The Dragonborn Empire

The metallic dragons were victorious, but their numbers had been greatly reduced. The Dragonborn stepped in to fill the void, claiming the right to rule by their descent from Bahamut. Over time, centralized bureaucratic rule from Bahamut's domain came do displace the feudal rule of the Dragons. As the dragons began to slip from their positions of authority, many of them were consumed by jealousy. Fallen from their positions of power, their scales began to turn. Their numbers being small, they had no choice but to go mostly into hiding. The Dragonborn rulers, fearful of the return of chromatic, adopted a law that all chromatic dragons should be slain wherever they are found. Dragons being hoarders of treasure, this law was enthusiastically followed by specialists in the trade. Their traditions continue to this day, with dragonslaying being considered the epitome of heroic acts among all who live in the areas once ruled over by the Dragonborn.

The Dragonborn cleared away the feudal barriers to trade that existed under the old Dragon Empire, and industry began in earnest, the peoples of various areas specializing in various trades. It is during this time that living standards reached the highest mankind has yet known. There were great heroes in many academic and industrial disciplines in this area. There was a great judge and stateswoman, Erathis, whose efforts to reform the Empires law codes and extend their application into newly opened areas in the Blasted Lands (which was largely ungoverned during this age) were legendary. There was Ioun, who founded the first academy of magic, beginning the rise of wizards as an organized force within the Empire. There were many legendary athletes and warriors, the most enduring name having been that of Kord. There were others, as well. It is said that the greatest of this age ascended into the ranks of the Gods, and are today worshiped as such.

It is also during this age that men first began calling upon the gods in a formal fashion, the gods having fully withdrawn from The World, but still seeking to influence it through their followers, and their gifts of power. The various temples, magic school, and merchant houses vied for power within the empire. The more powerful these new forces became, the more difficult it became for the Dragonborn to maintain their positions.

The Tieflings

Even as the Dragonborn Empire was busy consolidating itself, the peoples of the blasted lands were busy fighting over the remains. One powerful family in particular, descendants of a noble family that flourished under Tiamat, sought new help from the Devils of the Nine Hells, and got it; this was the beginning of the Tieflings. Their empire spread across the formerly Blasted Lands, at the same time the people of the Dragonborn Empire were just starting to develop the lands at the edge of their empire. The Dragonborn pushed inward, the Tieflings pushed outward, and when they encountered each other, neither was accustomed to meeting a neighbor, let alone an enemy, that was their equal. The two fell into war cheerfully, each assuming victory would be easy.

Arkhosia (the name of Bahamut's royal domain which had been extended over the entire empire) clearly had far more raw power at its disposal, but that power had become fragmented over its nearly thousand year existence. The loyalty of the Colleges and the Temples could not be counted on, and the Dragonborn were forced to expend their capacity for force cautiously. Bael Turath, weaker in many ways, managed to organize the warriors of the Blasted Lands into a fairly united fighting force, under the promise of booty from the much wealthier Dragonborn Empire.

In the balance, they came out fairly equal, and as each threw more and more resources into the conflict, seeking to overpower the other, their power bases were neglected. With so many of Arkhosia's loyal warriors abroad, and the Colleges, Temples, and Houses jealously eyeing each other, the collapse of civil order seems almost inevitable. As for Bael Turath, they could only take the field for so long until their neighbors and vassals exploited their absence. In the end, the protracted warfare ruined both societies, and civilization collapsed into a state it hadn't known since the Primordial Age.

The Dragon Empire

I am envisioning an ancient, global empire, ruled by the Platinum Dragon, Bahamut. After the wars between the Gods and the Primordials, Bahamut and Tiamat retreated briefly to their own realms to lick their wounds, then returned to The World intending to claim temporal dominion over it and its people.

The Dragon Age

This inagurated the Dragon Age, during which the humans of the world were ruled over by various dragons. At first, various regions were carved up into feudal domains, each ruled by a particular dragon, with all owing fealty to either Bahamut or Tiamat. Those who owed fealty to Bahamut promoted virtues such as honor, loyalty, thrift, compassion, courage, and justice in an attempt to strengthen the peoples over whom they ruled in the long term. Those who owed fealty to Tiamat focused more on gathering the resources to fight the final battle more quickly, creating avaricious and often overtly violent regimes, with the most prosperous among their human followers being those most capable of imitating the ways of their overlords.

Most of the dragons simply ruled their domains using their overwhelming personal power. Bahamut's royal domain was a different matter. He adopted a policy of mixing a part of his own essence into that of his strongest human servents, thus creating the Dragonborn, who served as soldiers and enforcers in his own domain.

There were six basic varieties of dragons, each corrosponding to a given metal: gold, silver, bronze, copper, iron, and mithril dragons. Those that served Bahamut were blessed with protection from scalar corrosion, while those that served Tiamat were allowed to corrode to duller colors. The benevolently sociable silver dragons would corrode into the most antisocial of dragons: the black dragons. The inquisitive and adventurous bronze dragons would corrode into the piratical blue dragons. The playful but restrained mischief of the copper dragon became the green dragon's cat-like delight in stalking and attacking (and then playing with if the creature is weak enough to risk it) the unwary. The militant iron dragons would corrode into the powerfully violent red dragons. The mithril dragons, most difficult to corrupt, became the nearly mindless white dragons. Gold dragons were seemingly incorruptable, but served Bahamut in a more direct capacity.

For a time, the more aggressive policies of the forces of Tiamat resulted in Bahamut's forces suffering losses; however, the world was simply too large for short term tactics of that nature to win in the end. The more economically productive domains of Bahamut's vassals were coming into their own just as Tiamat's vassals' domains were falling apart. It was at this point that the Dragon Wars began in earnest.

The Dragon Wars

Coordinated attacks by Bahamut's dragons eliminated Tiamat's dragons in droves. Dragonborn soldiers occupied and administered captured territories, abolishing the human regimes in place and freeing masses of slaves and serfs, who flourished under the mostly benevolent administration of the Dragonborn. The Bahamutic advancement rolled back Tiamatic resistance, until Bahamut himself faced Tiamat at Mount Drakkenkreig.

The battle that ensued devastated half the world, as deific energies were released in the torrential conflict. It didn't last long, however, as Bahamut realized that further battle would ruin the lives of more of his subjects, while Tiamat feared the conflict would attract the attention of the Primordials, who she could not hold off in her weakened condition. Both took their battle to the Astral Sea, while their dragons continued their conflict in the world. The battle ended conclusively in the world, with the Metallic Dragons driving the few surviving chromatic dragons into hiding in the blasted lands. Bahamut and Tiamat's battle was less conclusive, with each of them ending the battle exhausted and wounded, mutually agreeing never to return to the world to rule directly again.


Non-Humans During the Dragon Age

During the Dragon Age, dwarves, elves and eladrin, and halflings, being under the direct protection of other gods (Moradin, Correlon Larethian, and Avandhra) enjoyed a considerably greater autonomy, particularly in the domains ruled by the followers of Bahamut. It is during this age that they fully developed their well known craft specialties, prospering in certain roles within the Dragon Empires. If anything, dwarven and elvish craft have suffered since the fall of the Empire, as they have been required to develop other skills for which they once relied upon humans for, and must now draw upon in their own communities.

Gnomes had not yet migrated in any appreciable numbers from the Feywild, and goliaths and shifters were mostly unknown barbarians living in cooler areas beyond the reach of the empires. Orcs and Goblins having not yet arrived in the world, half-orcs did not yet exist. Bal Turath was not yet founded, thus there were no Tieflings.

Monster Manuel List by Origin

I'm presently trying to outline a history of my fantasy world. I've got the basic idea that there was an empire, it was good, then it fell, then its now, but that's just the basics. How does magic fit in? How do the planes fit in? How do the monsters fit in? I've already settled on the idea that humans are the only clear natives of "the world," with all the races having come from somewhere else long ago...

Save Now

but where do they all come from? And what effect does this have on the otherwise human history of this world?

The Monster Manual already has them listed alphabetically and by level. Here is a list of everything in the monster manuel, with my speculations as to their original homes before the formation of the world.

The World

• Basilisk - Possibly Elemental Chaos
  
• Battlebriar
• Bear
• Beetle - Possibly Elemental Chaos
• Behemoth - Possibly Elemental Chaos
• Boar, Dire
• Bodak - Created from humanoids in this world
• Boneclaw - Created by ritual in this world
• Cambion - Part comes from the Nine Hells, part from The World
• Carrion Crawler - probably the result of influence from the Far Realms, but grown here
• Chimera - This has got to be the result of bizarre genetic experimentation
• Colossus
• Death Knight
• Dracolich
• Dragon - The epitome of the creations of this world, their natures are rooted in the Elemental Chaos, but their minds reflect the Astral Sea
• Dragonborn - I speculate that they are an ancient, stable line of half-dragons, an ancient branch of humankind
• Dragonspawn
• Drake
• Eidolon
• Ettercap
• Flameskull
• Foulspawn - Far Realm inspired, locally grown
• Gnolls - I have an idea that they were created as shock troops in some ancient conflict by an evil mage, probably named Yeenoghu, and continue to revere him as a god to this day, having long outlived their usefulness.
• Golem
• Guardian
• Halfling - One day, Melora and Sehanine decided to create an "improved" version of the human race, and halflings were the result. The idea was to moderate the relentless urbanization occuring at the time.
• Helmed Horror - Materials produced locally, motive power brought from Elemental Chaos.
• Homunculus
• Hook Horror - I feel like something like this has to have come from somewhere else, but where is unknown.
  
• Horse - I'm tempted to say the Celestial Charger is actually the original version, and the regular horse is adapted to this world.
• Hound - A natural beast that found a place everywhere within one step from the world
• Human - The ideal I base this on is that humans are the only beings native to this world, though in many cases, they are newer to this world than the beings that came when the world was first forming.
• Hyena
  
• Kobold - Created long ago as servants to a particularly powerful dragon
• Kruthik
• Larva Mage
• Lich
• Lizardfolk
  
• Lycanthrope - I'm thinking of going with an Elder Scrolls type of lore here, making various kinds of lycanthropes the result of (long ago) primordial or demonic perversions of existing beings.
• Minotaur - "Animal people" in general are the result of either blessings or curses by gods, genetic experimentation, or perhaps they are both the same thing, lost to the mists of time. Ooh! Shades of Sitchin. The animal people were experiments from before Man was made? Man shares the blood of the Gods?
• Mummy - Are you my mummy?
• Panther - Not really sure where they're originally from, but they seem to inhabit both the Feywild and the Shadowfell
• Rakshasa - Another animal being, this time with explicitly stated potential demonic heritage. Starting to think all the animal creatures were created as servents to Primordials and Demons (except Kobods, which served a certain dragon king), while others were created by the gods.
• Rat
• Sahuagin
• Shambling Mound
• Shifter - Proof that lycanthropes are humankin, as they can breed with humans...
• Skeleton
• Skull Lord
• Snake - Not sure, but there are also EC and Shadowfell equivalents. May be originally from Tytherion, though.
• Spider
• Tiefling
• Troglodite
• Vampire - Orcus' equivalent of a lycanthrope?
• Vine Horror
• Wight
• Wolf
• Worg
• Zombie
  

The Feywild

• Banshrae
• Boar, Thunderfury
• Choker
• Crocodile - These seem natural enough, but there's a fey equivalent
• Cyclops
• Displacer Beast
• Drow
• Dryad
• Eladrin
• Gnome
• Hag
• Harpy
• Lamia
• Owlbear
• Quickling
• Satyr
• Treant
• Unicorn

The Shadowfell

• Bat, Shadowhunter
• Berbalang - Nothing in the description specifies this, but given their diet of the memories of deceased sentient beings and their association with undead, this seems right
• Dark One
• Devourer
• Ghost
• Nightmare
• Nightwalker
• Shadar-Kai
• Sorrowsworn
• Specter
• Umber Hulk - There's a shadow equivalent, and they don't "feel" natural.
• Wraith
• Wyvern - Perhaps originally a Shadowfell reflection of local drakes?
• 
  

The Astral Sea

• Angels
• Marut
• Naga - Primordial Nagas don't seem to fit in this category. I shall have to give these more thought
• Sphinx
  

Hestavor

Tytherion

• Yuan Ti - These were definitely descended from the "people" of Tytherion
  

Celesta

Chernogger

• Goblin - I'm thinking that Goblins originated as a war party sent from Chernogger by Bane to conquer this world. They were, to a large measure, successful. The hobgoblins that came created goblins and bugears to serve as scouts and shock troops, respectively. Their time in this world and their subsequent separation from their kin in Chernogger has reduced them significantly from what they once were.
• Ogre
  
• Oni
  
• Orc - Ogres, Onis, and Orcs were troops sent from the field outside Chernogger to counter Bane's move on this world. The Goblin Age was a truly dark time, with everybody either ruled by hobgoblins or terrorized by orcs and ogres. (Note: what's their relation to the giants?
  
• 
  

Nine Hells

• Devil
• Scorpion
  

The Elemental Chaos

• Archons
• Azers - Not sure if they were a part of the world's creation enslaved by the giants during its creation, or if they originate in the Elemental Chaos
• Bat, Fire
• Bulette - Natural beasts, but they feel like something originally from the Elemental Chaos
• Dwarf - I've decided that the ancient ancestors of the Dwarves came from the Elemental Chaos, and were slaves of Giants and Titans. Those giants and titans that came to fashion The World brought Dwarf slaves with them, and it was these that rebelled and became the Dwarves we know today. Moradin may not have been the creator of all dwarves, but rather the god that nudged the dwarves of this world to freedom. He didn't create the Azers or the Galeb Duhr, but he did "create" the dwarves.
  
• Efreet
• Elemental
• Ettin
• Fomorian
• Galeb Duhr
• Gargoyle
• Giant
• Gorgon
• Griffon
• Hydra
• Magma Beast
• Manticore - Not explicitly stated, but these beings seem like they'd be more at home in the Elemental Chaos than the world... though they could also be weapon beasts bred by some long lost empire.
  
• Purple Worm - This has got to be originally from the EC.
• Roc
• Roper - Wasn't expecting it, but they're clearly marked "elemental"
• Salamander
• Slaad
• Stirge - Basically giant mosquitos, they are merely parasitic on their home plane.
• Troll - These guys seem adapted for a place that is extremely dangerous and constantly changing... plus they speak giant.
  

The Cosmic War - Weapons created during the wars between the Gods and the Primordials

• Abominations

The Abyss

• Demon
• Ghoul
• Orcus
• Rot Harbinger
  

The Far Realms - Basically interstellar space

• Aboleths
• Balhannoth
• Beholder
• Chuul
• Destrachan
• Gibbering Beast
• Githyanki
• Githzerai
• Grell
• Grick
• Kuo-Toa - The madness of Kuo-Toa is their reaction to geometry and physical laws that differs subtly from their homeworld.
• Medusa - Not explicitly stated, but they feel like a powerful alien race that might be found in small number attempting to build power on any world.
• Mind Flayer - Duh. Once had an empire spanning the stars, before the Gods rose.
• Swordwing
• Warforged - Not precisely Far Realm, but thew few that exist in this world (if any) come from another world entirely, having been brought across the Farm Realm for one reason or another.
  

Unsorted

• Doppelganger - I really don't know where a creature like this can be considered to have come from. They could be a changed line of human. They could have originated as tricksters from the Feywild. They could be from anywhere, and seem to have no natural existence outside their insinuation into other societies.
• Grimlock - Not sure whether these are another being from the Far Realm, perhaps from another world altogether (like the Gith) that hitched a ride here, or a variety of human that was long trapped in the Underdark, or perhaps even something from the Feywild. May not matter.
• Ooze - No idea.
  
• Otyugh - Tentacled horror from the far room? Or land squid? Or perhaps both?
• 
  

The Night Sky, the Cosmic Structure

This world is yet unnamed, but I've got some ideas for the cosmic structure... which ultimately determines the look of the night sky.

Look into the night sky of this unnamed world, and the first thing you'll notice is its moon, which is colored differently depending upon the season... an unusual sight to be sure. This is not a thing that actually exists, but rather a reflection of the two other facets of the world: the bright side reflecting the Feywild, and alternating between a pale green, a bright green, fading through orange, and then sparkling white... the four seasons experienced by both the unnamed world and its Feywild. The dark side of the moon reflects the Shadowfell, the destination of the departed. The moon has no echo in the Shadowfell (or, if it does, its role is undefined aside from an eerie light that deepens the shadows), but it exists in the Feywild as well. Being within reach of ordinary flying, it is the location of Avandor

Look around, and at either dawn or dusk, among the stars, you can see a a bright white crescent of light. This is Hestavor-Tytherion, a body tidally locked with the sun, and hosting the Bright City of Hestavor on the light side, and the Endless Night Tytherion on the opposite. It always follows the sun, hiding behind it when Hestavor is fully displayed, and hidden by the suns glare when Tytherion is fully displayed, but the influence of each coincides with the seasons. Hestavor is behind the sun at the height of summer; Tytherion in front in the depth of winter. The days grow longer as Hestavor waxes, and shorter as it wanes.

All the other planets might be found anywhere on the ecliptic, with occasional retrograde motion.

A bluish sphere of light marks Celesta, the Heavenly Mountain. The efforts of the good and the just, and the artisans that support them, seem to receive a boost when Celesta is highest and brightest in the midnight sky.

A darker, rust red sphere marks Chernogger, the Iron Fortress. An increase in the level of warfare in the world seems to occur as Chernogger reaches its highest and brightest in the midnight sky.

And faintest, seeming to give off its own hot, malevolent red light, is the Nine Hells. The summoning of the dark inhabitants of that plane seems to be easier when it is brightest and highest in the midnight sky, thus the corruption of mortals.

Conjunctions are important events. When more than one of the planes line up, things get interesting. The battle of good and evil is especially intense when Celesta and Hell are in line, and especially violent if Chernogger is also in line. When Celesta is highest in the dead of winter (ie. when Tytherion faces), good and evil dragons tend to make deliberete war upon one another. Warfare between mortals is intense whenever Chenogger is in alignment, but if it shares space with Celesta, the good tend to see victory; if the Nine Hells share it instead, the evil tend to see victory. Woe to mortals should this occur when Tytherion faces the world... and blood runs in the depth of winter!

Basically, what I've done here is taken the planes of the Astral Sea, included the main world as an astral plane, and made them into a heliocentric solar system. The plane(t)s, from inner to outer, are Hestavor-Tytherion, The World, Celesta, Chernogger, and the Nine Hells. The Moon represents (though it isn't actually) the reflections of the World: The Feywild and The Shadowfell. When they pass nearest to The World, the influence of their inhabitants intensifies.

One could theoretically assign values to the orbital periods of the planets, and use the turning of the system as an idea generator, determing "what's the big metaplot this year? Demons? Dragons? Or a little of both?" ;-)

The planes are still infinite in nature. The three dimensions of the world are "curved". If one flies high enough, one finds himself traveling toward the world, at another part. It "feels" as if the flyer has traveled in a straight line, but straight up and straight down both lead to The World. It is the same if one diggs deep enough: the hole one emerges from is another part of The World (yes, it is theoretically possible to "dig a hole to China"). Travel far enough to one side or the other, and you eventually end up back where you started.

Planeshifting magic is needed to escape the confines of The World (its a bit like escape velocity, but the mechanism is more like a quantum jump simply a question of momentum). Shift up, and you reach the Astral Sea (which is actually a flat, glasslike "sea" in which the planes float about in their circular orbit). Shift down, and you reach the Elemental Chaos. Shift laterally, and you reach either the Feywild or the Shadowfell.