The Ages

The History of Runetalras is divided into Ages, with the years being denoted by number following the name of the Age. Thus far the history of Runetalras has been divided into eight Ages, however, the first is vague and denotes an indeterminable amount of time. The Ages in chronological order are the; Forgotten Ages, Age of The Titans, Serpentine Age, Age of The Elder Races, Age of Contact, Age of Conquest, Age of Blood, and the Age of Contempt.

Forgotten Ages

The Forgotten Ages as its name suggests is largely obscured by the mist of time. Scholars disagree on how long ago the Forgotten Ages came to an end, but the most common estimate is that it ended ten thousand years ago. Scholars also disagree upon the Ages’ length, with estimates ranging from ten thousand to one hundred thousand years. There are countless myths and legends placed within the Forgotten Ages, ranging from stories of creation, beauty, tragedy, and horror, and involving demons, devils, Primordials, and the deities themselves; give the amount of time that has passed it is entirely impossible to assess the veracity of tales.

Age of The Titans

The Age of the Titans is the most distant of the Ages that some historical evidence exists for. The Age of the Titans was dominated by the titanic creatures dragons and giants; both created vast empires, the High Empire of the Dragons and Jour’ant respectively. The High Empire and Jour’ant both stretched across the known world and enslaved countless races including, kobolds, lizardmen, Dragonborn, dwarves, and gnomes. The two empires were brought into a cold war which grew into bloody conflict which led to the destruction of both. The Jour’ant was destroyed when its slaves rebelled and destroyed the giants empire and culture driving them to the outskirts of the world; while the High Empire of the Dragons was destroyed by the elves, who emerge onto Runetalras from the Feywild and created the Dracoplauge which destroyed the dragons culture, civilization, and degenerated many of dragonkind’s physical forms.

Serpentine Age

The Serpentine Age began with the power vacuum left when the Jour’ant and High Empire of the Dragons were destroyed. In the ruins the newly arrived elves created their Elventine Empire with forest gnomes, the dwarves and gnomes created the Orzar’Nack Empire, the Dragonborn the Draconic Freeholds, the dryads further expanded their kingdom Caedreon; all these kingdoms were in their formative years, weak and oft in conflict with one another. In the shadows of these kingdoms and empires a greater threat emerged, the Vrael Empire made up of the yaun-ti, creatures transformed by the magics of Dendar The Night Serpent and Fenra The Dawn Serpent. Vrael launched expansionist wars against the rest of Runetalras fuel by their fell magic. This had the unintended consequences, chiefly the creation of a sense of comradeship among the elder races, and indeed united them against the Vrael. The conflict itself is believed to have lasted centuries with some sources claiming a millennium, and brought destruction to the homes of the elder race, but in the end the elder races brought ruin to Vrael and ushered in the dawn of the elder races.

Age of The Elder Races

The Age of The Elder Races was brought about as the elder races were brought into accessdance following the destruction of rivalling powers. The elder races are believed to have strengthened and expanded their kingdoms and empires, and prospered greatly creating great cultures in the process. Still little is known about the Age as a result of the chaos and destruction of the Age of Conquest and Age of Blood, but some surviving records seem to indicate that wars between the elder races were not uncommon. It is believed that the Age lasted for at least a millennium, until the widespread Emergence of Humanity from the Seldori Flatlands.

Age of Contact

The Age of Contact is named for the widespread contact that the elder races had with humanity as they emerged from the Seldori Flatlands, now known as the Seldori Range. Humanity began to spill out over the mountains surrounding the Seldori Flatlands, however, for the time they merely settled unoccupied territories and built their own kingdoms within the Seldori Flatlands. Much of the history of the humans in this period is seemingly lost, a result of poor recording and the destruction of the Age of Blood. It is worth consideration, that humans are believed to have inhabited the Wild Isles and far south of the known world prior to this Age.
The subterranean races were upended when the Darkquake hit, the Darkroads were largely destroyed, entire cities were ruined, and Duer'Nack sank into the Underdark. Orzar’Nack collapsed into civil wars from which it never recovered. As civil war ravaged Orzar’Nack one of the greatest goblinoid forces under its ruler Khurgo pillaged the subterranean world in a war that lasted centuries.
The draconic races, Dragonborn, kobolds, Lizardfolk, and half-dragons, succumbed to their deep racial tensions and lingering impacts of the Dracoplague which broke up their empire in civil wars, secession crisis, and coups which left them greatly reduced.
Little and less is known of the Elventine, a result of the destruction that the Age of Conquest and Age of Blood wrought upon them. It is known that they warred with the orcs of the Rugged Pass. Historians of Selu’Qidar and Elnusari have contended that the humans sowed discord throughout the Elventine in preparation for the Age of Conquest. A rare gnomish source which only bears mention as an oddity; its author claims that a civil war took place late within Elventine during the Age of Contact.

Age of Conquest

The Age of Conquest was forced upon the world by as humanity, led largely by the Kingdom of Avadel which had come to dominant the humans throughout Runedastil, Undras, and the Seldori Range, washes over the lands; the humans warred with the elder races and displaced many of them. As the the Kingdom of Avadel grew large other Human kingdoms spread like wildfire, petty kingdoms rise and fell on the ruins of the elder races throughout Runedastil and Undras, Fylkes prospered on the southern continents of Taunas and Talduras, and Human settlements began rise in the Atarsid Isles. By the end of the Age humans came to dominate all the continents of the known world.
During the destruction brought by Human steel and flame the Elventine was destroyed, its peoples scattered, its history and culture lost. Selu'Qidar, believed to have been a minor rebellious city survived, though it was sacked no less than five times, by humans and orcs alike destroying much of what remained; before its great gates were erected, and served as a citadels to protect its people. Similarly, the Elnurian Forest served as a refuge for its people.
The subterranean world suffered as many different group attempted to reestablish the Orzar’Nack in their own image; all these attempts failed, but new subterranean kingdoms rose to fill the void. In the Age Duer'Nack was discovered to have sunken to the Underdark during the Darkquake and its peoples enslaved and experimented upon by the Illithids. The Drow, illithids, and other foul creatures of the Underdark flowed through the Darkroads to beligure the subterranean kingdoms until they sealed off their Darkroads.
The Draconic and Wild Isles saw an end to civil war. A Dragonborn majority kingdom, the Holy Draconic Empire united the majority of the draconic races, but entered a prolonged period of reconstruction plagued by repeated revolutions, rebellions, and pogroms resulting from poor treatments of the so-called ‘lesser draconic races’.
The Age was brought to an end with horror, faced with wars against multiple foes on multiple fronts the Kingdom of Avadel enacted a terrible ritual which brought a crisis to Runetalras which was without precedent in all the known history of the world.

Age of Blood

The Age of Blood was unleashed when Anaxxis the Black enacted a Ritual at Kirthlath which destroyed the Kingdom of Avadel, created the Seldori Range, tore down the boundaries between planes of existence, and unleashed torrents of creatures from the Elemental Planes, Shadowfell, Abyss, Nine Hells, Far Realms, and other unknown planes of existence.
No part of the known world was untouched by the Age of Blood. All of Runetalras bled as demons, devils, weave aberrations, monstrosities, aberrations, and elementals tore through the lands, they destroyed whole kingdoms, cultures, peoples, and they fundamentally change the way of life for every person in the known world.
It was truly the avatars of Demon Lords and the manifestations of elder elementals and weave aberrations that brought destruction on a mass scale and were almost without rival among mortal champions. All was not lost for Runetalras, many of the mortal races banded together to defeat the Avatar of Orcus and Avatar of Demogorgon at the Siege of Runia, with the greatest of the Order for the Dawn being able to put an end to the Ritual at Kirthlath and repaired the holes between planes; though the brave that ventured to to the ruins of Kirthlath never being seen again.
Although many thought the Age and destruction would end once the Ritual at Kirthlath was ended their hopes were dashed. Blood still flowed, undead and necrophages were prevalent, The wars of mortals spread like a wildfire, and the Crystal Catalyst brought new magical disasters upon Runetalras; it was fortunate that forces united once more and brought an end to the foul lich-magocracy. The Age of Blood taught many to fear and hate magic, brought destruction to the centre Human civilisation, and its end signalled a return to the old conflicts of racism and national conflicts.

Age of Contempt

The Age of Contempt has proved a disappointing return to the racial hatreds that were so cultivated within the Age of Conquest. New prejudice has emerged from the Age of Blood, the great fear and hatred of magic and the dangers it poses; to that end the system of Arcane Bastilles and Bright Swords was created. Powerful Kingdoms have arisen out of the wreckage of the Age of Blood and most stand ready to go to war over the most petty matters.