Arkivist Timeline

## **The Beforetimes**

The Beforetimes refers to any of the ages or years before the Unsealing of Ark Mount. The world prior to the Unsealing is referred to by the Arkivists as the Old World. It should be noted that to almost anyone outside the ranks of the Arkivist College, little to nothing is known about the Beforetimes.

### **The Age of Acceleration:** 1400BU-1000BU (Old Calendar: 1850CE-2250CE)

The **Age of Progress** began after Humanities research into the various Scientific fields allowed for the Industrialization of Civilization. It is generally regarded to have started with the beginning of the Industrial Revolution in 1400BU, and ended with the onset of The Sweltering at the beginning of the Age of Regression in 1000BU.

The Age started with the **Industry Era** (1400BU-1350BU or 1850CE-1900CE), which saw the transition from hand production methods to a machine-based economy. New chemical and metal manufacturing processes were created, and steam power propelled civilization to new levels of development. The powerful Nation-States of Uropa, Ruzya, Jaap'An, and Uesay began to spread their influence around the Globe, forming large empires. The population of the world began to explode to unprecedented levels, numbering above a Billion by the end of the Era of Industry, as urbanization began to replace prior agrarian structures of society.

The turning point of the Age of Progress was the **Transformation Era** (1350BU-1250BU or 1900CE-2000CE), during which the results of Industrialization saw the rise of major conflicting political ideologies based on ideas of freedom, authoritarianism, and the means of industrial production. The first half of this century-long era saw two massive worldwide wars, the first of which was a conflict between opposing alliances of Empires that developed during the Era of Industry, and the second of which was an even larger conflict between the burgeoning ideologies that grew within these Empires. The climax of the second world war saw the first use of Atomic weapons, changing the world forever, as now extremely advanced technologies gave humans the choice of whether or not to harness their powers for the development or destruction of the world. The terror brought by these wars led to the formation of worldwide systems of peacekeeping and diplomacy, but also the division of the world into two respective spheres based on the victorious ideologies of the wars, each led by the powerful ancient nations of Uesay and Ruszya. Both nations developed a plethora of these new atomic weapons but were deterred from utilizing them due to the risk of wiping out civilization, as a result, they engaged in an indirect standoff during the second part of the era. The end of the Transformation Era saw Uesay emerge as the victor of this standoff and the unquestioned great power of the world, albeit at the mercy of the great industrial capacity of the nation of Chi'Na.

The next era of the Age, the **Information Era** (1250BU-1190BU or 2000CE-2060CE), saw the world become increasingly interconnected. The development of a system of worldwide communications known as The Net allowed for the exchange of information, knowledge, and ideas on a massive scale. Efficient and affordable aerial transportation permitted the travel to opposite ends of the earth in less than one day, allowing for rapid large-scale movement of people and goods. This era saw the decline in the importance of the nation-state and the rise of major corporations that controlled the great majority of global trade and natural resources, resulting in the ultra-wealthy leaders of these corporations having vast influence over the decisions of weakening national government, causing much social conflict within many countries. The last years of the era saw a brief third world war between globalist and anti-globalist forces that saw the globalists emerge victorious, and the nations of the world converged together in Globe City (A renamed New York City) to form the first international government, the Global Union in 1080BU.

During the final part of the Age of Progress, the **Global Era** (1190BU-1050BU or 2060CE-2150CE), civilization achieved its highest point of growth and technological innovation under the Global Union (1150BU-1050BU). The human population reached its peak population during this era, and now numbered just over ten billion, the vast majority of which lived in sprawling mega-cities inhabited by tens of millions that occupied significant portions of the landmass of the world. However, the growth caused by these technological advances came at a cost to the health of the world, as natural resources were exploited on a massive scale to allow for the unrestrained development of Global civilization. However, the Union was slowly weakened by the degradation of the environment and the resulting mass migrations of climate refugees who poured into the more developed northern regions of the Union such as Uesay and Uropa, which were much less hardly hit by the accelerating climate change. These massive movements of people, as well as the rapidly depleting petroleum reserves of the world, created massive instability and tension within the Union. The Union collapsed when culminated in its collapse into various power blocs backed by Mega-corporations that fought to secure the worlds last remaining resources.

During the last decades of the Age of Progress, a group of extremely influential and forward-thinking individuals known as The Benefactors began the construction of Ark Mount in what is now Kolhratia to safeguard a large amount of the knowledge of the Old World in which they lived. A group of 13 males and 13 females volunteered to be sealed within Ark Mount to watch over and preserve its contents in the year 1000BU; they became known as The Twenty-Six, and they and their descendants would live within Ark Mount for the millennium before the Unsealing, becoming the first Arkivists.

### **The Sweltering:** 1000BU-1BU (Old Calendar: 2250CE-3250CE)

The Sweltering was a massive environmental apocalypse that marked the first half of the age, brought on by industrial civilizations' degradation of the world's ecosystems. The toxic fumes and gasses emitted by humanity's great machines and factories tore the Ether Hole, allowing the Sun's poisonous rays to beat down upon the Earth unhindered. This unregulated solar bombardment wiped out the world's crops in endless droughts, seared the skin of all living things unable to hide from the sun's wrath, caused violent storms on a scale never seen, and melted away the ice caps of the north and south poles. All of these disastrous consequences of humanities abuse of the world resulted in its population being reduced from the billions to a mere few million in massive famines, plagues (notably a skin disease known as the Sun Plague), natural disasters, and unrestrained flooding in which the rising seas submerged a great deal of the Old worlds lower lying lands and centers of population: entirely reshaping the geography of the earth and its continents. Only the hardiest of living plants and creatures were able to survive the ecological destruction of The Sweltering, and those species that did were forced to quickly evolve new survival mechanisms to adapt to the harsh climate of the era. The couple million humans that managed to survive the hellish era were forced to seek protection from the blaring sunlight and violent storms in the shelter of ruined cities or underground dugouts and caves, emerging only briefly at night to scavenge for what little food and water sources remained outside. Due to the incalculable drop in the human population and the focus of those few who remained on survival, all the scientific advances of the Age of Progress were entirely forgotten over the generations. In fact, the tiny bands of survivors developed an intense hatred of all technology and machinery, which they blamed for the destruction of the Old World, and anyone able to read or write was quickly labeled a sorcerer or witch and killed. This loss of literacy led to the death of the Old Languages of the Beforetimes such as Anglish and their splintering into hundreds upon hundreds of regional dialects and tongues that were unintelligible to one another. The only known people to retain literacy in the Old Languages were the Arkivists, who preserved and maintained their alphabet and writing within the sealed and protected confines of Ark Mount.

## **The Aftertimes**

The Aftertimes refers to any of the ages or years following the Unsealing of Ark Mount. The world after the Unsealing is referred to by the Arkivists as the New World.

### **The Age of Rejuvenation:** 1AU-1000AU (Old Calendar 3150CE-4150CE)

The Rejuvenation began following the end of the Sweltering and is marked by the Unsealing of Ark Mount. It saw the Earth's climate slowly begin to stabilize and repair itself, allowing for the resurgence of plant and animal life across the world. During this time the bands which made up the few million humans who had managed to survive the Sweltering began to emerge from their hideouts, where they formed larger tribes that survived via hunting and gathering. Plant and animal life began to engulf the environs of the world once more as they had in the times prior to the Age of Progress, albeit this time mother nature encroached over the colossal ruins of a long-since deceased world-spanning industrial civilization. The rising tides of the ocean finally came to a halt as the last of the great ice caps melted away, only to begin to reform on a smaller scale than before, and the newly reshaped continents of the world took on a more permanent form. The climatic zones of the earth stabilized but had been shifted slightly to the north or south, with formerly frigid lands becoming much more temperate and areas closer to the tropics becoming more lush or dry depending on geographical circumstances. The wildlife of the world which had managed to survive took on an altered appearance after being forced to evolve to the new climates they found themselves living within. Some animals that had been previously non-native to Normaerika had managed to wither out The Sweltering after escaping the zoos they had been confined to, migrating to regions suitable to their species-specific needs, such as the Red Elephants of the tropical savannas of southern Mexihco and the Dezuretian Camel of the arid deserts of the Far West. Gradually, humankind grew to adapt to the new world it found itself within, and entirely new cultures arose across the planet with influences from both the distant past and present. The Rejuvenation is regarded to have ended with the rise of the first new civilizations of the New World.

### **The Age of Salvage:** 1AU-1000AU (Old Calendar: 3150CE-4150CE)

The **Age of Salvage** was marked by the rise of the first civilizations of the New World. It commenced with the Unsealing of Ark Mount by Auzura in 1AU and marks the beginning of the New World and Aftertimes.

After deciphering the until then forgotten ancient language known as Oldspeak, Auzura and her followers formed the Arkivist College, with her being elected its first Provost. Auzura and her followers went on to convert the tribes of Kohlratia to Arkivism and established the Provostic State of Kohlratia, the first organized polity of the New World. The College then sent out traveling teachers known as the Arkivist Sages to reteach the surrounding peoples' the ways of civilization. The Sages traveled to Puebloa, Ar'Sonia, Xalifaunia, and Mexihco and taught the inhabitants of these lands agriculture, writing, lawmaking, construction, and mathematics. These regions became the new cradles of civilization, which soon began to develop organized social hierarchies, governments, writing systems, and armies. In time these newly retaught innovations triggered the growth of the first true urban centers of the New World, and more centralized City-States, Kingdoms, Baronies, and small Empires began to pop up across the Far West and Mexihco. The Sages taught the peoples of these new civilizations about great ancient figures of renown from the Beforetimes who embodied certain aspects of ancient innovation and culture, and the peoples of these new civilizations began to worship them as Gods who they believed had once lived among mortals in the golden ages of the Beforetimes. These new Religions became known as the Nostalgia Cults, and the different cultures adopted pantheons of deities based on ancient figures relevant to the ancient history of their geographic locations. However, not all peoples accepted the teachings of the Sages and instead continued to live a primitive tribal way of life, refusing to adopt civilization and choosing to follow animistic religions.

These newly formed polities began to interact with one another through trade, war, and diplomacy. Xalifaunia developed rich cultural and religious traditions under the reign of its Paramounts (God-Kings) and became a great power in the west. Around the same time, the mercenary warriors of Nabeeho revolted against their employers and established an empire that reigned over Nabeehoa, Ar'Sonia, Puebloa, and Kohlratia. Xalifaunia and the Nabeeho Empire then fought a war for control of Nubada, which served as a buffer state between their realms. This war exhausted the two powers and opened the window for the conquest of the Far West by a string of various outside empires over the course of the following ages, but the already firmly established nations of this region would retain their cultures even under the domination of these foreign powers.

The Age of Salvage came to an end with the rise of the first great multicultural empires of the Age of Reinvigoration, starting with the rise of the Mexihtec Empire, which brought large swathes of the Far West under its dominion.

### **The Age of Reinvigoration:** 1000AU-2000AU (Old Calendar: 4150CE-5150CE)

The Age of Reinvigoration commenced when the Arkivist College began to found Academies across the cities of the civilized world. At these Academies the Arkivists taught outsiders certain aspects of their ancient knowledge

The foundation of several academies by the Arkivists across the