Timeline

NOTE: This timeline will see significant rework in the future, so should be seen as broad themes and not used as canon for specific dates/locations/characters/etc.

53rd year of Soothing: Evil grabs hold of the world. An alliance is formed to consolidate power, and establishes a ruling council. The leading nation of Romule names Cerik Furn VI, their emperor, as the first Head Chancellor. The “year of Soothing” calendar, still only 53 years old, is scrapped in favor of the “Imperial Era” timeline.

24 IE - Cerik VI dies to an assassin’s blade. His son, Cerick Furn VII, takes the throne of Romule. He also bargins with Psema and Thymos, and with their support he decrees that the entire alliance should come under Romulian rule. The old alliance council merges into the Romulian advisory council, the Governor’s Council. Most nations comply immediately or negotiate a settlement, but others pull from the alliance. Wars erupt between the evil nations. The culprit of the assassination is never caught. It is rumored that the assassin changed his form afterward to avoid detection. This is generally regarded as the first assassination done by a doppelganger, or shapeshifter.

27 IE - Cerick VII, in an effort to reap the benefits of the alliances consolidation under Romule, creates a myriad of new governmental departments under a huge bureaucracy. The army is re-organized, science research teams are formed, roads are constructed, and various other functions of government are developed. Many of the nations that were part of the old alliance retain decent autonomy in return for managing their own lands and ensuring loyalty to the empire.

40 IE - Most of the rebelling evil nations are defeated; the Romule Empire takes almost complete control of Polemos. There are almost no free nations in existence, and only a small handful of neutral countries remain independent.

43 IE - Cerick VIII continues his father’s organizational explosion. Imperial Guard units, local armies used for protection and enforcement, are formed in the hundreds of thousands. More combat oriented armies under the Imperial Legion are moved from place to place stamping out trouble the local Imperial Guard cannot handle. Probably most importantly, however, he organizes large expeditions to explore, map, and conquer the Great Forests. These expeditions, under the arm of the Office of Inquisitions, battle the Dark Ones, and study them in an attempt to understand their make up.

49 IE - The first of the Great Forest expeditions return battered and broken, and report that the source of the Dark Ones terrifying power is from use of unknown magic. Those that survived recount horrid tales. A fresh wave of expeditions is sent out, fully warned of the Dark Ones’ potential. They make slightly more progress than the first expeditions, and suffer fewer casualties due mainly to cautiousness.

73 IE - The enslaved nation of Agol, which had worshiped the gods of good, begins an uprising against the Romulians.

76 IE - To Romule’s surprise, the Imperial Legion is driven out of Agol. The warrior-priest who led the rebellion, Filon Agothos, is named king of the new nation which takes his name. Unlike the old country of Agol, Agothos teaches that many of the neutral gods must be worshiped as well, especially the creator-god Eleytheria. He declares that the preservation of freedom is an integral part of the morale good, even if it allows for evil’s existence. With immense popular support amongst other conquered regions the Romulian Empire is unable to muster any invasion force.

85 IE - By the time the Romulian force is organized, Agothos has secured its lands. The invasion is routed and is forced to return to Romule in shame.

94 IE - The Romulians give up entirely on reoccupying Agothos, and a strategy of containment is used to effectively cut Agothos off from outside contact. Due to this and political in-fighting in Agothos it succeeds in limiting their ideas from taking root elsewhere for some time. During this time Romule increases the number of Great Forest expeditions, believing the terrifying magics the Dark Ones use can be researched and used for the good of the Empire.

165 IE - After over a century of exploration of the Great Forests, favor for the expeditions wane. It is seen as a squander of precious resources. The mages sent to research Dark Magic are instead collected and brought to special-purpose research cities. Many of the mages continue work on magics to defeat the Dark Ones.