Age of Flame

The Age of Flame saw the worlds first kingdoms and empires, bronze working, currency, writing, trade, masonry, swords, glass-working, and eventually iron working.

Takes place -2,400 AB to -1,600 AB on the Aves Calendar OR between the year 800 to 1599 on the core timeline.

Surface world population near end of the age: 135 million

Description
It started in a Bronze Age and ended in the Age of Twelve Irons, and while solomancy would take several strides forward, the magics of lithomancy and cleromancy would be introduced to the sol races for the first time. An age of monsters and danger in the wilds. After centuries without solshards, the dwarves discover the leylines and with them bring magic back to the world, ushering in a new era of solstone advancements. The world would transform from a few tribes, hardly settled after their nomadic beginnings, to a connected world of kingdoms and empires, with new metals and magical abilities to lead them into the future.

Chronicle
Bronze Age, Days of Monsters, The First Empires, The Leylines, Age of Twelve Irons

Flavor
Antiquity, Sword & Sorcery, Andrzej Sapkowski's The Witcher, proto-Medieval (circa real world -1200 B.C. to -600 in a fantasy setting)

Storytelling
Core central themes to use in campaign building or storytelling. The ideas that I believe are key to what I want each Age to explore and reflect to the audience. (Spiritual Influences: Count of Monte Cristo, The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, The Witcher series, Don Quixote) 
 * While reality great influences art and storytelling, storytelling can also inspire and change reality.
 * The hypocrisy of the nobility and self serving leaders of communities.
 * The costs of seeking vengeance, even if justified.
 * The contextual reality of life. Where the little details add up to the great whole.
 * Learning more by your person convictions and listening to your conscience, then by following others.
 * The world is filled with monsters, but are the "civilized" the worst of them all?
 * The "Golden Age" of chivalry is not only dead, but never existed outside the pages of a book.
 * Real-life doesn't have noble knights, damsels, or plucky common folk in need of saving, but people doing what it takes to survive in an unfair society and world.

Aesthetics
Narration in stone relief, tomb paintings, pyramids and massive structures, focus on the afterlife, monotheism.

Key Events

 * The awakening of the lazuli, the gem-eyed silent watchers of the world.
 * The forming of the first larger settlements and tribal collectives like: the ursadar Eight Gathered Tribes, the Kingdom of Velora, the Astrada Dominions, and the human Sol Empire.
 * Human expansion and constant conflict around the Olanthir Sea consume the early centuries of the age.
 * Drawn to the population boom and bloodshed, monsters crawl from the dark places and become a prevalent threat to the everyday villager.
 * The cycles of the cosmos known as the Circles of Eight are discovered by the ursadar.
 * The leylines are discovered by the dwarves, bringing solstones and solomancy back to the sol races nearly four-hundred years after the Cinder. The dwarves commemorate their discovery by using the diamond solstones to construct the world wonder of Twohammers.
 * Humans, the only race able to switch between and wield any shade of solstone, discover new levels of power with solomancy and begin to experiment on the other races.
 * Following the prophecy set out by the Circles of Eight, a child is to be born to any race of the world bearing the black Brand: Balance, a rare and powerful brand that leads to the birth of the undead draug. This child is born human and quickly becomes Emperor.
 * Encouraging the child, he quickly becomes stained and is able to paint and spread his brand. Under the guide of his foster royal family this brand kills thousands and ravages the roden settlements along the Cliffs of Cyg.
 * Years later the human emperor mysterious vanishes as his bloodline also vanish, hinting at the use of amethyst solomancy.
 * A thirty-three year long war ends following the Fight for the Deepflow and the destruction of the trade capital Kacora.
 * As iron secretly corrupts the mind, the soltrade booms and the quality of life increases.
 * More war as the Battle of the Olanthir sees the destruction of 1,200 ships and well over 100,000 lives in the largest naval battle the world may have ever known.
 * The rise of Dalancar Ridalya the Wise, who unifies the Astrada Dominions under a single banner and releases all the slaves and prisoners of war.
 * Rich tunnels of salt iron (cobalt) and sapphires are found at the base of the Cliffs of Cyg, leading to another long war over water resources.
 * Innovations like the lense, mathematics, and early construction change the world right before the Second Balancing.

Timeline
''This timeline uses the common calendar of the Aves Belief (AB) and places its year 1 at the start of the fifth age, the Age of Discovery (3,200 years after the start of recorded history). This is the first year following the destruction of the moon, the exile of the human empire, and the breaking apart of the old world into the new.''

Circa -2,400 AB to -1,600 AB Again for the second time in the age, the empires of the world went to war on a massive scale.
 * -2,400 AB
 * Dawn of the Red Age: The first dawn after a balancing of the Sol Cycle. After a century of darkness, the sol races were unsure if the light would ever return. When it finally did, the tiny blue star of Deneb would rise on the last night of the dark century, the next day all three sols would finally rise and with them the return of light, magic, and the resurrection of all primal powers.
 * Preparations: Luckily the sol races had been hard at work during the balancing, having barely allowed the primal Haetho to escape before the darkness came, when the balancing began they not only destroy and ransacked the domains of the six primals, they also migrated and began to establish defensive positions along strategic locations of the world. Seeing that the odds had stacked against them in their absence, the primals fade into the light and wouldn't be heard from again for several ages.
 * -2,395 AB
 * Gem-Eyed Awakening: After a few years of peace the sol races made joint expeditions to the now silent homelands of the primals. Though they didn't find any sign that the primal spirits had returned they did find strange runic symbols throughout their domains. Upon exploring the territory of the most powerful primal spirit, Haetho, the dwarves discovered fields of strange dark lavender statues with gemstone eyes. Upon approach, their eyes sudden ignited into life and began silently marching outwards in all directions. This migration would see these beings march nonstop to a seemingly random location and plant themselves there, silently waiting. The lazuli had awakened.
 * -2,350 AB
 * The First Kingdoms: As the lazuli slowly made their way out among the world, the world grew at an alarming rate. The ursadar tribes of the northwest spread among the grizzled tributary settling dozens of villages that would soon become the Eight Gathered Tribes. The dwarves focused their efforts on two beautiful keeps facing each other across the Stoutrock Channel, while the astrada, roden, and elven races all developed into a handful of settlements and kingdoms.
 * -2,300 AB
 * Four Empires: By the end of the first century four major domains of city-states, kingdoms, and empires had risen around the continent: the eight ursadar Gathered Tribes,The dwarven Kingdom of Velora, the Astrada Dominions, and the human Sol Empire. The first of these to become a full fledged empire were the dwarves, demonstrating their abilities to innovate they brought bronze working, currency, masonry, shipbuilding, the wheel, and the first swords and blades to the world along their elaborate trade routes along the northern shores. Soon the northern empires flourished, leaving the human empire to support itself.
 * -2,288 AB
 * Olanthir Raids: A series of raids take place on astrada and dwarven encampments along the Olanthir Sea, though denying involvement the human settlements shortly springing up following the attacks raise suspicion. Meanwhile, several stories of strange disappearances make their way north from Eithen Settlements at the foot of the human-roden border.
 * -2,264 AB
 * Human Aggression and Astrada Profit: Following the aggressive expansion of the human empire to the north, the Kingdom of Velora demands a treaty agreeing the immediate end to the settling of dwarven homelands. Both empires become locked in a tense stand-off as they each raise large armies clad in bronze. The astrada dominions of Solokiran, Jarat, and Kanur becomes extremely wealthy off of their strong control of the tin trade of the Northern Fells, required to make the bronze armaments for the world's soldiers.
 * -2,257 AB
 * The Burning of Sisterwharf: The village of Sisterwharf, a dwarven fishing town along the Olanthir Sea, causes all empires to send their armies marching towards the smoldering fishing village. A bloody battle breaks out as the dwarves and the humans clash first, as the dwarves are on their last stand reinforcements arrive from both the astrada and the ursadar pushing back the human army.
 * -2,255 AB
 * The Waterways: The human empire would recover much faster than the other armies, recognizing the strategic benefits of the Olantir Settlements along the waterways. They struck at the main towns along the trade routes, forcing trading vessels to either brave extremely long journeys or risk docking at human controlled port towns. Slowly one-by-one settlements fell into human hands and soon they controlled a large territory dominating the center and northern parts of the continent.
 * -2,245 AB
 * The Truce: A truce is reached between the four kingdoms, however the ursadar, astrada, and especially dwarves are forced to cede several cities and villages to the larger human armies. This decision would light the spark on a long fuse that would see the separation of the dwarven kingdom and continued war through this age. As the bloodshed finally stopped, most people expected peace to be short lasting.
 * -2,212 AB
 * Day of Monsters: Awakened by the bloodshed and increased population of potential prey, monsters the likes of which the world hadn't seen since the Primordial Age crept from the dark corners of the world. Attacking poor settlements at night they played a haunting part of the everyday life for the average commoner. Soon monster hunting mercenaries known as shepherds became common. For the time this new threat of monsters distracted and united the non-human sol races following the truce. The humans however, safe behind their high walls, continued to plot.
 * -2,150 AB
 * The Circles of Eight: After spending generations watching the night sky, the ursadar discover patterns in the sky under the star signs they had created their creation myths around. Soon they would spread the wisdom of what they called the Circles of Eight, this would also help in the understanding of the branded. Who thanks to the greatly increasing population levels and birthrates were becoming more well-known.
 * -2,080 AB
 * The Leylines: A dwarf born with the brand known as "Dig" quickly rises in the ranks of his mining unit, using the gift granted by his brand to delve far beneath the surface. He would go on to dive so deep he discovered the Great Diamond Leyline, turning his skin orange to the shoulders due to the staining of skin caused from extended use of a brand. The discovery of the leylines and the return of solstones to the surface world would enrich the dwarven kingdom leading to the building of Twohammer, the twin-mirrored keep and great wonder of the world.
 * -2,075 AB
 * The Solstone Return: Try as dwarves might to keep their discovery secret, information about the leylines soon spread. Following signs on the surface world, similar to that of the diamond leyline, soon all of the sol races had their own mining projects and shards and solstones of every color (except amethyst) began making their way around the world again. Around the same time, the branded were becoming more prevalent in all races, often taking nobility or leadership roles.
 * -2,000 AB
 * Dire Threat: Despite their branded leaders and renewed powers of solomancy, the monsters of the age continue to thrive, growing into a larger threat. Villagers are being killed daily, with many places on the outskirts of swamps or woods becoming ghost towns. The problem is so prevalent, many people whisper of greater forces at play.
 * -2,060 AB
 * New Age of Solomancers: After the reintroduction of solshards and solstones to the world, it quickly became clear that the humans would benefit most for the return of the gems. Unlike the other races who were only able to use the solstone of their birthlight, humans could adapt between shades and could become proficient in all of them. This gave them unique insight into solomancy and soon they took their powers to new heights.
 * -2,025 AB
 * Rune Word Balance: Upon studying the Circles of Eight scholars discovered that there was a high chance of a child with the black brand "Balance" being born. This brand was so rare and powerful, there had been no record of anyone ever being born with such a sign. In a chance that would severely alter the course of history, the branded child was born to the human empire, to a high ranking member of the young Church of Cygni. Grief stricken over the loss of his wife, the father of the branded child would raise him harshly, yielding an even harsher result.
 * -2,010 AB
 * Stained Black: The royal family of the human empire, knowing the potential of this incredible gift, bring the father and his son under their care. Quietly they mold the boy into a king. They establish slave camps for the boy to practice his brand upon and by the time the boy is fifteen years old his hand are already stained black.
 * -2,000 AB
 * The Invasion: After ten years of painting, the boy is now a man and has helped build an army of painted soldiers. Each wearing a silver emblem of 'Balance', they are the largest and most well trained army in the world. Taking advantages of the complacency of the other sol races, the humans secretly march to the west, cutting off the trade routes of the roden and ursadar to prevent word of their invasion.
 * -1,998 AB
 * The Draug: Looking for an opportunity to fully test out their branded army, a handful of a hundred soldiers raid the northern shores of the Cliffs of Cygni. As the roden make a desperate stand against the surprise attack, hope is lost when the first human solder is killed unleashing the Brand: Balance (Brand of Undeath) upon the unsuspecting populace. Every roden and human within a mile that night experience nightmarish visions, many of them suffering aneurysm causing death, which unleashed another brand and continued the next cycle the following night. These undead would become known as the draug.
 * -1,993 AB
 * Undead Cliffs: Unable to survive in the environment for too long, the draug don't spread far beyond the shoreline of the Cliffs of Cygni. Unwilling or uncaring to travel far from their former homes the draugr would just slowly rot in these towns until after about five years they all had withered and died. By then news had spread but there was no proof or connection to the humans. Satisfied that destroying these towns had hindered the emerald trade, the humans made no attempt to settle these areas wanting to avoid incrimination.
 * -1,990 AB
 * The Loss of Balance: The human emperor is mysteriously kidnapped during the eight day cycling of the end of this year, reported to be taken by strange dark creatures never before seen to the guards. A strange darkness takes over the room followed by a burst of flame and the the emperor was gone. Tragically we know he must of been killed through some means of amethyst solomancy because the members of his bloodline all vanish in front of the eyes of the court.
 * -1,984 AB
 * The Age of Twelve Irons: Losing their settlement to a rebel group of human marauders from the Abandalands along the Cliffs of Cygni, a group of dwarven miners on the run tunnel deep below the ground and discover rich veins of iron and a new metal they would call sol iron (palladium). These dwarves would jealously guard this mine for over a decade before drawing too much attention to themselves, soon half the dwarf race and many parts of the world were becoming obsessed with sol iron. By -1,950 all twelve of the father metals known as the Twelve Irons would be discovered.
 * -1,933 AB
 * The Fight for the Deepflow: The richest of all these iron veins was throughout the central north, underneath the eastern Kelwin Plains and all throughout the waterways of the Deepflow Delta. So once again under the cover of the eight day darkness at the end of the year, humans send the last of their final stock of the branded army, soon the undead overrun half of the dwarf and ursadar territories. This time however the sol races have ample evidence against the human empire to trace the undead to their branded army.
 * -1,912 AB
 * Destruction of Kacora: Striking at the heart of the trade kingdom Kacora, the human empire unleashed a devastating series of attacks against the fortified cities along the Olanthir Sea. Within a few months the cities lay in ruin, without a single survivor on record, an entire kingdom is wiped from the face of the world.
 * -1,900 AB
 * The End of the Thirty-Three Year War: After over a third-of-a-century at war the sol races break through the human defenses sacking the capital city of their empire built upon the ashes that bore them, Emberfall. In return for control of their capital, the humans returned all settlements taken from earlier in the age and agree to no more aggression against other races. In the end the treaty was weighed heavily against the human empire and this unfair treatment would go on to haunt them all. While the sol races had been fighting war they hadn't noticed yet another resurgence of monsters in the wild. Plenty of soldiers would go on to become shepherds after the war.
 * -1,894 AB
 * The Doom of Iron: The dwarves who discovered iron, leading to the Age of Twelve Irons, have all been driven mad or gone dead by mysterious circumstances. It wouldn't be known to anyone until sometime after that their exposure to sol iron had poisoned their minds, driving them insane.
 * -1,820 AB
 * The Four Cathedrals: Untouched by the wars of the central continent, both the Lazuli Enclave and the Alotari Elven Empire reach their zenith as a civilized cultured. The elves having a vast jungle empire known as Noko'qorra, splitting the sky with their towering cathedrals and buildings, most notably: Nakura, Noko'qorra, Nofarri, and Altorii. These four places of sol worship, would each be a world wonder had they survived to the next age to be recorded with the others.
 * -1,805 AB
 * The Suntrade: Propelled by the strength of the Elven Family, the main empire contributing towards the emerald, and therefore, food world supply. The sol races began to prosper after over a century of peace. The soltrade boomed, becoming the route that connected the largest cities of the sol races to each other, including: Haven Point, Lowhammer, and Laurandi.
 * -1,770 AB
 * The Sol Wars: Following the collapse of the Kacora, and fearing vulnerabilities from the human empires and others, several kingdoms of the astrada band together and made attacks along the dwarven settlements of the Olanthir Sea, especially the island of Thon Boldar. The astrada would exile, kill, or enslave the male populations of these settlements and assume their roles among the women and society through force. Sleeping next to their widows, fathering their children, taking the jobs and inheriting the houses of the individuals they killed. This enraged Velora and several other sol kingdoms, including humans and the astrada from neighboring domains.
 * -1,765 AB
 * Battle of the Olanthir: Soon massive naval fleets launch from docks all along the northern coastlines of the oceans and from the shores of the Olanthir Sea, fighting two great sea battle the likes of which may of not have ever been seen again, one over the Thon Boldar Islands and the occupied dwarven keep Thon Boldar herself, the other over the river canal known as the Stillfallow Canal, that ran between the Olanthir and the ocean. During the main battle when the fleets of both rival empires of astrada, dwarves, humans, and even roden met on the waters surrounding Thon Boldar, each party looking to seize control of the strategically located island keep, more than 300,000 individuals floated among some twelve hundred ships. By the end of the battle each side had sustained heavy losses, with the astrada losing the most due to bad weather along the eastern coast (approx. 50,000 deaths). The dwarves assisted by the roden would come out on top during the chaos, reclaiming Thon Boldar and bolstering its defenses.
 * -1,762 AB
 * The Wrecked Sea: Three years later, wanting to maintain their dominance of the Stillfallow, the astrada dominions sign a treaty that sees the invading astrada kingdoms that attacked Thon Boldar paying extremely heavy costs. Agreeing to these early terms by the other empires, the astrada have their tributes increase upon their first payment. Despite more than three years passing, the Olanthir is filled with the wreckage of eight-hundred ships, making passage and trade extremely difficult, if not impossible.
 * -1,748 AB
 * Kingdoms and Empires: Following the first Sol Wars, a series of far off conflicts erupt in the decades following the Wrecked Sea Treaty, animosity between astrada on both sides sees continued conflict over the Stillfallow and Olanthir Sea regions. Endless fighting, both outside and within these small scattered settlements and kingdoms, continue to define the age.
 * -1,746 AB
 * Dalancar Ridalya: The great astrada leader and conqueror, Dalancar Ridala, rises to power. After two decades of conquests he would unite the spread out desert dominions and independent kingdoms of the astrada, establishing the Ridalya Empire. Dalancar Ridalya would go on to father the Dalandon the Tall.
 * -1,740 AB
 * Salt & Iron: While things began to finally settle down among the astrada, two great conflicts would occur between the kingdoms of the humans, roden, dwarves, and elves when a vast network of tunnels are discovered about sea level along the bottom of the Cliffs of Cyg. These tunnels which had previously been submerged under water, become known as the Salt Iron Straits due to their high deposits of salt, cobalt, and other irons. The Sea of Cygnus, often considered to be open to all, suddenly becomes a hot bed of trade and conflict. Though not usually considered important due to the high cliff side of half the shoreline and its high salt content, the discovery of the straits and their riches would suck dozens of city-state kingdoms and empires into war as they head into the Second Balancing.
 * -1,720 AB
 * Progress From War: As the age draws towards its end a few innovations appear and spread along the battlefields and trading routes before darkness takes over. Notably lenses developed by the roden, which would revolutionize exploration, solomancy, and branding. Also early mathematics and construction began to take form going from forts and keeps to city walls and eventually solstone-powered constructs.
 * -1,700 AB
 * The Second Balancing: As war continued over the Sea of Cygnus and Salt Iron, the darkness again crept over the empires of the world. None but the ursadar had expected this darkness to possibly return and be part of a greater cycle, the new solstone powered innovations of the world went silent as the light faded, the water and food sources that millions depended on vanished over night. Under the cover of this night, several kingdoms would crumble as many massive empires would take over the world by the dawn of the next age.
 * -1,646 AB
 * Peace in the Darkness: Having watched dozens of other kingdoms collapse under the darkness and brought down by themselves, the remaining kingdoms met together and discussed a temporary peace until the return of the light. They would each work tirelessly in the next forty plus years to build their own empires, built to withstand anything.
 * -1,600 AB
 * Dawn of the Orange Age: The beginning of the Age of Tremors.