History and Timeline

Dates are given in AC (After Crowning). Alphatian sources count AY = AC + 1000; those are converted here. The campaign era, AC 1014-1019, is treated in most detail. The deeper past is compressed; the full prehistoric chronology is in the MMB timeline [MMB-Timeline].

Where the community timelines disagree on a date (and they often do, because they reconcile several modules written without a shared calendar), both readings are shown and flagged.

Prehistory and ancient ages (before AC 1)

Before BC 3000, Norwold lies far north of Blackmoor; dragons, giants, dwarves, rakastas, and early trolls hold the land [MMB-Timeline].
BC 3000-2800, The Great Rain of Fire shifts the world’s axis; glaciers advance; frost giants and elder trolls migrate south into Norwold [MMB-Timeline].
BC 2900, The Jääkansa (Finnic humans) settle the northern tundra of Autuasmaa [MMB-Timeline].
BC 2400, Antalians settle the coasts; the Jääkansa form their first kingdom [MMB-Timeline].
BC 1722-1711, King Loark’s humanoid Great Horde devastates the Antalian and Jääkansa civilizations; a frost-giant dark age follows [MMB-Timeline] [LoZ-ModTimeline].
BC 1000, Nithian expansion under Pharaoh Tokoramses V; colonies founded, halfling slaves deported north; the pharaoh makes a pilgrimage to the Arch of Fire [MMB-Timeline].
BC 350, Halflings reach the mouth of the White Bear River and found the County of Leeha [MMB-Timeline].
BC 125-40, The Alphatian prince Alinor founds the port city of Alphia; his attempt to raise a mountain range by magic destroys it (creating Alinor’s Ridge) and kills him [MMB-Timeline] [CM1].

The imperial contest (AC 5 - 985)

AC 12-15, Thyatis settles Cape Alpha; Alphatian-backed Ostlander revolt destroys it [MMB-Timeline].
AC 136-336, The Alphatian witch Akra rules part of Norwold; the Sisterhood of the Ice Witches and the Crones of Crystykk are founded; her cold magic chills the climate [MMB-Timeline] [Neri-TG].
AC 450-510, Alphatian colonists under Volospin III try and fail to hold the Sabre River; dragons destroy the colony [MMB-Timeline] [CM3].
AC 846-874, Frota, possessed by Akra’s spirit, builds the Ice Tomb and is overthrown [MMB-Timeline] [LoZ-R2R].
AC 900, Thyatis expands under Gabrionius IV; Aline Sigbertsdatter founds Oceansend [MMB-Timeline].
AC 959-962, A new Thyatian-Alphatian war; Oceansend declares independence and crowns Yarrvik king; Thyatis recognizes it [MMB-Timeline].
AC 985, Empress Eriadna resumes the Alphatian push north and founds the city of Alpha [MMB-Timeline].

The making of King Ericall (AC 992 - 998)

AC 992, Turning point. Eriadna makes her son Ericall king of the Norwold Protectorate; Helskir is annexed [MMB-Timeline].
AC 995, Ericall grants Landfall to his half-brother Lernal, who leaves it to the Thieves’ Guild [MMB-Timeline].
AC 997, King Yarrvik of Oceansend negotiates vassalage with Ericall; foreign heroes begin arriving at Alpha seeking land [MMB-Timeline] [LoZ-ModTimeline].
AC 998, Turning point. Ericall proclaims the Great Land Rush, offering dominions to any adventurer who can take and hold them. This is the CM1 premise [MMB-Timeline] [CM1] [Neri-LandRush]. (LoZompatore’s module timeline dates the proclamation, there the “Landgrab,” to AC 996 [LoZ-ModTimeline].)

The Land Rush and the War of the Crown (AC 999 - 1002)

AC 999 (Spring Fair), Ericall awards the first dominions at Alpha. His brothers Tredorian and Farian are kidnapped by Thyatian agents; the Immortal Alphaks’s plot (the “red mist”) is foiled by Vanya; frost giants invade late in the year [MMB-Timeline] [M2]. (CM1 places the frost-giant invasion a year or two earlier [LoZ-ModTimeline].)
AC 999-1000, The War of the Crown of Norwold: Thyatis invades to contest the kingdom; the war ends in a stalemate and truce [LoZ-WarCrown] [LoZ-ModTimeline] [M2].
AC 1000, Frost giants besiege Alpha across the frozen Great Bay and are thrown back; the Royal Castle is completed; Ericall marries Christine Marie Alanira (CM1 dates the wedding to AC 998) [MMB-Timeline] [LoZ-ModTimeline].
AC 1002, Peace conference at Helskir settles the ownership of Norwold, Helskir, and the northern Isle of Dawn [LoZ-ModTimeline] [M5].

The Land-Rush dominions created in these years, and their holders, are the political map the campaign era inherits. See Realms and Gander’s AC 1016 dominion roster [Gander-Dom].

The Wrath and the sinking (AC 1004 - 1009)

AC 1004-1005, The Wrath of the Immortals war between Thyatis and Alphatia begins [LoZ-ModTimeline] [WotI].
AC 1009, The hinge of the era. Alphatia sinks. The Immortals drown the island continent beneath the Alphatian Sea as the war’s catastrophe; the surviving Alphatians are those in the overseas colonies, on the Isle of Dawn, and in Bellissaria [WotI]. The Atlas’s post-disaster maps are dated AC 1010 [Atlas].

The campaign era (AC 1010 - 1019)

AC 1010, The Heldannic Knights invade Norwold, seizing the southern and coastal reaches. Kamminer Bay is named in this year after their conquest of the Landfall coast [LoZ-WarCrown] [Alm-Kamminer].
AC 1012, Ericall keeps under arms the soldiers conscripted during the war; the commons resent it [Alm-Alpha].
AC 1013, The Heldannic Knights found Forton on the Forton River [MMB-Region].
AC 1014, The regathered Alphatian survivors are now the New Alphatian Confederate Empire (NACE); Ericall’s realm, renamed Alpha, is a member. Ericall marries Queen Christina Marie Alanira, sister of Count Beriak of Draken [Alm-Alpha].
AC 1015, A coup led by Olaf Yarrvikson throws the Heldannic Knights out of Oceansend; the former Heldannic governor, the paladin Hermann Adalard, is taken prisoner. Oceansend stands free again [Alm-Oceansend].
AC 1016, The state of the realm described by the Mystaran Almanac entries used throughout this guide: a reduced Kingdom of Alpha, a free Oceansend still braced for a Heldannic return, Heldannic-held Kamminer Bay and Landfall, and the scattered Land-Rush dominions [Alm-Alpha] [Alm-Oceansend] [Gander-Dom].
AC 1017-1019, The Almanac continues to track the regional domains, grouped as the Bay Marches, the Icereach, Final Range, Tranquil Coast, Kamminer Bay, and Lothbarth Forest [Alm-NorthBay] [Alm-Icereach] [Alm-FinalRange] [Alm-Tranquil].

The political aftermath (how it feels in AC 1016)

The only source that works through the post-sinking politics in depth is Phindar’s “Norwold after the fall of Alphatia” [Phindar-Aftermath]. It is one author’s campaign frame, not canon, but it captures the mood and is consistent with the Almanac:

Ericall is weakened. With Alphatia gone, his imperial backing is a fiction. He holds Alpha and leans on the uneasy, mutual-non-interference peace with Oceansend. Some of his lords talk independence; few will move against him yet [Phindar-Aftermath] [Alm-Alpha].
Thyatis circles. Emperor Thincol regards Eriadna’s old annexations as a personal insult and, with Alphatia drowned, gathers forces; the Isle of Dawn is the likely staging ground for a push north [Phindar-Aftermath].
The Heldannic Knights are entrenched. They hold Kamminer Bay and Landfall and are expected to try for Oceansend again at any time [Alm-Oceansend] [Alm-Kamminer].
The dominions are a patchwork. The coastal and southern dominions are the first line against invasion; the central and northern domains are freer, some effectively independent [Phindar-Aftermath] [Alm-WestBay].

A note on the Kingdom of Ghyr

Fan material sometimes centers Norwold on the Kingdom of Ghyr (developed from the modules X11 Saga of the Shadow Lord and XL1 Quest for the Heartstone, and extended far into the future by later fan work) [MMB-Region]. Ghyr is not part of the AC 1014-1019 Almanac snapshot this guide uses; treat it as deep background or a later era, not as a current power. The same applies to Andrea Francolini’s AC 1160 campaign maps [Atlas].

Contradictions worth knowing

The community timelines openly disagree on several dates. None of these breaks a campaign; pick one and keep it:

Land Rush proclaimed: AC 998 [MMB-Timeline] vs. AC 996 [LoZ-ModTimeline].
Ericall’s wedding: AC 1000 [MMB-Timeline] vs. AC 998 [LoZ-ModTimeline] vs. the second wedding to Queen Christina in AC 1014 [Alm-Alpha]. (These may be two different marriages; the sources do not reconcile them.)
Frost-giant invasion: AC 999 [MMB-Timeline] vs. AC 997 [LoZ-ModTimeline].
Helskir’s independence: annexed AC 992 and independent AC 999 [MMB-Timeline] vs. a Thyatian ally until about AC 1008 [LoZ-WarCrown].

This guide follows the Mystaran Almanac for anything in AC 1014-1019 and the MMB timeline for earlier dates.