We're authors

Marrishland has a long and violent history. Several civilizations have risen and fallen, here, and the book tells about events during one of the most turbulant periods - a period whose events determine whether a civilization survives or dies.

More than just authors

OTHER PROJECTS

HANGOUTS

COMICS

The Red Calm and the First Goblin War (ca. 3300 - 3550 I.D.)

The Red Calm (ca. 3300 - 3500 I.D.)

The goblins and the Mar skirmished frequently for the next several generations, though these battles were largely indecisive. The Mar controlled Domus Palus and the swamps immediately around it, as well as a long strip of land on the south bank of the Lapis Amnis. The goblins held the lands south and southeast of the lands surrounding Domus Palus.

The fighting during the two centuries leading up to the First Goblin War was fiercest near the lands along the Lapis Amnis, where goblins and Mar raided each other's villages and fought over resources on an almost daily basis. The swamps a few dozen miles south of the Lapis Amnis have always been very poor in resources, so it is not clear whether these raids were part of a strategy of attrition or whether both sides needed food and metals badly enough to fight a nearly constant war for them. It is also not clear which inflicted more casualties on these Mar squatters - the goblins or Dinah's Curse. Judging from the tales that came out of this period in history, both took a substantial toll on the Mar population.

The lands nearest Domus Palus thrived during these years. Despite the casualties in the east, the wizard population boomed and gained increasing power in Mar society, especially because of their essential role in keeping the goblins at bay along the Lapis Amnis. During this period the Marduxes expanded the Mar navy in the excellent harbor west of Domus Palus.

The front south of Domus Palus actually remained very quiet during these centuries. Neither side seemed willing to test the defenses of the other side's center of power. As time when on, the goblins fought more and more fiercely against the Mar expansion south from the Lapis Amnis and into their annexed territory, and the Mar worked to place just enough pressure on the lands once held by the least guer to encourage the goblins to continue reinforcing the attacks. The goblins were clearly taken completely by surprise when the Mar opted for a sudden change in tactics after two centuries of stalemate.

The First Goblin War (ca. 3500 - 3550 I.D.)

About halfway through the 4th millennium, the Mar navy set sail from Domus Palus Bay, keeping just barely in sight of land as they moved into positions along the west coast of the goblin homeland. Meanwhile, the bulk of the Mar army marched south from Domus Palus and crossed swiftly into the heart of goblin territory, where they met fierce resistance. When the goblins turned to the north to deal with this threat, the Mar navy landed on their western shores and swept east, driving the Drakes ahead of them.

Despite goblin resistance, the two forces converged on the city from which the goblins' leaders ruled. The goblins took refuge in their capital, prepared to endure a long and bitter siege until reinforcements arrived from the northeast. The reinforcements never arrived, and the goblin capital fell to betrayal by their own people.

The goblins remaining in the south fought a losing war on three fronts against the magic-wielding Mar and their unfaithful goblin brethren. At the end, the Mar drove the goblins out of the Drakes' ancestral homeland, leaving them only the lands once controlled by the sedge guer. As these goblin-controlled lands were poor in both metal and food, the goblins living there never again posed a threat to the Mar. By the middle of the 36th century, the Mar had eradicated the goblins and established a durable perimeter around the area that would later be known as the Duxy of Domus.

(Contributed by Weard Gilda Kronas)