[Abe Sargent]

The Hollow World:


Here is the Ancient history of the Hollow World:

“BC 10,000: The Brute-Men race is on the decline in the outer world. They are gradually being replaced by hardier, more adaptable races- the Neathar men, dwarves, elves, and halflings. (PWA1012)

BC 6000: The Hollow World is very sparsely populated. Many regions are inhabited by giant reptiles which are now extinct in the Outer World; the only sentient race in the Hollow World is a species of Neanderthal-like near-human. (HW)

BC 5500: Powerful burrowing monsters created by Thanatos infiltrate the Hollow World and begin to corrupt the Brute-Men culture there. (HW)

BC 5300: The Brute-Men tribes begin to fall upon one another in savage, irrational wars. These wars rage, off and on, for three centuries. (HW)

BC 5000: The Immortals destroy the corrupt elements of the Brute-Men culture, and then cast their Spell of Preservation on the Hollow World; now, sentient races placed within the Hollow World will always retain their distinctive characteristics. (HW)

BC 4000: With the situation on the outer world relatively stable, the Immortals confine themselves to placing a few human tribes and a few animal species within the Hollow World; this is a time of comparative peace there. (HW)

BC 3500: A large number of Neathar tribes are placed in the Hollow World so that the original Neathar culture will be preserved. They are placed to the north of the great equatorial mountain range, away from the Brute-Men. They swiftly grow in numbers and spread in all directions through the northern hemisphere. (HW)

BC 3300: Ka now implements Korotiku's ideas for a massive centre of mortal knowledge in the Hollow World. He instructs certain very wise beings of all sentient races to travel to a very secluded mountain valley; there, they are to interact, to build a great library, to accumulate and exchange knowledge. This secret library, protected by Ka all through its history, is to become the Lighthouse. (HW)

BC 3000: The Blackmoor’s spaceship explosion catches the Immortals off-guard; they cannot summon enough power to prevent its most harmful effects. The Blackmoor civilization is eradicated before they can preserve any part of it. The Oltec and Azcan races are threatened with imminent extinction by the changing climate brought about by the Rain of Fire, so large numbers of both tribes are magically whisked to the Hollow World. They are placed in the land to the north of the great equatorial mountain range; the Azcans are located in the forests next to the sea, which they name the Aztlan Ocean. The Oltecs are placed to their southeast, with a great swamp separating them and the Azcans. Both races encounter the numerous Neathar tribes; the Oltecs leave them alone, while the Azcans wage war on the Neathar, always trying to expand their borders. (HW)

BC 3000-2500: Ka and his ally-Immortals must spend hundreds of years and incalculable magical energy to prevent the sudden change in the planet's axis from destroying whole regions of the Hollow World. The Immortals create new, gigantic, fog-clad openings to the outside world at the location of the new poles, and seal up the former (smaller) polar openings. They also work madly to preserve numerous Known World human tribes from extinction; these include some of the Tanagoro tribes. The Tanagoro are placed in the plains south of the great equatorial mountain range, south and west of the Brute-Men; the Tanagoro think of those races as monsters and keep well away from their hills and mountains. (HW)

BC 2410: It is obvious to the Immortals that the southern elves are doomed, but this leaves them with a quandary. They want to preserve that Elvish culture, but not the technologies which nearly destroyed the world. They settle on a compromise: They will magically alter the devices upon which the elves have grown so dependent, so that these devices will operate in only one certain valley in the Hollow World. That way, the dangerous sciences of Blackmoor cannot infect any other part of the Hollow World. Many of the elves of the southern continent are transplanted to the Hollow World. They are placed in a warm, volcanically-heated series of valleys near the southern polar opening, far away from any of the other Hollow World cultures. (HW)

BC 2400: The Immortals are intrigued by the Beastmen. Since they are now beginning to breed in recognizable strains, the original "chaotic" race is threatened with extinction. The Immortals take a few Beastmen tribes, magically restore them to their original chaotic state, and lead them to the Hollow World. They don't magically transport the Beastmen into the Hollow World; they inspire one leader/colonizer to lead followers northward, and those Beastmen eventually wander their way into the Hollow World. They settle in the icy lands near the northern polar opening. (HW)

BC 1800: The dwarves transplanted to the Hollow World, who mostly belong to the Kogolor clans, thrive in their new lands. They have been placed in eastern mountains just north of the great equatorial mountain range, fairly distant from other sentient races; they have occasional contact with the Neathar tribes to the north and west, but are largely left to their own devices. (HW)

BC 1722: The Immortals Odin and Thor have sent whole Antalian tribes into the Hollow World, placing them in icy lands south and east of the Beastmen territories. The Antalians thrive in their new home, happily fighting among themselves, with the Beastmen to the north and with the Neathar tribes to the southwest. (HW)

BC 1650: A surviving clan of Glantrian elves from the outer world finds its way to the Hollow World through thousands of miles of subterranean passages. The tribe emerges in lands thickly occupied by hostile Neathar tribes and dinosaurs; they migrate northward, to lands similar to frozen Glantri, and settle in the mountains south of the Beastmen and west of the Antalians. They call their new land Icevale. (HW)

Atziann, elf-king and sole survivor of his clan, emerges in the Hollow World near the Azcan capital; fascinated by them, and using his magic to move unseen among them, he stays with the Azcans for several years before embarking on his own path to Immortality. (HW)

BC 1600: The Immortal Tarastia preserves several clans of the self-destructing Jennite culture, choosing to save only the more traditional horde. She transfers them to the Hollow World, placing them in the southern hemisphere, south of the forests and plains occupied by the Tanagoro tribesmen. The Jennites begin a fierce rivalry and occasional warfare with the Tanagoro men. (HW)

BC 1500: The elf-king Atziann, now calling himself Atzanteotl, achieves Immortality in the Sphere of Entropy and begins his plans to corrupt the Shadow Elves and the Azcan race. He begins whispering to selected Shadow Elves and Azcan rulers of the power and glory he can bring them, and lures them away from their faiths. Increasing numbers of Shadow Elves (especially those of the Schattenalfen clan) turn from the worship of Rafiel to that of Atzanteotl; likewise, many Azcans turn away from Otzitiotl and Kalaktatla. (HW- note that Shadow Elves didn't begin to worship Rafiel until finding the Refuge of Stone in 1104 BC- see GAZ13)

BC 1494: A terrible plague strikes Chitlacan, killing almost two-thirds of its population. Atruatzin, himself a survivor of the disease, is driven from Chitlacan by his rivals, who are secretly supported by the Immortal Atzanteotl. Atruatzin and his loyal followers retire to the mountain fortress of Quauhnahuac. (HWR1)

BC 1484: Driven by the whispers of Atzanteotl, and his own fears that Atruatzin may reclaim the throne, the treacherous new Azcan emperor leads a massive assault on Quauhnahuac. Everyone found in the fortress is slain or sacrificed, but of Atruatzin there is no trace. The priests curse the land on which Quauhnahuac is built, and sow salt among the ruins. (HWR1)

BC 1470: The Chochomecs (an Azcan tribe) desert Atacalpa, migrating to Oltec lands of the east. (HWR1)

BC 1468: Atruatzin and his followers find a resting place, where they build a temple to the old Immortals. They name it Mictlan, after the legendary land of the dead. (HWR1)

BC 1420: The underground elven wanderers stumble upon Mictlan, and overthrow the humans. Those elves who have been seduced by Atzanteotl declare that the temple is sacred to him, and he has given them victory over their enemies and a place to call home. These elves become the Schattenalfen. Most of the elves are uneasy about this alien Immortal, but they are weary, and so they settle and build the city of Aengmor. Atruatzin escapes alone. (HWR1)

BC 1400: A colonizing party of Shadow Elves, mostly Schattenalf followers of Atzanteotl, retraces the path of that earlier, lost expedition, and finds the Hollow World. They emerge just north of the great equatorial mountain range, right in the middle of the Kogolor dwarf territory. They immediately begin a war against the dwarves, whose lands they want. The Immortal Kagyar causes Denwarf, the former leader of the Outer World's dwarves, to help the Kogolors against the Shadow Elves. (HW)

BC 1395: The Schattenalfen are badly beaten by the Kogolor dwarves and must break off the war. They continue travelling west, to an area not infested with dwarves, and settle there. But due north of their new lands are the Azcans, whose culture and architecture are disturbingly and insultingly like theirs (a result of Atzanteotl's guidance of the Schattenalf culture, though they don't know this); the Schattenalfen hate these people, whom they see as a mockery of their culture, and begin an ages-long war with the Azcans. (HW)

Kagyar places Denwarf in a state of suspended animation, transferring him to a cavern deep beneath the Dengar caverns of Rockhome. (HW)

BC 1290: Atzanteotl surrounds Aengmor with lava, slaying many underground elves. The survivors flee into the deepest tunnels and recesses below the Broken Lands. (GAZ13)

BC 1000: In the wake of the humanoid invasions, the Immortals are quite busy selecting endangered cultures for preservation in the Hollow World. The Traldar and many other cultures are preserved in this fashion. The Traldar are placed on the coast of the Aztlan Ocean right where the great equatorial mountains reach the ocean; they call that body of water the Atlass Ocean. They're south of the Schattenalfen and north of virgin territories. They quickly spread out to inhabit all their mountainous seacoast lands. Not co-operative enough among themselves to form an empire, they occupy themselves with pirate raids into Azcan territories. (HW)

Many Makai are transplanted to the Hollow World to preserve their culture in the face of Nithian assimilation. Placed in an archipelago south of the equator, they resume their carefree, peaceful existence. (HW)

Meanwhile, an expedition of Shadow Elves leaves the City of Stars in an effort to find the path to the surface world. Instead, they find their way to the Hollow World, where they are fatally poisoned by the rays of the eternal sun. Some of them make it back to the City of Stars with news of their voyage, but all soon perish. (HW)

BC 900: Atruatzin visits Quauhnahuac. (HWR1)

BC 896: First Shadow Elf exploration to the surface world ends in disaster with few survivors. They find only a fiery, deadly, red sun. (GAZ13- note similarity to BC 1000 entry above)

BC 795: Atruatzin completes the Path of the Polymath and achieves Immortality; he joins the Sphere of Matter. (HWR1)

BC 500: The Immortals gather up great numbers of Nithians, those untouched by the evil of Thanatos and Ranivorus, and transplant them to the banks of a great river similar to the River Nithia in the Hollow World. They swiftly rebuild their civilization. They are near only to the Tanagoro warriors and Jennite riders to the west; they begin on-again, off-again wars against the Tanagoro and Jennites to seize their fertile plains and acquire slaves. (HW)

With the destruction of the Nithians, the Immortal Pflarr, insulted by the Nithians' betrayal, turns his back on the outer world. He turns his attention to the Hollow World Nithians, and sets up a colony of Hutaaka in a sheltered valley of the Hollow World- west of the Brute-Men, north of the Nithians. (HW)

The Immortals also cure and transport remnants of the Malpheggi lizard men race to the Hollow World, placing them in the great swamp between the Azcans and the Oltecs. Both the Azcans and the Schattenalfen find mercenary allies among the Malpheggi. (HW)

Kepher becomes the first Pharaoh of Nithia in the Hollow World. (HWR2)

BC 492: The Immortal Karaash takes pity on a band of particularly valiant orc-warriors led by their chieftain, Krugel. Trapped by dwarves during their assault on Rockhome, surrounded in the Sardal Pass, and in imminent danger of being wiped out, they demonstrate ferocity and gallantry unusual in orc-warriors. Karaash transports them to the Hollow World, to the arid plains north of the Kogolor dwarves. (HW)

BC 450: Krugel, leader of the Hollow World orcs, dies. In his lifetime, he has transformed a couple of hundred followers into a well-trained, well-motivated, well-supplied horde of conquest minded plains riders, who now take his name to honour him. They will be called the Krugel Horde. They continue to attack and sack communities of the Neathar to the west and the Kogolor dwarves to the south. They do not want to conquer lands; they want loot. (HW)

BC 322: A Schattenalfen attack annihilates the southern Azcan city of Axateotl for the seventh, and last, time. (HWR1)

BC 250: The Immortal Korotiku, charmed by the cleverness and ruthlessness of the pirates of Thyatis, transplants several communities of them to the Hollow World, establishing them in equatorial islands not far from the territories settled by the Traldar. He has conceived an interesting experiment for the Hollow World. He's decided that it would be interesting to populate one area of the Hollow World seas with pirates, creating a new culture which is exclusively piratical. (HW)

BC 100: The newly-transplanted Milenians begin to reforge their civilisation along its original lines. Placed on the virgin seacoast far south of the Traldar lands, they have the warlike Tanagoro and Jennite races to their east. They build their empire on the coast and in lands seized from the Tanagoro and Jennites, who become their recurring enemies. (HW)

AC 50: An Alphatian wizard, by magical experimentation with wood-imps and pixies, creates a small humanoid race he calls the Kubitts. They average a foot and a half tall; he gives them their name from an old Milenian word for the measurement a foot and a half. He makes them independent and strong, but when he tries to force them to perform deeds against their wishes, they rise up against him and kill him. The Immortal Vanya, smitten by these diminutive warriors, transplants the entire race to a hidden jungle valley in the Hollow World. (HW)”

So that’s ancient history.

Here’s the key points to take away. The Hollow World is a place where some Immortals (Ka, Vanya, Thanatos, etc) put their favorite cultures, people, monsters ,and more to store them away and keep them as is. They have protected the area with a few things, and the key to that is the Spell of Preservation, which keeps everything fresh from their own nature. There are immortal spells about that prevent anyone from teleporting or magic’ing from the outer world to the hollow world, or vice versa. In fact, you can’t even circumvent your way around that by moving through planes. If you enter another plan from the Hollow World, you cannot appear in the outer one later, and vice versa, you’ll always come back to the one you left. You have to get there the old fashioned route of travel.

In fact, the Immortals don’t even know how it got here they just came across the Hollow World and began to use it - Ka the Preserver is the major driving force behind HW. Ka was originally a reptile who achieved immortality and now is a major player. There is a great World-Shield that keeps detection magic, transportation magic, and such from one side to the other.

The World Shield and Spells of Preservation make magic harder to learn and cast here, people are a bit xenophobic and prefer their own cultures and people to others. Spells that open a gate to any other plane can only be used to exit the Hollow World, they cannot be used to summon others - like elementals or invisible stalkers and such. They aren’t going to be down there unless they took the long way. They could be banished back home though.

Almost 900 years have passed since the end of that timeline.

There is one great ball of red light in the middle of the “sky” that is constantly on all day long. There are islands in the sky as well, and they are pretty big. As those islands pass overhead, shadows move and change - and locals tell time by those shifting shadows and where the islands are in the orbit around the “Sun”

So there are flying continents in the sky, and then ground-based civilizations and such as well.

There is no horizon. You can see land curving up and all around as far as your eye can make out. While north and south are still relatively up and down, east and west are reversed here. Left is east, and right west.

There are two major entrance at exists at the poles, and Alzar is fairly near the north pole here in Norwold. So he’s going to head over, and then begin to head down. Much like he did when he plunged into the Underdark, he’s taking as much of what he needs ahead of time, since he can’t quickly teleport back if he needs a different set of spells or a different set of magical items.