I am working on writing a campaign setting for the Dungeons & Dragons game I run at the library. This history is intentionally written more as a rough outline than a highly-detailed backstory, because this is the basic information that is general knowledge for all players. Throughout this series, everything is intended just to build a framework so the players can help me fill in some details and make the world their own. My goal is to keep the typical swords-and-sorcery high fantasy adventure atmosphere. I am also trying to make it system-agnostic, so although I am using a pantheon of D&D deities here, the eventual deities section I plan to post can be replaced as needed by any DM.

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The Mage War: a History

About 300 years before the in-game "present day," the world suffered the great cataclysm commonly called the Mage War. This war was the culmination of a long conspiracy by the Cult of Vecna. Members of this cult are dedicated to secrets and schemes as a means to power. Over many decades, they had infiltrated key positions in every cultural organization and every level of society as their numbers swelled in secret. On an appointed day of dark import to the cult, they unveiled their presence by trying to kill any they saw as a threat to their worldwide coup. All mage colleges had become secret covens, governments had been systematically infiltrated, military hierarchies were completely compromised, and saboteurs and assassins had lain in wait to destroy all lines of communication and trade.

The world reeled in the wake of the attack. Castles and universities were destroyed. Urban populations were decimated. Fires raged through port cities and across farmlands. Cults dedicated to other evil gods took advantage of the chaos to seize power as well. Rebellious lords further splintered the kingdoms of men already reeling in shock from the attacks they were suffering on every front. Dwarves who had sworn dark pacts to demons summoned creatures of nightmare in the depths of their mountain halls. Elves swayed by Zehir sought to destroy the eternal lights in elven citadels. Necromancers summoned the dead to fight against the living. Plagues were unleashed by cruel alchemists. The denizens of the Underdark emerged from secret caves for nightly pillaging. Dragons sought to plunder the riches of dead monarchs. Bands of brigands began to roam the countryside as famine gripped the economy and order collapsed under the strain of conflict. Tribes of Orcs swept through the unprotected outlying lands.

Chaos reigned for many years. On both sides, alliances were formed and then swiftly broken as personal conflicts and opposing ambitions impeded cooperation. Between open war and factional infighting, the death toll and destruction were beyond imagination. Famine was inevitable as farmlands were destroyed and farmers slaughtered. The strongholds that had withstood the initial Cult of Vecna attacks and the subsequent upheavals found themselves besieged, and many were sacked after the inhabitants were massacred indiscriminately, or worse still, subjected to ritual sacrifices.

Most of the cities that survived were coastal ports with strong navies, or mountain fortresses with well-prepared stores and defenses. Slowly, these communities managed to withstand the onslaught, and then form new alliances. They began to push back, although only with heavy losses. In a final decisive battle, the united armies of elves, men, and dwarves along with allies from various other races fought the hordes of fanatical cultists, strange creatures from the Underdark, and massed undead. This great battle was a Pyrrhic victory for the alliance of order. It devastated the ancient Forest of Amanth and plains of Hale. Powerful arcane spells, the rot of corpses that had been fueled by dark magic, and purely vindictive destruction caused an inferno that changed the climate and left behind nothing but a desert wasteland.

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Next: The Fractured Realms of Today