The Great Snake (3.5e Campaign Setting)/History

History
The Great Snake has been orbiting its star for a brief few thousand years. In that time, the few kobold crew and parasites living on and inside it have diversified into a vast menagerie of interesting creatures.

The Sarrukh Wars
Legends tell of a war fought between powerful figures, known collectively as the Sarrukh. The leading belief among denizens of the Great Snake is that the Great Snake was once one such Sarrukh, but was slain by a smaller, pettier Sarrukh, and banished to this lonely star. More enlightened members of the Cashooites often snicker when that belief is brought up, so it is likely to be false.

The Age of Poverty
For thousands of years, the kobolds and vermin of the Great Snake eked out their existence, occasionally being transformed by the clouds of mutation emanating from the Snake's gently decaying polymorph glands and forming new species groups. For this reason, "kobold" in Draconic means "first people". A distinct lack of access to any non-mundane classes, combined with frequent localized extinction events, led to an almost perpetual state of positively medieval living.

The Age of Mystery
Over time, the exploding rot clouds began to grow less frequent. One day, an orc was born with magical powers: the first sorcerer, Grak Thugman. For several decades, as his power grew, he became known throughout the world for his incredible deeds and demanding tastes. Now that they knew it was possible, the scientists, philosophers, and leaders of every race raced to develop their own magic, pursuing every angle: prayer, shouting, rote memorization, frenetic dancing, attunement with the wilds, self-immolation, ancestor-worship, object-worship, mental exercises, physical exercises, lobotomies, and so on. Oddly enough, many of these techniques eventually bore fruit, with the deities of the Great Snake being created as a side-effect. A strong desire for competitive advantage meant that most of these methods were kept secret, frequently becoming lost as the research was destroyed or stolen and misinterpreted by other races, or concealed and lost in order to keep it from the country's neighbors.

A short century after the original discovery of magic, research into teleportation by the dwarven country of Draghur revealed the existence of never-before-seen beings, generally referred to as "outsiders" and "elementals". Continued investigation revealed that certain outsiders, Efreet, could provide a great many things when asked properly. For many decades, the Draghurans prospered and expanded their borders under the control of the Cult of Calling, building massive fortifications in a day, and somehow never running out of supplies. Everything rapidly changed when a rogue diviner, Tabanis, discovered their secret and shared it all over the world, claiming that "knowledge is meant to be shared freely". Thus did the Age of Mystery end and the Age of Prosperous Hatred begin.

The Age of Prosperity
With the power to obtain almost everything they desired from lesser mortals more easily through the use of planar binding, many of the world's most powerful casters left their government positions in favor of perpetual vacation, artifact-seeking, or interplanar looting.

However, a decent number of powerful casters remained on the Great Snake, using their access to the Wish Economy as a tool to make their ideals reality. Magically enhanced armies of enchanted minions roamed the land, enforcing the iron rule of one despot or another. Self-sustaining metropolises in intricate architectural patterns, filled with mechanical wonders powered by perpetual acceleration devices, supplied with an endless supply of clean water and food, began popping up all over the place.

Now, it is a thousand years after the dawn of the Age of Prosperity, and no matter where you look, you can be sure to find a wished item or two, although many of the crueler empires carefully collect and control all items they find, as do some particularly paranoid powerful characters, worried by the deaths of some of their peers, ganked by greedy lesser characters while in their vacation palaces.

&rarr; The Great Snake