The Age of Darkness

Referred to in historical works as "The First Age", the Age of Darkness began with the arrival of the Nine, prompting the Great Migration, which was the last large scale migration of humans where nearly 300,000 men women and children left the southern continent of Orrh and traveled to the northern pole.

## Pre-War First Age

### Great Migration

The "First Age" was declared so *post facto* by the monks of the High Temple at the dawn of the Second, when looking back they chose a time 34 years before ever the humans met the Nine during a time known as the Great Migration, or, more properly, the Last Great Migration, to avoid confusion with other human migration events that took place prior to it.

In the Spring of the year 1 of the First Age a singular event was taking place in the night skies of the northern hemisphere of the world that was, at the time, called Indra. This event, was called by many names depending on the cultures recording it, though no visual records survive that could relate what the actual event looked like. In Karkasta it was described by the adventurer Ekrimanta in his account *The Fires of Urim*

> *And I looked and saw that the vaults of Urim were opening in the North and a mighty wind blew from thence, for three days and three nights. And golden light, like liquid fire, poured from the skies liken to that which doth sometimes light the skies of the bitter north, and a glow didst rest upon the horizon there.*
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> *Whereby I began to sound for a servant and, upon calling one to me, bade her go and fetch the wise man Iranod. After a time the servant returned and sayeth Iranod wouldst come not, for he was much in thought and deeply vexed by the events regarding which I sent her. I bade her return to the house of Iranod at my behest and forbade her from returning lest it be in the company of the wiseman.*
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> *It was three days and three nights whence she returned, all the time during which the wind didst blow from the north and the glow lit the horizon as would a dim twilight as I have written. However after the first night the fires that I saw there came no more. Vexed, I ran out to meet Iranod at the garden gate and gave to the servant a purse of coins for her troubles.*
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> *Iranod knew not the cause for the strange occurrence, yet mused long on its portent, he felt that a thing of tremendous and terrible potency had arisen in the North. He also begged my pardon for being late in coming for he was summoned first to the house of the King, who was T'yak, concerning the same. I asked of him what sayeth the King and he told to me the King was much stirred and was gathering to journey thence and to see the wondrous thing. Upon hearing this I gathered supplies such that I could muster and girded on my sword and shield and left at once for the house of T'yak...*
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Much of the accounts from Karkasta echo Ekrimanta's "fires of Urim" narrative. In the city of Upir they describe the same event as "the curtains of the heavens" being torn asunder and the Kasho in the east recall the occurrence as "cataracts of light." It can be surmised from the accounts of all cultures who saw the event that it was somewhat like the aurora seen in the far north and south but more widespread and more luminous by an order of magnitude to mark it as significant even in areas where auroras were common.

This event triggered several simultaneous migrations from across the Eastern continent. The Karkasti came up through the northern mountains where they were waylaid by Dragons loathe to let such a large number of humans pass. The people of Upir journeyed north after two years during which time the famine that beset them grew too dire to remain. The third and most famous civilization to make the journey were from the south in the land of Ohrr. The event was not visible from the Southern continent however the King Mananann and his son Siarn were exploring the Wide Sea at the time and returned with word of the miraculous occurrence, however there were few who believed their tale, though they had seen the auroras of the south, none of that land in living memory had journeyed far enough to see the northern aurora and many believed that no such thing existed, especially not on the scale described by the King and his son. However Mananann was determined, and sailed three ships from the city of Tirrah bringing his wife and daughters, his son and his family, and his son in law who was named Gwion, the same crew who had been with them on the first voyage and whatever volunteers they could muster. Sailing north it was they who arrived first in the bitter north at the foot of the great mountain that no man before had laid eyes on. What they saw there would change the course of history.

### The Nine Arrive

The occurrence which led to the mass migration of many human civilizations was the arrival of Elimsha the first of the Anwar, he foresaw the coming of man and called to his other brethren who arrived just as Mananann's ships landed on the stormy western coast. Humans were treated to a second glimpse of the shimmering curtains of astral light.

By the time the ships arrived Mananann, already aged and frail, was nearing the end of his life and so it was Siarn who made the climb to the peak where the lights converged. The climb took a full cant, it was bitterly cold and he was near death when he finally reached the summit, in a state of half consciousness he stumbled to the peak of the mountain, collapsing in the snow. He was saved by the Nine, who lifted him where he fell and at the moment they touched him their light filled him and healed him and he awoke, falling on his face before the shining beings.

The Anwar descended the mountain with Siarn, by this time the Karkasti under T'yak, and the Vulfi under Volfen Ulfhand had arrived, gathering in the icy valley. When they saw the Nine they all fell prostrate. Siarn led the beings to the tent of the King to find his father on his funeral bed, though weak and near death when Elimsha entered the tent he rose and fell to his knees, weeping with joy.

### City of Dawn

The nine did not linger in the north for they had come with a purpose, they spoke of a great power in the heavens, a dark power that would unmake all that the light created and return this Atman to darkness and silence as it had been before the Dawn brought light and existence into being. For this they had fled across infinite gulfs of Akasha, biding their time, waiting for their chance to make a move against the darkness, but the vast distances were working against them for the further they got from their celestial bodies the more their light dwindled. They had almost lost hope until Elimsha found this world in the light of a young Anwar, full of beings the likes of which the Nine had never known, for they knew only the stellar beings like themselves and the lesser wild spirits that were drawn to their light. On Indra they had found something worth preserving from the all consuming darkness and it was here they would make their stand.