The First Peoples

Approximate span: c. 45,000–18,000 years before AF 1.

The First Peoples begins with the emergence of Vareth’s earliest sapient mortal populations. Its oldest developments can be placed only in broad sequence.

The First Elder Peoples

Orcs, trolls, and ogres are the oldest recognizable mortal peoples.

They descend from a shared ancestral population and become distinct across a broad, overlapping interior range.

Their communities trade, raid, migrate, enslave, intermarry where possible, and fight beside or against one another. Mixed settlements and mixed political alliances are common, and political allegiance does not follow race cleanly.

As populations grow, larger settlements, confederations, and territorial powers emerge.

The Second Elder Peoples

Goblins, tsekesh, and kobolds descend from a separate shared ancestral population that appears later in the same broad span of deep history.

They spread widely through regions already occupied by older peoples. Some communities remain independent, while others trade with, serve, resist, or live within larger states.

Their dispersal creates another layer of overlapping settlement across Vareth rather than a set of isolated racial homelands.

Independent Elder Peoples

Gnolls, akkari, and ossur also become established during this period, each from an independent lineage.

Gnoll populations spread across broad terrestrial ranges and established migration routes.

Akkari communities develop across cliffs, islands, escarpments, mountain faces, and other regions suited to aerial movement.

Ossur establish settlements and routes through coastal waters, reefs, shelves, estuaries, and submerged passages.

By the later part of the period, all nine elder peoples are established across Vareth.

The First Magical Traditions

Magic develops unevenly among the elder peoples.

Orcs and trolls establish strong shamanic traditions. Ogre shamans also exist, but remain comparatively rare.

Akkari develop stormweaving, shaping existing atmospheric conditions through the Wyre.

Ossur develop tidecalling, shaping the movement and pressure of existing bodies of water.

Goblins, tsekesh, kobolds, and gnolls develop no major native magical traditions during this period.

The War of the Burned Marches

As mortal populations expand, some states and confederations begin pressing directly into established dragon domains.

One of the earliest major confrontations is the War of the Burned Marches.

A mixed confederation led by orcs and supported by trolls, ogres, goblins, and other subject communities expands into uplands occupied by a red dragonflight. Settlements, grazing land, roads, mines, and fortifications push steadily deeper into contested territory.

Dragon attacks destroy several settlements. The confederation responds with organized military campaigns, but its first attempts end disastrously.

The mortal armies eventually adapt. Orc shamans support the armies with elemental magic. Troll commanders study dragon movements and terrain. Ogres carry heavy weapons, restraints, and equipment that smaller warriors cannot handle. Goblin craftsmen improve traps and throwing mechanisms.

After repeated failures and enormous losses, the confederation succeeds in isolating and grounding a young adult dragon.

The dragon is killed by massed weapons and a final assault.

Its family retaliates on a far greater scale. Settlements are burned, populations flee, and entire communities are destroyed. The confederation eventually abandons much of the disputed territory and accepts a boundary outside the principal nesting grounds.

The war proves that organized mortal armies can kill dragons, while also demonstrating the catastrophic cost of provoking an entire dragon family.

Toward the Elder Conflicts

Population continues to grow across the elder world. Larger states compete over land, captives, routes, tribute, and inherited claims.

Local wars increasingly draw neighboring communities and allied peoples into wider conflicts.

These pressures lead into the first great cycle of elder wars.