Timeline

The following page contains a **timeline** of the major events in the history of Morgaea.

## Background

*Main article: Calendar*

The most common calendar is the Ministry calendar, which measures time in "Ages." Each age lasts one hundred years; the current age is the Ninth Age, the ninth since the founding of the Ministry, which marked the beginning of the Ministry calendar. Anything prior to **1A01** is known as the Dark Ages, and denoted using negative numbers, and the letter D.

There are two other known calendars in Morgaea: the Adamantine calendar and the elven calendar. The former is still used in the Adamantium, while the latter is only used in scholarly circles.

## Dark Ages

*Main Article: Dark Ages*

The years before the foundation of the Ministry are referred to as the "Dark Ages", and are counted backwards: the year immediately preceding 1A01 (the first year of the first Age) is -1D, the year before that is -2D, and so on. Unlike the Adamantine and Elven calendars, the Ministry calendar doesn't have a year zero.

Reaching far back into unrecorded history, the Dark Ages saw the rise and fall of Elveshaal, the arrival of the first humans to Morgaea, the creation of most dwarven hewnholds and the Underways, the zenith of the Adamantine Imperium, the defilement of the Golden City, the first and longest Scourge, the discovery and loss of golem-making, the formation of the Grey Order, the barbarian invasion of the Adamantium led by the prophetess Sibylla, which ended in her betrayal and death, and the founding of the second elven homeland in the Sylvandale. Many of the events of this time period are known only from oral tradition and have been heavily mythologized as a result.

## First Age

*Main Article: First Age*

The Twelve Disciples of Sibylla compiled the Holy Tome from her teachings, but it's not until a strong state leader, the future Emperor Caecilius Volantus I of Maudet, that their cult becomes an organized religion. Volantus forms the Ministry as his new state's religion and has Augora I crowned as the first ever Matron. Shortly thereafter, the Second Scourge strikes Morgaea and Morgaeans turn to Volantus for salvation. In the wake of his brilliant military campaigns against the fiendish hordes, Volantus' empire, and the Ministry it represents, grows rapidly. The Anderan Accord of **1A20** establishes the Institute of Magic, a system that allows previously ostracized mages to fight the Scourge under the Ministry, and specifically the Templar Order's supervision. The Grey Order converts to the Sibyllan faith in gratitude for Volantus' support, further popularizing his religion. Meanwhile, the Sylvandale repeatedly refuses to help human nations against the fiendish hordes, and hostility between humans and elves increases. Although the rapid Maudesian expansion stops after Emperor Volantus' death in **1A45**, the Holy Tome spreads throughout Morgaea. Archfiend Patemis is finally defeated by the combined armies of the human nations, and the Grey Order, in **1A95**, ending the Second Scourge and starting the period known as "Rebuilding", characterized by rapid growth of culture, trade, and religion in Morgaea.

## Second Age

*Main Article: Second Age*

The Second Age sees the tension between the elven Sylvandale and the human nations, first and foremost, Maudet, escalate into open war. Although initially victorious, the elven kingdom is crushed within a decade after the Maudesian Ministry calls for a Crusade, styled after Sibylla's Crusade on the Adamantium. The Maudesian Empire is successful in annexing the Sylvandale, and scattering the elves once more across the world, now forced to live either in enclaves, or as homeless vagabonds. Another Crusade lifts the Adamantine occupation of Alepool in **2A80**. In **2A83**, the first Institute of Magic is nullified in Anderlay.

## Third Age

*Main Article: Third Age*

The Grand Temple of Ducailles, the religious center of the Sibyllan faith, and the seat of the Matron, is completed after two centuries of construction. Soon thereafter, the Third Scourge strikes Morgaea, but the Grey Order are able to quickly organize a defense, and lead the armies of both Maudet and the Adamantium to great victory over the Archfiend Biamut's hordes at Hunteron in **3A25**. The cooperation between two empires doesn't last, however, and in **3A87**, the great Ministry schism occurs as the "Red Ministry" cuts ties with Ducailles over different theological views on Sibylla's divinity, and on the role of magic and mages in society. The Adamantine Ministry elects its own head, the Patron, and declares the death of the incumbent Maudesian Matron a holiday in the Adamantium.

## Fourth Age

*Main Article: Fourth Age*

Starting in **4A40**, the Maudesian Ministry calls for four Crusades, dubbed the Red Crusades, to crush the newly formed Adamantine Ministry, and to bring the Adamantium back under its influence, with the last Crusade taking place as late as **5A10**. All four, however, fail to take the City of Adamantium, and serve only to further estrange it from Ducailles. Simultaneously, the Maudesian Empire attempts to invade the Drahanim lands, birthplace of Sibylla, but is repelled by the locals.

## Fifth Age

*Main Article; Fifth Age*

The still-ongoing Crusades against the Adamantium come to an abrupt halt as the Fourth Scourge breaks out. With the Maudesian and Adamantine empires less than willing to help, the elven Ranger of the Grey, Erenod, unites the rest of Morgaea, and slays the Archfiend Xurteus at the colossal battle of Ayesmare in **5A24**, giving his life to end the Scourge. So many fiends are killed by Erenod's army that many believe they will never return. But the Grey Order's iconic wyverns also take a heavy hit, and become extinct over the next two centuries. In the north, the future King Lontan Kaulden unites the Drahanim tribes, founding the Kingdom of Nordain in **5A42**.

## Sixth Age

*Main Article: Sixth Age*

This age is dominated historically and politically by the First Orcimar War, which breaks out soon after the first Orcimar land on, and conquer, the Adamantine island of Sudern in **6A30**. The Orcimar push deeply into the Adamantium, Ghallen, and Lysadore, forcibly converting their inhabitants to the Orc, before the human resistance organizes itself and repels the invaders. This age also sees the widespread hunting of dragons leading to their borderline extinction.

## Seventh Age

*Main Article: Seventh Age*

As the First Orcimar War draws to a stalemate, the Maudesian and Adamantine Ministries join forces and call for the "Orcimar Crusades" against the invaders. In the north, the Grey Order is banished from Nordain following a failed coup d'état by Ranger-Commander Aelaide Drysdale. After over 150 years and three Crusades, the Orcimar Crusades come to an end with the peace treaty of Loweyn, signed by the Orcimar and all human nations except for the Adamantium, who continue their struggle to take back Verullus.

## Eighth Age

*Main Article: Eighth Age*

In **8A24**, the Maudesian Empire launches its second invasion of the Nordish Valley, and successfully sacks the capital of Dersoden. Despite being driven underground, the Kaulden royal bloodline enjoys the support of old Nordish nobility, and continues the struggle against the Maudesian occupation in what becomes known as the Nordish Rebellion.

## Ninth Age

*Main Article: Ninth Age*

The Current Age. The Nordish Rebellion successfully drives the Maudesian forces out, and reestablishes the Kaulden dynasty's sovereignty over Nordain in **9A02** with the crowning of Baylor Kaulden. A short time later, Lysadore is shaken by a civil war, and the much maligned "Three-Queens Era" begins. After a mysterious journey into the Underways in **9A10**, King Baylor allows the order of Grey Order to return to Nordain after two centuries of exile. Nar-Lodahr, once thought by the dwarves of Ondrathum to have been long lost to the fiendish hordes, is rediscovered. Starting in **9A30**, far to the north, in the Welserine Wilds, a fiendish horde begins to emerge. In an attempt to end a "Fifth Scourge" before its even begun, King Renley Kaulden, and his forces, alongside the few Rangers of the Grey stationed in Nordain, prepare to face the bulk of the horde at the fortress of Genedara.

The events of ***Rangers of the Grey*** take place.