History and Myth

When storytellers relate the history of Theros, they always speak in the most general terms. An event of just ten years past happened "many years ago," and the founding of Meletis in the distant past happened "many, many years ago." In Theros, history transformsinto myth more quickly than it does in other worlds, becoming generalized, vague, and moralistic. And because the gods are so deeply involved in mortal affairs, it's often impossible to distinguish between the myths of divine activities and the scraps of historical fact in these records.

The origin and generations of the gods - from the primordial titans to the modern pantheon now worshipped in Theros - are described in chapter 2. The world's myths also fill this book, stories that still resonate in the dreams and ambitions of Theros's people. These myths are noted in distinct sections, with the first appearing in chapter 1. Yet the largely agreed upon history of mortal folk in Theros occurred more recently and is thought to have unfolded as follows.

Age of Trax

Human history vaguely recalls an are just before the birth of modern human civilization, called the Age of Trax. This semi-mythical era, nestled several countries back in the fog of historical memory, is marked by the rule of supernatural beings called archons.

The archons or Trax are said to have come from unknown lands to the north and established a heavy-handed rule over the humanoids of Theros. Many peoples remember this as a time of oppressive servitude, when they were forced into the armies of the tyrant Agnomakhos.
The archons dubiously suggested that their rule actually protected the weaker species - centaurs, humans, humanoids, leonin, minotaurs, and satyrs - from the dangers of far more powerful beings. Giants, demons, and medusas are said to have rules kingdoms of their own in those days, and tales tell of Agnomakhos leading his leonin soldiers to repel an invading army of giants. Dragons, krakens, and hydras are also said to have grown to even greater size in those days than they do now, annihilating whole nations and carving untold catastrophes across the land.

Birth of the Poleis

The end of the Age of Trax corresponds roughly with the rise of the fourth and latest generation of gods, whose interests lie in the application of more abstract principles to the realities of mortal life. Three of these gods - Ephara, Iroas, and Karametra - played significant roles in the establishment of human civilization, in opposition to the archons.

The goddess Ephara inspired and equipped two human heroes, Kyanois and Tiro, to overthrow the archon Agnamakhos. Divergent tales describe their history following the defeat of the tyrant. Some claim that they warred with each other for control over the region and that only their eventual death paved the way for the peace that allowed the new polis of Meletis to flourish.
The truth is that they ruled Meletis peacefully together, established its legal code, and defended it for decades.

After the fall of Agnamakhos and the other archons of Trax, humans and minotaurs waged a bloody war in the highlands. The poleis of Akros and Skophos were born from that bloodshed, inspired by the martial doctrines of Iroas and Mogis rather than the legal code of Ephara. Eventually the years of war settled into an uneasy peace with the badlands of Phoberos as a barrier separating the poleis from each other.

Meletis, Akros, and Skophos perpetuated the stark division between civilization and nature that was inherent in the archons' rule. While most humans/humanoids (and minotaurs/orcs) embraced that division, the god Karametra tried to teach people a new way of living in harmony with nature, leading to the founding of Setessa.

Age of Heroes

The uncounted centuries since the fall of the archons have been marked by the exploits of great heroes, many of which are recorded in works of epic prose and poetry. Three major narratives remain widely retold and studied: The Akron War, The Callapheia, and The Theriad.

The epic tale of The Akroan Wars is only nominally a history of the long siege of Akros, precipitated by the queen of Olantin abandoning her husband and going to live with the Akroan king. With the war as a backdrop, a nameless poet spins tales of gods and heroes, victories and tragedies. The death of Korinna, the Triton Queen, and the resulting birth of the Dakra Isles from Thassa's falling tears, is a tale told incidentally, by way of comparison to the grief of the Olantian king.
The tale of Phenax escaping from the Underworld is told to explain the origin of a palanx of the Returned that comes to fight alongside the Olantian forces. And when Medomai, the Sphinx oracle, appears and fortells the fall of Olantin, the poet tells of Medomai's earlier prophecy of the destruction of Alephne - a tragedy that could have been averted had anyone believed the sphinx's dire warning.

The saga of Callaphe the Mariner, told in The Callapheiae, is a more coherent narrative focused on a single hero and her exploits. Known as the greatest mariner who ever lived, Callaphe was a human trickster from Meletis who sailed a ship called The Monsoon. She was the first mortal to decipher the secret patterns of the winds (provoking Thassa's ire), and she sailed over the edge of the world and into Nyx to claim her place among the stars. The tales of her adventures are a mythic tour of the Dakra Isles and the coastlands of Theros, descriping a panoply of creatures, nations, and marvelous phenomena - some of which still exist as described in its verses, though others are lost to history or myth.

The Theriad is a different sort of epic, closely associated with the worship of Heliod. At a glance, it appears to be about a champion of Heliod who is never named but simply called "the Champion." A closer read, though, reveals that the tales take place over the span of centuries and the identity of the Champion changes from tale to tale. In fact, The Theriad is a compilation of tales descriping the exploits of many different champions of the sun god. It is widely believed that some tales are actually prophecies of champions yet to come.

Recent Memory

The Age of Heroes has not yet come to an end, and more epics will surely be sung and written as more heroes take their destinies into their own hands and chart their paths to the stars. The heroes of recent memory - Haktos the Unscarred, Siona and her crew on the Pyleas, Kytheon Iora, Elspeth and Daxos, Anax and Cymede, Ajani Goldmane, and countless others - are no less heroic than the protagonists of age-old epics, even if their deeds aren't yet as widely known. Beyond individuals - a kraken attack on Meletis; the fall of the monstrous hydra Polukranos; the Nyxborn assault on Akros; Erebos's tital felled by Heliod's champion; the apotheosis and destruction of the mortal-turned-god Xenagos - the epic events of the recent past are already remembered and retold as mythic deeds. Many of these tales are told throughout this book, but they're only a fraction of the myths the people of Theros share.

Like white-hot bronze on the smith's anvil, Theros is ready to be forged by the deeds of today's heroes and ushered into the next great era of its history.