History of Gemnos

As written by Antonii Kufku. All dates are approximations.

The Primal Era: 12.000-8.000 years before the Twins’ Arrival

-12.000 

At first, there was nothing but the Mists of Madness. Then came the Twins and created Gemnos. They pushed back the maddening mists and began creating and building a paradise, a place for us. But at first, the Mists were powerful. They warped every creature that the Twins created and placed on Gemnos.

The first of such creatures are today known as the aboleth. They still exist to this day, although they are fewer now and lurk in the darkest corners of the Underdark

It is unclear who or what the Aboleths ruled over back then, presumably it was whichever other creatures the Twins created that didn’t get warped. But we do know that the Aboleth ruled over a good chunk of Gemnos for about 2000 years. The Aboleth controlled a the area along the coastlines of Gemnos, from the area around the Federation of the Inner Sea, all the way down south, along the northern coast of Kounark and up along the eastern coastline of Torabor. 

-10.000 

Then from the Astral Sea surrounding Gemnos and Mists, ancient beings of immense power came and waged war on the Aboleth, driving them underground. Gemnos had a new ruling race, but they never had the time to settle in and built. They occupied aboleth strongholds and cities, but the Twins did not created Gemnos for them and had by now realized that Gemnos would only belong to their children if they helped things along. So they created monsters of destruction in order to deal with these ancient beings of power. The Tarrasque. The Kraken. The Hydra. All examples of the monsters that the Twins created to wage war.

The battle lasted for a thousand years, shaking Gemnos at its core. Lands were sunk, oceans rose, coastlines altered and even reality and the multiverse around Gemnos was warped and changed by this war. Heaven and Hell were created, along with the Elemental Chaos and the Pillars of Heaven.

-9.000 

After being beaten and expelled from Gemnos, the ancient beings split into several factions, and spread out over the new multiverse. Those that ended up in Hell became devils and demons, those that ended up in Heaven became angels, those that ended up in the Elemental Chaos became the Vaati, which later became the genie, and those that ended up in the Pillars of Heaven became Modrons.

With Gemnos secure, the Twins created the dragons and the couatls. The dragons to be their will and weapons, the couatls to be their messengers. And then they set the dragons upon the monsters they had created to get rid of the ancient beings. The Dragons, which were far more numerous than the couatls, were created down in the mountains of what is now Drakolyz, and spread out from there, although for unknown reasons, they mostly kept their lairs down south, near the southern mists. But they did go to war everywhere and won, destroying the mad creations of the Twins. 

The Lost Era: 8.000-4.000 years before the Twins’ Arrival 
-8.000

Giants are created in what is now Quel’Terath and the Iron Kingdoms. They were different from today, and only two races, regular giants and the fomorians. Soon the two radically different giants found themselves at odds with each other. At first, fomorians had the upper hand, pushing back their cousins. 

At the time, dinosaurs, big scaly, wingless dragons, roamed almost everywhere on Gemnos.

-7.500 

The first early and primitive versions of humans, dwarves, halflings and gnomes began to populate gemnos, although the dwarves, who were created in what is now the Iron Kingdoms, were quickly enslaved by the giants and the gnomes, which were created in some hills in what is now the Republic, were quickly enslaved by the dragons. Meanwhile, the early humans were created in what is now the Kingdom of Erathis and the halflings were created on the plains of what is now the Cursed Lands on Nimalar. Also around this time, another race was created, the gith. 

-7.000

The Empire of Vaati, which by now dominated the Elemental Chaos, spread to Gemnos, due to the assault of the Queen of Chaos and her demonic host. The war continued for a couple of hundred years on Gemnos, down in central and southern Torabor. Both hosts ended up leaving Gemnos to continue their fight elsewhere, although some believe they were forced away by the dragons. 

-6.500 

The first and only fomorian empire was founded and at it’s peak, it stretched from northern Ortygal and all the way down south to Varnor. 

-6.300 

Mind flayers in huge numbers came out of the mists in Nalimdor and spread out over most of Gemnos, covering a wide belt from west to east in central Gemnos. Just about everyone was enslaved, although a small part of the fomorian empire “survived” in what is now the Iron Kingdoms and Quel’Terath, which means the original dwarves weren’t enslaved either. 

-5.500 

Led by the gith, the humans and halflings rebelled. Helped by gridlocks, a new magical creature created for the purpose, and of course the dragons, the “good” races managed to topple the empire of the mindflayers and send them packing back into the Mists.

-5.300 

The Giants formed their own empire, which at it’s peak stretched from Quel’Terath and way down south. In the process, the giants destroyed what was left of the fomorian empire in and took overlordship of dwarves. The last fomorians fled to the Faerie. 

By now, most of the plains of Nimalar were populated by the tribal halflings who roamed the plains.

-4.500 

After years of friction, the dragons and the giants went to war. It was a brutal war, but even with their mighty shamans and the living weapons they created (behirs and rocs), the giants were no match to the fury of dragon armies. The giant empire was destroyed, their cities ruined, and most giants were killed or spread out in small enclaves. The dwarves were finally liberated and they made their home in the mountains that are now the Iron Kingdoms.

-4.400 

Around the same time, the elves were created in Quel'Terath

The Ancient Era: 4.000-0 years before the Twins’ Arrival 

-4.000

Almost 5000 years after they are first created, the dragons finally got around to form their empire. The empire covered all of Torabor, most of Kounark and southern Anglar. Their rule was more or less absolute. 

Also at the time, was the rise of the Yuan ti empires. One empire covers most of Nalimdor and the other is located in the southeastern corner of Nimalar. On Nalimdor, every human and gith was exterminated - more or less. A few gith made it out, and fled through an ancient Vaati portal, or so the story goes. 

-3.900 

By now, the elves of Quel’Terath had organized themselves and formed the Kingdom of Leaves, also aptly named the Empire of Elves.

-3.500 

The Kingdom of Leaves is shaken by civil war. Two brothers fight for control of the Kingdom and some are driven underground, later becoming what is now known as drow.

Meanwhile, the growing populations and the many wars had caused the dinosaurs to be extinct on both Torabor and Kounark. 

-3.000 

By now humans, halflings, goblinoids, gnomes and orcs are physically and mentally more or less as they are today. They also begin to appear in many corners of Gemnos, populating it.

-2.500 

After a revolution amongst their slaves, the Yuan-ti empire on Nalimdor fell. The one on Torabor soon followed and the snake-men reverted back to smaller scale dominions.

At this point, the dinosaurs were extinct on both Nimalar and Anglar as well.

-2.400 

The mightiest dragons of every color banded together in a desert in northern Torabor and created the dragonborn, a servitor race in their own image, or almost.

-2.200

The dwarves formed the Iron Kingdoms

-2.000 

The dragon empire crumbled under the weight of politics and deception

-1.500 

Down south in the western part of Kounark, the first human empire empire rose, built on the ruins of the dragon empire. Ruled by a master caste of warlocks, arcane tinkering was at a premium and many living weapons were created. Most notably the chimera, the gnoll, the ettin, the owlbear and the bulette. The warlocks were ambitions and stark raving mad, at least for the most part. They struck a deal with the Lords of Hell for even more power, and were transformed into tieflings. 

-1.000

The warlock empire imploded when a gigantic earthquake ripped it’s capital in pieces and plunged all of their most powerful and influential people into the sea.

Meanwhile on Nimalar, the humans had succeeded in nearly destroying all tribal halflings. Very few remained “free” and roaming, the rest assimilated into the culture and civilization of the humans.

-450 

The first half-elf was created.

0 

The Twins reveal themselves to man. For unknown reasons, it is called their arrival as well. At this point in time, Nalimdor was all but empty of civilizations, except for numerous small human flesh-eating tribes. On the other hand, Nimalar had already formed many kingdoms and it's population was growing exponentially. Most of Torabor was small villages and semi-nomadic tribes, while Kounark was fairly advanced also, except for the area covered by the warlock empire, as it had been left in ruins. Anglar, which by far had been ravaged by war most times, was just developing villages, except for the Iron Kingdoms and the Empire of Leaves, that is.