An Illustrated History of the Core

[Ryan Naylor]

In the Kargatane thread, we were asked what we've got that could be useful to others. So to celebrate our 15th anniversary, I thought I'd release my illustrated history of the Core. One domain at a time.

Now, there are a couple of other versions of this in the Mausoleum. They're one interpretation; I decided to do my own to correct what I think are factual errors (like rivers and coastlines not matching up properly), and a few other differences in taste. So I'm not saying this is the definitive version. This is just my take on it.

It is amazing how well everything fits together when you get going though. Maps are originally from the Black Box. Some of the later scans are a bit rough though; as I said, I never really intended to release this.

So, to begin:

351 BC: Barovia forms. We all know what leads up to this. It remains isolated in the Mists for nearly 200 years, which (along with centuries of being isolated in the Balinoks before, plus 30 years of war leading up to 351) probably goes a long away to explaining the xenophobic character of the Barovians.

[Joël of the FoS]

You mean a suite of map with all domains popping and rearranging themselves over their creation time? I had the same idea, but lacked the skill to do so. Willing to see the rest of it!

[Ryan Naylor]

You mean a suite of map with all domains popping and rearranging themselves over their creation time? I had the same idea, but lacked the skill to do so. Willing to see the rest of it!

Exactly. I also lack the skill, but I did it anyway.

[Ryan Naylor]

547 BC: Forlorn forms.

Most of the few remaining humans (those not turned into goblyns - all druids (Gaz I, Castles Forlorn, but not I, Strahd II)) flee into Barovia, and most settle around Immol (Gaz I). Over the next few years, Strahd orders the counstruction of the Bogie Towers along the border to fight goblyn incursions (Gaz I).

I, Strahd II has a couple of interesting things to say about this (if we can believe Strahd). First, is that the druid Strahd meets is quite unconcerned about the conjunction, and that something is therefore affecting the minds of everyone involved except him (all the NPCs, if you will). Also, the joins are seamless. So neither the people nor the land show major signs of being joined.

Also, Castles Forlorn implies (although doesn't state, so this is supposition) that Forlorn hasn't been copied so much as ripped straight out of the ground (evidence being the earthquake damage and so on). Perhaps that's why it's so small? Also, it's interesting to note that both the original darklords are strongly tied to their domains - Strahd through his "I am the land" ritual with the Ba'al Verzi knife, and Tristen by Ruals' curse binding him to the tree. I like to think that the Dark Powers are experimenting with ways of capturing people, and haven't yet figured out the best way to do it - they copy Barovia, but steal Forlorn, and until they've perfected it, they need lords who are mystically bound to the land to work out how to do it (before shifting to ethereal resonance, perhaps).

[Gonzoron of the FoS]

Yup, we've got Strahdsbuddy and Lord Cyclohexane's take in the Mausoleum (the Core Genesis Project) but an alternate take is always welcome, especially from such an esteemed source.

[Ryan Naylor]

575: Arak forms.

This is where I, Strahd II becomes unreliable. On one hand, Strahd seems to be using the Domains of Dread timeline where Lamordia forms in 575 BC. However, he's ignoring the fact that it also doesn't join the Core until 683 BC. But since I, Strahd II is definitely nothing but propaganda (I like to think it's a prompt for Van Richten to out Azalin as a lich, since he outed Strahd the previous year and is about to publish the Guide to the Lich), I'll ignore it. Also, his description of Arak is wrong of this time period, which is currently lush and pleasant and has people living in it.

If you don't, Lamordia forms immediately north of Mt Baratak, with Arak off to the east.

Also note that Keening is still part of Arak at this point - when Tristessa (not her real name) died, the mountain shifted from where it was to where it is now. So where was it originally? Darklords says Marbh-Cathair lay on a trade route between Sidnar and Egertus, which is a bit awkward because Egertus isn't going to exist for decades. It does fit nicely into that position though, so we'll compromise and say it was where the trade route through Arak will be, and sits on a trade route between Barovia and Darkon (which otherwise only has a single mountain pass north of Krezk to trade through). It's the long way round, but getting through mountains can be like that. Plus, the Old Svalich Road has to go somewhere - that line is purely my invention.

Also note the Ivlis River now flows into Arak, joining up with one if its rivers rather than into the Mists. And look how well the two domains fit together! Even the elevations match up!

[Ryan Naylor]

579: Mordent forms.

This is my favourite map. I just love the shape. I gave Mordent a new hinterland to match up the elevations, but otherwise it's as is.

The Old Svalich Road doesn't go anywhere in Mordent - it gets to the river and then peters out. Strahd tells us there's a road to Mordentshire, but it's only going to be here for a couple of weeks so I didn't bother. Perhaps it becomes a trail which wasn't worth marking on the map? Or perhaps there's a little hamlet where it all goes on to the river? I quite like the idea of Mordent as a rustic backwater in the moors anyway.

[Ryan Naylor]

579: Darkon forms.

Only a couple of weeks after Mordent forms. There's a single mountain pass into Darkon near Krezk (according to I, SII), and the rest of the trade with Darkon goes the long way round through Arak, although they don't really have time to build a road from Sidnar to Marbh-Cathair - they just follow a pass (speculation based on Darklords). Given the enormous productivity of the Arakan mines from the temporal fugue, a few Darkonese immigrants move to Arak to work in the mines. According to Gaz II (amongst other sources), Karg is the second city of Darkon in this period, rather than Martira Bay, which is still not much more than a fishing village.

Strahd and Azalin have a few border skirmishes, which Strahd passes off as a war.

Mordent is still a little backwater appended on to the side of Darkon. It's only land route goes to Rivalis, which is probably not much more than a cross roads at the moment. I would imagine most trade would be done by sea, which may be the impetus for Martira Bay to start growing. But fundamentally, everyone's focus is on the east and south; the west's hour is yet to come.

So why is Mordent there rather than next to Barovia (which is where Strahd says it is?) Primarily because none of the geographical features match up: the elevations are wrong, the roads don't align, and most importantly, the coast line is completely wrong. So Mordent has to be connected over here rather than next to Barovia unless you want Rivalis and Nartok to gain sea frontages (which I think would probably have been noted in the histories somewhere had that happened). I've tried to keep the domains' shapes as much as possible, and that requires too much change for me to approve.

Plus, the mountains south of Mayvin and Barovia line up really nicely. It must have been like this.

[Ryan Naylor]

581: Bluetspur forms.

The remains of the Thaani (those who weren't in the towns when the domain formed - Forbidden Lore) stream out of the mountains into Barovia, and settle around Immol.

This one has always been contentious - cosmic horror in your gothic horror and so on. According to the Black Box, the mountains here are twisted and warped, defying gravity with corkscrew spires and stone arches. Small, glowing lights move through the rocks at night. Almost nothing lives here (by 740). From Thoughts of Darkness onwards, there's the more familiar version.

I like to think that ToD happens 6 months later than it canonically does, and that the hell dimension version only gets like that after the Grand Conjunction. Before that (when it's part of the Core), it's weird but relatively normal.

Forbidden Lore implies a few people still live in Bluetspur (and wander down out of the hills when insane) although the Black Box says no one lives above ground. Then we have the mystery of what happened to the people in Thaan's cities and towns.

For those wanting to get a bit more out of Bluetspur before the Grand Conjunction, the solution may be that, before 740 BC, there was still a dwindling population (from the Thaan cities) hidden away in the mountains, who finally (?) die out just before 740 BC. These mystically protected towns fall one by one to the illithids, a la the Dying Earth genre. Invisible, protected from the God Brain's maddening field, they eke out a spartan existence thinking they are the only people left in a dying world...

There's also the problem of why, in the last 150 years, the illithids haven't swarmed out of Bluetspur and conquered the Core. Essentially, there can only be 2 reasons for this: either they don't want to, or they can't. Perhaps when "illithids spawbned Bluetspur", they did it deliberately, and sealed the God Brain in by itself, so it took years to kidnap enough humans, ceremorphise them and build up its numbers to the point we see in Thoughts of Darkness. Perhaps they're focusing on cracking this last hidden nut in the Thaani city. Perhaps they're confident that the Thaan are the last humans in the world, and they've killed them all, so they don't bother looking? This is complicated by the God Brain desperately trying to reach out to psychics to experience physical sensation again, but perhaps the God Brain doesn't want to share it's discoveries with the illithids? Perhaps they're its jailer rather than it's servants?

Personally, I incline towards the Thaani city, if only because it offers more potential for adventure beyond "Run! Run in screaming terror while you still have a mind!" But that's up to you.

[Nathan of the FoS]

My wife's comment: "It looks like a brain." (!) And so it does.

[Zilfer]

yeah! I see what you mean!

[Ryan Naylor]

588: Keening forms.

After years of conflict, Loht's forces finally defeat the Cult of the Spider Queen. Loht captures the leader and her baby, and with his powrie offsider, breaks the Law of Arak by staking her out on the side of the mountain above Marbh-Cathair to die in the sun. This is the only time the Law of Arak has ever been broken. The cleric's screams as she dies (empowered by her dying curse) become an enormous sandstorm, which scours the surface of Arak (and Keening) of life. When the storm clears, her mountain has shifted out of Arak and halfway across Darkon. The mountain becomes Mt Lament, and the cleric's ghost becomes known by the Patterna name of Tristessa (Sad One).

So the mines of Arak only survive for 13 years before being eradicated.

This leads to 2 options for the gap between Keening and Arak: either there's Mist there, or there's some domain there which doesn't last until the modern day. I don't like having Misted areas ringed by domains when I don't have to, so...

Speculation: Between 588 BC and 691 BC (when Tepest replaces it), Ghastria sits between Keening, Barovia, Arak and Darkon.

There are a couple of reasons for this.

First, we know Ghastria is around in this timezone - Darklords tells us d'Polarno's uncursed life was "several centuries ago", which would put his time in the court of King Oderic at around 540 BC. Assuming his rise to power and then fall occurs over about 10 years (which would probably place him in his mid-30s if he starts his influence at about 20 when he achieves his majority), that means Ghastria forms in about 550 BC. I don't want to put it much earlier than this, because I like Forlorn being the second domain to form. And 550 BC or thereabouts puts its formation in the first glut of domains formed, with Forlorn, Har'Akir and Zherisia all forming within a few years of each other. Any later than this, and you start misusing the phrase "several centuries ago". However, there's no Sea of Sorrows for it to exist in, so it must be an Island of Terror. This is presumably therefore the period where d'Polarno nearly wipes out his peasantry exposing them to the picture. But he needs a consistent source of victims 4 times a year to renew himself which is made harder by being an Island. Unless the Dark Powers helpfully send a huge number of people through the Mists or through conjunctions, or he cuts a pretty substantial deal with the Corvara, both of which seems unlikely, where does he get them from?

This position doesn't really help with Ghastria's isolation, because they can really only trade for food with Darkon, and there is still a mountain in the way, but it does provide a reasonable source of victims for the painiting, so I think it preserves the thematic issues while resolving the practical ones.

Second, the RL3e map of Ghastria does fit quite nicely into this gap. In fact, the gap is almost exactly the shape of the real world East Riding of Yorkshire, which is too delicious a coincidence to go past.

I am interested in the thoughts of others though.

[Ryan Naylor]

593: Gundarak forms.

Personally, I think the best part of Tapestry of Dark Souls is its portrayal of life in Gundarak. It really doesn't sound like a nice place to be - possibly only Falkovnia would be worse. Gundar himself is a foil to Strahd obviously.

Someday...

[Hamiclar]

I enjoyed the thread so far. I have thought of the core domain devlopment through the centuries befor the GC change. Gundar is my favorite domain of horror I believe evern darker than Falkovia.

[Ryan Naylor]

Good! Until yesterday, I was beginning to wonder if anyone else was looking at it.