The Cycle of Sanctuary. Begun: Eleint 12th, 152 SR / 1374 DR. By: Imrahel Morunov.

What follows is the result of hours of study in the past of Sanctuary by the undersigned as well as a number of devoted citizens. It is as detailed as possible an account of the years since the founding, made realisable thanks to numerous historians, professionals and hobbyists alike, in the course of Sanctuary's existence.

It has been a trial to document even some of the more notable events in both recent and distant history, not just because of a sheer lack of memorabilia to remind us of days past, but also because, as the undersigned has come to learn, it has not been a widely accepted custom to date literary works, whatever their kind. Therefore, the reader should note that, given the nature of most sources, many listed years are purely educated guesses.

Furthermore, the few comprehensive works that do exist are often either unique, and thus cannot be compared to other records; or simply reference other works, adding nothing new to support the overall validity and thereby rendering itself useless. Additionally, as it is with bias, it stands to reason that sources used, keeping but a few exceptions in mind, many times have offered half truths or whole lies. All gathered information has then had to be critically analysed and either retained as an approximation to the truth or discarded as mere balderdash.

Remaining is what in most likelihood is an accurate record of Sanctuary's detailed history, not coloured by prejudice, not sullied by propaganda.

Any contributions the reader may wish to submit can be left in the Last Stand addressed to the undersigned. As a certain standard must be maintained, all contributions are subject to be edited by the undersigned, and not all contributions will necessarily be entered. No contribution entered, unless demonstrably incorrect, will be excluded from future revisions.

Conclusively, I would like to extend a personal thanks to a couple of distinguished contributors:

Varlam Nikitovich. William Donrick.
Timekeeper Imrahel Morunov.

RISE AND FALL All years in Sanctuary Reckoning.

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• Revelation; led by Charles and Frederick Bresley, dozens of escaped slaves find Dunwarren and settle down. The two Bresleys, Henry Archibald, Jadderly Donrick, and Alexander Ubel make up the Founding Families.
0
• Rise; the informal founding of the Watch by Charles Bresley marks the formal founding of Old Sanctuary. Charles Bresley becomes the first Mayor of Sanctuary.
• Soon after the founding of Old Sanctuary, Mayor Charles Bresley founds the Watchers and Warders and assumes the title of Overseer.
1
• Mayor and Overseer Charles Bresley passes most of his political power to an elected Council comprising the Founding Families.
• Mayor Charles Bresley steps down as Overseer in favour of the Watcher Calley Hennet, who also numbered among the original settlers. She is generally well liked and respected throughout her career, and is largely responsible for the many trade routes established in the next forty years.
5
• Mayor Charles Bresley marries the skilled arcanist Melinda Serena.
6
• Alturiak: The Civil Defense Act; the Watchers and Warders are replaced by the Watch, the Order of the Spellguard, and the Seekers. Overseer Calley Hennet becomes the first Sheriff of the Watch, Melinda Bresley the first Commander of the Order of the Spellguard, and Frederick Bresley the first leader of the Seekers.
7
• Drow attack Sanctuary.
12
• Seeker Frederick Bresley disappears from Sanctuary. Seekers Ivlysar Tal'en'qir and Alexander Ubel are thought to have murdered him, but no substantial proof is found. Mayor Charles Bresley eventually accepts the notion of his brother having found a path to the surface and erects a statue in the Town Hall, and halts Spellguard Commander Melinda Bresley's investigation. This is widely accepted as the event that seeded the gradually increasing hostility between the Seekers and the Order of the Spellguard.
• Following Frederick Bresley's disappearance, Ivlysar Tal'en'qir becomes the leader of the Seekers.
c. 40
• Clan Grunstubhle settles in the mine. For more than a century, they are Sanctuary's primary source of arms and armour.
45
• Spellguard Commander Melinda Bresley is brutally murdered. Case unresolved.
46
• Thool'oon, the Sublime Visionary, a beholder, settles in a cave not far from the walls of Sanctuary. Victims of its magical domination include several Seekers and Sheriff Hennet. Thool'oon and its cultists are all slain during a joint operation conducted by the Seekers and the Order of the Spellguard in Alturiak.
• With Sheriff Hennet's death, chaos rules Sanctuary, dissent the new currency. Councillor Deriil Khovn hosts a number of mock trials, persecuting former slaves of the beholder hive Chabzash and the illithid settlement Ysinode. Councillor Khovn eventually is detained indefinitely in the Spellguard Tower.
• Ches: Encouraged by the new, and still serving, Spellguard Commander Stephanos Simms, the Council promotes Sergeant Ardel Wyle to the rank of Sheriff.
• Sheriff Wyle and Spellguard Commander Simms work closely together to restore order, catching and executing many of the riots' leaders.
47
• Albert Ubel, son of founder Alexander Ubel, is born.
65
• The Great Quake; Sanctuary is rocked by a massive earthquake. Protecting the many newly exposed areas from outside threats, faith in the Watch lost during Thool'oon's Infiltration is almost fully restored by now.
87
• The Chilling Plague; unsatisfied with the Watch's increased authority as a result of the plague, or simply seeking to escape the disease altogether, people begin to settle outside of Old Sanctuary. This is the first time people have made camp beyond the established borders of Old Sanctuary since the Great Quake.
• Sanctuary Below is founded. Out of all the camps established during the Chilling Plague, only this one, situation roughly beneath Old Sanctuary, persists. Historians attribute its success to the Ibrandulite shrine founded in 92, although the Hoarite temple founded in 103 likely deserves some of the credit as well.
94
• Flamerule: Sheriff Wyle dies of old age. Sergeant Arphias Dhogur is promoted to the rank of Sheriff.
100
• Mirtul: Sanctuary Below officially becomes part of Sanctuary. Neither the citizens of Sanctuary Below nor Sheriff Dhogur like the idea of the Watch having to patrol Sanctuary Below, and Watchmen are openly attacked by Lower citizens. The thin-spreading of the Watch leads to an overall rise in criminal activity.
118
• Tarsakh: The Lysik Revolt; on multiple accounts of endangering Sanctuary, Jher Lysik's adventuring company, Lysik's Lancers, is forcibly disbanded. The Watch is pushed back by the mobilised Lower residents, now an untrained militia. On orders of Mayor Michael Bresley, Sheriff Dhogur is charged with dispatching the rebels. Sheriff Dhogur has the stairwell connecting Old Sanctuary with Sanctuary Below sealed and deploys sixty Watchmen to reclaim the lost territory-the Council is not consulted.
• Mirtul: Sheriff Dhogur's regiment breaks through the gates of Sanctuary Below, publicly executing anybody with authority in the uprising. Sheriff Dhogur enters from the now unsealed stairwell and orders his men to confiscate all weapon and armour caches in Sanctuary Below, and arrest anybody objecting. Random interrogations are conducted in an attempt root out all Lysik's associates.
• Despite the general consensus among the Councillors that Sheriff Dhogur had acted out of bounds, even for the emergency power bestowed onto him by the Mayor, in quelling the riot, he was commended for his results rather than punished for his methods.
119
• Uktar: Mayor Michael Bresley disappears mysteriously, probably off the shore of the Dark Canal during a scouting operation, but conspirators theorise he was assassinated by a faction seeking to destabilise the city. Case unresolved.
• Presenting Seeker Ivlysar Tal'en'qir, against his will, as a potential candidate for the position of Mayor of Sanctuary, Councillor Albert Ubel opens up for the possibility that the post should not necessarily default to the next Bresley in line. The Council becomes split, several minor factions each supporting their own candidate. Among other powerful figures, Sheriff Dhogur seriously considers making a bid for the now sought-after post.
• Nightal: The Ubel Rebellion; Councillor Albert Ubel is ordered detained indefinitely in Spellguard Tower by Sheriff Dhogur, charged with various minor and major crimes. Councillor Albert Ubel's son Montgomery Ubel responds by staging the famous Ubel Rebellion. The side of town opposite the Watch House, including Spellguard Tower, is besieged by rebels, mostly from Sanctuary Below, while the rest of Old Sanctuary is preparing to push back the rebels. The Councillors seal themselves inside the Town Hall.
• Councillor Albert Ubel dies during a rescue attempt. This does not end the rebellion.
• Sheriff Dhogur, well aware that the Council is powerless, declares himself Overseer of Sanctuary and requests all able-bodied citizens pick up arms and assist the Watch against the rebels. After an additional two months of fighting, the Ubel Rebellion sees its conclusion, the broken rebels fleeing back to Sanctuary Below in order to prepare for the inevitable retaliation.
• While Overseer Dhogur seals the stairwell down and moves his force around the city to the gates of Sanctuary Below, Yorrick Bresley, having finally unified the Council with his Unity Program, is elected Mayor of Sanctuary.
• Flamerule: Sheriff Dhogur's force breaks into Sanctuary Below. The remaining Ubel rebels flee into the sewers. Having recaptured Sanctuary Below, Sheriff Dhogur institutes his old policies of forced interrogations and random searches.
• Eleasis: Unsealing the stairwell, Mayor Yorrick Bresley, Lieutenant Greer, and the remaining Watchmen of Old Sanctuary-much to the surprise of the Lower residents-emerge and relieve Sheriff Dhogur of his command. Sheriff Dhogur does not resist.
• According to the Unity Program, the Watch is cut down from short of three hundred men to just sixty, and the Order of the Spellguard is stripped of its power to make arrests.
150
• Uktar: An explosion rocks The Comely Inn, levelling the building. Councillor and manager of the bordello Victoria Colivin perishes.
151
• Mirtul: The Tigereye Mercenary Company is destroyed from within, leaving a void of power in its wake. Where the mercenaries' rule had left Sanctuary Below all but ordered, their disbanding leads only to more chaos as minor gangs rise and fall by every passing ride.
• Kythorn: The Rotting Death; plague sweeps across Sanctuary again, said to be provoked by Moanderites. A cure is quickly researched yet death tolls are high.
• Flamerule: Sheriff Eugene Walters is exposed as long-time slaver and executed. Former Councillor and long-standing member of the Watch Ronus Graidan is ultimately promoted to the rank of Sheriff.
• Eleint: Due to recent events, Clan Grunstubhle abandons the mine, taking with them all the gold stored in the Grunstubhle Bank.
• The Eleint Accord; Old Sanctuary and Lower Sanctuary are unified as per Council decree. A Watch division, led by Lower Councilman and now Lieutenant Bill Danielson, is to keep order, according to the laws of Old Sanctuary, in Lower Sanctuary and the Canal Ward.
• Marpenoth: The lizardfolk of Sslal'teesh invade Sanctuary. Sanctuary suffers many damages but eventually repels the attack. Sheriff Graidan is among the casualties. Lieutenant Barrister Fawkes is promoted to the rank of Sheriff in his stead.
• After replenishing the Watch's numbers, Sheriff Fawkes leads a counterattack on Sslal'teesh. High Shaman Aquari, leader of the Moanderite lizardfolk, is slain.
• Nightal: Sheriff Fawkes is killed in pursuit of a criminal into Sewer Town. Several Watchmen fall in an attempt to recover the Sheriff's body. This serves as a prelude to Tooth's Insurgence.
• Tooth's Insurgence; the infamous Ubel sympathiser Warlord Tooth stages a revolt, mercilessly butchering the Watch division in Lower Sanctuary. He and his men have been attributed the assassinations of Mayor Yorrick Bresley and Seeker Ivlysar Tal'en'qir, ending the Bresley line for good as well as killing the only known surviving member of the first batch of slaves to arrive in Dunwarren. The Seekers remain without a leader.
• In an emergency election following Mayor Yorrick Bresley's death, Councillor Demetrius Bhast is elected Mayor of Sanctuary. One of his first actions is to promote his trusted Bhast Mercenary Azrus Azzam to the rank of Sheriff, meanwhile swelling the ranks of the Watch with more Bhast Mercenaries to account for the recent losses.
152
• Hammer: The Age of Bhast; henceforth, as per Mayor Demetrius Bhast's decree, he himself shall be known as First Citizen and Protector of Sanctuary; the Order of the Spellguard is commanded to remove its various stationed animatrons; and Sanctuary Below ceases to be part of Sanctuary, all with immediate effect. Expenses as a result of the changes are covered by the First Citizen himself. The Eleint Accord is unofficially voided.
• First Citizen and Protector of Sanctuary Demetrius Bhast is assassinated in his estate. Case unresolved.
• Alturiak: Councillor Wyric Crowshire is elected Mayor of Sanctuary. As the last Mayor of Sanctuary, he serves several hours before being overthrown by Sheriff Azrus Azzam.
• Having declared martial law, Sheriff Azzam temporarily assumes the position of Overseer, reverting to his status as Sheriff after the next election. He completely restructures Sanctuary politics and replaces the old legislation. With supreme political power, the harsh but fair Sheriff Azzam remains the official ruler of Sanctuary, and despite attempts to overthrow him it is not publicly known how a replacement will be found.
• Kythorn: New Dunwarren is reunified with Old Sanctuary.
• Flamerule: Zovaldar, a mummified giant aflame, leads an army of formians first to the home of the Shadow Tribe kobolds by the old Sslal'teesh ruins, where he is driven off by Etorix, since to the gates of Sanctuary. The attack is repelled and brave citizens, most of them law enforcers, pursue Zovaldar to his crypt where he is defeated.
• Eleasis: The Spellguard Magocracy is dissolved. While Spellguard Commander Simms retains his post, the Order of the Spellguard now ultimately answers to Sheriff Azzam.
• Eleint: Aleczumberzeil te Esoterotept, or Scholar, as he refers to himself, has slowly been gathering power. He is now a highly sought after criminal, wanted for murder, animation of the dead, and other offenses.
• Mycopolis is overrun in a matter of hours. Former Councillor Gaeserric and his servant Gundahar the Aphasiac leave the ward under the premise of hunting deep lizards; the remaining Clan Cave Worm barbarians are brutally slaughtered by an unknown force; Mynolae disappears without trace; and the Slugcrawl goblin tribe settle down in the chaotic wasteland.
• As a reward for loyal service throughout his terms, Sheriff Azzam extends some of his political power to Councillor-now-Chairman Crowshire. The Sheriff still rules supremely, and it remains unknown who is to eventually follow in his footsteps.
• Marpenoth: A large ensemble of citizens and Lowerites, both, move on the Slugcrawl tribe. Mycopolis has been sealed off completely, waiting for the inevitable attack. After a long battle, the Canal Ward flows red with the blood of man and goblin, and the Slugcrawl tribe has been all but wiped out.
• The Sanctuary Watch and the Order of the Spellguard occupy the once-again populated Canal District, which has returned to its original state before Mynolae's influence, except for there being more citizens from Old Sanctuary than previously. The occupation proceeds smoothly with few casualties.
• Uktar: Councillor Crowshire is stripped of his title of Chairman and only barely makes it to the Council, presumably due to a clear detachment from reality resulting in a series of scandalous trials. The honour is not extended to a different Councillor.
• The Council passes a budget with an all-time low Discretionary allocation of no more than 2% in an attempt to salvage Sanctuary's dying economy.
• After a period of inactivity, Aleczumberzeil te Esoterotept yet again draws attention to himself by announcing his plans to assault Ysinode with an army of undead. The Scholar and approximately a dozen people set out not to be seen again.
• A party at the Donrick Estate has fatal consequences. After being interrupted by a horde of undead, the intellectually challenged Roarak Donrick remains as the sole surviving heir to Jadderly Donrick's legacy.
• Marshall Greer disappears in an attack by Chosen. Casualties are kept few, purportedly because of Lt. Lothor's quick judgment and skill-at-arms.

Source Material

PUBLISHED WORKS

Archibald, Mendrick: Sanctuary Historical Chronicles; article I. Archibald, Mendrick: Sanctuary Historical Chronicles; article II. Bhast, Demetrius: Age of Bhast, The. Esoterotept, Aleczumberzeil te: Open Letter to People of Sanctuary. Grendshur, Erhurd: Reckoning of Law, The. Nikitovich, Varlam: Essay on Sanctuary's Dysfunctional Communication, An. Penrose, H. R.: Penrose Knows; issue 3. Penrose, H. R.: Penrose Knows; issue 4. Sanctuary Council: Eleint Accord, the. Sanctuary Council: New Dunwarren Reunification Treaty. Sanctuary Council: Spellguard Magocracy Reunification Treaty. Sureshadow, Thrania T.: Sanctuary Times, The; issue 5. Tyrell, Adelia: Early History of Sanctuary; vol. I. Tyrell, Adelia: History of the Bresley Family.

Blackrock, Falrinn. Crowshire, Wyric. Dakur, Saram. Derber. Donrick, William. Nikitovich, Varlam. Sigerlin, Delina. Thatcher, Nicholas. Vashan, Toman.

Sunellar, Valaron.