Pal Tahrenor

The planet of Pal Tahrenor exists as a parallel Earth which followed the time-line of our own planet until the introduction of magic changed things dramatically. The people are aware of other worlds and other planes of existence, and so have appropriately named their planet "Pal Tahrenor" or "Our Planet." Pal Tahrenor has been badly scarred and the people living on it have had their reality diverge quite a bit from our own. Some landmasses have changed, cratered and fractured during an ancient war known as the Changers' War.

Things began the same, and progressed through millions of years just like our own planet, with the same development of religions and cultures, until approximately 3000 years ago when reality began to bend in ways it never had before for the men who practiced primitive shamanism and other forms of magic. The barrier between the astral plane and the material plane started to collapse. Like a chain reaction the two planes smashed together and let loose all manner of oddities into the world.

It was a time of much chaos, and records of what exactly happened are so scattered and varied in their accounts that nobody can agree much on what really transpired. What had caused the barrier to break down, and who the key players were is a mystery. Many of the humans must have thought they were going mad, or were actually driven mad by the exposure to the astral plane's twisted nature. Some learned to control it and became extremely powerful. Other races were introduced somehow, including orcs, elves, trolls, shape-shifters and countless other creatures dredged from the imagination of the astral plane.

There was a great war between the empires and like a bubble bursting the chaos ceased as suddenly as it had started. The planet was left scarred and twisted, cratered and pushed off its axis by explosions, but the barrier between the planes was restored. Mostly...

The magical races remained, many with the ability to move between the planes as if the barrier had never returned. Races like elves and many humans retained some sort of connection to the astral plane, able to manipulate the barrier. Their abilities were and are still limited in comparison to the powers that existed during the great war.

After the great war was over and things began to stabilize, empires reformed, many of which remained primarily human.

"Our world is misguided, its course forever altered by changers and their war... The war will come again and wash away the weak..."
- Tomes of the First Settlers, Book i, Knowledge

BCE: Before Common Era. PW: Post War.
3400 BCE	First evidence of wheel-made pottery in Sumeria.
2560 BCE	Great pyramid built.
2000-1600 BCE	Old Babylonian Empire.
1400 BCE	Development of alphabet by Phoenicians.
1180 BCE	Earliest forms of magic discovered by the Egyptian 20th dynasty and the Olmec in Mesoamerica.
1020 BCE	Magical practices flourish across the globe and start being used heavily in warfare. Barrier between astral and physical planes weakens significantly.
1000 BCE	Introduction of Dwarves.
900 BCE	Introduction of Elves.
900-800 BCE	Introduction of many more races including orcs, gnomes, trolls and shifters.
720 BCE	Appearance of the first of the Changers, Piltzintlicoatl (son of Quetzalcoatl) in Mesoamerica. The serpentine man-god quickly rises to power over the entire continent.
750 BCE	King Farahu rises to power in Egypt. Claiming to be the son of Set, he becomes known as the second of the Changers. His appearance is followed by an additional 5 Changers around the globe.
636 BCE	King Farahu declares war on Piltzintlicoatl, marking the beginning of the Changers' War.
630 BCE	War between Farahu and Piltzintlicoatl spreads to neighboring nations and eventually all 7 Changers are involved.
500 BCE	Earliest settlements at Marn.
310 BCE	Changers' War climaxes. Earth's orbit and axis are altered, land masses changed, entire civilizations are destroyed.
250 BCE	Changers' War ends with death of the last of the changers.
130 BCE	Marn falls to Eastern Empire, original inhabitants wiped out.
80 BCE / 2207 PW	Seal is restored. New Post War calendar created counting down from 2207.
2127 PW	Beginning of our calendar (approx. 0 AD).
900 PW	Marn falls to Western Empire.
320 PW	Marn abandoned by Western Empire.
287 PW	Town of Marn founded around ruins. First of the new settlers arrive. Formation of the guard.
210 PW	Town of Shim founded.
205 PW	Marn gains status of city.
215-210 PW	Trade through Marn declines dramatically, city suffers economic collapse followed by intensive reform.
208 PW	Anti-Magic laws enacted. Battlemages separate from the city guard. Founding of the judges.
122 PW	Present.