The Titans - beings of immense power, the closest this world had to gods - shape the world through primal force manipulation: cold, heat, time, planar boundaries.
Unknown
Structures are raised so vast they are mistaken for geography. Mountains. Valleys. Weather patterns.
Unknown
The Titans eventually vanish. No record survives of how, or why, but it is the subject of mythologies and religions across the globe.
Age II - The Age of the Skylords
Period
Event
Early
A civilization achieves sustained aerial infrastructure - floating cities, sky-routes, fortresses suspended in the clouds.
Peak
The Skylord empire expands across the known world.
End
The Fall: catastrophic collapse of the floating infrastructure. Cause disputed.
End
Wreckage scatters across the continent. One structure survives intact; reason unknown.
Age III - The Dark Ages
Period
Event
Early
Mortal kingdoms rise across the ruins of Ages I and II.
Early–Peak
A polytheistic pantheon is worshipped across many cultures.
Unknown
The gods fall silent. Whether by death, departure, or choice - no one knows.
Late
Kingdoms continue without divine guidance. Most eventually collapse.
Age IV - The Magitech Dominion
Period
Event
Throughout
Despotic kings and queens rule the Dominion. Magic and technology thrive at significant human cost.
Early–Peak
Ley-line infrastructure, skyships, enchanted constructs, and weaponized relics become widespread.
Unknown
Thalorin Vex - a minor, eccentric figure - speaks of a coming age of permanent frost. No one believes him.
Unknown
Vex builds or assembles the device later known as the Hearth Engine. His purpose is unrecorded.
End
The peoples rise up. The Cydonian Revolutions topple the Magitech rulers.
Age V - The Age of Cydonia
Period
Event
Early
The Cydonian Bureaucracy is established - intended to distribute power and prevent another Dominion.
Early
Skyships, already fading, are lost entirely in the chaos of transition and administrative neglect.
Early–Peak
Cydonia expands, establishing colonies including settlements in the region later known as Vespera.
Peak–Late
The Bureaucracy bloats. Inefficiency compounds. Society grinds toward a slow halt.
~10 years before Year 0
Unusual cold and signs of creeping climate change begin to appear. Most ignore them. Nomadic tribes in the Wastes-region sense catastrophe and hold the First Gathering - forming what will become the White Maw Clans.
~3 years before Year 0
The cold accelerates rapidly. Crops fail across the continent. Infrastructure begins to collapse. The Bureaucracy debates response procedures.
Year 0
The Cydonian Bureaucracy officially collapses. Police and government abandon the capital to protect themselves - becoming the nucleus of what will be called The Last Kingdom. This moment defines the start of the Age of Frost calendar.
Age VI - The Age of Frost
Year
Event
Year -10 (late Age V)
Luthor Shrike runs a relic-hunting guild before the Frost. His pre-Frost collection later becomes the founding fuel for the The Hearth Engine.
Year -1
Luthor Shrike - running a failing relic-hunting guild during the chaos of the rapid onset - discovers the The Hearth Engine and begins feeding his collection into it to sustain the Thermal Sphere.
Year 0
The Cydonian Bureaucracy collapses. Its officials flee the capital. The Age of Frost calendar begins.
Years 1-2
Society continues to fracture. Wheeled transport is cast aside for means of transport better suited to snow: sled networks develop. Word of the Engine - and Hearth - begins to spread. Shrike’s collection continues to fuel the flame.
Years 3-5
Refugees converge on Hearth. The town grows rapidly under the Thermal Sphere. Shrike’s Relic Hunters’ Guild is repurposed as the backbone of Hearth’s survival operation.
Year 5
The Guild loses members on an expedition to the northeast. Their wrecked auto-sled comes to rest in a cliff crevice ~2 days from Hearth.
Years 6-9
The Guild formalizes. Relic recovery expeditions into The Wastes begin in earnest as the founding collection runs low. The Relic economy takes shape out of necessity.
Year 8
Kylos, a crystal-dragonborn, trains with Father Bokan’s monk-wizard band across the Wastes.
Year 9
Shrike’s founding collection reaches its final dregs. The The Hearth Engine now depends entirely on active expeditions. The need becomes dire.
Year 9
Kylos fails to advance as a spellsword and is left behind by Father Bokan’s band. Luthor Shrike recruits Kylos for the Relic Hunters Guild.
February, Year 10
Mother Helene, shaman of the White Maw and Sylvia Caligo’s adoptive sister, dies in the Wastes. Sylvia Caligo leaves the White Maw for good.
March 3, Year 10
Luthor Shrike begins the most recent Guild hiring expansion. New members are recruited.