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I made the first update on my last post, DMing after research: notes on the Nerath Empire, regarding the history of the Nerath Empire.

To avoid endless repetition, I'll not repost over and over while adding new information. I'll just update the post and mark the changes in blue. Updating the post will be followed by a post like this one with the change log.

I hope it helps.

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Change log (18/04/2012)

1. Added information from the Monster vault. Threats to the Nenetir Vale and the Dungeon master's kit boxed sets. 
2. Provided evidence on where to put the height of the Nerath Empire.
3. Adjusted the date of the Saruun Khel civil war.
4. Revamped the chronology; it's now presented in a table containing the events and their dates in two simple reckonings: years considering the Nerath Empire and years considering the present day.

EDIT: New info is written in blue.

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If anyone has read my blog posts, they may notice something: I'm an obsessor. I'm so obsessive that right now I'm obsessing over being clear on how obsessive I am... (?)

Point is, I'm currently DMing a campaign in the Nentir Vale which includes the published module Thunderspire Labyrinth. In there (v. 1, p. 2) it says that the minotaurs of Saruun Khel got into a civil war "three centuries ago". As a good obsessor, I went back to my DM notes and placed this event where it would fit in the chronology, but then wondered "What if I'm missing something or my reckonings are wrong?" So I went online and looked for some forums or blogs where this matter was discussed, but found that many people wonders about the Nerath Empire, but few actually get all the info they want.

A while back I tried to reconstruct a timeline to better set the background for my D&D campaigns. I know it's a bit late with 5th ed. already announced and everything, but I'm presenting my findings anyway. Maybe someone might still find them useful in some way.

The following study is in no way complete. The aim of this would be to recreate a "complete" chronology of the in-game hsitory of 4th ed. using ONLY official sources (or interpretations rooted in official sources). I'll always try to cite my references (but I made the table I'm working woth a while ago, so I might not remember every source right away -in this case, I'll put an asterisk-, but I'll try to trace those back and put them here) and update with any new info I can get my hands on. Feedback will be enormously appreciated.

NOTE: I haven't made any research on Arkhosia and Bael-Turath, so I'm not including them here yet. I'll look for data on the matter and include it as soon as possible. Also, I don't have a unified reckoning of the years. Mostly, I use the founding of Nerath, it's fall, and the present day as milestones.

Most speculation on the chronology is taken from the history of Fallcrest. From the few facts we get from official sources about this town we can begin to shape our first impressions on the matter.

First off, the "present day" in 4th ed. seems to take place 100 years after the fall of Nerath (AFN). This is not entirely clear, as Rules compendium (p. 39) suggests that it was at that time when Nerath "began to crumble", not that if fell entirely. Some other sources* seem to set the actual end of Nerath there, 100 years before the "present day" (henceforth PD). We'll assume (suported by some data we'll review below) that Nerath indeed ended 100 years before PD and set PD on 100 AFN.

According to Dragon magazine (n. 393, p. 12), the Nerath Empire came right after Arkhosia and Bael Turath and lasted for 500 years. If we add this to our first assumptions, PD would be arguably 600 years after the founding of the empire. "Arguably" because it would be a valid observation that no empire rises after one night, but Dragon magazine (ibid.) says Nerath "enjoyed a meteoric rise to power". Nevermind this, we could establish 600 years before PD as the founding of the Nerath Empire proper, assuming a few year window (probably 620 BN -"before Nerath"- or something like that) of rise and conquest before that date, in which Magaroth (most probably), first emperor of Nerath, filled the economic, politic and cultural voids left by Arkhosia and Bael Turath, as well as conquered, settled and colonized territories (like the Nentir Vale; vid. infra).

Some years after, maybe year 200 of the Nerath Empire (NE) or somewhere in between, settlers moved up the Nentir River and established Fastormel, Harkenwold, and Winterhaven. This date can be ascertained form Dungeon master's guide 1 (p. 198, no official errata; and Dungeon master’s book, p. 54), where it says:

"Up until four centuries or so ago, the Moon Hills and the surrounding Nentir Vale were thinly settled borderlands, home to quarrelsome human hill-chieftains and remote realms of nonhumans[. ...] Ruins such as those on the Gray Downs or the ring-forts atop the Old Hills date back to these days, as do stories of the hero Vendar and the dragon of the Nentir." [Bold is mine. Sorry about the paragraph format: the indent button is not working]

Almost two centuries after the proper founding of the Empire, i.e. 290 NE, Aranda Markelhay, a Nerath hero, obtained a charter to build Moonstone Keep, from where Fallcrest was born (cfr. Rules compendium, p. 39). Two centuries thereafter (ibid.) Fallcrest thrived until the Empire "began to crumble". Here's why 500 NE is acceptable as the end of the Empire proper: the Rules compendium puts the founding of Fallcrest "310 years ago", that is, 310 from PD (310 BPD; ibid.) and the downfall of Nerath "about a century ago". The "about" part could be giving a prudent window for the last gasps of the Empire (this would mean the actual date of the fall could be 500 NE -100 BPD- ±5 or 6 years).

On this subject, Dragon magazine (n. 364, p. 12; n. 393, pp. 11-12) tells us that Nerath fell to gnoll hordes. Though the two sources differ on some matters (364 says the hordes were part of a cult of Yeenoghu whose leader was dubbed "The White Ruin" -maybe Nezrebe, Yeenoghu's exarch-, while 393 says they were just gnolls -no cult reference-, but calls the leader "Ruler of Ruin", which happens to be one of Yeenoghu's titles), both agree that gnolls brought the empire to an end.

There's an interesting piece of information on this regard (n. 393, p. 12): "With the central government destroyed, provincial kings banded to defend what remained of the empire." There's a contradiction in these sources, as 364 places the gnoll invasion "not long ago", but "during the height" of the Empire (p. 11). Threats to the Nentir Vale (p. 10) puts the height of the Empire “three hundred years ago” (from PD) and would suggest that, indeed, the zenith of the Nerath Empire came around 300 NE, thus disregarding 364’s claim that the gnoll invasion came “at the height of the Empire”. 

(This discrepancy could be explained from the fact that 354’s accounts are told from the perspective of the gnolls, which would tend to glorify their deeds, e.g., by saying they didn’t invade a shattering and weak Empire, but one that was in its prime)

Also, Dungeon master’s book suggests that this height would have lasted about 100 years, from 200 NE to 300 NE, for Winterheaven (one of the first civilized human settlements in the Nentir Vale, vid. id. p. 54, and Dungeon master’s guide [1], p. 198) “was founded during Nerath’s height” (Dungeon master’s book, p. 55, sidebar). If we add up the dates (200 NE for the first civilized human incursions into the Nentir Vale and the height of the Empire according to both the Dungeon master’s book and Threats to the Nentir Vale) we end up with the aforementioned span for the peak of Nerath’s prosperity. If we heed 393 more than 364 and assume the Empire was already shattering when the gnoll invasion came, then the 500 NE ±5 date for the proper fall of Nerath is not that implausible, and we could even set the Battle of Nine Sons around 480 or 490 NE (the second one seems to fit better). "Over the next two centuries" (Rules compendium, p. 39) seems to support this interpretation: 310 NE + 200 = 510, which would happen to be the date of the Bloodspear War in the Nentir Vale ("about 90 years ago [from PD], ibid."). This would mean that, after the gnolls, two decades passed until the orcs of the Stonemarch descended on the Nentir Vale and brought the doom of Fallcrest. That would be a reasonable time frame between the last attempts to gather back the pieces of the Empire (remembering that the gnolls destroyed most of the Empire's civilized points of light) and the orcs to be confident enough to march on an otherwise stable region.

This way, at first glance, 300 NE would be the date of the Saruun Khel civil war in Thunderspire (Thunderspire Labyrinth, p. 2), though there is an issue with this date. The first mention of the Saruun Khel civil war (ibid.) places it “three hundred years ago”, but Dungeon master’s book puts the complete fall of the minotaur city of Thunderspire after a civil war that took place “almost a hundred years before Fallcrest was established” (p. 61). This doesn’t add up, since the founding of Fallcrest was was 310 BPD and the Saruun Khel civil war happened in 300 BPD (vid. supra). This could jumble the Thunderspire timeline, but could be a minor incident, since there’s no harm in having the Labyrinth abandoned for 375 years instead of 275 and adds an ancient flavor to its story.

Also, moving Thunderspire’s timeline 100 years would account for the lack of intervention from the minotaurs in the human incursions to the Nentir Vale. It’s said that the minotaurs of Saruun Khel, as they began to worship Torog (Thunderspire Labyrinth, p. 2), became an “oppressive […] kingdom that subjugated neighboring lands”. Considering that the first region to establish in the Nentir Vale was Harkenwold (about 35 miles from Thunderspire), and that reaching both Winterhaven and Fastormel requires coming dangerously close to Thunderspire (the Fastormel ruin complex is about 35 miles from Thunderspire and about 30 miles run from where the Nentir River became the King’s Road to reach Winterhaven), it would have been uncanny for pilgrims to not only arrive on their respective regions, but to settle where a powerful and oppressive, Torog-worshipping, minotaur city holds sway, given there’s no record of Nerath fighting the minotaur lords of Thunderspire to protect their settlers (while there is mention of the Empire struggling with the Tigerclaw barbarians from Winterbole Forest, Dungeon master’s book, p. 61), so putting the end of Saruun Khel at 190 NE instead of 300 NE makes a lot more of historical sense.

400 NE would be the time of the Shadow Rift opening near Winterhaven (Keep on the Shadowfell, p. 2), 10 AFN would be the date of the Bloodspear War, 75 AFN would be the arrival of the Mages of Saruun (Thunderspire Labyrinth, id.), and Karavakos's attempt to seize power (Pyramid of Shadows) could had been somewhere before 490 NE but maybe after 300 NE (because "Nerath [...] held sway over much of the land at this time", Pyramid of Shadows, p. 2). (And in order to have a broken empire with government issues over territory, one must first expand as far as possible)

So, schematically, we could propose the following chronollogy:

Event	Nerath (NE)	Present day (PD)
Founding of the Nerath Empire	0 NE	600 BPD
Fall of Saruun Khel after civil war	190 NE	410 BPD
First civilized incursions into the Nentir Vale	200 NE	400 BPD
Settlement of Moonstone Keep and founding of Fallcrest	290 NE	310 BPD
Opening of the Shadow Rift near Winterhaven Building of Kalton Manor	400 NE	200 BPD
Battle of Nine Sons	490 NE	110 BPD
Fall of the Nerath Empire	500 NE	100 BPD
Bloodspear War	10 AFN	90 BPD
Sir Keegan’s madness at the Keep  on the Shadowfell	20 AFN	80 BPD
Arrival of Mages of Saruun to Thunderspire	75 AFN	25 BPD
Present day	100 AFN	0 PD

Agian, this is not definitive and I'm well open to discussion, feedback and any comment or tip on sources, corrections and alternate interpretations that may lead to a better and more complete chronology of this history, be it realted to the Nentir Vale, the Nerath Empire or, most needed, Arkhosia and Bael Turath.

Again, sorry if this rambling came too late.

Regards.

I was cleaning my DM files (some folders I keep with info on adventures I've ran through the years) and came upon something I thought I lost: the character record sheet for my very first 4th ed. character... A dwarf fighter.

His name's Theoderik (I know...). If you check his profile, you'll see the revamped version. He was originally a normal dwarf guardian fighter created back in 2009. He was meant for a campaign a friend of mine was supposed to DM, but the other player's reaction wasn't positive because the story meant for us to become evil and I seemed to be the only player to be ok with that... Even though the rest of the troupe were told in advance the adventure was meant for evil characters and everyone said it was fine (that's why Theoderik got stuck in lv. 4). This gave us several very uncomfortable incidents, but the most notable was the following.

At some point (being lv. 2) we got captured by a demon who gave us some runic tattoos on the back of our arms. The tattoos were supposed to spread on our bodies and devour our souls if we didn't do the marker's bidding (evil actions and stuff), with the promise that, in time, we might become powerful enough to draw the marks from ourselves. At that point the demon gave us a mission (I don't even remember exactly what it was).

There was this guy, the same I mentioned in another post (regarded himself as TEH BEST DM EVAH), who also thought he was TEH L33TEST & BESTEST ROLEPLAYAH EVAH, but in reality he was TEH BEAST PLAYER. Seems the only thing he was good at was Magic: the gathering (he was great at this, actually). Anyways, the DM was all into performing the demon telling us about the marks and everything, and The Beast Player interrupted the action to say (as a player, not in character):

TBP: Be evil? I don't wanna be evil. That sux bigtime.
DM: *dizzy from the anticlimactic remark and from being pulled out of character all of a sudden* Huh?
TBP: Yeah, I don't play to be evil, I play to be an adventurer, be good, and save the world. What you're trying to pull here is epic BS.
DM: Well, I told you before making characters that my adventure was for evil characters and you all said it was ok.
TBP: Whatever. I'm not gonna be evil.
DM: *in character as the demon* If thou not do as I command, thou shall experience suffering before death! *as DM* The runic tattoos begin to glow with a reddish hue and you feel excrutiating pain in you whole body and some kind of spiritual ache, as if your soul was being rent.
TBP: Screw you, [here goes the name of the DM]! I'd rather die.
DM: *showing the first signs of annoyment* He can control you through the tattoos...
TPB: *smirking mockingly* Well then, you play my character then.

And he raised his character sheet and shook it in front of the DM's face.

(NOTE: of course, this is not the exact conversation. Even though I remember it quite clearly, it was a lot more dysphemic and unpolite. I edited some parts of it to fit the general idea an avoid using foul language)

In the end, the DM sighed and winged it saying the demon didn't care for whinery, that we had been warned, and cast us out of his abode. Outside, in a forest, we met some mysterious character who told us the marks could be removed without doing the demon's bidding. From here, the campaign would take off in a quest to find people, information and resources to rid us from the marks. I.e., the campaign changed completely. We advanced some more, got into a cave at some point, fought a young dragon, and we never  took up that campaign again.

By the way, during the fight The Beast Player (a warlord) took one action to grant us some bonuses and refused to fight the dragon arguing he (TBP, not the dracolich) was too powerful due to his magic sword (go figure, being lv. 2) and that if he hit it, he would destroy him and that wouldn't be any fun. So his warlord just lingered at the back for a couple of turns. The dragon attacked a couple of rounds with its breath weapon (the damn lucky thing kept recharging it), the warlord still not moving a finger. And then, the dragon recharged because of being bloodied and scored a crit with its breath weapon. The warlord (and other character, a ranger, I guess) dropped down. It was an absolute miracle that Theoderik and the party's cleric alone managed to kill it (it was not even bloodied when it dropped the two other characters).

Looking back, I think the DM somehow sinned in trying to railroad the party a bit (though I'm not sure that even qualifies as "railroading", because there had been fair warning of the campaign's nature), but also the The Beast Player handled the situation in an incredibly poor, even childish, manner. Maybe the DM shuld have told the Beast that it was not mandatory for him to play (it certainly helps to get away with things if you own the hobby shop were everyone gathers to play)... I dunno.

What would you have done in this case? As DMs we should be prepared to handle this sort of situations (actually, we should be able to avoid finding ourselves in this situations to begin with). It certainly turned what could have been a sweet gaming day into a bitter, annoying, and frustrating experience. It gave me something to watch out for as DM and player. And it made Theoderik very very sad, for he now sits in wait for some other campaign were he can swing his mordenkrad and drive his greatspear through some monster flesh.

I've never said it here, but I'm an obsessor. For me it's never enough just having a plain battle grid: if there's an alcove in the northern wall of the chamber, there should actually be an alcove in the northern wall of the chamber. In a combat encounter, such is my view, the environment should be as concrete as possible in order to play strategy.

This, of course, is a matter of personal taste. For some DMs imagination is the best prop. For others, it's not a mere prop, but the engine of the game itself. Even though I put roleplay first in any context, in combat it's necessary to make it easy for players to take quick decisions in order to not hinder action synergy and leave more room for roleplay even inside heated combat. Less imagining how tall is an abstract mound equals more imagining how you jump on the orc's shield while driving your shortsword in his eye...

Again, this is my philosophy. It's by no means "correctness", "absoulteness" or "y'all-should-do-this-ness".

So, in order to fulfill my own very own stndards, I had to work a little bit with my daft hands (yes, I really meant "daft", not "deft": I'm specially clumsy when it comes to crafting stuff) to create interchangeable scenery for my campaigns. Well, only for the parts where I can't use printed maps, that is.

This actually means "Get to know your way around cardstock", because it's the simplest, cheapest way I've found to craft stuff for D&D. In this case, I made blocks of several shapes and sizes like these ones:


The proccess is quite simple (but a bit awkward): in a large piece of cardstock draw "unfolded" versions of the cubes and then, with an utility knife, cut the shapes and then "fold" the shape and bind it with something (I used my loyal scotch tape). May take quite a while to make enough cubes for a single location, though.

Anyways, I recommend, if you're going to use the cardstock cubes, to plan what shapes and quantities you'll need while planning your campaign. For example, here's what area 3 for the Kobold Hall mini-adventure in the Dungeon Master's guide 1 looks like:


I indeed used a Dungeon Tile from the Witchlight Fens set for the green-goo pool. The walls are marked as 10 ft. high, so that means 2x2x2 squares cubes. The sarcophagi should be a bit shorter, but that can also be tweaked if you like. As you can see, not much cubes are needed and some will most likely be used several times (this mini-adventure uses the same shapes a lot). So, again, I recommend thinking in advance what shapes will you need in your encounters.

Here's the same setting from above:


Yes: I even made stairs. These are actually a bit of a nightmare to craft, because every "stepped" square must be divided by two, i.e., each square contains two steps of a set of stairs, so, for a 10 ft. (two squares) set of stairs, you need to divide and fold four actual squares. Also, be careful, because the steps may be too small for a medium sized miniature to stand on them (unless you find some way -like a bit of tape under the miniature base). The simplest option is to use straight cardstock ramps instead of steps.

Here's the scenario as seen from behind:


So yes, in conclusion, I'm an obsessor. But my players seem to enjoy combats with 3D environs better, and spend less time asking "How high was that, again?" and more time saying things like "I swirl my sword, a thundering sound and lightning jump with the mere friction of the blade on the air", so I'll say it's all worth it.

Just one more thing: if anyone can come up with a way to craft doors that don't get in the way and can be used with this kind of cubes, PLEASE let me know. I'll be forever grateful.

I went to the postal office today. Some D&D minis I ordered should be delivered these days. Because of unforseen working conditions, there's nobody home around office hours to receive the delivery, so I gotta check at the post office once in a while to see if they're here. I'm a bit on a rush, because I ordered some hobgoblins I need for saturday's session and it's been 16 work days since I got the shipping confirmation. The guy at the post office said my package is probably being delayed in customs, so... I repeat: "developing country". *sigh*

Anyway, this post isn't about shipping anxiety. This post is about my story getting a battle grid for my D&D campaigns.

After deducing I needed rulebooks for everyone in the game to consult, I remembered my horrific experiences some of my D&D 3.5 games. There was this disgusting guy who ran a shop I used to play Magic and RPGs at and he regarded himself as TEH best DM evah (or Storyteller, or Keeper, or whatever for that matter).

Besides many of his annoying DMing traits (munchkin enemies, unbalanced encounters, use and abuse of deus ex machina, fully improvised stories, made on the fly; blatant plagiarism of anime and movies, etc.), he didn't like the battle grid. As a concept, I mean. Yup, he never used it. He hated it for some unknown reason. If you asked him, he said some vague excuse like "Only noobs need a battle grid" or something. This was more terrible than his DMing, because for combat in D&D, tactical movement and distance is EVERYTHING. If you don't use a battle grid, you must somehow devise some system to make distance and tactics work (the most simple is telling everybody the distances at the begin of a fight, keeping track of them and summarizing to your players every turn if possible). He didn't, so the lack of grid lead to frustrating situations. Two outstanding examples below:

• [DM:] "You manage to catch the dark paladins unaware: surprise round!" [P1:] "Cool! Imma charge the closest fellow!" [DM:] "Ok, you take your whole first turn to get there." [P1:] "Huh? I said 'charge', not approach; why would I waste an ambush approaching?" [DM:] "Doesn't matter: the dark palaidn is out of range for your charge. You approach instead." [P1:] "How far is that creep?" [DM:] "About 50 ft." [P1:] "Well, my speed is 30 feet, and when charging, I can move at twice my speed, so, imma charge the closest fellow!" [DM:] "Ok, you take your whole first turn to get there." [All:] *sigh*
• [DM:] "The orc attacks you, A. Crit! 10d12 damage. You dropped? Then the orc cleaves B over there." [P2:] "Err... The orc can't cleave me, I'm about 10 ft. across, even if he takes a 5-foot step, he can't reach." [DM:] "Crit! 10d12 damage!" [P2:] "Are you listening? He can't cleave me!" [DM:] "10d12 damage." [P2:] "He'd drop me, but since he cannot cleave me, that's..." [DM:] "You drop? Sweet! He great cleaves C over there... Crit! 10d12 damage, please." [P3:] "Dude, I'm a wizard: I never stand closer than 100 ft. from the skirmish line." [DM:] "I.SAID.10.D.12.DAMAGE.PLEASE. Gosh! I'm sick and tired of everyone questioning the DM's decisions!"