THE HISTORY OF THE ZO

Please bear in mind that this timeline is still under construction, and will be updated and corrected as more information becomes available.  Some links may be broken, and some information may be incomplete or illogical.  Please feel free to send comments, submissions, or criticisms to skirwan@clanlords.com.

 
c. 2500 BA - (Legend) Zurah and Ashim are born in what is now the Ghorak nation.

2483 BA - (Legend) In an assault on the mythical mountain stronghold of Fowr, the Brothers slay the Great Maker, the legendary creator of all Zo.  Images of the Great Maker seem to indicate he was not Zo himself, as he lacked the traditional forehead ridges and was a great deal shorter than average.

2480 BA - Zurah founds the first Zoran Council, declaring sovereign control over every Zo in the homeland.

2479 BA - Ghorak becomes the first nation-state to join the council.

2478 BA - Zrulan, Nyng, Sindal, Niwrek, Kirllannel, and B'do join the Council (Peacefully)

2459 BA - Ashim declares the Nilaxan, an alliance of N'il, Mogh, D'omus, and S'boh, the remaining Zo nations.

2458 BA - An excitable Nilaxan general, Vinlac of S'boh, misinterprets a flag change over the Zoran council meeting hall in Lok-ai-Zo.  Believing a flag to signal the onset of war, he leads a largely fruitless attack on the fortified hall.  The Brothers' War begins.

2457 BA - The Zoran forces are routed at the Battle of T'Norgh.

2456 BA - In a monumental victory known simply as The Breach of the Ulorg Line, the Nilaxan push through the main defensive line of the Zoran territories.

2456 BA - The fall of Zrulan.

2442 BA - Nyng falls to Nilaxan invaders.

2440 BA - B'do falls.

2420 BA - Kirllannel cecedes from the Zoran Council, and surrenders to the Nilaxan.

2405 BA - G'nonth, the outermost defensive outpost of Ghorak, vanishes into thin air.

2403 BA - In The Great Falling, Zurah kills Ashim, and demolishes a significant portion of the N'il nation in the process.

2402 BA - Alger of Niwrek, a foot soldier in the Zoran army, discovers the first known magical Portal deep beneath the ruins of Dorn (The primary Nilaxan Stronghold).  During Zurah's investigation of the portal  in the subsequent weeks, it opens, admitting the reanimated corpse of Ashim.  Following a brief but hectic knife-fight, Zurah slays Ashim for a second time.  According to legend, by killing his brother for a second time, Zurah prematurely repays his debt to death, and thus achieves immortality.  Legend has it that Ashim's final words (The second time around) were 'Omus anvir s'hey droy, v'hey kahn d'kash'.  The phrase has yet to be translated; not even the language is known.

2401 BA - A number of undead creatures flood the land, all emerging from portals eventually discovered to be located beneath every major Nilaxan fortress.  A representative of the invading force, an unnamed cloaked figure, appears before the Zoran council, declaring that the homeland would be destroyed and used for the purposes of 'The Dark One'.

2399 BA - After two years of slaughter, during which nearly half of the Zo population remaining from the Brothers' War is slaughtered, Zurah manages to control the portals to the point that he can cease the endless flow of invaders.

2397 BA - The last invading corpse warrior is slain by Gremma of B'do, as she discovers it hiding in her cistern.  The Homeland is free of outside forces for the first time in sixty-two years.

2396 BA - Zurah announces that he has completed his study of the portals, and discloses to the Zoran council that they are part of an ancient system of portals connecting many different lands and worlds.  Intending to permanently close the portals to entry from the world of the invasion, he proceeds to the exact center of the homeland, where he begins conducting a spell that endures for over six days.  On the final word of the spell, a Tower of Light rises from his position, and each portal in the homeland opens to a different destination.  Zurah is never seen nor heard from above.

2396 - 1396 BA - The fabled 'Thousand Years' Peace', during which the reactivated portals render the Homeland the center of a vast network of trade.  The Homeland experiences material prosperity like never before, but a growing band of dissidents decry the lack of spirituality in contemporary society.

1395 BA - A group of spiritualists known as the Walkers of the Path of Zurah (Commonly called The Walkers) come to power, led by a mysterious Zo named Azur.  They advocate spiritualism over materialism, and attempt to return the Zo to an early, simpler life.

1394 BA - A militant band of merchants known as the Ma'sfat declare the Zoran council to be in violation of Zo law, and attempt a coup d'etat, assassinating Azur.  The War of the Path begins.

1380 BA - The Walkers and allies, in an unheard of battle tactic, tunnel deep beneath the Ma'sfat citadel (Built on the ruins of the Zoran Hall at Lok-ai-Zo) and activate the magic of a large deposit of magic crystal, shattering it and collapsing the ground around Lok-ai-Zo.  The collapse also destroys a previously undiscovered portal, and deactivates all other portals.  With the portals inactive and their stronghold destroyed, the Ma'sfat surrender.

1379 BA - The Zoran council builds the Second Hall, a triangular building centered around the Tower of Light.  Lok-ai-Zo, now a wetland valley, is preserved to nature as a monument to what is soon termed the Age of the Path.

1107 BA - Zrulan Scientist Tewno Kopper advances the theory that the Homeland is not a sphere, as was always assumed, but actually an infinite plane stretching in all directions.  He is quickly laughed out of all reputable scientific and magical institutions.

938 BA - While pursuing a totally unrelated mathematical explanation of lunar motion, Nyng mathematician Heol Nectris accidentally stumbles onto mathematical proof that the Homeland cannot be a a finite three-dimensional object.  Tewno Kopper's good name is restored by order of the Zoran Council.

937 BA - Phoggus of Kirllannel embarks on an expedition to prove that the Homeland is indeed spherical.

936 BA - Phoggus returns, claiming to have circumnavigated the globe.  Kopper is once again discredited.

934 BA - Reviewing the records of Phoggus's journey, B'ob of B'do discovers that Phoggus did not, in fact, circumnavigate the Homeland, but actually became extremely lost and went in a large circle.  Kopper'r reputation is once again restored, and the Zoran Council issues the Edict of Planarity forbidding any Zo from ever again questioning the shape of the Homeland.

10 BA - Working with the diaries of Zurah, a skilled Zrulan mystic known as J'Obe creates a magical device capable of controlling the portals.

9 BA - After much debate, the Zoran Councils elects to use J'Obe's discovery to allow delegates but not invaders; each portal is set to allow a single individual through, then to lock out all passage.  Despite this advance, the council also decrees that no Zo shall enter a portal without the consent of the Council.

180 - A Dwarven mystic, Thorik Re'Dos, arrives in the homeland through a portal in the wilds of Sindal.  After wandering through the forest for over a week, he is discovered by Kalecim of Sindal, who takes him to the Zoran Council.  Thorik explains the situation in Shan Deral, and asks the Council for assistance.  The Council remains unmoved, content in its xenophobia, until the Dwarf mentions Mobius's search for the legendary portals.  By an extremely narrow margin (A tie vote decided by the National Primarchs), the Council elects to raise an army, eventually known as the Army of Liberation, and mount an attack on the ascendancy.

233 - The Army of Liberation marches through the portal and arrives in Shan Deral, deep within the Sword of the World Mountains.  They begin their march towards Mobius's capital.

234 - The Zo army meets Mobius's border patrol, a group of human foot soldiers and Dark Sentinels charged with patrolling the border of the capital protectorate, and engage them in battle.  The Zo are quickly routed by the unstoppable Dark Sentinels, and scatter in all directions.  The largest surviving unit, a warrior contingent from Ghorak, begin a hasty retreat towards the portal with the intent of escaping through it and shutting it from the other side.  Popular myth has it that members of the other eleven contingents also escaped, giving rise to the legend of the eleven lost tribes of Zo.

235 - The Ghorak contingent arrives at the portal, and finds a contingent of human soldiers already on the spot.  Joined by a group of Dwarven mystics who had been keeping undisclosed watch over the Humans, the Zo slay the last human just as the pursuing Dark Sentinels arrive.  Faced with a choice between escape and the safety of the Homeland, the Zo commander, Kozar of Ghorak, decides to destroy the portal and surrender.  In return for the pledge of military support, the Emperor gives the Zo the mountain fortress of Mountain's Reach as well as the adjacent Fen'Neko and Halfling protectorates.

237 - Called upon to prove their loyalty, the Zo assist the Emperor in suppressing the Uli Rebellion.