History

This is the cumulative history of the plane. The timeline provides a bare-bones account of significant events throughout the years. Click on the links found within the timeline for more detailed accounts of events, and click on the "Main article" links under each age heading to learn more about that age.

Timeline
The history of the Prime Plane is divided into ages. An age is more than just a way of measuring time; an age is a way of defining events that change the course of the world. A change in age is a cosmic occurrence that many aberrant or divine entities feel. The ages are as follows:

The Age of Dragons (Dr), 0 - 8340 The Age of Dreaming (Dm), 0 - 524 The Age of Storms (St), 0 - 1520 The Age of the Wandering Sun (Ws), 0 - present (102)

Before the Age of Dragons
In the beginning, the Prime Plane was devoid of sentient life, save for the aboleths and primordials. It is not known from whence these beings came. The Fey Wild and Shadowfell existed as mirrored versions of the Prime Plane, though both populated by entities foreign and unrelated to the Prime Plane.

At some point, powerful gods (entities created by faith and fear) defeated the primordials (creatures born of flesh and bone). To celebrate their victory, the gods created mortal life, populating the Prime Plane with simple fauna.

Age of Dragons
Main article

0 DR
This is the earliest recorded history: Bahamat and Tihamat split and create all of dragonkind – the first sentient mortal creatures. The Quori arise from the dragons' dreams and nightmares.

3000 Dr
Remnants of the primordial’s armies (giants, cyclops, ogres, and elementals) settle on the Prime plane, establishing the Prisigoth Empire.

4500 Dr
The Prisigoth Empire expands throughout most of the world. After 1500 years of skirmishes and battles, the dragons join forces and instigate all-out war against the Prisigoths. Historians refer to this as the Dawn War.

5000 Dr
With the Prisigoth empire in ruin and their forces all but gone, the survivors scatter to the edges of the world. Their attempts to enter the Underdark are unsuccessful due to a large troglodyte presence.

6000 Dr
Illithids arrive on the plane, being pursued by their former slaves, the Gith. After 10 years of battling each other, the illithids escape into the Underdark with their last remaining elder brains. Illithids enter a state of stasis to await ideal hosts so that they may survive. They check the status of the plane every couple hundred years.

6100 Dr
Githyanki and githzerai split, leaving the Prime plane for the Astral Sea and Elemental Chaos respectively. As the githyanki leave, they form a treaty with the dragons, ensuring draconic support against the illithids in the future should war break out again.

8124 Dr
The Pantheon of Greater Gods is formed. The gods each choose a region of the world to populate with creatures created in their image.

8130 Dr
Orcs begin raiding elven settlements, and war breaks out between the two races. This establishes elven undying hatred towards orcs that remain unto this day.

8131 Dr
Corellon and Gruumsh fight. Corellon cuts out one of Gruumsh’s eyes and Gruumsh kills Corellon’s first born son.

8165 Dr
Giants begin attempting to enslave dwarves, and war breaks out between the two races. This establishes dwarven undying hatred towards giants that remains unto this day.

8208 Dr
Vecna becomes the first to reject the gift of death, and ascends to godhood. Nerull now enforces death upon those he sees fit to kill.

8220 Dr
Lolth, Corellon’s wife, attempts to usurp him. Civil war erupts between her followers and his. 10 years later in 8230 Dr, Corellon brands the drow with their black skin and white hair to expose their treachery to all. The drow retreat into the underdark led by Menzoberranzan the Kinless.

8225 Dr
The primordials begin to welcome the chaotic evil souls that have been freed from their mortal existence. They name these new beings demons, and some of the primordials take on the name of demon lords and harbour these demons in The Abyss.

8225 Dr
The Kingdom of Simon causes trolls to overrun the Moorlands.

8227 Dr
The Demon Prince Yeenoghu bestows his power upon hyenas, turning them into giant sentient hyenafolk he calls gnolls. Initially used as slaves in The Abyss, Yeenoghu eventually sends them out into the Prime Plane. As Yeenoghu’s power wanes centuries later, gnolls begin to lose their demonic heritage and size with each generation.

8228 Dr
The Demon Prince Resbitt is killed by his fellow Demon Princes. His remains are scattered across the Prime Plane. Wild creatures feast upon his remains and absorb the demonic taint. These creatures spread his curse, creating the first lycanthropes. Resbitt’s power was linked to the moon, and thus the curse is strongest when the moon is full. Offspring of lycanthropes are known shifters.

8233 Dr
A band of humans create the ideology of the Silver Flame, and establish themselves in the Silver Marshes and defenders of humanity. They pledge to protect people from the trolls, lycanthropes, and other monstrous creatures.

8250 Dr
Having wandered the Prime Plane for a century, the deity known as the Traveller creates changelings.

8333 Dr
The snake gods Zahir and Kyphon, enter into an argument about who can create a better serpentine species. Kyphon creates the medusa while Zahir creates the yuan-ti. These new creatures are created on a separate continent from the other creatures to make sure nothing interrupts the contest. The gods become too preoccupied with their new creatures to decide who the winner is. Kyphon, delighted with the results, creates lizardfolk as well.

Ilithids wake from their stasis for the seventh time. They see the dwarves have tunneled close to the ilithid colony and erected the city of Druu’giir. The Ilithids destroy the support beams that support the city and seize the survivors as slaves food. This marks the end of their hibernation and the resurrection of their empire. The dwarves that were captured later become duergar. The humans who were captured devolve into grimlocks.

8380 Dr
Orcs sac a temple of Demogorgon. The orcs become disfigured and fused to each other, pairs of them mimicking Demogorgon’s image. These new creatures are called “ettin’s,” the orcish word for giant, by the others orcs. In their anger, they throw Demogorgon’s idol into sea, resulting in the creation of the monstrous merrow.

Age of Dreaming
Main article

0 Dm
Aberrations appear on the Prime Plane from the Far Realm in great numbers; and gather in the Dreaming Lands. They drive out the Kalashtar and then began to spread across the world, destroying or perverting all life they find.

10 Dm
The Pantheon of greater gods seals the breach, preventing any more aberrations from reaching the Prime Plane. However, there are still thousands of aberrations on the Prime Plane.

40 Dm
Centaurs are driven to extinction by the aberrations.

212 Dm
The Pantheon of Greater Gods each select an avatar for their powers to lead their races in battle against the aberrations. Over the next 18 years, the avatars and their armies drive the aberrations back to the Dreaming Lands and contain them there. The leader of the aberration armies, the Lidless Eye, is sealed away; the aberrations lose their unity and begin to fight amongst themselves. Thousands of aberrations still exist outside the Dreaming Lands, though without organization.

266 Dm
The first harpy in created by _____.

465 Dm
Construction on the Moonbreaker is completed, created over the past 2 centuries by quori-controlled giants. It begins the pull Dal Quor closer to the Prime Plane. Over the next few decades,the proximity of Dal Quor to the Prime Plane causes plane-wide nightmares, some of which begin to take physical form.

488 Dm
The Moonbreaker is found and sabotaged. Dal Quor is pushed away, but the resulting forces cause everything within several miles of the Moonbreker to fall comatose indefinitely. The effects of Dal Quor cease, though the nightmares-made-real remain.

The Raven Queen rises to power and usurps Nerull as the prime deity of death.

500 Dm
The floating city of New Thay collapses and is destroyed. Massive amounts of uncontrolled magical flux envelop the mountains over which it floated, creating an arcane maelstrom. The magic seeps into the environment, causing mutations. Thay evacuates the mountain range.

Within months the first blackleaf saplings are discovered. The trees grow quickly and negate the maelstrom, though its effects linger. Orcs and other monstrous humanoids begin settling in the mountains as a haven from other races. The territory becomes known as the Blackleaf.

Age of Storms
Main article

0 St
Saevio, an elven mage, summons a great storm over what would later become Balic. Valleys become flooded, crops are flattened from hail, strong winds and lightning raze buildings. Over the next 60 years the physical landscape of Balic is severely altered and the weather systems of the entire Plane shift. Droughts appear in in the forest region of Whitesun.

20 St
Saevio enters into a pact with the minor deity Skeles, allowing Saevio to access some of Skeles’ power, in exchange for converting his house and holdings to Skeles' worship and erecting a grand temple in his honour.

60 St
Saevio’s armies are overrun; he is captured and entombed. The storms dissipate.

64 St
The independent nations that took Saevio down found the Kingdom of Balic.

266 St
Greybank is founded.

298 St
The Bel’Terath Empire has been engaged in a 4 year war against the dragonborn. Azmodeus becomes involved, decimating the dragonborn armies and transforming all the citizens of the Empire into tieflings, creatures that resemble himself.

300 St
A hobgoblin warchief known as the Winter King begins to unify the goblin and hobgoblin clans around his land, Darguun. Over the next 20 years, he develops numerous technologies, including canned goods, advanced siege engines, and Molotov cocktails (using dwarven spirits).

345 St
Construction on the Wall of Hunger begins, separating the Moorlands from Darguun. Darguun conscripts less feral, more intelligent trolls into their army. Troll culture begins to develop. Soon after, the Winter King’s successor, Krenel, succeeds in unifying or conquering every hobgoblin and goblin hold in the Darguun area.

348 St
The fire giants sign a 1000 year treaty with Darguun. They bequeath the great magma hammer, Spew, to Darguun.

402 St
Darguuni-Silver Flame war begins. Darguun fails multiple campaigns to take Silver Flame land. Silver Flame fails to break Darguuni armies. Hostilities continue to this day.

428 St
Darguuni-Elven war begins. The great hammer Spew is blessed by Bane, and is used to create thousands upon thousands of divine weapons.

624 St
Bane grants demigodhood to Maglubiyet, a particularly bloodthirsty goblin devotee, and tells him to lead the goblinoids to victory. This is the first instance of a deity bestowing this much power to a mortal. In response, Corellon channels his divine might into an avatar to lead the elves to victory. His avatar fights and kills Maglubiyet. Upon his death, all the weapons created by Spew violently explode, searing the landscape with divine fire. Divine magic in this area ceases to function (save for Bane) and all life slowly withers and dies.

640 St
The Silver Flame purges begin, wherein every shifter, half-orc, tiefling, and shapeshifter (all previously allowed to live within the Flame) are killed, or exiled to an island off the coast of the Silver Flame previously used for isolating citizens with leprosy and other incurable and contagious diseases. Those exiled establish their own monarchy separate from the flame. Under emperor Paz the Mooncaller, every Silver Flame citizen on the island is killed, and the nation of Lazaretto is born.

767 St
Lazaretto invents gunpowder. Less than a decade later Lazaretto invents canons. They are used to defend the kingdom. All Silver Flame action to retake the island ceases.

812 St
Lazaretto begins trading with Greybank, marking the first instance of large-scale inter-national trade.

1232 St
Lazaretto develops primitive firearms, and soon after begins to export their firearms.

1311 St
An archaeologist named Brutus Kain discovers a virulent plant deep below Balic in the ruins of a Prisigoth temple. He and his excavation team become infected, becoming the first virulent.

1322 St
Kain experiments with the virulent strain, and begins to abduct and infect others is secret. He creates the undercity – a black market and a virulent refuge. He dubs himself the Strainfather.

1341 St
Gerath, master thief, creates the first warforged using a stolen Philosopher’s Stone and pilfered warforged schematics. The warforged only live a few short years, however, and are not yet autonomous.

1350 St
Rajaat arrives in the Whitesun desert with a host of shadar kai and efreeti. He takes control of the region’s waterways, securing his position as ruler of the land. He begins expansion of his empire in all directions.

1383 St
Rajaat’s southward expansion is halted by the unending armies of Darguun.

1445 St
Rajaat sends human to the city of brass to work as slaves for several hundred years. The surviving humans are infused with elemental energies and become genasi. Rajaat eventually retrieves the genasi and they serve him on the Prime Plane.

1516 St
Kain begins his assault on Balic.

1517 St
The failing of the Philosopher's Stone causes some warforged within Gerath's labyrinth to become autonomous.

Kain is slain in the royal palace by a group of adventurers. His virulent lose cohesion and are hunted down over the next few years.

1518 St
Escaped warforged from Gerath's labyrinth begin creating more Warforged with the stolen Philosopher’s Stone. The abandoned town of Restov is established as the center of the budding Warforged Empire.

1519 St
Rajaat’s apprentice, Nibenay, wipes out the gnomish capital, razing the city Niben. The plane's gnomish population is reduced by 80%.

0 Ws
Rajaat is killed, his body separated into several pieces and scattered around the plane. The Great Sun of Whitesun is untethered and begins orbiting the planet. The Silver Flame, led by Dorian Lightshield, annexes Whitesun and most of the Whitesun region.

16 Ws
Dorian dies. The Silver Flame loses control of the Whitesun region. Flint retakes the region with Nibenay and Bory, becoming its ruler and plunging the region back into lawlessness.

54 Ws
The Plague of Teeth begins. By the end of the year, more than half of Balic’s population has been killed. Balic’s government collapses. Several lords take control of regions of Balic as de facto governments.

57 Ws
With the Plague of Teeth mostly contained, the de facto governments sign a treaty officialising their land claims. They all form under the banner of the 12 city-states of Balic, with no central government. Every 4 years this treaty is reevaluated and resigned.

A group of anti-magic activists blame arcane magic for the Plague; they form the Blackleaf Brotherhood, an organization bent on removing magic and magic users.

65 Ws
War breaks out between the Warforged and Thay, then ends with the Warforged-Thayan Treaty in 73 Ws.

86 Ws
An Empyrean descends to the Prime Plane in Creston and forcefully takes control of the city-state.

98 Ws
Thayan and Warforged tensions begin to rise again as a new Thayan Council of Eight begins exploiting loopholes in the treaty and pressuring the Warforged to amend the treaty and give up land.

100 Ws
5e campaign begins