Brief History of Dragon Pass

The land of Dragon Pass was originally Dragon Land, their ancient home and nesting ground. When Larnste sowed the rockwoods he paused at the Dragon's nest to converse with the ancient one, and left this gap in the mountains. From here the great Blue Dragon called Oslir flooded northward and extinguised the Emporer.

Orlanth and the Storm tribe took the land from the dragons. He led his followers down from the Spike to his mother's house and slew Sh'hakarzeel, the Cosmic Dragon. He set its head on his ring and the body made the Dragonspine mountains.

Orlanth ascended to the Storm realm in the God World and his people the Vingkotlings ruled with Orlanth's son Vingkot as King.

People were made slaves and fugitives during the great darkness. Dark powers made the Shadow Plateau and on it the obsidean Palace of Black Glass. Trolls ruled Dagori Inkarth, the dreaded land of Shadows Dance. The Dwarves lived in the sheltered and the Wind Children sheltered in caves in the mountains. At  this time Snakepipe Hollow appeared as did Skyfall lake and the Creek-Stream River.

The great hero Heort taught the thousand or so survivers secret ways to enable them to live in these times. The descendants of Heort are now named Heortlings in his honour. The Dawn after the darkness therefore saw the Heortlings numbers expand.

In 379 the Bright Empire crushed the Heortlings at the battle of Night and Day. They were then further beaten at the Battle of Vaantar in 397 and many of the refugees fled south with Hendrik Freeman and these people were called the Hendreiki.

Harmast Barefoot who was a great hero who discovered Heroquesting freed the Heortlings. He brought Arkat the Destroyer to Dragon Pass whose armies freed the land. However Harmast was betrayed by Arkat who became a Troll and allied himself with the Only Old One and his trolls. The Heortling King was merely a puppet and the Arkat Tax imposed on humans kept the Heortlings subjugated. It was over a hundred years before the Heortlings threw off Troll rule in the Tax Slaughter.

Around the year 700 a number of Heortlings were tricked into experimenting with Dragon magic. Some traditionalist Heortlins resisted, but the Orlanthi Dragon worshippers triumphed and formed a new alliance between Dragonkind and men called the Empire of the Wyrms Friends (EWF for short). Many great cities and roads were built and the area initially thrived under EWF rule.

After the Dragonkill War, the Crossline to the south and the Deathline to the north marked the boundries of an area forbidden to humanity. The area was then ruled by the elder races in humanities absence and a centaur by the name of Ironhoof ruled the land peacefully.

After a hundred years Yu Kargzant led the Pure Horse people fleeing the animal nomads of Prax into Dragon Pass. Ironhoof permitted them to stay and these people became the Grazelanders.

Three hundred years ago in around 1300 other humans re-entered Dragon Pass in the resettlement. Arim the Pauper led Alokoring peoples escaping the expanding Lunar Empire from the North and Colymar led the peoples from the South escaping civil war. The Grazelanders opposed them and many were taken as Vendref (slaves). In the north Arim's people founded the Kingdom of Tarsh when Illaro Blacksmith married Sarana Tor. The east and south gradually became held by the Heortlings when Sartar came to unite them and the Grazelanders were pushed back to the West.

Sartar built cities and organised the tribes into confederations. His capital Boldhome he built in a single night in 1492. He married the Feathered Horse Queen and became the Sacred King of all Dragon Pass. Since then his descendants have ruled the land of Sartar as Princes and the Sacred flame of Sartar has burnt in Boldhome since the day of its foundation until it was extinguished in 1602 when the Lunars finally suceeded in sacking the city and controlling Dragon Pass. Sartars heirs were hunted down and only Prince Temertain (who was installed as a puppet King) and Kallyr Starbrow were believed to have survived. Both have made Sartar's flame flicker, but none were able to light it.

Sartar was under Lunar martial law from 1602 until 1626 when Kallyr Starbow led a rebellion against the Lunars. Queen Kallyr Starbrow's rebellion in 1626 was the first sign of change, but her short reign and rebellion were ended when the Tarsh King Moirades killed her in battle. The remainder of the army led by the Colymar tribe Queen Beti Leika however won the day and the retreating Tarsh army was slaughtered at Aldachuri.

Meanwhile in Pavis in 1625 a man by the name of Argrath  who led a number of rebels in the city to let in an invading nomad army that drove out the Lunars. Argrath proclaimed his ancestory, showing that he was descended from the Kings of Sartar and he returned to aid Queen Kallyr. With her death Argrath beat his rivals back to Boldhome in 1627 where he now relit the Flame of Sartar showing his true heritage. Prince Argrath is the King the Heortlings have long prophecised would return to lead them to freedom.

But all is not well. In 1629 Prince Argrath tried to woo the Feathered Horse Queen to gain the support of her people in Alliance, but she rejected his advances.

It is now 1634 and the Lunars are building up to re-invade.