I don't plan to include a full 'History' section in Legends of Alba. Currently this is about as much as I want to include:
Before ever there was Alba…
There were The Ancient Great Wyrms.
They claimed the realms of Sky, Sea & Earth from the elemental chaos.
Aeons ago,
Beira The Giant shaped these isles from the bare rock with her great hammer.
So began a hundred thousand and more Winters.
Generations ago,
Uamhasach, that grim hero of mortal kind, broke the rule of The Foo’ar.
Only the stones recall how the tyrant giants were bound in slumber beneath the hills.
A hundred years ago,
The invasion of The Lizard Legion was answered by Aoife The Radiant.
It was She who found The Hammer of Beira and, under it, united the Clans.
Today...
The Hags gather.
The Covens Call.
And The Legends come again.
It's meant to be just enough to provide inspiration but not so much that you'd trip yourself up trying to remember it. Yes: This is throwing it onto the Ref/GM and their group to fill in the blanks, but I tend to do this anyway. It's not only one of the things I enjoy most about RPG's, it's also better for me personally and the way I prep and run games. I'm more likely to remember something I've made up myself or that a player has come up with at the table than the 'canon' for someone else's imaginary world history.
But just because I don't plan to include it in the book doesn't mean I don't think about it. I think about it A LOT! In my version of the setting, the Ancient Great Wyrms are still about as strange dragons. I like the idea that Beira's origin actually lies in our own modern world, which she somehow escaped. Personally, I suspect that Uamhasach has more blood on his hands than the term 'hero' perhaps allows for. And more recently, I've been imagining a sort of timeline for the invasion of The Lizard Legion in which Aoife actually starts out in allegiance with them.
Some of these have made it to my table, others might never, but thinking about them brings the setting to life for me and ensures it's a place that I'm interested in and keep wanting to come back to. In a long running game, that's essential for the Ref/GM. So that's why I like to keep it vague when it comes to setting, because making it your own is what will make it stick.
-Till next time!
