Archaic Era

The age of the first beastfolk and humanoids of Astra. 
(Prehistory)
Dracosaurs 
Beastfolk 
First Humanoids  
Scaly Seafolk 
Saurians 
Serpentfolk 
(History) 
Snakemen  
Lizardmen  
Dragons
Minotaurs 
Mer
Chloreans  
Goblins
Fairies
Sprites
Fairy-Elves 
Elder Elves 
Celestials 
Dark Elves  
Gnomes  
Summary 
Begins after the Primordial Era with the Rise of the Beasts, ≈ 89 million years ago.  
Ends at the Ancient Age with the earliest Elvish written record, 84,350 years ago.    
During the Archaic Era the continents were drifting apart and the planet was teeming with life. There were plants and animals in the oceans and on land; vertebrate fishes and maritime beasts swam the seas, while amphibioids and reptiles roamed the continental landscape. Reptiles were dominant on land, while mammals had evolved into a myriad of creatures and beasts, including the first ape-men, who hid in their trees and caves from the saurians. Amphibioids, Saurian reptiles, and Ape-Men were the first humanoids.   
The early Archaic saw an Age of Amphibioids in ponds, rivers, lakes, and out of the sea, as creatures were evolving out of the waters to adapt to land. This proliferation of amphibioids ended with their own emergent intelligence, as some of the amphibioid beasts were beginning to cooperate in groups, communicate in their own language, and use their own their own technology.    
While amphiboid creatures were gaining intelligence, reptiles were evolving, and evolving fast. The era became an Age of Dracosaurs prowling the lands, big lumbering and proliferating animals, while other reptiles: The Saurian lizard-folk, were gaining intelligence. The amphibioids hunted the wild dracosaurs when they could, as they lived in the constant shadows of the giant beasts, ganging up in hunting parties and then hiding away into their underwater hatcheries. This continued for quite some time, with great amphibioid kingdoms prospering as they lived on the fringes of dracosaur territory across the lands, in mutualism, thriving on generations of reptiles; until the Saurians came.   
At this time, while amphibioid civiliation was at its peak, the humanoid bird-folk appeared, who lived high up in great eyries and would always stay out of the affairs of the other beastfolk. There were also scaly humanoid sea folk (sahuagin), and humanoid crustaceans (hadolids) appearing in the depths of the sea.           
Saurians emerged intelligent as humanoid reptiles that became even smarter than their amphibioid predecessors. They warred with the amphibioids, and in due time they mounted the dracosaur beasts, ultimately consuming the amphibioids, although without getting rid of them completely. The amphibioids found numerous remote lands, and were able to isolate themselves from the emerging saurians, while saurian societies grew powerful enough to finally overpower the dracosaur beasts (often domesticating them).  
During that time ape-men were the first to invent complex tools and to control fire, as they lived in the trees and caves of mountainous forests, of whom the saurians also warred with. The ape-men were chiefly defensive as they lived removed from such hostile terrain of machinating saurians, hostile amphibiods, and the roaming dracosaur beasts. They were also more susceptible to disease.   
After many wars, the saurians drove the ape-men underground too, and claimed their technology for themselves. Saurian civilizations had amassed in crude structures in the swamps, riverlands, and grasslands, while they could make weapons, tools and control fire. They even began to cook their own food like the ape-men, except only in rare rituals, as the taste on their tongues preferred the raw flesh of animals.
Sometime after the ape-men were run into the undercaverns and deep caves, there came an asteroid that collided with the surface of Astra. The asteroid caused massive devastation, volcanism, climate change, and even glaciation on the planet for a million years, leading to the near extinction of life. Roughly 17% of species survived, and only because of the aether.
After the asteroid event, some saurians persisted, but they were dominated by snakefolk. The snakefolk rose to power and built their own civiliation, with saurians on the margins and as slaves in their society, while the ape-men all lived underground. There were remnant amphibioid societies, and bird-folk would again re-emerge later in the era.
Snakefolk became more evolved snakemen, as their civilization flourished and their empires were unprecedented. The very first writing and advanced metallurgy took root here, along with skilled magic use.             
It was long into their reign that dragons emerged on Astra. During this time there were slave rebellions of saurians, who had also developed thicker skin, which gave them more armored protection against their foes. Still, the saurian slave rebellions would typically be quashed by their snakemen overlords. It was only when a group of saurians gathered up a wild team of dragons to use as a devastating force against the snakemen, that the day of liberation finally came. There was a great war, and from then on, the saurians became draconians who were dragon riders and fierce warriors opposed to snakemen civilization. 
Draconians also became equally skilled in magic, and rose to great heights of power. After some time, the draconians became divided on whether to keep congenial relations and trade with the snakemen, or to wipe them completely off of the continents. The draconians who wanted to continue war, after losing many battles, became isolated and were outnumbered, and so the snakemen lived on in distinct locations, and the draconians often traded with them. 
In remote tarns emerged the chloreans, who were humanoid, and blue-skinned psions. They most resembled the ape-men, with thick elephantine skin, yet were amphibious and could leap great distances. The chloreans discovered portal magic, and with their psionic power would at times of their choosing wreak destruction upon the other races. Chloreans in any case lived in isolated communities in highlands around mountain tarns and volcanic lakes, and were far few in number.
The chloreans built numerous monuments and structures to their psion gods; obelisks of great power and celestial design. A particular group of them befriended gnomes, and in their studies of the stars, they discovered a rogue planet that was on a collision course with Astra within the order of thousands of years. 
Together this group of chloreans and gnomes constructed a superstructure designed to realign the rogue planet into a new orbit around the star. The structure placenamed "The Ark" was also capable of reversing the gravitational pull of the bodies in order to periodically avoid new collisions. This structural mechanism would be used in later milleniums for just such purpose of averting catastrophe.  
Goblins also appeared in Astra later in the Archaic, in the depths of undercaverns in the subterranean dark. They evolved from humanoids had who diverged from the ape-men. The goblins multiplied in great numbers, and often were a problem for the other divergent descendants of the ape-men: Gnomes.
Around this time new bird-folk re-emerged.       
It was in the Archaic Era that Celestial beings visited the Astra through numerous channels and from outer-space. These Celestials communicated in one way or another, through psionics, planar magic, astral travel and projection, celestekinesis, etc., and with various races: amphibioids, snakemen, draconians, chloreans, gnomes, and elves, and even bird-folk. They probably made visitations to the planet and walked the surface, exchanging magical knowledge, making an alliance, and gaining loyal followers, and some Astrans even followed them back to their homeworlds. These encounters would stir religious sentiment, inspire myths, and lead to both benevolent and malevolent aspects of celestial magic use among the mages of the land. 
The draconians continued to war with the snakemen, at this point vowing to destroy them outright. There were more devastating wars and a great purge later in the era, leaving only a few snakemen societies left to their grasp. These remaining snakemen would persist on into the Ancient Age.            
Fairies emerged late in the era, possibly from a nearby stellar explosion that torrented the surface of Astra with astral aether and other reactants. Fairies were tiny humanoids that grew into sprites and fairy-elves, the offspring of which would bring about the first elder elves: The Elder Folk or the Elder Fay.
The Archaic was an era mutations and evolutions and beasts of all sorts, new magics, new civilizations, and the invention of the Elvish language that would usher in a new era: The Ancient Age.