The Arrival of the Celestii Magni

Religious event

The fundamental event in the Basilidean and Valentinian faiths as well as the pivotal event of the Ophitic and Carpocratian heresies; 72 (or perhaps more than 100) celestials manifest in the city of Iodia, in present-day Toz'Aizhir. This event was so transformational that most of the world marks its calendars from this occurence.

As the Cumaean empire of old was essentially in freefall in the east and greatly reduced even in the west, the enforcement of its old religious edicts with its mountain and river gods, animal sacrifice and semi-theocratic priesthood was unprepared for a completely new religion to literally drop out of the sky. The faith was revealed to a group of 6 'elder visionaries' whose names were so holy that they could not be spoken or written and which have as a result long been lost to the ages. These Tozzite men and/or women then left Toz and traveled all the way to Dregagt over the course of 73 months, teaching and founding new temples along the way. From here the faith spread like wildfire all the way to the distant western coast, and the great codifier and writer/adventurer Valentinus created the written sacred texts from the pure oral records under the guidance of the Celestials themselves.   The calendar of the Empire and by extension, most of the civilized world follows the convention of dating everything from that moment, day one of month 1 of year 1 ADE.