1388 A.B.

The year of the events of the Wanderer's Library. It is a time of civil war between the church and separatist. It is a time of recovery for disease and unprecedented loses. It is a time of cynicism and exploitation as the world leaves its earlier fantasy era and begins to become dark and industrialized.

## Relevant History

### Current

* The events of the Wanderer's Library.
* Post-War Boreal, the world is at the end of its most disastrous conflict yet as both victor and vanquished struggle on how to proceed after a conflict that cost them all so much. Old countries are humbled while entirely new countries are being created from the fallen ashes of old oppressors.

### Recent

* Only 20 years ago, steel reinforced buildings and ships began to appear, paving the way for the world's first gigantic skyscrapers and sea and airships. Also twin-tethered aerostat balloon engines have just recently brought small airships to the everyday person, resembling the car culture of real world 1920-1930's.
* Only 30 years ago, Queen Nora the longest reigning ruler of the dwarves died and the ursadar Jander Dampa leads the nation of Erida to new heights prior to the war.
* Only 50 years ago, the Blizzard of 1333 crippled most of the northern world for several years, emphasizing the harsh survival required to survive in this century.
* Only 70 years ago, new innovations improved the gaslamp bring access to electric light to everyday folk. Also around this time the economy of Cazimor and Velar, after centuries of prominence, come crashing down due to speculative purchasing. The ursadar 'Ruby Standard' becomes the new center of energy and wealth.
* A century ago, The industrial revolution is in full swing, with thousands of patents being filled by new innovators as factories begin to take over the wealthier nations of the world. These advances would lead to photography, the expansion of the solorails, and countless other inventions.
* A vaccine for the Pox Echo won't be discovered for three years, ending a disease that has ravaged the world for over three centuries. The disease halved the world's population causing those who survived to have to find ways to adapt to a world built for twice their numbers. Because of this women and minorities began to given new opportunities due to labor demands giving economic power to those who rarely had it in the past.
* Civil war, ghost towns, and uneasy alliances are commonplace between the Old Kingdoms and city-states that make up the surface world. Ambitious powers try to seize opportunity in the wake of the plague, seizing lands and killing those deemed 'other'.
* The Birds of Cygnus, the strong arm of the world's religion and dominate power of Boreal, continue their crusade against the "stained" or any magic user, who they consider to be responsible for the Pox Echo and other world woes. However, the end of the Great War has revealed them to be nothing more than a puppet to the enemies of the surface world, the Primals. Specifically Aeo and Lyrea, who are exposed at the climatic battle of the Great War.

### Historic

* The larger cities and wonders of the world stand abandoned and crumbling, hidden within them the treasures, wisdom, and Codex access that defined the previous age.
* The age began with the appearance of a human child survivor at Deneb's Rest, falling before the great army gathered there in preparation of a third invasion from the Great Below. Unknown to the child and the sol races, the human carried with him a disease that silently spread across the surface world, eventually mutating and killing half the surface world's population.
* Races from the Great Below, known as lith races, have only within the last five-hundred years or so began to become accepted and live among the surface, or sol, races. Most prominently the krahki, rootwalla, and groak; However almost every lith race has been seen in the odd settlement or two by this point in history. Most of them speaking of a great dark power growing beneath the surface.
* All forms of magic have reached new heights during this era thanks to discovery and mastery of the great minds of the previous age, and the fountain of information found in the Wanderer's Library before it's portal was lost in the fall of Dirigidale. Magic users of all kind become the scapegoat for the Pox Echo and the state of the world, solomancers, lithomancers, and cleromancers were all forced to operate out of sight from the ruling powers.
* Two hundred years ago at the peak of the Pox Echo, fifteen floating cities known as Colonies were launched not to land for one-thousand years. Meant to be utopias of modern civilization they rapidly declined into isolated camps of cruel experiments.

## Technology

* These technologies have been around for centuries and are found in most societies: *Banking, Cartography, Gunpowder, Mass Production, Metal Casting, Printing Press, Square Rigging, Flight, Steam-Power (Early)*
* These technologies are new or just beginning to become commonplace in everyday life in larger societies: *Ballistics, Economics, Industrialization, Military Science, Rifling, Sanitation, Scientific Theory, Chemistry, Combustion, Electricity, Radio, Replaceable Parts, Steel (Crucible Steel)*
* Like the age before it airships ruled the skies, however unlike the elegant wood carved and steam-powered airships of the past these airships were made of metal and powered by lodestone. They often were made up of scrap parts giving them a slapped together look.
* As lodestone technology replaced the steam-powered balloon based airships of the past creative minds sought for a new use for these trusty floating devices. They found it in the suspension of ports, turning them into air-docks, and even by elevating cliff side settlements into floating islands suspended by patchwork balloons.
* Airship design continues to evolve as both lodestone technology and twin long air-balloons are used to create fast and highly maneuverable airships. Soon thanks to these dexterous vehicles people begin to take back the large abandoned mega-cities of the past.
* Towards the end of the "mask" period, when most of society wore gas masks trying to prevent spread of the pox, a new style of battle armor became iconic to the era. This armor featured traditional plate adornments but had a helmet with built-in 'lenses' and a breathing respirator, these features gave it a sort of bug eyed appearance.
* Following the severe population loses the lodestars were re-purposed for a number of different needs: they continue to be used as body vessels for the important dead but for the first time were commissioned for military purpose. Two major variations were mass produced; the battle units, distinguishable by their long vertical cylinder bodies and bowed legs, And the pot-bellied housing robots whose sole purpose was to defend their bearers, mostly consisting of roden, the race who invented them and was facing potential extinction.
* Small floating speedster bikes that were very little more than a lodestone engine, a seat, handlebars, and a bright paint job became very popular and were used by the rich and poor alike by the end of the age.
* Steam-powered stilt-like legs known as tramplers become popular for laborers of all types, including soldiers.
* Different from the utility driven lodestars, scientist began making robots with the intent of replicating the beauty of the male or female form. Though they lacked the technology to create full blown androids they were able to make robots that were nearly indecipherable from their intended subject from the waist up with their lower body portion being made up of wires and mechanics. These robots were often used in front of shop keeps, red-light districts, or as bartenders or navigators on ships.
* Another re-purposing of the steam-power air balloons of the Age of Discovery were the invention of air carriages, floating compartments for travelers that could easily be pulled by another creature, usually by beasts of burden or street urchins.
* Though speedster bikes and evolved airships made travelling easier than ever, rail-based transportation dominated the age. Though airships allowed for free and fairly speedy travel, state-of-the-art mega-railways were installed between the cities and continents as a restorative effort following their collapse. Eventually everyday citizens could travel to any continent in the world in a matter of hours.
* Lodestone technology brought many new forms of unique travel to the people of the surface, notably travel spheres, vehicles that travel by utilizing diamond spellstones to hover above the surface, and ironclads, fish-like vessels that explore the depths of the ocean and can beach themselves with mechanical fins. This lodestone technology is constantly being experimented with to create strange devices or methods of travel.

## Culture

* These cultural ideals have also been around for centuries: *Diplomatic Service, Exploration, Humanism, Mercantilism, Reformed Church, Siege Tactics, The Enlightenment*
* These cultures are new or just beginning to become commonplace in everyday life in larger societies: *Civil Engineering, Colonialism, Nationalism, Natural History, Opera and Ballet, Scorched Earth, Urbanization, Capitalism, Class Struggle, Conservation, Ideology.*
* Fashion underwent many changes throughout the age, mostly sticking to a late-Victorian or art nouveau aesthetic. For a long period of time the wealthy wore tall collars with the ends sewn together giving them a 'tall neck' look. It also was fashionable for a time to wear egg shaped outfits that obscured your entire body other than a hole for your face.
* Due to the large amount of death and population desperation, sexuality and promiscuity became wildly more accepted and even encouraged with the only exception being the kingdoms of the Aves Belief. The city-states and independent settlements of the world were full of brothels, red-light districts, and overcrowded orphanages. This is also reflected in the prominence of nudity in art from this age.
* After ancient dark secrets hidden from before the Age of Ruin are discovered and made public to the people. Society becomes obsessed with the history and mythology of Boreal. Soon, oddity shops and the schools of archeomancy become popular destinations.
* Art deco, art nouveau, light multicolored paintings, and contrasting repeating patterns dominate the artwork of the day.
* For a couple of decades it becomes in vogue to wear protective gas masks whenever outside of your home, one of many hopeful attempts at thwarting the Pox Echo. Eventually this changes the perspective of the culture and something as innocent as an exposed face is considered sexy.
* For a long period of time following the abandonment of the major cities the desperate poor began to slowly return to the lower slums of these major cities, fending off monsters and avoiding the pox infested dead who still continued their final tasks. Eventually, roden in lodestars came and helped sanitize the lower districts of these cities leading to their eventual reclamation.
* Priests of the Birds of Cygnus were famous of the anonymity, only wearing a reflective draping of liquid gold when out in public. This figure of a man or woman wrapped in melted gold became symbolic to their faith.
* As people continued to embrace the process of ensouling themselves upon death to a solstone and then ensouling that solstone into the body of a lodestar, large groups of lodestars begin to travel the world seeking sights and experiences that had escaped them in life. These robotic travelers were marked by the patchwork coats they wore, marking the places they've visited.