(06-30-2016, 03:20 PM)Syranelle Ironleaf Wrote: So, at best we can infer from this that Gelmorra existed at least five hundred years ago, but that the recent Calamity (5-6 years ago now?) had unearthed all these ruins. Â While it might be too much to say your character lived there, I'm sure -- if ancestry could be traced back that far -- that one could claim a Gelmorran heritage.
Although I cannot find the primary source, there seems to be a consensus among the various lore wikis that the Sixth Umbral Era (the great flood) happened about 1500 years ago. Since we know that the flood was a direct punishment for the misuse of magic in Fifth Astral, it is probably reasonable to assume that the Elementals would not permit surface settlement after the waters settled, and subterranean civilisation flourished under the Black Shroud. Which gives us a very rough idea of the interval of time (1500-500 y.a.) when the city would have been built and flourished. I had always assumed that the civilisation collapsed and Gelmorra had fallen into misuse once the early Padjali/conjurer types convinced the Elementals to allow the Elezen back up to the forest.
Wouldn't be long enough for genetic divergence in our boring real world, but who really cares about that.
So, I agree it'd be fair to claim Gelmorran descent, it wasn't that long ago, as long as one keeps a light touch and doesn't over-describe the traditions, etc., that come with it. Tinkering with the NPC clan my own character came out of, I'd assumed they were a bunch of families at the periphery of the Gelmorran civilisation (not city itself) who took over a small network of caverns during the chaos of the surface return five centuries ago and never looked back.
I found the old Duskwight Discussion thread here on the site quite useful when thinking about these things.
