Earth

Core Data

Category: Planet

Population (sentients): 83 Million

Style of Government: A variety of governments rule the people of the Earth. The most popular are Limited Democracies, Tribes, and Theocracies, in that order.

Technology Level: The average technology level that most people of the Earth live by is just shy of Industrialized. They benefit from the industrialization of the most successful nations to some extent, but most people are farmers who live day by day and season to season.

Racial Demographics (subraces may be combined): 88% Human, 7% Halfling, 2% Dwarf, 1% Elf, 2% other

Average Income (weekly GP): 3

Average Age Expecatancy: 67

Infant Mortality Rate: 2.5%

Approximate Area (square kilometers): 510 million

Physical Features

Earth is a planetary body which is home to millions of species. It is warm with a hot core and a strong magnetic field. Earth is a satellite of the great gas giant, Jupiter. Its orbit is far enough that only the oceans really feel the great planet's tug, yet close enough that the Earth rarely experiences a totally dark night. The Earth is 83% covered in salt-water oceans (7% of which is covered in sea ice on average throughout the year).

Social Groups

Adventurer's Guild

Church of Death

Church of Gaia

Church of Jupiter

Church of Tiamat and Hurdzoon

Gunslingers

Makers Guild

Important Personalities

Atheram

David

Forwaith

Ivan

Malcom

Svervnux

Tog, Master

Events in History

0-2056: Although the people of the earth know that recorded time begins long before the history that is currently available, it is unknown as to what events transpired prior to the mid 2000s. There are some books which have been magically saved from the times of The Dark which had some inkling, but nothing concrete. It is understood that there were no demi-humans and a far smaller number of animal species. Magic was almost nonexistent.

However, there are some things which persisted. The people were very technologically savvy and some of their equipment, thanks to burps in the fabric of the universe, has survived to this day. More importantly, their stories have survived. In the cold, dark years after the Apocalypse, people continued to tell the stories in a language that The Dark did not understand, try as hard as he could. These stories are highly sought after today.

Recently, there have been rumblings of stories from before the year 0000. The Fozlebelden Gnomes and the Priests of Luna have long surmised that the Earth is far older than five and a half millennia. Some stories talk of dark magic which once crawled across the earth and enslaved millions of people, and even indirectly leading to the first great cities.

2057: The great old God brought the Apocalypse, raining down chaos upon the people of Earth. With the voice of their God booming in their ears, People scrambled about, weeping at their impending doom while others awaited some kind of Epiphany or ascension. The God tore at the heavens, rearranging the greatest celestial objects causing massive earthquakes and tsunami. People were slain by the billions.

Beneath humanity's darkest desires and sins, a Dark Spirit has been forming for ages. At this time, it stirred in its fetid cocoon of spite. It suddenly covered the entire Earth with it's malice and greed in the form of a shell of black matter.

Even as the earth's crust was rent asunder by the might of God, the souls whose bodies were destroyed and were meant for paradise were trapped on the Earth. Other, less penitent souls are removed to the Pit where they survive to this day in eternal torment. When He realized that the shield had been formed and this powerful super-being he called the Dark had taken his world hostage, he ceased the celestial bombardment of gravitational forces. Those left alive after the brief lurching of the Earth and the heavens were left in a state of total darkness as the shield prevented all light from penetrating. The Dark snickered in joy at the world it had created. The people wept in despair - cold, hungry and alone they huddled together and did the best they could to survive.

2058-5599: God was saddened by the pain of His children. He and His Chorus made one last attack on the Darkness from the Celestial firmament. God unleashed all of His power as his angels smote the shield with their shining weapons. The inky firmament cracked, but little more. A shaft of holy sunlight smote the surface of the earth. An Ironwood Tree grew there instantly, as tall as any 2000 year-old Ironwood Tree that's ever been.

The hole was too small to allow the extreme girth of the One, but his chorus could enter with some difficulty. With a few final words of encouragement that have never been uttered to a mortal, he broke himself into many shards which his chorus then took in through the hole. Mortals absorbed some of these shards. The Dark absorbed others. Some shards merged with plants, animals or entire groups of people. Many people and things were transformed by this merging. The individual mortals who absorbed the Shards took them in and became Powers. They lived to fight the dark and aid mortal man in his plight. At the time they had names, but these names have been erased from history to protect them from word magic. Now they go by the names they have chosen, which are the names of the most influential celestial bodies.

In addition, a few shards imbued large groups of people, creatures or plants. This is how Elves, Dwarves, Halflings and Gnomes were created as well as Treants, Dire creatures and many other monsters and beasts.

2058: The Elves are imbued by Shards of God. Two groups of elves are created from a single shard. One group is cunning and ambitious, soon to be called Golden Elves. The other group are people of the land and ancient protectors of the Earth.

2061-2078: When whispers of a resistance cell spread throughout the world, people began to flock to Jupiter and the refugees. People sought safety, a sense of community, and even a chance at revenge. Over time, Halflings, Dwarves, and most of the Elves joined the Resistance's ranks.

The group fought many skirmishes, most of them guerrilla, covert operations. They stole supplies and weapons from The Dark and scoured the land looking for the last of mankind's powerful technology.

Thanks to the beast's massive sense of pride, it wasn't until 2077 before The Dark finally realized that there was a resistance working against it's efforts. It began to fan out it's spies and investigators. It offered valuable boons to Demons who found cells of mortals who would work against it. This led to terrible, almost genocidal treatment of the Earth's people. More flocked to the banner of the resistance.

2062: A single shard is used to grant a group of curious people with a love of farming, comforts, and an adventurous streak. Halflings, in all their various forms, evolve from this group. Additionally, a particularly curious Halfling gained a Shard of God and became a champion of her people. Some say Persephone Fastbrook pilfered it from the Dark's own horde. Others say she was a leader of her people and she was given the shard by a powerful Celestial in order to protect them.

2062-2080: Gaia was a woman of the earth; she wandered the wild even when the Dark dominated. She found a Shard of God glimmering in the darkness one day. On that morning, she felt the presence of the One Tree. She followed where her senses took her and there was the first sunlight she had seen in a great long time. For years she wouldn't leave the site, and tried to make things grow in the dimness surrounding it.

2062: Not long after The Dark learned about the Shards of God, it began searching for them in earnest. It found its first shard in 2062. Some still wonder if the Shard may have wanted to be found by The Dark because ultimately, the supreme power brought to the Dark by the Shards was it's downfall.

2064: Euroupa was a fortune teller and midwife during the Dark years. She gave people hope for a better world. One day, when a shard fell from the sky, she knew, somehow that it was meant for her. She took it into her gentle hands and it fell into her soul. Her body burned up with raw magical power and then was resurrected from the ashes, born anew.

2072: The Dwarves were born from a single shard which shaped them from a group of extremely hard-working individuals. Though they first saw their new shape as a curse, they soon realized that they'd been blessed with hearty, tireless bodies and rejoiced.

2073: A shard invested a group of courageous and intelligent people with a love for life and all it's complexities. They became the Gnomes and they ware among the first to fight back against The Dark. At the same time, a Shard was presented to their leader, an odd but extremely intelligent woman. She imbued herself with the shard and gave herself the name "Fandlemalepooka" which began a long history of difficult-to-pronounce Gnomish names.

2075: The Dark's stranglehold on mortals became even stronger in 2075 when it found two more Shards. With it's three shards, instead of imbuing itself with power, The Dark instead created loyal minions and developed Drow, Orcs, Goblins, and Duregar from captured Elves and Dwarves. It also developed the first Dragons.

Recently it has been revealed that later that year, a huge number of Goblins revolted against the Dark. Not many who revolted lived through the escape, but those who did stole away to what would later be called the Southbone Mountains where they hid for many centuries.

2078: In 2078, The Dark declared open war and ordered the mass genocide of all remaining free Humans, Elves, Dwarves, Halflings, and Gnomes. It is at this point that Golden Elves finally joined in the fight against The Dark. The many cells spread throughout the world broke apart, taking as many people as they could to a small northern continent where The Champions and The Tree stood their ground in a huge, strong bulwark crafted from a massive impact crater. Anyone left behind was slaughtered.

Throughout that year, many attempts were made to penetrate the Mortals' defenses and they repelled each one using magic and high-speed slug-throwing weapons in various states of repair. The community began to regard the people on the walls wielding these weapons as heroes, more than mere mortals. The legend of the Gunslinger began in that year.

2135-2136: A valiant young warrior rose from the ranks of men. At eighteen, he had slain over thirty Demonic lieutenants. In the Battle for Nightingale River, 2136, he was fighting for his life, all of his men slain. His shield was cracked and his sword was notched. As he was about to give his last push, his foot caught on a rock and he went sprawling. The amassed demons laughed gutturally, then cringed. A light was shining in the darkness.

Mars groped for whatever it was he'd uncovered and the Shard of God sunk into his flesh.

Screams of pain suddenly became howls of rage and fear as the young champion began slaughtering demons by the dozens with great strokes of his longsword. The valley reverberated with the sound of his shield smashing bones and crushing skulls. Soon, the day was won.

2589-2884: For three centuries, the people of the Western World grew and flourished. Three separate cracks in the inky black shield were managed, and plants were allowed to grow naturally under the few narrow bands of sunlight that struck the ground there. While their main source of sustenance did rely mainly on magic and meat, this was a sign that things were beginning to move in their favor.

The Dark became increasingly frustrated. The Champions had become extremely powerful at that point, and were able to report to any location that raised an alarm with mind-bending speed. For the time, it hid and waited, thinking deadly thoughts.

2884: The Chorus was tired and were convinced that the Earth was on the right track. They said the time of their meddling had come to an end They gave the Champions the last of the Shards they had collected keeping only one for themselves.

As their final act, the Celestial Chorus wove a trap into the shard. Under disguise, they give it to the Dark who enveloped it greedily. With a loud hiss and a pop, a smudge of shiny black removed itself from the bulk of the Dark. The Dark wailed in pain and retreated.

Long ago, the essence of Death had been bound to the Dark and now free to act of its own will. It came to the People and they accepted it for good or ill because it brought life as well as death... everything in it's own time.

3108-3150: The Council of Druids is formed. They research the flora and fauna of the world and begin reseeding the soil which had been in deep slumber for so long. A world dominated by darkness and rot was resplendent in green in just a few short years.

3110-3225: During these years several new nations rise up from the ashes of the destruction and neglect of the Shard Wars. Some old cities are re-founded and many new ones are begun thanks to the Earth's new shape and the trade needs of her people.

3120: After setting the world on a course of rebuilding, the celestial deities (with the help of Fahrlanghn) set up their new homes in the heavens. Most of the other gods such as the racial deities remained on Earth, but went into seclusion.

4125: For centuries, Rhea was a fair and striking Wild Elf of the Hakuna Tribe of a chain of islands west of Panaecia. She was know for her fairness of heart and deed. In 4125 she, a with the help of Euroupa imbued herself with a Shard and became the Matron Goddess of Elves.

4160: The second Dragon war is fought and this time the people of the world take more punishment than the dragons themselves. Thousands are slaughtered, however Jerusalem was left unscathed while the rest of the world suffered. Not only were the ground forces amassed by the dragons hopelessly repelled by the wall, but the Gunslingers and ballista arming the walls deflected aerial attacks with ease.

Unfortunately, during this war the city was flooded with refugees and many of them settled there permanently.

4162-4182: In 4162, rumors of a third Dragon War began to stir. The leaders of the nations of the world assembled for the first time. In the Gunslinger Chapterhouse of Jerusalem, they formed a pre-emptive strike against all dragons that proved to be quite effective.

4172: The two powerful Dragons who had lived since the Dark Times and were named after powerful ancient deities of Old Earth were named Bahamut and Tiamat, lords of the metallic and chromatic dragons respectively. The Celestials used two of their five remaining Shards to make Bahamut and Tiamat into Gods. This reined them in from the front lines of battle. Powerful mortal Clerics and Psions quickly bound them to another plane of existence.

4253-5298: Fandlemalepooka fell in love with the mortal, Dorandadanalatekpa when he is in battle against the forces of Hurdzoon. She stole a shard from the Pool of Remembrance and gave it to him to imbue. Today, Doras is a militaristic, but calm deity with a fair number of followers.

5545: He has been a legend among the Halflings for three centuries... he had extended his life quite far with magical means. On his death bed, Luna pleaded with the other Celestials to turn back the clock for him. There was no male halfling deity and Darvek was the perfect choice. They agreed at length and Darvek's youth was returned to him.

Usually when such a gift is bestowed upon someone, they are overwhelmed and must have time to recuperate. Darvek wasted no time. With little more than a quick thanks, to his redeemers, he was off creating untold mischief. He's calmed down recently, but he remains one of the most meddlesome of the gods, second only to Kakookamak since Fahrlanghn left.

5572-5589: These are the dates of the second Harvest Moon Campaign. During these times, the PCs spend a great deal of energy thwarting the Sky King's attempts to gain more ground in the world. During this campaign, the Player-Characters include Atheram (a Halfling Rogue who's bark and bite are equally sharp), Ivan (who's mental powers over others are unequaled in the world), and Ezra Dankir (niece of Ingrid and a competent Warpriest). This group had many companions over the years, but at it's core these three faced, with gusto, every trial Svervnux had to offer.

5573: The PCs, having been working against Svervnux for some time, come across some information regarding the Shards of God. Apparently, the Celestials had no more and one was missing and had been under their feet for some time. The group ventured into the mad, rumbling depths of the Dragonkeep itself and face wonders and dangers unheard-of in the world above. They eventually come to the shard which was pulsating with energy. The group, under heavy attack, smashed the Shard, which destroyed the old Dragonkeep and the nightmare around them. All around the world, good-hearted mortals gained a bit of power from the breaking and the energy of the One God filled them all and prepared them in their fight against evil to come.

5599: Two powerful and entirely mad individuals, one Golden Elf and the other a Gold Dragon, who's names were enchanted to be Forgotten, vied for the power of the Celestial Shard. When it was given to a lowly Halfling, they were enraged. They each, in their own counsel, delved deep into the primordial places of the earth and found the old creation energy there. The power was too great for them. Although they ascended as the deities Io (naming himself after a celestial body) and Ra (who absorbed that old god's energy), they were both driven mad with power tainted by years of darkness.

5600: In 5600, the fabled planetary homes of Mars and Io collided in the sky. The people of the Earth watched in horror as the glowing, orange blob in the sky rotated. Some called it a sign of things to come.

5602-5607: In 5602, the temperature around the world began to increase. By the time 5606 came around, temperate zones were experiencing summer temperatures in the spring and temperatures in the extreme latitudes were enjoying very temperate climates. Food became scarce in traditionally temperate zones. Normally arid regions became full-fledged deserts. People began to go hungry and the pantheon tried to feed them as best they could, but food was so scarce that no matter how much gold they raised, they could not feed everyone. The heat wave broke just before the new year in 5607.

5604: It is unknown how it occurred, but one evening in March of 5604, the skies over the southern hemisphere lit up in flashes of many colors. The event lasted over thirty minutes, but at the end Svervnux worshipers around the world wailed in the realization that their god was dead. The church of Forwaith insisted that their god was claiming responsibility and this was corroborated by the Church of Luna.

5607: In Black October, the city of Jerusalem saw the return of the great Dragon Tharrangg. The black-scaled monstrosity attacked the Temple Mount but was thwarted by the defenders there. Although the Dragon teleported away, it is thought that the attack was merely a test of the city's capabilities.

Ever since the great collision of Io and Mars, the resulting planetoid had been spiraling out of orbit. This was not caught by Earthbound observers until days before the object would pass within spitting distance of Earth. The data was intercepted by the Church of Tiamat (who had funded the observatory) and the people of the world were not warned of the event. On October 31st, the glowing, orange and black sphere hurled past the earth at a dangerously close distance, even closer than that of the moon. A massive tidal wave swept into the bay, wiping out several blocks of seafront. The church of Tiamat stood on buildings and rescued those who were strong and fought for survival the longest. Everyone else perished. Although the Church of Death were able to use their resources to resurrect a number of children, 20 thousand people still lost their lives. that day.

What has been considered far worse than the flood or the Dragon could ever be was the confession of Wallar Allegron. After being exposed by the PCs and under several magical truth spells, he admitted that he worked with the Church of Mars and the Agnostic Party to kill Io and plan the destruction of other deities and their followers.