The history of Harmony Bay

The Heaven’s Key prophecy was, for a long time, a simple passage in a collection of prophecies made hundreds of years ago. The book itself was collated from an analysis of spoken histories from a druidic tribe by an apprentice chronicler by the name of Aldous Plumbus. As such, the actual seer who received and spread these visions remains unknown, and by all reasonable measure it ought to have remained a simple historical tome, unremarkably sitting unread on a shelf, forgotten.

That would have been the case were it not for Gerard Bakewell’s sudden illness, and his friendship with a particularly wealthy individual by the name of Baron Jora de Lenitic. Both men were followers of Savras, god of divination and foresight, and so it was inevitable that Gerard’s fugue like illness that caused him to spout scripture and prophecy would set into motion a fanatical search for truth and meaning. The found it in a largely bland tome, sitting unread on a shelf, forgotten.

Gerard Bakewell had utter the prophecy word for word. Once it was unearth, a team of researchers funded by de Lentic sought to discern its importance. With the tensions of the world typically high between the various races of many planes, the assumption was drawn that mortal races needed a new land from which to build a new unity. Once established, and Heaven’s Key unearthed, the light would prevail against the encroaching darkness.

It was enough for the Baron to begin explorations across the ocean to the east, searching for this new land while the two men, aided by Gerard’s adult son Algenon, set about planning what this transformational expedition that facilitate the salvation of all mortal would look like. It took ten years, but when a vast new landmass was discovered, littered as it was is strange ruins, was reported the researchers were consulted at length. And so the Ancient Expanse was named, and crowned as the new future of mortality.

Many ships were sent out in advance to prepare, while Jora de Lenitic constructed the truly massive ship he named New Harmony. A crew was assembled, as well a host of representatives from various arcane, military, and divine fields; the Ancient Expanse’s first settlement was to be fully functional almost immediately with complete representation of the full breadth of mortal concerns. The responsibility for providing the required guidance to success was handed to Algenon Bakewell, Gerard’s son.

The journey took three months, and when they arrived the hull of New Harmony became the raw materials through which Harmony bay was hammered into being. A frontier society quickly took hold, building on the artisans and labour that had been sent before. This outpost was diverse, disparate, and only the first step in creating a new seat of power for mortal races, and the staging post for the discovery of Heaven’s Key.