Arkivist Timeline

The following is the history of the world as it is recorded by the Arkivists and their historians. Generally, the Arkivists have divided history into 4 distinct Ages, each consisting of several Eras. The first 2 of these ages consist of the Beforetimes or Old World, while the latter 2 make up the Aftertimes. The dividing point in the dates of the Arkivist calendar into old and new history is the Unsealing of the Ark and its passing to the Kohlratians, who because of this would come to be known as the Arkivists. Before the Unsealing (BU) and those After the Unsealing (AU).

While the Aftertimes have been extensively recorded by Arkivist Scholars the Beforetimes, especially The Sweltering, are poorly recorded. With the exceptions consisting of scattered dates from the Age of Acceleration that have since been deciphered by the College.

## Acceleration Age

The Age of Acceleration was a time of abundance and prosperity fostered by the many scientific wonders devised by the advanced peoples of this Golden Age. The overgrown eroded ruins of their great metropolises and monuments still litter Omeriga to this day, standing as a testament to the innovation of the time. In fact, many of the Simplefolk still believe that these monolithic edifices could only have been built by Gods and Giants who were said to have lived alongside mortals in a bygone time. During this Age, the vastly different Omerigan continent was dominated by the nation of the Usonians, who are said to have been the most powerful people of those times, bringing many of the nations of the world under their hegemony with gifts of wealth. But the latter part of the Age was marked by uncontrollable growth driven by ambition and greed, and therefore mankind took more from the Earth than she could give. The population of the world is said to have soared to Ten Billion souls by the climax of the Age, and the natural environments that had sustained them were stripped away with no respite in the name of uncontrollable economic growth. The Earth could no longer handle the abuse of its offspring and so began the apocalyptic Sweltering that marked the end of this age of seemingly inconceivable feats.

## The Sweltering: (1000BU-1BU)

The Sweltering was a millennium-long period where the world was subjected to scalding heat, ecological destruction, mass famine and disease, and unending floods and storms. It resulted from unrestrained progress-fueled exploitation of the natural world committed by the peoples of The Beforetimes, such as the fabled Usonians. Although the signs of the earth's declining health over a century, especially towards the last decades leading up to the Sweltering, it was not until the event known as the Great Tipping that humanity was put through its most arduous trial. The Great Tipping started when one major ecological disaster triggered another, and so on; and eventually mankind's toll on the earth plunged it into a downward spiral of climatic and natural destruction that could no longer be reversed.

Nearly all of The Sweltering's history is shadowy and full of legend and myth, having been lost to the sands of time. This was due to the near-complete death of literacy that defined the Age. Despite this, there is some scant knowledge of what happened during the Sweltering, but very little at that. The early decades of the apocalypse were defined by social unrest, the collapse of nations, and the mass migration and death of countless people. Eventually, the world's crops failed and the great famines set in that would become the cause of the most deaths across the world by far. Billions starved, and billions more died of diseases caused by rampant insects as well as the sun's own unrefined and poisonous rays which beat down upon the world endlessly. By its peak in the middle centuries of The Sweltering, the world had been reduced to little more than dead scorching wastelands and humid storm-ridden swampland. Those few dozen million who still held on to their lives lived in tiny bands of scavengers and cannibals who spent much of their time hidden from the surface in caves or the massive decaying ruins of the Past Age, emerging only to seek out what little food and water sources remained.

## Salvage Age: (1AU-2999AU)

The Salvage Age begins with the end of The Sweltering and the Unsealing of the Ark of Acumenus. After nature repaired itself in the early part of the age known as the Rejuvenation, civilization was reborn, albeit in a much more primitive form. The walled cities and fortresses of these new agrarian city-states and kingdoms forever lived in the shadow of the towering ruins of the world-spanning one that had preceded it. The defining nature of the Salvage Age is plainly reflected in its very name: Not only were the new nations of the New World built from the recycled remains of the ruins of the Old World; but from the many often misinterpreted legends they believed about the people, imagery, and places of mythologized past.

With some notable exceptions, the religions of the Old World were largely forgotten or rendered irrelevant by the changing circumstances of the peoples of the New World. But the human need for spiritual connection remained, and the dead faiths were soon replaced by a myriad of new, often bizarre belief systems. Kings began to build temples that housed rusted ancient statues of ancient men and women of renown they believed to be the Gods who had once walked among mortals. Prayers and sacrificial offerings were made at altars before these idols in hopes that they would one day return to save the world or help them in battle against their enemies. These bizarre polytheistic religions were collectively known as Nostalgia cults, although the various nations had differing pantheons of deities each tied to their region's ancient culture and memory, and the priests of the different cults all practiced unique rituals and rites.

But the peoples of the Omeriga's new civilization not only respected the legendary heroes of the past; but the crumbled remains of the monumental wonders they built, whose towering ruins soared above their villages and farms. Looking up at these marvels inspired kings and princes to emulate the ancients, and they soon began to construct monuments and cities of their own. Although very slowly, civilization continued to grow, and many kingdoms and city-states would turn into or be absorbed by a string of Empires, ultimately culminating with the powerful Khagoan Empire, the first to span the entire continent from sea to sea. After the incorporation of the Arkivists into the Khagoan Empire by its first Emperor, Donn Wabbash, the last centuries of the age saw rapid change as the Arkivists began to travel the empire to educate others and search for relics and Mementomes. At their holy city of Ark Mount, many discoveries were made that put the world at the cusp of a new Industrial Revolution. But turmoil engulfed the College after the Khagoan Donn Hoyne Wabbash issued the Red Decree, demanding that the College hand over their ancient knowledge to the Empire, and a series of events culminated in the War of the Ark and the deaths of the Emperor and the infamous prophet Daimun Mallas in the destruction of the Ark of Acumenus, changing the world forever and sewing the seeds of the Age of Stagnation.

#### **Rejuvenation Era (1AU-1505AU)**

The Rejuvenation initiated with the cessation of the millennium-spanning Sweltering when the forces of nature were reborn and life began to encroach across the wasted earth. The few million remaining souls inhabiting Omeriga emerged from their refuges and banded together to form tribes and began to spread out across and re-inhabited the world which was now slowly repairing itself.

#### **Conception Era (1505AU-2555AU)**

The Conception Era began when in 1007AU, after consolidating their new state, the Arkivist College deemed it the right time to initiate the Re-Enlightenment. To do this they sent advisors, known as Adjuncts to the courts of many kings and rulers, some who were receptive and some who were not. To those who were the former, Adjuncts would join their courts and learn the languages of these cultures to assist their scholars in creating their unique versions of the alphabet, they also taught some of the more enlightened peoples of the time about philosophy and basic scientific principles. But the Adjuncts were forbidden from teaching or even speaking in the sacred Anglic Language around simpletons by Arkivist law, as it was a secret tongue only to be used by members of the College out of fear that the world was not ready for the knowledge the arcane language was the key to accessing. Regardless, civilization was now reborn beyond Kohlratia, and new states with literate scribes, social hierarchies, and standing armies began to emerge. By the middle of the era, civilization had spread even further outward from its cradle, having been adopted by the Muesippians, Kazkadiyans, and finally the Laeglanders. Eventually, many of these kingdoms and city-states would either turn into or be absorbed by the first empires of the New World. First came the brutal Ar'Zonians, then the fair but feared Anahuac of Mexihco, next the boisterous and proud Texhuns of Gunnar the Great, and finally the rise of the Khagoan Republic which ultimately culminated in the great empire that defined the following era.

## Stagnation Age: (3077AU-)

The Stagnation Age gets its name for the general halt of progress that occurred following the infamous Immolation of Mallas, which destroyed the Ark of Acumenus and nearly all the ancient Mementomes it housed. It was a time characterized by the decline of science and art, de-urbanization, rampant warfare, and religious zeal. Mallasism rose to be the dominant religion and cultural force in Omeriga, and it would reshape the entire culture and way of life of its people. The first half of the age is defined by the near collapse, short revival, and then slow decline of the Khagoan Empire. The once invincible empire was now divided by a schism, and massive bands of barbarian peoples took advantage of the chaos to raid, plunder, and even settle within the crumbling Imperium. Khago itself would eventually fall, and what was once the beacon of new civilization was now a pathetic shadow of its former self. But as the east splintered into several small feudal barbarian kingdoms, the west largely remained under the grip of the breakaway Texhun Empire. This remnant empire-in-exile withstood many invasions, but eventually would succumb to the sudden expansion of the Dezuretian Moormuns. These religious zealots were under the guidance of a man whom they claimed was the second coming of the prophet of a since diminished old religion that only persisted among the Dezuretian tribes and kingdoms.

## Notable dates

### **Salvage Age**

#### Rejuvenation Era: (1AU-1505AU)

* 1AU- **The Unsealing:** The Ark of Acumenus is Unsealed and the 260 surviving Arkivists emerge to settle the foothills overlooking the ruins of Old Denver, marking the foundation of the New World's first known civilization.
* 27AU-301AU- **Arkivist Conquest of Kohlratia:** Having grown in number since the Unsealing, the Arkivists had created a nation that spread down the foothills of the Front Range of the Rockies. Seeking to establish an Arkivist homeland as laid out in Acumenus's Will, the succession of Provosts in the centuries following the Unsealing fought the scattered Kohlratian tribes who lived in the thinly populated southern Rockies. As the Arkivists settled new lands and grew even more in number they destroyed Kohlratian villages and encampments, eventually pushing the few remaining natives high into the mountains or to other lands. With the Arkivist College now in control of the entirety of Kohlratia, the Children of the Ark began to settle the land's high alpine valleys, establishing heavily fortified towns which they carved directly into the sides of the cliffs and mountains.
* 50AU-200AU- As the Great Plains slowly transitioned from dusty badlands to grassy prairies the scattered tribes living there successfully bred horses and other animals away from the brink of extinction and adopted a nomadic pastoral way of life. Fully mounted tribes of Buckskyns begin to herd large amounts of rugged long-haired cattle and hunt buffalo across the vast grasslands.
* 330AU- The Puebloan tribes re-adopt agriculture, becoming the first non-Arkivist people to do so. As the long-dried Granrio River began to flow once again, the tribes abandoned nomadic life and founded small fortified villages across the revived river's fertile valley.

#### Conception Era: (1505AU-2555AU)

* 1510AU- The villages of the Puebloan farmers of the Granrio evolve into a network of complex city-states.
* 1525- The Ar'Zonian Kingdom is established after the city of Fuenex successfully unifies the other towns and tribes of the country.
* 1540- The Calafian Kingdom is founded under the leadership of a God-King known as the Paramount.
* 1600- The Texhuns abandon their nomadic way of life and settle down, forming several independent Baronies.
* 1700AU-1900AU- The Muessipian Sea peoples adopted the ways of civilization and used their expert seafaring capabilities to establish a plethora of colonies across the shores of the Muessip Sea. These later developed into maritime city-states known as Parishes that spread trade and ideas to the peoples of the East such as the Laeglandic tribes, who had previously had little contact with the civilized world.
* 1788AU- The city of Khago is founded by the Laeglandic Linoy tribe.
* 2000AU- Establishment of the Mexihtec Empire
* 2100AU- TexMex Wars
* 2205- Gunnar the Great
* 2291-2387- Muessipian Wars
* 2387-2555- Expansion of Khagoan Republic