History of the South-East, Part 1: A New Home (-448 to -400 CY)

“A man who has been through bitter experiences

 and travelled far enjoys even his sufferings after a time.”

Homer, The Odyssey

The Blossoming of the Scarlet

What can one say of the Suel? They were clever. They were ambitious. They desired to rise to heights and power hitherto only known to the Grey Elves. And they did, even as the elves tried to limit what power might be known to them. Why, the Suel had asked? Had they not shown aptitude for architecture, for theatre and music and art, and magic? They implored the Grey Elves to reconsider. In response, the Grey Elves removed themselves from the lands of the Suel. And the Suel grew angry. The Suel found new allies, dark cousins of those once friendly Greys. And when those dark allies betrayed them, they sought power over those lesser peoples that dwelt around them. Then then over those further still, until they had mastery over all they surveyed west of the Crystalmists, the Hellfurnaces, the Barrier Peaks, and the Yatils. Those lesser peoples, the Bakluni, the Oeridians, they rebelled. Then came the War that would undo all of their great works. Or would it?

The Year of Prophets

“The start of the Great War surprised no one. For longer than a year, raiders from both nations stormed across the Haut Range, pillaging and burning homes and farms on either side of the great mountains. In the spring of 5031 SD Emperor Ad-Zol sent nine thousand troops across the mountains to punish the black-haired northerners. They were met on the fields of Padyr by a comparable force sent by the Bakluni Padishah Ramif; after a pitched battle that lasted almost three days, the armies had annihilated one another. The handful of surviving warriors from the Emperor’s army retreated to their homeland and reported imminent invasion by the foul Bakluni, and the very air that my people breathed became charged with the fervor of war.”

—from the Journal of Kavelli Mauk [SB - 2]

-448 CY

The Year of the Prophets. They read doom in the cards, the bones, and the tea leaves. Within the span of a generation the empire would fall, they predicted. Repent, they cried. Turn from your wicked ways, they plead, warning against worship of the Chained God, and warding against something they named Shothragot. To no avail. The masses laughed and turned their backs on the doomsayers. But it was plain in their eyes that their laughter was false. They turned their backs on their prophets because they knew their emperor was displeased, and they feared their emperor’s wrath more than their prophets’ doom.

Seven different prophets foretell of the destruction of the Suel Empire within 30 years. The Emperor, Yellax-ad-Zol has all seven drawn and quartered, even though one of the prophets is a High Priest of Beltar. [OJ11] (196 OR/ 5068 SD/1703 FT)

-447 CY

Not all were deaf to the prophets’ warnings. The Emperor’s son took heed, for, if seven prophets should face certain death to warn of impending disaster, who was he dispute them. He knew more than most, and heeded their warnings because he’d read the Lament for Lost Tharizdun, that foul scripture penned by that mad priest Wongas, who’d mysteriously vanished into the East a century earlier, and he’d seen with his own eyes what that dark lord demanded at his worship when it had been fashionable to be seen to attend such things, and knew what that Chained God desired even if those other revellers did not.

Fleeing the Kingdom

Zellifar-ad-Zol, son of the Emperor, mage/high priest of Beltar, breaks with his father and takes over 8,000 Suloise loyal to himself, and flees the kingdom, eastward. The ferocity and magical might of the movement scatters the Oerdians in its path, causing the remainder of the Oerdian to migrate. Slerotin, called “the Last High Mage” causes a huge tunnel to be bored into the Crystalmists, through which the Zolite Suel flee. He then seals the tunnel closed at both ends, trapping one lesser branch of the family, the Lerara, inside. The Zolites continue eastward heading toward the southeast as well as to Hepmonoland. [OJ11] (197 OR/ 5069 SD/1704 FT)

“Most remarkably, the emperor’s son had fled the year before this, accompanied by thousands of citizens loyal to him. The emperor sent the houses Schnai, Cruskii and Fruztti to bring back his son to face justice. The houses vanished, lost—no one knew why—to the lands to the east.”

—from the Journal of Kavelli Mauk [SB - 2]

-446 CY

The Emperor was not pleased! Traitor, he screamed, when he heard of his son’s betrayal. His advisors and courtiers bowed and slunk away from their emperor’s wrath, for they knew it all too well, and feared their being heir to it in his son’s absence.

 The emperor commands that the Houses Schnai, Cruskii and Fruztii move [and] bring his son, and the "Unloyal" back to face justice. [OJ1] (198 OR/ 5070 SD/1705 FT)

“By 5070 DD, the population of our cities were falling, far beyond the attrition to be expected from the war with the northerners. Many commoners and even a few minor noble houses escaped the conflict and moved east, across the Harsh Pass and into the lands beyond. The nobles would have liked their contemporaries to believe the move was influenced by tales of the fertile lands and great wealth beyond the Crystalmists, but the truth is that they feared powerful rival houses, who might take advantage of the extingencies of the war with the dark-eyed northerners to eliminate them.”

—from the Journal of Kavelli Mauk [SB - 2]

-445 to -423 CY

The Zolites scatter the Flannae before them, and move south to the Tilvanot Peninsula. Zellifar carries with him two of the lesser Binders and the Chief Binder. The three pursuing houses, unable to find the magical tunnel, turned north, where they are met by regrouped Oerdians and fearful Flannae who harry and drive these Suel Houses south. Many are lost and remained in the Amedio Jungle. They eventually [turn] back east and march toward what is now the Rift Canyon. [OJ11] (199-221 OR/ 5071 – 5093 SD/1706-1728 FT)

-425 CY 

A Vision of Purity

Kevalli Mauk had a vision of purity. Had the Suel remained pure, the Suel would have remained strong. Had the Suel remained pure, they would have held dominion over all of the world. The long-passed emperor Zeeckar had understood that when he had looked upon his empire and saw that the blood of the Suel had become tainted, and knew that such taint had been why the Suloise Empire had been much diminished. He had declared his “War of Purity.” He had set aside those most pure, their aim to return their people to their rightful place, his Scarlet Brotherhood. They had failed. But they had endured. Kevelli would see to it that Zeeckar’s prophetic vision should come to pass.

“It was on the first day of they year 5091 SD that I presented my vision to the council of nobles. The Brotherhood of the Scarlet Sign, my vision revealed would be an organization whose sole intent was to prevent dilution of the virtues of our people. The war with the Bakluni did not prevent contact with their nefarious race, and the excursions from the rebellious Roka, Chebi and Hochebi, and visitors from the west and south, polluted our people with their flesh and their cultures. The Brotherhood would swear to uphold the ideals of the Suel culture, forswearing physical and mental corruption. Their purity would be the purity of the flame, tempting the pure, searing the unworthy and branding the inferior. Despite resistance from certain obviously tainted houses, the council and the king approved my plan and presented me with a mansion and funds for the use in creating this order.”

—from the Journal of Kavelli Mauk [SB - 2] (5091 SD)

-423 CY

Zellifar was not the saviour his followers had imagined; indeed, his reading the Lament for Lost Tharizdun had twisted him and he proved as much a tyrant as his father, so, soon after taking flight, there were those among them who saw that they had traded one cruel emperor for another, and they began to steal away in the chaos he fostered as they were driven further east.

One of Zellifar’s minions, the High Priest Pellipardus, slips away from the Zolites and takes his family. Zellifar does not pursue, fearing that this will take his attention away from the Three Houses of Pursuit: the Schnai, the Fruztii, and the Cruski. [OJ11] (223 OR/ 5093 SD/1728 FT)

-422 CY

Zellifar parleys with the Houses of Pursuit. His Archmage, Slerotin, unleashes a mass enfeeblement on the mages of the three Houses, and a mass suggestion upon the other members of the Houses. Slerotin is blasted by magical energies upon the casting of these mighty spells, leaving the Rift Canyon as the only physical remains of this energy. The remnants of the Three Pursuing Houses flee northeastward.

The Houses of Pursuit have been mind-swept. They have no purpose and no direction and no mages whatsoever after they are hit by these spells. They do not know why they are searching or what they are searching for. They have two binders but do not realize it! As they move aimlessly, they begin to seek a homeland. They do not remember where they came from. The memories of their gods are virtually blotted out.

The three houses that eventually settle in the Barbarian States lose almost all contact with the more ‘civilized’ and good gods of their people. As they begin to multiply and prosper Kord and Llerg become major gods to them but Fortubo, Lendor, Lydia and Jascar are forgotten.

Farther south in Ratik a slightly different mix of peoples assembles. Gods like Phaulkon, Norebo and Phyton are still remembered. [OJ11] (224 OR/ 5094 SD/ 1729 FT)

Lendore comes to the Spindrift Islands.

This group of islands has housed from time immemorial the strongholds of high-elven wizards and lords. They had little contact with humans until the arrival of the legendary Archmage, Lendore, who brought his fellowship out from the lands of the Suel Imperium in anticipation of the Invoked Devastation. Fleeing the impending disaster, the wizard and his band journeyed to the easternmost shores of Oerik, then further still, until they came at last to the Spindrift Isles. The Invoked Devastation occurred, as Lendore knew it must, but it was followed by a catastrophe he had not foreseen: the Rain of Colorless Fire and the destruction of the empire. [LGG - 68]

Kevelli Mauk, leader of the Scarlet Brotherhood, also heeded the warnings of the seven prophets. He gathered his servants and his ten most ardent students, and managed to escape to the Flanaess just before disaster hit. They crossed the Hellfurnaces and found those Suel who’d first fled to the Sheldomar Valley as the Great War began and had already begun to settle there. But those Suel had not held true to the Path of Purity, having already consorted with the lesser Oeridians. They were not entirely without use, Mauk found, for they had news of Zellifar-ad-Zol and those thousands who had followed him into the east. (222 OR/ 5092 SD/ 1727 FT)

The hour before the Rain began, Kevelli was overwhelmed by a premonition of doom; this supernatural warning gave him time to activate a now-lost artifact known as Lendor’s Matrix, an hourglass-shaped device that could temporarily suspend time and transport matter across great distances. He gathered his ten most ardent students their slaves and the Tome of the Scarlet Sign—the manifesto of the Scarlet Brotherhood—and used the Matrix to teleport to the western side of the Hellfurnaces, moments before the cataclysm eradicated the Suel capital and surrounding lands. [SB - 3]

Invoked Devastation and Rain of Colourless Fire Strike

The Rain of Colourless Fire

The Great War had reached its height. Thousands had perished, and thousands would perish still. Each revelled in their atrocities, citing moral and racial superiority, eager to cleanse the land of the filth that tainted it.

In the Suel Empire proper, the Suel mages gather their magical energies and cast the Invoked Devastation. No Bakluni cities survive this blast of magical energy. But Bakluni mages gather at Tovag Baragu, using the arcane powers of the Binders, and drawing upon the energies of their holiest site, withstand these energies and counterstrike with the Rain of Colorless Fire. The remains of this expenditure of energy are now called the Dry Steppes, and the Sea of Dust. The holders of all Four Binders are utterly destroyed but the binders themselves are not. [OJ11] (224 OR/ 5094 SD/1729 FT)

When the Invoked Devastation came upon the Baklunish, their own magi brought down the Rain of Colorless Fire in a last terrible curse, and this so affected the Suloise Empire as to cause it to become the Sea of Dust. [Folio - 5]

The Suloise lands were inundated by a nearly invisible fiery rain which killed all creatures it struck, burned all living things, ignited the landscape with colorless flame, and burned the very hills into ash. [Folio - 26] 224_OR/ 5094 SD/1729 FT

Thus ended the Age of Glory, the west sundered and burned, its glory under a blanket of ash.

When the Rain of Colorless Fire ended the Age of Glory and brought down the Empire, the tribes [of the Suloise] decided to seek their fate to the east, in the lands of the Flan. [WoGG - 27]

“The Bakluni wizards have wrought terrible fate on my homeland. Lights without color fell from the sky and burned everything to ash—people, homes, even the soil and the rock beneath. At last I understand the foreboding that consumed me this past hour and drove me to flee with a handful of students and slaves—it was a premonition of the death of my city and my people. Saved by Lendor’s Matrix, we now stand at the entrance to the Harsh Pass, watching the destruction of millions of men and women, the greatest empire of humankind, and five thousand years of history.

“I swear such a thing will never happen again. Never will my people be stained and damaged by the actions of an inferior race. We will travel east and find the scattered survivors of our great empire. My Scarlet Brotherhood will build the Suel empire anew. All who do not kneel to us will be crushed. We must move with haste, for the fires of my nation’s death-pyre move this way.”

—from the Journal of Kavelli Mauk [SB - 2,3]

-419 CY 

Long did Kevelli Mauk wander, harried by the migration of the Aerdy nation. Kevelli was not alone. He collected those Suel he found who shared his mind, those who understood the greatness of their people, and those disaffected by the Aerdy. He was herded ever east because whenever the Aerdy came upon he and his followers they recognized their former masters, and remembered their lot under the mastery of those cruel overlords, and drove him from those lands.

The Exodus

Four times [Kevelli and his followers] stopped, hoping to settle, but each time migrating Oeridians arrived and claimed [their] chosen territory. The Suel band was forced to flee, their numbers too small to fend off attacks, despite the skills of their guards and warriors.

The refugees struck south across a great swamp […].

Eventually the travelers emerged from the swamp, at the narrowest part of the Tilvanot (“south-hill”) peninsula. Liking the cool breezes and misty skies of the place, they continued south and came at last to the great mesa, where they found a colony of several thousand followers of the Suel Emperor’s sun Zellif, who had been living there since 2071 SD. Zellif’s people had claimed the peninsula as their own, driving away, beginning with, or enslaving the humanoid and Flan tribes there. [SB - 3]

Hesuel Ilshar

The colony built an amazing city [Hesuel Ilshar] on the plateau, imitating the architectural styles of their lost homeland. The Tome of the Scarlet Sign was copied a dozen times; the manuscripts were passed to each Brotherhood recruit in turn for memorization. [SB - 3]

While aloof and sometimes cruel, the new Suel nation—now known by the unassuming name Shar, meaning “purity”—was careful not to reveal its true intentions.

Suel from across the Flanaess continued to migrate into the Brotherhood lands; those that agreed with the Brotherhood philosophy stayed; others crossed the shark-infested waters of the Tilva (“southern”) Strait to the jungles of the continent to the south. [SB - 3]

-413 CY

The Suel had spread out. Few migrated north. They were a southern people, accustomed to gentle climes and fertile fields. Those who had migrated before the Rain fell, found other gentle climes and other fertile fields, some even going so far as to venture across the waters, settling in the jungles to the south. But they were Suel, despite their having fled the plagues and the wars of the west. They had displaced the Flan, just as the Aerdy were displacing them after the Rains. And they had displaced the peoples of the Amedeo and Hepmonaland. (5103 SD)

Zar was the first region of Hepmonaland to be settled by the refugees of the Suel Kingdom. Those who stayed here were the most stubborn and intractable of the lot; the more adventurous moved on, as did those seeking greater security from the people of the Falnaess. The city of Zar was founded in 5103 SD, little more than a cluster of rounded stone and wood buildings in a cleared space in the jungle. It grew as Suel refugees arrived and occasionally shrank as strange jungle diseases or infestations took their toll. [SB - 55]

c.  –412 CY

Those Suel who could not flee died as the Rains fell. But not all.

The Suloise [tribes] who entered the Flanaess after the Ruin of Colorless Fire were actually a number of once-prosperous noble families and their retainers. Being on holiday, they escaped the burning of Zinbyle, the ruined city in the Sea of Dust recently found by explorers from the Yeomanry. After the Rain died away, the survivors lived in barbarism, scavenging for food and stealing from the frocks of goat-herders in the foothills of the bordering Crystalmists. It was in such a condition a decade after the disaster that the great wizard Slerotin found them, mistaking them at first for actual savages.

Slerotin

Slerotin heard the entreaties of the Suloise survivors, who could offer him nothing but gratitude in return for helping them cross the Crystalmists to the rich lands of the Flannae and demihumans. I believe he gave them his aid purely to sate his own ego, for he was never known for his charity before, but perhaps I wrong him. in any event, Slerotin summoned his power and opened a great tunnel directly through over 70 leagues of solid rock. in this way did the Suloise enter the FIanaess with Slerotin, meeting some of their own kind who had earlier crossed the Kendeen Pass (later destroyed by a volcano) and settled along the Javan River. The “tribes” in time became organized clans and noble Houses. They grew in strength, preyed upon Flan and olve and dwur alike, and ran afoul of the Oeridian hordes. You know what followed then.

Seventeen Suloise “tribes," including the local goat-herders, braved the Passage of Slerotin to reach what is now the Yeomanry. An 18^th group the Lerara, entered late. Further delayed by a fight between several nobles, the Lerara were trapped within the Passage when it was sealed. This little group of only 100-120 adults, with children and animals in tow, was forced to adapt to this dark land, thinking they were abandoned by the gods and cursed.

Excerpt from a letter penned by Elayne Mystica, of the Free City of Iron Gate (inscribed 585 CY) [Dragon #241 - 43,44]

-411 CY

Kevelli Mak did not live long after leading his followers to the Tilvanot. He lived long enough, though, to have left his mark, for he and his followers seduced the hearts and minds of those who had settled there, and in time rose to their rightful place, guides to the Way of Purity, and in that role, they steered the course of those people for all time. (5105 SD)

Although Kevelli died in 5105 SD, his vision lived on. He was succeeded by his most talented student, Reshek Nes. Reshek followed her mentor’s lead and created a strict monk-like regime for the most talented students, building strength and focus through discipline and denial. [SB - 4]

-402 CY

The Suel found Hepmonaland to their liking. The land was rich, and blessed with ample sustenance and resources. They were not alone; indeed, they found others, the Olman and their like, but these peoples there were primitive and though they might have once been great, they were no more. Thy were savages, unfit scions to their ancestors’ good fortune. The Suel soon spread out, taking what they would. (5114 SD)

Lerga was settled in 5114 SD by a group of Suel nobles led by Duke Medajar, a noble priest of Llerg. According to legend, the priest had a dream vision of a great stone bear, and his group of refugees spotted a great bearlike formation of rock on a hillside, Megajar declared a halt and proclaimed the spot sacred to the God of Force. Using stone plundered from abandoned Olman ruins, Medagar’s people built shelters for themselves sand established the city of Lerga. [SB - 52]

c.- 400 CY

The Flan Ahlissan Kingdom was in full “decline” by this time. In the wake of the Ur-Flan and the devastating war with the elves, they had become a peaceful folk, having reverted to a tribal existence, content to tend their flocks and fields. They were no match for the coming Suel or Oeridians ... militarily. That is not to say that they were a helpless people, either. (244 OR/ 5116 SD/ 1751 FT)

-400 CY

Those Suel who had remained in the Flanaess found themselves pitted against the Oeridians. They stood their ground, and they fought, much as the Flan had, and still did, but neither the Suel nor the Flan had hope of defeating the Oeridians. The Oeridians were fierce. The Oeridians were relentless. And in the end, the Oeridians were victorious. Those who pledged fealty were spared; those who did not, were not.

Standing Ground

The fierce Oeridian tribes hardly had matters all their own way. For two centuries, they fought the Suel and the fragmented humanoids for possession of the central lands of the Flanaess. The Oeridians incurred the enmity of the Flannae and demihumans of the lands as well. The arrogant Oeridians might have been overcome by this mix of forces, but for one thing: the Suel were far more unpleasant than the Oeridians were aggressive. The Suel invaders lied, cheated, stole, enslaved, pillaged, and killed out of hand. Over time, the Flannae and demihumans allied with the Oeridians to drive the Suel to ever more distant fringes of the Flanaess: into the northeastern Barbarian lands and into the southern jungles of Amedio and Hepmonaland. [FtAA - 3]

The success of the Oeridian domination of so much of the Flanaess was in part due to their friendliness towards the original demi-human peoples of the area—dwur, noniz, hobniz, olve—and their co-operation greatly strengthened the Oeridians. The willingness of the Flanae to join forces with the Oeridian armies also proved to be a considerable factor. Perhaps the biggest asset the Oeridians had, however, was the vileness of the Suloise - for the majority lied, stole, slew, and enslaved whenever they had inclination and opportunity. There were exceptions, of course, such as the Houses of Rhola and Neheli - late migrants who settled and held the Sheldomar as already mentioned. [Folio - 5]

To the far north, four of the strongest and fiercest Suel clans managed to retain large stretches of ground as Suloise. The majority of the Suelites were pushed to the extreme south, into the Amedio Jungle, the Tilvanot Peninsula, the Duxchan Islands, and even as far as across the narrow Tilva Straight into Hepmonaland. [Folio - 5]

One must always give credit where credit is due. This History is made possible primarily by the Imaginings of Gary Gygax and his Old Guard, Lenard Lakofka among them, and the new old guards, Carl Sargant, James Ward, Roger E. Moore. And Erik Mona, Gary Holian, Sean Reynolds, Frederick Weining. The list is interminable. Thanks to Steven Wilson for his GREYCHRONDEX and to Keith Horsfield for his “Chronological History of Eastern Oerik.”

The Art:

whispered-words-in-cherry-red by maegondo

Seer by master-of-fear

GuildWars-2-Refugees by artbytheo
I-was-born-for-this by immp
The Rain of Colourless Fire, by Erol Otus, Folio, 1980

Seventh Plague of Egypt, by John Martin, 1823

Exodus by mjc-xo

Clearwine-RuneQuest by ranarh
Raistlin-portrait-2 by belegilgalad
Heroes-of-Bronze-Platea-479-BC by martinklekner


Sources:
1015 World of Greyhawk Boxed Set, 1983
1064 From the Ashes Boxed Set, 1992
1068 Greyhawk Wars Boxed Set, 1991
2011A Dungeon Masters Guide, 1st Ed., 1979
9025 World of Greyhawk Folio, 1980
9577 The Adventure Begins, 1998
9578 Player’s Guide to Greyhawk, 1998
11374 The Scarlet Brotherhood, 1999
11742 Gazetteer, 2000
11743 Living Greyhawk Gazetteer, 2000
Ivid the Undying, 1998
Dragon Magazine
OJ Oerth Journal, appearing on Greyhawk Online
LGJ et. al.
Greychrondex, Wilson, Steven B.
Greyhawkania, Jason Zavoda
The map of Anna B. Meyer