Omphalos Timeline

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For reference, a Cycle translates to about 100 Earth years, and is based on the approximate time it takes a building to go from the edge of Omphalos into the notional center of the Maw.

In the Long Ago, Before Time

Lost in history, but known to those who stand outside of time, Omphalos was once an ordinary plane, much like any other, inhabited largely by humans who practiced magic so advanced it might as well have been technology. They came across an object or entity which they believed to have come from another plane, and launched many experiments, bent upon solving the riddle of planar travel, with the ultimate object of constructing gateways that would allow them-- peacefully and for the benefit of all, some say, or bent on conquest, others claim-- to travel instantaneously to other planes.

Something went wrong in what has become known as the Transcendence by scholars, approximately 20 Cycles ago.

A 6 kilometers radius chunk of the city of Omphalos was ripped from its home universe, and or possibly its entire universe was destroyed. Instead, three planes now opened directly onto the borders of Omphalos: Viestethaer to the northwest, Hexszaxtzor to the east, and Galadh to the southwest. Where the lab had once been, an unimaginably deep pit now yawned, most of the immediate neighborhood obliterated as it was dragged down into the abyss.

The population of Omphalos, naturally, panicked. They begged the magicians for help of all kind; in turn, the magicians sent envoys into the new Cardinal Planes, in search of answers and help feeding a desperate people, now cut off from their natural farmlands.

At this time, Galadh was ruled by the Sylvanari, the elf-like inhabitants of the treetops, while the spider-kin Drydari lurked in the undergrowth. The Sylvanari had existed for millennia in a pastoral lifestyle, and found the urban riches of the Omphalos adventurers both fascinating and intimidating. They quickly agreed to supply food, which they had in plenty, in exchange for knowledge and worked trinkets.

Viestethaer was inhabited solely by elementals, drifting hither and thither, absorbing mana and reproducing their kind. Occasionally some would be summoned by magicians from other planes, do their biddings, and return. Those elementals often attempted to replicate what they saw of human society, but with little or no understanding. The few elemental Lords who learned from otherworldly mages, loosely held territories, but only in the sense that the elementals within those territories could tell you who they were. These Lords agreed to provide land for refugees, but they could do little else since they possessed only mana and the allegiance of a handful of greater elementals.

Hexszaxtzor was at the time, divided between the Ninth Horde, an orc-dominant organization which had achieved virtual domination over two of the three continents of their world, and the Bloodcoat Confederacy, an alliance of monster races chiefly united in their opposition to orc rule, with the bulk of their offensive might provided by the ogres. The Ninth Horde was greatly alarmed to find a new portal to an alien city practically in their backyard. The envoys sent by Omphalos were captured and tortured for information on their origins.

The First Invasion - approximately 19 Cycles ago

Shortly thereafter, the First Invasion of Omphalos began, launched by the Ninth Horde as a blitzkrieg with the intention of sweeping the nigh-defenseless humans away and capturing the city, to prevent it being used to launch offensives against their own homeland. Or so went their pretext.

Refugees fled into both Galadh and Viestethaer. Sylvanari quickly formed an alliance with the mage-lords of Omphalos, and the nearest elemental lords of Viestethaer sent their finest champions as well. Their help came none too soon, for most of Omphalos was soon wrecked or burning, save for the mysterious Monuments, and the remaining humans were pressed into the northwestern parts of what had been their city. The Ninth Horde began tearing down the old buildings, both to pillage the strange objects that they found within, attempt to decipher the magitechnology within, and to set up their own fortifications and war machines for pressing their assault.

With so much of the Ninth Horde's attention focused on Omphalos, however, the Bloodcoat Confederacy soon realized the Horde's attention was split, and redoubled the intensity of their offensive. The Ninth Horde, growling imprecations under their breath, decided to sign an armistice, freezing the territories where they were, and turned their attention back to their own world.

In the long, tense peace that followed, human refugees formed colonies in both Galadh and Viestethaer. In Galadh, they quickly found themselves little more than serfs, second class citizens, and never really flourished, but they did find themselves compatible with the Sylvanari, their offsprings ripe with hybrid potential. The Sylvanari both pitied their shorter-lived cousins and worried over their fruitfulness, seeing the potential of these people to outbreed them, and introduced regulations to ensure the pure-blooded elves would be preferred for inheritance. Children of Galadh-born humans tended to be strong in nature magic, less powerful in arcane than their Omphalos-born cousins.

In Viestethaer, however, with so much of the land essentially vacant, the humans introduced soil cultivation techniques to terraform large swathes of countryside into green wilderness. They formed kingdoms, loosely bound to the Elemental lords whose territories they inhabited, and over the course of time, their children found themselves with stronger affinities to elemental magic, rather than arcane. while they were sympathetic to the plight of their cousins pressed into warrens, dependent on the Cardinal Realms for support, or living in thrall to the Horde in Omphalos, there was little they could do.

Rule over the Horde-controlled part of Omphalos was split between three warchiefs, who also controlled significant parts of the Ninth Horde's heartland, and thus had legitimate economic and political interests here. Water and food became the major economic products transferred through the Thresholds, scarce as it was in Hexszaxtzor. Water was not exactly easily obtained in either Galadh or Viestethaer either, as it needed to be tapped from tree branches and then separated from the sap, in Galadh, and transported from zones of elemental water, across harsh crystal territories, to reach the threshold of Viestethaer.

Over the course of many years, the balance of power shifted between the warchiefs as they attempted to gain dominance over one another, and between the Sunlight and Deeproots factions in Sylvanari-dominated Galadh-- the Sunlight faction being one welcoming of trade with the outside world and of the human refugees from Omphalos, the Deeproots desiring to shut them out and if possible, to close the gateway to Omphalos. The kingdoms of Viestethaer were forced by their relative positions to seek out their own gains, sometimes aiding the Horde because the trinkets and metals promised were too hard to deny, other times working with the Sylvanari to deny resources to a warchief that had grown too strong.

The Opening of Alfzongen - approximately 16 Cycles ago, 290 years after the end of the First Invasion

Several centuries later, quakes and increased appearance of rifts and mysterious strangers from elsewhere-- Beyonders-- heralded the opening of a new Threshold, revealing a land of steep mountains and green valleys. Alfzongen. The other Thresholds adjusted with precipitous speed, causing much disruption as the dividing line shifted. Those buildings which were already within the Threshold were unaffected.

At the time, the Aesir ruled much of Alfzongen, with the higher mountains considered too barbaric and hostile to life to be worthwhile exploring-- of course there were always dwarves extending their settlements further in hope of new veins of metals and gems. The kobolds skulked about their periphery, and the dragonkin held court in the most distant mountains, in turn, serving their dragon gods. The Aesir and the Dragons gave each other a wary boost, aware that crushing the other side would require ruinous expense.

Once the Threshold opened onto their world, however, the Aesir were surprised to find a new race of small humanoid beings, much like them, and more so to find their aid was being sought against the Ninth Horde. They agreed to help in exchange for the humans and the Sylvanari's aid against the Dragons in a later campaign-- after all, they now had potential enemies in their backyard. It was imperative that they secure their new boundary.

The Horde had been building toward re-kindling a new invasion, with agents in both Galadh and Viestethaer. With this unexpected front, they stepped up their efforts, supplying weapons to the Drydari; several years later, the Sylvanari were faced with a sudden uprising, spreading with wildfire speed across the branches of their world-tree. The warchiefs had been battered back to a quarter of the wheel; with the Drydari's ascension, they gained back some ground. The Drydari themselves were more inclined to secure their new domains than take up a position within Omphalos, leaving many Sylvanari refugees to escape into the depths of the city.

Goblin spies, meanwhile, made their way into the hinterlands of Alfzongen, seeking the dragonkin. They offered technology and skilled crafters, and soon the dragonkin found themselves armed with weapons-- guns and explosives-- and allies that could help them sabotage the finely built fortifications of the dwarves, reducing their advantages to rubble. Taken aback, the Aesir pulled their forces back from Omphalos as quickly as they could, but lost some of their numbers and many dwarven champions in the retreat. The Horde swelled forth once more, laying claim to most of Omphalos. With their Threshold finally secured, the Aesir stood forth against the dragonkin in what became known as Ragnarok... But when the drakes bombed them, and the Dragons themselves took to the sky to devastate their armies, they were forced to surrender.

Locha, one of the young Aesir, betrayed the Aesir at their last hour, and most of them were killed; the rest fled into the back valleys or into Viestethaer. Locha himself accepted the position of the lord of the trading city in Alfzongen, so long as he kept the tribute flowing to the Dragons who had taken part in the conquest. Alfzongen took on a role of supplying water and to a lesser extent, food, to the Ninth Horde. Goblins and orcs began to make small villages in the less desirable parts of the lower valleys, territories they were well used to.

A Cycle passed, while each side paused to digest their gains, and then the Ninth Horde pressed forward on all sides, one warchief sponsoring an attack against each Cardinal Realm: Galadh, Viestethaer, and Alfzongen.

Much of the immediate region of Galadh suffered terribly under the pyrotechnics-heavy attack of the goblins as the orcs took a foothold in the world-tree. The Drydari had been watchful of betrayal, but even so, they had no idea of the brutality the Ninth Horde could deal out so casually. They surrendered almost immediately, while moving as much as they could of their true treasures and strength into the shadows.

Over the coming centuries, the Drydari built their reputation as servile, effective minions, skilled in missions of deception and assassination-- they wanted to be too useful to discard. They regained their positions as lords, subservient to the Horde's warlords but rulers over the lesser races of Galadh, such as the humans who had fled their in the long-ago time.

Viestethaer, meanwhile, had become divided into four major elemental Kingdoms, and an assortment of minor duchies. Normally fractious and jealous of one another, they soon formed an alliance and poured all the resources they could afford, slowly at first, then with increased desperation, to hold back the Horde at several key valleys. It seemed as if they would wind up in a stalemate, but then a band of heroes rallied the common people, with the help of an Aesir exile, a Sylvanari refugee, and a dwarven champion. United by an arch-hero, who claimed to be able to unite the elements and wield prismatic magic, they challenged the warchief to honorable battle to decide the fate of Viestethaer-- and lost.

The Ninth Horde swept across much of the land, eradicating any remaining resistance, then set up garrisons. Downtrodden villagers were able only to whisper tales of the champions who had been the land's last hope, and (they claimed) had gone beyond, into other planes where they might find help.

Alfzongen, surprisingly, best held off the Ninth Horde, as Locha had rebuilt the Threshold with dwarven fortifications, updated in mind of goblin munitions. He promised amnesty to Aesir who would return to help defend the plane against the outside invasions, and though many of them scorned him, enough were swayed to help give him the necessary heroic support to deal with the Horde's own champions and warlords. And when the Horde launched its greatest attack, the Dragons themselves reminded the Horde that few things can resist dragonfire.

The Ninth Horde gave up at that point, signed a non-aggression treaty, and replaced the warchief who had promised success. Bloodily.

The Opening of Ichoryon* - ~1200 years ago (12 Cycles)

Presaged by more earthquakes and magical disturbances, Ichoryon erupted between Hexszaxtzor and Galadh, in a great flood that washed away buildings halfway to the Maw.

The gnolls of Ichoryon had hitherto been running a modest trading town slash pirate base set atop a coral reef, and were greatly surprised to find a great swathe of land at their back. They received Ninth Horde attacks almost immediately, it being presumed by the dimwitted lieutenants that they represented some sort of invasion, but managed to drive them back, and sent out adventurers to size up the situation.

Drydari operatives were quick to seize the opportunity to negotiate with them, and in a bloody week, they used steam-powered coral-bladed diggers and Wavesingers drove a massive seawall across the city, severing the Horde from crossing directly between Hexszaxtzor to Galadh. Assassins took the head of the warchief of Galadh, and nearly every other general and warlord, and in the confusion, many orcs and goblins were forced to retreat into Omphalos or the deep underbrush of the world-tree.

Meanwhile, as the Horde massed its forces to try and deal with this strange new threat, the downtrodden kingdoms of Viestethaer took this moment to rise up in arms. Up to that point, so weak and humbled that it was boasted an orc child could rule a duchy, they rose up bloodily and with renewed strength. The Horde regrouped back at the Threshold, bolstered by the troops that had succeeded in pulling out of Galadh-- but with the human kingdoms and Drydari of Galadh offering rare gems, woods, and promises of future resources, Alfzongen aided them by launching their own offensive, cutting off reinforcements. The Horde were driven back into the Common and Lower Rings, poor terrains from which to fight.

The entire affair caused a massive loss of confidence in the surviving Warchief. The Ninth Horde splintered between three Hexszaxtzor-based Warchiefs, and under the circumstances, they decided to offer up a new armistice, returning their forces to the fifth of the wheel that would reasonably fall under their control, with a solitary Warlord who would be responsible for their administration in Omphalos.

After much discussion, they formed a Council, to be seated with three representatives from each of the cardinal Planes, totalling 15 persons, and signed a pact that military force would no longer be permissible within the city limits, save for a self-defense force that must be located within the Threshold of each plane.

Over the coming Cycles, steam-powered engines, hitherto a technology proprietary to the gnolls, who had used it to dominate the seas, became quickly popular among the goblins and dwarves, and spread across Omphalos. Industrialization began anew, driven by machinery and the need for standardized parts and tools. Factories spread across Hexszaxtzor, creating the perpetual smog that darkens that part of the sky.

Trade became the new battleground. Water came from Ichoryon now, food from Galadh and to a lesser extent, Viestethaer and Alfzongen, metals from Alfzongen and Hexszaxtzor. As the scars of the Ninth Horde slowly faded from the city, merchants rose to power.

The Opening of Yaxchilan - ~500 years ago (5 Cycles)

Yaxchilan is added between Alfzongen and Hexszaxtzor, leading to the current arrangement of N/NE/SE/S/SW/NW. There is considerable upheaval and two of the Warlords of the Triumvirate press for invading the new territory, which is at the time poorly defended. Armies mobilize and buildings constructed during the First Council are demolished wholesale to make room for them to push forward, in an effort to limit what is being called the Tenth Horde from renewing their conquest of Omphalos. The surviving Aesir prove themselves heroically.

Ultimately, Yaxchilan natives, with the help of Alfzongen and Viostethaer, succeed in pushing the Tenth Horde back into their territory. The invading Warlords are tried by the Council and executed, and the surviving Warlord declares herself no longer Warchief, but now the Overlord of Hexszaxtzor-- they will consolidate and transition to a new, more economically driven government, rather than relying on simple conquest. It is a poetic moment, memorialized as the Laying Down of Weapons.

The Second Council is reconstituted, this time with three representatives from each of the six Cardinal Planes, and the Aesir given a single representative, as a tiebreaker, though it is more of an honorary position.

The Drydari, secure in their position, begin their machinations to slowly take over Omphalos from behind the scenes. The new battleground will be economic, and food and water are their main weapon-- they are not the exclusive providers but they have the most, and arguably the best. Ichoryon must rely on painful desalination or access to freshwater springs, Viostethaer has limited deposits of pure elemental water, which must be denatured to be drinkable by mere mortals, and Yaxchilan is mostly swamp water so they rely on wells.

The Dragons of Alfzongen settle down to count their gold. Some, wounded by battle, go into a long hibernation, with trusted dragonkin lieutenants and lesser Dragons to maintain and invest the rewards of their efforts.

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Omphalos Timeline