World History

A quick breakdown of the commonly agreed great era of history in Western and Central regions of the Great Continent.

The Long Past
Here be dragons, angels and demons. Very little is actually known about this period and the setting is full of vaguely insane academics proposing all sorts of loony theories. Archaeology instead of grave looting and religious mysticism as an actual field is still in tatters and the fact that weird shit like Nephilim bones occasionally turn up isn't helping.

The Ur Empire / Age of the Four Empires / Age of Many Gods
A sort of more violent version of the Roman empire that worships a large fire and war themed pantheon conquers "the known world" and collapses a few centuries later into petty warlordism, when their gods end up killing each other. During this period humanity worshipped hundreds of deities, most of which were grim, petty, vengeful and fickle which granted boons to their followers. Towards the end of the age, gods became fewer and fewer as they fought each other, became dormant or simply grew bored of humanity. The few gods that remained, like the Crow Lord and his prophets seem to be of the more sentimental or at least narcisstic side leading to religions with more staying power than the old pantheons of blood thirsty gods.

The Anarchy / The Early Church
Basically the dark ages. Peoples move around a lot and a god-less animist sea based religion known as the Church with a lot of saint worship spreads through the continent.

The Hundred Emperors and Thousand Lords Period
A long period which sees the return of civilization, based on many small hillfort statelets that combine into various decentralised kingdoms. The Imperial title is recreated mostly as a ceremonial post.

The Crow Crusades
To focus the incessant bickering of the hill lords, the clergy and emperor declare a series of crusades. To the north polytheist pagans are vanquished but their faith would continue to linger on in the great rugged wooded highlands of the north. To the east however the Crow Riders who worship a series of crow prophets manage to soundly defeat the crusaders and even strike back successfully. This marks the beginning of continued crow rider influence in the east of the continent.

Salted Cod Century
A transitionary period. All of the travelling caused by the crusades causes many new trade links to be established, leading to a more interconnected world and advances in navigation and accountancy.

Marble Renaissance
For many people this is still the highlight of human civilization. Many new artistic movements spring up, tall ships criss-cross the world, scientific fields advance with leaps and bounds and warfare becomes a very codified affair led by gentlemen in ruffs and scientist-strategians.

The Calamity
An enormous super volcano erases an entire island and plunges the world into a hundred years of incredibly harsh winters and cold summers. For the first few years agricultural yields decline dramatically and millions die of starvation. The modern calendar starts with this date.

Years of Winter / Great Dark Age
Civilization has a hard time coping with the effects of the super volcano. Some regions devolve into warlordism while others become hyper-centralised autocracies to deal with the constant famines. Cannibalism is common and wars for meagre resources become a fact of life. Many new religious strains sprout up to cope with the descending darkness.

The Age of Steam / The Age of Steam and Salt
The centralised absolutist states that managed to weather the storm settle into a complex web of alliances to keep each other in check. Centralised bureaucracy leads to more efficient economic output which leads to new scientific inventions. The steam engine is invented in Lungland and the industrial revolutions begin.

The Isthmus War
In a race to dominate as many markets as possible the great empires decide it's time to fuck up everything again and a decade long industrial war that leads many countries into collapse starts. War doesn't end as much as peter out as states loose the ability to fight.

Present Age
A fragile peace frequently broken up by smaller wars, revolutions and coups has settled over the continent. Great scientific developments born out of the Isthmus War are becoming commonplace. The Kiep Reaction engine ensures that steam power is here to stay and the discovery of vast deposits of lithohelium mean airships are becoming more popular than ever. Truly anything seems possible.

Crow Prophets Historiography
Followers of the Crow Lord have a different system for classifying history.For them history can be divided into the times before the first prophet and the 7 ages of the 7 prophets of the Crow Lord on earth.