By Marco Dalmonte & Shawn Stanley

AC 803: Halvan returns of Essuria with a dream of building Drax Tallen into a wondrous capital. Under Halvan’s supervision, construction of the Kings’ Mausoleum in Drax Tallen begins.

AC 804: Halvan discovers the Blackstick in Nebunar’s tomb and begins to study it.

AC 808: Naren dies in his sleep and his brother Halvan is crowned king. The construction of the Mausoleum is completed.

AC 809: After much deliberation Halvan decides to give the Blackstick to Bensarian for safekeeping.

AC 813: Bensarian finishes his long quest to find the truth about the elven history and gives the Elven Chronicles he wrote to the Geffronell and Genalleth elves, as a longstanding sign of their mutual friendship. He is now commonly hailed as Friend and Hero among the elven settlements in Denagoth and modern Wendar.

AC 818: Bensarian gives the Blackstick to the Geffronell elves to prevent its abuse and they give the Elvenstar to him in return, according to the omen received by the Korrigans.

Sylidair, leader of the group of elves known as the Defenders of Genalleth, dies in the town of Sylvair, his headquarters.

AC 843: Under Halvan’s rule Essuria thrives, but when he unfolds some dark secrets about Idris and its High Priest, Halvan suddenly dies during his sleep, like his brother about 30 years before. His son Gallathon is crowned eleventh King of Essuria.

AC 848: Gallathon begins to establish numerous diplomatical and trading ties with the surrounding nations and populations, and this brings much wealth to the royal vault of Essuria. Idris cult also spreads to the surrounding regions, even though it often remains a hidden, underground faith.

The Church of Idris begins to spread strange rumors about the Geffronell elves and their "gruesome" ritual practices. The High Priest of Idris has decided to find a new scapegoat to blame for Essuria’s troubles and the past defeats, and it’s obviously the elven race. Idris’ priests start preaching a policy of mistrust and xenophobia against the Geffron and Lothenar elves, and then against the elven race as a whole.

AC 858: As a result of the Idris’ priests prechings, the Essurians and most of the Denagothians harbor now an open hatred towards the elves, who are seen as responsible for their sufferings and the military failures of Essuria, as well as dedicated to dark magics and horrible cannibalistic rituals. Relations between Wendar and Essuria becomes strained and some humans living in the Valley of Genalleth begin to listen to the words of Idris.

AC 864: Minor skirmishes take place in Genalleth between human villages and elven strongholds: the plan of Idris’ High Priest is by now fully into motion. He wants all the humans living in Denagoth and Genalleth side with his faith against the elves, so that Essuria can conquer the whole region in the name of Idris.

AC 868: Gallathon dies: his son Mirimar gains to the throne.

AC 876-881: Years of Disgrace. Denagothian tribes invade Essuria and raid its northern provinces. Gereth Minar falls to its attackers and every effort to retake it is vain. The Avien Tribes take advantage of the situation to rebel against Essuria, and drive out their plains the Essurian governors along with their soldiers. After 5 years of war and a disastrous military campaign, due in part to the incapacity of Mirimar (who is a scholar and not a trained soldier) and to the corruption that has spread throughout the Essurian political and military structure during Gallathon’s and Mirimar’s rule, Mirimar is forced to accept the independence of the Avien Tribes and to sign a nefarious peace treaty that gives away to the Denagothians the northern half of the kingdom.

This event is a major setback for the High Priest’s plan of marching again against the elves of Geffron and Genalleth. He decides to wait before taking any serious step to conquer Genalleth and to retake the northwestern lands, and in the meantime launches a propaganda to make the people believe that the Years of Disgrace have been caused by the elves.

AC 888: Mirimar dies and his son Vespen becomes the new king, but he proves no more capable and no less corrupt and lazy than the two preceding kings.

AC 889: Gylharen is born, a human, in the town of Wendar.

AC 890: Landryn, younger brother of King Vespen, travels from his home in his youth at the behest of his brother. Whilst travelling through Thyatis, Landryn comes across the Hattians and he stays with them for a while picking up their culture. In this land he also begins studying the necromantic arts under the tutelage of a wizard named Teriak.

AC 897: After the sudden death of the old mentor, Landryn "borrows" his name, as well as his collection of spells and arcane books, in his honor. Then, Landryn Teriak returns home hungry for power and begins to scheme behind his brother’s back; the High Priest supports the young necromancer.

AC 898: Vespen dies poisoned by his own brother, Landryn the necromancer, who immediately seizes the throne and establishes a personal dictatorship. With the help of Idris’ High Priest, he is able to persuade the other clanleaders to swear obedience to him, and those who protest are either killed or imprisoned. He then schemes to regain the lost territories and to conquer the land of Genalleth.

AC 901: Landryn reshapes the Essurian Army to eliminate the currupt and inept officers. He creates inside the army a special body of elite soldiers trained and taught by the Church of Idris whose pourpose is to keep an eye on the other soldiers and officers and to spread the national anti-elvish ideology. This force is called Special Security Squadron (SSS).

AC 903: By this time, Landryn has eliminated all the opposers to his regime and he’s backed up by the Church of Idris as well as the whole army and its officers: the Essurians hail him as "Ozerferher" Landryn (Divine Leader Landryn).

AC 904: Listening to the High Priest’s advices, Landryn creates a secret unit of loyal humanoids dedicated to the extermination of the elven race and trains them in hidden facilities inside Essuria. These soldiers, the Elf Skull Unit, begin then to stage raids into the Geffronells’ territory to capture elves and to extort them information about their military tactics and their defenses; usually these raids turn out to be nothing more than ruthless massacres.

AC 906: Gylharen, a very charismatic person who has already started to prove himself as an adventurer even at this young age, starts again the dream of the Wendarian League. He notices that the relationship between humans and elves have become tense in the last years due to the Idris cult influence, and he starts diplomatical missions to restore peace between the two races living in the valley.

AC 907: Landryn invites the major Denagothian warleaders to Drax Tallen pretending to sign another peace treaty, but he soon shows his real intentions by slaughtering them with a treacherous assault. Then he launches an all-out assalt against the Denagoth tribes and prepares to invade Wendar at the same time, rallying troops of humanoids to power up its army and unleashing the whole Elf Skull Unit inside the Great Forest of Geffron. This is the beginning of Landryn’s long prepared military campaign to swiftly conquer the neighboring lands: the Blitzkrieg has started.

Bensarian, who has foreseen what will happen, bestows upon Gylharen the Elvenstar, in order to protect Wendar from the armies of Essuria. Gylharen uses the Elvenstar for the first time and although there are no obvious effects at this time he starts the process of becoming an elf. When the hordes of humanoids and Essurians attacks Wendar, Gylharen is then able to repel them and to protect his territory, forcing the invading army to retreat behind Naga river.

AC 908: The Denagoth Tribes unite under a mysterious leader who claims to be Henadin, the ancient warlord returned from the dead to obtain vengeance against Essuria, and they repel the Essurian troops with unexpected fierceness, invading the kingdom in retaliation.

The ESU controls by now the whole southeastern part of the Geffron Forest and the Essurian Army is ready to counter attack the forces of the Wendarian League, but the situation on the northern border convinces Landryn to call back both armies to contrast the Denagothian invasion forces.

AC 909: The Essurian Army is soundly defeated by the Denagothians particularly due to the fact that the Avien Tribes join Henadin’s forces and attack the Essurians from the rear. Drax Tallen falls after months of siege laid by Henadin and his troops, and the High Priest of Idris is killed by Henadin, whereas Landryn flees across the Geffron Forest to the Plains of Avien, pursued by one of the golden dragons who accompanied Henadin. When the great wyrm finally catches him, it breathes its poisonous gas on the wizard and then leaves, letting the charred remains of the former king to decay under the sun. After some months, an itinerant priest finds Landryn’s corpse and Raise him, thinking he was victim of an evil dragon. Soon after being resurrected, Landryn thanks his saviour by casting on him a Magic Jar, and once inside his healthy body he slays the poor fellow, who curses him upon his death; then Landryn flees east into the Lothenar Forest.

After raiding and razing throughout Essuria, some of the Denagothians head north, while others remain in the region: as for Henadin, he disappears mysteriously shortly after the fall of Drax Tallen.

AC 910: After many diplomatic missions, Gylharen finally manages to unite all of the villages of the Genalleth Valley and the Wendarian League officially becomes the Kingdom of Wendar: Gylharen is crowned first King of Wendar.

The first public act of Gylharen is to declare the Idris faith unlawful inside Wendar’s border and to banish or put to death every known Idris’ priest, to the elves’ joy.

AC 914: Landryn arrives at Geron, where he meets the local priest of Idris and with his help he’s able to recruit a few soldiers and officers of the former Essurian Army and the Elf Skull Unit who have remained loyal to him. They agree then to accompany him in his long trek throughout Denagoth, where he begins with the use of magic, corruption and intimidation, to obtain the help and the loyalty of many tribes of humanoids and Essurian clans, in his dream to raise ancient Essuria from the ashes.

AC 915: Wendarian explorers come across the Sand Folk on the Adri Varma Plateau. They open diplomatic ties with these people who they call Ungolwaith. This chance encounter starts a more open policy in the Wendarian government who over the following years starts to make contact with surrounding nations.

AC 922: Landryn sends a priest of Idris to Wendar as a mole using the network established by the cult, with the task to infiltrate the Wendar government and spy close upon their defenses, in order to exploit this information when an all-out assault will be made.

AC 925: The Church of Idris reaffirms itself as the dominant religion in Denagoth and it elects its new High Priest. Landryn asks for his support and he blesses him in the name of Idris.

AC 934: Landryn has finally retaken the fallen Drax Tallen and Gereth Minar from the Denagothians, ruling his scattered humanoid and human followers from the Tower of Gereth. He organizes the systematical extermination of the Lothenar and Geffronell elves using many evil dragons and the new ESU to achieve his aim: by the end of the year the Lothenar elves have been completely wiped out, whereas the Geffron elves who have not managed to escape to Wendar, have been reduced to less than a thousand individuals living in heavily guarded areas. In these prison camps, they work as slaves to produce items useful for the New Essurian Army and are used as guinea pigs for strange genetic experiments.

AC 936: Landryn discovers that his body is slowly but inevitably decaying as a result of the cleric’s curse and he tries to find a cure to his disease. After a long research he finds out that Wendar magical artifact, the Elvenstar, has also curative powers besides its protective ones, and he decides to obtain that artifact in order to cure himself and to invade Wendar without too much efforts: he then arranges for the theft of the Elvenstar.

AC 937: Camla, Landryn’s spy, steals the Elvenstar replacing it with a false sapphire, and then flees to Gereth Minar, where he gives it to Landryn, who begins to study its magical properties.

At the same time, plague and famine strike Wendar, claiming hundreds of lives, and the humanoid hordes assemble to launch their attack and to conquer Wendar under Landryn’s banner.

AC 938: A serious drought withers crops and depletes the water supply in Wendar: this brings on civil disorder. Gylharen puts a call out for adventurers to aid in this time of peril for Wendar, and a party of brave souls travel to Wendar to answer the king’s call. The group of adventurers is able to pass beyond Landryn’s lines and to reach Gereth Minar, where they fight against Landryn and his minions and recover the Elvenstar just in time to avoid Wendar’s fall. Landryn is forced to flee to Drax Tallen at the end of the battle, where he desperately struggles to find another cure to his curse and to further his plan of conquest, now that his humanoid hordes have been scattered to the four winds.

(These events are played out in first part of the module X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord.)

AC 939: Landryn’s body is on the verge of complete decay and the necromancer tries the last resort he has: he undertakes a complicate cerimony involving dark powers and foul sacrifices and with the help of Idris’ priests he undergoes his transformation, becoming a vassalich. He then listens to the advice of the High Priest of Idris and tries to build up an army of undead with which he wants to crush Wendar once and for all. For this purpose, he tries to recover the fabled Blackstick, a staff that is said to create and control the undead, and he sends his minions to the last person who is reported to have had it: Bensarian. They manage to find Bensarian and force him to reveal where the Blackstick is hidden with some spells, then they leave the half dead sage and head for Enoreth Shrine. The party of adventurers must now answer the call of Bensarian, who reveals them that Landryn is about to obtain the Blackstick and that he must be stopped at all costs. They head for the Geffron Forest, looking for Enoreth’s tomb. They arrive too late and they must then follow the Lord’s minions to Drax Tallen, where they battle Landryn face to face. At the end, they manage to kill him (sending his soul into his phylactery) and to destroy the Blackstick, and return to Wendar with the good news. Their leader dead, the army disbands and Essuria is plunged once again into political chaos.

(These events are played out in second part of the module X11: Saga of the Shadow Lord.)

AC 940: The High Priest of Idris finds Landryn’s phylactery (the device where his life force is stored) and has him return into this world by possessing a nearby corpse. He falls then under the High Priest’s direct control, for he holds the source of Landryn’s powers, and he begins to use his undead servant to further Idris’ plans. Landryn resents being controlled and starts to scheme in order to regain his freedom and to attain full lichdom.

AC 951: Through continued use of the Elvenstar Gylharen notices certain changes occurring to himself.

AC 966: Gylharen is completely turned into an elf-mage.

AC 970: Wendar opens diplomatic ties with Glantri.

AC 980: Landryn discovers the existence of the Black Staff of the Carnifex by examining ancient scrolls and a strange Davanian monolith, and he begins to devise a plan to conquer Wendar and the whole Known World by turning its population into undead. He begins again to submit to his will many humanoid tribes and denagothian settlements with the aid of the Church of Idris, and swiftly raises to prominence under the name of Shadow Lord.

AC 982: Wendar opens diplomatic ties with Alfheim, Darokin and Norwold.

AC 989: Wendar opens diplomatic ties with the Heldannic Territories and Sind.

AC 1005: Start of the four year period known as the Wrath of the Immortals. Wendar remains neutral but open to any refugees, who in fact arrive when Alfheim is conquered by the Shadow Elves. (WotI)

AC 1008: Four Alfheim clans arrive in Wendar, (unknowingly bringing the plague they contracted while crossing Ethengar and Glantri) and are immediately welcomed by the population, who tries to help them the best it can. The clans are the Erendyl, Mealidil, Grunalf and Long Runner, and among them is the former King of Alfheim, Doriath Erendyl. (WotI and PWA1014)

AC 1010: With the help of the Elvenstar and of clerics from Norwold, the elves manage to stop the plague from claiming other lives and the order is once again restored in Wendar.

AC 1013 An elven forester announces the discovery of a type of tree bearing magically healing fruit deep within Wendar's forests. The announcement sparks a rush of treasure-seekers into the wilderness. (JA)

Elvenstar note

The Elvenstar has a relatively unknown side effect that occurs when it is first used but only by non elf users. When a non elf user first uses the Elvenstar it starts to encode an alternate elven biology for that person the age of which is based on this first use. Through long continued use of the Elvenstar this process ends in the user being turned into an elf who was, for all intense purposes, was born in the year detailed by the process below. So far Gylharen is the only non-elf who has used for Elvenstar for any significant period of time to come under this effect. Bensarian did not have much need to use the Elvenstar when it was in his possession and before this only elves had access to it.

Assume Gylharen was born human.

Assume Gylharen first used the Elvenstar in his 18 th year.

Assume humans live to be 60 years old.

Therefore Gylharen was 18/60 th of the way through his life.

Assume that this year was AC 889 (as according to PWAs: "Bensarian bestowed the Elvenstar upon Gylharen around AC 900").

Therefore Gylharen was born in AC 871.

Assume elves live to be 700 years old.

Therefore in elf terms when Gylharen first used the Elvenstar he was 18/60 * 700 the way through an elf life. This number ends up being 210.

Therefore 210 years before AC 889 is 679 (as stated in PWAs).

Alternative restaging for X11 in modern days (by Shane)

X11, page 2: "Less than a year ago the star disappeared from Gylharen's citadel. In the wake of the loss things have gone badly. The first disaster to befall the realm was a plague. It spread quickly from the rural outskirts of the state and soon entere the capital, killing thousands before Gylharen could organise the necessary effort to end it."

Now in the Wrath campaign, Fall of Year 1009, the second group of Alfheim elves reach Wendar; the "Glantrian plague follows them there". This plague is also mentioned in the Almanacs, which further note that Wendar sought clerical help from Norwold and received it, containing the plague "before it could do serious harm to his population".

The X11 plague in Wendar is followed by a serious drought, withering the crops and depleting the water supply. Gylharen requests the aid of Thyatis, "but the Emperor was pre-occupied by a crisis of his own and was unable to lend aid". Instead an advisor hires a small group of adventurers and sends them instead - the starting point for the PCs in X11.

AC 1009-1010 is definitely a time of crisis for Thyatis, what with the Alphatian-Glantrian war, the week of no magic, etcetera. Thincol certainly doesn't have either supplies or troops to spare for Wendar, even if they were formal allies rather than simply on friendly terms (Almanac AC 1010, "rumours that Wendar is a staunch ally or even a subject nation of Thyatis are false; the two nations are not even in regular diplomatic contact"; nonetheless those rumours have to come from somewhere, so I'm assuming friendly if somewhat informal ties exist).

Therefore while X11 might be re-staged in AC 1009 onwards. The Shadow Lord has taken advantage of the Glantrian-Alphatian war to have the Elvenstar stolen and amass his armies, as none of Wendar's allies, formal or otherwise, can spare troops of their own to help Gylharen protect his nation.

Perhaps events might proceed something like I've written below (there are some potential spoilers for players of the Wrath of the Immortals campaign).

AC 1009 (Summer): Camla steals the Elvenstar in late Summer of AC 1009, his master Teriak having begun the insertion of the human mage into Gylharen's circle of confidants years earlier. Though of course Gylharen suspects the Shadow Lord, all attempts to locate Camla and the Elvenstar fail.

Gylharen, his nation's militia already on alert due to the wars, begins preparations in expectation of an attack from Denagoth. An experienced adventurer himself, Gylharen might be inclined to enter Denagoth and retrieve the Elvenstar personally, but the loss of the artifact has severely handicapped him; he has been greatly aged and weakened to the extant that he resembles an old man and must rely on servants even to help him to his throne. No capable heroes he can trust are immediately available in Wendar, as they are either busy defending Wendar from the upsurge in humanoid incursions or have left the nation to throw their lot in with one side or another of the great conflict. He also wonders if any of the others in his inner circle of friends might be hidden traitors as well.

AC 1009 (Fall): The Alfheimers refugee arrive in the Fall of AC 1009, bringing the plague with them. Gylharen cannot send messengers to Thyatis as the intervening countries are all also subject to the plague, and the Alphatian armies are in Thyatis anyway; if any are sent, they aren't heard from again. Gylharen instead turns to Norwold for help; by the time the elves are confined to southwest Wendar and sufficient clerical aid arrives, winter is fast encroaching. With both Wendar and Denagoth about to be completely buried in snow (more than usual due to the upheaval in the planetary weather patterns caused by the destruction of the Alphatian landmass), there will be no invasion until spring. If there's any silver lining to the plague, it is that there is enough food for the survivors to last through the bitter cold of winter. (plague, source of clerical aid and destruction of Alphatia as per almanac and Wrath timelines)

AC 1010 (Spring): Spring arrives, bringing with it a terrible drought caused by the altered weather patterns. While this also affects Denagoth, the mountain range ringing most of the plateau acts as a buffering influence, and the Shadow Lord's forces begin amassing. While Teriak has had little success in his efforts to pierce the secrets of the Elvenstar, he has no fear of the crippled Gylharen and his drought stricken nation, nor the possibility of Gylharen finding allies. New conflicts are breaking out throughout the Known World as nations vie for their piece of the new order, while the few neutral nations aren't close enough or safe enough to Wendar to help anyway.

However, possibly through the help of one of the Norwold clerics, Gylharen has been able to ascertain that the Elvenstar is indeed in Denagoth and in the hands of Teriak; the moment the spring thaw hits, messengers are once again sent out.

AC 1010 (Summer): Landryn starts the invasion of Wendar, the first step in his masterplan.

Joint Glantrian and Darokinian efforts lead to the recruitment of a band of adventurers who are immediately dispatched to Wendar, in order to help the Wizard King. They are able to locate the Elvenstar and to delay a bit the invading force, confronting the Shadowlord and his lackeys in the tower of Gereth Minar…

Scenario 1: The PCs retrieve the Elvenstar

AC 1010 (Fall): The adventurers are able to retake the Elvenstar from Landryn and they return it to Gylharen. The Wizard King is able to repel the invasion from Denagoth by using the Elvenstar and his troops.

Scenario 2: The PCs fail

AC 1010 (Fall): The forces of the Shadow Lord invade Wendar and conquer the eastern half. Gylharen and the resistant forces retreat back to Oakwall and Woodgate, forming a fortified defensive line between these two major settlements, while the forces of evil roam across eastern Wendar.

Another group of adventurers arrives in Wendar to defeat the evil invaders and retraces the first party's trail to Gereth Minar, where they take advantage of the Shadow Lord's absence to infiltrate the tower and retrieve the Elvenstar.

AC 1011: With the adventurers' assistance, Gylharen is able to regain the lost territory and to restore peace and order inside his kingdom.

If Landryn dies at the end of the adventure, then the following applies:

AC 1011: A party of adventurers from the Heldannic Territories stumbles across the ruins of Drax Tallen and enters the deep underground levels. There, one of them falls victim to a deadly trap not triggered during the last battle and dies: Landryn immediately takes possession of his body and after slaying the other adventurers, continues with his masterplan...