The Age of Ancients
Before the planes of Caeleste Mare were created, the greater pantheon (上神) were “born” from the great ether that is called the Celestial Sea. This time after the awakening of the gods, before the material plane was created, is called the age of ancients in the west (of the Spirit Abyss / 淵西). This is described to have “countless years”.
The Age of Fire
The material plane was created, and life was seeded to them by the greater pantheon. This marked the beginning of the age of fire.
Xiron created the land, sea, and beasts, whilst Asyr created the three dragon-kinds, and became the sun and moon. Valaan created the elves within the forests, Estia created the humans on the floodplains, Krieg created the dwarves in the mountains, Jin Syian created the heavenly beasts, Jin Jou created the demonic monsters. Cerí and Marí orchestrated the dance of the seasons; Ingvar seeded the earth with ores and gemstones; Chara awakened magic within the world; Kleios bestowed sentience upon the many races; and at the end of all life was Golmak, the god of death, the one who guided departed souls.
In western records this era is still considered pre-history, as it was long before the time of known writing, and legends were few and far between. The age of fire is also said to have gone on for countless years, though in reality lasted several hundred thousand years.
Many things happened during this long era, such as the rise and fall of the first civilisations (which existed far before the so-called “first civilisations” of Parsor or east Asyria). However, oral tradition east of the spirit abyss hints towards the events that happened during this time, yet they are obscure and overlooked even by those who pass them down.
Certain mysteries are left unsolved and unknown. The rise of the lesser gods, including the Seven Gods of Man, and the deities of Sun and Moon, and the many inner planes of the Twilight Vale, the Deep Dark, the Heavenly Court, and so on, are all said to have occurred during this time.
It is also said that the Learned Disciple Jin Syian rules over a vast empire, the “Great Jin beyond the sky” (天外大晉), comprised of humans from a bygone era, and mystical beasts rarely seen in the material world. The war god Jin Jou leads his armies in the west in an endless war against this empire, yet the origins of the war, and the origins of the nation in the first place, are unknown and unsaid.
Finally, the legendary battle of the gods, where the God of Death Golmak tried to usurp Chara’s place, leading to his eventual downfall and sealing in the deep dark, is still cloaked in mystery. In this mystery is hidden Asyr’s third lesser god, as whilst the Sun and Moon have their deities, why do the Stars stay empty?
The First Age of Dragonkind
Western records of history only really start then at the end of the age of fire, when the lesser pantheon had already fully formed as it is in the present day, and puts much more detail on the events subsequent to it.
At the end of the age of fire, two great civilisations are recognised: the Kingdom of Parsor in its most original form west of the abyss, and the Kingdom of Yan east of it. These were both draconic states — kingdoms ruled largely by dragonkind — and the years when the Yan (燕) conquered the Miao kingdoms (諸苗) of the central plains, and simultaneously when Parsor conquered most of the west Aseron deserts, are considered the beginning of the first age of dragonkind.
Parsor formed the Empire of Atun Orizan (Empire of Sun and Twisted Flax), whilst the Yan fell after two centuries of rule, to be replaced by the dynasty of Chang. During this time, the peoples of Dacrame were still organised in tribes, city states, and small kingdoms, with no one real power controlling the region.
Within the central plainlands of Dacrame, the Rivenian plains, are a range of mountains, called the Lavonian Reaches. A small dragon kingdom centred on the modern bastion of the Kin of the Mountains will eventually bear witness to the birth of twins Rivian and Ricarin, who will go on to form the Rivenian Empire.
The Age of Steel and Second Age of Dragonkind
Prior to that, the dynastic rule of the east was interrupted after the fall of the thousand-year dynasty of Li, leading to a long span of conflict lasting over two millennia. Simultaneously, the Empire of Atun-Orizan (having changed royal families several times over its history) saw a great fracture into several dozen smaller states. During this time, steel weaponry came into prominence, thus this era is called the age of steel.
Near the end of the age of steel, so the legends go, the twins of Rivian and Ricarin floated to the banks of the River Arkan, and founded the twin cities from which the Empire of Rivian would unite the western continent. The Jou dynasty would unite the central plains east of the abyss, and Atun Orizan would also form again, albeit slightly smaller than before.
The Rebirth and the Age of Humanity
This lasted a further nine thousand years until the abdication of the dragon king Mirmos, House of Asarakh of Rivian, and a more widespread collapse in the western world. The rule of the dragons would end, and new kingdoms would spring up to either defy or try continue their legacies. A brief period of unrest, war, and new ideals surfaced, earning this century-and-a-half period its own era name, the age of rebirth. After the age of rebirth is the modern era, termed the age of humanity.
However, the Yin dynasty of the east would only fall some four centuries after their Rivenian counterpart, leading to unevenness in the records.
The histories east of the abyss have mostly been passed down through oral tradition, and eventually recorded in their abridged and distorted forms by the Daoist sects and monasteries that are spread throughout the central plains and the oceans beyond. Whilst mostly considered mythos and sometimes hearsay, the Daoist histories do preserve more about the events of the age of fire than any western sources, as the Daoist tradition is older than Rivian, Atun-Orizan, and outlive even the Kingdoms of Yan and Miao by millennia to tens of millennia (though only forming cohesive canon during the early stages of the States of Miao).
The Daoists see the many planes as a whole as a series of islands floating on an boundless ethereal sea, perhaps surrounded by other similar archipelagos with their gods and their magicks, but so distant that their effects may never reach here. Its histories split the world up into five (sometimes six) eras, called jie 劫, being
- the pre-era 劫前, before the material plane was formed, is usually not considered part of the five eras of Daoist canon. This time is exactly the age of ancients of western history.
- longhan 龍漢, the first era, starting at the start of the age of fire;
- chiming 赤明, the second era, ending at the end of the age of fire;
- shanghuang 上皇, the third and current era, encompassing all of known history and some time into the future;
- kaihuang 開皇, the fourth era;
- and yankang 延康, the last era.
The main difference is that the Daoist tradition records the future eras, all the way until the end of the world.
Each era is marked by some great calamity (which has lead to 劫 also bearing this meaning) after which the survivors of said calamity rebuild and continue on into the next.
LONGHAN
The longhan era is the earliest, and begins with the formation of the material plane. At this time the material plane was ten times its current size, and all races lived in this world, with the gods close in the heavens. Asyr became the sun and moon, but raised a human from the eastern sea to the position of lesser god, to act as the deity of stars, protector of heavenly signs, and lead an army of angels (variously called 真仙、從神、半神) to protect the world from any dangers. The deity of stars spread his seed, giving birth to twenty-eight different lineages based on the twenty-eight constellations. The many oceans saw the birth of heavenly serpents, the second sons of Asyr, and the most powerful beasts in the world.
This era ended with Golmak’s rebellion, where the god of death tried to usurp the Red Goddess’s position. The star deity lead his stars against the armies of death, and saw mutual destruction with them; Golmak was defeated, his soul shattered, but the material plane too was shattered into several great pieces, and began drifting apart.
Valaan took the burning western continent, and made it in an image of the central one, into a refuge for his elven children; Jin Syian and Jin Jou together took the eastern half of the world, forming the continent that would be home to the Empire of Jin, and Chara took the southern continent, and cursed it forever more to be a place of darkness. Here, the gods gathered the shattered soul of Golmak and imprisoned him, never to return. However, two fragments ended up escaping — one into the body of Jin Jou, turning him bitter and hostile; the other into the “spirit-eater”, a heavenly dragon of the central sea, who began destroying the remaining material plane, until he was killed by Asyr herself, who then formed a wall of mountains, burying him and his ocean far beneath, creating the spirit abyss. This marked the end of the longhan calamity.
CHIMING
The chiming era starts with the ascension of the gods of sun and moon, of Asyr and Xiron’s hand respectively. The sun god Theianos in the west is called the chihuang (赤皇), whilst the moon gods Syuanhai, Tsanghai in the east were called the minghuang (明皇). The rain god Tsanghai was banished by Asyr to a far away land, as said in the tale of two brothers, and so there was one moon in the sky.
In the eastern continent arose five emperors (五帝), men of great virtue who rose to lead the tribes of the central plains, control the waters and develop the fields. They taught the Dao, the way of cultivation, and of immortality to the people. Each of them ruled in turn for many thousands of years, before ascending to the continent of Jin Syian, becoming his five celestial kings.
In the western continent were the seven kings (七王), children of Estia who were sent to look over the people of Dacrame. They were also virtuous, though each had his or her own way, and taught the people of farming, hunting, mining, forestry, as well as the essence of magic, and its practice. Hence the difference between eastern cultivators and western mages. Each of these kings arose into a fragment of the old material world, kept close by Estia, to form the heavenly court, a place where departed souls can be judged for their deeds. It was also around this time that Mors formed.
This era ended when a mysterious figure came from the far celestial reaches, an old god not of this world, who called himself Moira. With dice, tarot, and fortune sticks in hand, he drew the Tower, and so calamity befell the world. The heavens rained fire, the earth shook and cracked. The old gods tried to fight Moira, yet he would not die; having proclaimed his coming as being ordained by fate, he took their blows but did not yield.
Finally, he was sequestered to a broken land in the outer reaches of the many planes, where his strange fate would be lessened, and the old gods began looking again for a god of stars, one who could control the tendrils of fate and resist him.
This was all told the least damaging calamity, leaving much of the mortal population intact, though the progress of civilisation took a large backslide, with much of the previous technology forgotten and left to be rediscovered.
SHANGHUANG
Thus the shanghuang era began, with its defining moment as the many tribes of the central plains swearing fealty to a King of Miao, forming the Kingdoms of Miao (诸苗) and the earliest known civilisation in the Daoist canon. In this era, the Moon God Syuanhai would take his disciples, and last descendants of the Stars would begin to reclaim their rightful place.
The shanghuang era naturally would also end sometime, with some great calamity befalling the world, but that is yet to come.
In total it is estimated:
- The longhan era lasted over 200,000 years;
- The chiming era lasted around 70,000 years;
- The shanghuang era has lasted nearly 30,000 years so far, and should still continue for many millennia more;
- The kaihuang and yankang are still unknown.