THE FIVE AGES OF ARCASIA

A Mythic Chronicle of Creation, Hubris, Empire, and Renewal
Compiled by the Lorekeepers of Dwellomel and the Pearlbound Archivists of the Sunken Continent

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

THE FIRST AGE

The Age of Dawning

c. 10,000–7,000 BA
When the world was young and the heavens were newly hung.

Overview

In this age, Arcasia was raw and radiant, shaped by divine hands whose names are half-remembered in cracked tablets and whispered in Tilçanhu’s moonlit groves. The gods strode openly across the newborn world, and mortal peoples emerged from sea, stone, and star. Magic ran wild and unbound.

Major Events

10,000 BA — The Weaving of Arcasia
From the Sea-of-Nothing the gods drew forth land and sky. Selunvar, the Elder Moon, was placed as guardian of fate, and Thalune, her radiant sister, was loosed to dance wildly across the heavens, stirring change and wonder.

9,700 BA — Awakening of the First Peoples
The Tilçanhu junglefolk rose from verdant ley-womb groves. Dwarven deepkin emerged from molten caverns. Giantkin strode from storm-lit peaks. The ancestors of Chelonia first heard the sea’s call in their bones.

9,300 BA — The First Shattering
The earliest catastrophe. A leyline ruptured beneath Faenas, carving the Abyssal Scar—a wound that still hums with ancient resonance.

9,200 BA — The Divine War
Order and Chaos contended. Mountains cracked, oceans surged, and several gods vanished without death rites. Their absence still stains the fabric of magic.

9,000 BA — Wild Magic Zones Form
Tilçanhu’s jungles grew impossibly lush; animals whispered prophecy; rivers flowed backward for days after each lunar eclipse.

8,500 BA — The Withdrawal of the Gods
Having shaped the world and wounded it, the surviving gods stepped back. Their temples dimmed. Their voices softened.

7,000 BA — The First Age Ends
Mortals multiply. Kingdoms root themselves in the bones of a world touched by divinity.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

THE SECOND AGE

The Age of Chelonia

c. 7,000–4,000 BA
An age of brilliance and hubris upon the rising tides.

Overview

Upon the great island-continent of Chelonia, the first true civilization ascended. Guided by tidal-magic and lunar harmony, they built wonders unmatched in any later age. But no golden age escapes shadow. Their rise birthed their ruin.

Major Events

7,000 BA — The Founding of Chelonia
A unified kingdom forms, ruled by philosopher-kings who read the moons like open books.

6,600 BA — Discovery of the Pearlheart
Deep beneath the western trench, divers uncovered a radiant gem that pulsed with both lunar and oceanic power. High-Magister Nalyssar declared it the “Memory of the Deep.” It became the heart of Chelonian progress.

6,500–5,500 BA — The Chelonian Golden Age
Reef citadels rose. Oceanic causeways shimmered. Lunar engines purified water and bent tides. Magic and craft interwove seamlessly.

5,400 BA — The First Merfolk
Surgeons and mages shaped water-adapted kin—an attempt to expand life into the sea itself. These experiments birthed the earliest ancestors of today’s merfolk.

5,000 BA — The Lunar Binding Project
Chelonia sought to harness Selunvar and Thalune both, believing unity of the moons would grant immortality, calm all tides, and elevate mortals to divine station.

4,300 BA — Warnings Ignored
Dwarven rune-scholars sounded alarms. Tilçanhu mystics foresaw drowning skies. Nalyssar dismissed them.

4,050 BA — The Hubris Ritual
Performed at the rare dual-moon zenith. The lunar engines trembled. The sea recoiled.

4,000 BA — The Sinking of Chelonia
The seabed fractured. An entire continent was swallowed in a single day. Only fragments remained—coral-crusted atolls and drowned towers. The merfolk survived in scattered enclaves, adapting fully to the deep over centuries.

Tides across Arcasia shifted for decades. Storm patterns changed permanently.

Thus ended the Second Age.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

THE THIRD AGE

The Age of Empire

c. 4,000–1,600 BA
Mortals sought unity to escape the mistakes of the past.

Overview

Where Chelonia fell, landborn peoples vowed to build something steadier. The First Empire rose as a pact of stability, binding Faenas, Tilçanhu, dwarven halls, and northern reaches into a grand compact. At its height, knowledge and peace flourished across the continents.

Major Events

3,900 BA — Formation of the First Empire
Human kings, dwarven thanes, Tilçanhu skylore councils, and giant chieftains swear the Accord of Protection.

3,800 BA — The Kurai Oath
From Sukoku, a disciplined people emerged. The Kurai pledged their blades and honor to imperial defense. Their code—unbending, ritualized—shaped Imperial law itself.

3,500–2,500 BA — Imperial Golden Age
Sky-bridges spanned valleys. Leyforges ignited. Academies standardized magical teaching. Trade routes unified the world.

2,400 BA — First Secrets Shared with the Merfolk
Envoys dared the Sunken Continent’s depths. Silent trade and eerie diplomacy formed the foundation of future myths.

2,000 BA — The Empire’s Zenith
Imperial law and infrastructure touched nearly every land save the wildest reaches of Tilçanhu.

1,800 BA — Decay Begins
Wealth became excess. Scholars chased forbidden magics. Nobles indulged in rituals echoing Chelonia’s folly.

1,650 BA — Kurai Schism
One faction preached strict reform; another argued for loyalty without rebellion. This fracture seeded future conflict.

1,600 BA — The Third Age Ends in Uncertainty
Storm-clouds gathered—politically, magically, spiritually.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

THE FOURTH AGE

The Age of Rebellion

c. 1,600–0 BA
The world was sundered by honor, ambition, and flame.

Overview

Unable to halt corruption within the Empire, a Kurai shogun rose in defiance. His rebellion shattered the great order, sparked civil war, and ultimately brought centuries of unity to ruin. Out of the ashes, new peoples rose, while the Kurai paid the price for their own divided blades.

Major Events

1,600 BA — The Call for Reform
Shogun Raiken Toru demanded sweeping changes. Imperial courts dismissed him.

1,580 BA — The Kurai Coup
Toru’s followers seized eastern provinces. Kurai loyalists resisted. Brother fought brother beneath the banners of sundering.

1,550–1,520 BA — War of Sundering Banners
A brutal, multi-front conflict. Magic buckled. Entire provinces emptied. Dwarves sealed their mountain gates. Tilçanhu invoked ancient protections.

1,520 BA — The Capital Burns
The imperial heart was consumed in siegefire. The Empire’s collapse was irreversible.

1,480 BA — The Leyline Collapse
Destabilized by decades of war, a ley network ruptured. For months, storms of raw magic ravaged Faenas. Many scholarly traditions were lost.

1,450 BA — Exile of the Kurai
At war’s end, the shattered remnants of the Kurai were condemned to return to Sukoku—banished, watched, and sealed away by ancient treaty. Their atonement would define their future.

1,400–0 BA — Rise of the Free Peoples
Kingdoms, city-states, merchant federations, and wandering clans filled the vacuum. The world refragmented into countless sovereignties.

0 BA — The Fifth Age Begins
After a century of uneasy stability, scholars named the new era.

–––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––––

THE FIFTH AGE

The Age of Renewal

0 FA–Present
Bright with promise, shadowed by memory.

Overview

Three and a half centuries into the Age of Renewal, Arcasia is vibrant yet tense. Old wounds linger, new powers stir, and ancient magics whisper beneath the tides. The moons shift strangely. Rumors spread. Something is coming.

Major Events

1–80 FA — Rebuilding
Kingdoms stabilize. Trade reopens. Dwellomel dwarves rediscover lost rune-forges.

120 FA — The Rising Year
Chelonia briefly surfaces. Merfolk emissaries warn of shifting lunar tides. Few listen.

200 FA — Kurai Diplomacy
First envoys leave Sukoku in generations, though pride and penance keep them cautious.

260 FA — The Dim Nights
For three nights Selunvar’s light weakened. Astrologers mark this as the first omen.

280 FA — Disturbance in the Lunar Leylines
Tilçanhu scholars detect patterns reminiscent of the era before the Sinking.

310 FA — Rumors of More Frequent Risings
Sailors whisper of drowned spires glimpsed beneath the waves.

350 FA — Present Day
A hush falls across Arcasia. Empires long dead leave restless echoes. Chelonia stirs.
The moons draw closer in their dance.
And the world stands once more at the edge of an age-ending choice.