Warning: This information is not intended for PC-release. The information is considered sensitive to the current campaign plan, and should not be read by current Player Characters without express authorization from the Dungeon Master.

The idea for the Ogran Invasion occurred during the invasion of Iraq by US forces. What if My people were on the end of an invading force, against which we had no hope? What if it were My people going down in what was, to the enemy, a justified invasion?

(chuckle) That wasn't really the idea, but it sounds good, in retrospect, and gets you to thinking. The idea for the Ogran Invasion came out of the Second Sister Worlds War. It's coming, and the God of Destinies is slowly forging Gaeleth into something harder and stronger. I began to wonder, how to temper Rakore into something even stronger? They had already weathered the War of the Undead, and I was having trouble figuring out how to make the War of the Churches happen.

Back-planning wasn't too difficult. I'm devious. And as long as I'm invading Rakore, I might as well throw out all the stops, but... For years, the ograns were kept at bay by the Srik. Luckily for everyone, the Srik can only exist in a desert. So why would the Srik stop attacking? Or would the ograns finally have found a way to beat back the Srik?

We did some thought experiments, and even considered invoking Mazripos, the Rot Goddess and the Goddess of Diseases, as a way of destroying the desert-only fungus that feeds the Srik. I don't remember why I decided against it, but perhaps the almost complete loss of Mazripos' power may have been a deciding factor. Since the ograns have turned to K'Tath and Samis, Mazripos has fallen so much from power that her only remaining followers are scattered tribes of orcs and ogres, here and there.

Bah... I'm waxing philosophic, when what we all really need is the meat of the timeline.

16th of Davor, 1329: Prepositioned armies, moving under screens of illusions, prayers of deception, and misinformation from ogran double-agents, invade Rakore. A massive army slams into the Stonehelms' mountain range, and is blocked -- barely. A massive army slams into Loregard, and is blocked -- almost easily. Two massive armies slip through the northern ranges, make use of prepositioned caches of food and supplies, and marche forward almost unopposed. Image below shows Ogran forces' advance with the red border.

17th of Davor, 1329: Advance squadron of roc-hawkes establishes a defense in the Grand Maul Pass. The town of Takanal is advised of the situation that night, and begins to take up arms and prepare for the invasion.

2nd of Trivor: The Kur Maens invade Rakore on the pretense of stopping the invasion; in reality, they are merely continuing the Fourth Crusades, and attempting to extinguish the arcane in Rakore. They seize Teras in the hopes of pushing north, up the River Galanus, to Mount Rilan. The Kur Maens offensive border appears in green below. The Kur Maen force consists of 50 heavy triremes plus additional support vessels, and the landing forces those ships disgorge numbers over 50,000 troops -- paladins, clerics, priests, crusaders, holy warriors, and mercenaries from the holy city of Karmen. By this time, whole of the Tikranor plateau is under the control of the ograns.

4th of Trivor: Over 150 Nabrolian triremes are teleported into the waters west of Rakore, bringing with them well over 100,000 Nabrolian mounted knights, priests, and even giants. That night, they establish a beach head on the shores of Rakore. They were teleported in by an ogran agent, found high in the ranks of the Rakoran government. The Nabrolian offensive lines are indicated in purple. The Kur Maens, in a strategic move, take almost the whole of the Janis Plains -- not understanding that all of their defenses had been moved to the aid of the Stonehelms.

8th of Trivor: The Kur Maens, unaware of the Nabrolian invasion, secure their hold on Teras through ruthless use of the powers of Yatindar. The extreme use of force causes many of the crusaders to question their leaders.

11th of Trivor: The Kur Maens encounter the Nabrolians on their northwestern front. Many Kur Maens, disgusted with their leadership, harken to the banner of ArchPrelate Talon Bhramord. Talon had been the lead paladin of all Kur Maeth until a recent political coup, when he had faded out of the public eye, and even publicly been relieved of his paladinhood. Standing fast against the Nabrolians, and using the powers of Yatindar despite the wishes of the Church of Yatindar, Talon begins to rally both Rakorans and Kur Maens to his banner to fend off the Nabrolians. On the Janis Plains, the Kur Maens are still at war with Rakore, but also at war with the Ogre Nations, who finally overwhelm the Stonehelms and push into the Janis Plains.

17th of Trivor: The Kur Maens fully ally with the Rakorans, and are pushed up into the mountains from the Janis Plains. Loregard begins a fighting withdrawal to Lok Sadic, where they garner some protection from Wuron S'fa's ambassador -- a green dragon with druidic powers. The Grand Maul Pass, near Takanal, serves as a gate for legions of the ograns; they sweep into the Rakoran Forests almost unopposed, and stop in the south only after slamming up against the walls of Mount Rilan. On the Janis Plains, the combined Rakoran and Kur Maen forces are pushed fully off of the plains and up into the Warkore Mountains on the western side. Mount Basilisk and Mount Lavanor barely hold. In Teras, things go well as the combined forces push hard against the Nabrolians.

19th of Trivor: Kashin and Mount Lavanor are surrounded. Mount Rilan is surrounded. Mount Basilisk is surrounded, and holds the remainder of the Stonehelms; the Stonehelms maintain the illusion of the king still being present at Mount Basilisk, though in truth he has already fled with his court to Hallis Island (via the Eye of Galgiran). Lok Sadic holds with support from Wuron S'fa. A small part of the Warkore mountains is held by the Kur Maens, though they are surrounded. Significant strides are made against the Nabrolians, but they are already organizing for a counter-attack, and Teras itself is surrounded. Rakore appears about to die, after only 30 days of fighting. You don't see any red in the picture below, because the ograns Dominate Rakore; there's no point in showing it, painted in blood.

I thought that I might have had an answer to preclude the invasion. There was once a city near the Grand Maul Pass that was destroyed by a lahear (volcanic action), and I considered doing the same to the invading ogran armies. It's still a possibility, but it would only slow the ogran legions through the passes a bit, if at all. It looks hopeless for Rakore.

Rest assured, I do have a plan.

Released here, for the first time, is what's yet to come:

The Dharveil are still coming, in all their undead glory. They will sweep aside the Srik like so much dust, and storm into the rear of the ogran invasion. The ograns, the Nabrolians, and even the Kur Maens will all be forced to unite against a common foe. And when it's all over with, the Tikranor Plateau and scattered tribes throughout the Rakoran Forest will belong to the ograns -- with the plateau going over as a duchy to 'Supreme Ruler Itzak' or his replacement if he dies.

Finally, people will be able to play orcs and half-orcs. On top of this, Rakore's population will jump, there will be ogremai instructors at Lok Magius (which will never fall), and the occupational time will give me a chance to experiment with guerilla forces in a Dungeons and Dragons setting.

Oh, yes... One of the king's most trusted advisors, a duke, is the ogran agent. The duke's minions have included Doom Rex, among others. It was the duke who prepositioned the caches of food and weapons for the ograns, and sewed chaos and disinformation into the Rakoran ranks. Duke Herod Notimeh will become a legendary figure in the annals of betrayal for all Rakore, revered by some ograns, and reviled by most of the old Rakorans.