Timeline

The following is a Timeline of the Arkivists Universe. It includes the Seven Major Ages of the Beforetimes and Aftertimes, which are divided into Sub-periods known as Eras. Each Period is further divided into notable years: which include major events, wars, or other developments in history.

This Timeline uses the Arkivist Calendar developed to replace the outdated Old Calendar of the Beforetimes. BU (Before Unsealing) refers to dates prior to the Unsealing of Ark Mount, and AU (After Unsealing) refers to dates following the Unsealing of Ark Mount.

## The Beforetimes

### **The Sweltering**

The Sweltering, also known as the Thousand-Years Summer, began after the cataclysmic event known as The Rupture, in which a massive hole was torn in the protective layer surrounding the world, known to the ancients as the Ozone. This hole allowed the sun's violent rays to beat down upon the world without hindrance, drastically raising global temperatures. The Rupture was created by the huge amounts of pollution and poisonous fumes generated by ancient humanity's world-spanning and highly industrialized civilization, which had reached levels of technological advancement that would be inconceivable today. The nations of this bygone era had already severely damaged the world, stripping it of its resources and covering its once-nurturing lands with sprawling cities of concrete and steel. Their great foundries and forges spewed endless clouds of putrid smog into the air, producing an endless stream of waste destined to be dumped into rivers and oceans or piled into landfills the size of mountains. The Earth was dying, but progress and development were the only priority of the ambitious elites of the time, and the sated masses they controlled became apathetic to the crisis. For over a century before this, ancient scholars had warned the ruling princes and moguls of the day about the impending doom of the world if humanity did not change its ways, only to be ridiculed and shunned by their overlords.

Thus the inevitable came to pass, and the Rupture triggered the runaway climate change that characterized The Sweltering. For the next millennium, the world would be ravaged, and humanity would face its first existential crisis. Massive heatwaves, wildfires, and droughts wiped out the world's crops, triggering massive famines which killed the vast majority of those who perished during the apocalypse. Storms grew much more powerful and frequent. Massive hurricanes and flash floods bombarded coastal lands while tornados tore across lands further inland, wiping out entire cities and spreading fear amongst the population. Disease became rampant, as plague-carrying insects once confined to the tropics were granted greater ranges by the heat, allowing them to thrive across the planet. The unrestricted beams of radiating sunlight also took their toll on the health of many, and countless souls perished from the tumors of the so-called "Sun Plague." The ice and glaciers of the world began to disappear and melt away into the rising seas, which gradually submerged the majority of the past's great cities beneath the waves. In just a few decades after the initiation of The Sweltering, civilization had largely collapsed. With the breakdown of order, chaos and violence were rampant among those still living, and mobs of marauding refugees began resorting to murder and other cruel acts considered necessary for survival.

The death and destruction that defined the era only worsened as The Sweltering continued. A world that had once been covered in lush forests and fertile lands, was now reduced to toxic inhospitable desert wastelands where nothing green grew, or the steamy disease and insect-ridden jungles that grew nearer to the equator. Around halfway through its duration, the world population had dropped from the billions to a mere few million. By this point, civilization was nothing but a lost memory, and the few who survived lived a stone age existence while hiding from the hellish landscape that now comprised the entire world. They sought refuge in ruins, caves, and dugouts; only emerging to scavenge for their survival, but sources of food were nearly absent, with most resorting to cannibalism. All the technology and learning of the past had been lost due to depopulation and fading importance of literacy and intellect. This, along with the complete breakdown of communications, caused the Old Worlds' great languages to die out. Hundreds upon hundreds of new regional tongues splintered away from their fractured mother languages, each entirely unintelligible to the next. Much like mankind, wildlife that had not gone extinct was forced to evolve rapidly to adapt to the harshness of the climate. Leading to the creation of entirely new species of animals that were often much larger, stronger, and more aggressive than the ones that had existed before.

Around halfway into its duration, The Sweltering had reached its twilight, and the climate began to cool and stabilize at a snail's pace. The seas finally ceased their engulfment of the world, and the coastlines of the reshaped continents' had once more become entrenched and defined. They were met by fresh water, which had once again begun to trickle down the dry riverbeds from the mountains of the interior. Plants and flowers slowly began to sprout from the dehydrated soils, and soon enough, the Earth became green once more. The grasses and mosses gave way to blossoming virgin forests that encroached upon the sun-baked ruins of ancient cities and infrastructure that had been spared from the waves. The drastically altered wildlife became more visible and began to multiply across the face of the Earth, bringing along with them new ecosystems and life.

Finally, in the last centuries of The Sweltering, the climate had finally become tolerable enough for humans, and the first men and women of the new world emerged from their hideouts to repopulate the world. Throughout the endless barrage of trials and tribulations it was forced to endure, mankind had somehow managed to persist, and now nature had granted it a second chance.

The traditional date for the end of The Sweltering is marked by the Unsealing of Ark Mount, when the recorded history of the New World commences with the emergence of the Arkivists.

## Aftertimes

### **Salvage Age**

The Salvage age began with the Unsealing of Ark Mount by the Prophet Ausra, the founder and first Provost of the Arkivist College, and the first Arkivist to set foot in the New World. A few centuries prior to the Unsealing, the few bands of men and women that managed to survive the hellish trials of The Sweltering emerged from their refuges during the milder, yet still dangerous latter parts of the destructive period to wander and repopulate the New World. Ausra's Arkivists only emerged when the Sweltering was determined to have completely ended and encountered a world unlike the one of the Beforetimes prior to the sealing of their Ark. The rising sea reshaped the continents, the climates shifted, and the flora and fauna of the world evolved into new species after enduring centuries of hardship. After establishing a new homeland for the Arkivists in Kohlratia, Ausra commanded her Seven Sages to contact the various new tribes of the Far West and teach them the basics of civilization, initiating the first phase of the Arkivists' plan of Re-Enlightenment. The primitive bands of survivors had since begun to group together, forming tribes that scavenged the overgrown ruins of the ancients for metals to make tools and weapons, giving the Salvage Age its name. Now it was the Arkivist's duty to set the small tribes on the path of their planned restoration of urban civilization.

Over the course of the next several centuries, the tribes which the Arkivists educated gradually developed new city-states and kingdoms, the first civilizations seen since the Beforetimes. These new entities created unique systems of government, social hierarchies and traditions, and religious pantheons of "Gods" based on the ancient men and women of renown seen portrayed by the crumbling statues, murals, and monuments of the bygone past. Some of these civilizations grew powerful, such as Calafia and the cities of Ar'Sonia, whose rulers attempted to emulate the power and glory of the ancients by ordering the construction of great temples and palaces. By the close of the First Millennium AU, civilization was firmly entrenched in the western part of Normeriga; with the realms of Calafia, Nubada, Ar'Sonia, Nabeehoa, Puebloa, Mexihco, Texhuss, and Arkivist Kohlratia all developing intricate cultures and societies by the middle of this period. However, the majority of Normeriga was still tribal during the Salvage Age, living as either hunter-gatherers or nomadic pastoralists and following religions based around animism or ancestor worship.

Starting in the Second Millennium AU, new civilizations were in the process of being formed in the eastern lands surrounding the Muesipp Sea. The Muesippians were a maritime people, who descended from the survivors of the ancient lands that once existed beneath the sea which they took their name from. Originally, the Muesippians consisted of tribes of fishermen and swamp dwellers who inhabited small floating villages. The Muesippians had learned of civilization from the Texhun's, and took to establishing mercantile trading posts and colonies across the shores of the Muesipp Sea and beyond. These colonies soon came to develop into city-state republics called Parishes, whose citizens elected their own rulers. In fact, Arkivist scholars consider the Muesippians to be the first people to adopt Democracy since the Beforetimes. Some of these Parishes, such as Fifolet, Olsau, and Archevele, grew into powerful trading centers that sent out large merchant and naval fleets which sailed all around eastern Normeriga in search of new peoples and nations to trade with.

One of the peoples who traded with the Muesippians, the Laeklunders, constructed a settlement on the strategic straits of Linoy, which connected the Muesipp Sea to the Northern Seas. They named their new city Khago, a bastardization of the name of a once great city whose towering ruins overlook it. The small Khagoan city-state formed a republic similar to the Muesippian cities, led by a senate comprised of the elite families of the city known as the Aldermanry. The small republic established control of the surrounding region of Linoy, and then sought to take control of the other cities and tribes of the Laeklunds. By the end of the Salvage Age Khago had succeeded in doing this and the Republic of Khago became a powerful force in the east.

During the last few centuries of the Salvage Age, the first new empires began to arise: the great warriors of Nabeehoa conquered the city-states of Ar'Sonia and Puebloa, and the Calafians expanded southwards to conquer the mercantile cities of the Baja Peninsula. These two new great powers then went to war over control of the wealthy gambling city of Vayguzz, which lay at the terminus of several rich caravan routes. After two decades of bloodshed, the conflict became locked in a stalemate that exhausted each side's wealth and resources. This vulnerable situation set the stage for the soon-to-come conquest of much of the Far West by the rising Mexihcotl Empire during the reign of its first ruler, Itzmalli, whose unification of Mexihco marked the end of the Salvage Age and the beginning of the Expansion Age.

### **Expansion Age**

The Expansion age began with the unification of Mexihco by the emperor (Gran Tlatoani), Itzmalli Tonaltoca, which immediately preceded the rise of the Mexihcotl Empire to become the first truly massive and multicultural Empire of the New World. In fact, the defining feature of the Expansion Age was the rise and fall of great empires that built not only great armies but also the first large and organized metropolises with populations that reached into the hundreds of thousands, efficient state-owned road networks that followed the paths once carved by ancient highways, complex systems of local administration and governance, and well established legal codes. The general security these empires provided facilitated the increased trade and transmission of ideas between peoples and nations, leading to new developments in religion, science, and political thought.

The first centuries of the age saw the Mexihcotl Empire reach its peak of power, spanning from the Mayan Cities at the southern extremity of the continent all the way up to Calafia in the north. The Empire allowed great autonomy to its subject peoples, so long as tributes were paid to the Emperor (Gran Tlatoani), who ruled from the great city of Anahuac, a city of 700,000 at its height built on the earth-sunken ancient ruins of Mexico City.

The Mexihcotl invaded Texhuss, beginning the long and bloody TexMex War. Texhuss, which at the time was a collection of decentralized feudal baronies, was known warrior class, the Rangers, who fought as strong heavy cavalry. Something which the Mexihcotl had no experience fighting against. The initial phases of the massive invasion were successful until the disorganized Texhun Barons united under the banner of the first King of Texhuss, Shermuhn, whose Ranger cavalry crushed the Mexihcotl light infantry with ease. Shurmuhn's royal army pushed the Mexicohtl back across the Granrio, proving the Mexihcotl were not invincible. A few decades later, Shurmuhn's grandson, Gunnar, went on to conquer all of Mexihco's territories in the Far West, bringing the great empire to its knees, and leading to its collapse into civil war. The formerly backwater country of Texhuss was now brought to the forefront of civilization.

Gunnar established the capital of his short-lived empire at the small desert trading port of Quochaela in Calafia, transforming it into a grand city of palaces and monuments during his brief reign. Gunnar's generals were angered by their leader's adoption of many elements of Calafian culture, which they considered effeminate and strange, and decided to assassinate him. After the great conqueror's death, his generals feuded over who should take control of the Empire, and a civil war broke out between them. The empire Gunnar had created lasted just six years and was now divided between his generals into the kingdoms of Texhuss, Puebloa, Ar'Sonia, and Calafia. These states (excluding Texhuss itself) were each ruled over by a tiny Texhun Elite, which gradually, over time, adopted the traditions, culture, and Gods of their indigenous western subjects, who greatly outnumbered them. Texhun then became the main language of politics, trade, and education in the western lands of the continent, spoken alongside the many local languages of the region.

Since the establishment of Khago at the end of the Salvage Age, its Republic had become a major power and turned its attention south to the lucrative trade routes of the Muesipp Sea. These sea lanes were controlled by the numerous Muesippian city-states, who possessed powerful naval forces manned by sailors with far more experience than the Khagoans. Sensing the emerging threat of the Khagoan Republic, the city-states banded together to form the Muesippian League, a loose confederacy of various parishes led by the powerful city of Fifolet.

The Muesippians and Khagoans fought three bloody wars, culminating in the Khagoan destruction of Fifolet and the annexation of all the lands surrounding the Muesipp Sea by the burgeoning republic. During the wars, the Khagoans adopted many of their enemy's naval shipbuilding techniques and tactics and constructed a powerful fleet capable of projecting power across the Muesipp Sea. The Muesippian city-states either switched allegiance to Khago or were destroyed while attempting to maintain their sovereignty. For the first time, the eastern portion of the continent was largely dominated by a single power.

The sudden rise of a previously underestimated city on the fringes of the civilized world caught the attention of the Texhun kingdoms, which had controlled the west since Gunnar the Great's triumph over the Mexihcotl Empire. The king of Texhuss itself, Fluyd Kleethuss, attempted to take advantage of the new power vacuum left by the destruction of the Muesippian League by invading the island city-state of Raydeaux

### **Imperial Age**

The Imperial Age is regarded to have begun with the signing of the Protocol of Ark Mount between the Provost of the Arkivist College and the first Emperor of Khago, Don Wabbash. The Protocol ensured the autonomy of the College in exchange for the peaceful annexation of Kohlratia into the newly formed Empire as a new Satrapy led by the Provost. It also entailed that all within the empire (as well as some exceptions of those beyond its frontiers) could try their hands at joining the ranks of the college by traveling to Kohlratia to study at one of its many Monastery-Schools to take the ordination exam.

Shortly following the signing of the protocol, the Emperor went on to defeat his last rival and conquered other tribes and nations, bringing the Empire to its greatest territorial extent. Wabbash then suffered his only defeat against the Kanuck tribes, forcing him to end his partial conquest of Kandua and construct the Wall of Wabbash in Kandua Minor. The Emperor then died of old age and passed on his throne to the successors of the Wabbash Dynasty, beginning a new Golden Age for Khago and its many holdings. The Empire was the largest seen since the onset of The Sweltering, spanning from the sparsely populated misty island of N'Anglynd in the east to the wealthy and populous land of Calafia in the west.

The Imperial Age was defined by the relative prosperity and stability brought on by the hegemony Khago wielded over the larger part of the civilized areas of Normeriga. The security its legions maintained allowed for safe trade and travel across the many satrapies of the Empire, with only the occasional local revolt or barbarian incursion over the frontier briefly disrupting the peace. Vast road networks were laid out across the empire, connecting the various cities and towns that dotted its territories and speeding up the movement of goods. Trade routes on both land and sea flourished, connecting the various marketplaces and propelling economic growth, but also allowing for the exchange of cultural, religious, and philosophical ideas. During this five-hundred-year-long period, the population of the Empire rose to around 55 Million people, many of them living in large cities, a handful of which having populations that numbered in the hundreds of thousands, with Khago itself peaking at 1 million at the height of the Age.

Although all were given a chance to enter the Arkivist College prior to the annexation of Kohlratia into the Empire, the increased security of its reign allowed for many more peoples from more distant nations to travel safely to attempt to enter its ranks. Men and women would enter one of Kohlratia's many cloisters to study for the ordination exam. If they passed, they would join the ranks of the college; if they failed, they were given the option to either remain at their cloister and work as a Prole to sustain the college while studying to retake the exam, or they could simply return to their homelands. The greater access to the college fostered a renaissance of learning across the empire, with even those who failed the exam returning to their homelands with a greater understanding of ancient knowledge which would have otherwise been unheard of in their homelands.

The College recognized that the world had reached a higher level of intellectual development that had not been seen in previous ages and began to debate whether or not the time was right to initiate the next step of the Re-Enlightenment.

### **Stagnation Age**

The Stagnation Age was a time of gradual decline which took place following the drastically world-altering events that took place leading up to the Destruction of Ark Mount at the conclusion of the Mallasite Revolt.

## Timeline

### **Aftertimes**

#### Imperial Age (3500AU-4000AU)

* 3500AU: The Protocol of Ark Mount is signed.