Kharndam Guide: Brief History

Kharndam: The Ages of Reason

Consider how the day is long to a child awaiting a parent and that is how long history truly reveals a world. Consider how the day is short to a child reveling in play, and that too is how short history spans a world. To view a world through only the prism of one’s own race is a child’s view of life—one perspective, one view, one eye. Always look to every race to understand what has come before and what may yet occur—and look again, for life has as many perspectives as a child has questions.

—Surrhis-Tarn Iliir, author of one of the few surviving fragments from The Great Annals of Vros

When the world came into being, its name was Dharual, though no race would know that name for an Age. Four lands dotted the seas of Dharual, and their names—likewise unsaid but known nonetheless, at least by those who listened to stone or sky—were Rokhal and Orpak, Lammok and Shael. Each land had things to call its own, including smaller cousin-islets and skerries.

Before the Ages—Time of Origins

Recorded history on Dharual stretches longer than the memory of all but a goblin’s handful of gods. Even so, it has nurtured life for longer than the memory of gods, for life existed here even before many deities manifested. In this dawn time rose the Erltra and Primaltra—triads of male, female, and neutral incarnations that spawned every plant and animal on the Four Lands of Dharual. For how long the world hosted only these six beings and their offspring alone, only they know…and they deign not to share that knowledge.

Circa -25,000+ OD (Unknown years)

First Age—Age of Birthing

The Age of Birthing was the First Age of Reason, the Creation Times lasting approximately 8,000 years. From this primordium came the Progenitors, the First Races of Reason—Dragon and Giant and Goblin and Shay.

Circa -24,000- -16,000 OD (8,000 years)

Second Age—Age of War

The Second Age lasted five millenaries and was the Age of War when Dragons fought to dominate all life and briefly did. While death dominated this era, life too occurred and birthed all the Fey, Humans, Prigams, and Dwarves to combat Dragon-born Monsters.

Circa -16,000- -11,000 OD (5,000 years)

Third Age—Golden Age of Alliance

Dragons, Goblins, and monsters fell from power, eclipsed and shunned for their greed. All other races banded together in peace and this age welcomed visitors from afar called Elves to Dharual. The Golden Age of Alliance lasted 7,000 years before falling again to strife and greed.

-11,000- -4,000 OD (7,000 years)

Fourth Age—Age of Stones/“Dwarfruin”

The Fourth Age saw 2,000 years of conflict between Elf and Dwarf; the Age of Stones marked the end of dwarves as a power (and extinction on at least two of Dharual’s continents). Many great civilizations rose and fell in this time, though none rose higher or fell farther than the Dwarves.

-4,000- -2,100 OD (1,900 years)

Fifth Age—Age of Stars/“Elfrage”

The Fifth Age saw Elves rise in power and grasp at supremacy and revenge against all other races for 15 centuries. The invading scourge ended when nearly all other races bonded together to banish Elves from Dharual forevermore.

-2,100- -675 OD (1,425 years)

Sixth Age—Age of Claws/ “Drakereign”

The Dragons took the magic used to banish the Elves and corrupted that power. In turn, they corrupted themselves and their servitor Goblins in order to dominate the world for another millenary. The fall of the Scaled Ones took three centuries, but started when Ornaoth slew his first dragon and built the city of Drakesfall from its bones.

-675-311 OD (986 years)

Seventh Age—Age of Flight/“Pegasusreign”

Draconian rule eventually gave way to the birth of the Pegasus Sovereignty—the largest human civilization ever seen on Dharual. The Seventh Age gave Dharual five short centuries of near-peace akin to the days of the Aurum Alliance, until Kharndam and the Sovereignty fell among taenistry, tragedy, and treachery.

311-802 OD (491 years)

Eighth Age—Age of Might/“Impereign”

The current Age of Might marks the domination of the Imperam over Rokhal’s lands, and for over eight hundred years, they have ruled from sea to sea. The Imperam’s reach extends to other lands, though Orpak, Shael, and Lammok each has its powers mighty and miniscule attempting to spread beyond its own continental borders.

803-1652 OD (849 years; present)

(C) Copyright 2009 by Steven E. Schend

©2009 The Codex Continual. All Rights Reserved.

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