User:Average/Ages of the Realms
In the sacredness of Time, I, Cedric the Scribe, do now tell the epic story of the Three Ages of what the old mages call Oerth, spanning in your present calendar some 3000 years of Time and wars that engaged or threatened every living creature upon the land.
I am Cedric, I write from this plateau of the Third Age, sitting high in a tower within Waterdeep, having collected whatever ancient parchments, drawings, and tattered notes have likely existed from those scribes long ago. You may call it the Forgotten Realms, but I'm here to make them un-forgot -- for they speak of great warriors and wars of magic and sea-dragons. As a story may be said to be alive or a scroll makes magic upon a page, these stories insist on being brought into the world lest they recur to bring dischord and chaos that can't be restored as if some game on your computer.
I am Cedric. YES I divine you from my position while you sit implausibly comfortable in your dimension fromwhence you're reading what was never written: a fantasy, a GAME you say! Understand this. And you'll have to forgive any and all grammatical anomalies, for my dimension is much more primitive than yours.
The First Age began as it eventually ended: both savage and noble across a mixed landscape of desolation and life. Mountains were lifeless and traversing their craggy surfaces added peril as there was no medicants to speak of. From here came the dwarfs.
There was little social order, it was the period where savagery and strength ruled, where even the woman had to become warriors. Yet it was here that the relationship between man and woman was discovered. That they could work together and produce children. Here, then, the destiny of noble lineages began. It's beginning was savage as the realm was hardly ruled by gods. The gods were primitive but powerful, hardly wise. This is what few know about gods, for who would tell their kin that they don't know what they are doing? they are not wanting to speak of how they were not perfect. was noble in that it was here that the relations between man and women were forged. Before then, men were as animals, and women had to become as men: bloody fighters to protect themselves. It thought up the various crafts that we take for granted now: textiles, paper, metalsmithing, woodwork. Yet off in a faraway universe, the forces of magic were at war: sorcerers and paladins, wizards and clerics. This is where the term "warlock" came from... and spellplague, for the different forces that separated magic from non-magic hadn't been settled, but eventually split between physicality and magic. The experiments with these invisible forces were dark and varied, consisting of hyper-personal wars causing great upheavals of land and man. A battle of mana vs. psionic powers. The immense destruction was so great that no one won anything in the end and the power of magic had to be put to rest. From the ashes of this Age rose the Second: the race of the hobbits, resting in the afterglow in all that was good and also magic in the form of a wizard, the wizard which eventually won the battle of Fearun.
It will perhaps never be truly known what forces originally forged the One Ring, but the story that everyone knows after the great battles of Kristfaern and of the cycles of civilization revolves around it, Whatever, the case, it was not merely a lust for power, for the lust for power was what brought down the realms -- they had already explored the many dead ends of that lost cause. The rings are what gives some legitimacy to the whole enterprise, suggesting some larger divine plan may be at work.
The Third Age saw the development of plate mail, battles got more intense, as the city-state arose as a center of power. Textiles found the development of looms and textiles of intricate design. Paper-making became a source of spell-meads, for commoners to have access to magic.
They say Sauron forged the rings, but "Sauron", a huge and powerful force, was but an abstraction that borders on the edge of chimera. When it was thought that the One Ring was destroyed, Sauron was never to be heard of again. Nothing was. From the Third Age, one hardly thinks he ever existed at all. It is accepted currently that he was simply a force, dressed in black armors, animated by some unseen force of dark or light by some unknown gods or powers that would need to be so deep and ancient that they are scarcely imaginable. This, because everyone in my age knows of the gods these days who fight and bicker as well as their provenance that extends back to the beginning of the realms. Before then nothing but mists.
It is rumored that when the halfling hobbit known as Frodo threw the Ring into the fires of Mordor that a dragon came out of nowhere and caught the ring. Frodo and his mate, blessed be their courage and bravery, never witness its destruction afterall, because no moral soul could peer into the searing heat that came up from the great fires below.
You may see it as a simple thing, but such a perfect object had never been made or imagine before. It invented the concept of "ring" itself. it is that Ring that still seeks its destination to unite the lands in peace and prosperity. Perhaps you thought you knew that story, but alas, more will have to be established before than can be written.
There are some forces so deep that the whole universe is moved into motion. those are the forces of which I speak. Of gods -- or forces worthy of the names -- so powerful that
Smeagle -- the name looks queer in your language, but in it's original it was a quite fine name. the origin of goblins everywhere was the wisher, but a child rendered into its wretched shape by the for
You see there was a child named Shmeagle who once offered his soul for a great and peaceful land. The wish was heard by the gods and a ring was made -- the very first ring. No one had conceived of such before. The ring was to be worn by those women, men, elves, and wizards who would help bring that vision into the land.
I write also from within the mists of Avalon, where the hope of perfect rule still sits awaiting for the right knight or duchess to come forth. It remains an island far off from the Sword Coast. It is said that it can't be found, for it is shrouded in the mist at the edge of the world and many a sailor has left in search for it, only to come crashing upon the rocks, never to be seen again. STUB
These ages are defined by the establishment of magic as a stable force that could be drawn upon within the realms, as well as the development of civilization, trade, and great craftsmanship.
It was a journey of astral splatter as well as bloodshed, to get where we are now, forming the Dawn of the Third Age of what is now called Fearun. A great warrior Conan, had subdued the dark forces of the land and became king, giving rise to the particular type of social order known as Grayhawk. Simultaneous was the land of Camelot and beginning of chivalry. For the subjugation of those dark forces was a blessing to all women, who were becoming Amazonian in their fight for survival and to hold their dignity.
A Red Dragon had risen as forces elsewhere in the realms were being abused by wizards deep within Oerth. But alas, the king had no such experiences with such things, and could not divine the meaning of its behaviors.
The setting for the Forgotten Realms is defined by three ages. Each one falling to give rise to the next. The First Age of the realms is demarcated by the first signs of human civilization which fell with the battles of magic, giving rise to the creation of Mordor and Middle Earth in the Second Age.
The First Age is the realm of Conan the Barbarian and Camelot: chivalry and skill development; fell because it was too morbid The Second Age the realm of Gandalf, Bilbo, and Sauron, of the Dark Period: fell because it wasn't industrious enough The Third Age, the realm of Harry Potter and the crew of Hogwarts; success?
