A Dying Ember
An old, bloated sun turns in the sky. Its rays fall upon a world covered in thick, roiling clouds, making them glow a deep crimson with its wearied light. Continuous rain and snow fall from these clouds, like drops of blood from an unhealing wound...
Three thousand, three hundred and fifty eight circlings of the bloated sun, Døende Aske, before the Years of Frost (YoF), the Winterhaunt of Iborighu called forth a fracturing in the ice of a frozen sea. These powerful clerics, long since consumed and transformed into being of pure frost by their chill god, opened a rift, a mere fingerhold into the world from his bitter realm. But a finger was all that was required for Iborighu to manipulate the forces of nature.
For eight hundreds of years they had waited for the coming of the wandering star to approach. The star that flew with frozen dew upon its plumage. The feathery ghostliness it left behind it was the streaming of a cosmic blizzard and not flame, they were assured. This star was colder than the deepest ice of Hearth. And so with intricate measuring they awaited its closest passing and so began their ritual. With but a nudge the power of Iborighu altered the comet's direction and it streaked down towards the great frozen ocean of the south. There lived Hleid, mother deity of the uldra race and those of the arctics. She was struck and shattered like a snowflake on stone.
The impact was so great that not only did it pierce the ocean, but it delved deep into the crust itself. A great wave of ice, soil and water lifted up and froze, forming a mountain that reached past the clouds. The center of the peak sloped within itself straight down for miles. At the bottom lay a vast portal that connected the prison plane of Iborighu with that of Hearth. From this portal erupted Iborighu. His worshipers rejoiced while the others of the world reacted with terror.
The impact caused flooding for hundreds of miles past their original boundaries, and dust and water vapor within several weeks completely surrounded the planet. Blocked from sight was the view of the great red sun for centuries to come.
The victory of the followers of Iborighu was not complete however, for the followers of Pelor, those lovers of light and warmth, and the greatest of the druids from all corners of the globe, came together. With their combined efforts the stone below the feet of much of the world was shifted, and heat allowed to flow nearer the surface. Volcanoes were reborn, hot springs bubbled, and geysers erupted. Millions of people scattered across dozens of races perished but those whom survived either adapted and learned to thrive in the frostfell or they congregated together and built towns in harmony with the life giving heat from below.
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Timeline
Spoiler
Show
WT - Warmer Times
YoF - Years of Frost
1,210,619 WT - The Midgards, the descendants of dwarves and their entire mountain, are cast down from the outer planes onto Hearth.
1,205,009 WT - A nymph and a chieftain of the great wise apes of the north fall in love. Their union is blessed by the upper planes so as to become the dominant race of the lands above, to discourage the spread of the Dwarves. Born is the first Neanderthal, ancestor of all humans. He takes a nymph wife as well. His children breed amongst the nymphs and wise apes.
They begin their own race, though a rift begins between the children of stronger nymph bloodlines and those with a stronger wise ape bloodline. One is fairer, more intelligent and adventurous while the others stronger, coarser, and taken to instinct.
1,201,579 WT - Neanderthals of a nymph tribe discover how to control fire. This begins a great war that spreads across all the tribes of the world. This fire-tribe begins a great burning to remove the gorilla tribes.
1,200,401 WT - The nymph tribe, who will later become known as Humans, become the dominant race of the neanderthals of the world.
The gorilla tribes driven into the cold are forced to become strong or die, and eventually take up the handle of Orc.
11,000 WT - Humans journey into the Heska mountain range, and begin building what will eventually become Licc.
2,851 WT - Poqt is settled by a religious sect.
809 WT - The Winterhaunt formulate their long-term plan to strike open a crack into the prison plane of Iborighu by using a comet that appears in the skies, and was written to have been seen 800 years before as well.
0 Yof - Through the combined efforts of the Winterhaunt, an epic spell is cast, diverting the comet to the southern pole. The pole is struck, casting an already cool world into a permanent ice age.
1 YoF - The entire world rocks from continuous earthquakes as the mantle is shifted to bring up heat from below. The Fevered Mount is awakened and warm-weather plants and animals are transported there for survival.
73 YoF Harkatottom is born, the second generation of half-orcs.
166 YoF Harkatottom dies and travels to the spirit world, where he gains deity status.
157 Yof - The valley of Gelid Falls is discovered by a band of survivors from the south.
305 YoF - Emperor Laffin is born to his human mother and fossergrimm father.
374 YoF - The Emperor's Highway begins construction to connect the human colonies with the others.
514 YoF - The Treaty of Red Dew is made between faerie kind and mortals.
565 YoF - Croakine is colonized.
2006 YoF - Glacier dwarves discover the Azure Floe and build a mining colony.
2200 YoF - Swiftly Rising is colonized by Raptorans as a fort city.
3050 YoF - Chaunelfiel is settled by the Motard family.
3296 - Warlord Teh is born.
3325 YoF - Salkin Motard is born.
3355 YoF - Work to begin colonization of The Pass begins.
3358 YoF - Current Date