Twilight of Empires

It all began with a stone, or so the legend says. In ages past, the glorious jewel, enormous and beautiful, banished the Darkness. It's many-colored light filled the world with life and brought forth mighty gods. Bathed in that light, the world entered an age of bliss.

The Crystal Era encompasses the period of time from when the “darkness was driven back” to the arrival of the first sentient beings, the gods. Even the gods, when they were awake and talking to people, weren't particularly clear or consistent as to how long the Crystal Age lasted. Infernal beings from the Darkness are equally unhelpful.

From the standpoint of the players, with their real-world background, the era can be thought to cover the span from which planetary formation was complete and rocks were no longer regularly falling from the sky, to the point that sentient life emerged.

Many thousands of years during which the 108 gods were born, created sentient beings to talk to, and also the monsters with which to compete with one another. Again, how long this took is poorly understood: the early gods weren't particularly interested in keeping precise track of the years, and the younger gods apparently never managed to get their older siblings to make anything resembling accurate guesses.

The Divine Era saw the rise and fall of many smaller nations, clans, and tribal groups as the gods squabbled, played their grand games, and obsessed or lost interest in their favorite playthings.

Two events mark the end of the Divine Age. The first was when the jewel created the egg/seed in which would be born the 108th god, the God of Endings, and his siblings collectively decided to suspend him in the heavens where he would not awaken, and everyone could keep track of him. Thus the Red Moon was created.

The other event is when history stops referring to the Jewel as a physical presence with a physical location, and starts treating it as a metaphysical concept. This happened shortly after the Red Moon was placed in the sky. Purists who still believe in an actual Primal Jewel spend a lot of time arguing that it is either the Shining Moon, or buried at the heart of the world.

Divine Era nations
Divine Era personages

Encompasses a period of roughly 800 years, as the gods, one by one, entered their long slumber, and stopped interacting with mortals directly. Their rules are clearly in play: the sun and moons rise and set, the seasons turn, the rains fall, and the souls of the dead pass on to either the afterlife of Judgement or that of Salvation. (No one appears to be going to the Darkness, aka Damnation, unless taken there by an infernal being. That seems to require active divine decision making.)

The Elves claim that the Principalities were founded during this Era, and since they own most of the books of this vintage, no one argues the point. Pretty much everyone else didn't handle this well, leading to the…

Also known as the Age of Chaos, and the Despondent Era. Seven centuries where global civilization largely collapsed, people behaved badly, and the moral and ethical strictures of old unraveled. Eventually, following the examples of the elves, nations were reforged, civilization rekindled, and the world became a much better place in which to dwell.

One thousand, two hundred and sixty-three years ago until today. Year one is marked by the founding of the Uruk Madarinate, and within a century the old Kingdom of Asteria was absorbing its more fractious neighbors and on the path to empire itself. Around 150 IE the Empire of the Fang had begun to coalesce, and in the year 256 Lord Yamato was declared emperor. It wouldn't be until 324 IE that the city states of the Caliphate of Hazad would unify into a single political entity in self defense against the other major powers. Like the Elves, the Middle Empire claimed to date back to the Slumbering Era, if not earlier, but the Mandarinate lost contact with them two centuries ago.

In 1124 IE the Wizard's Octagram Council transformed from a simple society of intellectual noblemen to a political entity, claiming uncontested leadership over Isla D'Or, and shortly thereafter several of its neighbors in the Southern isles. At present, the Council shows no signs of expansionism.

In 1218 IE the Sorcerer's League took over the island of Aldus in the Ebon Gulf, and made their claim as a political entity on the world stage. The fact they did this with just thirteen mystics and no army is solid proof of both their power and their planning ability. Since then, they have have absorbed the nation of Granblue on the northern gulf coast, and reduced the adjacent countries of Sugat and Vulfheld to puppet states.

The beginning of the slow fall of the great powers can be traced to 900 IE when High King Regis II began his ongoing quest for personal immortality. At this point, the tight reigns the throne had held against the Great houses loosened, and the feuding picked up steam.

In 1000 IE, Uruk Emperor Po declared that the Madarinate was perfect in its current form, and should be preserved as the crowning jewel of mortal civilization. This has led to a pseudo-Confucian state where everything, every one, and every thought has its proper place, no arguments allowed. Anyone pointing out the foolishness of this philosophy in a nation as prone to earthquakes as the Madarinate frequently find themselves explaining their failures to their ancestors.

Around 1100 IE, Emperor Eso of Asteria, fed up with his nobility, and frankly a lazy man himself, began the process of giving more and more power to the bureaucracy. In the current time bureaucratic position is largely purchased outright, usually with the proceeds of one's current position.

Shogun Emperor Yamachi's grandfather was a strong ruler, and Yamato prospered. His father, not so much. That said, Yamachi would stand a good chance of stabilizing his nation and his reign if it weren't for all the damned (literally) youkai running about seeding chaos.

The Empire of the Fang appears stable from the outside, though outside observers aren't exactly encouraged in the interior. The exciting jungle pestilences that only bother mammals don't help any either.