The Great Encyclopedia of the Beandom · History
History of the Beandom
Three Ages of heroes, echoes, and discovery—connected by fading magic, stubborn legends, and one immortal wizard.
The Beandom is not one frozen kingdom or one seven-day adventure. Its history stretches across centuries, changing from a world of abundant magic and familiar quests into an age of fading wonders, then outward into a future of technology, time displacement, and the stars.
For readers, the clearest map divides the setting into three broad periods: the Age of Heroes, the Age of Echoes, and the Age of Discovery.
First Age
The Age of Heroes
The best-documented early period begins with the Uppercase Prophecy and the question of which “Rod-something” is meant to save the kingdom. The confusion draws together Sir Roderick 3RG, Roddy Squires, Jackdaw, Bellissimo, Grimblewaith, and others who do not resemble a well-organized heroic institution.
Their first struggle centers on ELM and the threat to the kingdom’s magic-bean harvest. Seven major quests follow, including wells, pirates, phoenixes, magical music, and the search for the One Bean. The complete record appears in A Wonderful Week for a Quest.
The Great Change
The original heroes do not remain young forever. Kingdoms change, magic weakens, and the bright certainties of the Age of Heroes become stories told by later generations. Jackdaw is the great exception. Immortal and still tethered to the world, he survives long enough to watch history simplify his friends into legends.
This transition is a long fading rather than one clean date. Old places disappear or are transformed, surviving artifacts become difficult to separate from myths, and the Beandom becomes an echo of itself.
Second Age
The Age of Echoes
Centuries after the original quests, the Beandom’s past remains active through memory, old powers, lingering threats, and spirits. Jackdaw—known in later eras through identities including Sir Jacques Dawkins and J.D. Zaubermann—carries firsthand knowledge that no ordinary historian could possess.
Through J.D.’s ghost watch, spirits such as Sir Roderick and Bellissimo can briefly return. The Refried Trilogy, beginning with Death/Wish, belongs to this Age of faded magic, immortality, and old friendships.
From Kingdom to Cosmos
Technology advances, J.D. adapts, and time itself becomes less reliable. Old Beandom powers do not vanish simply because the setting acquires spacecraft. They return in altered forms, revealing that fantasy history and cosmic history were never entirely separate.
Third Age
The Age of Discovery
The Age of Discovery carries the Beandom into a broader universe. J.D. becomes a reluctant starship captain, ancient magic intersects with unfamiliar technology, and explorers discover that forgotten threats may have survived beyond the places history remembered to search.
A Wonderful Day for a Launch begins this era of time travel, cosmic mysteries, and rediscovered Beandom lore.
Recommended Reading Order
- A Wonderful Week for a Quest — the Age of Heroes
- The Refried Trilogy — the Age of Echoes
- A Wonderful Day for a Launch — the Age of Discovery
For individual titles and a spoiler-light route, visit the Beandom Timeline & Reading Order.
The Beandom’s history is best understood as a quest: the route is longer than expected, several signs point in both directions, and Jackdaw has added footnotes to the map.
—The Chronicler
Featured Entries
Three Forces Across the Ages
These new entries trace three systems that endure beyond individual heroes: the DEM carries power across eras, Uppercase Prophecies redirect history, and H.O.B.B.I.T. records the Age of Heroes’ official expectations.
Kingdoms & Realms Reference
Where the Three Ages Take Place
The Beandom is the living realm of the Age of Heroes. The Netherworld preserves its dead, rival factions, and unfinished conflicts. The Sunken Lands preserve the buried physical realm and drive its rediscovery in the Age of Discovery.
Foundational Heroes Across the Ages
The People Who Turned Events into History
The Age of Heroes begins with a mixed-up prophecy and two possible “Rods.” Roddy Squires represents overlooked potential, while Jackdaw survives to carry the original company’s memories into the Age of Echoes and the Age of Discovery. The wider evolution of heroic culture is collected in Heroes of the Beandom.
Supporting Figures & Everyday Magic
The History Beneath the Famous Names
Wormtoe and Grimblewaith show how the Age of Heroes is shaped by people assigned to supporting roles. The magic-bean harvest shows how ordinary agriculture can carry the magical, economic, and cultural weight of an entire realm.
Culture, Creatures & Geography in the Age of Heroes
Three Systems Behind the Famous Quests
Whatsits preserve the history of people whose origins were never comfortably classified. Phoenixes hold rare rebirth magic under an annual outsider rule. The River Magus sustains the crop whose threatened loss launches the first great quest.
The One Bean Crisis
The Event That Reunited the Giant Clans
Grossina sends Bellissimo after a treasure giants cannot touch safely. The resulting Oxymoron quest awakens the One Bean, calls the sleeping clans toward Mount Ominous, frees King Ogeron the First, and transforms an ancient source of warfare into inexhaustible communal dip.
THE NEEDLER CRISIS
A Palace Falls, an Improvised Team Rises
Six months after peace with the giants, Nathaniel Nadle uses Wunderwell magic to paralyze the palace and weaken the wider realm. The Rod Squad breaks the glass blockade and reverses the crisis, but Priscilla dies and Sir Roderick leaves transformed. Nathaniel’s later report to Felgarath reveals the attack as reconnaissance for a larger campaign.
THE LEFTBEARD TREASURE CRISIS
The Vile Seed, a Restored Ship & the First Anti-Hero Crew
Captain Leftbeard’s theft of the Vile Seed leads to a Quacken attack, a sea-demon bargain, and decades trapped inside mimic chests. ELM and Fannie free the cursed pirate crew; Grimma destroys the Seed; and Leftbeard’s restored ship becomes The Cinder, carrying ELM and the residents of Misfit Island into a new era of anti-heroic day questing.
THE PHOENIX REBIRTH AND MAFAEA CRISIS
A New People, a New Crop & a Broken Badge
During the Dearth, Grimblewaith seeks phoenix regeneration to enter Mafaea territory. Yeahrti’s cocoa beans enter the Beandom, the Great Joaquin restores Fannie and makes Grimblewaith faekind, and the BPD Chief uses his lawful entry to breach the Mafaea’s magical protections. Donna Glocke remains undercover to prevent war while Grimblewaith abandons the force and begins watching the borders.
THE GEAR HUNT, CATACLYSM AND REFRIED ERA
The Age of Heroes Ends by Rebuilding What Survives
After the DEM breaks into twenty-one gears, the Netherking’s resurrection bargain sends rival companies across the mortal world and the Netherworld. Their searches culminate at Mount Ominous, where Grimma’s betrayal, King Magnus’s return, and Jackdaw’s Plan V trigger the final cataclysm. The transformed realm becomes the Refried Beandom, ruled by Grimblewaith and Wren and united each year on Quest Remembrance Day.
AGE OF ECHOES · DEATH/WISH
The Roderick Curse Returns Two Centuries Later
Two hundred years after Quest Remembrance Day, Sir Jacques Dawkins receives Hubert Veldin’s legal final wish. The resulting family search exposes thirteen generations of Goblin Pox, the missing Lively Relics, the divided descendants of Sir Roderick XIII, JABB’s celebrity-hero politics, and a struggle over whether history can be inherited, controlled, or rewritten.
AGE OF DISCOVERY · LAUNCH TIME
The First Launch Beyond Earth
By 1984, magic has faded and the Beandom lies beneath the modern world. A fallen DEM fragment creates GOPAT, J.D.’s time travel exposes the Treble future of 2026, and Expedition Red Leaf reopens the route to Felgarath’s prison. Five years of reconstruction culminate in a starship launch, carrying Beandom history beyond Earth.
Explore the Record
Move from the broad history into the people, artifacts, and books that shaped each Age.
Michael D. Young 