[Abe Sargent]

AC 136: After years past gathering followers and studying frost magics, Akra assembles around herself a secret fraternity of witches, all followers of Marzanna and skilled in the use of cold energies. She gets also the aid of an huge white dragon named Quesa. This "Sisterhood of the Ice Witches" begins to expand its influence on many Vatski and Norsenian tribes, and to enlist to its service humanoid, ice creatures, giants and white dragons in order to come to rule the whole Norwold. Akra sets her residence in the Ice Cavern, in the depths of the modern Quesa's Massif.



AC 164-336: Joining the influence of her Sisterhood to her great magical powers and to the strength of her armies, Akra imposes her domination to a large part of north-central Norwold and proclaims herself "Witch-Queen of Norwold". Clans of frost giants and flocks of white dragons subdue to Akra's will the Viaskoda and Jääkansa tribes, other Norsenian and Vatski tribes fall under the control of her witches and more and more Akra comes to rule most of Norwold. Only the southern Vatski tribes, the eastern Norsenians tribes and the dragon clans of the Wyrmsteeth Range oppose her rule.

Akra uses her powerful magics to transform Norwold in a land of ice to honour her patron Marzanna; snowstorms and blizzards run for months even in areas of central Norwold, while on mountain peaks glaciers are formed which become the shelter of creatures like yetis, frost giants and white dragons. The presence of such hostile force in Norwold poses a strong limit to Thyatian expansion, which is limited to the coasts. With the passing of time, groups of shamans and priests belonging to the tribes who oppose Akra's rule assemble their force to repel the evil Witch-Queen.

After years of battles at the borders of her domain, a group of three ambitious witches belonging to the entourage of Akra rebel against her and, with the help of priests and warriors coming from the tribes who fight Akra, trap the Witch-Queen and finally kill her; the white dragon Quesa is entrapped in the Ice Cave by a powerful sorcery of the three rebel witches. The domain of Akra crumbles swiftly, the human and humanoid tribes recover their freedom while a counterattack begins against the ice creatures that were followers of Akra. The witches who were part of the Sisterhood are hunted and killed everywhere; some of them survive and take the bush, losing contact with their fellows.

The three witches that helped the fall of Akra go to live on Mount Crystykk, north of the infamous Ice Cave from where the Witch-Queen ruled. They become a sort of protectors of Akra's secrets, which stay closed together with Quesa in the Ice Cave, and ward the human tribes of Norwold against the resurgence of similar threats. After some time, the three takes the role of protector of Norwold and become known ad the "Crones of Crystykk".

The fierce white dragon Quesa is bound to the Ice Cave by the spells of the Crones of Crystykk; with time he manage to force these dweomers so that he can leave for a short time the Ice Cavern to which his soul stay mysteriously linked. In following centuries Quesa builds a small reign of terror around the Ice Cave: the mountain where he now lives becomes known as "Quesa's Massif" and many Viaskoda tribes of the White Banner are subdued by this fierce being, sending him tributes and sacrifices and serving him in the hope he spares them from his rage.



AC 200: Thyatian influence over Ostlander jarls declines and many of them begin to approach Alphatia to seek her protection against the rival empire. Thanks to these developments the Alphatian influence in the Western Sea of Dawn increases, enough to allow to the Alphatians the building of colonies in Alasiya much close to the ones of the rival (AC 250).



AC 200-500: Some dwarven settlers coming from Rockhome explore the mountains of Norwold and discover that they host rich deposits of minerals and metals. Many of them lead there their families and build after some time their own clans, which settle in various points of the mountain ranges of Norwold, mostly in the central part of the Final Range. Usually these dwarves are in good terms with the civilised human population, while they keep at bay the barbarians.



AC 316-328: Civil war breaks out in the Thyatian Empire (AC 313); while generals and politicians fight among themselves for the control of the throne, Alphatia seize the opportunity to launch an offensive against the rival (AC 316-328). In the course of the long war which follows, Thyatis loses its Norwold colonies, sacked and destroyed by the Alphatians or conquered by local barbarians. At the end of the war the Thyatian presence in southern Norwold has disappeared and the Western Sea of Dawn is finally opened to Alphatian penetration.



AC 450-510: Alphatian Emperor Volospin III begins the first attempt at colonizing Norwold after Alphia's fall, five centuries ago; his goal is to build a colony that will provide the mainland of raw materials (precious metals, timber) and, if successful, could eventually function in following decades as a base for the conquest of Norwold and as a pincer to crush the Known World from the north. Taking advantage of the relative calm in relationships with Thyatis, the expedition is prepared with care; it's decided to found an Alphatian bridgehead in the Great Bay, at the mouth of Sabre River. Alphatian planning and the weakness of local clans and tribes favour the success of the enterprise, which in the turn of few years leads to the building of some Alphatian settlements on the south-eastern coasts of the Great Bay and on the Alpha peninsula. The main Alphatian colony is founded at the mouth of the Sabre River and becomes soon a town of good size, provided with magical defences and starting point for imperial forces going to ensure the Sabre's valley.

Wishing to augment the fame and power of his dynasty with this conquest, Volospin III have large sums of imperial money transferred in the new Norwold colony; some ancient ruins dating to the age of Alinor are recovered and converted into treasure deposits.

Alter the consolidation of the coastal domains, a vast military campaign is planned, with the goal of expanding the Alphatian control to the Sabre River's valley. The campaign, entrusted to a skilled general, goes on well, with the conquest of numerous local barbarian outposts and the scattering of hostile tribes. In these clashes the Alphatian estranges the elves of the nearby Foresthomes and most of all their protectors, the Wyrmsteeth dragons, which remember Alinor's attempt of five centuries ago.

At home the opponents of the imperial dynasty don't like her strengthening, mostly when it's discovered that Volospin III has brought part of the imperial treasury in his Norwold fortresses without the permission of the Great Council - a happening which exposes him to charges of theft against the imperial treasury.

While in Alphatia the scandal rages on and any fund dedicated to the continuation of the Norwold campaign is blocked, the barbarian tribes march in a desperate counterattack against the Alphatian army, lacking provisions and scattered in a large area. The imperial armies, abandoned to themselves because of the veto imposed by the Great Council on the campaign's prosecution, are repelled on the banks of the Sabre River where, in a great battle, the Alphatian army is slaughtered and its general himself curses the river's course, where he falls with his magical sword in hand (AC 507). The dragons continue the attack, raiding the Alphatian city at the mouth of the Sabre River and forcing the imperial personnel, the Alphatian troops and the inhabitants to escape from the region (AC 509).

Volospin III manages to persuade the Great Council to send the imperial fleet in Norwold to recover the colony before all funds expended are lost; the great fleet is however intercepted and destroyed by the dragons in the waters of the Great Bay. After this failure, the responsibility of which is charged to the emperor, the Norwold campaign is abandoned and the project to create a new kingdom there swiftly fails. Within half century (AC 510-560) the Alphatian settlements are mostly abandoned, destroyed by the dragons or conquered by the barbarians, so that the Alphatian are even forced to leave there part of the imperial treasury (which, according to the legends, still lays in some abandoned keep of the region).