This short history lesson should serve for the world of Argosia. If the people are still close to their gods, perhaps they know the origins of their people. If so, then the world may be relatively new and there will be few actual ruins and many of the world’s structures will be in good condition. On the other hand, if the people have existed here for millennia, or came here from someplace else, then the ruins could have been from a previous civilization. I would like to use a mixture of the two approaches.

I like the thought of Elder Races, so let’s use that. I tend to think of several types of creatures when I think Elder Races: merfolk, troglodytes, mind flayers, and kuo-toa. If we make these the ancient civilizations, we have a range of ruins to choose from and introduce psionics into the campaign fairly early. If we also decide to use the dark elf vs. light elf war common in elven mythologies, and the goblin vs. dwarf struggles, we have a decent selection from which to draw several ancient ruins.

I’m going to say that merfolk were an ancient race of humans who worshipped a sea god/goddess and asked to be saved from some catastrophe. In exchange this deity granted his/her worshippers their current forms and they have lived in the seas ever since, perhaps inhabiting the ruins of their former cities, now sunk beneath the waves. Alternately, we could go with a story similar to Lovecraft’s Dagon myth - fishermen are tempted by riches and plenty to worship Dagon and are changed over time into evil creatures of the sea, half-man and half-monstrosity. The former choice makes the merfolk good or neutral; the latter choice makes them somewhat evil. Given the choice of evil sea creatures that already exist in the Monster Manual, I think we should go with the benevolent sea deity instead. Legends may tell of this civilization that disappeared into the sea and strange sitings of fish-people rescuing drowning seamen.

Kuo-toa, according to the Monster Manual, were said to have lived in the upper world and made war upon humans for control of the coastlines. The kuo-toa lost their struggle and retreated to the vast underground lakes and grottoes of the Underdark. Where did they once dwell? If they are sea creatures, how have they come to dwell in fresh water caves? Perhaps they needed fresh water to spawn, like salmon, and the human cities all sprang up around their spawning beds which were uninhabited most of the year while the kuo-toa were at sea. Humans may have actually adapted parts of the kuo-toa culture in their development.

Mind flayers are vile and cruel beings with psionic powers. They would have come to this world in search of food (brains) and found that the humanoids of this world were ripe for the picking. They may have established an empire – ruled by a few illithids – and may have masqueraded as gods, similar to those of Stargate. Great stone monuments were erected to the glory of the “gods” and the mind flayers lived within, safe from the searing light of the sun. Humans would “ascend” to the side of the “gods” and were never seen again. The empire would have been tumbled once someone learned of the grisly fate of the “ascended.” Those mind flayers who escaped into the Underdark would have sealed off their escape routes, leaving only their artifacts behind them. Over time they would attempt to make a new empire in the Underdark, constantly seeking out intelligent races to enslave and use for food. Their search would have brought them into conflict with the deep-digging dwarves, cave-dwelling troglodytes and goblinoids, and other exiled races.

According to the earliest versions of D&D, troglodytes are said to hate humans, but no explanation of the hatred has ever been given. In this world, lets say that trogs evolved from intelligent reptiles (the ancestors of all reptilian races) and came to rule the world until the other races were created or invaded from other dimensions. Their barbaric cousins, the lizardfolk and kobolds, never achieved their ancient greatness. Great wars were fought in dark jungles, possibly ending in the subjugation of several ancient human tribes. The trogs would then enslave the humans and make them construct their ancient temples and cities. Lost cities in the tropics would depict reptilian leaders. Perhaps experiments to mix the two races, or to make humans more reptilian, resulted in the creation of the yuan-ti, or maybe they were the master race that later devolved into the troglodytes. In either case, the troglodytes grew weak and pampered and the humans eventually slew many of their number. The trogs were driven underground, perhaps sealed away in caves by a great earthquake. Those trogs that later came to the surface through other routes were thought to have originated in the caves by the new human cultures – hence the origins of their name in the human language (troglodyte = “cave dweller”). The trogs have never forgotten their hatred of the human race, although they have forgotten the reason for their hatred.

The elven race was divided long before the war between the races. The Light Elves worshipped their god Corellon Larethian and danced in the night under his crescent moon. The dark elves denied the moon god and turned to the worship of demons, finding beauty in their evil. One of their number worshipped a demon queen of spiders who would later take the form of an elf in reverse – black skin with white hair and red eyes. A war erupted between the followers of the Moon and the followers of the Spider Queen, resulting in the banishment of the dark elves. As part of their punishment they were transformed to resemble their evil demoness queen, the antithesis of elfdom. They retreated to the depths of the world and suffered great hardships in the bowels of the Underdark. Separated from the safety of the surface world and abandoned to the evil ways of their kind, they eventually developed a society based on perfection in the three classes of cleric, fighter, and wizard. Since the demoness accepted the position of their new deity, the dark elves became a matriarchy under her rule. They carved themselves a place in the Underdark and used the natural resources of their dark realm to make themselves an empire. They despise the Light Elves for their banishment, but few wish now to return to the surface except to exact their vengeance upon the followers of Corellon. An alternate version has the elves as demon-worshippers on their home plane - the bands that come to this world are free-thinkers and artists escaping their corrupt society of evil. They follow the teachings of the moon god Corellon. Elven traits apparently reflect the nature of the spirit within - good and kindly elves are bright and beautiful, evil elves are dark and wickedly tempting, and neutral elves may be grayish, greenish, or bluish in coloration with bestial features. Some of the elves that came here were hunting the others and continue to hunt the Light Elves (or Liosalfar), which could explain other elven subraces such as wild elves (neutral) and drow (evil) existing in this world.

The goblinoids were once evil fey creatures from the same realms as the elves (perhaps slaves of the dark elves). Escaped slaves explored this world and found the place to their liking. Goblinoids breed quickly and soon became a danger to the other developing races. After many centuries they lost their fey attributes and became simple humanoids of various types (goblins, hobgoblins, norkers, and bugbears). They were greedy, though, and contested with the dwarves for the precious metals in the mountains. Some of these battles became legendary and left many decimated goblinoid tribes and empty dwarven halls.

The Orcs were once ancient humans, but were cursed by the gods to become bestial and evil for some sin they perpetrated upon the world. They took the one-eyed war god Gruumsh as their leader and he in turn shaped his visage to better match the face of his servants. Gruumsh had long warred with the moon god Corellon and had suffered defeat and loss of one eye at his hands. He used the orcs to plague the elves of the land and drive the other humans into hiding. The orcs are the most warlike race on the world and they are also the worst land managers. Anything they cannot use or find meaningful is destroyed. For this reason, many ancient civilizations are completely lost to historians. In fact, the orcs demonstrate characteristics of many civilizations that they have assimilated or destroyed over the centuries, taking only the knowledge they could use.

Humans probably began as primitive hunter/gatherers worshipping animal spirits (allowing for druidism) and later adopted the various gods that came into being as time marched on (remember that we are allowing divinity to be bestowed on the worthy). By interacting with these ancient races they learned much - magic, government forms, corruption, justice, etc. The classes now in existence probably came about as a direct result of this human interaction. I think that the Nine Gods previously established in the last article are from the human cultures, but that the humans also worship the demi-human or humanoid deities in their own ways. This explains the human-elf and human-orc relations better if Corellon and Gruumsh are worshipped by more than one race.

Of course, none of this is set in stone and it would be interesting to hear other suggestions for ancient history of this new world. With so little actually developed, the history and interactions could involve any number of races or species. Of course, this is also not the only continent in the world, so not every interaction has to be developed at this time. In fact, I think that humans should have migrated in from the southwest or southeast, sailing in watercraft to escape the catastrophe that affected the Merfolk, or taken as slaves by the troglodytes from southern jungles to the northern empires of their homeland. Humans (a food source) could also have been bred by the mind flayers to perfect their intelligence (call it selective breeding for “superior taste”). The origins of magic have not been established, but it would make some sense that the elves would have brought this knowledge to the other races from their home realm - thus tying magic to the Moon god Corellon and explaining the elven Favored Class of wizard (which no other race currently has).