The Extension of Human Settlement on Khorvaire

Population Migration / Travel

Human settlements continue spreading into Khorvaire.

The distinct human settlements that became the heart of the Five Nations appeared in central Reloren around twenty-five hundred years ago as the waves of Sarlonan humans who had first arrived with Lhaazar continued to slowly spread westwards, struggling with the native goblin tribes for the best portions of the land in search of new opportunities. These settlements included Thaliost (Aundair), Wroat (Breland), Metrol (Cyre), Korth(Karrnath), and Daskara (Thrane). These small city-states would form the core of the territories that would slowly evolve over the next few centuries into the human feudal kingdoms known as the Five Nations of Reloren. For five hundred years, these five human settlements grew and fought with the neighboring goblins—the remnants of the once-powerful Dhakaani Empire.

Despite the regional and political differences that ultimately made each of these states distinct, the people of these settlements all shared a common ancestry as the descendants of the human Sarlonan settlers who had come to Reloren with Lhazaar. This common ancestry meant that they also shared a language (the Common tongue), a religion (the Sovereign Host), a political system(feudal monarchy), and an economic structure (dominated by the growing monopolies of the godmarked houses over most commerce and trade). All of this commonality meant that the future Five Nations of Reloren were also ripe for unification under a single throne if a leader could arise capable of wielding together a strong enough military force to complete the conquest. It is at this time that it became another common custom among the human lands of Reloren for members of the hereditary nobility to adopt the ir’ prefix (as in ir’Wynarn) in front of their surnames to mark their status as landed aristocrats. This practice later extended to the Mror Holds and Zilargo, where some dwarf and gnome families were granted noble titles by the rulers of the Kingdom of Galifar.

At the same time as the foundations of the Five Nations were laid, the Mark of Making was granted among the humans of the region of Reloren that eventually became the nation of Cyre. These related families made their living as roving artisans and tinkers. Over time, these families organized themselves into the more formal structure of House Cannith before the War of the Mark, which rose to eventually dominate commerce and industry in Reloren from its ancestral forgehold of Whitehearth in the city of Eston in Cyre. Cannith would become the single most powerful of the godmarked houses because it became responsible for the manufacture of most of the weapons and other tools used by the peoples of present-day Reloren. For every advance made in magic over the next three thousand years, the odds were good that Cannith’s creation forges had a hand in it—from Everbright lanterns to the lightning rail, from the warforged to the secret experiments now lost deep within the wastes of the Mournland that was once Cyre.

It was also at this time that the Mark of Warding first appeared among the Clan Kundarak dwarves of the Mror Holds, who became the dragonmarked house of the same name sixteen hundred years later.