The Cycle of Ages

The Cycle of Ages is a historical textbook. It provides a broad overview of the ages of Azimuth, as well as theories on the events of the earliest ages. Though, the text is lacking in detailed information and the text is flowly and somewhat indistinct.

Description

The book provides a basic overview of the earlier ages of Azimuth. Generally accepted as a record of the worlds founding, the Age of Creations story is held by many scholars and story tellers as the origin of Azimuth. The theory states that the world was formed by an outpouring of energy from the Elemental Planes. It refers to Primordial Elementals as a driving force of this, however is unclear if these were entities or personified natural forces.
The language is flowy, and at times, relies on poetic language. The text contains information on major historical events that occured across Azimuth during these ages. It's lacking specific details and contains little firsthand information. Additionally, so destructive was the Great War that information from ages prior is scarce.
Some scholars doubt the validity of the contents and debate how useful such an unfocused text can be. Other texts, such as The History of the Third Age, are better for detailed research. However, The Cycle of Ages is very useful as an overview and summary of major events.
The book is separated into four major sections, one for each of the first four ages.
There are discussions in the sections of the second age about the “footprint of the divine”, though it is unclear what this may be in reference to. Related to this, in research done in the wake of the Severance, it mentions the areas where these footprints can be found are rare, hard to find, or protected.

Known Readers

• In 5A 352, Mortimr Gwathagoldrin read the text searching for information on residuum and the Eight-Pronged Residuum Ring, but there was no such information.

Content

The First Age: The Age of Creations

In the beginning, there was nothing. A void of space in the grand multiverse, devoid of matter, of life, of light. Then, in a moment, everything that was not, now was. From the Elemental Planes came a pouring of energies, and thus the world was formed in masses of water, earth, wind, and fire. Matter took shape in this primordial time and the newborn world was crafted at the will of these roiling and tumultuous energies.
As time moved forward, only the gods could take notice of this new creation in the fabric of the multiverse. Distant pantheons, both great and small, witnessed the creation of this new plane, and they sought to influence this place for their own purposes. The wills of the gods can never truly be known, and for why they sought this place may never be discovered, but in their unknowable ambitions they attempted to claim this world for their own.
At their willing, the first races were formed from the ether. The lines of elves, dwarves, and humans were crafted to populate this place. So that they might give worship to the divine, these races were gifted places of holy significance. The elves were given the World Tree so that they might be tied to its energies and receive long life. The dwarves were given Endor, the First Mountain, so that they would learn the riches of the earth and make great things. And humans were given the waters of Lake Gimor so that they would never want for hunger or thirst and spread far and wide in this realm. These races walked the verdant lands and drank in the songs of sky and ocean and earth, and the divine made many more races and beasts and plants to fill this world.
However, the first elements brought with them mighty aspects of their planes of existence, and these Primordial forces did not want to lose this creation they had made. The raw materials of the planet resisted against the touch of the divine. Oceans roiled and the mountains quaked. Fires burned and the skies shorn. Great titans of raw chaotic elements brought battle and death to the creations of the gods. And so, war was introduced to the world.
But the numbers of the divine entities vying for the soul of this place were vast, and the elements, though powerful in this realm, were few. Those gods of good and virtue created other races and peoples to fight against the raging elements. Those gods of evil and foul nature created beasts and monsters to attack the wild spaces far from the centers of these newborn civilizations to tear down those fierce energies in the dark parts of the world.
When might of blade and strength of arm proved not enough, the gods gifted the peoples the knowledge of Magic. Through the arcane and divine, through spell and prayer, many great Divine Relics were forged and imbued with the power to bend the angry elements to the will of the wielder. The land was claimed, the seas were quelled, and the skies were brought to heel by the divine power of the gods and the influences of their creations.
And at the end of this time of conflict, the great Primordials receded to their planes though the doorways of the world that led them here, and the divine and their creations stood victorious, and named their prize Azimuth.
Though it was not to last.
Each would-be pantheon did not count the others as their allies, and they planned to claim this realm only for themselves. Fighting started anew over who would claim this prize. Gods of realms of prominence and those yet unknown warred using their creations at the loss of many lives. As those they had made dwindled and the world once more faced lifelessness, some gods, through empathy or clairvoyance, came to realize this place would never know peace while the divine could so freely influence the world and those upon it.
With the effort of those gods of good, the plane was cut from the reach of all divines. Azimuth, so removed from the fabric of the vast multiverse, was set adrift, out of reach from those who’d bring only more misfortune to those precious lives that inhabited this world.
And so ended the Age of Creations, and so began the Age of the Severance.

The Second Age: The Age of the Severance

After the gods were cut from the plane of Azimuth, the created races were left adrift in a world of their own. With no Primordials or deities to stymy them, cities were built in the becalmed lands, cultures grew and spread, and life moved on in the wake of The Severance.
Those still devoted to the gods built shrines and temples in their honor, hoping to regain what had been lost. Through time and generations, the names of those first gods would become lost. These prayers that were once ritual, became habit, and habit in turn became tradition. However, there were none now left in the Divine Plane to answer them. Confusion and doubt spread through the lands as generations of souls were lost to drift in the Ethereal Plane with no realm or afterlife to ascend to.
Those learned in the arcane arts, especially those of the long-lived elves who yet remembered the touch of the divine, sought to recreate that power so that they might use it to further their own causes, or to become as gods themselves to fill this void. The study of magic began in earnest, and great advances were made in the pursuit of arcane wisdom, which drew from the raw power of the elemental chaos of the Inner Planes. Many great tomes of magic were written and Arcane Artifacts, inspired by the Divine Relics, were crafted by many races. But even with these discoveries and the power that came with arcane knowledge, the cultures of these races stagnated and declined in the shadow of the Severance.
But not all that was godly was lost. Among the floating essence of the Outer Planes, echoes of what once was still lingered, so powerful were those that had occupied this space. These echoes heard these prayers, and flowering from the seeds of the divine left behind by the gods of the Age of Creations, new energies began to coalesce. Emergent from the formless Astral Plane were born eight new beings, given form and function by the faiths of the mortal races and beasts.
Seeking to understand themselves, these eight turned towards the Material Plane of Azimuth. Each gravitated towards different aspects of the fabric they were wrought from, taking for themselves the domains around these natural truths in the material world: Light and Dark, Life and Death, Sky and Sea, Knowledge and Strength.
These gods blossomed, and these fledgling divinities made themselves known to the mortals, and those who had worshipped blindly now could put presence to their faith again. These eight, these great figures of scale and wing and claw, were named the Dragons.
From these eight, one of light and one of dark grew beyond the others to occupy the greatest swathes of the Divine Plane. One became a verdant expanse of light. The other a barren mass of dark. To prominence these opposing forces grew. Those of life and good gravitated towards that of Zenethia, and those of darkness and malcontent were pulled towards Nadiria. And between these new planes, the realms of the six flowering deities expanded to fill the voids left.
However, Esturk, Lord of Nadiria, grew discontented with his realm and domain. No longer did he desire to only feed off the darkness that crept in the shadowed places of the world and in the hearts of evil creatures, so scant in power it was compared to that of his opposite. Esturk sought to intervene in the material world, so that he might cause great suffering and so increase his power as helplessness and tyranny took hold under his wings and claws. His greed and envy took flight and so Esturk descended upon Azimuth.
Knowing what great terribleness even a fledgling god could bring on the mortal realm, Zenthai, Lord of Zenethia, followed from the Outer Planes to Azimuth, and in the skies for all to see, these aspects of the divine fought for the fate of all souls.
Their fight lasted ceaselessly for twelve days and nights, until at last, swelled with the faith of those below praying for protection from this evil, Zenthai emerged victorious and Esturk retreated back to the Divine Plane. Zenthai, the Dragon of Light, was witnessed in his victory by the peoples of the world, and was given the title Dragon King and the seat of prominence at the head of the new Azimuth Pantheon.
Thus began the Age of Zenethia.

The Third Age: The Age of Zenethia

The time after the first defeat of Esturk and the birth of the Azimuth Pantheon, known most commonly as the Age of Zenethia, is largely considered by historians as the Golden Age of Azimuth. During this extended time of influence, the world would see the solidifying of the pantheon and their domains as well as the first spreading of the races' territories beyond their holy places from the Age of Creations. While the races of the world had sowed the seeds of their cultures in the Age of the Severance, this was the time when most saw dramatic growth across the continents.
The elves moved beyond the valley of the World Tree to occupy most of the Haradren continent. The elves of the western plains and coasts would also take to the seas to explore the farther shores of Azimuth in the light of these new deities. Many colonies would be formed in the first part of this age, and the elves would enjoy friendly relations with those of dwarves and humans who, too, continued their own advancements.
For the dwarves, the chains of mountains nearest to their ancestral home of Endor were vast and rich with resources. Many holds were carved from the living rock and great constructions of stone and steel were made to honor this new pantheon across the length of the Gimora Mountains.
At this same time, the plains and hills surrounding Lake Gimor became flush with the villages and cities of humans, and soon their settlements could be found from the foothills of the Gimora Mountains in the west to across the coast of the Seafoam Sea in the east.
But still, even in the light of Zenethia, the shadow of Nadiria would be nurtured as well. For every act of the faithful, those of envy or greed would spread in tandem. Esturk, though defeated, could not be permanently quelled. He, too, was a new god, same as Zenthai, and it would take much more to ever truly remove him from Azimuth. Esturk’s greed was insatiable, bordering on madness and 1000 years later he would again push towards the Material Plane in his attempt at conquest.
Esturk brought his rage to the three holy places of the world, and Zenthai once again came forth to defend Azimuth. Unable to shift the mountain of Endor and unable to burn the water of Lake Gimor, Esturk brought fire and fury to the World Tree. Many elves of Haradren were slain in the fighting and the first city of the elves was razed before Zenthai defeated the Lord of Nadiria, who retreated back to the divine realm once more.
Despite Zenthai’s success, the world saw Esturk’s conniving and relentless nature in the fires of the World Tree. If evil couldn’t be truly eradicated, then neither could he, and though he failed, Esturk earned the title The World’s End in his attempt.
With renewed faith that the forces of dark could never overpower the light, the races of humans and dwarves grew further still. The Kingdom of Gimora solidified its hold on the area over those other races, the likes of firbolg and halfling and goliath, and the Endor dwarves made dangerous advancements with a new creation: gunpowder. However, in contrast to this growth of human and dwarf, the elves largely returned to their homeland, Haradren. The near destruction of their World Tree caused many to become isolationist, so that their full strength could be used in the future to defend it. As their long lives continued, they more readily would remember the coming threat of Esturk and prepare while those younger in other parts of the world would turn to their own desires.
In the wild and unclaimed lands, changes were happening. The lands of Santeem, once full of elven construction and colonies, gave way to a new realm of humans that had expanded across the sea. And in Tarteria, a nation of orcs had unified their disparate tribes and with their trade of rare earth and minerals, the great nation of Keel was formed.
But as this golden age continued on, only so much could be left to light alone. Esturk continued to envy that which was not his and this time sought greater power to overcome his rival.

The Great War

Esturk, The World’s End, unable to defeat Zenthai and take the world for his own with direct action, sought another way to gain the victory he so lusted after. Through the discovery of a truly old form of divine magic, older even than himself, Esturk learned the secrets of creation. It is not known by what means Esturk came to this knowledge, but with it, he imbued himself with what would become known as the Power of Evolution. This ability gave him dominion over those outside of his claimed domains, and with it he began syphoning the lifeforce of those lost souls from the Age of the Severance and added their remaining spectral energies to his own. He forced his nature to change and grow, and mutated his evolution into a power that rivaled the Dragon King.
Once more, Esturk brought war to the world. Unleashing the forces of demonkind and the fury of beasts, longtime allies and worshippers of Esturk, the races of Azimuth were again beset with battle. However, this time when Zenthai returned to defend them, he alone was not enough, such was the power Esturk had taken into himself. Again, Esturk set his goal as the destruction of the holy places of Azimuth. Zenthai could not contain the full fury of Esturk to himself and the damage wrought would come to be known as The Great War.
The Kingdom of Gimora was sundered and split, great chunks of its land sent adrift into the sea. The land of the dwarves was ripped in twain, creating a sprawling chasm of ocean, and many dwarves were drowned in their holds. The elves expended much to protect their World Tree from destruction, and suffered much sacrifice in defending it.
Zenthai realized he was unable to meet this challenge alone. From the races of Azimuth, the Dragon King chose six Champions: Sanazi, Angioletta, Rita, Porgorag, Ruin, and Morazar. These 6 received the direct blessing of the Dragon King, and from his own divine heart he forged six crystalline weapons of holy power. With their strength and will to aid his own, Zenthai and his Champions brought the fight to Esturk’s forces.
Slowly, they began driving the demons and beasts back. For a century they pushed back against the encroachment of demons and beasts and won back their territories. At last, after conflict wrought death to many thousands and shook the world to the edge of the precipice, an opportunity arose. A titanic battle force unseen of in any previous age sailed out towards the last bastion of Esturk’s influence, the continent of Tarteria, bringing every warrior each race had to bear. Demons in their thousands met them on the beaches of the wildlands and from their ships the dwarves, elves, humans, and orcs fought for the life of the world for days at the Battle of the Demons' Blood Marshes. The Zenethian Dragon ripped apart the sky and joined the battle himself, spewing gouts of holy fire and crystalline death upon the enemy. Many heroes, known warriors, and unnamed defenders gave their lives in this battle as sacrifices so that the Zenethian Champions could have the chance to push through. Far to the west, through the battalions of the enemy, the Zenethian Dragon carried his chosen to bring battle to Esturk himself, even as the fighting continued on behind them.
Little is known of this battle between Zenthai and Esturk, for only the Zenethian Champions were there to witness it. But when the final blow was struck, all those who remained across the world knew in an instant what had transpired. The demons were banished and the skies cleared. Yet while the Champions returned, their Dragon King did not, as Esturk had wounded him greatly in this final clash. So terrible was this wound that it would persist far into the next age. At this cost, Esturk was again defeated, buried beneath the ground of the wildlands, and Zenthai, too, retreated to the divine realm.
Though the battle was won and the world persisted, the two greatest gods of Azimuth were shuttered from it and too weak to interact with their followers. As the Zenethian Champions set to the task of repairing this broken world, as the light of both Zenethia and Nadiria faded, the Golden Age of Azimuth came to an end, and so began the Age of Shadow.

The Fourth Age: The Age of Shadow

The Great War caused massive damage to the three major kingdoms of the Age of Zenethia (Gimora, Haradren, and Endor). With the retreat of Zenthai to the Divine Plane as he recovered, Azimuth was left to move forward in a world changed, as every aspect of life for each continent had shifted. This time became known as The Age of Shadow by most, to symbolize the withdrawing of Zenethia’s light, and it was a time of rebalancing of territory of the nations and a shift in prominence in the pantheon.
The Zenethian Champions turned toward repairing the damage of the war and defeating what remained of Esturk’s beasts and monsters that still remained in the wild places of the lands. It would take many years of battles and raids to drive the bestial races from the lands and for the races to begin returning to a place of normalcy. Gimora was the hardest hit and could no longer function in the same manner it had prior. The continent was sundered and large pieces were set adrift, and the capital on the shores of Lake Gimor was destroyed and abandoned. In its place, new human kingdoms were formed. However, despite the efforts of the Zenethian Champions, the new Kingdom of Gardenbur would not survive and would fully fall to the beasts. The Kingdom of Cascada, too, was fated to not survive long, falling to the continued earthquakes and tremors that would plague their nation.
The elves had been spared the worst of the war, having already begun pulling back to their homeland after the last battles with Esturk. Now, they became almost fully isolationist. Not only did their leaders refuse the creation of new colonies in the outside world, they also began pushing out other races entirely from their kingdom. In contrast, the dwarves of Endor who had suffered much and lost many holds turned towards trade in their recovery. With the shifting of the map a new trade route was formed from the Iron Range through the new human kingdoms of Branca, Burland, and Konenbur. The Iron Highway would prove instrumental in the growth of all Gimora.
Despite the long road to recovery, many other races would grow in tandem with those of previous ages. Gnome, halfling, firbolg, and aarakocra cultures suddenly were able to expand in ways not seen before under the yoke of humans, elves, and dwarves. The orcs, too, were perhaps the quickest to recover. The continent of Tarteria proved rich with resources, and as the battlefield for the final fights of the Great War, they were brought to the forefront of the kingdoms and their warriors proved their valor and strength. The orichalcum trade was core to the recovery and growth of this land, and sea trade flourished between the nation of Keeleon and that of Santeem and Konenbur.
During this time though, the other Dragon deities of the Azimuth Pantheon would move to share a new place of prominence in the worship of the recovering world. Nerull and Gaia saw many devotees in the wake of the worst conflict of the age. Avianor and Sehakora sects sought to aid the growth and recovery of those displaced and the devastated lands. And Morounin and Barduumus saw worship from those seeking the means to drive out Esturk’s beasts and prevent such devastation in the future.
Many great churches of Zenethia fell into disrepair and ruin in this time, but Zenthai had not fully abandoned the world. Zenthai knew that each time Esturk came forth, he pushed the world farther to the brink before he could be repelled. It could only be a matter of time before he could bring true ruin to Azimuth. Yet still, he recovered slowly from the wounds he suffered and he could not risk not being ready to fight again in the future. Thus, Zenthai came to plan a gambit for the next age, to help secure the victory of the forces of light once darkness tried returning to the world.

The Zenethian Children and the New Light

Despite the blessing bestowed upon them and the innate power of the Dragonheart weapons, the Zenethian Items, eventually the Champions of the Great War faded from the world. They could not fight Esturk again when he would awaken from his slumber. Zenthai alone was no longer enough since the corruptive Power of Evolution had changed The World's End. However, he had a plan to tip the scales in the favor of the light.
The Champions would set aside their sacred items in secluded places, protected from the wider world. For the next heroes of the world, Zenthai would pair with each of his Champions. The Champions could not return to Azimuth to continue their fight; however, their progeny could pick up the holy items in their stead and hopefully their might would be enough to stand against the dark.
And so Zenthai put forward a prophecy to his followers, that one day a group of Heroes would be born to fight back Esturk when he rose again. A secluded abbey was founded in a carved-out valley deep in the mountains of the Gimora continent, at the base of Azimuth's Heart, the largest mountain of its range. The world continued spinning on, and generations later, when the first whisperings of darkness emerged in Tarteria, Zenthai planted the seeds from his Champions, and so were born the Zenethian Children: Trip, Ivan, Grupe, Brigitte, Rath, and Joseppe.
But with what would prove unfortunate for many, Zenthai was not the only force preparing for the return of Esturk. In the ruined land of Cascada, a human named Passaro lost the love of his life at the hands of bandits. After brutally slaying them all, he took the name Manslayer and swore vengeance on those races of the world that could produce such murderers. His own plan was twofold. He would seek to stir Esturk from his cyclic slumber early and he would find the children of prophecy and slay them in kind, all to bring a true end to the world, for he could not bear an Azimuth without his Rose to love.
Esturk rose in the land of Tarteria, and the world began to suffer in darkness. Through much meddling and many schemes, Esturk had slowly caused the nations of the world to no longer trust each other. Secluded and without allies, the Kingdom of Keeleon quickly fell to the rush of demons outpouring from the mines of Aktempto.
At this same time, Passaro the Manslayer had gathered to him the bestial races of Parthenia under his heel, and with their armies at his command he sought to snuff out Zenthai’s prophecy. Marching a force through the Kingdom of Branca, Passaro sacked the heroes’ Hometown and took as his prize the six prophesized children. Or so he thought, for the faithful of this village had their own scheme, and six of the villagers gave their lives as sacrifice, disguised as Zenthai’s progeny. The six were saved, but alone, and they set out into the world not knowing their destiny.
In the course of their journey, the Zenethian Children would aid King Alphonse Brancana in rekindling the old alliances of the world against the dual threats of Esturk and Passaro, discover the destiny of their bloodline, and gather the Zenethian Items their parents left behind for them. They traveled the world and gathered allies and forces to their banner, among them the now well-known names Gruknock, Leo, Aoth, Johanna, and Petra. Together, their band became known to the rulers of the world as the Zenethian Heroes. And when darkness infiltrated their party and threatened to snuff out everything they were building, another entity would come to light.
In Tarteria, deep in the mines of Aktempto, the Zenethian Heroes fought against Esturk, and though he was still wounded, Zenthai came again to the material plane to the battle. Zenthai bought the time the Heroes needed to defeat Esturk’s own dark champions, but he could not withstand the fury of The World’s End. And there in the place between the Divine and Material Planes, Esturk finally got the better of his eternal rival, and Zenthai the Dragon King was slain. Overcoming their shock, the Heroes gathered their resolve and with great effort defeated Esturk once more. Set to sleep once more, the world was saved from one threat.
But Zenthai had hatched another plan, secret even from the other gods. Though he was a god, he knew a deity could still be felled at the hand of another. Should he fall in battle, Zenethia would need a ruler to take his place. Zenthai had hidden a child of his own on the world, disguised in plain sight, should the worst come to pass. His daughter, Chedae, a Dragon of platinum, revealed herself after her father was slain, and with her by their side they now turned their attention to the forces of Passaro the Manslayer.
With the allied armies gathered to battle against the beasts of Passaro, the Heroes led the factions across the sea and met Passaro's navy in the Parthenian Sea. Their ship broke through and the Heroes landed on Parthenia and sought out Passaro in the Citadel of Bronze. In his fortress they slew the Manslayer and with his death the control of the bestial races was lost, and with the battle won, these Heroes saved Azimuth.
And thus, much like their parents long before them, the six Zenethian Children and their allies, these Heroes, inherited a world changed. This was but the start of their influence in the world, and the start of a new deity’s presence in the Divine Plane. And so began what is now known as The Age of Beginnings.

The Fifth Age: The Age of Beginnings

There are many who believe the current age is a new golden age for Azimuth. With the efforts of the Zenethian Heroes on the world and with the nations having rallied together against two separate forces that had threatened them, Azimuth seemed primed to jump forward without the dark of Esturk to shadow them.
The Heroes set out to aid the recovery of the nations after the wars against Esturk and Passaro. No continent was untouched, and some spread themselves wide while seeking to aid those in need, while others continued personal goals and narratives with the years they had ahead of them. In their own ways, with the time gifted to them by the lost Zenthai, each attempted to steer the world in the direction of light.
But as with all things, time and change can bring the unexpected to the forefront in new and unique ways. None are more the epitome of this than the emergent Dragonborn. With the Zenethian Children, Dragonblood was introduced to Azimuth, and like seeds on the wind this divine bloodline has begun spreading its roots in every corner of the world. What this may yet mean for their growing numbers in the future is yet to be seen.
And for the nations, the alliances that burned bright in war have dimmed in recent years. The cycle of Esturk’s return is far off once more. The shorter-lived races like humans and orcs are quicker to forget and to move on to more immediate concerns.
On this stage, as the light and influence of the Zenethian Heroes has begun to fade from the world, new heroes across Azimuth have begun picking up the torch. New champions of the races are rising against the lingering dark. New adventurers gather to find fame or fortune or glory. New challenges, both mundane and world-affecting, are crossing the horizons of the continents. As Azimuth continues to grow and change with each day, what new stories are yet to be told in the actions and the lives of those living in this time? An Age of Beginnings indeed.

Type

Textbook

Authoring Date

Fifth Age