explorers' guild: history
The Great Migrations
Almost a thousand years ago, the mighty Seafaring Court of Faerie brought about its own destruction by trespassing on the forbidden island of Goresthannon, at the center of the Inner Sea. This trespass, and their use of the powerful artifacts they found there, awoke the ancient dragons, who rained destruction down on the splendid cities of the Seafaring Court, destroying the cities and the civilization. That destruction threw the world open to the Mortal races.
For millennia, the Seafaring Court had been by far the most powerful civilization in the world. The Seafaring Elves ruled the world thoroughly and ruthlessly, and no mortal could undertake a long sea voyage without facing the danger that his ship and his life might fall prey to them. Then, suddenly, the black ships of the Seafaring Court were gone, wiped away by the same cataclysm that sank their cities. When the Mortal civilizations recovered from the effects of the catastrophe, they soon discovered that the Sea was now a route to new lands and new discoveries. They began to expand across the face of Ymra.
This map shows the major migrations of Mortals that took place in the wake of the Cataclysm:
Mortal Migrations
Different major migrations are shown in different colors:
Mengai-Oshiri (Men; Red)
The only major westward movement of Men before the Cataclysm was the migration of the Mengai=Oshiri tribes by a northern route that avoided most of the Seafaring Court's sea lanes. Settling at many spots along the northwest coast of Eparia, these people gradually divided into two populations. Those who settled along the coast and in the west became the townfolk and farmers known as Mengai. Those who moved farther inland and took up a nomaidc hunting and herding style of life, in competition with the goblins and faeries they found there, became known as the Oshiri. The Mengai and Oshiri ways of life are very old, and are the only traditions of Men in the West that date back before the Cataclysm.Dringvir (Dwarves; Dark Blue)
Even before the Mengai and Oshiri moved westward, the Dringvir had been colonizing Oluma and northeastern Eparia. Dringvir, or Dwarves, are not great seafarers, feeling more at home among rocky peaks and in stone-walled tunnels than out in the sun on the sea. Nevertheless, competitive pressures and a natural boldness and curiosity drove them to find ways across the straits from their ancestral home of Dringvold, in northern Vesaal, to the mountainous fastnesses of Oluma, which they call Volstaag. GRadually, over centuries, the Dringvir filtered westward. When they first entered Eparia on its northeastern shores, they met the fierce, furry Urgors, wolverines who dwell in loosely-bound clans of hunters and fishermen. The stubborn Dringvir and the fierce Urgors clashed almost immediately, and an intense hostility has marked their relations ever since. In the mountains north of Dorgol the Dringvir built a vast network of stony fortresses that they named Stanmark. It is the mountaineers of Stanmark who are the Dwarves that most in the West know.Vornungen (Men; Purple) Although a few of the Vornungen followed the Dringvir west, it was not until after the Cataclysm that large numbers migrated. After the fall of the Seafaring Court, though, and the disappearance of their navies, the Vornungen quickly learned seamanship. As they moved West, they encountered older settlements of Dringvir already along the way. The Vornungen have known the Dringvir for ages in their native Vesaal, and have always alternated between trading and warring with them. They continued these traditions as they followed the sea lanes west. Trade and plunder tempted them farther and farther west, until they stumbled upon other old neighbors: the Mengai, who are descended from the Hai peoples of northeastern Vesaal. Many Vornugnen found their fortunes as sea traders along the north coast, but tales of the verdant plains and steppes south of Oshiri lands brought settlers west as well, and led to the foundation of the Mearian kingdoms seated at Mag Haldeann, Cafmot, Friesmead, and other strongholds east of Meng and west of the Snow Peaks.
Talouri (Men and Gnomes; Blue) When the Vornungen were beginning to wander west, their distant relatives the Talouri were doing much the same thing in the south. Both the Vornungen in the north and the Talouri in the south were mostly pastoral peoples who dwelt on the edges of the great and ancient Sahil Empire in central Vesaal. Both were adventurous, seminomadic peoples, and it's only natural that, with their movements otherwise bounded by ancient neighbors and rivals, both peoples should jump at the opportunity for exploration provided by the Cataclysm. The Talouri as a people are both friendly and fierce, and they have ancient friendships and ancient rivalries with their neighbors. Sometimes Talouri tribes would band together to fight a foreign foe; sometimes they would treat with foreign allies when fighting each other. They took both their rivalries and their friendships with them when they moved west, bringing along with them small numbers of Ilantian Gnomes, Thomarians from the south, and even some folk from the Sahil and Vijral empires.
Finding the coast across the Inner Sea populated by bloodthirsty populations of goblins and fiercer creatures, the Talouri founded their settlements farther west, at Artaugh, Harlo's Reach, and Erindor. Eventually, Erindor became a great trading center, and grew into a center of culture to rival the great cities of Thoma, Ihudesvandbya, and Kalakthaat in the old world.