Hello everybody Jorphdan here, the ph is silent.
So... Ya know, the further I get away from the creation story
i.e. the more we get into the history of the Forgotten Realms the more information I can find.
and I thought this would be awesome and make these videos really interesting.
but I think these will turn into boring fantasy history lectures.
And in the dawn age which lasted from -30,000 DR to -24,000 DR numerous Dragons and Giants
fought for supremacy.
In -29500 the Dragonfall war began when the followers of Xymor killed Nagamat.
Then in -24500 DR the first elf nation was founded as elves migrated from the feywild
to blah blah blah blah.
So my idea is less numerical dates and more events that took place
and this time period we're going to talk about today is known as the
Dawn Age, or the Age of Dawn, why is it called the Dawn age, I have no idea.
I assume it’s something to do with the first appearance of some of Faerun’s standard
races, elves, dwarves, gnomes etc.
Dragons and Giants!
The dragons awoke at the start of the Dawn Age and soon realized they were the apex predators.
Metallic dragons admired the “lesser races” and took pity on them.
Offered to teach them, protect them, and help lead them.
Meanwhile the Chromatic Dragons sought to enslave these races hoping to use them to
further advance their own agenda.
They forced them to build castles and armies for the Dragon’s benefit.
And in the DnD monster manual Metallic dragons are of the Good alignment and Chromatic dragons
are on the evil alignment.
The creator races vanished from Toril, leaving behind their temples and dungeons for future
adventurers to find.
This was due in part to a major infestation of dragons, and the dragons enslaving them and fighting them etc.
Along with Dragons during this time there were Giants.
Now the giants came about when the gods of the giants, Annam All-Father married a demigoddess
called Othea.
They started having children and those children were the origin for the giant races.
Frost Giants, Fire, Giants, Cloud Giants, Hill Giants, and Storm Giants.
Each of these giant variety went out and created kingdoms in the name of Annam.
Now Othea had some affairs, extra marital affairs away from her husband that sparked new species into Toril.
Her affair with a demigod named Vaprak and he resulted in the ogre race, and her affair with Ulutiu
resulted in firblog, fomorian, verbeeg, and voadkyn to be created.
After Annam found out about the affair, Ulutiu exiled himself north.
He sank into the ocean and his magical necklace froze the water around it creating the Great
Glacier and the endless ice sea that is up in the north.
Now the Giants recognized that the Dragons were powerful and cunning who would probably
soon threaten their existence.
Soon war started between Giants and Dragonkind with control over Faerun to the victor.
At this time there were numerous Giant settlements but Ostoria (which means “Father’s Seat”
in Jotun) was the original and largest founded by Annam himself.
It was also known as the Colossal Kingdom because of it’s size.
The Kingdom of Ostoria went to war with the dragons in what would be called “The thousand
year war.”
The thousand year war began when a flight of Red Dragons instructed by the dragon god
Garyx to attack the nations of giants.
After this attack all the races of Dragonkind and Giantkind were getting
involved in this conflict. ya know conflict really brings a species
together now that I think about it.
During this thousand years giants killed dragons, dragons killed giants.
Tiamat was challenged to a contest of riddles from a giant and won!
Could have used a Bilbo in your corner giants.
#HalflingPride
Anyway a thousand years of fighting ended with a truce between the two.
Annam and Garyx decided to play a board game to settle the dispute as casualties
on both sides was growing out of control.
They played a board game called wah-ree
Which is some D&D fantasy abstract strategy game.
I could only find this photo of the two of them playing it.
The game ended in a stalemate, and the war ended.
I guess nobody lost so they were happy to end the war right there.
Nobody's a loser even though nobody won, I don't know.
Now during this whole time Toril was under conflict from Dragons and Giants up above
in the Astral Sea the gods had their own problems.
Which starts the story of Araushnee, the elven goddess of destiny, and artisans.
But you probably recognize her by her new name Lolth.
Araushnee was a very power-hungry and manipulative goddess.
She was the lover of a god named Corellon (patron god of all elves) and he was quite smitten
with her.
Lolth or I should say Araushnee being manipulative aided Corellon’s enemies in secret, to have him
killed so she could become head honcho of the elven pantheon.
Corellon eventually found out about his wicked love interest when he caught her having an
affair with another deity in an effort to aid her in a rebellion against Corellon.
All seemed lost as enemies attacked Corellon and just as he was about to die he was saved
by a handful of deities that joined their powers to form a new goddess,
which I'm not going to pretend how to pronounce.
Angharradh
Realizing Araushnee is quite evil and her betrayal against the gods she was banished to the Abyss, stripped
of her divinity, and turned into a spider demon.
Her son was exiled too, and her daughter, Eilistraee, exiled herself knowing that the
dark elves would need a her light in times to come.
She actually remained good and tried to be the one good god the dark elves needed.
Araushnee took the name Lolth and turned a layer of the abyss into her new home.
Here through her trickery she stole power grew stronger.
A demon prince by the name of Zanassu who claimed divine domain over spiders caught
Lolth’s eye.
Lolth being half spider now thought it was her sole right to have control over that domain.
She tricked another demon into attacking Zanassu, killing him, and then took up that domain
to regain her divinity.
Using her new powers she transformed the 66th layer of the abyss into the Demonweb Pits,
physically changing it into a giant funnel-shaped web.
Now during this time Elves populated Toril by escaping from the Feywild.
With elves coming to Toril, or Faerun specifically Lolth’s attention is turned to Toril.
Now, Lolth eventually found her way to Toril.
via a moon elf who found her way to the Demonweb Pits in combat with a demon
This elf, who has a really complicated name…
Kethryllia
When Kethryllia defeated the demon and returned to Faerun Lolth followed her back and began
seducing the dark elves.
Gaining more power as she built worshipers in the underdark.
And that’s where we’ll end today.
Dragons and Giants and Lolth oh my!
The Dawn Age ends around this time for no other reason than the dark elves start worshiping
Lolth and the Thousand Year War is over.
Stay tuned next time for the next history lesson where we discuss all things elves and
war between the elvan clans.
I hope you’ve been enjoying this, if you do please subscribe and stay tuned for more
forgotten realms explained videos.