Continuity

I created this page to explain how the two campaigns fit together. It also gives a large scope of relevant history. None of this is "spoiler", per se, just keep in mind what your characters know and what you know.

History

Dates in history are given in the reckoning of "BD" and "AD," "Before Draconia" and "Anno Draconia." Yeah, I know, SOOOOOOOOOO ORIGINAL!!!!!!!! But it works... so stfu and read the stupid history.

c. 2000 BD : Great Shift

A horrible catastrophe occurs that represents the end of an era. The archlich Vecna, vying for even more power, makes a risky, and successful, bid for Godhood. Because of his "unorthodox" means of attaining said Godhood, the order of the universe shatters, and the Planescape breaks apart and re-forms itself. Continents drift, the weather changes, years increase in time. A new era is born.

The Great Shift exists to explain, canonically, the rules differences between 2nd and 3rd edition DnD.

The events causing the Great Shift, needless to say, require rather high knowledge checks to uncover. Anything existing before the Great Shift can be safely categorized as ancient or even "pre-historic".

2000 - 1 BD : Dark Age

After this event, civilization as it existed has been utterly destroyed. The world exists in a "dark age" wherin much change occurs. New monsters are born, new races rise, and intuitive magic comes to fruition in the common humanoid races (practitioners of which becoming known as "Sorcerers").

Good and consisten histories were not kept during this time. What literature remains was passed down through oral tradition and transcribed to writing in later eras. Therefore, it's rather inconsistent and exagerrant, despite the skill of those passing it on.

Elves, Gnomes, and Dwarves were extremely reclusive during this time period, and kept strictly to themselves in their woods, hills, and mountains.

0 AD : Draconia Rises

From the mountains and wastes of the north came the dragons and their kin. Over the world they swept, conquering it quickly and establishing rulership over all they surveyed. This regime, known as the "Draconian Empire," was the greatest union of peoples known to ever exist. Thanks to the Empire, writing and histories became commonplace, law and order took hold, and fine arts such as music and wizardry rose again to their old prominance.

The writing system of the Draconic rulers was simplified and added to the common tongue of humans, and Common became what it is today.

Interestingly, the lands of the Elves and Dwarves were much more difficult to establish hold over, and though their lands were eventually made the "official" territory of the Draconic Empire, the Empire had little to no involvement in the governing of those lands.

1 - 1000 AD : Peaceful Era

After their initial conquest, the peace of Draconia lasted for about a thousand years. Bla blah knowledge and learning at their peak.

Also notable in this time period is that the Dwarves, Elves and Gnomes once again began mingling with human society, and even began integrating with it, to an extent.

1000 - 1452 : Decadence and Decay

Like all empires, Draconian Empire eventually became the subject of internal corruption. Some theorize this was in part due to the diluting and inbreeding of the draconic line, given that by 1200 AD there were rumored to be no more actual dragons assisting in the ruling, only their increasingly inferior-blooded offspring. For a time (1300-1452) there was a kind of republic that kept the rulers around as figureheads with little actual power.

It was also during this time that the Empire completely lost its hold to the outlying lands of other races, first the Elves, followed by the Dwarves.

1452 - 1503 : The Red Tyrant

In 1452, a bloody takeover was initiated by a general. This coup was calculated to annihilate all the distributed powerheads in the republic and consolidate it back under the banner of the Draconia line. This coup was successful, and the Tyrant ruled for a long time with an iron fist.

1504 - 1615 : More Decay

After the death of the Red Tyrant, the kingdom experienced another period of decay, in which it lost much of its power. By the end of this period, the once-magnificent Empire had been reduced to a mere fraction of its former glory, its only remaining claim being the western half of the eastern continent.

1616 - 1624 : Revolution

In 1616, the nobles of the lands around the Empire's territory, along with many oppressed nobles within, banded together to revolt against the rulership and end the Empire once and for all. Most influential amongst these revolutionaries was Lady Elizabeth Beigh, forerunner to the future Junoan royal family. These revolutionaries were assisted by the clergy of Pelor and the fledgling temple of Heironeous, both of whom had been opposed to Draconia's methods for a long time.

The revolution went swiftly and easily, with minimal loss of civilian life. However, it sundered the kingdom apart into small countries and created a period of chaos that lasted 8 years. By the time the wars resolved and the dust cleared, the former Draconic empire's principalities had consolidated into four rulerships: Juno, Drakenheim, Alizarin, and Lasaedar (or, at least, the western half)

1625 - 1806 : A Sort of Peace

Peace came again, though not to the level that had been experienced during the Draconic Empire's height of power. It sufficed, however. The countries grew and, in time, prospered.

It was during this time, however, that a temporary threat to the peace arose: Victor, a powerful wizard, began threatening the general wellbeing with his experiments. Against the combined might of Alizarin, Juno, and the now-stronger clergies of Pelor and Heironeous, Victor was forced to assume lichdom and create a "pocket" world, in which he could experiment safely. The threat was eliminated... at least in this world.

1807 : The Rage

Right after Victor's departure, as if on cue, a cosmological event occured. The stars had aligned in a once-every-four-millenia event, ending an astral cycle, causing arcane forces beyond the understanding of any earthly powers to be set in motion. These triggered a number of events, not the least of them being the Rage.

The Rage, a fabled event of mythological proportions, was a phenomenon that affected all of dragonkind. Triggered by fluxuations in the astral matrix that blanketed all things, the minds of all dragons were driven to a murderous fervor. It was not necessarily evil or cruelty that motivated them, just a simple and overpowering desire to destroy. All dragons, Red and Gold alike, lost all of their sophistication that made them what they were and became mindless killing machines, intent on destroying all life within sight.

It was possibly the closest thing to a nuclear war that the DnD world is capable of experiencing. Miles and miles of lush forests, sunny fields, and well-built cities were reduced to scorched wasteland. Most nations united to attempt to do something about it. While the magical and martial skills of the armies were able to put up a good fight, the combined might of every dragon in the world scattered and burned them like grass.

Within one month, about half of the world's population had been exterminated. The remaining ones began to try and eke out a living as best as they could, and