Timeline

Below is a dated chronicle of the history of the city of Haven, as well as the places and peoples that have become tied to it through the ages. As discussed in the article on the Havenic Calendar, events that occurred prior to the founding of Haven are marked as BH (Before Haven) and those that occurred after are marked as HE (Haven Era).

Note1: This timeline is the official, canonical record of events in the universe of Haven, and contains information that is not known to those that inhabit this universe. For example, while Haven's scholars may have an accurate historical record going back several thousand years, in most cases they only have theories about ancient events, such as the origination of races, that are based on myths and incomplete archaeological evidence. This record exists to serve players, DMs, and those curious about the universe's lore.

Note2: Players who have participated in the events described below may notice various discrepancies regarding chonology, names, details, etc. - creative liberties have been taken to ret-con the lore of this universe to be more cohesive (and in many cases, less explicitly problematic). If you remember an event that should be on this timeline or notice a significant continuity error, please contact editor Kollapski so that the historical details can be worked out.

The Age of Origination

 * 35,000 BH
 * The phulubits reach the coast of Inismona and take to the water. They quickly establish a primitive, tribal civilization on the floor of the Gerrim Sea.


 * 30,000 BH
 * The arachne reach the coast of Inismona. Using their web-weaving skills, they fashion rafts and simple boats from timber along the shores. They sail west and arrive on the Northland, making their home in the Great Forest.


 * 25,000 BH
 * The owlbears reach the coast of Inismona. These primitive owlbears possessed wings, a trait that is a rarity in modern owlbear populations. Using these powerful wings, the owlbears fly west and land on the shores of the Northland. They make their way southwest and settle in the Great Forest.


 * 20,000 BH
 * Packs of wild owlbears in the Great Forest begin to form complex social groups, including the most ancient owlbear clans and tribes. Cooperation and innovation increase, leading to the birth of early owlbear civilization. Owlbear towns and city-states begin to arise and occasionally skirmish with one another, but there are no large-scale conflicts.
 * The original, ancestral humans reach the coast of Inismona. They settle on these shores for some time, but overpopulation and resource shortages lead them to seek new lands. On simple sailboats, the humans sail east and land on the shores of Gerrim.

The Age of Strife

 * 19,900 BH
 * The westernmost owlbear settlements fight a series of brutal territorial wars with neighboring tribes of arachne. These wars eventually end in a stalemate, as both sides defend their territory too fiercely for the other to gain any ground.


 * 19,850 BH
 * A powerful owlbear named Ascalphus challenges and defeats the king of Omphalos in single combat and becomes the new ruler of the owlbears' largest city-state. His stature, power, and vision lead many to join his side, and he soon gathers an army. Within only a few years, he conquers and unifies all owlbear lands under his rule, thus founding the Owlbear Empire.
 * 18,000 BH 
 * For nearly 2,000 years following Ascalphus's unification campaign, Owlbear civilization experiences a golden age. Peace reigns, and the Owlbear Empire's territory expands rapidly in all directions as they are finally able to drive back their ancient rivals, the arachne. Great temples are raised honoring the god of the owlbears, Autumno. During this time, Ascalphus's bloodline remains unbroken, with his line inheriting his kingship as well as his name as an allusion to reincarnation.
 * 17,700 BH 
 * The owlbears' golden age is abruptly brought to an end by the outbreak of a devastating plague that rips across the land, leaving hundreds of thousands dead. The Ascalphus of this time, unsure on how to respond, is suddenly overcome by whispers and visions. This mysterious presence presents him with a desperate plan: construct a vast hibernal chamber beneath Autumno's greatest temple in Omphalos and allow his people to be put into a long sleep to wait out the disease. Trusting this voice, Ascalphus proceeds, and in a few short months the chamber is finished, and the population of Omphalos and the surrounding cities begin entering their slumber. Ascalphus's brother, however, does not trust these voices that Ascalphus has confessed to hearing. Not wanting to obey some strange outside force, Ascalphus's brother leads a small band of nobles out into the Great Forest. Meanwhile, the doors to the chamber are sealed, and Ascalphus and the owlbears enter their long hibernation.
 * In the following years, Ascalphus's brother and his noble allies do not adapt well to life in the forest, and their small society begins to regress both technologically and culturally. The situation eventually deteriorates to the point that the group breaks apart into warring factions, and within several generations the owlbears are reverted to a nearly feral state, identical to their ancient ancestors.
 * The voice that the Ascalphus of 17,700 BH was hearing was that of Oorn, one of the higher chaos gods. It is thought that Oorn, reaching through time, both created the owlbear plague and manipulated Ascalphus in order to prepare the owlbears as a weapon to be used against Haven and The Guild in the Great Owlbear War of 20 HE.


 * 15,000 BH
 * Advances in magical techniques lead wizards among the humans of Gerrim to begin dabbling in the manipulation of souls. A process is discovered by which human souls can be separated from their bodies and used as focal points for the formation of new sentient, elemental forms of life- these become known simply as elementals. This process, referred to as soulforging, is initially viewed by the wizards as a pathway to immortality, but it soon becomes clear that the elementals born from these human souls retain only the faintest traces of their human personalities and memories; for the most part, they are newborn intelligences, unfamiliar with the world. Even more troubling, this process of soulforging does not always work- in many cases, the wizards' test subjects' souls are simply obliterated in a screaming flash, not reincorporated in an elemental form or sent to any afterlife plane. There is a sharp cultural and societal divide between those that see soulforging as the gateway to ascension and those that see it as an existential threat to humanity. A long war breaks out between the powers supporting and opposing soulforging.
 * 14,900 BH
 * The Soulforge is created by a group of humanity's most powerful wizards. This huge, indestructible structure is built above a convergence of ley lines and is fueled by a constant flow of ley energy. Its sole function is to maintain a permanent soulforging cast inside its crucible-like great chamber, to immediately soulforge anyone who would enter. Countless souls are destroyed during its construction and initial experimentation, but the fanatical support of its proponents ensures that there are always enough test subjects.
 * 14,850 BH
 * The Soulforge becomes operational, and the power of the elementals it produces turns the tide of humanity's civil war. The anti-soulforging human groups are driven outward from Gerrim's heartland toward the coasts.
 * Two groups of humans depart from Gerrim's west coast, sailing for Inismona, their original homeland they have only heard of in stories handed down across countless generations.
 * One group is successful, and human settlements are re-established on Inismona's coasts. Their numbers would never come close to what their population was on Gerrim, due to both Inismona's limited resources and constant attacks from the strange races that inhabit the island's interior. Still, for many thousands of years, these settlements would stand.
 * The other group's ships are ravaged by storms, and they are driven far to the south, landing on the harsh, arid island of Bilraqighan. Many do not survive the brutal early years of this unintentional colonization, but with no lumber available there is no way for the survivors to leave. They adapt, learning the ways of this strange desert island, forming the human lineage known as the Bilraqighani.
 * A third group of humans, with their numbers including many of humanity's finest warriors, fortify their cities on Gerrim's coasts and entrench themselves for an age-long brutal conflict.


 * 10,000 BH
 * The human faction which struggled for nearly five thousand years against the elementals of Gerrim is finally forced to abandon the last of their strongholds as it is torn asunder by colossal earth and fire elementals. They sail to the southeast, and the first human settlements are created on the island of Surmusra.
 * 9,900 BH
 * The last of the humans still on Gerrim undergo soulforging, and Gerrim becomes a continent occupied entirely by elementals. Without most physical needs to drive them or human influences to motivate them, an atmosphere of great uncertainty settles over the elementals. Ultimately, most of the elementals, especially the larger ones, end up becoming dormant for many millennia. Those that are left rely on their slivers of human memories and their impressions of the last of Gerrim's humans to guide their actions, leading them to found Gerrim City, a sophisticated elemental settlement where creative pursuits eventually become the focus of elemental civilization.
 * 9,000 BH 
 * After a thousand years of relative peace and prosperity, overpopulation and resource shortages lead to a vicious war between once-united human clans for control of Surmusra's lush jungles. The clan that would become known as the Xuuluu win this war, forcing the other groups to ascend the sides of the great volcano Fjallokull to eke out a living on its slopes.
 * During the fighting, a small faction of Xuuluu object to the clan's actions against those they see as their kin. Their dissension provokes the rest of the clan to turn on them, and they are forced to flee the island of Surmusra. They arrive back on Gerrim where, ironically, they are greeted warmly by the very elementals that their ancestors had fled from. With no remaining memories of humans due to the soulforging process and the passage of time, the elementals of Gerrim City peacefully coexist with this group of Xuuluu, who take up the name Ukuzola to distinguish themselves from the rest of their clan.
 * 7,000 BH
 * A second clan war breaks out on Surmusra, this time between the groups forced to share the limited resources on Fjallokull's lower slopes. The group that would become the Stelites wins this war, and forces the group that would become the Fjallans into a small band of territory around the rim of the volcano.
 * 5,000 BH 
 * On the island of Inismona, despite having survived countless attacks from strange and vicious races from the island interior over thousands of years, the humans living on the island's coasts are finally forced to flee. The reason for this exodus was the appearance of a single, terrifying being capable of reshaping reality at will and reducing thousands of humans to a bubbling puddle of dissolved organs and cellular mush with a slight wave of its single slender arm. This horrifying creature was Cho Prime, the progenitor of the Cho.
 * The humans fleeing Inismona sail to the northwest, and arrive on a rugged island known as Winterwheat Isle. The island is cold and frequently struck by storms, but its namesake crop grows in abundance despite the climate. The humans are able to live in peace for a time, but still carry the collective nightmarish memory of Cho Prime.

The Age of the Ancients

 * 4,000 BH
 * The humans of Winterwheat Isle begin to expand outside of their small island home, mostly to the west onto the vast continent known as the Northland. These human settlers build their towns and villages mostly on the eastern coasts and in the foothills of the Winterpeak Mountains, and so have very limited encounters with the arachne tribes and (at this point) feral owlbears dwelling in the Great Forest.


 * 1,000 BH
 * A small and nameless village is settled near the geographic center of the Northland in the shadow of the most central and tallest of the Winterpeak Mountains. Good soil, good lumber, abundant minerals, and a location on top of a convergence of ley lines allow the village to transform into a bustling town in a very short amount of time. Though this specific settlement would not survive the coming years, its location is the site where Haven is eventually founded.


 * 800 BH
 * The exploding human population and sudden abundance of large cities in the Northland attracts the attention of a flight of white dragons who had recently arrived from the north and settled in the Winterpeak Mountains. The white dragons, for reasons of territoriality, disdain for lower beings, as well as simply hunger, unleash a campaign of extermination against the humans of the Northland, destroying many of their cities and decimating their population. These attacks would continue for years, a period of time now remembered as the Years of Slaughter. Noble efforts were made by many human settlements to stop the dragons, but none succeeded.
 * The majority of the surviving humans sail east back to Winterwheat Isle, where they are taken in as refugees but initiate an overpopulation crisis among the humans that had already been living there for the past 4,000 years.
 * A small subgroup of humans flees southward along the coast of the Northland, attempting to find some home that is out of the dragons' reach.


 * 799 BH 
 * The refugee crisis on Winterwheat Isle worsens as the influx of humans fleeing the Northland's white dragons strains the islanders' resources. At the start of the new spring, the elders of the isle invoke a rarely-used old rite from humanity's time on Inismona over four thousand years prior. They command the exile of the old, the sick, and the weak to the only nearby land not watched over by the ravenous white dragons: a small scattering of rocky cold islands to the north known as the Iceblood Islands, a place even less hospitable than Winterwheat Isle. Spring arrives, and the exiled depart, with many separated from friends and family unwilling to make the journey alongside them.


 * 798 BH
 * The Winterwheat exiles settle on the Iceblood Islands, but are ravaged by their first winter. The vast majority of the exiles are killed by cold or starvation. Those that remain spend years eking out an existence on hardy crops and fish. Occasionally, more exiles arrive, but most are too feeble to survive more than a year or two. All exiles that attempt to return to Winterwheat Isle are forcefully turned away. Miraculously, some children are born on the Iceblood Islands, though many die in their first months of life. A small few are raised into the harsh life demanded by their island home.


 * 783 BH
 * Ingrid Astridsdottir, a young frost giant, begins her Trials in order to earn her place in her village. She is miniscule among frost giants and lacks any trace of their physical strength; many were surprised she had survived through young adulthood at all. As a result of her diminutive stature, she is thoroughly defeated in combat by all of her peers. Though in the trials it is customary to kill those you defeat, each of her opponents in turn took pity and spared her, prompting a rare ritual in which she was stripped of all her claims, inheritance, her family name, and was left abandoned on a remote island to the south of the inhabited icebergs in the Sea of Ice which comprised her people's homeland. Her new name becomes Ingrid the Frail.


 * 782 BH
 * Finn Ivarsson, a teenage son of one of the exile leaders of the Iceblood Islands, begins exploring the northern islands of the archipelago on his own. Finn lies to his parents about how far he travels, as he has been methodically mapping increasingly far away islands. On one of his return journeys, his rowboat is tossed about in a sudden storm and capsizes on rough seas. Finn loses consciousness, but miraculously washes ashore alive and severely hypothermic where he is found by Ingrid the Frail. As Ingrid nurses Finn back to health, a romance gradually blossoms between the two. Finn stays with Ingrid and she teaches him how to better survive the harsh conditions of the northern islands. Finn contemplates returning to his village, but cannot neither bring himself to leave Ingrid nor risk introducing her to his community. He makes the difficult decision to stay for a prolonged time in the northern islands, and is presumed dead by his family and community who lack the resources to search for him.


 * 780 BH
 * After falling deeply in love, Ingrid the Frail and Finn Ivarsson start a family. In the winter, Ingrid gives birth to septuplet sons. Rather than give them in the traditional patronymic fashion, as was typical for both their cultures, the parents decide to name their sons after the site of their birth, a cave in a fjord of immense natural beauty; thus, these seven become the first of the Fjordssons. Were it not for their frost giant blood they would have certainly succumbed to the cold, but their human blood still renders them fairly vulnerable. Ingrid and Finn try their hardest to keep them safe and warm, but between the cold and an illness sustained by Ingrid, they are forced to return to the main Iceblood Island settlement for help. Finn's family and community initially react with fear to Ingrid's presence- though she is puny among her own people, she is the largest person in the settlement by a significant margin. However, for the love of Finn and his new family, the village bands together to help raise the seven children. Eventually, after Ingrid recovers her strength, she proves herself invaluable to the village with her survival skills.


 * 770 BH
 * Through the decades following the Years of Slaughter, the contingent of Northlanders that had decided to flee south (instead of east to Winterwheat Isle) goes through a series of short-lived settlement efforts thwarted by dragon attacks in the north and owlbear attacks in the south. They continue to flee southward along the eastern coast of the Northland, eventually arriving at a small, desert-like isthmus connecting the Northland to a large southern continent known as Zonia. The jungles of Zonia prove far too dangerous to settle, and the presence of owlbears to the north makes retreating impossible. Thus, these humans built their settlements on the isthmus between the two continents. Over the years, this settlement and the surrounding region would become known as Cruzado, and its people would develop a language, culture, and human lineage distinct from other humans. These people would call themselves the Cruzadores.


 * 200 BH
 * The original seven Fjordsson brothers, along with their seven septuplet younger sisters, marry into the families of the Iceblood Islands' human population, and over many generations the islands' entire population becomes comprised of humans with frost giant ancestry. Their inheritance from Ingrid the Frail becomes less pronounced with each generation, but certain traits remain. Around this time, the people of the Iceblood Islands all identify as Fjordssons, the name they choose for their new collective lineage of humanity. They venerate Ingrid and Finn as their demigod ancestors, they are 1-2 feet taller than the average human, have icy blue eyes and blond-to-white hair, and have mastered survival in their icy domain. Many of them adopt the frost giant custom of taking titles in place of their surname upon reaching adulthood. Additionally, their frost giant heritage grants potent magical proficiency to a small few individuals. Eventually, the idea of reclaiming the Northland arises; Winterwheat forces had tried and failed horribly many times over the years, but the Fjordssons believed themselves to be far more competent. Led by a warrior known as Yngvar the Fearless, the Fjordssons mustered a dragon-slaying force and set out for the Northland.


 * 150 BH 
 * After fifty years of raids, including one resulting in Yngvar's death, the Fjordssons manage to drive the white dragons out of the Northland and begin settling in the hills just south of the Winterpeak Mountains. While initially reluctant, they allow the humans of Winterwheat Isle to settle as well, with the exception of the ruling elders and their families, as punishment for their exile of the Fjordssons' ancestors in ages past. A powerful Fjordsson wizard known as Torold the Stern, one of the most outspoken opponents of any Winterwheat re-settlement, only agrees to this punishment under the condition that he may curse every member of the Winterwheat ruling families. Some Fjordssons agree immediately to this proposal while others only agree reluctantly after considering how much they need Torold's abilities. They allow Torold to perform his curses, but speak as little of it as possible to the greater public. Thus, from this point on, if someone of elder Winterwheat blood travels more than 100 meters from the shores of Winterwheat Isle, they are stricken with a debilitating disease of violent vomiting, dysentery, fever, and internal bleeding that will kill a healthy adult in one hour; the only cure is to consume soil from Winterwheat Isle. The curse, cruelly, also introduced a strong hereditary birthmark into these bloodlines in the shape of the word "WEAK," scrawled out in distorted Fjordsson runes across the faces of all those bearing the curse. From this time forward, Torold the Stern loses much of his public support due to the extreme nature of the curse, and the public renames him Torold the Cruel.


 * 100 BH
 * For the Fjordssons now resettled on the Northland, several decades of peace pass as towns begin to grow across the rolling hills and valleys. Without warning, a colossal white dragon known as Inexorus descends from the Winterpeak Mountains and razes many of the Fjordsson towns in a single day, not eating any of the humans or their livestock and seemingly acting out of rage alone. Every day for a week Inexorus descends and claims hundreds of lives, with the Fjordssons' counterattacks seeming to have little effect despite their success against the white dragons of years past. Talk ensues of fleeing back to the sea, but the leaders quickly resolve that this time they will win or die. A man by the name of Bjornolf the Bold proposes a plan to ascent the Winterpeaks, locate Inexorus's lair, wait in hiding, and then kill the dragon in a confined space in his sleep. He is ridiculed by many, and finds only four allies: Rorik the Mad, Siv the Shadow, Yngvild the Vigilant, and Torunn the Cold (the daughter of Torold the Cruel). Together, these five develop their scheme and act the next day. The rest of the leaders and community begin to criticize them saying that they are seeking death, and so their party is referred to as the Deadmen by the rest of the public. They execute their plan and, stunningly, it succeeds; they successfully ambush Inexorus in the dead of night and a fight ensues, but the dragon is ultimately slain in the close quarters of his cave lair.
 * Unbeknownst to the rest of the party, the reason for their victory was a curse spell cast by Torunn the Cold which condensed all the luck and fortune of all the party members' lives and their descendants' lives down into that single fight, which allowed them to accomplish the impossible feat of slaying Inexorus, the demigod leader of the white dragons with relative ease in his own lair. They would be welcomed back as heroes and honored for all time, but for centuries each of them and their descendants would be beset by personal disasters, tragedies, and early, often violent deaths. Eventually, this was noticed by the public, and it was assumed to be a curse put on them by Inexorus. Partly because of the curse, and partly because of the name they bore at the dubious start of their quest, the party continues to be referred to as the Deadmen. Torunn fully believed in what she did, and for many years had no qualms. However, in the future her conviction would waver when dealing with her party member Bjornolf's descendants.


 * 90 BH
 * As the human population on the Northland grows, there is a growing need for consolidation of power and a leader. Many come forward with various claims to the title of King, but ultimately Bjornolf the Bold of the Deadmen is selected despite him not making any claims of his own; he is nominated by Torunn the Cold and Yngvild the Vigilant, the only two other surviving members of the Deadmen (Rorik the Mad died in 95 BH of a tiny cut which became gravely infected, Siv the Shadow died in 94 BH in a freak accident in which she was crushed by a falling tree). The nomination of Bjornolf for King is met with roaring approval, and so Bjornolf of the Deadmen is crowned King, with all of the Fjordsson and now-integrated Winterwheat humans bending the knee in fealty.


 * 80 BH 
 * Over the next ten years, King Bjornolf governs well and leads the humans of the Northland to prosperity, but his own life is miserable; he is frequently struck with acute illnesses and struggles to mask his pain, his physical prowess deteriorates as if he were 30 years older than his true age, and nearly every woman he courts dies within months as a result of freak accidents (the effects of the Curse of the Deadmen). Eventually he falls in love with a young maiden named Ranveig the Red and they are married. Shortly after they marry, Bjornolf dies from a heart attack at the age of 38. Soon after Bjornolf's passing, Ranveig learns that she is pregnant with his child. During this tumultuous time, she is crowned Queen and becomes the Northlanders' second monarch. Sadly, her reign lasts only the length of her pregnancy, as she dies unexpectedly in childbirth; the new heir to the throne, Mikkel, is born. After this tragic sequence of events, the nature of the curse is more apparent than ever to the public, and its name is attached to Mikkel; he becomes known as Mikkel Deadman.


 * 64 BH
 * Mikkel is now 16 years old and is officially crowned as King, the third monarch of the Northland humans. Throughout his life, many attempts are made to try to lift the curse but the magic, originally cast by Torunn the Cold, proves too strong. Torunn is terrified that in their attempts, the mages will realize that the curse originated from her, not the white dragon demigod Inexorus, as the public believes. Desperate, Torunn makes repeated attempts on Mikkel's life throughout his childhood and into his adolescence, but no matter how hard she tries, her blade will not pierce him and her spells fail. However, when she makes a deliberately light cut or casts a weakened spell, she succeeds in wounding him, causing the child tremendous pain. She realizes that in crafting her curse, she drew upon the luck of hundreds of future generations of Bjornolf's bloodline, and so Mikkel is immune to any harm that would be outright fatal, as the bloodline must continue. Mikkel survives in a life plagued by injuries and illnesses, but tries his best to govern his people.


 * 60 BH
 * Mikkel travels to a new residence at the advice of one of his mages, as they have discovered a confluence of ley lines at this location. This mage believes that this immense source of raw magical energy may disrupt the effects of the curse, or at least allow the mages more power to attempt to lift the curse. The curse is not able to lifted, but its effects are lessened. Mikkel relocates his government to this more remote town (a tiny settlement bearing the name Leyhollow), much to the annoyance of the nobility. Mikkel's leadership abilities lessen as he is distracted by trying to enjoy his new, relatively pleasant life.


 * 20 BH
 * Decades pass and Mikkel Deadman spends most of his time drinking, hunting, and bedding women. The King's power declines and the nobles from the major Northland human settlements form a de facto oligarchy to rule the domain of humanity in his absence. The human settlements begin to interact more as a loose network of city states than a unified kingdom. They being to develop into distinct entities, and without a central governing body the humans begin to lose their political cohesion. Small skirmishes break out over trade disagreements, and bloody battles are waged for control of land and resources. At age 40, Mikkel finally marries, wedding the maiden Freya the Fair. They have a son who Mikkel names after himself, Mikkel Deadman II. Due to his many vices and ever-declining sense of dignity and responsibility, Mikkel I becomes a terrible father to Mikkel II, and he makes no attempts to improve. Freya is left to do effectively raise the prince on her own, while Mikkel I devolves back into alcoholism.


 * 15 BH
 * When Mikkel II is only five years old, his father Mikkel I dies of liver failure while blackout drunk in a bar. His widow, Freya the Fair, ascends to the throne as Queen Freya, the fourth monarch of the Northland humans. Mikkel II grows up filled with hatred for his father, a flame fanned by his mother who had also grown to despise him after he had regressed to his old ways. Mikkel II vows to be nothing like Mikkel I. While Queen Freya attends to the difficult business of holding the increasingly divided human kingdoms together, Mikkel II is raised largely by a council of advisors, among which is Torunn the Cold, who has kept her youth through using curses to drain the futures of unknowing innocents; she is now 105 years old but appears to carry only a quarter of this age. After watching many suffer and die from her curses, she begins to feel a sense of responsibility to at least preserve the human kingdom that was founded on her darkest and greatest curse.

The Age of Haven

 * 1 HE
 * Mikkel II turns 16 years old and is crowned King, becoming the fifth monarch of the Northland humans. Along with the help of his mother, Queen Mother Freya, he begins a campaign to reunify the increasingly fragmented human kingdom, beginning with a declaration that the growing town of Leyhollow will be renamed to Haven, and that it will be the new capital of all human lands, and that all lords must literally bend the knee to him in Haven either in person or via a chosen representative. Upset at the new authority disrupting their autonomy, many of the city states refuse to comply, and an attempt is made on Mikkel II's life by poisoning of his food. Due to the nature of his curse, Mikkel II survives after suffering through several days of gruesome illness, but his mother Freya succumbs to the poison. Mikkel II desires vengeance but his council stops him from initiating a war, as Haven at this time is one of the smallest and militarily weakest human domains. Mikkel II dispatches messengers to his few potential allies among the nobles to the east and the smaller settlements to the west, seeking any aid he can rally to his side. One of these messages would find itself in the hands of an eclectic traveler named Master Whittington, a recently-arrived explorer from a distant land who had been unaware that there were humans on the Northland at this point. As it happened, Whittington was both a scout and leader within a powerful collective simply known as The Guild.
 * Master Whittington and Quincy (Whittington's trusted butler and bodyguard) secretly investigate the legitimacy of Mikkel II's claim, and decide to travel to Haven to extend to him an offer: The Guild will win him his civil war, but in return The Guild must be granted a massive piece of land high in the Winterpeak Mountains to construct a new base of operations. Mikkel II is suspicious of this offer, but with few other choices, he is forced to accept. Mikkel II is simply told that all will be taken care of in due time. The very next day, an armada of colossal, armored Guild airships blacken the entire sky and descend upon the rebellious human cities. Shout spells from Guild mages boom the message: submit to Haven or suffer ruination. Warning shots are fired, rogue nobles are rounded up, and the war ends in a day with minimal casualties. Master Whittington helps Mikkel II to appoint new leaders to head each of the cities, and promises to return periodically to maintain relations and provide support. The Guild airships retreat as quickly as they had arrived, although in the years that would follow they could be spotted on clear days clustered around the summits of the Winterpeak Mountains.


 * 5 HE
 * The Northland human cities, now reunified, bring enough mutual gain to each other through trade that most of the unhappy cities lose their rebellious spirit. Haven outpaces all of them in its surging growth; the quality and quantity of its natural resources seems impossibly high, with crop yields being more than double than elsewhere in the Northland. This is attributed by experts to Haven's location on top of the massive ley line intersection that was the namesake for the town Haven originated from, Leyhollow. Rumors of this magical land spread and humans begin flocking toward Haven. Even human fertility seems to be increased, with families producing twins and triplets at a high rate. The population booms, illnesses are rare, and peacetime is enjoyed by all.
 * Meanwhile, Torunn the Cold continues to serve on the royal council to guide Mikkel II; secretly, Torunn had always harbored a deep unrequited love for Bjornolf the Bold, and in Mikkel II, she begins to see everything that made Bjornolf the man he was, from his physical features to his confidence and bravery. However, with Mikkel II this confidence seemed real and resilient, as opposed to Bjornolf's more bold and foolhardy variety. After 125 years of life, Mikkel II becomes the first man that Torunn begins making small advances on. Mikkel II is slow to recognize these, as he had known Torunn since he was young, and she had always been a matronly figure in his life. Torunn herself is deeply conflicted as she continues to work through these feelings, as she knew that even though no incidents had occurred recently, Mikkel II was marked with her curse and one day he would die horribly because of her actions she had taken in the struggle to kill Inexorus. Torunn begins seeking a way to repay the immense debt of fortune that the curse had created; to somehow equalize the fate of the Deadman bloodline and prevent future tragedies. With the weight of many dead friends and innocents on her soul, she wondered: How would she make this happen without harming innocent bystanders? Who would willingly swear their lives in service to preserving the King? And then, one day while listening to the other members of the council talk about shoring up Haven's defenses in anticipation of further attacks in an ongoing series of feral owlbear incursions, it struck her: the Haven Guard were a freshly created elite group who were required to devote their lives to the preservation of the city and their King. Torunn maneuvered her way into the talks on how to expand the Guard, and through careful negotiating she she persuaded the council to allow her to revise the official oath of the Guard, claiming that she wanted to ensure that its language was in accordance with the old traditions of the Fjordssons. Through manipulation of the wording of the oath, she invoked a spell that took the form of an arcane system that would result in the future luck and fortune of the lives of Haven Guardsmen to flow directly to Mikkel II to sustain him.


 * 10 HE
 * Haven continues to flourish, and Mikkel II is well-loved by his people and his new bride, Torunn. Those who know about Torunn's long, guarded past murmur about the nature of the royal union, but in general the peace of the time is enough to allow people to turn a blind eye to the potential scandal. The only thing disrupting the the everyday peace of Haven is either the occasional explosion from up in the Winterpeaks (always quickly followed by hand-delivery of a formal apology message from The Guild, written by Quincy), or the brutal, sudden, and mysterious death of a Haven Guardsman. At this point, the deaths of these guards are occurring infrequently enough not to arouse serious suspicion, much to Torunn's relief. Torunn and Mikkel II have their first child, a girl named Lilianna, and for a short while, their lives are perfect and joyful.
 * As months pass, Torunn begins to notice a disturbing pattern: every time Lilianna falls ill with even a small sniffle, Haven Guardsmen begin dropping dead in the streets in alarming numbers, as if her new oath-curse was straining to protect both living Deadmen. Torunn had hoped that somehow her mage blood in Lilianna would weaken the effects of the curse on her, but the curse persists. As she is in her study furiously debating about how to fix this new problem, the large stained-glass window of Mikkel II's throne room is shattered by the massive hurtling frame of a "man" known as Joe Scalleta. Joe Scalleta, as part of an ongoing and unplanned rampage, murders the King in cold blood along with several of his attendants. Joe Scalleta is apprehended and sentenced to death, but manages to escape from his cell via a tunnel dug by the strange half-bulette mercenary known only as Chompski. Haven is devastated, but the rate of dying Guardsmen decreases and Torunn focuses on raising Lilianna while still in shock and mourning over the death of Mikkel II.


 * 15 HE
 * As Lilianna is still too young to rule, a regency council reigns in her stead. Normally, Torunn would be on this council or become Queen Regnant, but she steps back from politics in order to care for and protect Lilianna, still constantly worried about the potential implications of her curse. This mild power void allows an agent for a chaos god organization known as The Corporation to make it onto the regency council. The Corporation leverages the power afforded by this position to facilitate the trafficking of a mind-controlling drug into Haven, seeking to enslave its inhabitants to turn them against The Guild, their most hated enemies. However, before they can fully launch their operation, their secret cave base at the base of the western Winterpeaks is discovered by Dalek and Chompski. The Corporation agents in this lair are killed, their supply of drug is burned, and written plans are discovered which implicate the whole regency council as being involved in the plot as a result of already being mind-controlled. Not wanting to wait and allow the evil plot to progress, Chompski, Dalek, and their fellow adventurers sneak into the royal palace, rig it with explosives, and blow the entire structure sky high.
 * Everyone inside the palace dies in the explosion, with the exception of Torunn, who was sheltered from the blast in her secret sub-basement research space, and Lilianna, who was protected by her curse. However, though Lilianna survives, she suffers horrendous burns across most of the right side of her body which would have surely killed anybody else. As the other element of the curse exacts its toll, hundreds of Haven guardsmen drop dead in the streets.
 * After ensuring Lilianna's survival, Torunn begins to obsessively guard her, using all of the magic at her disposal to create complex wards to negate as many potential sources of harm as possible. This obsessiveness would continue for years, and would age Torunn considerably.


 * 20 HE
 * The Iron Helix Syndicate, while adventuring in the Great Forest to the south of Haven, accidentally stumble upon the temple of Autumno in a ruin-filled stretch of woodland that was once the ancient owlbear city of Omphalos. They manage to break into the temple's vast hibernal chamber and discover endless rows of structures resembling stacks of stone coffins. Barnabus Motley ascends one of these stacks and pries off the heavy stone lid. The owlbear inside awakens, filled with the blind rage that had been placed in them by Oorn, the chaos god that had manipulated the owlbears into hibernation so many thousands of years in the past. The shrieks and shrill cackling emitted by this owlbear cause the neighboring owlbears to begin to awaken, and soon as the cacophony spreads the entire chamber begins to awaken. The Iron Helix Syndicate flees as a tide of violent owlbears pursues them back toward Haven.
 * The conflict that followed this mass awakening is known as the Great Owlbear War. As the wave of owlbears crashed against Haven's walls, the forces of the Haven Guard would be summoned from every corner of the city to push back the tide at the southern gates. These gates would soon fall, and many of Haven's southernmost neighborhoods quickly became hellish warzones as the Guard fought desperately to slow the owlbears' advance, to no avail.
 * Despite their complicated (at best) relationship with the city of Haven, the Iron Helix Syndicate were troubled at the thought of losing their home to these ravenous owlbears. On the second day of the conflict, they contacted The Guild, seeking military aid. While the request was dismissed or rejected by several senior Guild members who believed their organization had already intervened far too much in the city of Haven's affairs, Master Whittington overruled them and made the executive decision to deploy all of the Guild forces stationed in the area. This included several hundred of the Guild's elite mercenaries and advanced war machines on the ground, as well as a fleet of airships providing fire support from above.
 * Two notable Guild weapons that were highly influential in securing a quick and decisive victory were the experimental war machine known as the Landbreaker, as well as Master Whittington's personal airship, the Halcyon.
 * The Iron Helix Syndicate played a key role in the combat as well, using their fearsome abilities to neutralize dozens of raging owlbears, clearing the way for key Guild teams.
 * The third day of fighting ended and brought a conclusion to the brief but horrifying war, with Haven and The Guild securing a decisive but costly victory. Over 90% of the Haven Guard was lost in the conflict, along with the lives of hundreds of thousands of civilians living in or near south Haven. No Guild lives were lost though many of their mercenaries were severely wounded. Much of south Haven was destroyed, as well as vast swathes of the northernmost reaches of the Great Forest. The voyage of the Landbreaker from the Ukrat Sea to the site of the conflict also permanently scarred the landscape, with a new river being etched into the Northland's terrain. On the owlbears' side, over 95% of their population was slain in the fighting. The few remaining owlbears are those that managed to break free of Oorn's hold and surrender.
 * The owlbear surrender was accepted by both Haven and The Guild. The Guild, through their most advanced scholars and mages, translated for the owlbears during the peace talks. They oversaw the creation of a peace agreement which allowed the owlbears to settle a small area of land to the south of Haven, where they would be free to live as they pleased as long as they did so under the supervision of Haven and contributed labor to the rebuilding of Haven. Haven was assigned the responsibility to assist the owlbears in settling their new home and to familiarize them with the modern world.
 * 23 HE
 * In the depths of the Great Forest, an adventuring hellfire knight and Eye of Gruumsh stumble upon a small, isolated human village and begin engaging in cruel and depraved acts of slaughter, committing unspeakable acts of violence against the villagers. In an astonishing feat of proselytism, these murderers successfully recruit the rest of the village to the worship of their evil gods. Blood-soaked stone monuments to the gods Erythnul and Gruumsh are erected in the town square, and weekly mutilation and sacrifice become a tradition for the villagers. This area becomes known as The Village of Pain and Suffering, though for many decades it will be a place largely unknown to the outside world as nearly every visitor is horrifically dismembered upon arrival.
 * In a different region of the Great Forest, Chompski and other members of the Iron Helix Syndicate discover a small band of feral owlbears, living separately from the rest of their kind now resettled near Haven. Chompski and his colleagues slay most of the owlbears, sparing only a small juvenile, which Chompski adopts as a pet/child whom he names Gadget. Chompski and the other members of the Iron Helix Syndicate flee the scene when the owlbears' massive patriarch returns from deeper in the forest, afraid of the wrath he might unleash on those that killed his family.


 * 25 HE
 * After a remarkably short period of recovery from the Great Owlbear War, the borders of Haven continue to expand ever outward. Eventually, the western border of Haven arrives at the territory of the arachne, an ancient race who had made the western and northwestern portions of the Great Forest their home for thousands of years. Unbeknownst to the humans of Haven, the arachne had been observing their city for years at this point, in some cases even stealthily infiltrating to more closely study Haven's customs and technology. In this short period of time the arachne had learned a great deal, and had transitioned from a highly sophisticated but tribal society into one very similar to Haven. While many arachne contemplated resisting the expansion of Haven into their ancestral lands, they were wise enough to understand what might happen to them; they had watched the events of the Great Owlbear War unfold, and did not wish to suffer the same fate as their old enemies, the owlbears. And so, though the humans of Haven were disturbed by their spider-like traits and their eerily well-mannered and polite demeanor, the arachne and their settlements would be gradually integrated and assimilated into Haven.
 * 26 HE 
 * At the age of 16, Lilianna Deadman ascends to the throne to become Queen of Haven, becoming its sixth monarch after 11 years and two regency councils. With the help of her increasingly mentally-frayed and protective mother, Torunn, Lilianna oversees the continued rebuilding of Haven. However, despite being Queen, Lilianna makes almost no public appearances. This is due in part to Torunn's strict protectiveness, but also due to the effect that she believes her grisly burn scars would have on the psyche of the public.
 * 27 HE
 * A detachment of explorers from the Iron Helix Syndicate makes landfall on the time-lost island of Inismona and makes an attempt to explore the island interior. On their journey, they encounter and do battle with a number of increasingly strange and dangerous species, most of which appear to possess varying degrees of sentience. In one encounter, they discover that they are not the only group of adventurers present on the island; when scouting a vast valley in the northern part of the island, they come upon a bizarre group of adventurers known as the Ravensturm bathing in the pulsing sound and dazzling lights of a living crystal mountain god in what seems for them to be a weeks-long celebration. Unfortunately, the Iron Helix Syndicate are not able to progress significantly farther northward than this valley due to the presence of a dense, toxic fog that nearly claims all of their lives. Turning back, they head for the safety of Haven.
 * 30 HE
 * Explorers from Haven, along with the Iron Helix Syndicate, arrive on the continent of Gerrim. Shortly after arrival, they travel to Gerrim City and discover the society of elementals living there. After spending some time engaging with the locals and their culture, they happen upon the Soulforge sitting at the center of the city. Several members attempt to enter the Soulforge, but almost immediately are nearly incinerated by the magical energies emanating from within; while they would miraculously recover, the realization of the level of power controlled by these elementals led them to take on a position of distrust. After a number of conflicts break out between the Iron Helix and the people of Gerrim City, one member makes a speech on the steps of the Soulforge, heard by a vast crowd of elemental citizens. This speech called into question the elementals' motives, their purpose, and the nature of their society. Unbeknownst to the Iron Helix, this exact topic was a source of great unrest within the collective consciousness of Gerrim City's people, and the words they heard that day struck them to their very cores. They were so shaken by the speech that nearly all of them, within the space of one day, entered the Soulforge and did not re-emerge. Gerrim City becomes a ghostly quiet place inhabited only by the small minority of its non-elemental and half-elemental citizens.
 * Despite the promises made by the government of Haven to the owlbears following the Great Owlbear War that had occurred 10 years prior, the owlbears were living under extremely harsh conditions due to poor oversight from Haven officials. Their de facto leader was an owlbear warlord known as Ciccaba, a brutal authoritarian who ran a corrupt and unequal society. By positioning himself and his kin as the most trusted and familiar liaisons between the owlbears and Haven's human government, they ensured that oversight of their area of the city remained low. With this lack of scrutiny, they made sure the demands of the treaty of the Great Owlbear War were being met while also redirecting as much wealth as possible away from their people and towards themselves.
 * In 30 HE, after 10 full years of this oppressive rule, the owlbears would rise up in a violent revolt against Ciccaba and his clan, tearing him, his allies, and his family to shreds with their bare claws in a nighttime riot. The most vocal and outspoken opponent of Ciccaba and the owlbear responsible for sparking the revolt was a scrawny but strong-willed owlbear named Masio; in the wake of Ciccaba's downfall, the owlbears would clamor for Masio to assume leadership, a role which he would reluctantly accept after trying to transfer the power to someone he felt was more suited than himself.
 * 32 HE
 * On the once-bustling but now-desolate continent of Gerrim, a war breaks out between three powerful forces. These forces were lured from far across the Material Plane by energies that had begun emitting from the Soulforge and into its underlying ley lines, creating a signature detectable across immense distance. The three forces vying for control of this font of power were:
 * The Azure Aviaries, a confederation of harpies and other avian humanoids whose terrifying speed and agility give them nearly absolute aerial superiority
 * The Alabaster Abyssals, a combined horde of thousands of different strange and mysterious deep sea entities wielding incredible aquatic combat prowess as well as terrifying magical skill
 * The Crimson Crusade, a coalition of a number of mercenary organizations fighting as a combined force under the guidance of the Crimson Corp, a renegade offshoot of The Guild with access to the most advanced military technology available anywhere in the Material Plane at this time
 * For months, a brutal and bloody three-way stalemate holds as none of the three forces can gain control of Gerrim for long enough to access the secrets of the Soulforge. Some members of the Iron Helix Syndicate learn of this conflict and actually volunteer to take part, although they do not do so as a unified force. Instead, some members choose to join the Alabaster Abyssals while others enlist with the Crimson Crusade.
 * Chompski, upon being accepted by the Alabaster Abyssals, partook in their ancient initiation rites which would alter his physical form and transform him into a creature of the sea, should he survive. He endured these trials, and was permanently imbued with the physical characteristics of a sting ray, with large wing-like sheets of cartilage stretching from his torso out to his forearms and lower legs, as well as a short tail with a venomous spine at its tip.
 * Joe Scalleta joined the Crimson Crusade and was deployed as part of an infantry escort for some of their larger war machines. He took part in some of the heaviest fighting, narrowly surviving several brutal assaults from the Azure Aviaries. He was also responsible for the most friendly fire casualties of any of the war's participants, gunning down several dozen of his own men in a panicked counterattack against one of the aerial ambushes.
 * In the end, losses for all three sides became so severe that each was forced to withdraw as soon as they saw their enemies did not have enough resources to take control of the Soulforge. Hundreds of thousands of lives were lost, and much of what had remained of the old Gerrim City was reduced to ruins, with its few remaining citizens having evacuated to Haven or other nearby lands near the start of the war. To historians this strange conflict becomes known as the Soulforge Struggle.
 * 33 HE 
 * The elemental inhabitants of Gerrim City re-emerge from the Soulforge and begin rebuilding their civilization. It is unknown why the elementals reappeared at this time, even to the elementals themselves. Observers from Haven who had visited Gerrim City in the past notice that there are significantly fewer elementals than there once were, with the newly re-established Gerrim City having only a quarter as many residents as in the past. There were many speculating as to how and why this could have occurred, but the truth unknown to all of them was that there had been a consolidation of souls that had occurred in the Soulforge, an event so intense that it had triggered the energy pulses which precipitated the Soulforge Struggle. These new elementals were each the product of many soul fusions, bearing the blended emotions and personalities of anywhere from two to ten other individuals. As a result, though this was generally too subtle for outsiders to notice, each elemental was more dynamic and driven than the elementals of Gerrim City's past, bearing none of the internalized existential uncertainty that had hung over their previous society for so long. In just a few short months, Gerrim City would become stronger than it ever had been before, and the city's inhabitants would become major players in world events.
 * The Iron Helix Syndicate, unaware of Gerrim City's resurgence, spend most of this year sailing to the uncharted edges of the map seeking out new and strange lands. Eventually, they sight a small island somewhere in the far south of the Gerrim Sea, and find that despite its extreme isolation the island is home to the tiny city of Fecaurum. The inhabitants of Fecaurum are the Aurites, a race of beautiful humanoids with shining metallic golden skin marked in some places by precious gemstones. The attention of the Iron Helix, rather than being drawn to the Aurites' exceptional physical features, is instead drawn to the fact that these beings defecate solid gold. Though it makes many of the Aurites uncomfortable, they agree to let the Iron Helix collect their waste and sanitize their city for several weeks, until the Iron Helix acquires so much gold that obtaining any more would risk overloading and sinking their ship. In their haste to loot the waste of the Aurites, the Iron Helix would make the critical mistake of failing to properly record the location of Fecaurum on their maps, and neither they nor other sailors would be able to locate Fecaurum again for many decades.
 * 34 HE
 * The Iron Helix Syndicate members that participated in the excursion are now fabulously wealthy and living an extremely opulent lifestyle, and for no member is this more true than in the case of Chompski. Using his newly acquired fortune Chompski makes a number of large purchases that earn the jealousy and ire of his colleagues, such as a tamed soar whale large enough to support a small settlement on its back, complete with merchants, supply storage facilities, and even multiple artillery pieces in the form of ballistae. Many of the members of the Iron Helix Syndicate feel that, despite his senior status, he has grown too rich, too powerful, and too arrogant. They suppress their anger for many months and many adventures, until one night it boils over and they stage a mutiny aboard Chompski's soar whale. The whale is slain and brought to earth, and Chompski is overpowered and in a weakened state is bound to a tree. In an act of extreme cruelty, the other Helix members dismember Chompski's adoptive son, Gadget, in front of his eyes, and attempt to force feed him the remains. They loot what wealth they can from the wreck/carcass of the whale, and leave Chompski for dead in the wilderness. Chompski would eventually recover and make his way back to civilization, and would remain one of Haven's wealthiest inhabitants thanks to his banked gold. Additionally, he would in time somehow find the strength within himself to forgive the rest of the Helix for their actions, and would move forward with them on new adventures.
 * Around this time, Master Whittington pays a visit to Haven for the first time in a number of years, looking to meet with Queen Lilianna to discuss matters related to Haven and the Guild's partnership. Due to the protectiveness of Torunn and the palace staff, this meeting almost does not take place, but eventually Whittington is granted an audience due to his distinguished position in Haven's history. Upon meeting Lilianna, Whittington is totally and completely struck dumb with love, an emotion he had never before experienced in his countless millennia of existence (its sudden manifestation was likely due to his having spent so many years in his human form, and the accumulated effects of his human interactions). While he would manage to carry out his business and depart in a calm and polite manner, he was deeply distracted and consumed by his new emotions.
 * Whittington formulates a plan to get to know Lilianna better; he takes on the appearance of a younger self and creates a separate identity, adopting the name William Whittington. Through his influence over The Guild, he creates the position of Haven Liaison, and appoints William Whittington to the office. The emergence of a second Guild member with the last name Whittington catches the attention of several senior Guild leaders, a misstep which Master Whittington did not account for in his emotional state (among these would be a man simply known as Franz, who already harbored deep contempt for The Guild's ever-increasing involvement in Haven's affairs).
 * As the Haven Liaison, William Whittington engages Lilianna in conversation for hours each week. At first these are primarily political and economic discussions, but as the weeks go on and the two receive less scrutiny from the palace staff, they begin to discuss more personal matters, and the first embers of a romantic relationship begin to flicker into life. This attracts the attention of Torunn, who becomes extremely suspicious of William; in addition to her apprehensions about his motives concerning her daughter, she is alarmed by his demeanor and the look in his eyes, as she senses someone that is much, much older than they appear, similar to herself. She repeatedly tries to intervene in their relationship, but to no avail; William had quickly succeeded in making himself an invaluable advisor and confidant to the Queen, and he rapidly gained more access to the Queen and her staff than Torunn herself had. Desperate, she formulates several curses designed to poison, injure, maim, and even kill William Whittington. To her extreme dismay, each of these curses only produces the slightest of flinches from Whittington. Though he does not react, Whittington realizes what is going on, and is disturbed at the potency of Torunn's curses. Having felt the curses' energy, he now notices something about Lilianna he had not seen before in his fevered state: a faint but incredibly intense curse aura hangs over her head at all times, the Curse of the Deadmen. Whittington spends the following months courting Lilianna, investigating Torunn, and attempting to devise a way to extricate his beloved from the curse. Ordinarily his power over reality would be enough to simply dismiss the curse, but it is tied to so many points in time and so many different lives that a simple erasure would have catastrophic domino effects, likely harming Lilianna as well. He knows a solution is possible with his power, but he takes extreme caution to ensure that he succeeds.
 * 35 HE
 * Following the mutiny of Chompski and his eventual forgiveness of the rest of his colleagues, the Iron Helix Syndicate would make the decision to formally incorporate itself as one of Haven's guilds, having previously been a loose band of various adventurers and mercenaries. The most significant founding members would include:
 * Chompski
 * Rochelle
 * Alastarr
 * Barnabus Motley
 * Dalek
 * Dalkaros
 * Dmitri Shostakovich
 * Hufflepuff
 * Steve Irwin
 * These nine would then go on to recruit more individuals to bolster their ranks. The earliest recruits to the Iron Helix Syndicate would include Simon, Kamina, Imogen, Bruce, Ferris, Elizabeth, Briya, Bora, Siil'thoth, Gelatin Bob, William, Franz, Marcel, Vinny, and Rinon.
 * The first challenge the newly-formed Iron Helix Syndicate would encounter would be a call for help from The Guild to put down four unstable, demigod-like entities that members of The Guild had only barely been able to contain within a pocket dimension. The entities were two sets of twins, known as Castor, Pollux, Phobos, and Deimos. Through sheer might as well as clever tactics, the Iron Helix took on these challengers with relative ease, suffering minimal casualties.
 * Unfortunately for the Iron Helix, though they had secured a tremendous victory, it would turn out that sending them to this pocket dimension was a ploy executed by one of their new members, Franz. Franz was a renegade Guild member who resented Master Whittington's attachment to Haven, and saw The Guild's efforts to preserve the city as running counter to The Guild's own values. He had devised a plan to destroy the city, but had recognized that the Iron Helix could pose a threat to his plans despite their internal disorganization and unpredictability. Thus, he joined their ranks and ensured that they were sent on a mission into a sealed-off pocket dimension, while he and the other Helix traitors (Marcel, Vinny, and Rinon) stayed behind and executed their plan.


 * 36 HE
 * The members of the Iron Helix Syndicate utilize the teleportation abilities of Simon to escape from the pocket dimension following their decisive victory. However, due to the differential flow of time in the pocket dimension and in the Material Plane, they emerge from the pocket dimension months in the future. In this future, Franz and the other traitor members of their group had obtained and unleashed a colossal phoenix on the city of Haven. The Iron Helix Syndicate find themselves in a city completely ablaze, with armed citizens struggling in vain to save their families and fight back against the massive flaming bird; the Haven Guard are nowhere to be found. The Helix fights valiantly to help bring down the phoenix, but they are ambushed by the traitors from their own guild, Marcel, Vinny, Rinon, and Franz. Rochelle defeats Rinon in a duel between grey renders, Chompski and Barnabus quickly dispatch Marcel and Vinny, and Steve Irwin and Dmitri cut down Franz. The rest of the Helix, especially Dalek, Dalkaros, Hufflepuff, and Alastarr, concentrate on bringing down the phoenix. When the traitors are defeated, the focused might of the Iron Helix and Haven's citizens succeed in downing the beast, though not before much of the city is completely burnt to ashes. This tragedy is remembered by most historians as the Haven Inferno.
 * The start of the Haven Inferno began when Franz hatched the colossal phoenix on the roof of Haven's royal palace; this event appeared as the detonation of a massive bomb, as a fiery explosion instantly leveled the palace and the surrounding neighborhoods, and sent waves of fire across a large portion of the city. Knowing the true identity of one of the palace's advisors, William Whittington, Franz took extreme caution to plan his attack for a time when Whittington was away and occupied with other matters, as otherwise the man's godlike abilities would instantly nullify the explosion.
 * Further prohibiting Whittington's ability to intervene was the fact that Franz had appealed to ancient entities known as the chaos gods to aid him in his plot. This scheme to flagrantly reject the order that Haven represented was deeply appealing to the chaos gods, and the fact that it would strike a direct blow against their ancient enemy, Master Whittington, made it even more appealing. A chaos god known as Ignyr had stepped forward to help Franz. Ignyr imbued Franz's phoenix with a massive portion of his own energy, allowing the phoenix's flames to burn hot enough to damage the fabric of reality itself; not only would they light space on fire, but they would burn intensely enough to light time on fire as well. One of the conditions for activating this extreme spell was that Franz would need to sacrifice his own life, but Ignyr did not disclose this to him, and Franz would be instantly incinerated in the blast that he had believed himself to be magically protected from.
 * The blast claimed the lives of everyone in the royal palace, including that of Queen Lilianna; the energy from the magical explosion was so intense that it managed to overpower even the strength of Torunn's curse, though not before activating the protective mechanisms of the curse and causing the deaths of every single living member of the Haven Guard.
 * In a twist of fate, Whittington was not present because he and Quincy had been interrogating Torunn in a secret Guild stronghold to try to discern a way to lift her curse from Queen Lilianna that would not result in any injury or death to Lilianna or the Haven Guard. Sadly, because the core of her curse had been frantically woven out of desperation during Torunn's party's battle with Inexorus, even Torunn did not understand all of its inner workings, hence why she had not already removed it herself. Midway through this meeting, the initial blast of the Haven Inferno occurred, and though Whittington instantly transported himself to Lilianna's side, he was not fast enough to save her.
 * Whittington left his human form and followed Lilianna's soul through the space between the various planes and realms of reality, trying to think of a way to fix this situation. He attempted to reverse time, but found that due to the interference of the chaos god Ignyr, time itself around the palace was ablaze, prohibiting travel into its past. He contemplated traveling to other points in time, but due to the fact that Lilianna had been isolated in the palace for most of her life, there was no way to reach her. He then contemplated traveling even further into the past to influence events to spare Lilianna's life, but he realized that many of these changes would also inevitably lead to Lilianna being a fundamentally different person, or could even cause her to cease to exist. As he continued to explore different options and scenarios, he became increasingly overwhelmed by emotions, even though he was now in his non-human state. Further distressing him was the observation that, as he looked at Lilianna's soul soaring through the space between worlds, he could still see the faintest, lingering traces of her curse clinging on.
 * Desperate, Whittington made the drastic decision to combine a portion of his own essence with Lilianna's, creating a new, unified entity. This decision bore a steeper initial cost than Whittington had anticipated, with a significant portion of his essence being expended to purge the last traces of the curse. Between the creation, stabilization, transportation, and physical manifestation of this new entity, Whittington would be occupied for several years, not returning to the Material Plane until 41 HE.
 * 37 HE
 * In just one short year following the Haven Inferno, nearly the entirety of Haven is reconstructed or is well along the process of reconstruction. Scholars and mages theorize that this could only have been possible due to some form of synergy occurring between the raw ley energy underneath Haven and the massive amount of magical energy in the form of phoenix ashes that had been deposited into the air and ground during the inferno. This is further supported by the fact that the city's inhabitants are healthier than ever before, nearly free of disease and even exhibiting mild but significant signs of reduced aging. As a result, the city's population explodes in the following months and years to all-time highs.
 * This rebuilding effort is overseen by an interim ruling council comprised of surviving royal advisors, community leaders, and a few representatives from The Guild; at this point, there is no heir to the throne of Haven, but the council delays making a decision on succession to avoid triggering a violent power struggle.
 * In remembrance of the Haven Inferno, a massive phoenix statue is erected at the top of the tallest and most central of the Winterpeak Mountains, and is kept alight at all times by members of Haven's Mages Guild. This is a controversial decision for obvious reasons, but for many in the city, despite the devastation they had been through, their lives were actually remarkably better only one year later, and the phoenix begins to represent positive change and hope. Public support remains high enough to allow the monument to remain, and it becomes a shining beacon visible from almost every part of the city at all times of day and night.
 * Seeking to establish a more permanent base of operations, the Iron Helix Syndicate construct the Grey Fox Tavern just outside Haven's eastern limits, close to the eastern coast of the Northland. The tavern derives its name from the grey fox pelt hanging above its central fireplace (in truth, this pelt was actually skinned from one of their own members, a foxkin, whom they had killed). Aware that they were a well-known and highly controversial group of adventurers, the Iron Helix also constructed a small fortress around the perimeter of the Grey Fox Tavern which included multi-layered, reinforced walls, battlements with stores of arrows and various explosives, and a tower offering a raised vantage point to survey the surrounding landscape.The main courtyard also features a life-size statue of Rochelle, accurate in all facets with the exception of extremely exaggerated male genitalia, which is a feature completely absent on Rochelle as they are an asexual being. Those who make speculations about this artistic decision are met with violent responses.
 * On a casual trip to the East Haven Zoo, Chompski observes a new exhibit: a massive enclosure containing a gargantuan hermit crab-like creature. His hunting instincts kick in, and to the shock of the other zoo-goers, he leaps into the enclosure and slays the creature, then quickly flees the scene by burrowing away. Unbeknownst to Chompski, this creature was actually Phulubulubus, the ruler of the Phulubits, who had been mistakenly captured by Haven fishermen. Chompski and a small few other spectators would only later realize what he had done, and they would all pray that the Phulubits did not discover what had happened to their king.
 * 38 HE
 * With Master Whittington missing, the chaos gods begin to increase their presence inn the Material Plane. They begin to expand their mortal-run faction, a coalition of beings known as The Corporation, ancient enemies of The Guild. Historically, The Guild had won most disputes between the two factions, thanks to the influence of Master Whittington and his allies, but in his absence The Corporation begins rapidly gaining strength.
 * In a rare open attack by The Corporation, they send an agent to the Grey Fox Tavern to assassinate members of the Iron Helix Syndicate, known associates of The Guild. When the Iron Helix welcomes this agent, he reveals himself to be a colossal red dragon, and a battle breaks out. During the course of this battle, the Grey Fox Tavern is destroyed, though not because of the actions of the Corporation agent; instead, almost all of the damage is due to those Iron Helix members with hulking hurler skills dismantling their own structures in order to hurl large portions of them at the dragon. This onslaught includes not only individual bricks and stone fortifications, but also the Rochelle statue and the entire observation tower. This hail of brick and stone, combined with explosive spells and crippling physical blows, reduces the dragon to a battered heap in only minutes. The Iron Helix quickly deconstruct the dragon, reducing him to a neat stack of reagents and materials, including bones, fluids, scales, etc.
 * Realizing that their proximity to Haven puts them at risk from further attacks that may be truly threatening, the Iron Helix Syndicate assembles their belongings and takes to the Gerrim Sea, sailing past Gerrim to distant, mostly-uncharted islands. They make landfall on a small, idyllic island covered in sparse forests and meadows, and begin to construct a base of operations which they name Safe Haven. Some of the most important features of Safe Haven include a fortified bank to store the Iron Helix's gold and treasure, a tavern to serve as a meeting place for the entire Iron Helix, and a port equipped with both docks and shipbuilding facilities. The Iron Helix quickly uses the resources of Safe Haven, including several dozen new recruits, to begin constructing a small fleet of battle-ready sailing ships. Chompski oversees most of this process, designating himself admiral of the Iron Helix fleet.
 * On their initial exploratory voyages to the surrounding uncharted islands, several incidents involving the Iron Helix fleet occur:
 * The Iron Helix lands on a small cave-covered island home to a large band of pirates; however, all these pirates are young children and teenagers, and are led by a thirteen-year-old named Captain Saltybeard. Before Saltybeard can finish introducing himself, he is shot dead by Chompski who then commandeers Saltybeard's ship, Rosemary. Chompski also abducts all of Saltybeard's crew who are scared enough to join him, and leaves behind those too paralyzed by fear to go aboard with their new captain.
 * The Iron Helix also locate a small island home to villagers who had, somehow, accidentally transported themselves to the Material Plane from the Extradimensional Realms. For no particular reason, members of the Iron Helix Syndicate slaughtered nearly everyone on the island and razed all of the structures to the ground.
 * Both of these incidents would create a lasting hatred for the Iron Helix among the survivors and those connected to them.
 * 39 HE
 * East of Safe Haven, the island nation of Konchutochi is discovered by explorers from Haven. The people of Konchutochi, an insectoid race known as the Konchumin, open their ports to these foreigners and invite the various guilds and factions of Haven to compete in a series of ceremonial games and athletic competitions. One of these competing factions was the Iron Helix Syndicate, who would stop at nothing to win. Over the course of three days of competition, members of the Iron Helix cheated in every manner imaginable, destroyed large swathes of the athletic arenas and fields, and even murdered several of their competitors. In the end, their Konchumin hosts awarded them first place honors out of fear.
 * Following their time in Konchutochi, the Iron Helix Syndicate spend more than a year sailing around the Dawn Sea, carrying out frequent raids and exploratory missions. They also spend a significant portion of their time relaxing and training on their island base, Safe Haven.
 * 40 HE
 * At this point in time, two of the most powerful forces in Haven are absent (Master Whittington and the Iron Helix Syndicate), there is still no monarch sitting on the throne, and The Corporation continues to expand its influence; in the city, things begin to destabilize. The government is weak and decentralized, with most areas of the city operating under their own leadership and with their own limited resources. While local leaders try their best, Haven's explosively expanding population puts strain on physical and societal infrastructures, and tensions are high. It is under these circumstances that a period of violent uprisings are spearheaded by a strange group calling themselves the League of Anarchists United, or the LAU for short.
 * The founding members of the LAU are a gang of Haven sewer kobolds who use their ingenuity and ferocity to pull off a daring bank heist in broad daylight. With this money, they begin to assemble a base of operations in the sewers and quickly recruit more of Haven's misfits and outcasts to their cause. Before long, they exert control over entire Haven neighborhoods, and extract money and blood from any who are not for their cause. As they continue to build strength, they even begin a takeover of city facilities, including several Haven Guard garrisons and a prison. After several weeks of increasing chaos in the city, the League of Anarchists United eventually lead a march on the royal palace, surrounded by mobs of followers.
 * As events in Haven spiral further and further out of control, Captain Amelia Eisenhart of the Haven Guard leads a revolt within the guard and successfully ousts the existing leaders. She unifies the separated units of guards spread throughout the city, and collects them into a single fighting force.
 * Though the LAU do succeed in destroying the royal palace, their success is short lived; several key members are assassinated by LAU traitors hiding in the surrounding mob, and eventually the newly reformed forces of the Haven Guard descend upon them, restoring order to the streets of Haven.
 * 41 HE
 * After nearly five years adrift in the space between realms, Master Whittington returns to his post at the Guild base near Haven. Accompanying him is the small child Jack Whittington, the being created through the fusion of a portion of Master Whittington's essence and the soul of Queen Lilianna. Master Whittington takes Jack to the newly re-formed ruling council of Haven and informs them of the relationship between Queen Lilianna and her advisor, William Whittington, who had also been Master Whittington's son (in reality, William Whittington was Master Whittington in disguise). He explains that, in secret, the two had had a child that they had placed in the care of Master Whittington due to their concerns for the child's safety; after all, many past Haven royalty and ruling councils had been killed in acts of violence by outsiders. And so, it was planned that Jack Whittington would be raised in secret until they were old enough to rule, but that Master Whittington believed that Jack should begin to learn to rule now, and for their existence to be made known to the public of Haven.
 * Some members of the ruling council were skeptical, but after some argument they agreed that Jack did bear a striking resemblance to Queen Lilianna and other past royalty, and also that appointing Jack as an official heir would serve as a signal that Haven would be returning to stability and its old traditions. And so, Jack Whittington is appointed as the heir apparent to the throne of Haven.
 * Master Whittington, after spending nearly five years creating Jack Whittington and purging the Curse of the Deadmen, realizes that he must ensure that his powers return to their full strength in order to defend the Guild from the machinations of the increasingly powerful Corporation. In the event that a situation like this should occur, he had taken care to hide reservoirs of his power in various artifacts scattered and hidden in the farthest reaches of the Material Plane. However, after the betrayal of Franz, Master Whittington did not trust Guild members with the retrieval of this artifacts, nor did he want to send Quincy as he needed his faithful butler for more pressing day-to-day tasks. And so, Master Whittington recruited an organization known as the Iron Helix Syndicate due to their well-known skill in naval navigation and exploration and sent them to the unmapped edges of the known world to retrieve his bowler hat (which contained a significant portion of his essence).
 * Across the next several months the Iron Helix would sail to easternmost edges of the Material Plane, encountering several strange islands along the way, including one inhabited entirely by lethal ghosts and one containing a pool capable of turning any substance into solid gold. In time, they would successfully retrieve Master Whittington's bowler hat, and would speedily sail back, though they would stop to explore and/or raid several islands along the way.
 * One of the islands explored by the Iron Helix Syndicate during this time is the strange land of Shiroishima, an extremely isolated island inhabited by a race known as the Cho. The Cho are a peaceful race of pale-skinned, gentle and friendly humanoids with varying butterfly-like features such as wings, antennae, and chitinous appendages. The Iron Helix are enchanted by these people, and spend time exploring their land and learning about their culture. One member of the Iron Helix, Barnabus Motley, expresses an interest in their wings, and they inform him that by partaking in one of their rituals, he can also obtain these wings. Barnabus is brought to a shrine where he is made to drink from a cup of clear viscous liquid, and within several hours he is immobilized and a cocoon forms around his body. The next day, he breaks free of the cocoon only to find that his entire body has been metamorphosed into that of a Cho; several of the Iron Helix's sailors also encounter a similar fate. This leads the Iron Helix to realize that the Cho are not merely a biological race of humanoids, but that the Cho is in fact some sort of living force that can enter into other living beings and quickly convert them into Cho as well, making them a part of a mentally-connected collective. This notion terrifies the Iron Helix, and they flee the island. On their ship, they euthanize Barnabus Motley to free him from his Cho corruption and utilize the strongest magic of their cleric, Dmitri Shostakovich, to resurrect Barnabus along with his true body.
 * 42 HE
 * The territory of the crustacean race known as the phulubits finally expands across the sea floor so far that it becomes adjacent to the shoreline territory of Haven. Fortunately, the phulubits are a peaceful race, and in a short period of time they manage to integrate into Haven society. Due to their scavenging nature, they are able to obtain sustenance from nearly anything, and so they become valued throughout Haven neighborhoods for their cleaning of city streets. Some also open shops and begin selling phulubit wares to Haven's citizens.
 * Looking to test the limits of his magical abilities, Dalek ventures out alone to one of the few remaining remote stretches of woodland within the Great Forest. Levitating above the forest, he aims at a small clearing and casts a high level explosion spell. An enormous sphere of fiery devastation engulfs the area, obliterating a large swathe of the forest and sending shockwaves outwards in all directions.
 * Unbeknownst to Dalek, the region of the Great Forest that he had targeted was home to a concealed village known as The Village of Pain and Suffering, a bizarre and violent place populated by twin cults devoted to the evil gods Gruumsh and Erythnul. In an act of dark divine intervention by these gods, the villagers are spared from fiery death, but not from the pain; the villagers are twisted into horribly burned and twisted monstrosities by the force and flames of the explosion, and are willed by their gods to continue living. They experience an unending, unbearable pain, but find themselves unable to die due to the blessing from their gods. With their village destroyed and with most unable to think coherently, the villagers begin to wander to the far corners of The Northland where most are finally, mercifully slain by wandering adventurers or wild animals. However, a small few with some remaining cognitive ability re-convene in a new location, a mountain range just north of Cruzado known as the Amurallados. Here, they proclaim their hideous forms and agonizing existences as rewards from their gods, delivered as a reward for their frequent slaughter of lost travelers. They re-establish The Village of Pain and Suffering, and from this new refuge in the mountains they resume their mutilation of unfortunate innocents.
 * 43 HE
 * In order to support the ever-expanding population of Haven, the city's sewers are upgraded and expanded numerous times over a span of only a few years, forming a multi-leveled, complex labyrinth of tunnels beneath the city. Though this network is essential to the operations of the city, its lower levels and dark corners become home to entire societies of criminals, covert organizations, monsters, demons, and all those seeking to be a part of Haven while also seeking to avoid the attention of the recently-reformed Haven Guard. Despite this being one of their core goals, the Haven Guard does eventually learn of the extent of the sewers' chaos after a number of high-profile attacks by sewer-based organizations such as kobold gangs seeking to emulate the League of Anarchists United. Not wanting to risk their own troops in a dangerous, dark, cramped tunnel network, the Haven Guard begin recruiting mercenaries to clear out the sewers on their behalf. One of the first ones to be enlisted is the Iron Helix Syndicate.
 * The Iron Helix descend into the sewers and begin exterminating without prejudice or hesitation. Hundreds of kobolds are obliterated by the magical abilities of Dalkaros and Dalek, and several overgrown sewer beasts are reduced to meat and leather by the work of Chompski and Rochelle.
 * Before long, the Iron Helix descend well below ground into the darkest underworld beneath Haven. It is here that they discover an ongoing territorial war between two rival clans of ninjas, the Hyuuga and the Uchiha. Having learned of these clans through their own underworld contacts, the Iron Helix are aware of the unique powers these ninjas possess due to their Byakugan and Sharingan.
 * Without pausing to investigate, the Iron Helix interrupt a skirmish between these ninjas and slaughter all combatants on both sides. They intentionally allow some survivors to flee, and track them to their hideaways, proceeding to then exterminate all of their family and allies. Following this extermination, members of the Iron Helix Syndicate begin harvesting the eyeballs of the dead ninjas and later will have them transplanted into their own eye sockets. Notably, Rochelle transplants two Byakugan and two Sharingan, replacing four of their six grey render eyes.
 * Further down in the sewers, on one of the lowest levels, the Iron Helix encounter a bizarre spectacle: in a massive chamber, they find an entire village of several hundred Cho, encircled by a colossal gold dragon. They contemplate exterminating the Cho as well as the dragon, but their respect for metallic dragons as well as their fear of having Cho blood touch them (due to its transformative effects) leads them to bargain with the gold dragon, whose name they learn is Shangxin. He reveals that extreme disturbances in the ley lines had led the Cho to flee their homeland of Shiroishima, as it was not a solid island but a projection created from a ley line nexus. They had arrived in Haven, as so many travelers do, but just as the Iron Helix had realized their true nature, so too did many of the citizens of Haven. Before long, the Cho were hunted down and driven underground by armed citizens and the Haven Guard. They had managed to eke out a living in the sewers, and their psionic calls for help had convinced Shangxin to join their cause. Shangxin convinces the Iron Helix to allow him to finish helping them prepare to teleport out of Haven to a new homeland, and that the Iron Helix would be repaid in time. The Iron Helix agree to these terms, enticed by the prospect of having such a formidable dragon and the entire Cho race on their side in times of conflict.
 * Unbeknownst to the Iron Helix Syndicate, the ley line disturbance that devastated the home island of the Cho was caused by the chaos god Oorn manifesting a physical form in the Material Plane. This process was facilitated by the chaos gods' organization of mortals on the material plane, a group known as The Corporation. The Corporation was concerned about the growing strength of the Iron Helix, as they had successfully defended themselves from a Corporation attack several years prior, and were continuing to rapidly increase their strength and resources. Normally, a group as chaotic as the Iron Helix would warrant aggressive recruitment measures from The Corporation, but the Corporation was unwilling to tolerate their cooperation with their ancient rival, The Guild. And so, to put an end to the Iron Helix, the Corporation deployed one of their best manipulators, Oorn, to begin recruiting a team of individuals to directly oppose them.
 * 45 HE
 * The city of Haven has expanded to the point where it is unclear whether its continued growth can be sustained for much longer. In order to secure a future for Haven and its people, Lord Commander Eisenhart creates a new division from the ranks of the Haven Guard: the Haven Expeditionary Force.
 * The newly-formed Haven Expeditionary Force begin enlisting mercenaries to bolster their forces, and one of the first groups to enlist is the Iron Helix Syndicate. The first target of the expeditionary force is a large island known as Surmusra, located to the southwest of the continent of Gerrim and positioned between the Gerrim Sea and the Dawn Sea. Of particular interest to the Haven Expeditionary Force, in addition to the land of Surmusra itself, was the massive mountain at its center which rivaled some of Haven's Winterpeak Mountains in size; it was speculated that this mountain could provide much-needed mineral resources to Haven, as the current output of the mining operations in the Winterpeaks was barely enough to meet the city's demands.
 * With the mountain as their goal, the Iron Helix Syndicate and a small detachment of the Haven Expeditionary force go ashore and set off for the island interior. Along their way, they encounter a large village populated by dark-skinned humans with a variety of white markings on their skin (the Xuuluu). After only minimal attempts to communicate, made tense by the fact that the Iron Helix had in fact tread on sacred ground during their arrival and the presence of a difficult language barrier, the frustration and confusion very quickly boiled over into violence. In a matter of minutes, the village became the sight of a vicious battle, with some Iron Helix members completely giving themselves over to excessive displays of brutality; Haven Expeditionary Force troops watched in horror as Barnabus Motley tore the face off of a young priestess and wore it over his own.
 * As the initial battle between the Iron Helix Syndicate and the Xuuluu was ending, a lone Xuuluu villager succeeded in blowing into a large horn to send a warning to other nearby Xuuluu settlements. Unsure of the size and strength of the forces that were to descend on them, the Iron Helix continued into the island interior and began ascending the slopes of the mountain at its center. It was on this mountain that they would encounter a different group of humans, which they observed to wield fairly powerful magic. Wary of magic in general, the Iron Helix made a more dedicated attempt at communicating with this group. After some linguistic work, they determined that these people called themselves the Stelites. They had eked out a living on the slopes of the mountain -- which was actually an active volcano called Fjallokull -- for thousands of years, kept from the bountiful jungles by the forces of the Xuuluu. They revealed that there was also yet another ancient lineage of humans residing on Surmusra: the Fjallans, a small clan of hulking humans that more closely resembled giants.
 * Seeking to capitalize on the arrival of these outsiders, the Stelites make a proposition to the Iron Helix Syndicate and the Haven Expeditionary Force: if they could help the stelites force out the Xuuluu and retake Surmusra, they would align themselves with Haven and concede all mineral rights. The outsiders agreed to this pact, but first traveled up the mountain to attempt to recruit the Fjallans as well. The Fjallans seemed mostly uninterested in the conflict; despite the harshness of their environment and the resources that the jungles could bring, they seemed mostly content with their life around Fjallokull's volcanic rim. However, there were a small few that were concerned with disturbances to the volcano's activity, which they believed may have been due to magic being used by the Xuuluu (this was untrue; in fact, this was the result of magic being used by the Stelites but the Stelites had recently lied to the Fjallans that this was the work of the Xuuluu in order to recruit the Fjallans to their side in an anticipated war).
 * With the aid of the Stelites and a small band of Fjallans, the Iron Helix Syndicate and Haven Expeditionary Force descend the mountain and begin open warfare against the Xuuluu, moving across the island and bringing a tide of destruction. The members of the Iron Helix again become bloodthirsty, and in their push to claim all of Surmusra, no man, woman, or child is spared. This viciousness alarms their allies, leaving them with memories that would haunt them for the rest of their lives. At the end of a 24-hour march of destruction, no Xuuluu would survive on Surmusra.
 * Unbeknownst to the Iron Helix Syndicate, a tiny band of Xuuluu survivors who had heard of their advance had taken to their small fishing craft and departed the island in a desperate escape. These Xuuluu would eventually make landfall on Gerrim; with the help of Gerrim City's elementals as well as their distant cousins, the Ukuzola (in particular, one Ukuzola man known as Rej), they would establish a settlement known as Bandari.
 * The war to claim Surmusra ends, and despite the violent means that were employed and the complaints and concerns of the Haven Expeditionary Force troops, Lord Commander Eisenhart commends the Iron Helix for their swift and decisive tactics. She immediately provides them a new assignment: a reconnaissance mission to explore the mysterious, distant land of Ukrat of which almost nothing is known. The Iron Helix accept readily, but first begin massing a fleet to prepare for the long and dangerous journey.
 * 46 HE
 * Prior to their assignment to explore the land of Ukrat, the Iron Helix Syndicate begin raiding the waters in the vicinity of Safe Haven to capture more ships to add to their fleet. Headed by Chompski, the de facto admiral of the Iron Helix fleet, they swiftly overtake several vessels and press their crews into service for the Iron Helix. At first, some plot mutinies against the Iron Helix, but upon docking in Safe Haven they discover that life on this island is actually much more free and enjoyable than the lives they lived before, with open land available for every crew member to make a home and most necessary commodities available for little or no cost. Still, some do stage a revolt in the effort to escape and return home to their families; unfortunately, their naval escape is halted by Dalek freezing their ship in place, and they are subsequently rounded up and brought to the cave lair of Joe Scalleta, where they are eaten alive.
 * 47 HE
 * After months spent crossing the treacherous Ukrat Sea, the Iron Helix Syndicate finally reach Ukrat, accompanied by a small, elite detachment of the Haven Expeditionary Force. Choosing to avoid the high cliffs of the continent's eastern coastline, they sail to Ukrat's southern shores, where their fleet traverses the winding rivers of a narrow, swampy isthmus called Oozagar. They then cross into the Coro Sea, a massive inland sea teeming with tropical aquatic life. Heading north, they pull their small fleet into port in Asraya, the capital city of the human kingdom of Crobash. Here, they draw an enormous amount of attention from the native Crobashi people. Despite the Iron Helix's violent nature, their relations with Crobash and its people begin on an incredibly bright and friendly note; the Iron Helix are immediately captivated by the Crobashi culture, and spend a number of days engaging in dancing, dining, and gambling around the city of Asraya. Soon, through their conversations with the locals, they learn that Crobash is one of six human kingdoms in the region, and that these six kingdoms were, until recently, part of a united Crobashi Empire. The Crobashi Empire, surrounded on all sides by aggressive, non-human nations, was locked in a nearly constant state of war with its neighbors, a war that the other kingdoms felt that Crobash had horribly mismanaged. Furious with Crobashi leadership, the five other kingdoms had revolted and kicked Crobash out of the empire that it had founded. However, much to the amusement of the Crobashi people, these five states soon fragmented into separate states as well, now trapped in skirmishes and power struggles with each other as well as their old aggressive neighbors.
 * After learning the of the regional political situation from the Crobashi people, the officers of the Haven Expeditionary Force detachment with the Iron Helix see an opportunity: if they aided Crobash in reclaiming its empire, perhaps they would be willing to become a territory of Haven. Barnabus Motley and Dalkaros learn of this strategy, and volunteer to take part in the effort. Over the course of the next year, the two Iron Helix members and the Expeditionary troops accompanying them wage a brutal campaign against each of Crobash's rival kingdoms (Sissej, Novarsora, Manatt, Morombai, and Lun). Under the force of Barnabus's lightning and fury, as well as Dalkaros's surging elemental power, most fortifications and city defenses crumble in only moments, allowing their Expeditionary allies to exploit the ensuing shock and surprise with attacks of their own, executed using newly-developed semi-automatic rifles. One by one, cities are captured and kingdoms fall, with Crobashi nobles subsequently installed as rulers. In the last days of 47 HE, the campaign concludes, with Crobashi rulers in place in every kingdom and Crobashi armies keeping the peace. This campaign becomes known as the Lightning Strike among the locals, remembered as an atrocity by the recently-conquered and as a glory by the people of Crobash.
 * Barnabus Motley, Dalkaros, and the Expeditionary troops are hailed as heroes in Crobash, and while Dalkaros accepts this praise with humility, Barnabus and the troops engage in days-long celebrations with the Crobashi people. In this time of revelry, Barnabus meets a young Crobashi woman by the name of Karanna and the two fall madly in love with one another; within a week, the two are married at small private ceremony in the gardens of the royal palace (it is only on the morning of this day that Barnabus discovers that Karanna is in fact one of the many children of the Crobashi royal family). Barnabus and Karanna receive a sprawling villa as a wedding gift from Karanna's father, Maharaja Majedar; Barnabus stays here for several months afterwards with Karanna.
 * Seeking to win glory for Kord, Rochelle gathers information from the Crobashi people about the monsters and demons inhabiting the lands of Ukrat. They convey rumors of events said to have recently taken place in the distant kingdom of Hanmarg; supposedly, a local warlord had bargained with demons for the strength to conquer his rivals, but his rivals had already bargained with those same demons. Weighing the two pacts that had been made, the demons had made a compromise; they gave the warlord the physical power to conquer all of this foes, but not the mental strength required to wield it. Overwhelmed by this demonic strength, the now-demonic warlord turned on his own kingdom, razing every city to the ground in an aimless rampage; the rumor was that he still wandered his destroyed kingdom, and could be a threat to all of Ukrat if he were to wander farther. Rochelle immediately set out alone to conquer this demonic warlord.
 * After traveling north through the forested mountains of Khruzhnu for a month, Rochelle arrived at the northern coast of Ukrat. Using their incredible strength, Rochelle leapt from the coast across a narrow strait to Hanmarg, which sat on the western edge of a long peninsula. Upon arrival, they discovered the rumors to be true; for miles in every direction, there were only ruined buildings, flattened forests, and corpses, with much the landscape engulfed in flames. On the horizon, a colossal demon wandered, howling at the sky and swinging dual swords around aimlessly. Rochelle leapt over to this demon, and howled to initiate a challenge. However, before the demon could react, Rochelle threw their chained greatsword with enough force to lodge it in the demon's shoulder. Ascending the chain to be at eye level with the colossal demon, Rochelle utilized their other sword to swiftly carve out the demon's left eye. Despite the demon's screaming and flailing, Rochelle entered the demon's skull through the eye socket and, in a matter of seconds, minced its brain. Glory obtained, Rochelle would return to Crobash, departing Hanmarg as swiftly as they had arrived.
 * The glory of this fight would help to earn them an audience with Kord. Seeing Rochelle's display of valor, and taking into account the blood that they had spilled in years past, Kord transported Rochelle to his domain to take part in a battle royale in his arena. Few challengers proved to be anywhere close to a match for Rochelle, with the exception of a tetran by the named of Ja Cked. With his four incredibly strong arms, Ja Cked was the only challenger to be able to withstand Rochelle's grappling attacks, but could not withstand them forever. After an extended brawl, Rochelle was able to tear Ja Cked's limbs from his body and beat him into the dirt with them, much to Kord's amusement. Having pleased Kord, Rochelle was granted several of Kord's treasures and returned to the Material Plane.
 * Seeking to continue exploring the continent of Ukrat, the Iron Helix Syndicate trio of Chompski, Dalek, and Alastarr journey westward searching for a western shore. They travel west across the Coro Sea and make landfall in a region of Ukrat consisting of vast stretches of open grassland. They discover that these wide open plains are home to two rival kingdoms of centaurs: Ostaramacht in the east and Westenadden in the west. Purchasing a ride from a centaur-drawn carriage, the three travel west into Westenadden to the coastal capital city of Brullen. After spending several days mapping the nearby coastline and making notes for the Haven Expeditionary Force, the three decide to commercially capitalize on the attention they had been attracting as outsiders.
 * The three develop a "financial scheme" which could more accurately be deemed a criminal enterprise: they purchased a small store and founded a business which they named Free Money! Incorporated. They would flaunt their wealth at shops around the city, and would loudly attribute their wealth to the support of Free Money! Inc. When curious centaur customers would show up, they would persuade them to hand over large sums of gold, then escort them to a soundproofed back room, where they would subsequently murder them and dispose of their bodies in a deep pit dug through the shop's stone floor. Incredibly, this "business" continued for months without attracting the notice of city officials.
 * After some time, the accumulation of bodies in the back room of Free Money! Incorporated necessitated the digging of a deeper pit. Upon digging deeper, the owners of Free Money! Inc. were surprised to find that just beneath their store was a vast underground cavern. At the center of this cavern was a massive, onyx monolith. Upon being touched by Alastarr, the monolith folded open and released a swirling, screaming mass of dark energy which flew out of the cavern, out of Free Money! Inc., and into the world beyond.
 * This cavern had been the prison of Cthulhu, who had been trapped thousands of years in the past by agents of Master Whittington known as the McJacktinsons. Upon contacting his prison, Alastarr and the Iron Helix Syndicate had unknowingly released Cthulhu back into the Material Plane.
 * After several months of operation, Free Money! Inc. is finally investigated by the Brullen authorities. Upon arrival, they are surprised to find the store shuttered and the owners missing.
 * 48 HE
 * Haven Expeditionary Force mages that had arrived in Ukrat with the Iron Helix Syndicate succeed in collaborating with Crobashi mages to open a stable portal to Haven. Lord Commander Eisenhart arrives in the Asraya to meet with the Crobashi leader, Maharaja Majedar. The two come to an agreement about Haven and Crobash's future relations: Crobash would submit to being an overseas territory of Haven and would allow freedom of movement for Haven's forces as well as freedom to work and reside in Crobash for limited numbers of Haven's citizens, and in return Crobash would maintain nearly total local autonomy (i.e., Havenic citizens living in Crobash would be held to Crobashi laws) and would receive military assistance from Haven, if necessary.
 * Within days, thousands of Haven Guard troops arrive in Asraya through the portal, massing for an assault on Lord Commander Eisenhart's chosen target in Ukrat: the western city of Konstantinopolis in Bosolia. According to scouting reports supplied by members of the Iron Helix Syndicate, this was a massive, densely populated city with an abundance of ports, making it of strategic interest to Eisenhart, whose ultimate goal was to continue expanding Haven's reach and influence.
 * As the forces of the Haven Guard mass in Asraya, the Iron Helix Syndicate travel northeast to the plains of Bontbataar where they spend several weeks hunting, capturing, and taming gravorgs for their unique gravity reversal powers. Upon returning to Asraya with their pack of gravorgs, they are recruited by Lord Commander Eisenhart to take part in the siege of Konstantinopolis.
 * Thousands of Haven Guard troops march west and establish a siege camp outside the enormous, multi-layered walls of Konstantinopolis. Despite their rifles, cannons, and other advanced siege technologies, the walls hold firm against their initial assault, and the Bosolians' counterattack of spells and arrow volleys proves to be extremely dangerous. After several days of siege, the Bosolians observe the Haven Guard's numbers to be thinning, and open their gates to unleash a tide of thousands of their own infantry and cavalry. Seeing this overconfident counterattack, Lord Commander Eisenhart judges this to be the optimal time to shatter both their defenses and their spirit, and orders the Iron Helix Syndicate to attack.
 * On the backs of a pack of bounding gravorgs, the members of the Iron Helix Syndicate ride into battle behind the massive strides of Chompski and Rochelle. The Bosolian soldiers have no chance to defend themselves as the gravitational energies radiating from the gravorgs sends hundreds of them flying skyward, screaming; as the gravorgs charge further forward and the airborne Bosolians fall out of their range, they plummet hundreds of feet to the ground and nearly all die upon impact. Those in the back lines begin to retreat but are not able to escape the floodwaters of Dalkaros, the explosions of Dalek, and the lightning strikes of Barnabus Motley. Chomspki and Rochelle execute a combat maneuver known as the Double Meteor Tag Team Throw, in which they would each exploit their phenomenal strength and their prowess as hulking hurlers to throw each other through the air while not letting go of each other. Together, they cannonball onto the top of the third wall. In a single spin with blades fully extended, Rochelle bifurcates 600 soldiers at their waists, and sends all others into a screaming retreat.
 * The Iron Helix Syndicate then make their way directly to the royal palace at the center of the city, eliminating all military and civilian forces in their way with extreme prejudice. Finding the doors to the palace magically sealed, Rochelle and Barnabus Motley ascend to the roof and burst down from above, only to discover the throne room empty. Tearing the throne from its base, they discover a secret escape passage, and spot the royals fleeing under the protection of a group of massive figures clad in shimmering blue plate armor. Upon observing that this armor deflected all of their spells and ranged attacks, the Iron Helix Syndicate make the decision to allow the royals to escape, and instead fall back to aid the Haven Guard in securing the city.
 * With their royal family gone and their army defeated, the people of Konstantinopolis agree to an unconditional surrender. More Haven Guard troops are brought in over time to maintain control over the city, and it quickly becomes the larges base of military operations for Haven's forces outside of Haven itself.
 * Within the walls of Konstantinopolis, away from the supervision of the ruling councils of Haven, Lord Commander Eisenhart would begin creating a number of secret special operations units whose existence would only be known to herself and a trusted circle of insiders. They would receive the best training, equipment, and bodily enhancements that Haven technology and magic could supply.
 * The first and most significant of these units would be designated Reaper Squad, and its purpose was to act as a countermeasure against groups like the Iron Helix Syndicate should they begin to pose a significant threat to the stability of Haven.
 * In the aftermath of the siege, the Iron Helix Syndicate plunder the vaults of the royal palace and haul away an incalculable amount of gold and treasures.
 * Satisfied with their adventures in Ukrat, the Iron Helix Syndicate sail their fleet back to their home island of Safe Haven, accompanied by their pack of gravorgs, defectors from the Haven Guard that had chosen to join up with the Iron Helix instead, and a crowd of Crobashi civilians, including Karanna.
 * 49 HE
 * Reports arrive at Safe Haven that some construct of incomprehensible size had begun approaching Haven from the frozen wastelands just north of the Winterpeak Mountains. The Iron Helix Syndicate mobilize to deal with this threat. Upon arrival in the northern foothills of the Winterpeaks, they spot the construct that would later come to be called Gigatron. Hundreds of feet tall, the bipedal construct strode toward the Winterpeaks with its head breaking through the clouds. While the Iron Helix braced for an extended battle, Dalek swiftly teleported behind its head and rattled off a series of high level explosion spells which, incredibly, managed to penetrate its armor and blow out the inside of its metal skull. After this single, epic attack, the construct's movement ground to a halt, and it sits motionless in the snowy wastes to this day.
 * After the short skirmish with Gigatron, the members of the Iron Helix Syndicate dispersed throughout Haven to attend to various errands and quests. In the far southwest of Haven, where some farmland and countryside still existed within the city's distant walls, members of the Iron Helix stumbled upon a bizarre sight; a large sailing ship navigating Haven's interior waterways had come to anchor at a small dock in the yard of a farmhouse.
 * This ship was the Agatha, the flagship of a recently-formed organization known as the Crucible Brotherhood, a group founded by the chaos god Oorn to oppose the Iron Helix Syndicate. In recent years, Oorn had managed to recruit a sizable number of individuals who sought to bring down the Iron Helix:
 * Lord Ascalphus: The once-patriarch of a clan of feral owlbears that were slain by Chompski. Having been shown the their fate by Oorn, he set out on a quest for vengeance. He adopted the name used by ancient owlbear kings after learning from the owlbear communities of Haven, and after spending some time familiarizing himself with the modern world he and Oorn would set out to accumulate power and more followers.
 * Pablo Navarro, Juan Romero, Isabella Serrano, and Maria Guadalupe Garcia Zavala: Members of a cruzador organization known as La Familia, a group founded during the League of Anarchists United uprising to protect Haven's cruzador communities. In recent years, members of the Iron Helix (particularly Rochelle) had committed several sprees of casual violent crime against cruzadores, inspiring some of La Familia's members to answer Lord Ascalphus's recruiting call.
 * Hawaa, Hazkiel, and Qarun Palaiologos: Three surviving members of the Palaiologos Family, the former ruling family of Konstantinopolis who had recently been deposed in a violent takeover by Haven that had been spearheaded by the Iron Helix Syndicate. Unlike other members of the Crucible Brotherhood, they possess a burning hatred for Haven, but their hate for the Iron Helix burns so much more intensely that they are willing to cooperate with the group to exact their vengeance against those they believe to be the most directly responsible for the devastation of their city and ancient home.
 * Kholiwe, Mnqobi, and Xabanisile: A group of Xuuluu who directly witnessed the carnage wrought by the Iron Helix against their people and had escaped to the settlement that would become Bandari. While the focus of their fellow survivors shifted towards survival and building a community on Gerrim, this trio would hold onto their outrage and contempt and would respond to Lord Ascalphus's call immediately.
 * Reverend Roth: The only surviving member of an attack by the Iron Helix on his island community in 38 HE. His community was comprised of a group of humans from the Extradimensional Realms who had been sailing between colonies and had been transported to the Material Plane via the strange spatial disruptions of the Bermuda Triangle. Stranded on an island in the Dawn Sea, they had managed to create a colony of their own until the Iron Helix arrived and wiped it out. With no friends or family to temper his rage, Reverend Roth now seeks vengeance against the Iron Helix.
 * Phulunith, Phuluthith, and Phuluzith: Three phulubits belonging to a shadowy organization known as the Cult of Phuluth. The Cult had discovered the truth about the fate of the former phulubit king, Phulubulubus: he had not disappeared on a great, epic journey across the sea floor, but instead had been captured and placed in a Haven zoo where he was murdered by Chompski for mere amusement. Ridiculed by the rest of phulubit society for contradicting the mythos surrounding their lost king, the Cult has taken it upon themselves to exact vengeance for their king.
 * Ja Cked: A tetran disciple of Kord who had been humiliated by Rochelle in combat in Kord's domain. With Kord's permission, Ja Cked had been allowed to return to the Material Plane in order to redeem himself against Rochelle, on the condition that a loss would prevent him from returning to Kord's domain again. With this challenge weighing on him, Ja Cked joined up with Lord Ascalphus in order to improve his chances of being able to bring down Rochelle.
 * Asami, Mizuki, and Kameko Hyuuga: The last three surviving members of the Hyuuga clan following the violent massacre carried out by the Iron Helix Syndicate in the sewers of Haven in 43 HE. Like many other members of the Crucible Brotherhood, they rallied to the recruiting call of Lord Ascalphus with the hope of obtaining vengeance for their fallen clan.
 * Michio Tokugawa, Takahiro Hojo, and Yuudai Mori: Three konchumin ronin who had been enraged by the violence and cheating exhibited by the Iron Helix Syndicate after their homeland had opened its ports to them for a series of ceremonial games and competitions. These three warriors have taken up arms to slay the Iron Helix and reclaim some of the honor that had been stolen from Konchutochi.
 * Bob Smith, Jeff Hale, and Tom Redding: Three former members of the Haven Guard that had witnessed the casual violence and criminality of the Iron Helix, and who had had enough of their commanders' refusal to look past the Helix's triumphs to see them for the monsters that they are. Looking to protect their city and their families, these three joined up with Lord Ascalphus in the hopes of eliminating the Iron Helix threat in order to make Haven a safer place.
 * The Leviathan: The Leviathan is a sea monster that had been thought to exist only in legends, with most believing that a creature of such overwhelming size and power could not possibly exist outside of stories. Upon learning that many members of the Iron Helix Syndicate were devout followers of the sea god Procan, Oorn and Lord Ascalphus appealed to Procan's nemesis, Umberlee, for aid. Umberlee, being a violent, malicious, and spiteful goddess of the seas' wrath, was disgusted to learn of her rival having such powerful and destructive followers. To help ensure their destruction, she delivered the Leviathan to Oorn and Lord Ascalphus.
 * Recognizing the threat that the Crucible Brotherhood presented, the Iron Helix Syndicate attempted to stomp out their ambitions immediately, and Chompski and Rochelle led an attack targeting Lord Ascalphus, using their signature Double Meteor Tag Team Throw. To their dismay, Lord Ascalphus caught and grappled both of them, and tied them to the mast of the Agatha to prepare them for execution. However, thanks to explosive distractions provided by Dalek and Barnabus Motley, the Iron Helix was able to retrieve Rochelle and Chompski and to escape to fight another day.
 * 50 HE
 * Dalek and Rochelle learn of the existence of amusing animals known as heeps: beasts that result from the hybridization of horses and sheep. They become fixated on the idea of starting a heep farm on the island of Safe Haven, and so they seek out heeps in and around Haven. Finally, they spot a small heep farm situated on top of a tall, craggy island off of Haven's southwestern coast. Arriving at the farm, they begin negotiating the purchase of these heeps from the resident hepherd when they spot something concerning on the horizon: even from their distant vantage point, they are able to see the Leviathan and the Crucible Brotherhood fleet pulling into one of Haven's western ports.
 * In a frenzied strategy discussion, Dalek and Rochelle decide that they should strike at their enemies while they have surprise on their side. The two concoct a plan in which Dalek would use his magical abilities to imbue several dozen heeps with high-level earthquake spells. They then round up all of these heeps in a modified bag of holding, Dalek levitates himself and Rochelle to a position high above Haven's coast, and Rochelle uses their overwhelming strength to meteor strike the heep earthquake bomb at the Leviathan.
 * The projectile hits its target, imploding the skull of the Leviathan and bringing the beast down to the shallow coastal seafloor. Upon impacting the seafloor, the energy from all of the earthquake spells is released at once, creating a cataclysmic tremor that begins shaking the western reaches of Haven to ruins.
 * Rochelle and Dalek watch as the earthquake propagates and triggers an apocalyptic series of tsunamis which surge across the surface of the Northland, crushing much of Haven and sweeping the rubble and bodies out into the sea. This chaos continues for many hours, reducing the city to a handful of standing structural skeletons and large, cluttered debris fields.
 * This event would become known as the Leviathan Impact as news of its occurrence spread to the far-flung territories of Haven and to foreign lands from those few survivors who were able to teleport out of Haven in time, as well as by members of The Guild stationed at their Haven Base in the Winterpeak Mountains. However, other than the involvement of the Leviathan, not much information is known about how or why this event transpired.
 * During the Leviathan Impact, though Haven's royal palace is completely obliterated by the raging waves and seismic shifts, the young heir apparent Jack Whittington unconsciously and reflexively calls upon the reality-altering powers inherited from their father, Master Whittington, to teleport out of danger. Without control over their teleport destination, Jack lands in WIP
 * After several months pass, communities of merchants, traders, and scavengers begin to arise and organize on the west coast of the Northland, with many trying to plunder the ruins of Haven for their riches.
 * At the end of 50 HE, phulubits begin moving from the floor of the Gerrim Sea onto the eastern coast of the Northland, constructing a settlement that quickly grows into a city known as Phulubos.

The Age of Ascension

 * 60 HE
 * The groups of traders, merchants, scavengers, and craftsmen which had been occupying the self-declared city of "New Haven" on the western coast of the Northland unify into a single community. Turning to their slang, they begin to call themselves "Norveshi," and rename their city as Norvesh.
 * 65 HE 
 * The scattered remnant forces of Haven (colonies, troops, etc.) begin returning to the Northland and attempt to rebuild their city. Against all odds, they manage to clear away the ruins of their once immense city and begin rebuilding and repopulating at an astonishing rate. Future scholars would attribute this to the combined arcane energies of Haven's location above a ley line convergence, the phoenix ashes in the soil due to the Haven Inferno, and stray energies left behind from the death of the Leviathan during the Leviathan Impact.
 * During Haven's reconstruction, Haven's citizens are further inspired by the return of Jack Whittington, the heir to the Havenic throne that they had believed to have perished during the events of the Leviathan Impact. Now a young adult, Jack Whittington is crowned as Monarch of Haven and earns the respect of their people by working alongside them throughout much of the reconstruction effort. Of considerable significance is the amount of time that Jack spends socializing with Haven's non-human citizens, including the Arachne, Owlbears, Phulubits, and minor races (Dwarves, Elves, Half-Orcs, Gnomes, Halflings, etc.).
 * 75 HE
 * In only ten short years, a large portion of Haven is rebuilt, and it attains a great portion of its former size. Haven grows so large that its borders begin to run up against the recently-formed cities of Phulubos on the east coast and Norvesh on the west coast. Phulubos, a community of optimistic and trusting phulubits, is overjoyed at Haven's resurgence and opts to integrate with Haven immediately; as a reward, they are granted nearly total autonomy, though they almost always comply with Haven's directives anyway. Norvesh also decides to integrate with Haven, though with only a tiny portion of the enthusiasm exhibited by Phulubos; for over a decade Norvesh had existed as an anarcho-capitalist paradise and the Norveshi were reluctant to accept any kind of regulation, but they acknowledged that the raw power of Haven, the Haven Guard, and Haven's Guild allies would likely make resistance to Havenic integration an extremely dangerous and costly endeavor. And so, reluctantly, Norvesh agrees to integrate with Haven. Fortunately for Norvesh, their technological and mercantile power is recognized by Haven's monarch, Jack Whittington, and Norvesh is granted an incredible amount of autonomy. In return for joining Haven, Norvesh is made into a special autonomous district, and is largely left to continue living as they had before joining Haven, with the notable exception of a ban on the trade of two specific categories of goods: weapons of mass destruction and slaves. Despite these bans seeming extremely reasonable to Haven and most Norveshi, the elite clans of Norvesh deride them by continuing to operate a barely-secret marketplace known as the Dark Bazaar where any item or service imaginable can be obtained for the right price. The clan most responsible for the operation of the Dark Bazaar is the Vandergrosse Family, and they quickly accumulate a terrifying amount of wealth and power from their influence over Norvesh's illicit trading operations.
 * Believing that Haven had paid for its sins through the suffering inflicted by the Leviathan Impact, the Xuuluu of Bandari begin to reach out to Haven to create trade routes. This proves to be an extremely lucrative venture for Bandari, due to their wealth of rare potions and consumable goods.
 * Seeking to establish a more fair and representative government for Haven, Jack Whittington makes two key changes to Haven's governance:
 * First, Jack divides the city into 13 distinct districts to allow for more targeted administration, governance, resource allocation, and tax collection. These 13 districts are:
 * Deadman Hill: Named for Haven's ruling dynasty, the Deadman Family. Deadman Hill is home to the centers of Havenic power, the most important of which is the newly-constructed Whittington Keep, an opulent but heavily fortified structure built to replace Haven's old royal palace. This building is home to all official royal business, as well as the meetings of the Haven Tetrarchy and the Havenic Council.
 * Norvesh: A special autonomous district with the greatest amount of self-governance found anywhere in Haven, located in the far northwest. This status means that they need to follow almost none of the Haven's laws, but they also have almost no influence over Haven politics.
 * The Shrineway: A district in the northwest home to the majority of Haven's shrines, temples, churches, and cathedrals. While there are also some small residential communities spread amongst these holy sites, the Shrineway's population is mostly transient, comprised of pilgrims and religious scholars.
 * Talaeros: Also known as "The Arachne Quarter" or "The Silk District," Talaeros is the center of Arachne society in Haven. Most of the tallest buildings in the city are located here, but they are only navigable via a network of interconnected Arachne webs. Most of this area has been built by and for Arachne, and while they tend to be the most polite and civil of Haven's races in most circumstances, they have a tendency to treat outsiders in Talaeros with contempt. This demeanor combined with the constant shadows cast by the immense towers here tend to scare away non-Arachne.
 * Goldwood: Considered by most of Haven's citizens to be the most beautiful and scenic of Haven's districts; the area contains a large portion of the city's green spaces, including parks, lakes, ponds, meadows, and other areas of natural beauty miraculously preserved inside the heart of the metropolis. It gets its name from the abundance of bright-colored birch and aspen trees, and is home to Haven's upper classes; it is mostly residential, with some specialty businesses.
 * The Steelway: The heart of heavy industry in Haven, this district is dense with refineries, foundries, factories, and workshops. Gas, oil, and coal are burned around the clock to power this production, and so the whole district is often covered in a thick haze of smoke and smog. There are very few residents that actually live here, and those that do have the harshest lives of any of Haven's inhabitants.
 * Omphalos: Named for the ancestral capital of the ancient Owlbear Empire, this is the center of Owlbear society in Haven. Similar to Goldwood, this is one of Haven's greenest areas, as the Owlbear residents have strived to keep Omphalos as similar to their ancient cities as possible as part of a revival of owlbear culture triggered by Haven's reconstruction.
 * The Wildway: Originally named for the high number of Gerrimite elementals that resided here and their wild elemental magic powers, it has since also become home to many of Haven's other exotic races. The Wildway is a lively and colorful center for arts, crafts, trade, and community for those in Haven who have arrived from afar.
 * Seascall: The center of Haven's maritime industries, including sea trade, fishing, shipbuilding, and even exploration. Huge docks and sprawling ports cover most of the shoreline, and hundred of ships arrive and depart each day. Away from the shore, thousands of warehouses and processing centers work to facilitate the staggering exchange of goods taking place in Seascall everyday.
 * Phulubos: The center of Phulubit society, Phulubos was (briefly) an independent city but now holds a special place as one of Haven's autonomous districts. The buildings here are mostly made of a sand-based concrete with shells and driftwood mixed in, giving the whole area a bit of a strange sandcastle atmosphere. Most of the residents here are phulubits, though the phulubits' friendly demeanor has also attracted a small population of other races.
 * The Guildway: Most of Haven's guilds (apart from The Guild) are headquartered in this area. From the bloody arenas of the Haven Fighters Guild to the sparkling campuses of the Haven Mages Guild, several dozen adventuring guilds call this area their home. Some small residential and commercial areas can be found squeezed in between these guild centers, but nearly all of the day-to-day happenings here are guild-related.
 * Silverstream: The westerly winds which prevail over Haven and the intense smog created by the Steelway cause a nearly constant downpour over this area of the city, and so it gets its name from the silver streams of rain always flowing through the grimy streets. This constant deluge of rain makes this the least hospitable district aside from the Steelway, and the people who live here comprise Haven's lower classes. Violent crime is common here, and nearly every day new bodies turn up soaked in the mud that covers the streets.
 * The Heartway: This district is the geographic, economic, and metaphorical heart of Haven. Its massive, interconnected avenues facilitate traffic between all of the other districts, and these huge streets are lined with rows of shops, markets, and specialty workshops. Residential complexes above the shops also house millions of residents. When most people think of Haven, they think of the Heartway, with its impossibly busy and crowded roads and the spectacle of hundreds of races conversing in dozens of languages, navigating their way through the megalopolis that is Haven.
 * Secondly, Jack creates a new system of government to more evenly distribute power between the various peoples of Haven. This system would be unofficially dubbed the Havenic Triangle, but the name would stick as its popularity grew. In this system, three entities would rule jointly over the city:
 * The Haven Royal Family: The current reigning member of the royal family would hold a single seat as one point of the triangle.
 * The Haven Tetrarchy: A council comprised of four nobles, known as the Tetrarchs, each representing one of Haven's major races: the Fjordsson humans, the Owlbears, the Phulubits, and the Arachne. Together, they would represent the second point of the triangle.
 * The Havenic Council: A democratically elected council with 13 members, each representing one of the 13 districts of Haven. For the first time in Haven's history, Haven's minor races would now have the chance to have a real influence on the city's politics. This council would make up the third point of the triangle.
 * 80 HE
 * Maximillian Vandergrosse, one of the most magically talented sons of the Vandergrosse Family, begins experimenting with portal magic in order to accelerate the expansion of Norvesh's trade routes and influence. However, on one fateful day, the runes for a test portal are incorrectly inscribed and end up specifying a location outside of not just the Material Plane, but outside of reality itself. The sorcerers involved in the creation of this portal are immediately reduced to ash, but Maximillian Vandergrosse and his team step through the portal and discover the Extradimensional Realms, a number of entire realities and worlds outside of their native reality.
 * Early on, it is discovered that certain materials, when transferred between the Material Plane and the Extradimensional Realms, exhibit extremely altered properties. One of the earliest and most significant examples of this phenomenon is that of extradimensional mahogany; for whatever reason, when mahogany is transferred from the Extradimensional Realms to the Material Plane, it hardens into one of the strongest known substances, becoming nearly unbreakable.
 * The Iron Helix Syndicate become embroiled in a conflict with a high-ranking Guild member known as Aiden Carlisle, renowned for his extreme wealth, his skill in constructing war machines, and especially his arrogance. This arrogance immediately attracts the Helix's ire after a Guild banquet, and they challenge him to a fight. Aiden agrees, but on his terms; the Iron Helix would need to build a construct capable of defeating one of Aiden's own constructs.
 * Seeking to obtain the largest advantage possible, members of the Iron Helix Syndicate head to Norvesh and purchase entrance into the Extradimensional Realms from the Vandergrosse Family. They arrive in a small port town located in Extradimensional Portugal, and swiftly dismember all of the guards in their path in order to plunder several warehouses for their content of extradimensional mahogany. After completing their raid, the Iron Helix return to the Material Plane and use their resources to construct six huge mahogany war constructs designed to perfectly counter the type of construct that they believe that Aiden Carlisle will field during their battle.
 * On the day of the battle, the Iron Helix line up their six constructs in front of Aiden's singular colossal construct. Much to the Iron Helix Syndicate's dismay, Aiden's construct opens its massive jaws to reveal a swirling portal of unknown arcane energies. Then, Aiden's construct slowly tips forward and slams down upon the Iron Helix's own six advancing constructs, devouring them all in a single attack and shredding them into a fine dust with its portal-filled mouth.
 * The Iron Helix Syndicate are outraged at this display of trickery and unsportsmanlike conduct. Aiden Carlisle begins to exit the battleground believing he has won, but the Iron Helix descend upon him and tear him limb from limb, using magic to prolong his life to ensure that he feels the agony that they believe he deserves. Some of the spectating Guild members are appalled at this behavior and begin to intervene, though others believe that Aiden deserved such a violent comeuppance. As the crowd becomes unsettled and some particularly irate spectators begin to rush forth from the stands, the members of the Iron Helix Syndicate flee the scene and retreat to Safe Haven.
 * After a brief stay at Safe Haven, the members of the Iron Helix Syndicate disperse to the far corners of the world, each occupied by their own personal missions. Following this dispersal, decades would pass before any of them are spotted again, with no outside observers exactly sure where they departed to or why they had moved with such urgency.
 * 98 HE
 * Haven is finally rebuilt to the degree that its modern size matches its historical size, with the reconstruction process taking only 23 years. A small celebration is held to commemorate this achievement, but those within Haven in positions of wealth, power, and influence already have their sights set on further frontiers of advancement.
 * In addition to the expansion of the city itself, many among the Haven elite begin developing schemes of colonization. One of the first lands targeted is the continent of Zonia, a sizable landmass connected to the Northland by the isthmus of Cruzado. Though Zonia is relatively close to Haven, it had not been colonized in the past due to factors such as its rugged terrain, impenetrable jungles, and ferocious wildlife. With modern advancements in technology and magic, however, many believe that Zonia may finally be conquerable.
 * After much debate, the Havenic Triangle approves a colonization effort for Zonia, and so a detachment of the Haven Expeditionary Force is sent southward to begin development. However, almost immediately after making landfall, problems arise; the jungle is so resilient to clearing that it overgrows the Force's construction projects before they can be completed. Additionally, members of the Force are attacked every day by dangerous predators from Zonia's jungles. They appeal for help from the Havenic Council, but the Council resists, with many members either doubtful of the threats that Zonia poses or opposed to continued colonization altogether.
 * The Haven Expeditionary Force, denied aid by Haven, turns to outside factions for assistance; they receive support from both The Guild and Norvesh's prominent Vandergrosse Family. The Force is not entirely trusting of either of these groups (as they have their own obvious goals for obtaining land in Zonia), but they work out an agreement in which none of the three factions will begin claiming land for themselves until the Haven Expeditionary force have established a completely fortified and functional colony.
 * 100 HE
 * After two years of grueling work, the detachment of the Haven Expeditionary Force deployed to colonize Zonia finally succeed (with the help of their allies from The Guild and the Vandergrosse Family) in creating a colony that is fully functional for the purposes of resource extraction, material processing, and trading. These industries are largely run by a single company attracted to the colony during its first months of existence: Underwinter Mining. With the commerce and employment opportunities provided by Underwinter, the colony begins attracting civilian labor in droves, and soon residential areas begin growing and attracting further arrivals from Haven. The colony is named Jackstown in honor of Haven's well-liked monarch, Jack Whittington
 * With Jackstown now complete and approaching the point of being self-sustaining, the local Expeditionary Force leaders return to the negotiating table with their Guild and Vandergrosse allies to discuss the continued colonization of the rest of Zonia. After much argument, it is decided that on the first day of the new year, an official land rush will take place, where any and all parties may as much land as they can stake out during a one-day period.
 * Preparations for the land rush are disrupted when, just a few weeks prior to the new year, a massive seismic event shakes the center of Zonia. Jackstown goes largely unharmed, but the earthquake displaces scores of Zonia's dangerous beasts and they begin to arrive at Jackstown's borders daily, putting intense strain on the resources of the Haven Expeditionary Force. The Force begins actively recruiting adventurers to assist them in their mission to protect Jackstown.