Historical Timeline

The Upheaval, 0 AU
5000 years ago at the closing of the First Age, a meteorite crashed into the barren steppes of Northern Ortugan. Plunging deep into the planet's crust and spewing tons of dust and ash into the atmosphere, it altered both the climate and history forever. The impact tore a hole in reality, now known as the Interstice, and ever since that terrible day horrific creatures have poured through to plague all of Rakendawn. In addition to demonic entities, the otherworldly realm weeps a contaminated dust into Rakendawn. This fine dust, invisible to the naked eye, mutates everything it touches in horrific and unpredictable ways.

Molten rock from deep beneath the surface poured out of the crater for decades, destroying everything for thousands of miles in every direction. The fledgling Ortugani empire was thrown into chaos as it's northern provinces were destroyed outright by a massive pyroclastic flow. To the north and east, lava rushed over the cliffs of the Wailing Coast and into the sea to form millions of acres of new lands, soon to be filled with mutant monstrosities. The majority of the lava flowed west, into and over the Worldspine mountains. After creating the Ullda Pass, this catastrophe consumed virtually the entire elven empire of Argens, which had heretofore controlled the entire planet. Elven civilization has never recovered and only now are the wonders of their society being surpassed.

The Construction of the Pristine Frontier, 250 AU
What would eventually become Mount Korah was barely a hill when the lava flow briefly subsided. A horde of terrible monsters immediately poured through into our reality, ravaging what was left of the eastern Argens Empire. In the midst of the horrific tide of devastation, the ruling council of wizards used long-forgotten rituals to sacrifice themselves and create a enduring barrier against both the continuing attacks of the horde and the tainted dust they brought with them. Constructed with an enchantment derived from those that maintain the Skyway, it may be repaired with even the simplest magical healing spell. It also repels Tainted dust, gently but firmly pushing it away and keeping it away from the vulnerable denizens of southern Ortugan.

First Ullda Gap Invasion, 427-767 AU
Not long after the heroic sacrifice of the ruling council of Argens to create relative safety in Ortugan, the armies of the Interstice found a new target: Ancalamar. The lava that had flowed over the Worldspine had cooled enough to permit a horde of otherworldly invaders to cross over and attack the western part of the Argens empire. Still reeling from the effects of the eruption itself, the once-powerful Argens army was able to put up only token resistance until pushed back nearly to the Sea of Olaris itself. The fractious dwarven clans of western Ancalamar fared no better, driven underground by the unstoppable horde. It took hundreds of years for demihumans to retake control of Ancalamar, and even then they only succeeded in pushing the horde back to the wasteland of the Ashlands.

Eldar Wars, 840-1199 AU
The Argens empire had been forced to arm their dwarven serfs with some of their most powerful weapons and magics to push back the demons of the Interstice and they had suffered terrible losses to both population and infrastructure. The dwarves had long been second-class citizens on the northern continent but now they sensed their chance to seize control of their destiny. Over several centuries of on- and off-again warfare they pushed the formerly dominant silver elves east away from the Straits of Olaris almost to the mouth of the Fuldarion River. Centuries passed, but Argens would become a province of what eventually became Rohall.

After throwing off the yoke of elven rule the dwarves of Ancalamar prospered, even adopting much of the decadence of that society. Such excess did not sit well with the sober dwarven psyche, and a great deal of societal stress resulted as the disparate tribes grew further apart. Younger dwarves unfamiliar with the privation their elders had suffered in servitude and war ended up roaming the streets, turning cities like Kinhaven and Rohall into lawless warzones.

Forging of Rohall, 1215 AU
The influence of Argent culture on the early Ancalamaran tribes did not abide for long, and very quickly caused intolerable stress on the structures of the existing feudal clan structure. Civil war resulted, and was persecuted with terrible ancient weapons intended for use on Interstitial demons. The carnage was appalling but mercifully short. In the aftermath the shocked survivors, led by the veterans of the Eldar Wars, forged a new government designed to prevent the conditions that caused the strife of civil war.

Only individuals which had devoted a substantial term to serving the Rohall government would be allowed to vote in future political decision-making. Each of the castes (warrior, engineer, and merchant) selected a cadre of leaders who made the decisions for the society as a whole. The caste distinction in Rohall society has since become much less formal since then and the cadre system has undergone many changes but the concept of earned citizenship has remained.

Second Ullda Gap Invasion, 2540 AU
Of substantially lesser magnitude than the first invasion, the second is mostly significant for the changes it engendered in dwarven society. While the horde was held at the borders of the Ashlands, it was not without great cost, and the veterans returning from the front after the danger was past did not take well to the chaos they returned to. The Legions of the city of Rohall cast down the government there and established martial law. The odd form of government they established has endured thousands of years since.

Bayaz Process Discovered, 4413 AU
Since the dawn of recorded history the use of admanatine alloys had been limited to a select few who could afford to employ skilled magical smiths to forge it. Even small projects like an individual weapon or piece of armor were prohibitively expensive and large scale projects were never attempted. That all changed when Arcturus Bayaz discovered a method of smelting adamant ore into usable alloys without the use of magic. In less than a century metallurgy all over Rakendawn had been revolutionized and adamantine was being used in all manner of relatively mundane applications.