Horizon: City of Traitors

This site is for the trial run of Horizon, which has finished! If you want information on the full game, commencing October 2005, you should go here.

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The History of the World

This is the received wisdom about past events from the beginning of the world to now. Various aspects may be incomplete, inaccurate, distorted, or just plain wrong - but discerning the truth is a difficult business. What you see here is the most credible and widely-repeated half-truth.

Calendar Notes

As mentioned in the timeline, the people of Horizon date their calendar from the beginning of the Second Age of history - the current year is 4000 HR (Horizon Reckoning). The year is divided into 16 months, 25 days per month and 4 months per season (though its absolute duration is more-or-less the same as an Earth year). The progression of the months are, from the beginning of the year to the end, as follows:

Winter's Glory
Winter's Dusk

Spring's Dawn
Spring's Rise
Spring's Glory
Spring's Dusk

Summer's Dawn
Summer's Rise
Summer's Glory
Summer's Dusk

Autumn's Dawn
Autumn's Rise
Autumn's Glory
Autumn's Dusk

Winter's Dawn
Winter's Rise

In the Dawn months, the first signs of the relevant season can be observed (so, for example, in Winter's Dawn the birds all fly south), in the Rise months the season in question begins to predominate, in the Glory months the season is in full force - the winter is at its coldest, the summer is at its warmest and so forth - and in the dusk months the season is beginning to wind down.

The last day of Winter's Rise is Horizon's day, the last day of the year, a time of celebration, and the day that new Mayors are elected - should a new Mayor prove necessary.

The world of Horizon has two Moons, one of which seems from the ground to be larger than the other. The large moon - called the Old Moon - has a 25-month cycle, the small moon or Young Moon has a 10-month cycle, so they are both full at regular 50-day intervals - this is the day of the Moon Truce. The full moon falls on the last days of the Rise and Dusk months.

The first session of Horizon: City of Traitors will take place on the last day of Winter's Dusk, 4000 HR.

The Primal Past

No stories or records, poems or tales remain from the earliest times. Occasionally visionaries, madmen, prophets, hermits, occultists and charlatans will make nebulous proclamations about the events of the primal past, but these are nearly always heavily coloured and distorted by their personal agendas and outlook. However, a very few things can be pieced together - partially from the assertions of the more credible mystics, partially from the way the world happens to be.

The mystics would have us believe that at the beginning of things, unthinkable aeons ago, there was the Fire below all and the Stars above all and the Gods navigating the space between in their flying barges. And the Gods rolled out the shell of the world over the Fire, and poured out the Oceans into the shell, and sang and danced on the new world, their song becoming the Sky and the Land arising where their feet touched the ground. And then the Gods lay with the Sky and the Land and the Ocean, the three new Powers they had brought forth, and they brought forth all the life that lives to this day in the True Lands.

The majority of people who come up with cosmogenesis accounts include the above facts. They also elaborate a lot more and go into great detail about the deeds of Gods, Fire, Stars, Land, Ocean and Sky, but when you get down to that level of detail there is little that they agree upon.

The Mythic Dreamtime

Before recorded history, only oral histories tell of the time after the creation. These tend to be poetic, dreamlike, alternately abstract and illucid accounts; it is difficult to tell how much is metaphor and how much is fact.

Many of the song-stories from this time tell of great monuments being built by men in honour of the Gods - or possibly under the direction of the Gods. Such edifices can still be found here and there, their purposes obscure and mysterious.

There is a number of epic song-cycles describing some sort of rebellion or betrayal or infidelity on the part of the Land, Sky and Ocean. They are often depicted as sleeping with the Fire and the Stars behind the back of the Gods, a union which brings forth horrors and abominations. This is how the Treacherous Lands, that half of the world where strange forces hold sway, came to be.

A Wall was built, either by the Gods or by men under the direction of Gods. This is the origin of nighttime. A city, Horizon, was built at the base of the Wall to guard it.

One day, for whatever reason, the ruler of Horizon rose his hand against a God and killed it. (Some stories identify this God as the God of Oaths, others as the Deus Irae.) The Gods prepare a vengeance against mankind, but the Intercessor foils their plan, or defeats them, or convinces them to stay their hand, and they leave the world. These events mark the beginning of recorded history; the earliest written records date from this time. The rebellion of man and the withdrawal of the Gods is the first event of the First Age of history.

The First Age: 7000 to 4000 years ago

As the Gods leave the world, the Intercessor gives his One Message to his Church, exhorting them to beware the influence of the other Gods and their avatars. The ruler of Horizon declares himself rightful Emperor of the world by right of conquest: by his hand were the Gods driven away, and by his hand will civilisation tame the Lands True and Treacherous. Since he has wonderous and powerful sorceries at his command, this claim is not as overambitous as it seems. He sets wards upon the Wall so that only he may slip through, and allows only the best of the Imperial Legions to accompany him on his forays and campaigns in the Treacherous Lands. The soldiers are sworn to secrecy, but the few legionaries who are allowed to return home sometimes whisper their stories to their loved ones when they get home; so many wild stories are told of the Treacherous Lands, however, it is hard to tell what is really beyond the Wall.

In the True Lands the Horizon Empire spreads, as does the Church of the Intercessor. In response to the Church's preaching, the people of the True Lands petition the Emperor for aid in hunting down and destroying avatars of the malign and uncaring Gods; the Emperor gladly aids them.

Events of the First Age:

  • Irgar is conquered by the Empire, bringing an end to the constant tribal warfare.

  • An expeditionary force of the Imperial Legions maps and claims Vegdarbarra for the Empire, bringing one last segment of the True Lands under Horizon's control.

The Second Age: 4000 to 600 years ago

By now, avatars are very rare within the True Lands, which have all been brought into the Empire. The Emperor claims that he has brought the Treacherous Lands under his sway through his potent esoteric skills and inspirational leadership, but thanks to the Wall it's very difficult to confirm this: the Emperor is careful about who he allows through, and those trusted individuals he chooses to take with him beyond the Wall do not return.

This is the Golden Age of the Empire. All the world is ruled by the Emperor, the Emperor himself is fairly benign and most people are happy and have enough to eat. Cheerful times all round.

Events of the Second Age:

  • The Age begins with a year and a day of festival to celebrate the Empire gaining full control of the True Lands. The surviving records from the time imply that the True peoples were, at the time, overwhelmingly supportive of the Empire, but nobody is sure how much of this is Imperial propaganda. This is the year 0 of the Horizon calendar - in the post-Imperial age, multiple calendars are in use, so dates using the Horizon calendar are denoted by the phrase "HR" - Horizon Reckoning.

  • c.1000 HR: Beasts and wild things issue forth from Vegdarbarra. The Imperial legions are sent to put them down, only to meet stiff resistance. The so-called War In the Wastes persists for a century and inspires many tales of military heroism.

  • 1100 HR: The Emperor, in his New Year's speech, announces that Imperial Legions have encountered no wild incursions into Vegdarbarra in the past few months, and declares the War In the Wastes over. He decrees that a series of forts will be built, one every ten miles along the base of the Wall, for the protection of all the True Lands.
  • 2517 HR: Grand opening of the Imperial Gardens.

  • 3308 HR: Trainee physician Walter Levard attacks the Emperor in the Imperial Gardens. Public appearances by the Emperor become much rarer after this.

The Third Age: 600 years ago to 35 years ago

Around this time the Emperor begins to lose it. Whether he was ever the benevolent, protective, stern-but-just father and friend to mankind he is depicted as in accounts from the Second Age is debatable; what most historians agree on is that around this time things took a severe turn for the worse. Proclamations from the time reveal that paranoia, megalomania, and sheer batshit insanity were beginning to compete with reason, justice, and the common good in the Emperor's decision-making processes. War breaks out; several Imperial provinces in the True Lands declare independence. It is not known how matters transpire in the Treacherous Lands: it's widely assumed things go just as badly for the Empire there. The Empire is unable to reconquer the independent regions, and is forced to declare peace until it is ready to try another campaign of reconquest. Uneasy centuries of peace interrupted by ferocious warfare follow; eventually, four free nations establish themselves and await the Empire's next move.

Events of the Third Age:

  • 3400 HR: The Great Storm begins in Jurica. It lasts for seven years, by the end of which the Imperial infrastructure is utterly destroyed. The local nomads weathered the storm far more easily than the occupying Imperial forces, and Abdul Razzaq, praise his name, liberates the nation.

  • Infrequent attempts by the Empire to reconquer Jurica persist for the rest of the Third Age, but each time the storms return and drive the Imperials away.

  • 3498 HR: The Imperial legions report that contact has been lost with Fort XLVII in Vegdarbarra. In the later years of the Third Age, of course, this sort of thing would not be uncommon; however, Fort XLVII was a well-defended place, and for contact with it to be lost so suddenly at such an early stage in the Third Age is puzzling.

  • More and more soldiers are sent beyond the Wall, and the Emperor forbids them to return. Around 400 years before the present, the Emperor stops sending legions through the Wall entirely and places esoteric seals upon it. Most assume that the Empire beyond the Wall has been lost, but few say this aloud.

  • Steamworking is invented a couple of centuries before the present. The Irgarim soon prove proficient at it.

  • 3863 HR: The Emperor commands the building of the Horizon subway, which is completed in twenty years.

  • 3902 HR: Rediscovering the fighting spirit of their ancestors, and supported by the economic and production boom provided by steam, the Irgarim rise as one on Chalrimas Day under Count Wolfson III, and the Empire is routed. Irgar is once again a free nation, its citizens once again at liberty to tear each other's guts out with their bare hands.

  • The Grey Order is founded at some point towards the end of the Third Age by defectors from the guilds of steam and clockwork. It's unclear how long it operated for before it became public, but they made their presence known and built the Citadel of Steam by the end of the Age.

  • 3958 HR: The Last War began. It was to become the bloodiest conflict in recorded history. The Emperor by now was noticably senile; the proclamations issuing from the Palace by now made very little sense, but they made up for their incoherence with their burning rage and fury. The dark-clad Imperial Legions marched forth in hordes in a last-ditch attempt to reconquer the free nations. Irgar, Jurica and Lasinia respond forcefully.

  • 3960 HR: In what becomes known as the Great Strike, the Amalgamated Union of Dockworkers, Railwaymen and Ferrymen down tools in opposition to the Last War. The strikers are attacked and decimated by the Imperial Legions, but replacement workers prove difficult to find; the resultant disruption severely hampers the Empire during the early days of the Last War, and stalls the Legions' advance in time for the Four Nations to react. The anniversary of the Great Strike is celebrated by workingmens' unions worldwide to this day.

  • 3964 HR: As the forces of the free nations approach Horizon, a number of previously-neutral Vegdarbarran warlords join the war on side of liberty, the most famous of whom is Captain Leonard Qveton, who controlled the forts to either side of Horizon. His co-operation helped make the Siege of Horizon a success.

  • 3964-3965 HR:The Siege of Horizon brings the Last War to a close. Horizon's forces are ultimately routed, Horizon is beseiged and invaded, and the Emperor killed or driven into exile - his precise fate is unknown.

The Fourth Age: 35 years ago to the present

A new era of history began with the final collapse of the Empire. We have prepared a much more detailed timeline covering the end of the Third Age and the dawn of the Fourth Age, which you can find here.

Currently, decades after the end of the Last War, Colonel Zero has so far managed to save the city from being absorbed by one of the Four Nations. Industry is growing rapidly. The wards set by the Emperor on the Wall have faded and prospectors are beginning to find ways - official and otherwise - of slipping through the Wall and scavenging the Treacherous Lands. The City is getting rich again - and that means it's once again a good time to be a criminal.

Events of the Fourth Age:

  • 3965 HR: The signature of the Last Treaty, negotiated between representatives of the Mayor and the Four Nations, established the conditions of the peace and is considered the first event of the Fourth (post-Imperial) Age. Horizon was stripped of most of its lands, except for the City itself and enough the countryside surrounding it for it to be a viable city-state. Colonel Zero was the military representative on Horizon's negotiating team; it is widely claimed by his supporters that if it wasn't for Zero's skilled handling of the situation the terms of the Last Treaty would have been utterly humiliating.

  • 3970 HR: After a period of weak, short-lived Mayors, Colonel Zero was elected Mayor of Horizon. He has not loosened his grip on the position since.

  • 3972 HR: The Grey Order donates taxis to Horizon, marvellous steam-and-clockwork powered horseless carriages which chung along little grooves in the street.

  • 3980 HR: Following the death of his father, Abu Samal becomes Caliph of Jurica.

  • 3982 HR: In a bid to gain their support in the reconstruction efforts, Colonel Zero grants trade guilds the right to enforce oaths of secrecy against members who expose trade secrets to the general public, legalising the common practice of cutting the throats of guild-traitors from left to right, ripping their tongues out, and burying them on the beach where the tide will cover them.

  • 3984 HR: The Steam Union and the Clockworker's Guild file a lawsuit claiming that the law should apply to traitors from those organisations who join the Grey Order; since the Grey Order doesn't share trade secrets with the general public, the case collapses.

  • 3989 HR: The Docks are put under strict quarantine following an outbreak of Irgarim flu which kills many. If it weren't for the thriving international railways trade with Horizon would have ceased utterly, and by this point that would have damaged the economies of most nations (except Vegdarbarra, which has never been especially interested in trade). Thankfully, worldwide economic disaster is averted and the quarantine successfully limits the disease to the Docks, where it eventually burns itself out.

  • 4000 HR: The present day.