Years and the World Timeline

The Era's

The continent of Ilcharis has always been gripped by conflict, leading to a tangled history. The oldest time known is usually referred to as the Era of Arcana. This is when the long lived and magical races such as elves ruled in what is seen by some as a time of enlightenment and magic. Only ancient relics and magics have survived this time, alongside a very small number of written works, however the dating system is obscure and archaic, known to only a few well versed scholars. After this came the holy crusades, or the time of strife depending on who you ask; a massive war where the cults of various gods rose up to seize control from 'the heretical and faithless wizards'. Over time the holy kingdoms were established, taking control of Ilcharis in a very divided and quarreling way. This became know as the holy era and has much more extensive documentation, though these documents are usually steeped in propaganda. Another challenge scholars face is that each kingdom tended to keep date based on when it was founded, causing discrepancies in the apparent dates. After the invasion of the undead, control became much more centralised and as such a standard dating system for these eras was established, as detailed below.

The Dating System

The system put in place by the cult of Orcus was designed to simplify the previously quite convoluted one. While there is some disagreement over the names by those of haven, the utility is such that this system has been taken up even there. The current era is known as the Grave Era (GE) and counts the years forward from when the last major settlement (aside from haven) fell. Before that is the Heretical Era (HE) and covers the period between the time of strife and the GE. This was standardised to go from 0 HE (What is decided to be the end of the time of strife) to 1000 HE or 0 GE for convenience as the exact time warring ended is debated. Before this is known as BRS (Before Records Survive) and contains the time of strife, the Era of Arcana, and whatever came before it. This goes from 0 HE/BRS and gets larger the further back in time. To those not in line with the cult of Orcus, HE stands for Holy Era and GE stands for for Godless Era.