The World of Lia -History

GENESIS

PRE-HISTORY

FIRST AGE

SECOND AGE

THIRD AGE

NEW AGE

[ Click HERE to see the Lian Calendar ]

GM's Notes - Creating the World of Lia

I created the World of Lia in late 1982 as a setting for the DragonQuest™ Role-Playing Game (RPG.) For the original map, I simply let my pencil wander over a large piece of poster paper (approx. 28" x 22") to create the shape of the continent. After adding some island groups, I put in mountain ranges, rivers, forests, deserts, swamps, etc., wherever I felt they should be, and I filled it all in with colored pencils.

Once the map was finished, I decided on a general plan for the human cultures, placed some of the key cities on the map, and wrote a general description of the various regions of the World of Lia (see below.) I created several alphabets for the human kingdoms, which I used (along with Tolkien's elven & dwarven scripts) to label the map. Afterward, I wrote more detailed outlines for the histories of the various human, elven, and dwarven kingdoms.

Below, along with a scan of the original map, is a transcript of my original hand-written notes. Together, these represent the first things ever put down on paper regarding the World of Lia. The notes are not too extensive, and I would emphasise that the descriptions were preliminary and several things changed before any gaming started.

-- Charlie

The original map of the World of Lia, drawn in late 1982

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The original descriptive notes on the World of Lia

The World of Lia
by C.D. Hail

The Great Waste is a vast, bitterly arid desert through which wander only a few scattered tribes of desert men known as the Rafyaw to men. To the west of the Wastes lie the Ereket Mts. in which one is likely to run into any of the small gatherings of dwarfs hard at work in their villages of stone. Orcs, also, it is said live in these mts, but not so many as permeate the Thin Mts. running far off to the west. To the North of the Ereket spans the Northern Forest, an ancient wood called the Gansuni by the race of age old elves which live in their green city of Gantuk deep w/in the forest. Just southwest of the Northern forest is a light, sparse wood known as Lamwood. Few elves still dwell in Lamwood because of Giants. Each of these forests has a river running through it. The Gansuni has the River Garflen from which the elves of Gantuk draw some ancient power. Lamwood lies on either shore of the Furlam River, which begins in the Ereket, runs along the Thin Mts. and then cuts northwest at Lamwood and runs to the Shallow Sea. On the northern shores of the Shallow Sea lies the great penninsula of Maloria, from whence giants have been known to come. Way to the south is Santuk, land of the Halflings, and the Hills of Marben, where the water-taught dwarfs dwell. Between the Arnruf River and Marben is the vastness ruled by the House of Palan (in Neightor,) called Palmar, the horse lands. The Palanians are horse masters. Palmar covers the eastern shore of the Aztuk Sea, part of the age-old trade routes which run all along the upper shores of the Sea of Sanguire to the Bay of Lloy and even down into Falnee Bay and down to the southeast shores of Delmor to Willowdale.

North of the Aztuk Sea, between the Ereket and the Thin Mts. is the ancient stronghold of Terin Brahol, once the tower of King Bralon who once ruled all the lands between the Ereket and Mt. Dirba, where his other stronghold was. However, the heir of Bralon, Melbor, no longer rules all Brá Hüm since the Delsen Hills began to become infested with dragons, and now the tower at Mt. Dirba has been taken over by a man named Monigorn, who now rules most of Bankor.

The Caverns of the Wind are all along a rocky penninsula sticking out off the eastern coast of southern Santuk and pirates have been seen sailing off the southern shores of Santuk coming from the East.

In the middle of the Sea of Sanguire lie the rocky Isles of Lesketia (the Isles of Protection,) the largest of which is Lessán. On Lessán stand the giant Towers of Trimon, the home of the 12 great mages, and all the colleges of magic. Enam, of course, keeps the Black Mage Nestor in line, but he does not know that the ancient stronghld of the Entity magics still acts as a refuge for evil mages from these colleges. Otherwise, the Towers of Trimon keep the waters safe in the Sea of Sanguire.

At the western tip of the Bay of Lloy stands the City of Llomia where lives the king of all Llofal, a bright man by the name of Fronók. Lomia is also the biggest trade city in the known world. Llofal includes all the land from the Sea of Sanguire to Ered Kelnor, from the River Drawberry to the Grey River.

The Grey River (the Cloburn in ancient times) runs through the eastern wing of the Forest of Ween, an Ent infested forest. The Kelnor Mts., from which the Grey River begins, is the home of the Dwarven mines of Kar Dûm, where the only truesilver lode in the world lies. To the northwest, on the western side of the Kel Ket pass and running up into the Dirb Mts. along the River Dirbain is the High Elven Forest of Lordion in which is Galaelin, the Lake of the Light.

The Elmit Swamp, in the old days, was but a small marsh at the southern tip of the eastern wing of the Ween, where the Grey River branches into its 3 daughter rivers, but now it has grown to encompass all the land between the Ween and the Sea of Sanguire, drinking up the ancient trade city of Kelm, now called the City of the Swamp. (Kelm has since been taken over by an evil Summoning mage known as Benth. Few know this, but myserious flashes and sounds have been known to come from w/in the swamp.)

The Coastal Steppes are sparsely inhabited but a race of sturdy nomads has set up a pseudo-kingdom under the rule of one Gorb, whose cavern stronghold lies deep in the rough lands. To the south, out of the southern tip of the Kelnor Mts., the Delen River runs down into the deep, dark Morkan Rain Forest, ancient home of the senile ent Morkan. Beyond the rain forest, the penninsula bends to the north and is virtually covered in barrows until you reach Mt. Westen, a lone peak on which the evil Black Mage Horlu has set his tower of black.

Between this penninsula and the coastal steppes are the Isles of the Lost Ships (Lesi Nais to the elves of Lordion,) where the Pirates of Sarlen dock their ships.

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Genesis

All cultures on the World of Lia have myths about how the world began. The myths of most human cultures start at the "All Fire," which predated the coming of men to the World of Lia. However, the elves have a long legend about the beginnig of the world.

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Pre-History

The World of Lia has existed for uncounted millenia. In the Days of Old, before the coming of Men to Lia, the immortal elves were the spiritual embodiment of the natural habitats of the world. However, in nearly constant opposition to the elves were the Magi - immortal humanoid beings with an innate ability to manipulate the abundant manna that permeated the atmosphere of Lia. The elves, by their nature, helped to guide the natural flow of manna in order to ensure the health of the world's ecosystem. The Magi manipulated manna to their own ends, bending it to their will to further their own interests and to gain more & more power.

For uncounted centuries, the World of Lia was the domain of the Magi. Even the elves were no match for the magical prowess of these wizards. While the elves were master spellsmiths with the elemental forces of nature, the Magi could tap into other sources of manna & channel forces that the elves could not. For instance, they could summon & bind powerful denizens of the outer planes and some of the wizards bargained with these beings for untold dark power over mortals. The Magi also could channel the rich field of ambient manna on Lia & use it for thaumaturgy, the generic magical art of manipulating the environment & other beings and bending them to one's will. Over time, the elves learned the thaumaturgy of the Magi and the wizards learned to channel elemental forces as the elves did. However, nearly all elves refused to delve into any magic that brought demons & others of their ilk to this world. Those elves who did learn the dark arts came to be known as the Drow. So, the balance of power between the elves & the Magi did not change until the introduction of a new sentient race to the world of Lia - humans.

Within the first century of the First Age of Man, only a dozen of the ancient Magi were left.

Each of these surviving wizards had customized his/her powers over the centuries and they each specialized in one particular magical domain. Those 12 whom the humans would come to call the "Great Wizards" included the Namer Eman, the Sorceror Detem, the Mentalist Belcor, the Illusionist Manif, the Aeromancer Bris, the Aquamancer Regen, the Pyromancer Ardiente, the Terramancer Intero, the Celestidigitator Himmel, the Necromancer Kann, the Black Mage Nestor, and the Summoner Obedecor. Although Eman & Obedecor were half-brothers, they held diametrically opposed points of view regarding magic and they were constantly at war with each other. From these 12 Magi would come the 12 "Colleges" of magic that exist to this day at the Towers of Trimon - the premiere university of magic on Lia.

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The First Age of Man

"In the beginning, there was the All Fire. From this emerged the Three Houses: Brá, Del, and Eull." This is the general way the story begins in all human cultures' versions of how Mankind came to be on Lia. Each religion has its own myth about the emergence of man from the All Fire, but the House of Del has legitimate claim to being the first to see the continent of Lia. Each house consisted of a tribe of around 800 at first, but this number fluxuated differently with each case.

Mankind came to the mainland of Lia from across the seas. Three great houses came to Lia at different times over the course of a century. The first was the House of Del. They came over the Great South Sea and arrived in the southwest. However, they remained a seagoing tribe for quite a long time, settling on the islands and never really establishing a permanent settlement on the mainland for centuries. For this reason, the House of Brá claims to be the first to settle on the continent of Lia. The second was the house of Brá, who came by the northern Icy Ocean and settled in the Northeast. The third was the house of Eull, who came by the Great East Ocean and into the Sanguire Sea to settle in the central part of the continent.

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The Second Age of Man

The Second Age began after mankind had been on Lia for 4000 years. The wars between the Great Wizards had ended and the Towers of Trimon had been established on the Lesketia. The World of Lia was pretty much established as it would be for centuries. The Second Age represents 4000 years of peace and prosperity, with no major wars and no significant changes in the political boundaries in the world.

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The Third Age of Man

For many people on the World of Lia, the Third Age came in with a whimper. There had been no major wars for 4 centuries and this didn't change right away in the year 8001. It would be another several hundred years before Lia would see a major conflict, but when it came, it literally changed the world.

The first war of the Third Age was between Llofall and Brahum.

In 939, the Kingdoms of Samuso, Palduin, and Qufal were united by a warlord named Mor, a descendant of the original House of Del. The united peoples came under the title "Delmor" in honor of this warlord.

The Giant Wars began in 11338 and lasted until 11342. Early in this conflict, the giants of Maloria caused many months of storms & earthquakes which resulted in the penninsula of Maloria breaking off from the mainland and becoming its own subcontinent.

The Dragon Wars of 11344 - '363 were the result of the influx of dragons into the Delsen Hills in the mid-Third Age. The Dragon Knights of Bráhüm were instrumental in ridding the Delsen Hills of most of the dragons.

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The New Age of Lia

A Cosmic Reset . . .

In the New Age of Lia, there is a new set of "Laws of the Universe" . . .

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