JADE - History of Jade

Sections in this document ...

• The Creation of Jade
• The Dawn Age
• The Arrival of the Daemons
• The Daemon War
• The Age of the Orcs
• Sudran History
• The Sea of Storms
• Nardran History
• The Gods
• Gard
• Gwyll
• Veldar
• The History of Gwyll & Gard

The Creation of Jade

• Infinite sea of Chaos. (An "infinite" expanse of chaos, cutting-off Jade from the rest of the AD&D multiverse.)
• The Anima (An innocent child-like goddess, spontaneously coming into existence. "She" has incredible creative powers. She can mould the raw stuff of Chaos into anything.)
• The Anima creates the physical world, a single continent.
• She creates Elementals and watches them war across the planet. (The Elementals of Jade are primitive lifeforms. Little more than intelligence added to one of the basic elements. In Jade there are SIX Elements. Three Elements of Form - Earth, Air, Water and three elements of Force - Fire, Cold, Lightning. The personalities of Elementals are extremely basic and stereotypical.)

The Dawn Age

• Anima withdraws consciousness from the Elementals
• Creates Faeries and all the Flora and Fauna of Jade. (Faeries are much more complex life-forms then Elementals. They are whimsical, their personalities are very peculiar. There are a huge range of Faerie creatures, from huge magic-wielding giants to tiny sprites.)
• Late in this period, the Anima creates Elves as an experiment in a more advanced life-form.

The Arrival of the Daemons

• The Daemons. A group of evil powerful characters fleeing from somewhere. (Exiled Sorcerors, banished from their own worlds for acts of unspeakable evil. They fled across the Sea of Chaos and crash-landed on Jade.
  • Torkas, Lord of Storms.
  • Morlok, Lord of Nightmare
  • Isstar, The Serpent, Father of Lies
  • Lillith, The Winter Queen
  • Arachne, Queen of Spiders
• They take advantage of the innocent, trusting nature of the Anima and set about trying to dominate the Faeries.
• During this period they "altered" many of the Faeries and created Monsters. (Many of the more unusual monsters were created as experiments by the Daemons. This includes all the wierd & wonderful AD&D creatures.)

The Daemons are also known as the Five Dark Gods.

The Daemon War

• All-out war between the much-weakened Anima (and the Faeries) and the Daemons and Monsters. Arachne creates the Dark Elves.
• The single continent is split into two by the Sea of Storms. They drift apart.
• Early in this period the Anima creates Dwarves to help in the War.
• Towards the end of this period, the Orkish Races come into existence. No-one knows whether they were created by the Anima or by the Daemons. They seem to have fought on both sides at various times.
• The Anima defeats the Daemons by banishing them to the Shadowlands but only at the price of becoming dormant herself. (Another set of dimensions. They lie "beneath" Jade which shields then from the destructive nature of the Sea of Chaos. They are also shielded from the creative forces in chaos. Over the centuries many areas of Jade have fallen into the Shadowlands. The Daemons are able to work their wills upon the contents of the Shadowlands. Due to the nature of their banishment to Shadows, they cannot leave the Shadowlands and manifest themselves directly in Jade.)

The Age of the Orcs (an awkward age)

• In the aftermath of the Daemon War, the orkish races (including the early tribes of Man, Orcs, Goblins, Ogres, Troglodytes, Lizard-men and Trolls) flourish on the Northern Continent (Nardra) while on the Southern Continent (Sudra), the Saurians become the dominant force.
• The Elves suffered greatly in the War and only slowly recover in the land of Silvanor. The Dwarves are decimated and only linger in the mountainous region of Mithrildor. At some point the gnomes evolve as a separate race from the Dwarves.
• From this point on, the histories of the two continents develop seperately.

Sudran History (In Brief)

• Lizard-men and Men become the most numerous of the Orkish Races.
• Another race, the Saurians, appear in the South. They have great intelligence and magical powers and are contemptuous of their primitive cousins. Eventually the Saurians come to dominate the Men of Sudra as well as the Lizard-men and impose on them a rigid caste system (similar to Mythic Japan). Most humans and Lizard-men are peasants. A few of the more powerful warriors and magicians of both races are allowed into the Samurai Class along with the lowest of the Saurians while the Nobles are almost entirely Saurians.
• The Saurian Empire has continued virtually unchanged since its foundation.
• The Emperor and his Inner Circle are considered semi-divine children of Issta (Daemon-Lord of Serpents).
• The Emperor is served by a group of "ninja" called Talons.

There are details of the Saurians. This information is for DMs only. The Saurians are very powerful (remember that PCs in JADE can only reach 9^th Level. There are some details of the Talons as an NPC Class. One of the players in the JADE campaign is a renegade Talon - Artur. He is the only one. The Talons should be a sinister and dangerous enemy for your adventurers.

The Sea of Storms

• Virtually Impassable without magical assistance (and the blessing of Torkas).
• Even magic (Clairvoyance, Magic Mirror etc) fails to cross more than a few miles (1 mile per level) unless cast by a powerful spellcaster at both ends.
• Terrible Storms Sea Monsters.
• Elven Ships used to be able to make it across.
• Sudran Ships from Asherak (crewed by Red Orcs) regularly cross.
• Nardran Ships rarely pass far out of sight of land except for the area around the Fortunate Isles. Veldaran Ships seem unaffected by the problems.

An example of an Asherak Pirate Ship is provided.

One of the recent adventures in the JADE Campaign has reduced the Storms and magical protections. Over the next few years the Sea of Storms will become a normal ocean.

Nardran History - The Northern Contintent (in Brief)

• The Elves & Dwarves remain in their ancestral lands, slowly recovering.
• The Ork Wars - constant skirmishes between the various tribes/races.
• Daemonic Influence
• From their lairs in the Shadowlands, the Daemons begin to gather support among the various Orkish Races. There are wars between the factions.
• The Rise of Man.
• As Mankind grows stronger the other races begin to ally against the upstart. The Daemons form the Dark Alliance to oppose Man.
• The Gods of Man and Durin, God of Dwarves are drawn into semi-existence by the needs of their worshippers when the Fimbulwinter descends on the land..
  • Oban - The King, Farmer, Healer
  • Mortus - Protector of the Dead, Scourge of the Undead
  • Mithras - Paladin-Knight
  With the help of the new Priests, Men & Dwarves drive Lillith’s Orcs and Ogres back into the White Mts.

Gard

• Chivalric Knights ("Norman Knights"), Worshipping the Three Gods
• Over the last few centuries they have advanced to late-medieval in the prosperous cities of the south. The King rules the central region, Kingsreach, from the city of Tor Meliath. Earls control the outlying regions ( at first just Angolin & Ustergard, later East Mark and then North Mark)

Gwyll

• "Welsh" Celtic people whose priests are Druids.
• No central authority. Dozens of Thanes each ruling a few villages.
• Gwyll is covered by Pine Forests.
• About 20 years ago Gwyll was conquered by Gard and now the Gwyll are second-class citizens in their own lands. Even their language is outlawed and they must pay tribute to their Gardic Overlords. Their land is now known as the North Mark and is ruled by a new Earl based at the new city of Tor Wyneth.
• The druidic religion continues but now the men of North Mark must pay lip service to the Three Gods.

There are some notes available about running Adventures in Meredwyr - A province of Gwyll.

Veldar

• "Viking" Raiders from the Fjords and Western Isles.
• No central religion, it is said that the Veldarans make sacrifices to appease Torkas, Daemon-Lord of Storms.
• Their life-style has not changed in thousands of years.

The History of Gwyll and Gard

The Gwyll Warlord made a deal with the Orcs of the White Mts who sent a huge army south through Gwyll. The Gwyll were forced to fight alongside the Orcs (although some Thanes rebelled). Half of Angolin was overrun and the Orcs took thousands of slaves as payment.

It took several years to drive the Gwyll back to their original borders. Once this was done the Gwyll Warlord was executed by a council of Thanes and the Orcs were eventually driven out. This is the cause of the hostility between the Gwyll and the people of Angolin.

20 years ago the Gwyll began to complain that the Lords of the Border Forts were raiding their lands. This may (or may not) have been true. The Thanes again elected a Warlord and began to attack the Borders. This time the King of Gard (the current king’s father) decided not to just push back. Instead Gard completely conquered Gwyll.

Ever since, the people of Gwyll have become second-class citizens, their language is forbidden and they must all follow the Gardic religion of the Three Gods. The current king revoked the laws against Druids a few years ago but the Gwyll are still expected to worship the Three Gods. There are Gwyll outlaws all over the North Mark. The new Earl of the new province, North Mark, has a full-time job keeping the peace.

Return to JADE Home Page

If you have any comments on these pages, E-mail me at Mick@hand666.freeserve.co.uk