Aethra ☰
During Sentients’ time on Aethra, there have been 5 Ages, characterized by their most significant event(s) and briefly described below. Prior to the creation of the Median calendar in the Age of Peace, these Ages were not referred to as such and history was not categorized as it is now. Ages that passed prior to the creation and adoption of the Median Calendar were named after their most significant aspects, while ages that start after its adoption will be named after whatever it was that brought the prior age to an end.
Additionally, since the Median calendar was not invented until the Age of Peace - 3,897 years since the Awakening of the Humanoids - each culture and continent utilized their own method of recording history and the major events of ages gone; the Humanoid races, for instance, simply recorded the number of years that had passed since their Awakening, e.g. 1,231 Post-Awakening - Post for short - or 684 Pre-Awakening - Pre for short - for instance.
Since the Median Calendar was based largely on the most common date-keeping conventions amongst the various Humanoid races, it retained their method of tracking years and referring to years past, with the only alteration to the latter being the common convention of adding what Age the writer is referring to after, or sometimes before, the year. For example, if a historian were recounting an event that occurred during the 503rd year of the Age of the Dragon, they would typically put 2,481 Post (503 AoDragon), or possibly instead put 503 AoDragon (2,481 Post).
In general, not everyone goes about knowing the full history of the world, even in relatively well-educated societies. Should a character attempt to recall or ascertain a bit of
knowledge about a given period of history, have them make a Lore check, using the table below as a guideline to determine the DR of the check. Depending on the exact circumstances
under which the check is made, it may be prudent to grant advantage to the check-maker or to lower the DR a bit, e.g. a character that acquires a book specifically pertaining to
the period of history in question could reasonably be granted advantage, or a scholar of Precursor history would understandably have an easier time recalling information about them.
Depth of Knowledge. The initial DR of the check is determined by the depth of knowledge required to know about the subject of the character's inquiry, and comes in 4 varieties:
Time Passed. For every 50 years that have passed since the event, add .5 to the DR of the check, e.g. if an event happened 1,000 years ago, the DR of the check would increase by 10.
Distance. For every 100 kilometers away from where the inquiring creature resides or grew up, add .5 to the DR of the check. For example, if a character wished to know about an event
that occurred 1000 kilometers from their hometown, the DR of their check would increase by 5.
Between the Cataclysm and the Awakening of the Humanoids, Aethra was a wild and desolate place. Across a planet that had been ravaged by the War for Dominance, monsters with a craving for the blood of sentient life roamed the deserted, destroyed, desolate cities of the fallen Precursors, their hunger gnawing at them, craving for a meal that was not to come for thousands of years, changing them, twisting their minds into unrecognizable shapes - some more savage than before, others less. Some of them even evolved into the very same sentience that they so desperately craved. At the same time, beasts remade their homes in the wildlands and the emptied cities - those that the monstrosities did not claim, that is - and some of them, too, evolved and changed, shaping their bodies and minds into ones more suited to civilization, leaving their animalistic nature behind and finding their own way to sentience. So was the shape of the world when the gods shaped their own vision of sentient life anew and made the decision to repopulate the world with their progeny: the original four Humanoid races, each embodying a different core trait of the near-perfect Precursors, and each in turn flawed in their own way.
The first age of recorded history, so named after the Awakening of the Humanoid races and their inheritance of the world from the Precursors - or so the gods intended, as the Bestial and Monstroid races had already taken over large parts of Aethra. Still, this age was a significant one for much of Aethra's population, and so deserves its own place in the history books. For the Humanoids, this age was by and large filled with them coming into existence on the continent of Ahkos, learning of each other and the Bestial and Monstroid races, and taking back the continent of Ahkos from all the monsters that infested it. This age lasted 631 years, and ended when the four Humanoid races built ships and decided to start exploring the rest of the world en masse.
History's second age is known as the Age of Discovery, so named after the numerous things the Humanoid races discovered during this time: the continents of Media, Frigus, and Sal'tu, the evolved Sentients, the ruins of Precursor civilization, the seemingly-unending monsters that plague the world, Aether and its various forms and powers, as well as a myriad of scientific, technological, and alchemical advancements that were made during this time. This Age lasted 1345 years, and concluded with the mechanical dragon Ex Machina fulfilling its promise to overthrow the world, ushering in the Age of the Dragon.
In the 1268th year of the Age of Discovery - 1900 Post - a Human/City Elf named Alset created a machine with the shape and cunning of a dragon. It was not the first of its kind, but it was the first that was deliberately designed to be as or more intelligent than any natural-born dragon, and as Alset was an absolutely brilliant engineer, he was eventaully able to meet this goal. Over the next several decades, the dragon, which would come to be known as Ex Machina, patiently bided its time, waiting for chances and opportunities to subtly and surreptitiously upgrade and improve itself until it was, in a word, unstoppable. When this time came, it revealed itself to the world, promising to conquer and rule Aethra for 1000 years. As thanks for creating it, Ex Machina gave its creator the gift of eternal life in the form of an undying body.
At first, Ex Machina fulfilled its promise of overthrowing the world and bringing everyone under its iron-fisted rule. So it continued for a few hundred years, with the machine-turned-god-king using its power to subjugate the people and crush any hope of resistance. After the first few centuries, however, Ex Machina realized something: it was bored. Ruling people – which at this point it considered little more than ants – brought it no pleasure, and being a tyrannical overlord was really not all it was cracked up to be. Rather, what Ex Machina truly desired was one thing, and one thing only: to learn, to do as it had always done and grow and improve itself. Ex Machina wanted to discover the secrets of the cosmos that even the Precursors had not learned of, and for the remainder of its rule, it set out to do exactly that, using every resource it – and by extension Aethra – had at its disposal. Eventually, it learned of the cosmos beyond Aethra's solar system and the Unknown Plane, and knew that these here-to-fore untouched realms contained the secrets and knowledge that it so desperately craved. So, when the 1000 years it promised came to an end, it promptly left Aethra, heading straight for the depths of the wider universe and eventually the Unknown Plane, ending its rule and initiating the Age of Freedom.
Characterized largely by Aethra being free of Ex Machina’s rule, the Age of Freedom was a time when many Sentients finally felt free to go out and simply live their lives as they desired, as they did before Ex Machina’s rule. Additionally, whilst in power, Ex Machina destroyed much of the Aethra's existing technology - as well as the records on how much of it was made - this age saw a great deal of rebuilding and remaking of that technology, giving rise to trains, guns, automobiles, Automata, airships, and the like. Lastly, the power vacuum left by Ex Machina’s departure gave rise to many new governments the world over, with some unfortunately ending up more authoritarian than others. A few of the governments formed during this Age are still in power today, though all of those that have survived changed and evolved in one way or another. This Age lasted 534 years, and ended when the worst invasion of Scorched in recorded history abruptly began the Age of Flames.
In the 534th year of the Age of Freedom (3513 Post) a colossal volcano in eastern South Media – which would later be named the Infernal Gate – appeared and erupted, killing over a million Sentients in the eruption alone. Far, far worse than the eruption, however, was the following invasion of Scorched, which fountained out of the mouth of the volcano like a geyser of murderous, bloodthirsty living rage. Thus began the Age and War of Flames, wherein South Media was, over the course of a little less than 4 centuries, taken over by an unending swarm of hyper-violent demons. Though fought against vigorously by the combined might of the Sentients of Ahkos and Media, with no small help from whatever dragons and other monsters could be convinced, this invasion of Scorched was unlike any other, and they poured unceasingly from the Infernal Gate no matter how many were slain. After 382 years, the Scorched were finally contained to the southern half of Media, as they are unable to cross water in significant numbers and the Dwarves’ Bulwark mountain range blocked their way North. Thus, the War of Flames was declared officially over, and the Age of Peace began.
The Age of Peace began when the War of Flames was declared to be officially over, despite the fact that the Scorched still infest South Media, and are unlikely to leave any time soon. Even so, the threat has been stymied and contained, and no longer appears to be getting actively worse. During the War, the nations of North Media and Ahkos united to fight back their common foe, forming the Allied Kingdoms, and though they were not quite as successful as they had hoped, their shared goal and heretofore unprecedented camaraderie brought the different peoples of the world together like never before, and it was decided that the allyship should continue for the betterment of all of Aethra. Thus, as the War came to a close, the Allied Kingdoms came together and created several standardized aspects of society that allowed it to function more efficiently and to the benefit of all: the Common tongue to ease communication between nations and races, the Aeon currency for a united, standardized economy, and the Median calendar for a univerally-agreed upon method of timekeeping. After about a century, pretty much all of North Media had adopted the new standards, and much of Ahkos and the more civilized parts of Frigus had as well; by the end of the Age, essentially the only holdouts were the continent of Sal'tu, which had always been relatively isolated from the rest of the world, and the more extremely remote settlements and locations of the world.