Timeline of Aetolia

The following is a summary of the events that comprise Aetolia, the Midnight Age. Owing to less-than-stellar notekeeping and the nature of sporadic volunteer work, this timeline's completion or 100% factual accuracy is never guaranteed. Every effort has been made to maintain the game's history to the best of our volunteers' abilities.

Copies of this timeline are available in-game from Herolt, the Decipherer.

First Immortal Epoch - The Age of Creation

In this time, Varian creates the brothers - Severn and Lanos - and the Triad of Haern, Lleis, and Dhar, who begin the Cycle and create the souls of life. In the proto-realm of Varian's Divinity, the Ankyreans are first created and given a world to inhabit, shaped by a quartet of Gods representing each of the four Core Elemental Planes - Mebrene, Slyphe, Galleus and Ivoln. The first of the mortal races are created to serve the Ankyreans and during this period, many of the racial origin stories take place. The people of this time were sentient, but swayed easily by the power of the Gods. Near the end of this epoch, Dhar and Ivoln merge to form Dhaivol, formalizing the Ritual of Union and creating the concept of Ivolnite undeath.

Second Immortal Epoch - The Age of Providence

At the onset of the Age of Providence, the first civilized settlement of mankind - Bloodloch - is dug and founded by the Dowaf, precursor to the Dwarves, who are among the most developed of the mortal races. Soon thereafter, Spinesreach is built by the Ankyreans as a bastion and storehouse of knowledge. Next, Stormcaller Crag in the Tundra is built, and later the sprawling underwater city of Kelsys is founded, overseen directly by Slyphe. As favoured children of a Goddess, the Kelki are granted insight and power beyond other mortals, making Kelsys a bastion of advanced technology.

The Consortium is formed by the Ankyreans to research the great secrets of the world, and following experiments with the leylines, they discover the Dreikathi, alerting them to their presence. A great war breaks out as Ankyreans and Dreikathi clash, both in the material world and within the ley. This precipitates the mysterious destructive event later called the Disturbance. The great war ends with the collapse of the leyline transit and the destruction of the Court of the Consortium.

Yggdrasil, the World Tree, is planted in an attempt to mend some of the effects of the Disturbance. Fearful of further disturbances, Varian conceals knowledge of the leylines from His children. The great war signifies the breakdown of the social order between Ankyreans and the "rellyw", marking the end of the Second Immortal Epoch.

First Mortal Epoch - The Age of Despair

Following the great war at the end of the Second Immortal Epoch, the Gods are confused and scattered, and most of the Ankyreans are dead. The remaining Ankyrean tribes begin subjugating the "lesser races" and begin forming their own small empires. The Endorone cult forms among the subjugated dwarves, studying the power of life essence and deriving techniques to use in conflict with the Ankyreans. A splinter sect within the Endorone beseeches Chakrasul for aid, and She teaches them the forbidden magic of the Chaos Plane and the corruptive force of Necromancy. In Hlugnic, the language of "high" dwarves, "endoron" means "mage". Other races begin using the modified form, "Indoron", as shorthand for "despair".

The Endorone conquer Bloodloch in a vicious civil war and drive out the disloyal dwarves, but then collapse under internal stresses as the Chakrasulian cult displaces the original Endoron and embraces their role as bringers of despair. The Indoron move on the rest of Sapience, intending to conquer it.

A man named Idar Karif unites several scattered settlements as "the armies of the Light", and builds his Castle of Illumination. He then pitches his armies against those of the Indoron. The forces of Light harry the Indoron from the southeast, whittling down their forces as their once-green recruits become veterans in facing the dark magi. Facing resistance for the first time in a long time, the Indoron retreat into Bloodloch and the surrounding lands, fighting running battles against enemy regiments.

Idar Karif meets and marries Catiana, a lady of mysterious origins, and the crusade against the Indoron becomes more brutal. Soon, Idar becomes paranoid, even towards members of his own closest circle, and he casts them out of his Castle. Internal schisms continue to form within the armies of the Light, as Lady Catarina's presence drives Idar and his men into their own extremes of mad devotion. At its height, Idar Karif murders every person living in the Castle of Illumination and throws himself from the parapets to his death.

Lady Catarina is revealed to be an invocation of Chakrasul as she takes the Castle of Illumination for Herself, rechristening it Tiyen Indoron and removing it from mortal knowledge and sight. Fuelled by the sacrifice of Idar Karif's men, a black rain of corruption falls over the south, tainting land and mortals both and swaying them towards corruption. The Dark Empire rises from the now-fertile ground, beneath the black banner of the thirteen-pointed star. The remaining Indoron armies, led by the brutal Yetrent, assist the Dark Empire in pushing back the unified forces of Light with Goddess-given powers. At this time, the Dun Fortress is constructed in the western Vashnars, and the dungeon of Azdun is built underground.

The Wars of Power begin as the Dark Empire mandates the construction of the landmarks and the forces of Light discover how to manipulate them. Within the Citadel of Spinesreach, the Ankyrean Order is formed in an effort to combat the Dark Empire, with the shadowy Syssin working behind the scenes to further the reach of the Order.

The Pantheon is petitioned for support, and They grant it, putting Their blessing behind the armies of the Ankyreans. The consolidation of power marks the end of the First Mortal Epoch as the war between the Indoron and Ankyreans comes to a stalemate.

Second Mortal Epoch - The Age of Conflict

The opposition to the Indoron, now bolstered by the power of the Gods, reforms as the Illuminai. They are composed of the precursors to Priests, known as Luminaries, and the Daru. A temple is built in the southeast in an area that would later become the city of Shallam after the Indoron raze the temple to the ground.

Guided by a conclave of the Ankyrean Order and the united Gods, a circle of seven Spirit-channelers ambush and annihilate Yetrent's physical form, trapping him as a wretched spirit. With the fall of Yetrent, the core of the Dark Empire's magical forces collapse, and eventually Bloodloch itself is besieged. Imal, Yetrent's second-in-command and the current leader of the Indorani, evacuates a portion of his followers from Bloodloch and enacts the collapse of the caverns to deny the forces of Light from a total victory over them. A small pocket of Dark Empire loyalists survive in areas like Azdun and the Dun Fortress. Mysteriously, Llazuth and her Black Keep are hidden away beyond the veil to preserve the secrets of the Empire.

A small group of mortals led by an Ankyrean called Azaeru, calling themselves the Naldareth, seek succor in Kelsys, using dire warnings of a prophesied threat to gain entry and influence. This group is capable of channeling power from the Elemental Planes - Azaeru is in fact a renegade of the Order, and becomes responsible for teaching rellyw to channel the elements.

The Naldareth inscribe Azaeru's apocalyptic visions onto the walls of the Silver Spire, and begin to preach of a coming destructive force that the woefully under-prepared city could not hope to stand against. Panicked and afraid, and unable to contact their Matron, the Kelki allow the Naldareth to install themselves in the Silver Spire. They are trained in making use of the elements and form the core of the Naldareth guild, led by the Eye of Eternity and his followers.

Meanwhile, in the Misty Isles, mystics rise up and begin tapping into the leylines as fuel for their magicks. Ashtan is founded there as a haven for scholars and mortal magicians, and is cloaked from the Indoron by powerful illusions. Their isolation is short-lived, however, as the Nazetu arrive from the Western Isles and lay siege to Ashtan.

The First Child is revealed to be a summoning of the Indorani as they assault the Silver Spire, dashing themselves against the newly-built defenses of Kelsys. The city takes extensive damage, and the Naldareth depart for a more defensible area - the city of Shallam. They shroud Kelsys in a protective veil called the Lutha Kelma to hide them from the Second Child.

Scattered after the attack from the Nazetu, the mystics of the Misty Isles attract the attention of the Ankyreans, who observe them and rediscover the properties of the leylines that were once hidden from them by Varian. The Ankyreans use this knowledge to construct the orrery and leyspike in Spinesreach, and it is during this time that the skill of Lycanthropy is derived from magical techniques pioneered by the mystics. The first Atabahi flee Spinesreach and hide in Three Rock Outpost, founding the Atabahi Rout.

Yrtez and the Conclave of Magic create the Consanguine through dangerous experimentation and flee the Citadel, sparking the Ankyrean civil war. Around this time, Azaeru, first of the Naldareth, dies in an experimental accident, succeeded by a nameless and arrogant acolyte. Alaihandra, a mortal Naldareth, prophecies the Grand Artifice and is ignored by the current Eye of Eternity. She safeguards five memories to survive until the Midnight Age.

Riven by civil war, the Ankyrean Order begins to collapse, though the fall of the Ankyreans is gradual and spans many years. During this period, the stories of the Seluno brothers take place.

In response to the pleas of Qeddwyn, but in fact in order to once again conceal knowledge of the leylines, Severn enacts the Grand Artifice, ending the Second Mortal Epoch.