A Brief History of the Multiverse
One of the earliest posts to this blog concerned the ancient history of the World of Greyhawk, and my attempts to catalogue all of the little tidbits of information related to that topic into a rough outline. That project triggered an impulse to dig down even further, to attempt to weave together a rough chronology of the pre-history of the D&D multiverse. Sure, we all know that the mind flayers created the githyanki and that a subrace broke from the elves to become the drow, but I wanted to dig deeper.
And I'm still digging. I've decided to make the notes "open" by posting them to my blog in hopes that readers can point out inconsistencies or suggest obscure references from core D&D/Greyhawk lore. I've got a whole pile of books to read, but I decided to begin by sketching out the timeline in broad strokes, from memory.
There will be plenty of additions and corrections. But for now, there is this:
A Brief History of the Multiverse
---------------------------------
Nothing Exists.
The Inner Planes form. Elementals take shape and begin battling each other along law/chaos axis. This is the conflict that eventually becomes the Blood War, but in the earliest days it's warring between elemental forces, because only elemental forces exist at this time. Elemental Princes (Imix, Cryonax, Bwimb, etc.) take form in this era and become major figures in this struggle.
As the conflict mutates, the concept of morality develops, opening the good/evil alignment axis. With this development, the Outer Planes come into form/are discovered. Elemental creatures such as genies and the air-focused Empire of Aaqa discover the Material Plane and begin to
colonize it.
In the oceans of the Material Plane, the aboleth manifest as an entity brushes against the Material Plane. Over the eons to come, the aboleth perfect the art of enslaving other life forms.
By the time the elementals reach the Abyss, it is already inhabited by demons (but not tanar'ri), who seem to be made of the "stuff" of the plane itself. The most powerful demonic entity is a being called the Queen of Chaos, who (with her consort Miska the Wolf-Spider, the so called "Prince of Demons") joins the side of Chaos in the great planar war.
The gods develop/emerge from Somewhere Else. These beings establish domains in the Outer Planes and begin to create mortal creatures in their image on the worlds of the Material Plane. The aboleth empires decline as the rise of faith and divine magic gives these races a new tool to use against them.
Dinosaurs and dragons are the most numerous/powerful mortal beings. By this time, the souls of countless mortal inhabitants of material worlds come to rest on the Outer Plane that most matches their alignment. In the Abyss, they become manes, though some of the most vile become true demons in their own right.
Certain servants of the gods rebel and become the devils.
The infusion of mortal souls into the Outer Planes is a major paradigm-shifting event that forever changes the multiverse. Old orders crumble and new political/sociological institutions take form.
The great Law/Chaos War takes a breather when the Wind Dukes of Aaqa employ the Rod of Seven Parts to vanquish Miska the Wolf-Spider and defeat the Queen of Chaos. The battle lingers on, however, in the form of warring between various evil factions, who continue the struggle primarily along the law/chaos axis. The conflict eventually becomes known as the Blood War.
With the Queen of Chaos sundered, servitor demons, the tanar'ri, boil up from the lower Abyssal depths and rebel against their "proto-demon" overlords. One of the greatest of these Abyssal rebels is the mighty demon lord Demogorgon, who takes Miska's title "Prince of Demons" as an insult to the old regime.
Mortals like elves, dwarves, and humans arise on the Material world. They replace more primeval races like kuo-toa and lizardfolk and troglodytes, driving these races into the corners of the world.
Mind flayers arrive from the future and create the gith from enslaved humans. Their empire extends over several material worlds.
The Elder Elves split into subraces. The drow take form as Lolth is cast out of the Seldarine.
Today.
And I'm still digging. I've decided to make the notes "open" by posting them to my blog in hopes that readers can point out inconsistencies or suggest obscure references from core D&D/Greyhawk lore. I've got a whole pile of books to read, but I decided to begin by sketching out the timeline in broad strokes, from memory.
There will be plenty of additions and corrections. But for now, there is this:
A Brief History of the Multiverse
---------------------------------
Nothing Exists.
The Inner Planes form. Elementals take shape and begin battling each other along law/chaos axis. This is the conflict that eventually becomes the Blood War, but in the earliest days it's warring between elemental forces, because only elemental forces exist at this time. Elemental Princes (Imix, Cryonax, Bwimb, etc.) take form in this era and become major figures in this struggle.
As the conflict mutates, the concept of morality develops, opening the good/evil alignment axis. With this development, the Outer Planes come into form/are discovered. Elemental creatures such as genies and the air-focused Empire of Aaqa discover the Material Plane and begin to
colonize it.
In the oceans of the Material Plane, the aboleth manifest as an entity brushes against the Material Plane. Over the eons to come, the aboleth perfect the art of enslaving other life forms.
By the time the elementals reach the Abyss, it is already inhabited by demons (but not tanar'ri), who seem to be made of the "stuff" of the plane itself. The most powerful demonic entity is a being called the Queen of Chaos, who (with her consort Miska the Wolf-Spider, the so called "Prince of Demons") joins the side of Chaos in the great planar war.
The gods develop/emerge from Somewhere Else. These beings establish domains in the Outer Planes and begin to create mortal creatures in their image on the worlds of the Material Plane. The aboleth empires decline as the rise of faith and divine magic gives these races a new tool to use against them.
Dinosaurs and dragons are the most numerous/powerful mortal beings. By this time, the souls of countless mortal inhabitants of material worlds come to rest on the Outer Plane that most matches their alignment. In the Abyss, they become manes, though some of the most vile become true demons in their own right.
Certain servants of the gods rebel and become the devils.
The infusion of mortal souls into the Outer Planes is a major paradigm-shifting event that forever changes the multiverse. Old orders crumble and new political/sociological institutions take form.
The great Law/Chaos War takes a breather when the Wind Dukes of Aaqa employ the Rod of Seven Parts to vanquish Miska the Wolf-Spider and defeat the Queen of Chaos. The battle lingers on, however, in the form of warring between various evil factions, who continue the struggle primarily along the law/chaos axis. The conflict eventually becomes known as the Blood War.
With the Queen of Chaos sundered, servitor demons, the tanar'ri, boil up from the lower Abyssal depths and rebel against their "proto-demon" overlords. One of the greatest of these Abyssal rebels is the mighty demon lord Demogorgon, who takes Miska's title "Prince of Demons" as an insult to the old regime.
Mortals like elves, dwarves, and humans arise on the Material world. They replace more primeval races like kuo-toa and lizardfolk and troglodytes, driving these races into the corners of the world.
Mind flayers arrive from the future and create the gith from enslaved humans. Their empire extends over several material worlds.
The Elder Elves split into subraces. The drow take form as Lolth is cast out of the Seldarine.
Today.
10 Comments:
I've nothing to add, except to say that this is pretty cool! One always knows there is something that came before, but as far as D&D/Greyhawk goes, I am clueless, so this is very interesting. I'll be keeping an eye so I can read more.
I'd be interested to read how the gods' unification and imprisonment of Tharizdun fits into this timeline.
Yeah, Tharizdun is a biggie, of course. Also, did the other Demon Princes adopt the name at the same time in a 'keeping up with the joneses' kind of thing?
What's the source that says that mind flayers are from the future?
I was also surprised that the aboleth empire was older than the mind flayers.
Also, you might want to add a reference to the ancient Baatorians.
I think the "mind flayers are from the future" thing came into play in "Lords of Madness," but possibly there are hints of it in Bruce's "Illithiad" (you'd probably know better than I do).
There's some stuff on the aboleth in that book, too, so it's obvious I'll need to read "Lords of Madness" before I ratchet this thing down to a more "official" format.
The ancient baatorians are on the list of things I need to look into. I seem to remember that their story is laid out in "Hellbound: The Blood War," which I plan to review in a couple of weeks.
Thanks for the tips and suggestions, everyone!
Myself, I always figured some entities carved creation out of the primal chaos; said primal chaos would have some link to the Far Realms, of course.
(Which is maybe where the aboleths come in -- Far Realm natives that hung around when the whatever primal elder elemental entities were forming. And, of course, said elder elementals were later cast down by the upstart gods -- 'cause the upstart gods have to cast someone down, right? Tharizdun, then, is the last/greatest/only remembered example of said entities.)
(Note that I know of no sources that support that speculation; it just seems reasonably neat to me.)
Something to keep in mind about primeval times, Erik. With your Age of Worms backstory involving the Wind Dukes and all the stuff mentioned here on Aboleth and scaly folk running the place...you could imagine that Oerth was much different geographically back then. An upheval of land seemed to always occur after an Age in Tolkien's mythologies so in this sense it is the War with Chaos causing shifts in landmasses and such.
I'll be watching this with great interest - one of the coolest things (IMO) about Greyhawk, bearing in mind I'm new to the setting in most reasonable terms, are the hints that this is a world eons older than most we see in RPGs; that before the prehistory of the setting there is a deeper history, and before that, one deeper still. I think it ties in well with the wheels within wheels upward ploting of classic Greyhawk modules and helps give the thing a uniquely Vancian feel. Keep it up!
Some good information in the Cosomology WoTC forum boards you might want to check out. Some very intelligent well read people there as well that can probably not only answer any questions you might have but point you to their source(s) as well.
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