From the Nagarin Dominion to the Present Age
~50,000–45,000 years ago
The Nagarin Dominion
~45,000 years ago
The Sundering
40,000–12,000 years ago
The Long Ages of Freedom
~12,000–10,000 years ago
The God Wars
10,000 years ago – Present
The Age of Rebuilding
Present Day
The Age of Convergence
Before the counting of years, the world was whole — and the world was a prison.
This is not a single authoritative account — no such thing exists. The Sundering destroyed most records of the world that came before, and the God Wars obliterated much of what survived. What remains are fragments: contradictory, incomplete, and coloured by the beliefs of those who preserved them. One truth, however, has emerged from the deepest ruins with uncomfortable consistency: none of the mortal races are native to this world. All were brought here. All were slaves.
~50,000–45,000 Years Ago
In the age before mortal memory, Asphodel belonged to the Nagarin — a serpentine race of immense magical sophistication. They did not merely inhabit the world; they shaped it. Their sorcerers wove spells into the bedrock, binding a single great continent together with networks of arcane energy that regulated tides, stabilised geology, and kept the Gates — vast interdimensional portals — flowing with traffic from other realms.
The Nagarin opened their Gates and took what they found useful. Dwarves for mining. Elves as living conduits of arcane energy. Humans for their numbers and adaptability — soldiers, labourers, sacrifices. Halflings for their nimble hands. Gnomes for their ingenuity. Each race was torn from a world they would never see again. The Gates closed behind them. There was no way home.
Dwarven Annals speak of a coordinated uprising. Elven chronicles describe a Nagarin civil war. Caledrian songs invoke divine intervention. The truth likely involves elements of all three. What matters is the result.
~45,000 Years Ago
When the Dominion collapsed, the Plane-Binder Device imploded. The spell-networks failed. The Gates shattered. The world broke with them.
The single continent shattered. Seas rushed in where mountains had stood. Entire civilisations vanished in a single generation. The world that had been one became a scatter of islands, continents, and broken coastlines. The Gates collapsed permanently, sealing every enslaved race on a world that was no longer recognisable.
The Nagarin civilisation was annihilated. Survivors — scattered, leaderless — would become the Sarathi of the southern seas and the Sserakai of distant Ryukami, carrying the blood and shame of a fallen empire into new identities.
40,000–12,000 Years Ago
Dwarves carved mountain holds from slave-learned skills. Elves scattered into forests, building druidic circles. Humans expanded fastest. The Caledrians established sacred stone circles in what would become Fort Valiance. The Sarathi built Sserathis the Golden — a kinder empire than the Nagarin, but still an empire.
Freedom was not peace. Resources became contested. Wars erupted. Empires rose and collapsed. The Dusk Elves established the Enclave of Shadows — a matriarchal civilisation of spider-worship, arcane scholarship, and political assassination that has endured every catastrophe since.
Mortal mages explored the arcane on their own terms. The first wizard-academies emerged. Draconic lineages formalised in Terathia. Settlers crossed the ocean to found Ryukami, establishing the Dragon Pact. Civilisations reached their pre-God Wars zenith.
~12,000–10,000 Years Ago
Anachron — god of law, judge and mediator among the divine — grew increasingly aware of transgressions among the deities. When he invoked his authority to pass judgement, the gods united against him. They stripped his power. Mountains crumbled. Seas surged. The fabric between worlds tore open. The faithful Zephyrai caught their dying god and laid him upon floating fragments of the divine realm. With his last strength, Anachron planted wind-crystals to stabilise these fragments, inscribed the Tablets of Law, and dissolved into wind.
A dragon god of death, corrupted beyond purpose. Anachron confronted Nekrosyl in cosmic battle — both gods perished. Nekrosyl's corpse crashed into Asphodel, spawning the Dragoblom — a cursed plague of fungal blight that persists for ages. His malignant consciousness whispers still.
Angharad consumed Rhys, Guardian of the Deep, and usurped dominion over the ocean trenches. The deep oceans became hunting grounds for things that should not exist. The Maw of the Abyss was born.
The death of two gods and fall of a third broke the metaphysical world. Abyssal creatures poured through rifts. The Dragoblom spread. Forces beyond comprehension sealed Asphodel behind the Shroud of Oblivion. The Veil of Dreams settled over reality. Even the gods were not immune — trapped, diminished, sustained by mortal worship but unable to recall what they lost. Sserathis the Golden sank beneath the waves.
10,000 Years Ago to Present
Out of the wreckage, the foundations of the modern world were laid — not as an act of hope, but as a series of desperate last stands.
Built on floating fragments of the divine realm. Wind-crystal magic sustains the isles. The Corvathi — cursed, wingless bird-folk — were granted asylum but denied full citizenship. Seventy years ago, contact with the surface was reestablished. Now the wind-crystals are degrading.
Nine thousand years of elven civilisation centred on the Heart Tree. A golden age, a devastating crusade, a thousand-year retreat, and a cautious modern reopening under Archdruid Elion Galewind — now facing the Sporesworn threat.
Grown from a refugee watchtower on volcanic cliffs. Three hundred years ago, exiled nobles arrived and conquered the native Caledrians. Queen Amalia Thornburn rules today. The Verdant Circle resists from the shadows.
Faith made empire. Solara's worship unified coastal rulers. The Radiant Reformation standardised justice. But the Radiant Schism has weakened the holy orders, and the Black Fleet raids with impunity.
Dwarven mountain kingdoms sheltered through both catastrophes. Their Annals of the Deep — begun in Nagarin slave-tunnels — provide the world's most reliable deep history. King Barim Ironshield presides.
An isolated archipelago where three kingdoms — Kagemura (human), Sserakai (serpent-folk), and Gogath (monster races) — wage an endless war. Prophecy says it ends when cherry trees bloom black.
Present Day
The world stands at a crossroads where multiple crises converge simultaneously.
Nekrosyl's corruption grows. Thornhaven has fallen. The Sporesworn Cult embraces blight as transcendence. The Radiant Schism leaves holy orders divided.
Angharad remains dormant — but dormant is not dead. The Cult of the Devouring Deep grows in coastal cities. Abyssal creatures grow bolder each year.
The wind-crystals planted by a dying god are degrading. If they fail, the floating isles fall. Whether this represents power dying or awakening is the most dangerous open question.
Ten feet per decade. Some scholars theorise the Maw sits where the largest Nagarin Gate once stood — a door that was never properly closed.
Seraphiel Dawnblade — a mortal knight elevated to divinity — proves the boundary between mortal and divine has never been thinner.
Across Eshara, something old stirs. Sealed caverns vibrate. Ancient structures emerge from sand. The lich-priests accelerate tribute demands. Whatever was buried when the old world ended is waking up.
In Starfall Haven, the Astral Conclave has ceased all public communication following a discovery they refuse to share. Whatever they found was enough to make astronomers stop looking up.
Mining town
Dwarven forgehold
Lakeside village
Trading post
Frontier outpost
Coastal watchtower
Monastery village
Highland shepherds
Naval garrison
Border outpost
Blighted village
Elvish settlement