough distance that an invasion by a foreign power will be very, very, difficult. Politics in the world can take care of the second problem for the most part I think, but I like having a decent backup reason in case things "back home" resolve themselves.

 

Sorry for the long post. Hope it wasnt too much trouble to sort through.

[Lord Liaden]

Re: Need a little help with timeline/history

 

A couple of points:

 

"7. Human/orc relations take a severe turn. Humans prey on orcs for slave labor." This is a pretty major change from the status quo, which begs for explanation. Could the "more subtle and powerful baddies" have had something to do with it?

 

"23. 3rd and largest expedition reaches land. No signs of members of second expedition. settlement established." Similar questions re unexplained disappearance of second expedition.

 

Re the condition of the cities, could the holy men (priests, shamans, wizards, whatever) of the orcs possess magic that affects the land and earth? They might normally use it to hollow out caves to live in, or raise earthworks like those of the pre-Columbian mound-builder cultures; but such magics might also be effective at toppling stone structures, allowing the orcs to breach the cities' walls and towers. That would provide you with mostly intact cities having the physical features you describe, without too much time having passed.

[War Cry]

Re: Need a little help with timeline/history

 

as to #7...one of them most definitely did.

 

for #23... again, yup.

 

city conditions...crap. what a pointless topic I posted. Such an obvious answer and i overlooked it.

 

Thanks for the reply. I must be getting forgetful in my olf age.

[Asperion]

Re: Need a little help with timeline/history

 

Issue number 2 - distance between "old" and "new" world. Needs to be close enough that trade' date=' though dangerous, is profitable. Same for new people to travel and settle. However, it needs to be a great enough distance that an invasion by a foreign power will be very, very, difficult. Politics in the world can take care of the second problem for the most part I think, but I like having a decent backup reason in case things "back home" resolve themselves.[/quote']

 

To determine this distance we need to know how easy it is for someone to travel. If travel is as in most fantasy campaigns, then distance from Iraq to China would be sufficient. If there are special methods that allow more modern speeds for some reason then a gap the size of the Pacific Ocean would be more appropriate. To complicate this is natural terrain. Plains will make for easy travel while waterways and mountains will complicate or even require special methods of travel. If you want to have a smaller distance, (say they are connected) then you could go with some alternate problem (say magic field or dimensional).

[Cancer]

Re: Need a little help with timeline/history

 

Issue number 2 - distance between "old" and "new" world. Needs to be close enough that trade' date=' though dangerous, is profitable. Same for new people to travel and settle. However, it needs to be a great enough distance that an invasion by a foreign power will be very, very, difficult. Politics in the world can take care of the second problem for the most part I think, but I like having a decent backup reason in case things "back home" resolve themselves.[/quote']

 

To determine this distance we need to know how easy it is for someone to travel. If travel is as in most fantasy campaigns' date=' then distance from Iraq to China would be sufficient. If there are special methods that allow more modern speeds for some reason then a gap the size of the Pacific Ocean would be more appropriate. To complicate this is natural terrain. Plains will make for easy travel while waterways and mountains will complicate or even require special methods of travel. If you want to have a smaller distance, (say they are connected) then you could go with some alternate problem (say magic field or dimensional).[/quote']

 

I agree with Asperion here. You might approach this in a different way, in terms of time and hazard rather than raw distance. That has a dependence upon the naval technology (and magic) that you have in your world, of course.

 

For example, if your sea-going tech is galleys with low freeboard rather than two- (or more) masted sailing ships, then all you need is about a week's sailing distance (under optimal conditions) without a landfall, with that intervening waterway having adverse conditions most of the time (perhaps all the time, except when some supernatural power works to open that waterway for a long enough period?).

[War Cry]

Re: Need a little help with timeline/history

 

My thanks to both of you.

 

This is the approach I decided to apopt. Time increment for travel seems to be most appropiate as the game is taking place in the "new" world so to speak. If the other half of the world doesn't matter, I probably shouldn't be so pedantic about little details like that. Now to detail the starting city and some NPC's...