Deep Time

## Primordial Eon

∞ The Primordial Aether births the Primordials

∞ The Old Ones "children" of the Primordials, form in the Aether

0 The Big Bang. The Four Dimensional Prime Material Plane coalesces.

10 BA The Abell Galaxy forms. This is the youngest known galaxy. This allows for Stars and planets more dense in metals than currently understood Population 1 stars, which leads to a greater number of naturally occurring stable elements, including Mythrill, Adamantine, Toven.

9.3 BA Sol Invictus forms in the Abell Galaxy

## Smelting Eon

4.6 BA The planet Aarde forms from the accretion disc revolving around the young Sol Invictus, with organic compounds (complex organic molecules) necessary for life having perhaps formed in the protoplanetary disk of cosmic dust grains surrounding it before the formation of the Aarde itself. There is a great amount of the metal Toven in the composition of the core of Aarde. So, much like Earth's iron core creates a protective magnetic fields, Aarde also has a naturally occurring magical field.

4.4 BA First appearance of liquid water on Aarde.

## Forging Eon

4.1 BA Late Heavy Bombardment - extended barrage of impact events upon Aarde by meteoroids. Thermal flux from widespread hydrothermal activity during the LHB may have been conducive to abiogenesis and life's early diversification. This is when life most likely arose.

3.9 BA Cells appear. Later, prokaryotes evolve glycolysis which continues to be used in almost all organisms, unchanged, to this day.

3 BA Photosynthesizing cyanobacteria evolved. The Moons, still very close to Aarde, caused tides 1,000 feet high. Aarde was continually wracked by hurricane-force winds. These extreme mixing influences are thought to have stimulated evolutionary processes.

1.85 BA Eukaryotic cells containing membrane-bound organelles with diverse functions appear and thrive.

## Hardening Eon

1 BA The first non-marine, photosynthetic, and multicellular eukaryotes move onto land. Plants.

750 MA First protozoa; beginning of animal evolution.

850–630 MA A global glaciation occurred. It is believed that this was due to evolution of the first land plants, which increased the amount of oxygen and lowered the amount of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere.

600 MA The accumulation of atmospheric oxygen allows the formation of an ozone layer.

## Tempering Eon (Current Eon)

### The Pregnant Era

535 MA Major diversification of living things in the oceans: chordates, arthropods, echinoderms, molluscs, brachiopods, etc.

510 MA First crustaceans, cephalopods (nautiloids), jellyfish, and chitons

420 MA Earliest ray-finned fishes, arachnids, and land scorpions

363 MA Aarde begins to resemble its present state. Insects roam the land and would soon take to the skies; sharks swim the oceans as top predators, and vegetation covers the land, with seed-bearing plants and forests soon to flourish. Four-limbed tetrapods gradually gain adaptations which will help them occupy a terrestrial life-habit.

251 MA The First Great Extinction event eliminates over 90-95% of marine species. Terrestrial organisms were not as seriously affected as the marine biota. This "clearing of the slate" led to an ensuing diversification.

### The Birth Era

250 MA The Marine Revolution begins: increasingly well adapted and diverse predators pressurize sessile marine groups; the "balance of power" in the oceans shifts dramatically as some groups of prey adapt more rapidly and effectively than others.

225 MA Earliest dinosaurs, conifers, and tiny mammals. The Primordials, thinking Aarde's unique magical field will let them enter the material plane, appear briefly on Aarde, but are incapable of existing here. The early dinosaurs they encountered were accidentally mutated and have a jump start on evolution, but most of these early species will not survive. Those that do are the ProtoTarak.

200 MA The Tarak appear at this time, in more or less their present form. These early Tarak are brown, as their colorations and diversification will come later. The Tarak can add the DNA of creatures they consume into their own. They put evolutionary pressure on populations to make them evolve ever more useful characteristics, which the Tarak add to their DNA.

195 MA First pterosaurs with specialized feeding. First sauropod dinosaurs. First blood-sucking insects and Archaeopteryx (ancestor to the birds) appear. The Tarak eat some and gain the ability to fly.

153 MA First pine trees, Orb-weaver spiders appear.

130 MA The rise of the angiosperms: flowering plants that attract insects and other animals to spread pollen. This innovation causes a major burst of animal evolution through coevolution.

100 MA Earliest bees, First crocodilians evolve. Earliest snakes, ticks, and placental mammals.

66 MA The Second Great Extinction event eradicates about half of all animal species, including all of the dinosaurs except those who were warm-blooded. Many of these would become birds. The Tarak are all that remain of some of this ancient biology.

### The Childhood Era

66 MA Rapid dominance of conifers in high latitudes, along with mammals becoming the dominant species.

60 MA The Tarak begin to diversify based on their preferred environments, creating the colors of Tarak we know today.

60 MA Diversification of large, flightless birds. Earliest true primates and owls.

55 MA Modern bird groups diversify.

35 MA Grasses diversify from among the monocot angiosperms; grasslands begin to expand. Many modern mammal groups begin to appear: first ground sloths, bears, bats, canids, peccaries, eagles and hawks. Diversity in toothed and baleen whales.

20 MA First giraffes, hyenas, and giant anteaters, increase in bird diversity. First birds of the genus Corvus (crows).

10 MA Grasslands and savannas are established, diversity in insects, especially ants and termites, major diversification in grassland mammals and snakes

6.5 MA First hominins.

5 MA Center, on Phase World, is thought to have been constructed. As to who the builders are, not even the native Prometheans know. They had not evolved yet.

4 MA Evolution of Australopithecus. This creature is truly intelligent.

2.5 MA The earliest species of Smilodon evolve

2 MA First members of the genus Homo appear in the fossil record.  Homo Habilis which will, after a few more evolutionary cycles become the Mali, along with Homo Erectus which eventually becomes Homsi, and Homo Ergaster which will become the Krasna. It is believed that Homo Erectus and Homo Ergaster were the first to use fire and complex tools.

1.7 MA Extinction of australopithecines

1 MA Ruins are left on Monro-Tet by an unknown race.

250 KA Anatomically modern humans, mali, and krasna appear. The Tarak eat a few and accidentally spawn another intelligent race, the Tarako.

50 KA The war against the Dominators. In the fighting most of the Elder Races are wiped out. A Black Hole Projector destroys the Dominator homeworld.

40 KA The Vaast, a race of evil xenophobes, rules most of the Anvil Galaxy. They are so cruel, that their neighbours band together to destroy them. The war lasts 400 years. In a last-ditch effort to save their homeworld, they build and launch the Meganaught.

30 KA Extinction of last Cave-Men, first domestic dogs. Anatomically modern Tarako appear.

15 KA The last woolly rhinoceros are believed to have gone extinct

12 KA The end of the Late Glacial Maximum. The last mainland species of woolly mammoth (Mammuthus primigenus) die out, as does the last Smilodon species.

### The Youth Era

11,500 YA An abrupt period of global warming accelerates the glacial retreat; taken as the beginning of the Holocene geological epoch. Meltwater Pulse 1, a sudden rise of sea level by 100 feet within about 10 years. As far as it is understood, after 15,500 years, this destroyed the civilization of The Sowers and plunged Aarde into another Dark Age.

10,000 YA The Quaternary extinction event concludes. Many of the ice age megafauna go extinct, including the megatherium, woolly rhinoceros, giant elk, cave bear, cave lion, and the last of the sabre-toothed cats. The mammoth goes extinct in Iahoa and Lokoa, but is preserved in small island populations.

10,000 YA The Kreeghor overthrow their Splugorthian masters and begin the foundations of the Trans-Galactic Empire.

9,750 YA Humans arrive in the Three Galaxies when several ships crash on Terra Prime.

9,000 YA Another sudden rise in sea level, Meltwater pulse 2, by 50 feet in less than 40 years; this concludes the early Holocene sea level rise and sea level remains largely stable throughout the Neolithic.

9,000 YA The mad General Jurgo Kilter begins the Altess Holocaust. Millions of Altess die to fuel his insane dream. The fight to stop him rages across half the Anvil Galaxy.

8,982 YA After an 18 year pause in the slaughter, Jurgo Kilter begins again. He is finally defeated.

8,000 YA Bronze Age begins.