1021 - Collapse of the Treaty of Northwatch

In the year 1021, the Treaty of Northwatch collapsed after several northern rulers rejected the borders established during the succession negotiations. Claimants accused one another of occupying ancestral lands, manipulating old maps, and granting disputed territories to secure political support. Border forts raised rival banners, tolls were imposed upon former neighbours, and armed patrols clashed across valleys long governed by shared custom. Attempts by the Alliance to restore negotiations failed when two delegations abandoned the council. With the treaty broken, the northern succession dispute became a struggle over land as well as crowns, and peaceful settlement grew increasingly unlikely.

1018 - Death of the Last High King

In the year 1018, the last widely recognised High King of the North died without naming an accepted heir. Several relatives, warlords, and regional rulers claimed the northern crown through blood, marriage, conquest, or ancient custom. The royal council failed to agree upon a successor, while powerful clans refused to recognise any ruler chosen without their consent. Fortresses closed their gates, taxes ceased to reach the capital, and border disputes quickly became armed confrontations. Though no single war began that year, the High King’s death shattered the fragile unity of the north and began a succession crisis that would steadily draw neighbouring realms into its rivalries.

998 - The Eastern Emancipation Decree

In the year 998, the Victorian Empire issued the Eastern Emancipation Decree, formally abolishing several systems of bonded labour exposed during the Eastern Rebellion. Debt contracts that bound families for generations were cancelled, compulsory mine and factory service was outlawed, and labourers were granted the right to leave imperial estates. Employers were ordered to pay wages, though many avoided the law through false debts and private agreements. The Breakhearts welcomed the decree as a victory, but warned that freedom written upon paper meant little without enforcement. Even so, millions gained legal recognition as free citizens for the first time.

995 - The Treaty of Red Fields

In the year 995, the Victorian Empire and several Breakheart commanders signed the Treaty of Red Fields, ending the largest battles of the Eastern Rebellion. Victoria agreed to reduce the Third Eastern Levy, abolish compulsory industrial labour, release political prisoners, and recognise limited provincial councils. In return, the signatories surrendered captured cities, railways, and imperial weapons. The treaty took its name from the fields surrounding the ruined city of Redwick, where smoke and iron dust had stained the earth crimson. Many rebels rejected the settlement as incomplete, and isolated resistance continued for years. Even so, the treaty proved the empire could be forced to yield and established the Breakhearts as an enduring movement against tyranny.

992 - Founding of the Breakhearts and the Eastern Rebellion

In the year 992, factory workers, colonial soldiers, dispossessed farmers, and escaped labourers rose against the Victorian Empire’s Third Eastern Levy. Their scattered resistance was united by the newly founded Breakhearts, named for Caelan Redhart, the Chainbreaker, who had died freeing captives during the Demon War. Rebels sabotaged railways, seized armouries, freed labour camps, and turned imperial engines against their makers. Victoria dismissed them as criminals and foreign agitators, but the rebellion spread through mines, ports, and industrial cities. The Breakhearts declared that no crown, company, or empire possessed the right to own another person’s labour, freedom, or future.

990 - The Third Eastern Levy

In the year 990, the Victorian Empire imposed the Third Eastern Levy upon its outer provinces, sharply increasing taxes, industrial quotas, and compulsory labour. Imperial officials claimed the levy was necessary to expand railways, foundries, airship ports, and mechanical defences across the eastern continent. In practice, provincial workers were taken from farms and workshops to serve in mines, factories, and military construction gangs. Wealth flowed towards the imperial heartlands while distant communities endured shortages and debt. Victoria had escaped the Demon War untouched, yet its rulers demanded sacrifice as though invasion stood at their gates. Resentment spread quietly beneath the smoke of its engines.

965 - The Great Gate Survey

In the year 965, the Horizon Hunters began the Great Gate Survey, creating the first reliable record of the restored Gate network. Surveyors travelled through each secured passage, documenting its destination, controlling sigils, surrounding settlements, and known dangers. Gates leading into corrupted ruins, unstable regions, or hostile territories were sealed and marked for future expeditions. Copies of the growing survey were entrusted to the Heroes Guild and guarded against theft or alteration. Though many Gates remained undiscovered, the work transformed a dangerous collection of isolated portals into a navigable network, allowing travellers to cross the world with greater confidence.

958 - The Horizon Expeditions

In the year 958, the Horizon Hunters launched the first Horizon Expeditions into lands beyond those secured during the Demon War. Their foremost purpose was to locate every surviving Gate, clear the surrounding territory, and determine where each passage led. Expedition companies mapped lost roads, negotiated with isolated settlements, and fought the monsters and warlords that had claimed abandoned regions. Once secured, each Gate was carefully opened, cleansed of demonic influence, and protected by powerful wards to prevent hostile use. The work was slow and deadly, but every restored Gate reconnected another forgotten region, carrying travellers, supplies, and hope back into the wider world.

946 - End of the Demon War

In the year 946, the surviving Heroes returned from the Fingers Range, and word spread that the Demon King had been sealed and the organised demonic armies destroyed. Their return marked the accepted end of the Demon War, though few greeted the news with celebration. Entire nations had emptied their treasuries, stripped their fields, and sacrificed generations of soldiers to survive. Cities stood ruined, roads and farms lay abandoned, and countless refugees had no homes to return to. The world had escaped destruction, but victory left it exhausted and divided. Recovery would take decades, and many wounds caused by the war would never fully heal.

946 - The Treaty of Ashes

In the year 946, the Treaty of Ashes formally ended the wartime Coalition and divided the devastated southern territories into temporary occupation zones. Coalition armies remained to guard sealed Gates, suppress surviving demonic forces, protect refugees, and restore basic government where local authority had collapsed. Each occupying nation accepted responsibility for roads, food, law, and reconstruction within its assigned region. Supporters called the treaty necessary to prevent chaos after the war. Critics accused the victors of disguising conquest as protection. Though intended to last only until stable governments returned, several occupation zones endured for years, creating new resentments and disputes over who truly owned the lands saved from the demons.

942 - The First Gate Expedition

In the year 942, Coalition forces passed through an ancient Gate and emerged behind the demonic lines, proving the network could be turned against the demons. Tomas Berengar, thereafter called the Gatewalker, deciphered the Gate’s shifting sigils and held the passage open while soldiers crossed. Syrra Thornwake concealed the expedition beneath a living canopy, preventing demonic scouts from discovering their arrival. Oddersk Nobleforge then led the assault upon a nearby command fortress, identifying and destroying the ritual anchor that sustained the enemy’s defences. The victory severed demonic supply routes and forced a major retreat, transforming the Gates into the Coalition’s greatest strategic advantage.

942 - Discovery of the Gates

In the year 942, Coalition scouts discovered that the demons had constructed a network of vast magical Gates across the lands they occupied. Throughout the war, these structures had allowed demonic armies, weapons, and supplies to travel between distant fronts in moments, explaining how the enemy repeatedly appeared beyond defended roads and fortified borders. Most Gates were raised upon sites of powerful magic and linked through shifting infernal sigils understood only by their keepers. The discovery transformed the Coalition’s understanding of the war. If the Gates could be captured and controlled, the same network that had enabled the demonic conquest might allow Coalition forces to strike deep behind enemy lines.

941 - The Usurpation of the Seat of Berlint

In the year 941, Lord Kaldar seized the Seat of Berlint and declared himself ruler of Westalis. Blaming the Coalition for the losses at Last Hope, he accused the royal court of sacrificing Westalian soldiers to defend Frankonia. Loyal troops surrounded the capital, arrested the reigning monarch, and completed the purges of officials who supported continued cooperation. Coalition envoys were expelled, allied forces were ordered from Westalian territory, and supply caravans bound for the southern front were seized. Kaldar claimed withdrawal would protect Westalis from foreign control, but his actions fractured the Coalition at its darkest hour and transformed Berlint, the City of Love, into a capital ruled by fear and suspicion.

941 - The Berlint Purges

In the year 941, fear and resentment overtook Berlint, capital of Westalis and the city celebrated throughout the world for love, art, and courtly freedom. Westalian leaders blamed the Coalition for the losses at Last Hope, claiming its commanders had sacrificed Westalian soldiers to defend Frankonian soil. Royal officers arrested officials, diplomats, and generals accused of placing Coalition interests above their homeland. Some were publicly dismissed; others vanished into prisons beneath the city.

The purges silenced those who supported continued cooperation and placed isolationists around the Westalian throne. Coalition banners disappeared from Berlint’s towers, allied troops were denied entry, and military supplies ceased moving east. The City of Love became a city of suspicion, where old friendships were treated as treason and foreign loyalties as corruption. Though Westalis remained formally within the Coalition for a brief time longer, the purges prepared the way for Kaldar’s usurpation and final withdrawal.

934 - The Juran Refugee Compact

In the year 934, the nations negotiating at Highcourt signed the Juran Refugee Compact, requiring each signatory to shelter, feed, and protect those displaced by Jura’s destruction. Refugees were granted safe passage across allied borders and could not be returned to occupied lands. The compact also established camps, resettlement funds, and Juran councils empowered to represent their scattered people. Several rulers resisted, fearing expense and unrest, while others demanded Beastfolk serve in return for protection. Despite its failings, the compact saved thousands and preserved Juran communities throughout the world. It became the Coalition’s first shared humanitarian duty and an early test of its unity.

933 - The Conference of Nine Crowns

In the year 933, rulers and envoys from nine nations gathered at Highcourt to negotiate a common response to the demonic invasion. Several had spent generations as rivals, and the first sessions were consumed by accusations over borders, debts, and past betrayals. Refugee testimony and reports from the southern front eventually forced the delegates to recognise that no kingdom could survive alone. They agreed to share intelligence, permit allied armies passage, coordinate supplies, and establish common signals against demonic attack. Though no true alliance yet existed, the Conference of Nine Crowns began the difficult work of turning frightened rivals into a united resistance.

928 - The First Breaches

In the year 928, unstable tears in reality began appearing throughout the southern jungle and along the roads leading north from ruined Jura. Witnesses described blackened skies, unnatural heat, and creatures emerging from places where the world seemed split open. Local rulers treated these incidents as isolated magical disasters caused by relics disturbed during Jura’s destruction. Scholars offered conflicting explanations, while merchants suppressed reports to protect trade. Only hidden Inquisition chapters recognised the signs as deliberate breaches between the mortal world and the demonic realm. Their warnings were dismissed as attempts by an outlawed order to restore its lost authority.

926 - The Sacking of Jura

In the year 926, the demonic occupation of Jura became a deliberate campaign of destruction. Temples were defiled, civic records burned, and whole districts torn apart in search of relics, survivors, and hidden passages. Demonic forces severed the remaining roads through the northern jungle, ensuring that no organised relief could reach the ruined nation. Beast Prince Jagex gathered the last defenders within the royal quarter and led a final assault against the occupying host. Neither he nor his warriors were ever seen again. Without a body, crown, or surviving witness, Jagex’s fate remains unknown, and many among the Juran Diaspora believe their prince still lives.

923 - The Silent Frontier

In the year 923, messages from Jura reported burned villages, missing patrols, and creatures unlike any recorded beast. Many letters never reached their destinations, intercepted by officials who feared panic or by Black Ledger agents protecting their new southern holdings. Frankonia dismissed the reports as an attempt to obtain military aid, while Westalis suspected a Frankonian deception. The surviving Oath Keeper chapters lacked the numbers to investigate, and the Grand Inquisition remained outlawed across most human realms. By winter, trade from Jura had nearly ceased. The frontier fell silent, yet the northern courts continued their rivalries, unaware that a far greater war had already begun.

919 - Withdrawal of the Southern Garrisons

In the year 919, Frankonia and several neighbouring realms withdrew soldiers from their southern frontiers to reinforce forts facing Westalis. Local rulers protested that raids, disappearances, and strange magical disturbances were increasing near Jura, but their warnings received little attention. The Black Ledger encouraged the redeployment, offering loans and supplies for northern fortifications while quietly purchasing abandoned southern estates. The Foundation warned that trade routes beyond Jura were becoming unsafe, yet both great powers remained focused upon one another. Watchtowers emptied, roads deteriorated, and isolated settlements were left to defend themselves. The western rivalry had begun weakening the very frontier that protected all the northern realms.

909 - The Burning of Greybridge

In the year 909, the neutral town of Greybridge refused to pay protection money to either Frankonian or Westalian agents. Soon afterward, soldiers wearing mixed uniforms attacked the town, burned its warehouses, and slaughtered its council. Each crown blamed the other, but surviving witnesses reported the attackers were guarding Black Ledger wagons. The destruction removed an independent market that had resisted Ledger prices and frightened nearby towns into accepting its contracts. Foundation investigators gathered evidence of the conspiracy, but every named witness disappeared before a trial could begin. Greybridge was rebuilt years later, though its blackened bridge remained as a warning against refusing the hidden powers behind the war.

904 - The Crown Debt Compact

In the year 904, several Frankonian Elector Princes borrowed heavily to maintain armies against Westalian-backed rivals. Black Ledger lenders offered generous terms, requiring only temporary control of customs houses and provincial taxes as security. When the princes failed to repay, temporary control became permanent. Ledger agents gained authority over roads, mines, courts, and military supplies without openly claiming land or title. Similar agreements appeared in Westalis soon afterward. Both crowns condemned the practice but relied upon the same lenders to finance their hidden wars. The Crown Debt Compact transformed the Black Ledger from a criminal conspiracy into a shadow government operating inside the institutions of both rival powers.

899 - The Expulsion of the Twelve Houses

In the year 899, Foundation auditors discovered that twelve respected merchant houses had financed raids against their own caravans, manipulated grain prices, and purchased territories through fraudulent debts. The accused houses were expelled, their contracts declared void, and their names struck from Foundation records. Most escaped punishment by fleeing to courts that owed them money. Rather than destroy the Black Ledger, the expulsion freed it from the Foundation’s laws and public scrutiny. Its members established false companies, private ports, and hidden counting houses across both empires. From that year onward, the Foundation and Black Ledger became enemies, though outsiders often struggled to distinguish one from the other.

894 - The War of Borrowed Banners

In the year 894, Frankonia and Westalis armed rival claimants to the small border principality of Valmere. Neither claimant possessed enough soldiers to fight, so both borrowed money from lenders secretly belonging to the Black Ledger. Mercenaries marched beneath royal banners they had no right to carry, allowing each great power to accuse the other of direct invasion. Villages were taxed by both armies, fields were burned, and prisoners were sold to repay military debts. When the conflict ended, neither claimant controlled Valmere. Its roads, mills, and silver rights instead belonged to their creditors, proving that the Black Ledger could profit without winning a war.

889 - The Grain Lock

In the year 889, poor harvests struck the Frankonian-Westalian borderlands. Black Ledger agents purchased grain reserves before the scale of the shortage became known, then closed warehouses and delayed caravans while prices rose. Several towns agreed to surrender toll rights, mines, and future taxes in exchange for food. When Foundation merchants attempted to break the shortage, their wagons were attacked by mercenaries disguised as border raiders. Thousands went hungry, although enough grain remained stored nearby to feed them. The crisis became known as the Grain Lock and marked the first time the Black Ledger used scarcity to place entire communities under permanent financial control.

885 - Founding of the Black Ledger

In the year 885, merchants, lenders, and caravan masters who had grown wealthy supplying the hidden wars formed a secret society called the Black Ledger. Unlike the Foundation, they believed trade should not create shared prosperity, but dependence. Members financed both sides of a conflict, purchased debts from desperate nobles, and created shortages before selling essential goods at ruinous prices. Their agreements were recorded in black-bound books and enforced through bribery, blackmail, or hired violence. Few knew the organisation existed, for its members continued to hold respected positions within banks and guilds. Their private maxim was simple: all people owe, and all debts grant power.

881 - The Tollhouse War

In the year 881, rival border lords supported by Frankonia and Westalis attempted to control the Stoneway, the richest overland route between the two realms. Each constructed fortified tollhouses within sight of the other and hired mercenaries to seize passing caravans. Neither crown admitted involvement, even as royal weapons and coin reached both camps. Fighting continued for seven months, destroying bridges and emptying nearby villages. The Foundation eventually diverted trade elsewhere, leaving the rival lords without revenue. Though minor in lives lost, the Tollhouse War established the pattern of the coming decades: local disputes sustained by distant powers that denied responsibility.

879 - End of the Long Peace

In the year 879, relations between Frankonia and Westalis collapsed over disputed borderlands and control of the western trade routes. Neither crown wished to declare open war, so both armed rival nobles, funded mercenary companies, and encouraged unrest within the other’s territories. Border villages changed hands repeatedly, caravans were raided beneath false banners, and local disputes became struggles between greater powers. The Oath Keepers attempted to preserve order but lacked the unity to restrain either realm. Thus ended the Long Peace, replaced by decades of concealed warfare in which both empires denied responsibility while smaller nations paid the cost.

825 - Proclamation of the Iron Peace

In the year 825, Commander Vayne proclaimed the Iron Peace, declaring that all lands protected by the Black Oath would obey one law, one command, and one purpose. Knights were granted authority to seize property, conscript soldiers, and execute those accused of rebellion without appeal. Several frightened rulers accepted Black Oath garrisons to suppress unrest, only to discover that the knights would not leave once order returned. Their disciplined armies absorbed mercenaries, criminals, and former Oath Keepers seeking status. Supporters praised the safety of their roads. Refugees spoke instead of vanished dissidents, burned villages, and peace maintained through terror.

821 - The Taking of Duskfort

In the year 821, the Black Oath seized Duskfort, an abandoned Oath Keeper stronghold overlooking the western trade roads. Nearby villages were ordered to provide food, labour, and recruits in exchange for protection. When several refused, their leaders were publicly tried for treason against the peace and hanged from the fortress walls. Banditry soon disappeared from the region, but so did local law and freedom. Merchants paid heavy tolls, travellers submitted to inspection, and every household surrendered one child for service. Duskfort became the first permanent seat of the Black Oath and the model for the harsh territories they called Ordered Lands.

818 - Founding of the Black Oath

In the year 818, several Oath Keeper chapters gathered beneath Commander Malrec Vayne, who claimed the assassination of the High Commander proved that divided loyalty and mercy had destroyed the order. His followers renounced the Compact of White Shields and adopted the Black Oath, swearing that peace could exist only beneath absolute authority. They replaced their white shields with blackened steel and declared obedience more important than law. Deserters, dispossessed knights, and ambitious nobles joined them. Though they still called themselves protectors, the Black Oath defended communities by conquering them, punishing dissent, and placing every settlement beneath permanent military rule.

815 - Beginning of the Oath Keeper Schism

In the year 815, the surviving Oath Keeper commanders attempted to restore unity by appointing a single leader over every remaining chapter. Several regional orders refused to recognise the appointment, accusing the central command of surrendering fortresses, favouring Frankonia, and abandoning the Compact of White Shields. Chapters began withholding soldiers, taxes, and records from one another, while local commanders adopted separate laws and titles. Some remained loyal to the original oath, while others placed themselves beneath nearby crowns for protection. What began as a dispute over leadership became the Oath Keeper Schism, dividing the once-united order into increasingly independent and hostile traditions.

813 - Seizure of the Oath Keeper Holdings

In the year 813, several rulers moved against the weakened Oath Keepers, claiming the divided order could no longer defend its fortresses or uphold the Compact of White Shields. Royal troops occupied keeps, seized surrounding lands, and placed armouries beneath crown authority. Some chapters surrendered without bloodshed, believing resistance would endanger nearby communities. Others barred their gates and were driven out by force. The seizures scattered many Oath Keepers into smaller companies, while former strongholds became royal prisons, border forts, or noble estates. Though justified as necessary for public order, the action deepened the order’s divisions and weakened its independence for generations.

809 - The Merchant Riots

In the year 809, rulers burdened by debt imposed emergency taxes upon markets, caravans, bridges, and city gates. Merchants answered by closing their shops and refusing to move goods, leaving markets empty and granaries undelivered. When royal officers attempted to seize stock and arrest guild leaders, protests became riots across several major cities. Toll houses burned, tax records were destroyed, and soldiers clashed with craftsmen, labourers, and caravan guards. The unrest ended only after many levies were withdrawn. The riots proved that merchants, once divided by city and trade, could act together and challenge the authority of crowns.

803 - Opening of the Protected Trade Network

In the year 803, the guilds that would later become the Foundation opened the first permanent network of protected trade houses and caravan stations. Built along the busiest roads, these fortified posts offered merchants secure storage, guarded lodging, fresh animals, and access to trusted ledgers. Contracts witnessed within the network were recognised by every participating guild, allowing trade to continue across borders and unstable regions. Local rulers welcomed the return of taxes but resented the guilds’ growing independence. Banditry fell along protected routes, while towns prospered around the new stations. The network transformed scattered merchant alliances into a power capable of challenging nobles, banks, and even crowns.

758 - The Covenant Beneath the Mask

In the year 758, leaders of the Veiled Tribunal entered the Covenant Beneath the Mask, binding their scattered cells into a single hidden hierarchy. The covenant declared that corruption could only be defeated by controlling the institutions through which it spread. Tribunal agents infiltrated royal courts, temples, guilds, and even legitimate Inquisition chapters, gathering secrets and manipulating investigations. They also began cultivating forbidden cults, allowing minor threats to grow so they could expose rivals or justify harsher authority. From this point onward, the Tribunal no longer sought merely to punish evil. It sought to manufacture fear, then present itself as the only power capable of ending it.

744 - The Silent Judgements

In the year 744, nobles, priests, merchants, and magistrates began disappearing across Frankonia and Westalis. Each victim was later found marked with a sealed confession describing crimes ranging from bribery to forbidden worship. These killings became known as the Silent Judgements. The Veiled Tribunal claimed every victim had been proven guilty through secret testimony and magical examination. In several cases, however, evidence later revealed that accusations had been purchased by rivals or invented to seize property. Fear spread through the courts, while rulers blamed the surviving Grand Inquisition. The Tribunal grew wealthy through confiscated estates and increasingly judged opposition to itself as proof of corruption.

734 - Founding of the Veiled Tribunal

In the year 734, a hidden gathering of exiled Inquisitors rejected the restraint of their surviving order and founded the Veiled Tribunal. They argued that lawful investigation had failed because corruption controlled the crowns, courts, and temples meant to restrain it. Members abandoned public trials and began judging suspects in secret, using torture, forbidden divination, and seized relics to uncover concealed guilt. They retained the symbols of the Grand Inquisition, but wore them beneath black veils. To outsiders, their crimes appeared to be the work of the outlawed order itself, further damaging the reputation of those Inquisitors who still followed the old charter.

730 - The Night of Sealed Doors

In the year 730, royal officers moved without warning against the Grand Inquisition throughout Frankonia and Westalis. Before dawn, Inquisition halls were surrounded, their doors sealed, and their archives seized in the name of public safety. Many Inquisitors were arrested, while others escaped through hidden passages or found shelter among sympathetic communities. Crowns accused the order of unlawful trials, secret prisons, and interference beyond its charter. The Inquisition claimed the raids were meant to bury investigations into noble corruption. By nightfall, its public authority had been broken across both realms, leaving only hidden chapters and travelling courts to continue its work.

727 - Founding of the Hidden Chapter Houses

In the year 727, persecution drove many Inquisitors from their recognised halls and courts. Those who escaped carried records, relics, and unfinished investigations into secrecy, establishing hidden chapter houses beneath temples, merchant homes, and abandoned fortresses. Travelling courts moved between sympathetic communities, hearing accusations of corruption and forbidden worship beyond the reach of hostile rulers. Supporters sheltered them as defenders against threats ordinary law ignored. Their enemies condemned them as unlawful judges answerable only to themselves. This hidden network preserved the Grand Inquisition through years of suppression, but also deepened its secrecy, suspicion, and growing distance from public authority.

576 - Creation of the Elector Princes

In the year 576, the Compact of Highcourt established the office of Elector Prince. The most powerful vassals of the Imperial Seat were granted the hereditary right to vote upon each new emperor. Their number was limited, and each was required to command significant lands, revenues, and soldiers while remaining bound by imperial law. The compact also forbade an emperor from removing an Elector Prince without the consent of the others. Supporters claimed the system would prevent disputed successions and restrain unfit rulers. Critics warned that it placed the fate of Frankonia in the hands of a small circle of ambitious noble houses.

573 - The Assembly of Highcourt

In the year 573, the Oath Keepers persuaded the three claimants and the greatest Frankonian vassals to attend an assembly at Highcourt. The attending dukes, counts, bishops, and free cities refused to accept any ruler who lacked the support of the empire’s provinces. Months of negotiation followed, during which each claimant attempted to secure a majority through marriages, concessions, and private promises. The assembly rejected the claim that the Imperial Seat belonged automatically to the nearest blood heir. Instead, the gathered lords declared that imperial authority came from the consent of those powerful enough to preserve the peace and enforce imperial law.

571 - The First Imperial Succession Crisis

In the year 571, Emperor Theodric died without a recognised heir, and three members of the imperial family claimed the vacant seat. The capital supported his eldest daughter, the western armies favoured his nephew, and several old duchies rallied behind his younger brother. Each claimant promised titles, lands, and privileges in return for loyalty. Provincial lords raised soldiers, roads were closed, and imperial taxes ceased to reach the capital. Although no great battle was fought, Frankonia stood upon the edge of civil war. The crisis revealed that inheritance alone could no longer determine who possessed the authority to rule the empire.

516 - Foundation of Jura

In the year 516, the scattered settlements of Jura were joined beneath a single council, founding the first recognised Beastfolk city and nation. Built around a fortified river crossing, the new capital welcomed clans long denied land, title, or protection elsewhere. Its walls were raised by many peoples, and its laws followed the principles established in the Charter of Beasts. Recognition came slowly, secured through trade agreements, border treaties, and the defence of neighbouring communities. To its citizens, Jura was more than a city. It was proof that Beastfolk could govern themselves, preserve their traditions, and stand as equals among nations.

514 - The Charter of Beasts

In the year 514, the founders of Jura signed the Charter of Beasts, declaring that citizenship would be granted by oath and service rather than species, tribe, or place of birth. Beastfolk clans, human settlers, wandering craftsmen, and displaced families were recognised beneath one civic law. The charter guaranteed protection, property, representation, and the right to worship without surrendering ancestral custom. Some neighbouring rulers condemned the measure as dangerous, claiming such differences could not share one nation. Jura’s people answered by building one. The charter became the foundation of Juran identity and a promise that belonging would be chosen, not inherited.

427 - Creation of the First Catalogue

In the year 427, the Liberians completed the First Catalogue, gathering every surviving book, tablet, relic, and fragment they had so far recovered from Aeons and the battlefields beyond. Each item was recorded by origin, language, condition, and known history, then copied where possible to guard against further loss. The work exposed vast gaps in elven memory, including vanished dynasties, broken treaties, and entire schools of magic known only by name. Though incomplete, the Catalogue became the foundation of all later preservation. Scholars called it a monument to what had survived; the Liberians called it a record of all that remained missing.

425 - Founding of the Liberians and the Recovery Expeditions

In the year 425, scholars, refugees, and surviving keepers of Aeons gathered to found the Liberians. They swore that no war, tyrant, or flame would again erase the memory of an age. Their first undertaking, the Recovery Expeditions, sent small companies into abandoned settlements, ruined estates, and blood-soaked battlefields. They searched for books, tablets, relics, and testimony overlooked by looters or armies. Many expeditions returned empty-handed; some never returned at all. Yet each recovered fragment was carefully copied, catalogued, and preserved. From these beginnings, the Liberians became guardians of history and truth.

421 - The Battle of Bloody Rivers and the Sacking of the Aeons Library

In the year 421, the armies of three elven kingdoms met beside the twin rivers below Aeons. So many fell that the waters ran dark for days, giving the battle its enduring name. The surviving host entered Aeons, claiming the city had armed its enemies and concealed the murderers of Thirteen Branches. Soldiers broke the seals of the library, looted its vaults, and set fire to halls they could not empty. Scholars were slain among the shelves, relics vanished into private hands, and centuries of memory were reduced to ash before the flames were finally contained.

421 - The Burning Exodus

In the year 421, war reached Aeons, greatest seat of elven learning. As armies approached and smoke darkened the horizon, the library’s keepers ordered its halls emptied. Scholars, apprentices, and servants fled through hidden roads, carrying manuscripts, relics, and fragments of ancient knowledge. Many took only what they could hold, while others died protecting wagons laden with irreplaceable works. The refugees scattered across the elven kingdoms, pursued by soldiers, thieves, and rival collectors. Though much was saved, countless records were abandoned. This desperate flight became known as the Burning Exodus, the final passage of Aeons’ wisdom into the wider world.