The Timeline of Sapience

Maghak

Hello everyone! This thread is the result of a concerted effort in the Pools to straighten out the often tangled lore concerning the pre-player timeline of the game. There are doubtless going to be more than a few places where it conflicts with facets of existing lore, as it represents the unification of multiple years of multiple story arcs of multiple Gods, but we're doing our best to keep it coherent and sane.

This material is borderline OOC - almost all the material exists in-game if you know where to look, but hasn't yet been collected in an easily accessible place. We'll be looking at a means of making it available to characters, but for the moment please don't set about rattling off the entire history of the world based on an OOC reference text.

Obviously the timeline doesn't cover everything, and is missing numerous details - if there's a specific topic you're curious about (such as the Silver Spire and Kelsys, or a specific area), post a comment and we'll work it into the timeline.

If you happen to have a book or newspost IC that references or supports any of the uncited entries in the timeline, it would be appreciated if you could post the replica number and title/board and number here for me to add to the citations.

The Timeline of Sapience can be found here.

Moirean

AWESOME. ALL MY LIKES, TAKE THEM NOW.

Alexina

How long is an Epoch? When's the next one starting?

:P

Maghak

Next Tuesday.

In all seriousness, an epoch is just a measure of time between catastrophic, world-altering events. Time could not have been said to exist in the first epoch, for example, since there was no world for time to happen in.

Irruel

When did this happen?

16.5.1 An Immortal Contest

Many years ago, before sentience was granted to mortals and while they wandered
the world unclothed and purposeless, the Gods looked down on them with pity.
Their creations hid in terror from the sun, and shivered from the fall rains,
and took shelter in shallow caves when the night arrived and the moon shone
brightly in the sky. It was then that Lleis spoke to each of the other Gods
and proposed a contest; for in those days, even the Gods could be called
'young', and they oft took to sport and games.

Her beautiful melodic voice sang out to the Immortals and it challenged them
each to take pity upon the mortals and build for them a place for them to live,
where they might hide from the sun or moon, their Celestial Demons, and keep
them warm from the howling winds that often ripped across the continent. Many
of the Gods and Goddesses, looking to stand higher in the Eyes of the Creator,
gladly took up the challenge.

In the North of the Continent, Iosyne took the clay that lined a fertile
seashore, and began to mold it into beautiful arches and brilliant
architecture. Streets took shape as Inspiration flowed from Her fingers, and
elaborate fountains and plazas began to create a beautiful pattern where
mortals might learn from the power of Art and Beauty, and thus protect their
hearts from the cold and harsh world that existed around them.

In the South of the Continent, Lanos grasped the sands and dug straight paths
and perfect angles to create a picture of geometric regularity. It was He who
was able to create beautiful monuments, each edge straight and true, to
symbolize the power of Truth to lead mortals forward into the coming years.
His buildings, although not possessing the beauty of those of Iosyne, were
utilitarian and solid, able to survive even the worst hurricane that might
travel across the oceans. Even the stones that made them up were Perfect
carvings of Rough Ashlar found in Moghedu.

To the East of the Continent, Severn, always looking to improve His station,
took the challenge to heart as well. Though not possessing the Grace of Iosyne
or the ability to carve Perfectly like His Brother, He nonetheless took the
rocky soil and began to build. His streets wove back and forth, and those
buildings He constructed were lopsided and unstable. His paths were uneven and
His structures leaked during the worst of the Spring rains.

When it came time to judge the dwellings, Lleis and Varian looked upon each in
turn and discussed amongst Themselves Their opinions on the matter. The Gods
sat anxiously waiting for Their decision and even Haern came and joined them in
watching the deliberations. After many days, Varian and Lleis turned to the
gathered crowd of Divinities, and spoke to Them.

The Creator spoke first, His voice echoing across reality, "Each of the mortals
shall benefit from Your creations, for many years to come. For with this, You
have heralded in a new period of civilization for them. May they prosper in
the places You have built for them, and may they show Us the diversity of their
spirits."

Then the harmonic beauty of the voice of Lleis enraptured them as She spoke. "I
asked You each to take compassion on the creatures that roam the Creation, and
You each did. But a choice must be made, for this is still a contest and a
Winner must be declared."

And then it was declared, to the surprise of most assembled, that the victory
should go to Haern. For He had created the beautiful and elegant trees of the
forest, and given many creatures homes where they did not once have them, and
had provided for them with food and protection from harm. Though He had beaten
the others, most were not upset at Their loss; it was clear that the
competition was tight and that the uniqueness of Haern's creation was
unmatched.

But still, one was upset. Severn, angry over His loss, strode to His creation
and began to destroy it. He threw the stones about and destroyed the
marketplaces and roads that He had spent so much time building. Sulking for
many years to come, Severn would not forget His loss easily. It was a small
consolation to Him that the ruins would provide refuge to many creatures in the
years to come.

Razmael

It didn't happen. It was a story and nothing more.

Alice

So since it's a story it can't be considered legitimate enough to be an addition to IG time/lore? Or did it REALLY not happen?

@Severn, @Lleis

Think stuff that awesome to see/hear/read about would add a lot to the game via Player experiences instead of relying on Divine to completely fill in the blanks for everyone. I might be confused though.

Edited for clarity: I know not -everything- everyone writes should be added or not, this is specifically speaking at discretion of admin.

Angwe

Oh. Oh! OH!!!

Maghak

The creation story is something manufactured by mortals to explain gaps in their knowledge - gaps resulting from the Grand Artifice. It is not the literal truth of history, and can be disregarded.

Player-written lore is certainly valid, if it has been accepted as part of the canon

I've updated the main post with a bit about the Naldareth and the First Child. We'll be poking through the lore concerning Yetrent and the Indorani soonish.

Alexina

Maghak said:

The creation story is something manufactured by mortals to explain gaps in their knowledge - gaps resulting from the Grand Artifice. It is not the literal truth of history, and can be disregarded.

Player-written lore is certainly valid, if it has been accepted as part of the canon

I've updated the main post with a bit about the Naldareth and the First Child. We'll be poking through the lore concerning Yetrent and the Indorani soonish.

This sounds so, so amazing. I rejoined the Indorani guild lately, and everytime someone hands me the Dekhanen handbook it feels like I'm reading through some fanfic story written at the inception of Aetolia. After speaking to @Tina, the Indorani history seems so drastic and far-reaching, but there really is nothing in the current world that really hints at that, at all. Everyone knows of the Ankyreans but very few people actually know of Yetrent. Or that the Indorani had conquered pretty much the whole of Sapience (if I understood their history correctly).

Maghak

As a matter of fact, the Indoron, and through them the Indorani, are the single biggest antagonist group outside of the Dreikathi and the Ankyreans themselves. I've updated the main post again, this time working in the War of Power, the rise of the Indorani and the accompanying rise of the forces of Light.

Alexina

This is really amazing to read.

Will you be adding bullet points for the current epoch as well? Some sort of timeline for Aetolia's development after the game actually came live would be pretty epic.

Maghak

I'm actually going through the events board right now, summarizing the things of note.

Iosyne

There are some really cool things down the pipeline that will shed some more light on the Indoron Empire and what it left behind, @Alexina. 

Maghak

A first pass of the newsboards, far from exhaustive, has been edited into the OP.

Infin

This is really awesome @Maghak only thing I really see missing and I could be wrong and over looked it being so late at night but I see nothing about Dhar and Ivoln merging or splitting.

Ivoln

I DON'T WANT TO TALK ABOUT IT.

Maghak

Dhar/Ivoln/Dhaivol have been added to the timeline, as has a rough guesstimate of when Reanimation was released.

EDIT: Additionally, after reviewing a bunch of notes and opinions, I amended the First Child to be the Indorani. Seems like there's been some confusion since the original authors of that lore were around.

Angwe

Teani is Duirani, yo.

Maghak

Noted!

Meyvitch

this is awesome. I keep looking at it going hmm--OH YEAH, I actually WAS around for that. (If not paying much attention)

Piper

This thread is the best thread in the history of threads!

Toz

But it doesn't support Life and Death.

Missari

Two Atabahi creation stories, eh? One from a book written by Yrtez and another by some Ankyrean spirit. CONSPIRACIES ABOUND!

Edit: ALL THREE SELANNOR IN THE HISTORY BOOKS. AWWWW YEAAAAAAH!

Maghak

Yrtez is a bit of a suspect narrator, given her past and the fact that people like to use her as a prop, and I tried to resolve the various origins with the current Atabahi mythos - created as test subjects, with some taken by Yrtez and experimented on to create soldiers and others fleeing to Three Rock and forming a Rout.

Missari

Oh, they mesh. That's awesome. I claim ignorance on anything Atabahi after I was forced out of Spines. :D

Gilrath

You read what is written on a copy of a simple scroll:

The Becoming of the Dwarfs

as told by the giant dwarf Tordahl.

This passage in particular...

So it was that our people, then called the Dowaf,

lived in the tunnels and sanctuaries of the Earth,

in seasons both green and cold.

In the mountains were we born,

and to the mountains shall we ever return.

Maghak

Dowaf is evidently the ancestor of the term Dwarf - I'm not entirely sure where you're going with that post!

Ivoln

As a very big fan of all things Dwarven, let me assure you that the short guys have motherlodes of lore hidden away in the earth, as it were. You will very likely see more of them soon!

Slyphe

HA HA IN THE EARTH I GET IT.

Gilrath

Maghak said:

Dowaf is evidently the ancestor of the term Dwarf - I'm not entirely sure where you're going with that post!

Basically, I was just pointing out the ancestral name. Since you corrected the term Indoron/Endoron, I thought you might also want to correct the name of the Dwarves. Not that it matters much, being a general timeline and not an historical work. In an unrelated note, thank you all for working on this timeline. It is much appreciated, and I'm happy to see this getting some attention.