A map from a Fantasy story I've been developing slowly over the last few weeks. A very brief timeline for a backstory:
~2300YA-The Derg'haz'i (Draconic races) have completed their conquest of the continent. All other races serve under their absolute, unforgiving, rule.
~550YA-Humanity begins their revolt against their Dragon overlords. The other races join in shortly.
~510YA-The Derg'haz'i have lost control of much of the continent, and the war is only getting worse for them. Their enemies would have nothing short of their absolute extermination.
~500YA-With humanities control over the majority of the continent, they proclaim the beginning of a golden age. In a fit of desperation, the Derg'haz'i search out powerful magics to turn
the tide of the war. A powerful and competent Djinn offers them immortality; they take it. The armies of man begin to be pushed back.
~490YA-The Derg'haz'i have discovered that in exchange for the immortality, their ability to reproduce is lost; many Dragons stop fighting in despair, and forge their own independant relm.
The Rift is formed in one cataclysmic event: man's capital and homeland is destroyed, leading to the collapse of their armies. A plague affecting only man begins to spread rapidly; some
claim it to be connected to the formation of The Rift.
~485YA-The remainder of humanity flees into cities hoping for protection. This only leads to a faster progression of the plague and the death of thousands all across the continent.
~485-250YA-With the Derg'haz'i reserving themselves to a fate of eternal solitude in their relm believing there to be no hopes for progression, and humanity dying in cities all across the
continent, the Elves slowly colonize the unoccupied lands.
250YA-Humanity is reduced to only 10 cities. The plague is gone, but they stay in their walled cities states, fearing contact with the plague they are unaware is gone and the occupant elves
they believe to be barbarous humans mutated by the plague.
243YA-The allied Orcs, Dwarves, and Gnomes begin the Nohsirrian Empire.
243-57YA-The Nohsirrian Empire expands to its greatest hight, incorporating other races along the way; mostly experiments from Derg'haz'i rule thousands of years ago.
68YA-Morthal Saan is born in the city of Aetheria.
57YA-The city-state of Aeorica ventures beyond its walls to find no plague. They begin exploration and expansion, at the expense of the peaceful elves.
57YA-0YA-Aeorica makes contact with all remaining human cities who begin expansion; with the exception of Aetheria.
36YA-The Nohsirrian Magicians find a massive and unimaginably powerful artifact, hidden deep below the center of their empire. Experimentation begins.
0YA-The real story begins.
Purple-Lands inhabited by Derg'haz'i and racial relatives.
Green-Lands inhabited by elves. They are all connected through tribal council, but are 6 separate clans. Maarket is lost to the other 5 due to the Derg'haz'i and rise of the Nohsirrian's.
Yellow-The Nohsirrian Empire
Blue-Human lands. The dots with castles extending off of them are the cities humanity emerged from to acquire their current territory.
Orange-The Saline Desert. Once known as the Salt Sea, it dried up years before the rise of the Derg'haz'i. Now, it is a very salty and dry desert above underground salt lakes. Giants inhabit
the Once-Island Mesa's doting the desert in their own city states.
That Lined area on the edge of The Rift?-Aetheria. Everything in that area is a walled, urban, almost Victorian styled, city. Through the efforts of Morthall Saan, the most brilliant magical
mind in millennia, the citizens still believe the world outside to be infested with plague. He realizes his innovations in magics and technology in his 68 years has made Aetheria too
powerful for the rest of the world to handle at that time, and so he has kept the city state secluded and fearful, while stalling the expansion of nearby human kingdoms.
Well, you have a back story. I drew this map one morning when I was supposed to do something I really didn't want to - so it's really just a by-product of my procrastination.
