The Age of Discovery

The Age of Discovery is the first defining period of Zaepheria. This is the time from the creation of the world spanning to the founding of the Daedmerth Institute for the Arcane, the first of the arcane universities. This era was defined by the transition from the lesser races being mostly made up of nomadic tribes to the forming of towns, cities, and civilizations.This was also the time in which the relationship between the divines and the lesser races was one of gentle guidance. Religions emerged at the center of many of the groups and drove their developmental paths. Magic was gifted into the world as a way to help facilitate societal growth. As these societies of lesser races began to develop more complex and independent thought schools some grew larger and more diverse while some remained small and inclusive keeping to older beliefs. Independent nations were formed by some of the prevailing religious and cultural groups and inevitably wars ensued among them. A group of conflicts that came to be known as the Founder Wars overtook the land. Over the course of at least 200 years of wars consisting of conflicts with almost every founding nation with brief periods of fragile peace the number of founder groups was whittled down from over 300 to about 30 with some new groups arising along the way. Eventually the Continent was able to reach an accord and the 2 centuries of almost ceaseless conflict came to an end. The greatest society to emerge from this conflict was the Nation on Solaris with the helm of its power seated atop the legendary floating island of their capital city of Sonis. The time of peace following the Founder Wars led to new and rapid progression in the sharing of knowledge and ideas among the ruling elite rather than war. Through this exchange many of high mind discovered that their societies were much more connected than they originally realized and drew on similar sources for their power. This discovery led to the establishment of the first university, Daedmerth Institute for the Arcane around 1991 AD, The Arcane Enlightenment was at hand.