Human History
0 EM - Beginning of Expera Modum, "The Third Age" or later "The Dark Age" (3500 years ago)
Humans are settled through the Great Project. Only the very first generation have any memory of the Ponderans.
Early human cities develop without robust walls. Deaths to creatures are rampant.
Slayer guilds develop within Human society, specialists at killing creatures.
100 EM (3400 years ago)
Slayer guilds see Sarkin as dangers to Human society and treat them as they would wild creatures at first. They violently settle domesticated areas of nature previously made by the Sarkin.
Leadership of the slayer guilds become a ruling class in these early unwalled cities.
200 EM (3300 years ago)
Three types of settlements begin to form, all of them responding to the pressure of the terrifying creatures that inhabit the wilderness:
-Cities that develop robust walls by communal development become the Free Cities, not controlled by the slayer guilds or by the aristocracy. These cities maintain semi-horizontal structures of control and maintain communal living. (The Free Cities)
-Cities that do not develop robust walls develop a rough, warrior culture. Even though power remained within the village community technically, the slayer guilds were able to appoint elders by way of refusing protection. (The Signum)
-Cities that develop robust walls by way of some rich land-owners become the early precursors to modern human feudalism. These cities become highly stratified very quickly, with all power being centralized into a lordly bureaucracy. (The Lordships)
250 EM
The Sarkin, having largely disappeared from above ground, seem less of a threat to the Humans by this point. The Signum are the only Humans who still have close contact with them and sometimes these settlements will negotiate with the Sarkin that remain. This culture rubs off on the Signum, who slowly begin to recognize the value of art and culture, as well as collective decision-making. They begin to use what are called "moots" where all the people within a Signum show up and make decisions together. However, the leaders of the slayer guilds refuse to give up power completely and so they are able to steer these moots toward their ends.
890 EM
-The Free Cities begin developing the fertile soil in the Tridoslands and recognize the brutality and violence of the Lordships and the Signums and come together to build a wall around the entire triangular region of the Tridoslands.
-The Lordships begin to develop power gradually in their regions and sabotage the Signums first, by using the wealth they gained from their stratified communities to buy mercenary slayers from the Signums.
-The Orderists make their first pact with the humans, choosing to first negotiate and establish temples within the Lordships. This is called The New Pact. The Orderists in the Lordship territories are given free reign to track down mages, though they are to be restrained and imprisoned, not killed outright.
980 EM
-The Orderists make their first arrangement with the Free Cities. Unlike in the Lordships, where Orderists act as witchhunters, in the Free Cities they act as investigators of serious crimes, including or not including mages.
2870 EM
Famulus raiders begin showing up in Human settlements. This begins the Famulus-Human Conflict.
2970 EM
Burilo Carthest is born to the Lordship called Garth, the son of a wealthy construction and architecture businessman named Yakev Carthest.
-The Lordships, recognizing the Signums may defy them, join together and call themselves the Empire of Marn. The Free Cities stay neutral.
3000 EM
Burilo Carthest begins the building of the city of Farhaven as a place to settle the Lordships. It is a multilateral project carried out by the surrounding Lordships.
-The Signums, recognizing the threat of the Lordships, begin to confederate together and name their new nation Leep.
-The Signums sabotage the construction of Farhaven, sending in saboteurs to poison the water in populated areas. In conjunction, they carry out assassinations of key figures in Lordship command. They do not succeed in killing Carthest or his heirs, however.
-Burilo Carthest leads the rebuilt city of Farhaven, now comprised of many townships in the area and workers on the reconstruction, to war with Leep.
-After a two year war between Farhaven and Leep, Farhaven is victorious. Carthest leads an effort to consolidate the leadership of all of the associated townships to create a new kingdom. He calls this the Kingdom of Farhaven. Burilo is crowned King Burilo Carthest of Farhaven, the First King of Lazvar.
-Burilo Carthest enters into diplomatic relations with the Free Cities, trying to get them to become part of the Kingdom of Farhaven. All refuse. Burilo is patient, seeing the value of the Free Cities and also having a personal admiration for their industriousness.
-King Burilo Carthest dies of old age.
-The son of Burilo Carthest, Burilo Carthest II, is crowned King Burilo Carthest II, the Reigning King of Lazvar.
-Carthest II is not as temperate in his relation to the Free Cities. Though he respects their power, he cannot tolerate their autonomy. Carthest II begins more hostile relations with the Free Cities, making threats that he will withhold resources if the Free Cities do not allow the King's Guard into all the Free Cities. They all refuse and are punished with higher taxes. These taxmen demand entry to the city to gather the tribute. Some of the cities pay the increased tax, some refuse, and in one notable incident the taxman is killed and then displayed in the town square.
-King Burilo Carthest II declares war against the Free Cities, declaring them rebel territories and makes clear his desire to subsume these Free Cities into Lordship control, giving chunks of those cities to different nobles in his service.
-The Free Cities create a secret organization, tasked with defending the Free Cities.
-All of the Free Cities are defeated in time, after devastating sieges which lead to enormous loss of life.
-King Creel, age 30, takes the throne of Farhaven through a noble coup with enormous popular support. King Burilo Carthest III concedes the throne without violence, having borne no children. King Creel I relinquishes his previous title as captain of the guard and gives this position to Derifel Teris, the creator of the Gatrah. Burilo Carthest becomes advisor to King Creel until his death.
-Taking over for Carthest is Amadeus Doran. Doran is a very savvy politician who is always aware of what both his enemies and his allies are doing. Though he is an excellent advisor to Creel, he secretly desires all power for himself.
-Creel dies of a plague and the throne is inherited by his son, Zechus Creel.
-Zechus only reigns for five years, before Doran kills him in his sleep unknown to anyone else. Because of the rules of succession, Doran, as the head of parliament assumes the throne until a closer successor to the bloodline can be found. However, no such successor is ever found.
-Doran, desiring more land, begins sailing boats to the west coast of Faydorn. There he encounters the Ethakkra, with whom there are early skirmishes, which quickly turn into negotiations.
-In time, the Ethakkra and the human empire come to trade agreements, helping one another suppress their rebel populations. The Ethakkra help funnel
-Doran begins worshipping Tyrus in secret. This leads to a rapid increase in corruption in the urban centers and deep degradation of the already poor regions that were once the Signum.
3452 EM
A peasant named Rian by his mother, but later called Kid, the Slayer, is born in the small town of Quarc.
3475 EM
Doran now reigns as a tyrant over the lands, imposing brutal corvee labor.
3485 EM
The Third Eye overthrows King Doran. Kid the Slayer takes the throne and takes the name given to him by his mother, his peasant name, Rian. He is dubbed King Rian, the Kid, The Slayer, later The Unmoving. He is also sometimes called "King Kid," affectionately by the peasantry and condescendingly by the Lordships. King Rian is not a political schemer, but he is also not a political genius. His conception of a good king is a king who disrupts little, whose only duty is to maintain the form of the kingship and force political change. His first declaration is that the Signums, Free Cities, and Lordships may decide whether they will act under the law of the king or whether they will develop their own laws and processes. The Signums all immediately secede, as do several major Free Cities, some maintaining better relations with the throne than others. The Lordships all maintain alignment. But King Rian instantly creates many enemies within the Lordships, which he is now the uneasy leader of.
3487 EM
Together with his right-hand Grant, King Rian creates the Maen Elite, to root out corruption and to discipline the lords where they abuse their power.
3497 EM
The Ponderan come to northern Lazvar to judge the results of the Great Experiment. The Great Council of Mages, along with The Heralds of The Great Council arrive in the Temple of Heraldric Repose, a floating city in the sky.