First Age

The **First Age** was the first of sixteen ages of Jerde's prehistory.

During that age, nine lesser "suns" orbited Jerde and accompanied the true Sun. Each "sun" disappeared every few centuries, until only the true Sun remained.

## Mythological events

* According to Prumthesankhe mythology, twenty male and female gods created the first ten humans at the southern jungles of Palkyras. The first man was known as Raun and the first woman was known as Wair.
* The first man and the first woman found each other by a river, where they hunted animals together. They became friends, and after they made love, they became lovers. Within each month, each of the other nine couples discovered and bonded with each other in the similar manner. Each of them was created with knowledge to make basic tools, farming, and hunting: the gods protected them from being killed by the beasts of the jungle.
* In Prumthesankhe mythology, a race of wild men were the creation of seven wild gods: these became the ancestors of the Greyfolk.
* Each of the couples began making their own calendars. Their starting date was either the date of their first meeting, or the date when they discovered sex.
	+ As a result, each tribe has their own new year's day on a different month of the year. It is one of two "great birthdays", the other being the date of their protoplasts' creation. Adults celebrate these new year's days by marrying or making love.
	+ The two months without a great birthday, January and February, are considered unlucky months as they are believed to have no life.
	+ In later times, the Auteans and Prumthesankhe marked the date of Raun and Wair's birth or creation as the start of their history. The dates of the couple's meeting or first sex was regarded as a day of romance.
* According to Tuksharan mythology, the first tribes of humanity were descended from the stellar gods Napce, Parce, and their wives. The progenitors of humanity were supposedly Āks and Leksa, Parkca and Lietca, Āmbi and Njathe, and Wandau and Warci. The first settlements were Celda and Erpiece, becoming successive capitals of the resulting civilisation as meetingplaces for chiefs.
* Jakkand, Murkand, Trukand, Wrekand, Leukand, Nuekand, and Hjekkand were created from the sweat of Napce and Parce. They later become the ancestors of the Greyfolk.
* Seven months after their first meeting or bonding, each of the ten couples produced their own children, and when the children reached adulthood, a spouse was created for each man or woman. The children of the first man and woman were Pessal, Kletru, Zil (sons), Prukha, and Thira (daughters).
	+ Usually a new spouse was created when any of the first offspring dreamed of an adult of the opposite gender on their thirtieth birthday. On the next morning or night, the gods would then create a naked man or woman as that person's friend and then spouse.
* In the 4th year, the ten couples built the first shrines.
* In the 13th year, Papaks and Tiakna (the ninth couple) built the first temple, to honour the star people who occasionally visited them. This became known as the Temple of Stars, Wefishta.
* In the 25th year, Ruwo of the Hossor clan killed Tinthe in a fight. The gods banished him to the jungles, where he made various monsters with many monster women out of his lust. Ruwo himself became a serpent-man who hunts and kills people for fun.
* In the 29th year, seven sons and two daughters of the Awol clan murdered five men and three women. These murderers were banished eastwards, where they courted wild men and women to form four tribes of monsters: Kolithn, Wothn, Klethrn, and Skarathn. A fifth tribe, Thaushn, was killed and eaten by Ruwo and his band of serpent-men.
	+ The five men and three women are known as the Thilakswi, the guardians of the directions.
* In the 32nd year, the gods created a woman as Pessal's spouse. One month later, a man was created as Prukha's spouse.
* In the 34th year, Puia of the Mathna clan (a woman) and her husbands Tustur and Ulsand (men) were the first humans to die, having being eaten by wolves: they belonged to the Pulkhua clan. At first, the humans were frightened that they will be next to be eaten like the lesser animals, until the god Kneitha taught them to fight and defend themselves.
	+ Puia, Tustur, and Ulsand became the next ghosts, appearing in the form of wolves. Their tribe worshipped them as their totems.
	+ It was said that Puia wanted two men, so the gods created Tustur and Ulsand as her friends and lovers. To compensate their deaths, a tree grew from their spilled blood, which grew men and women to populate and defend the Mathna clan until it became the most populous of the ten tribes.
* Many years later, the ten couples produced hundreds of men, women, and children. In the 30th year, they formed ten tribes, ruled by the founding patriarchs and matriarchs: Jarka (Raun and Wair's tribe), Hossor, Mesan, Awol, Mathna, Pabeis, Welkit, Nerin, Pulkhua, and Anka.
* 230 years after the creation of the Twenty Protoplasts, Papaks and Tiakna were eaten by a leopard. Their tribe, the Pulkhua, mourned for them and killed the leopard as a sacrifice to their protoplasts. They interred the bones of their ancestors within the Temple of Stars, and elected Khelur and Raula as their next king and queen.
* Within 300 years, the ten tribes became a single nation ruled by the gods. One by one, the remaining protoplasts turned into gold statues and died, their souls joining Papaks and Tiakna in Heaven to become the high ancestor gods.
	+ Klaruwa was a descendant of Raun and Wair. He bowed before Raun as he was crowned as the first High King, crying as he knew that after the month passes, Raun and Wair will die.
	+ Klaruwa named his united nation, Kekhausel. His people became known as the Kekhaunkre, Kekhauns, or Kekhaulids.
* 304 years - The Kekhauns explore the uninhabited north, establishing new towns and cities.
* 312, 314, 316 - The first three nations seceded from Kekhausel as they set up their own kings and queens: Lukair, Tulsal, and Wersil. At the start of Wersil's coronation, the first of the nine suns vanishes from the sky.
* 356 years after creation, the peoples of the Kekhaulid nations were swept by a wave of creativity, spurring thousands of men, women, and children to create beautiful works of art. Their sheer creativity caused four gods and four goddesses to burst into existence: two goddesses and one god were white, and the others were black.
* The white gods create three new races in the north and southwest, while the black gods create five new races at a continent to the east. The white races became the ancestors of the Mannurlings, the Ardeschen and proto-Tuksharans, and the Pelgir; while the black races became the ancestors of the Rifandians. All eight races were gifted with unusually-high skill in artistic creativity and intelligence, as these gods wanted to see them make exceptionally beautiful works.
* According to the Nordic peoples of Jerde, the first humans, Ask and Embla, were created.
* Āp, the god of water, teaches Kulpind and Thunau to farm, dig wells and ditches, and catch fish.
* While scraping wooden stakes into spears, Kulpind accidentally discovers fire and creates the god Winte.
* Nurikca was killed during a quarrel with Wasardo, becoming the first human to die. Wasardo is banished with his wife and offspring, along with the evildoers Mjendira and her two husbands. Several more gods were created to keep the human tribes in order.
* As more humans are exiled, they bred with the monsters that killed and ate other humans, producing monstrous tribes in the south. Many of them were forced by the monsters to produce their offspring, and then killed and eaten. Some willingly bred with the monsters, either out of attraction or to create their own warriors to destroy the human tribes.
* In the progenitors' era, pregnancies lasted for four days, and babies grew to adulthood in four more days. Threatened by the monsters from outside and by rivals from within, some women became hyper-fertile, allowing themselves to produce many children who grew up to become the first warriors.
* 576 years - Kekhausel is torn apart by a succession crisis between a northern prince and a southern prince. The northern prince, Wolsar, wins and banishes five of the tribes to the north. These five tribes became the ancestors of other races.
* Over time, the monstrous peoples gathered into two powerful alliances made of forty-six tribes, outnumbering the humans. In the west, the Barace became the first kingdom, with the first king Barcike ruling over his warriors with cruelty and pikes tipped with skulls. In the east, the Wäcrita founded their own kingdom months after, and raided and pillaged nearby tribes to kill and eat their members. Wäcrita was ruled by three or four cruel kings who drank blood.
* According to Ardeschen mythology, there were four kingdoms. To the north lay the realm of Pelxerei, and in the Ardeschen homeland rose the three mighty kingdoms of Baracha, Vaekrita, and Hcerixa. King Laeknavid built the first city and fortress, Lauporix, and lined its walls with the skeletons of his enemies.
* Laeknavid slays the great white wolf, Ohconde the Devourer. By wearing his pelt, he dons himself Vailokras, the Wolf-Lord.
	+ The Tuksharans referred him as Laknice the Devourer because he was a cannibal.
* The Barace build the first cities as fortresses against raids by the Wäcrita and other monsters. The first of these dread cities were Lapri (City of Skulls), Lawaje (Piles of Bones), and Jascake (Blood River). Lapri was the first capital.
* Barace and Wäcrita wage war against each other, seeking to dominate the other.
* The first major battle was at Bitenri/Bitnare Plain, between Baracha/Barace and Vaekrita/Wäcrita. Laeknavid wins and slays his enemy, Greschaar the Pale Blood-drinker, the second king of Vaekrita.
* 490 years after the death of Nurikca, Laeknavid and his armies attack the city of Erpiece. Even though he razed the city to the ground and slaughtered the inhabitants, he was slain by Warus the Furious. Both the king and the warrior die from each other's wounds.
* After 500 years or producing more tribesmen and tribeswomen, Āks and Leksa crumble to dust and die.
* As more murders break out within the tribes, the god Kanca creates the three Fates (Rutsra, Mirca, and Carca) to control the murderers' minds.
* Takus became the forty-fifth human to die after a bear killed and ate him. Ever since his death, humans began to experience fear. Men also began to fear other men who looked bigger than them; and women became frightened of men that looked tougher than them, hiding their children away from women and men of other spouses.

## Historical events

* The Atarud people were the first humans to domesticate raptors, before spreading their techniques to other tribes. A few towns among the Kekhaulids accept their training, as the rest of their people avoid raptors as dangerous beasts.
* To the south of the Aksi-Parcaines homeland, three other tribes emerged in present-day Ardesch: Baradsa, Wakrita, and Hrigza. These tribes were very warlike and aggressive, waging wars against each other to become dominant after a population boom. Baradsa had three cities, with Lauporig as its first capital. Wakrita had two cities, with Wikrid as its capital. Hrigza had two cities, with Snoira as its capital.
* Battle of Bitnar Plain. King Laeknavid wins and kills Greschaar.
* Aksiparce Migration - Prametje, the god of the aurorae, guided the proto-Tuksharans (Aksi-Parcaines) through the northern ice wastes as the aurora borealis, sheltering them deep within a mountain until they emerged in the other hemisphere two months later into spring. After building wooden ships with another tribe of wanderers, the proto-Tuksharans settled into what is now Tukshara. But in the process, he was unable to retain his form and his body burst into flames, becoming the Galaxy.
	+ West Tuksharans claim that he stole fire from the gods to secretly forge magic weapons, while East Tuksharans claim that he was sent by the gods to prepare half of the Aksians and Parkcains to migrate west into their current home to avoid their tribespeople descending into debauchery and violence. He guided them through the northern wastes using his dancing wall of green fire into what is now Tukshara during the middle of the First Age.
	+ Wherever the Aksiparce people went, they left behind fields of crops around soil near geothermal vents, their only sources of heat and light.
	+ The other migrating tribes went westwards, becoming the ancestors of all Slavs. From their tribes, the first kingdom emerged, that of Oruz and its stone circles.
* The Aksians and the Parkcains are conquered by the Barace. Their resulting offspring become the ancestors of the Ardeschen race.
* The Prumthesankhe, Minumakhins, and the Auteans become the remaining Kekhauselids. The ninth sun vanishes.
* The Prumthesankhe gather under eighty-five tribes, and the Auteans gather under several kingdoms.
* The tribal chief Kolesans founds the kingdom of Aute.
* Under king Meklasis, the surrounding four tribes join Aute.
* King Kathsos of Aute sends diplomats to the Minumakhins and Pelgirs in the west.

### Latter First Age

* A Zarandim prince and his followers sail west from a great war, landing in what is now Vozolaz. A tribal chief adopts his customs and founds the Kingdom of Assuwas.
* The Kingdom of Rai emerges at the deserts north of Vozolaz.
* Assuwas dominates the great lands around the Bavol Olhi River. It goes to war against the kingdoms of Prumthesan and Aute to expand southwards.
* Strange black pillars land all over Assuwas, unleashing monsters that devour and kill many people. Walkorudur, one tributary and protectorate of Assuwas, was the first to be ruined by the monsters.
* In the chaos, several refugees settle in the Paharal Jungle south of Assuwas. The Assuwelli colonies were unable to contact them, so they were presumed dead.
* A strange ship lands in the Paharal Jungle. Its alien crew take in the Assuwelli refugees and train them to fight the bandits.
* The Star of Erzesas sails down a river and helps the Assuwelli restore order.
* Bariwas lands on an island off the Vozonid coast. He is taken captive into the Star of Erzesas, and stops the Assuwelli colonies from attacking Prumthesan by killing one of their leaders.
* The Star of Erzesas sails southwards to Prumthesan and Aute, helping the kingdoms build better defences against a coming Celestial invasion.
* The Celestials invade Jerde. They were defeated by various human armies, aided by sympathetic Celestials.
* Some Celestials build magical fortresses in the lands northeast of Aute, but were gone.
* The last of those Celestial invaders rule over what is now Plaeskovia, to the northeast of Oruz. In their time, the whole continent was uninhabited, so the Celestials thought that they would rebuild their forces among the forests. As they happened to settle next to each other, their competing armies destroyed each other, leaving only magical ruins.

## Cradles of civilisation

* Aroxas River, Marnos
* Pelxerei Valley, Ardesch
* Sushin River, Zarandu
* Gilpeth Valley, Rabydos
* Irnoth River, Toralis/Vilon
* Ganga River, Prisapura
* Gim Ho River, Daizhou
* Iaro River, Gimbarish
* Kudonyeredzi River, Ronqo
* Plukhar River, Minamakh/Falturia

## See also

* Celestial Age

* Second Age

* Eighth Age