History

## Pre-Shinarian Age (Prehistory)

Historians are unsure of what came before the Age of the Shinarians, since their culture was so dominant it has effectively erased anything prior to Shinaria existing. The only knowledge about this subject comes from the myths and legends of the various religions that have sprung up during the Age of Awakening.

## Shinarian Golden Age

During the Shinarian Golden Age, the world spoke one common tongue, the capital of this great civilization was Shinar, at which the great Tower of Babel was built. As well as having one tongue, the world was of one race, combining the best elements of each of the races that are now present; the tenacity of humans, the ingenuity of gnomes, the beauty and intellect of elves, the loyalty of dwarves, the inquisitiveness of halflings, and the strength of orcs.

This globe-spanning civilization lasted thousands of years until the events of the Sundering.

## Post-Shinarian Age (the Sundering)

At some point, the Shinarian Civilization split into three factions. The Atlanteans and the Lemurians split from the Empire due to fundamental differences in viewpoint.

The Shinarians sought Godhood by breaking the mysteries of the Divine Spark. They managed to enlist the help of powerful planar entities to try and eventually upset the balance of power between the material world and the other planes of existence.

The Atlanteans sought control of Creation by wresting control of Time and Matter. They had no religion at all and advanced themselves via what we would know as the Scientific Method, although supplemented by powerful magicks.

The Lemurians sought to preserve the balance in the Cosmos, and saw the actions of the other two factions as fundamentally unbalancing to Reality.

### The Tripartite War

War between these differing viewpoints was inevitable. Each of the factions started work on great, secret projects that were aimed at becoming the superior faction, or stopping Armageddon.

Atlantis started constructing an enormous floating device which could manipulate the flow of Time. This was so large that it held entire cities, lakes and mountain ranges. Shinaria's project was to harvest the power of celestials to distill it into the Divine Spark, which could then be wielded at will. Lemuria's project remains unknown, but is largely thought to be responsible for their disappearance (see Lemurian Disappearance).

The Atlantean project had early success which eventually led to their downfall. When minor changes in reality began to be observed due to preliminary testing of this device, the Shinarians led a full scale assault on Atlantis. This assault inflicted grievous damage on both civilizations, as arcane, chronomatic powers clashed with radiant divine might. This resulted in an uneasy truce between the two Civilizations, as neither wanted to be destroyed by each other or the uncharacteristically neutral Lemurians.

### The Lemurian Disappearance

Throughout the conflict, the Lemurians would change sides dependent upon which was threatening the balance the most. During the Atlantean Crisis though, the Lemurians were strangely absent from the war. Instead, all communication with either faction was broken off, and borders were sealed and protected by powerful primal magics. Any attempt to contact them or to cross the borders was met with extreme and deadly force, and with both the other factions having suffered terrible losses, neither wanted to risk another beating alone.

After many decades of silence, and after both other factions had recovered somewhat, they both attacked Lemuria. After blasting through the protective wards, both were stunned to discover that not a trace of the Lemurians remained. No cities, no villages, no farmland. Just pristine untouched nature. Unnerved, they retreated and set to rebuilding their great projects.

### The Destruction of Atlantis

Peace between the remaining factions was not long lived though, as Atlantis and Shinaria again battled and fought an increasingly vicious war. A victor finally emerged when the entirety of Atlantis was submerged and obliterated by a particularly violent attack. The remaining Atlantean forces conceded in unconditional surrender, leaving Shinaria triumphant.

### The Tower of Babel

As well as being the monument to Shinaria's greatness, the Tower was the crown of their great project. The rest of the project was constructed underground over several centuries. After the disappearance of Lemuria and destruction of Atlantis, Shinaria had subjugated and reincorporated the Atlanteans and used their technology to supplement their own project.

Just as they were about to activate the project, one of the Transcendent Gods noticed what could be at stake and decided to take action. It descended to the world in the form of a great Silver Dragon, and the Transcendent God thwarted Shinaria's attempts. The Shinarian civilization was crushed, the peoples and races scattered and their languages confounded. Their cities and creations were brought to ruin, and a new religion, Zoroastrianism, and a new race, known as the Dragonborn was created by the Cosmar Prophet Zoroaster to make sure that mortals were to never wield this power again.

Thousands of years passed, with only the extremely militant Zoroastrianism as a religion in the world. Knowledge that advanced civilization of any kind was stamped out, and worship was strictly regulated where the Dragonborn could police it.

## The Awakening

The Dragonborn could not control the whole world forever though, as the population of the world grew, the number of Dragonborn could not keep up. They were meant to be teachers and leaders rather than fascists and oppressors, and revolt and revolution was inevitable.

### Revolution

The Revolution wasn't planned, it came about organically. After so many years of oppression, all the various races of the world fell into open revolt against the Dragonborn. The Dragonborn Zoroastrians did not have the resources to cope with the revolts, and retreated back to their holy land of Persia, where they were created, leaving the various races of the world to advance unoppressed. They established the Sassanid Empire.

### Genesis of Pantheon

Out of the religious vacuum among the races of the world, various Pantheons began to be worshipped. Whether the worship begat the gods, or whether the gods reminded the people that they existed to be worshipped remains a highly contentious issue. Either way, this made the religious landscape a lot more populous than previous known ages.

## Age of Conquest

After the Pantheons were born, and over a period of hundreds of years, people groups and cultures differentiated themselves further from each other, eventually forming Nation states rather than tribal groups.

Throughout the world, people groups united, subjugated and schismed to the point at which borders could be drawn between the different groups.