Timeline of Greyhawk

A Timeline of the Lands of the Flanaess

The World of Greyhawk has a long, tangled history that is tracked by many different cultures' timelines. For ease of reference this page will only focus on the contemporary “common year” calendar abbreviated in most game publications as “CY”. The timeline below is by no means a comprehensive list of Greyhawk canon. Likewise, the original starting point of 576 CY is employed here for gaming purposes. Later edition material does build upon the timeline, but aren't detailed here for simplicity and to avoid spoilers for players.

-5515   Suloise Empire founded.

-2659   Baklunish Empire founded.

-2150   Flan tribes spread throughout the Flanaess living alongside native demihuman realms.

-1910   Corrupted Flan kingdom of Sulm conquers all neighbors.

-903     Sulm falls, land changes into the Bright Desert.

-485     Beginning of the Baklunish-Suloise Wars.

-466     First employment of humanoid mercenaries on both sides of the war.

-458     Driven eastward by warfare, Oeridian migrations reach their peak.

-447     Suloise migrations begin eastward into the Sheldomar Valley yet beyond here, they find resistance from Flan and Oerid tribes and are eventually driven to the corners of the continent.

-422     Twin Cataclysms. Suloise Mages of Power unleash the Invoked Devastation on the Baklunish Empire. In response, Baklunish mage-priests counter by cursing the Rain of Colorless Fire down upon the Suloise turning their empire into the Sea of Dust.

-342     Kingdom of Keoland founded.

-315     Settlement of Greyhawk established.

-217     Largest Oeridian tribe in the east founds the Kingdom of Aerdy.

-110     Battle of a Fortnight’s Length. Aerdi defeat rival Oerid tribe Nehron, united they become the Great Kingdom.

1           New common calendar started as universal peace declared by the Aerdian Overking.

15        Absorbed by the Great Kingdom, Greyhawk booms from trading post to city.

100      Viceroyalty of Ferrond founded to govern the Great Kingdom's western dependencies.

109      Battle of Shamblefield. Great Kingdom routs Frost Barbarians at Spinecastle.

150      Rhennee first appear in Adri Forest. Unaccepted, they take to barge life on rivers and lakes.

254      Ferrond declares independence, becomes the Kingdom of Furyondy.

300      Bandit Kingdoms begin to form in the Northern Reaches. 
             Shield Lands formed as a bulwark against bandit raids.

320      Oerid-Baklunish nomads migrate to the northern prairies. 
             Outer dependencies of the Great Kingdom continue to splinter off. 
             Archmage Zagig Yragerne begins construction of Castle Greyhawk.

356      Emboldened by lesser nations, the Kingdom of Nyrond secedes from the Great Kingdom. Kingdom of Keoland at its height, absorbing all satellite realms and pushing briefly into Ket.

421      Zagig Yragerne disappears; his castle falls into ruin attracting generations of treasure seekers.

437      Overking assassinated, Turmoil Between Crowns begins over claims to succession.

438      Small War between Furyondy and Keoland ends Keoish expansion north.

446      Pirate fleets conquer southern ports on the Azure. 
             Ruthless Ivid I assumes throne of the Great Kingdom ending the Turmoil. 
             Several states break off to form the Iron League in reaction to the new Overking.

447      Battle of a Thousand Banners. Iron League defeats South Province at Irongate.

461      The Ulek states become autonomous and with Celene sever ties to Keoland.

464      Battle of Jetsom Isle. Sea Prince pirates lose to Keoish navy forcing captains to settle down.

479      Iuz grows in power as humanoid incursions increase in the north.

498      Greyhawk officially declared a free city.

505      Iuz disappears without reason leaving his territory in chaos.

510      Hateful Wars sparked by murder of elven queen's consort, ends with all humanoids driven out of the Lortmil Mountains.

513      Rise of the Horned Society as a result of Iuz's absence. 
            Humanoids from the Lortmils overrun and take control of the Pomarj peninsula.

526      Dyvers secedes from Furyondy to become a free city.

563      Bone March falls to humanoids.

569      Battle of Emridy Meadows. Allied forces of Good led by Prince Thrommel of Furyondy rout the Horde of Elemental Evil. The Temple of Elemental Evil is then sacked and demon-queen Zuggtmoy is bound within its dungeons.

570     Iuz, now a demigod, returns to reclaim his lands.

572     Battle of Medegia. Sea Barons decisively defeat the Lordship of the Isles on the Aerdi Sea.

573     Scarlet Brotherhood first revealed after centuries of seclusion. Prince Thrommel kidnapped before marriage to Jolene of Veluna, preventing the union of their two nations.

576     Savant Sage completes the Guide to the World of Greyhawk.

4 comments:

Jason B Mock said...

Love this site! This is such a valuable resource. One thing that has bugged me, though. Where exactly was the Baklunish Empire located and what happened to its people after the Invoked Devastation?

Unknown said...

In answer to Jason... (Not to steal the blog owner's thunder, but I just found this blog myself.)

The Baklunish Empire was located on what is now the "Dry Steppes" north of the Sulhaut Mountains and west of the Crystalmists. On Darlene's original '83 boxed set map, only a fraction of the former Baklunish empire is visible on the far western edge of the map.

However, if you go to Anna B. Meyer's excellent website and her online Greyhawk map, you can see a fuller picture of what used to be the Baklunish Empire, again located where the Dry Steppes are today, including Tovag Baragu.

Chancellor_DM said...

Thank you very much! Your timeline was very helpful.

Anonymous said...

the dates dont take into acccount that CY has no year 0. any negative date is off by one year. This is applied to any date that was converted from another time system
-457 Oeridian migrations east at peak point. (187 OR). source WGF p.5