Continuity/Viamontian History

The Viamontians were not originally one of the playable human heritage groups. As such, they had an amount of back-story similar to that of the Rouleans, Milantans, and so on. When Throne of Destiny introduced them as a playable heritage group, their history, and the history of Ispar in general, became much more fleshed out. This article is an attempt to lay out the Viamontian back-story at various stages of the game and, if possible, look into any continuity errors that may arise.

Asheron's Call

This is the period of time from beta leading up to Dark Majesty. We had sparse information on the Viamontians (often called Viamonters during this time) during the early period of the game. By piecing together information from several sources, we are able to create the following timeline:

Roulean Year	Event
787 RC	Reign of Pwyll II begins in Aluvia. It lasts 17 years.
804 RC	Viamont invades Aluvia, reign of Pwyll II ends. Reign of Alfric begins in Aluvia. Alfric is the Viamontian invader that is ruling Aluvia. His reign lasts 20 years.
824 RC	Reign of Alfric ends. Reign of Theolaud, son of Alfric, begins. It lasts 30 years.
854 RC	Reign of Theolaud Ends. It is said that during this time, King Elous VIII rules in Viamont, and that Theolaud was killed during a duel with the Viamontian king. Reign of Alfrega, daughter of Theolaud, begins. It lasts 14 years.
868 RC	Reign of Alfrega ends. Reign of Osric, son of Alfrega, begins. It lasts 31 years. Osric is Viamontian, but begins to mend the Aluvian culture.
899 RC	Reign of Osric ends. Reign of Pwyll III, son of Osric, begins. It lasts 25 years. Pwyll III is killed by an ambassador from Viamont on what is described as the eve of war between the two nations, and it is said that knights and commoners alike fell upon their enemies and destroyed them.
924 RC	Reign of Pwyll III ends. Reign of Cellric II begins. It is not known how long it lasts.
Around 1003 RC	The Century of Storms begins. During this time of chaos in Gharu'n no fewer than twenty-five different would-be Maliks and Malikas will rule the Gharu'ndim people.
Prior to 1103 RC	During Century of Storms, Viamont sends armies to Gharu'n to invade. The Viamontians install Zahir ibn Ma'mun as a puppet leader, while they rule Gharu'n from afar. During his rule, Zahir ibn Ma'mun murdered all his rivals, except for a young lord named Jawhar al-Shamshir. Seeing what has become of his homeland, Jawhar travels the desert in secret, banding together the people. Jawhar defeats Zahir ibn Ma'mun and drives the Viamontians from the shores of Gharu'n. He becomes the new Malik, and returns Gharu'n to the glory it had known in Yasif's time.
1311 RC	After approximately 400 years pass since the reign of Cellric II (387, by these dates), the reign of Cedraic III begins. It is listed as having an unknown end date, but lasting 10 years, implying it is the current reign.
1321 RC Present Day	"Good King Cedraic" reigns in Aluvia during this time. Some say it is just a matter of time before war between Aluvia and Viamont returns. Malika Qadira bint Balj reigns in Aluvia during this time. It is a peaceful time, but there is always the threat of war, both from Viamont and Milantos.

AC:DM

With the release of Asheron's Call: Dark Majesty, players were given the AC:DM CD Lore. Among these files was the Ages of the Empyrean, which outlined the history of Auberean. It also contains a few valuable pieces of information regarding the Roulean Calendar:

Portal Year	Roulean Year	Event
-15 PY*	1261 RC	Humans arrive on Dereth.
0 PY	1276 RC	Olthoi Queen is defeated.
12 PY	1284 RC	Marae Lassel opens.
*Stated in numerous other sources.

More information on the issues this creates with continuity can be found at Continuity: Timeline of Ispar - AC:DM. As it relates to our history of Viamont, though, it doesn't change much except for the "present day" dates of 1311/1321 are invalidated, since those years have yet to pass on Ispar.

The History of Auberean

In early 2003, Turbine released another timeline called The History of Auberean. We are presented new information:

Portal Year	Roulean Year	Event
-874 PY	???	The Yalaini open the first portal to Ispar. It goes to Aluvian lands.
-869 PY	704 RC	Viamont invades Aluvia. The reign of Pwyll II ends and the reign of Alfric begins.
-779 PY	765 RC	Reign of Alfrega begins.
-779 PY	765 RC	Harlune stays behind on Ispar during an expedition.
-758 PY	779 RC	Reign of Osric begins.
-15 PY	???	The portals created by the Sundering begin to appear on Ispar in the Aluvian lands, and the first humans begin to arrive on Dereth.

Looking at this new information, we can see that the dates created by Stormwaltz in the beta regarding Aluvian history have been retconned. Aluvia was no longer invaded in 804 RC, it was invaded in 704 RC, for example.

This may seem like a loss, however, using our conclusions from Continuity: Aluvian History, we can fill in the retconned dates from the Aluvian Rulers and Reign of Alfrega.

And in our conclusions from Continuity: Roulean Calendar and Portal Years, where we discovered the formulae to convert dates between the Roulean calendar and the Portal Year calendar, we can calculate a few more dates:

Portal Year	Roulean Year	Event
-896 PY	687 RC	Reign of Pwyll II begins. It lasts 17 years.
-869 PY	704 RC	Viamont invades Aluvia, reign of Pwyll II ends. Reign of Alfric begins in Aluvia. Alfric is the Viamontian invader that is ruling Aluvia. It lasts 31 years.
-824 PY	735 RC	Reign of Alfric ends. Reign of Theolaud, son of Alfric, begins. It lasts 30 years.
-779 PY	765 RC	Reign of Theolaud Ends. It is said that during this time, King Elous VIII rules in Viamont, and that Theolaud was killed during a duel with the Viamontian king. Reign of Alfrega, daughter of Theolaud, begins. It lasts 14 years.
-758 PY	779 RC	Reign of Alfrega ends. Reign of Osric, son of Alfrega, begins. It lasts 31 years. Osric is Viamontian, but begins to mend the Aluvian culture.
-711 PY	810 RC	Reign on Osric ends. Reign of Pwyll III, son of Osric, begins. It lasts 25 years. Pwyll III is killed by an ambassador from Viamont on what is described as the eve of war between the two nations, and it is said that knights and commoners alike fell upon their enemies and destroyed them.
-674 PY	835 RC	Reign of Pwyll III ends. Reign of Cellric II begins. It is not known how long it lasts.
-6 PY	1280 RC	After approximately 400 years pass since the reign of Cellric II (445, by these dates), the reign of Cedraic III begins. It is listed as having an unknown end date, but lasting 10 years, implying it is the current reign.
10 PY	1290 RC	"Good King Cedraic" reigns in Aluvia during this time. Some say it is just a matter of time before war between Aluvia and Viamont returns. Malika Qadira bint Balj reigns in Aluvia during this time. It is a peaceful time, but there is always the threat of war, both from Viamont and Milantos.

AC:ToD

Throne of Destiny expanded our knowledge of Viamontian history in two ways:

• The Origins and Current Disposition of Viamont lays out much of the history of the nation.
• Backstory of the Viamontians on Dereth changed the recent history of Ispar to account for the recent Viamontian military campaigns.

History of Viamont

Using information from The Origins and Current Disposition of Viamont, along with some of the previously established information, we get a pretty good layout of events. If we make a few assumptions based on the available information, we can create a more complete timeline.

The Origins article states that King Elous VI launched the attack against Aluvia and defeated them at Ayrifal. We know that this event occurred in 704 RC. This invasion happened shortly after Elous VI began his reign, after he had established a national military. With that in mind, we place the beginning of the reign of Elous VI at around 700 RC.

Next, immediately preceding the death of Elous V and reign of Elous VI, there was a 30 year period of peace. This puts the beginning of the period of peace at around 670 RC. The period of peace began after Elous V finally ended the Viamontian civil war, which lasted for nearly 100 years. This puts the beginning of the civil war at around 570 RC.

The civil war began when Elous II died in personal combat against the leaders if the resisting tribes. We may assume that, when Elous II died, Elous III was old enough to rule - perhaps 20 to 40. This would place the approximate birth of Elous III between 530 RC and 550 RC. If we also assume that Elous II was of a reasonable age to have a child, say, 20 to 30, this would put Elous II's birth at between 500 RC and 530 RC, making his age at death anywhere between 40 and 70. Considering that he died in personal combat, at age closer to 40 would make more sense.

Roulean Year	Event
Unknown	Long after the Rouleans had brought imperial order to the lands around the Ironsea, the tribes that would become the nations of Viamont and Aluvia remained chaotic and disorganized. The Viamontian peninsula was home to a collection of independent tribes.
Several hundred years ago	The Corcosi tribe comes to prominence when a stranger named Karlun appears in their midst. His origin is unknown, but he is certainly not a native of the Viamontian peninsula. He took over as chieftain of the Corcosi tribe in unprecedented fashion. Through conquest, diplomacy, and treachery, Karlun managed to bring most of the other tribes under his leadership within one generation. Notable tribes that Karlun had not gained power over are Bellenni and Lotili. The resisting tribes form an alliance of their own. [Editor's note: If we assume that 'several hundred years ago' means less than a thousand years this event occurred, at the earliest, around 300 RC, and no later than 570s RC, when our next event with a date may have occurred.]
	King Elous I, Karlun's son, reigns in Viamont. [Editor's note: Though Elous I is not mentioned in the article, this is assumed based on the fact that Elous II is Karlun's grandson.]
	King Elous II, Karlun's granson, reigns in Viamont.
570 RC	King Elous II dies in personal combat, fighting against the shaman-wizard Bassano of the Bellenni and the warrior matron Pova of the Lotili, in the first battle between the resisting tribes and Karlun's bloodline. With the defeat of Elous II, hopes of defeating the resisting tribes vanishes, and a Viamontian Civil War begins. The war lasts almost 100 years.
570 RC	During the civil war, Elous III reigns in Viamont. [Editor's note: Though Elous III is not mentioned in the article, this is assumed based Elous V being mentioned later.]
	During the civil war, Elous IV reigns in Viamont. [Editor's note: Though Elous IV is not mentioned in the article, this is assumed based Elous V being mentioned later.]
	During the civil war, King Elous V reigns in Viamont.
670 RC	The civil war concludes in a battle outside of the royal town of Corcosa. Both sides fight until there are not enough soldiers left to continue. In the end, Elous V is victorious, with the royal forces holding a tactical advantage enough to win a surrender from Bellenni and Lotili. The various tribes are too spent from their age of civil war to continue the fight any longer, and the new realm enjoys a 30 year period of peace.
700 RC	Elous V's reign ends as no other Viamontian ruler since Karlun had, he died peacefully, in his bed. Elous VI begins his reign of Viamont. By this time, border wars once again ignite between the lords of Viamont.
700 RC	Elous VI begins building a national military to unite Viamont. In addition, Elous VI establishes a war academy to make sure his own personal forces are the best-trained soldiers in Viamont. Other lords send their own most promising soldiers to this academy, and this practice would become the foundation of the fearsome Ferran Knights of later days.
704 RC	Elous VI uses his new army and invades Aluvia. They defeat the Aluvians at the Plain of Ayrifal.
After 704 RC Prior to 779 RC	With Aluvia conquered, Viamont uses Roulean expertise and wealth and resources from Aluvia and builds a fleet large enough to transport their army across the Ironsea. Thus begins a wave of Viamontian military adventurism. [Editor's note: We can assume that this occurred prior to the end of Alfrega's reign in Aluvia, since Osric began to mend relations with the Aluvian people.]
	Viamontian corsairs raid Roulean ports around the Ironsea.
After 1003 RC Prior to 1103 RC	Legions of Viamontians under the bull banner march against Milantos and Gharu'n. The Milantans repell the invasion in a horrifying scorched-earth campaign, while the Viamontians succeeded in Gharu'n due do the Century of Storms.

Current Events

Throne of Destiny changed the recent history of Ispar to account for the recent Viamontian military campaigns. The most important piece is The Origins and Current Disposition of Viamont, which states that 20 years ago, Viamont launched almost simultaneous attacks on Roulea and Aluvia. This article was posted on the first of November, 2004. We know from numerous sources, like for example A Brief History for Travelers that real world dates are easily converted into Portal Year dates. So November 2004 is equal to Leafcull, 15 PY.

Using our conversion formulas, 15 PY is equal to 1294 RC. More specifically, Leafcull, 15 PY (~15.9167) is equal to about 1294.61 RC, or about Leafdawning, 1294 RC. Now that we know what the current date was for that article, we can subtract 20 to determine when the Viamontian campaigns began: around 1274 RC, which converts to -15 PY.

The article also states that 8 years ago, the Viamontian army that was encamped outside of Shiryaz left Gharu'n and returned home to deal with Bellenesse's rebellion. This event occurred in 1286, which converts to 3 PY.

The Throne of Destiny Intro Video, released in July 2005 with the expansion, has some narration by Varicci. In it, he states that after 8 years of being trapped on the Halaetans, they have finally dispelled the Fiun barrier. July 2005 is equal to Leafdawning, 16 PY. Since Varicci's statement was about time spent on Auberean, we should suptract 8 from the Portal Year, rather than converting it to the Roulean system. So Varrici's army arrived on the Halaetans in 8 PY. This converts to 1289 RC.

Lastly, the new Letters From Home introduced in Throne of Destiny gave a glimpse of the current events of Ispar at that time. Those first became available in Leafdawning, 16 PY, which if expressed as 16 + (7/12), converts to 1295 RC.

Where we run into continuity conflicts is with this new Throne of Destiny lore and lore that was presented in the original beta site. On the Aluvian Introduction, it says that it is only a matter of time before Viamont and Aluvia are at war again. On the Gharu'ndim Introduction, a similar claim is made. Those events had been placed in the "present day" in the beta/release version of the timeline of Ispar, with a date of 10 PY. Obviously, the threat of Viamontian invasion being near could not happen in 10 PY if the invasion began in -15 PY.

It is difficult to determine how to best reconcile this conflict. At the most extreme, it could mean that all of the information on the Zogblaster pages are no longer considered canon. A more moderate position would be that only the statements regarding the present day are no longer canon. It is the opinion of the the editor of this article, however, that as much lore as possible should be preserved - simply throwing information out is wasteful if there is a way to reconcile conflicts.

With that in mind, -15 PY, or 1274 RC, is the year when Aluvians first began to arrive on Dereth. It is not unreasonable to assume that, when talking about the recent history of Ispar, these old introductions were describing 1274 RC, prior to the Viamontian invasions. When talking about the recent history on Dereth, the Sho and Gharu'ndim are described as new. It is not unreasonable to assume that these statements are describing the conditions of Dereth at 0 PY, when Gharu'ndim and Sho first arrived.

With all this in mind, we can contruct a timeline of recent events:

Portal Year	Roulean Year	Event
-30 PY	1264 RC	Aluvia After approximately 400 years pass since the reign of Cellric II had begun, the reign of Cedraic III begins.
-15 PY	1274 RC	Aluvia Cedraic opens up trade with nations across the sea including the Gharu’ndim and the Sho and with that trade comes prosperity. To the west, however, Viamont bides: it will only be a matter of time before war returns to the land.
-15 PY	1274 RC	Gharu'n The Malika Qadira bint Balj reigns in Gharu'n. There is always the threat of war, from both Viamont and Milantos, but the desert kingdom is once again a place where the sharpness of a man's mind is far more valuable than that of his sword.
-15 PY	1274 RC	Aluvia The portals created by the Sundering begin to appear on Ispar in the Aluvian lands, and the first humans begin to arrive on Dereth.
-15 PY	1274 RC	All Nations The appearance of the portals in Aluvia has disrupted all of Ispar. No one knows what they are or why they have appeared. The people of Ispar are afraid, and the Viamontians take advantage of this situation.
-15 PY	1274 RC	Aluvia, Roulea, Viamont King Varicci di Corcosi reigns in Viamont. Viamont invades Aluvia and Roulea. After early victories in Aluvia, the Aluvians put up a resistance, and the war falls into a stalemate. The Duke Bellenesse leads the invasion of Roulea. The Roulean Empire collapses, its imperial army annihilated and its Emperor killed in his palace by Bellenesse. The Viamontian army presses on to Gharu'n.
-12 PY	1276 RC	Gharu'n, Viamont Within two years, after a siege by sea and by land, the Viamontians take Tirethas. Viamontian army marches east along the northern edge of the Naqut pushing back the Gharu'ndim army. Gharu'ndim resistance solidifies around the city of Shiryaz. Viamontians are fought to a standstill there, and Shiryaz remains free.
-5 PY	1281 RC	Viamont King Varicci di Corcosi holds a tournament in honor of the 14th birthday of Eleonora du Bellenesse, duaghter of Duke Bellenesse. The tournament is held at Lord Marden's estate. In the final fight of the tourney, Prince Renlen, son of Varicci, brutally kills Darren Marden, son of Lord Marden. The crowd is horrified, and the knights of Bellenesse ready themselves to fight. The Royal Guard move into the pit, forming a circle around the prince. The King makes his way to his Knights, followed by the elder prince, Varicci di Corcosi II. The Royal Guard encircle the King and his sons and escort them out of the pit, barely averting a civil war.
-3 PY	1282 RC	Viamont Another tournaments is held on the anniversary of the death of Darren Marden. Prince Renlen makes a great show of expressing his regret at the outcome of the duel one year prior, but throughout his speech, he never actually apologizes for the murder of Darren.
-2 PY	1283 RC	Gharu'n, Viamont Talal ibn Qamuz of Nishadina is caught smuggling Old Roulean texts, saved from Tirethas, to sell to the Viamontians. The Malika of Gharu'n uses this situation to her advantage, and orders Talal to Viamont, with 1000 copies of the the Roulean text The Treatise of the Individual. He is sent to Viamont to peddle these copies to his Viamontian clients of nobility, including Countess Lotila, Count Renari, and Duke Bellenesse. As punishment for his crime, he is forever banished from Gharu'n.
0 PY	1284 RC	Gharu'n, Sho Portals to Dereth begin to appear in Gharu'n and Sho.
3 PY	1286 RC	Viamont Lord Marden announces that he will hold a tournament in honor of the fall of Lizistan. He invites knights from all the duchies of Viamont. The Duke Bellenesse orders his knights to decline the invitation. Carlo di Cenza, squire of Sir Bellas, notices that the Duke has been acting strangely for several months now. The Duke has been rejecting being treated like a noble, and has distanced himself from the rest of Viamontian nobility. Carlo suspects the Old Roulean texts that have been in the Duke's fortress for the past few years. In secret, Eleonora, Sir Bellas, and Carlo attend the tourney. Eleonora, disguised under her armor, enters the tournament. Eleonora wins the tourney, defeating the final opponent and nephew of King Varicci, Count Corcima. As has been tradition for five years now (since the tournament where Darren was killed), the victor has one final duel with one of the princes of Viamont, which they always lose. Eleonora duels prince Renlen and kills him. Eleonora, Sir Bellas, and Carlo escape the area and begin to head back to the duchy of Bellenesse. At this point, Carlo recounts the events in his journal. He is sure these actions will lead to civil war. Meanwhile, a failed assassination attempt is carried out against King Varicci. The assassin escapes the royal palace. The royal guard track the assassin to a village in the Aluvian territories held by Viamont. The captain of the guard believes the assassin escaped through one of the mysterious portals. Prince Varicci believes that the assassin, Oswald, was hired by Duke Bellenesse. With the blessing of his father, Prince Varicci begins a campaign to exterminate the house of Bellenesse.
3 PY	1286 RC	Gharu'n, Viamont The Viamontian army camped outside Shiryaz is recalled back to Viamont, to deal with a crisis in their homeland.
8 PY	1289 RC	Viamont The royal army of Viamont, lead by prince Varicci di Corcosi II, enter the lands of Bellenesse and lay siege to the Duke's fortress. The rebels, lead by Eleonora du Bellenesse and the Duke of Bellenesse, flee through a mysterious portal. Varicci and his army follow them.
16 PY	1295 RC	Aluvia, Gharu'n, Sho, Viamont The last remnants of Bellenesse's rebellion have been all but eradicated. The followers of Bellenesse had distracted King Varicci from his campaigns elsewhere on Ispar, but with the rebellion defeated, Varicci once again turns his attention to the other lands of Ispar. The war between Aluvia and Viamont continues. Aluvia holds their western borders, and both sides have taken heavy losses, but the tides seem to be turning in favor of Viamont. The war between Gharu'n and Viamont continues as well. The Gharu'ndim believe their nation only continues to exist because King Varicci has not yet chosen to press his attack. The Sho worry what will happen to them should the Viamontians conquer Gharu'n completely.

Conclusion

We will assume that our timelines constructed from the Throne of Destiny information is accurate.