A Celegian Timeline

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Return to Life in Celegia

A Celegian Timeline

60388 CR

Current Date. Second rent in the Great Veil, beginning of the Campaign Against the Giants.

60380 CR

The Emerald Empire announces hostilities against the Celegian Empire north of the Great Veil. Constant attacks begin against the Northgate Fortress construction site, forcing the Empire to halt the advance north. A stalemate develops, since the Empire cannot locate any base of power for the Emerald Empire against which to direct their attacks.

60378 CR

Breaking of the Great Veil at the Whispering Pass, end of the Whispering Pass campaign. The first Great Land Rush north begins at Dell's Glade. The Dell's Glade Fortress is heavily damaged by an attack by some tremendously powerful entity which forces its way south into the Empire and vanishes at the Upper Timber cascades.

60367 CR

Fall of Invincia, end of the Eastern Campaign, final destruction of the Eastern Federation, and official end to the Ninth Age of Swords. Total re-integration of the Celegian Empire south of the Ironback Mountains. The Legions begin working on breaking the Great Veil, concentrating upon the Whispering Pass, north of Dell's Glade.

60356 CR

Ascension to the Peacock Throne by Chronun the Fourth, replacing Alaweyr the 71st. Beginning of the final campaigns against the Eastern Federation.

60275 CR

The Eastern Federation completes research on the rituals necessary to create Invincibles, magically enhanced warriors. The Celegian Empire denounces the Eastern Federation for the practice and begins the fourteenth War of Liberation against the Easterners. The war progresses quickly since the Celegian Legions are arriving ready for battle much more quickly than in the past.

60258 CR

The Gates system is announced to the Imperial public. Furious activity and considerable unrest are the result. The Eastern Federation declares war and resumes hostilities, attempting to capture the Imperial Upper Cascades Fortress to obtain access to a working Gate. The attempt fails and the Eastern Federation is repulsed with heavy casualties on both sides.

60151 CR

Perfection of permanent Gates in Faust by the Tellurian Circle. Beginning of the construction of the Empire-wide gates system.

59400-60367

The Ninth Age of Swords. This period is noted for the nearly constant warfare that embroiled the South. The nascent Celegian Empire waged war against its former territories, and the Splinter States warred against one another. Early in this period it became obvious that the Eastern Federation was the most powerful of the splinters when it subsumed the Deadly Marches and grew to cover the entire North of the former Empire. The Far Lands and the Emirate of Faustus survived for several centuries before they were both subsumed by the Empire.

59605 CR

The Arrakanza Resumption. Widely regarded as one of the few amusing episodes during the Ninth Age of Swords, the Arrakanza Resumption occurred when the Empire marched into the Great Grass Sea of the Emirate of Faustus, intent on forging across the huge expanse of plains and attacking Faust. The campaign was expected to take a century or more and be very bloody, for the native peoples of the Grass Sea are the ferocious Arrakanza, renowned for millennia for their brutality. To the shock of the Empire, the Arrakanza welcomed the Legions with open arms! Despite the passage of two thousand years the fierce Arrakanza Kahns remembered the mighty Legions and the Empire they represented, and had been waiting patiently for the Empire to recover their loyalty. After a year of ceremonial trials, the Arrakanza rejoin the Empire in their entirety. The only people more surprised by this turn of events than the Empire was the Emirate of Faustus, as its largest supply of warriors defected without warning and the Legions were besieging Faust a century sooner than expected.

59000-59400

The Age of Fragility. The Age of Fragility marked the return of large scale civilization to the lands south of the Ironbacks. The vast system of roads was repaired after two millennia of neglect and large scale trade and travel resumed. The largest industry in all of the splinter states becomes picking through the remains of the Empire, recycling the remnants for the re-growth of the land.

58984-59038

The Celegian Empire, provoked by centuries of border skirmishes in the Fuligin Forest, declares war on the Stairsteps. The Legions march for the first time in sixteen hundred years. It is a sign of the terrible weakness of the Empire that the war lasts for fifty-four years and the Empire finally ends hostilities with a negotiated settlement, which leads to the Stairsteps rejoining the Empire in its entirety. This campaign is tremendously important, for it gave the recovering Empire a secure southern border and sealed the west for the first time since the Nightmare Wars.

58000-59000

The Fourteenth Age of Splintering. The Empire has shrunk to encompass barely one third of its former territory south of the Ironbacks. Over the next one thousand years the Empire repopulates the seven provinces it retains and rebuilds after the terrible losses of the Desolation. The numerous feudal societies are subsumed, usually without a struggle. During the same period of time, while the Empire slowly repairs itself, the remainder of the territory south of the Ironbacks settles into a total of six splinter states. The diminished Empire controls only seven provinces, Frippe, Tanner, Selena, Celegia, Ereta, Istis, and Andania. The Eastern Federation controls eight provinces, Pellania, Valis, Cannium, Dellen, Qed, Gorm, Belle, and Invincia. The Stairsteps control two, Tene' and Celestia. The Far Lands control four, Morian, Tuggston, Ruge, and Pastene. The Emirate of Faustus control five, Gane, Aarn, Yepethe, Wiston, and Faust. The Deadly Marches control three, Lorme, Hellas, and Fane. The Sea Provinces control six, Far Estis, Regel, Drume, Castis, Brujia, and Folene.

57410-58000

The Desolation. The vast structure of the Empire spins itself into fragments. Evil deities reign supreme, administering to the demolition of the Empire. Tens of thousands of feudal states spring up, and die. Plague, banditry, and vandalism tear asunder many of the advances of the Empire. Population declines by 80 percent as the Dream Years pass into history.

57538 CR

In the far south, the remaining fragment of the Celegian Empire, based in the Southern Provinces, finally stabilizes enough to place an emperor on the Peacock Throne for the first time in 134 years. The sadly diminished Empire is a shadow of it's former self, and is hard pressed to defend itself against the hordes of starving and desperate who beset it from the north and west. The new Emperor immediately orders reformation of the Legions; a move opposed by the Senate but carried out nonetheless. The first Legion has manpower of twelve thousand troops, mainly taken from ceremonial troops that had maintained the traditions of the Legions through the Interregnum. The first campaign undertaken by the nascent Legions is to explore and recapture the Imperial Palace in Celegia from the eldritch things which had overrun it.

57410 CR

A tidal wave of chaos and banditry begins to roll across the land, aided by the lack of central authority and the loss of the Legions a decade earlier. The effects of the Great Veil begin to ravage the Northern Provinces and supernatural horrors created by the Veil and left over from the Nightmare Wars range the Empire at will. Long distance travel ceases, fertility plunges, deaths begin to skyrocket, and famine becomes a problem. Thousands of individual states begin to develop around stalwarts. Official beginning of the Desolation.

57406 CR

The Province of Cannium rebels against the Imperial Senate, citing chaos and dissension. Twenty three other provinces follow suit within a month, leading to the collapse of the Celegian Empire in the south. No Emperor sits upon the Peacock Throne, but the remnants of the Senate continue to meet and begin the arduous task of repairing the collapse of order.

57404 CR

The Great Veil is erected in the Ironback Mountains by the Northern Sorcerers Guild, ending the Nightmare Wars and sundering the Empire from the rebellious Northlands. The Emperor of the Celegia, as well as the entire Seventh Expedition, is lost north of the Veil. The Imperial Senate attempts to choose a new Emperor and fails due to internal squabbling.

57309-57404 CR

The Nightmare Wars. To the astonishment of the North, the Imperial reaction to their rebellion was immediate and violent. The Northerners, used to thinking of the Southerners as "perverted wimps", discovered Legions marching through all three passes into the North with orders from the Capital to seize all avenues of control. This response came less than a year after the northerners declared their independence, a response time nearly unheard of. The north hastily drafted their own armies and in a series of desperate and bloody battles stopped the Legions with their magics, which had developed along different and strange lines from the southerners. The Empire recaptured about a fourth of the North in this first campaign. The Empire began drafting additional troops of their own while the Legions dug in, but the Empire was operating nearly ten thousand miles from the Capital while the northerners were right in the thick of things. Before reinforcements could be trained and marched the vast distance to the front, the northerners raised an army and with newly developed magics managed to repulse the Legions back to the Ironback Mountains. Before the first decade of the War was over, the innocence of the Dream Years was destroyed by atrocities and massacres on both sides. The savagery and ferocity of the War escalated steadily, as neither side was willing or able to relent or overcome. During the ninety-five years of the War the North penetrated into the South as far as Cannium, and the South into the North as far as Daria and Cilis. Neither side could hold, and the majority of the battles were fought in or near the Ironback mountains, with excursions into the depths of the enemy confined to stalwarts and summoned things. Unfortunately for the North, the South enjoyed several crushing advantages, including over five times the population, better infrastructure, and the vast stores of magical treasures kept in the Imperial Vaults. In desperation the Northern Mages sought to redress the balance by consorting with powers best left alone and by resorting to rituals and practices noisome in the extreme. The Northern wizards grew mighty beyond the dreams of the South, but the armored might of the Legions was not to be denied. The Legions during the Nightmare Wars were easily as large as any in the history of the Empire, and the magics they were armed with were the finest the Empire possesses. The final battles of the Nightmare Wars began in 57397 CR, when the Emperor, Raptos the First, declared himself Marshall and organized the Seventh Imperial Expedition, composed of more than six full Legions. Raptos was determined to see the War ended before his death, which had been prophesied to him when he ascended the Peacock Throne. Raptos had spent sixty-two years in battle and felt age weighing on his soul. To strike the final blow against the Sorcerers Guild of the North, Raptos plundered the Imperial Vaults of the mightiest and most dangerous devices known to exist. He assembled millions of the most hardened veterans in the Empire, stalwarts of incredible skill and might. The Seventh Expedition was a military juggernaut which the exhausted Northlands could not hope to stop, and Raptos intended to crush all traces of the Northerners. In 57401 CR the Seventh Expedition punched through the Sobbing Pass, north of Lake Draconis. Raptos began destroying his way east, intending to recapture the Whispering and Mourning Passes as well, then turning north to smash the capital of the north, the mighty metropolis called Atomata. In 57404 CR the Seventh Expedition was drawing near to the northern end of the Whispering Pass after devastating the heart of the Northlands. On Octember 33rd, 57404 CR, the Northern Sorcerers ended the Nightmare Wars by erecting the Great Veil and sealing the Ironbacks for the next three thousand years.

56888-57309 CR

The Glittering Age. The final centuries of the Dream Years were a time of almost mythical prosperity and plenty in the Empire. Disease and war became mere historical oddities; hunger, want, and need were abolished. Magic became incredibly prevalent and old restrictions on research were relaxed. Philosophical thought and scholarly learning went into truly exotic avenues in the South. The last century of the Glittering Age saw an increasing rift in the thought of the North and the South. The North was much more practical and less decadent than the South, and grew contemptuous of the effete southerners who attempted to meddle in their affairs. The Glittering Age came to a close when the Northlands, after several years of secret meetings, suborned the Circle of Regiates and announced their secession from the Empire on New Years Day, 57309 CR.

55000-57300

The Dream Years. This is one of the finest Golden Ages ever enjoyed by the Empire, and it is directly caused by the Great Betrayal. The ascendancy of the Goddess Lurain causes a shift in the attitudes of the Empire to strongly favor the well-being of the masses. The Empire has no enemies to combat and very little internal strife, since most of the dissenting elements were burned out in the Great Betrayal, one of the worst periods of civil unrest in history. The cultural advances during this time were amazing and civil freedoms and wealth rose to incredible levels. The Northlands served as a fine place for excess population to migrate to and the few dissenters were allowed to make their own fortunes in the North. This process sowed the seeds for the end of this era.

54728-54900

The Great Betrayal. The Great God Domana ends his association with the Goddess Karena and joins Himself to the Goddess Lurain instead. This act precipitates two centuries of internal religious warfare which culminates with the Templars of Domana marching upon the Contrivers of Karena in open warfare, which draws the Legions into the battle. Templars and Legionnaires face each other in open war for nearly ten years before the Contrivers in the Imperial Bureaucracy are purged in a single night by the Emperor, ending the Great Betrayal. The power of the Contrivers is irreparably damaged and Lurains Philiates soar even higher in power.

45185-54256

Age of the Warrior Kings. A time when the government drifted far from the historical model and the Legions became filled with wealthy noble land owners. The primary armed force became cavalry and the species of Destriers are created to fulfill the demands of the Warrior Kings class. The Empire is extremely feudal and fragmented, with a great deal of ritualized internal strife. Magical research is actively discouraged. Many of the current Imperial fighting techniques and tactics spring from this Age. This Age is classed as a Golden Age due to the relative peace and growth experienced, but it was a turbulent period.

41555 - 43200

The Plague Wars. A time when the most horrific diseases stalked the Empire. Several draconian Imperial Edicts date from this time, such as the requirement that all cities be self sufficient and the banning of fire. The Empire had spread north of the Ironbacks at the turning of the 40th millennium, and of course the northern provinces rebelled during the great plagues. The Empire shattered and the various pieces had nightmarish journeys to survival. Lurain rocketed to prominence in this era through her godlike efforts to preserve the Celegian people against the Plague Gods. It is little known that despite Lurains fame from this struggle, it was actually Karena who ended the plagues by poisoning the Plague Gods. This is why Domana chose Karena as his consort in this timeframe.

30000-35500

The Time of Night. Widely recognized as the worst Dark Age in history, the Time of Night was a time when the undead walked Celegia in numbers which outnumbered the living. Hundreds of millions of intelligent undead were created and roamed the Empire, seeking to enslave the last of the living and turn them into simple food sources and breeding material. The travails of the time were apocalyptic and many of the incredible layers of defenses in the Imperial Compound and Palace date from this dark time. The records of the time are extremely fragmented and little is known of the events which occurred then, but all accounts agree on the event which ended the Time of Night, the Dawn. According to the legends, before the Dawn daylight held no terror for the unliving and sunlight did them no harm, but after that day it was lethal to most of the Accursed Unliving. In the mythology of the Undead, reference is still made to the Day of Burning, when over two thirds of all undead in the Empire flamed into dust in the dreadful light of the Dawn. The living, finally granted a safe harbor from the fiends which stalked them, drove the undead to destruction or into hiding. Many Imperial fixtures date from this time, such as the prevalence of House Spirits, the Empire-wide wards, and of course the millions of undead horrors which slumber still in myriad un-cleansed tombs and barrows.

20500 - 28300

The Age of Deepness. After twenty thousand years of steady mining efforts, the Empire reached the end of the mineable metals in this period of time. Many sages suspect the more-or-less simultaneous playing out of these metals all at once was contrived by the gods, to make the Empire stronger. In the Age of Delving, desperate miners went to increasingly extreme efforts to obtain the metals the Empire needed to function. Due to the nature of the nine Fundaments, deep mines on Celegia are deadly hostile places, freezing cold, filled with darkness and death and stone. As a result some of the most powerful items ever created by the clever wizardsmiths of the Empire are mining implements from the Age of Deepness. Some, such as gauntlets or helmets, are eagerly sought even today by those with the wisdom to know what the battered, plain looking items actually do. The Age of Deepness ended when the Wolframith Trees were found on some Outer Plane of eldritch horror and successfully cultivated. Add in the practice of herding Gorgons for their metal hide, horn, hooves, and bones, the recent introduction of Iron Chestnuts, the development of the various wood-enhancing craft spells, and it is easy to see how the Empire copes with this lack of metal.

5800 - 11,200

The Age of Water and the Sea Wars.When Domana and Daneth tamed Nature Herself, the Primal went to the most powerful group of allied gods she could find and begged succor. Those gods were the Sea Gods, and they responded. For thousands of years, the Empire waged a sea-going war against the Sea Gods. In this timeframe, the Sea Provinces were created from the shattered remains of the Andanian Peninsula, destroyed by the endless Sea Mountain Tsunamis hurled against the Empire by the enraged Sea Gods. The Empires power in this war reached incredible heights, and in an act as massive as the eventual laying of the Great Veil the Empire (acting on Domana's will) killed the entire Desolate Ocean, in the process smashing the province of Pastene and creating the Sand Sea. This act destroyed or imprisoned the Sea Gods at the cost of throwing down the Empire for the second time. Also during this time, the first of the magical Water Towers of the Empire were created. The Water Towers combined with the rule of Daneth over the weather gave the Empire enormous power over their world.

2500 - 5500

The Fall of Nature. In this age, Domana and Daneth combined their might to wrest control of the weather from the Primal Nature. This caused many wars and much death and suffering, but in the long run, Domana's might eventually forced Nature herself into servitude under the gently guiding hand of Daneth, a situation which continues to this day. In this time period, the first of the massive Imperial Wardings were laid, and the Celegians were even more alienated from the Sea, as Nature howls and rails at her servitude. This displeasure causes constant endless storms which howl with mindless and unstinting fury in the seas all around the Empire. This, combined with the ire of the Sea Gods, causes Celegia to have very little in the way of a navy to the current day.

0-2687

The Founding Dynasties. Little is known of this earliest era except to the most arcane and learned Sages and Wisdoms. One of the few tales recounted as factual is the fact that in Year 0, a man came up out of the ocean. He was named Celegio Celestias, and he is the renowned Founder. Celegio came to explore and conquer, and he founded the eternal Celegian Empire, and supposedly carved the Peacock Throne himself!