February 2024
Welcome to the revised version of the comprehensive, chronological timeline of the Broken Dimensions universe! The original iteration, shared in July of 2023, had some critical errors in the math department and was split oddly between two posts. After this revision, everything will be found in the same place—and the math will be correct!
Now, a crucial note before we begin: the Broken Dimensions universe is split into 10 major "eras" and as such, does not use real-world terms like "AD," "BC," or their modern counterparts, "CE" and "BCE" to denote epochs of time. The Broken Dimensions universe also follows a mythological creation timeline that does not adhere to scientific evolutionary standards (Solorana, TED, and the first generation of gods didn't have the patience).
With that out of the way, let's dive in!
BASIC ERA TIMELINE
Era 1 — the creation era; lasts around 1300 years. Ends with Crisis 1, the gods' war for balance.
Era 2 — Lasts approximately 850 years. Ends with Crisis 2 when the god Maikoa attempts to undo the results of the War for Balance.
Era 3 — closest in aesthetic and technology to our time in the real world, lasts about 2100 years before Crisis 3 occurs and the origin world, [ x ], is cleaved from its subdivision world, Svarenheil, to create Adreoni (later forms the Darekaeiin quadrant).
Prophecy Lost takes place in the last century of this Era.
Era 4 — lasts 1,713 years to the day and comes to an end when Tartarus is created as a prison dimension for seven cruel, nearly immortal mages (Crisis 4).
Era 5 — lasts around 2205 years, ends with an interdimensional war as Adreoni and [ x ] achieve interdimensional travel and rediscover each other.
Era 6 — lasts 300 years exactly and is brought to end with a ceasefire that halts the Three Hundred-Year War (still called "Crisis" 6 despite there being no real "crisis" event... unless you were the ones funding the war).
Era 7 — lasts 1032 years and ends when the tenative peace between Tartarus, Aetheria, and Adreoni is broken and they devolve into war again. Crisis 7 is when Aetheria immedately and surprisingly stands down, then closes off an entire quadrant of voidspace around their dimension, effectively claiming several satellites and the majority of Adreoni and Tartarus's invasion forces.
Era 8 — lasts 3037 years, ends abruptly when an incursion between the Old Aetherian Empire and outside attackers is stopped by an unexpected demigod and Aetheria's archipelago is revealed to be a magic field-generator of sorts. Calls the wayward gods back to set reality to rights after millennia of their absence. Involves time stopping for approximately three hours (Crisis 8).
Era 9 — an era of time anomalies after the effort of healing reality in Crisis 8 leads to the death of the god of time. Everything is normal for several hundred years, but after Xellarian dies, things get weird for an odd perceived 5-7,500 years. In reality, the stretched era timeframe lasted a whopping 10,602 years in total (unbeknownst to everyone who actually lived through it). Ended when a crazy experiment destroyed the Adreoni dimension quadrant (Crisis 9).
Era 10 — the current era, lasts at least 2050 years.
This is the era in which most Broken Dimensions stories take place, including Fractal Alliances and The Lycanthra Syndicate.
THE MATH
When everything is added up, Broken Dimensions universe comes out to be roughly 25,200 years old!
COMPLEX CHRONOLOGICAL TIMELINE
Recommended reference material: The Gods of Broken Dimensions
ERA 1
It is during Era 1 that the multiverse is the most at peace. The only gods who exist are Solorana, TED, Xellarian, Virri, Morsanna, Cor, and Litero—that is, the gods of light and darkness, life and death, knowledge and creativity, and time.
This Era is nicknamed "the creation era" because it is the epoch in which Solorana and The Eternal Darkness (Andareis) created the inhabitable mortal universe and the first-generation gods, the first two sentient mortal races, and some of the second-generation gods. It was during this era that [ x ] was created, originally a single inhabitable solar system with thriving flora, exuberant and varying fauna, and two dominating sentient races: humanity and the magoni (note: these are not the same magoni that inhabit Tartarus afer Crisis 4). Humans and magoni get along as well as they can, and magic and knowledge are traded between gods and both mortal races liberally. Some of the second generation gods are created, including Ialu, Meyaa, Waulfend, Kiridia, Viabolt, Hekata, and Maikoa, and new layers of culture, social status, and specialization come into existence.
However, the end of Era 1 is characterized by the War for Balance. The War for Balance is a cataclysmic event that pits the gods against each other in a deadly battle for whose image the rest of the cosmos will be created in: Solorana's or Andareis's. Not only does the pantheon split, so do the mortals of [ x ] (then called "Origin"). Some of the gods side with Solorana, others with Andareis, and only three remain neutral: Ialu, Meyaa and Xellarian. The magoni, magic users, sided with Andareis, and humanity sided with Solorana. The stability of the entire universe hung in the balance.
Gods who side with Solorana: Virri, Cor, and Waulfend
Gods who side with Andareis: Morsanna, Litero, Maikoa.
"Balance" gods (aka double agents who worked both sides as they pleased): Kirida, Viabolt, Hekata
Neutral gods: Ialu, Meyaa, Xellarian
The fallout is so severe that, Cor and Litero, former lovers who felt so strongly about the war's divisions that they split, died from the cataclysmic defeat of Andareis (and, as many believe, from a raw, emotional psychotic break that led to a fight to the death. The legends vary). Their split generates 4 new gods: Arric and Jacinthe, Iya and Lio (two sets of twins).
Andareis's defeat saw them and their follows relegated to darkness. As per the terms of the war, Andareis's godly essence was dispersed through the darkness from which they formed. This led to the formation of the Void (sentient), navigable voidspace, and the creation of Void magic (ziojic, which later comes to mean "creature of the Void" as well). Andareis's name was also obliterated from the minds of mortals and all those who had picked a side. Only Solorana, Ialu, Meyaa, and Xellarian remember their name after the end of the war; they have since been referred to only as "The Eternal Darkness" (or, TED).
TED's defeat and the scattering of their mortal soldiers (the magoni) was marked as "Crisis 1" and the start of a new Era.
Recommended reference: The Void (et cetera) and Void Demons, the zio'andar, and Void Magic.
Approximate age of the universe: 1301 years
ERA 2
Era 2 is commonly known as the "Dark Era" or the era of desolation in [ x ]. After the War for Balance, the rest of the multiverse began its creation phase under Solorana's watchful eye, which took many of them away from [ x ] and left it without guidance or godly supervision. Without the gods there to hold the hands of humans and magoni, to settle their disputes and teach them new things, some groups began to hoard knowledge and privatize their practices, excluding each other more and more as generations passed.
Eventually, such a sharp and vast divide had grown between certain human and magoni leaders (each with their own rabid following) that when the gods did return, they had to separate the two groups to prevent them from going to war again and destroying one another. Because the magoni were largely nocturnal, a separate world was created for them: Svarenheil, the underworld, isolated from humanity. In many ways, it was the opposite of the overworld: always dark, made up of vast, glowing plains, and without oceans. There were great forests around the edge of the dark world, protected by nightly warriors blessed by the gods. Rivers flowed from the overworld and became highly controlled and fought over. Eventually, the magoni renamed themselves the Svarenic people and united, finding peace, but it was hard won.
Humanity was isolated from Svarenheil permanently, confined to the overworld. They and their world were wiped clean of all magic and magical knowledge because they had developed dangerous methods of not just physical destruction, but mental and metaphysical destruction as well. Knowledge of those particular magicks was also wiped from the magoni.
Upon receiving a call to return for good, the trickery god Maikoa was mortified by all this. They petitioned Solorana to find another solution, but over a century had passed since she and several other gods had separated the two races. A reintroduction would do them no good. Maikoa, not content to leave the Svarenic people without a god, traveled to the underworld to visit them—no other god went with them. While they were in Svarenheil, Maikoa came in contact with a well of Darkness, a pool of TED's slumbering consciousness. They were corrupted and returned home with all their memories of serving in the War for Balance. Solorana and the others who remember the war in full, panicked and banished them from the overworld. They imprisoned Maikoa to temple on a secluded mountain in the underworld, lest they spread their forbidden knowledge or their magic.
Maikoa's banishment prompted the gods to withdraw themselves from mortal affairs. These two events marked "Crisis 2," and thus the end of the Era.
Approximate age of the universe: ~2151 years
ERA 3
The Dark Age continued through first half of Era 3, technically only ending in the 1340s during which Hekata, Kirida, Waulfend, and Viabolt went down to the mortal world to check on them and assess their knowledge. It was discovered that, without the gods' regular intervention, overworld society had degraded into a different kind of dark age. After Magic was banned and stricken from record, the gods were no longer known or revered, and infighting and bigotry had divided most of the overworld's inhabitants. What few non-humans (can'in, av'in, fel'in, ursinai, and medusai) remained had been either hunted close to extinction or forced to live in places largely uninhabitable for humans.
The ursinai had built strongholds in the far north and south reaches of the planet, and in some northern forests. The can'in and fel'in had become myths, living in enclaves in the woods or far unexplored regions, like hidden valleys and isolated forest spaces. The av'in had become mountain wraiths, isolationist in practice and in society. The medusai had all but gone extinct, and some survivors had been given homes in the underwater kingdoms of the water spirits. On land, the humans—and only the humans—dominated.
Hekata, Kirida, Waulfend, and Viabolt were appalled. When they returned to the secluded island they had alighted upon at their arrivial, they met with Ialu, Meyaa, and Morsanna, who had gone to check on the Svarenics. There, they had found less racial division but much more class and trade division—the more you worked, the less value you had, and amongst the low-value working class, there was division by trade. Morsanna, Ialu, and Meyaa, however, had decided to help while they were there—something that nearly earned them their own banishments. Solorana and Xellarian vetoed any further action until more information was gathered.
After centuries of stagnation, human technology advanced rapidly during an industrial revolution in the 1800s. They had also begun to stir up the ancient magicks which they had forgotten, although they called it "science" instead. Around this time, the people of Svarenhiel were also uniting and uncovering their own ancient texts—and discovering the rituals and warding put around the god Maikoa's temple of isolation.
The Svarenics reached their ignition event first: they discovered Maikoa and freed them, and thus came in contact with a god for the first time since Morsanna, Meyaa, and Ialu visited. Maikoa, woken from a slumber during which their mind melded with that of the Eternal Darkness's, escaped and ran to the island of the gods to find it deserted—the mortal world was still forbidden. Only Morsanna and Virri remain, guarding the portal to the Otherworld—out of [ x ]. Thus begins Maikoa's Quest.
After a century of searching, traveling through the cosmic mud and pre-formed matter of the universe, now only partially constructed, Maikoa finds who they're looking for: Solorana and the other gods, secluded on a new plane of reality where they can watch [ x ] ("Origin") remotely. Having found some of the gods in the creation zones along their travels, Maikoa shows up with verified believers who know their story. Together, the group explains to Solorana and the others the things Maikoa learned from sharing a mind with TED—horrible, amazing things about what the humans and Svarenics can or could do, and information about a race of Void magic users called ziojic.
The gods Maikoa picked up along the way: Hekata, Waulfend, Meyaa, Ialu, Zarris, Cerise, and Lio.
All at once, the gods and the Svarenics return to the overworld of [ x ]. The gods' return is deliberate, but the Svarenics' is an accident. In Maikoa's absence, multiple cults had grown in popularity, dedicated to them, Ialu, Meyaa, and Morsanna. Some groups had gone... off the deep end. When Maikoa returned in a burst of excitement and opened portals to the overworld, several unsavory groups of Maikoa-Morsanna devotees were leading attacks that bled out into the overworld. The result was pure chaos, and several major overworld cities were damaged in the attacks. War threatened immediately, each group attempting to rally against the new comers.
Sense prevailed... eventually. Maikoa spent time righting their mistake, and the gods fully returned to mingle with mortals—Svarenic, human, and those in between alike. Most of the final century of Era 3 was spent engaged in cultural exchange, digging up the knowledge that was buried for both Svarenics and overworlders. But tensions built, and war bristled again. With both populations so much more advanced, technologically and with magic, this couldn't be allowed. The gods rounded up the troublemakers and cleaved [ x ] in two, separating Origin and Svarenheil into two different words: [ x ] and Adreoni. Most humans were separated from most Svarenic people for good. This was "Crisis 3," the end of the Era.
Approximate age of the universe: ~4251 years
ERA 4
Era 4 is an era of change, adaptation, and reformation in [ x ]. The backwards ways that lingered from the Dark Ages finally were banished, and magic was revitalized and taught en masse. The Svarenics already had a leg up in the magic department due to having a few decades of extra research and exposure, and their top scholars were key in not only spreading magic practices across the surface of [ x ], but also in the formation of the Guilds of the Gods.
Two important Guilds that were created in this Era are the Hekatan Mage Guild and the Death Mage Order, led by Hekata and Morsanna respectively. Essentially, these two gods were granted the right to live every grad student's dream and put together their own individual (research and experimentation) teams to pursue their own goals. Notably, the leader of the Hekatan Mage Guild was Nathan Shasear, who had been Hekata's student since several years before the Revival began. After them, several other guilds formed. Viabolt headed a forge guild, Waulfend created an order of environmental researchers and activists dedicated to stabilizing [ x ] after it was cleaved from Svarenheil (now Adreoni), and Maikoa synthesized their cults into something more viable.
Morsanna's Order of Death Mages was the first to see serious trouble, and did no survive to the end of the Era. Small groups led revolted against Morsanna throughout the middle 300 years of the Era, challenging her for the title of Death and rule over the Dead and the Afterlife. These revolts divided the Order two factions: loyalists who sided with Morsanna, content and proud to be her Reapers, and separatists who wanted to claim or divide her power amongst themselves and promoted a form of selective eugenics. Morsanna was forced to cull the rebels and disband her Order, stripping nearly all of her Death Mages of their titles and abilities. Only a few dozen loyalists were allowed to retain their Reaper status, among them, Serra Tyrannis.
The fall of Morsanna's Order was the start of the end. The latter five hundred years of Era 4 in [ x ] were plagued by petty mortal wars, illegal magic experimentation, and growing calls for defiance against the gods. Seven powerful mages led a regular mortals and Guild members alike in a movement-turned-urban warfare that sought to dethrone the gods. It was later dubbed "The Great Rebellion." The conflict claimed tens of thousands of lives, Svarenic and human; mortal, demigod, and Guild member. In the end, the loyalist groups defending the gods defeated the revolutionaries and created a special prison dimension to house them: Artificial Planar Void TR-5, more commonly known as Tartarus.
In APV TR-5, the seven powerful leaders of the rebellion, later dubbed the Seven Heathen Mages, continued some of the experiments they had been banished for. They had mastered something known as Creation Magic, which the gods had tried very hard to keep out of mortal hands. When they worked together, the Seven could create entirely new lifeforms, which is what they did as soon as they realized they were stuck in TR-5. They created their own sentient, humanoid lifeforms to subjugate and manipulate, recreating the abuse they claimed the gods had imposed on them. They named these peoples after themselves, and reigned over them.
Corva Herrei created the Herrenic race
Dorian Mirrala created the Miila race
Zarian Laxa created the Laxaa race
Jor Raya created the Rayani race and its subspecies: Miiredians, Irosians, and Regalians, which were ranked and pitted against each other
Grecian Hekta created the Jica race
Julius Tahni created the Tahni race
Lor Amas created the Amads
The creation of APV TR-5 and the banishment of the rebels comprises Crisis 4 and marks the end of the Era.
Recommended reference: The Races of Tartarus (to-be-written)
Approximate age of the universe: ~5970 years
ERA 5
Era 5 is one of instability and lost faith, and is characterized by a slow descent into chaos. In addition to being the longest era to date at a whopping 2205 years, Era 5 also sees some of the darkest moments in multiversial history play out.
It starts when the gods start to take interest in the newly-forming dimensional pocket they name Aetheria. For now, just a cluster of solid debris and cosmic dust being swirled around by semi-conscious TED. Their attention is diverted outward, pulling it away from [ x ] and Adreoni (which they have been carefully monitoring since cleaving the two from each other). The gods' attenion is also pulled towards all the other worlds they left half-developed after the Great Revival in [ x ], and Solorana starts trying to split her time and essence between the creation and maintenance of all of them. Some of the others gods start doing the same
But the end of the first millennium, the pantheon is distant but the Guilds are managing well enough on their own. [ x ] is relatively stable and sufficiently united, meaning there is relatively little international strife. Adreoni is healing, growing in population, and its inhabitants are starting to branch out into more fields of magical and technological study. They are aided by Eiro, Hekata, and several minor gods, who spend much of their time there. Artificial Planar Void TR-5 is embroiled in civil war, infighting, and many other self-inflicted issues generated by the Seven Heathen Mages or their immediate successors. Most of the gods... are pretending it doesn't exist.
Over the next 1200 years, many of the gods begin to slowly pull away from mortality. Content with their work and the fact that mortality in [ x ] doesn't need them right now, they leave them to their own devices. And, slowly, the Guilds start to doubt their leadership again, but more quietly this time. So do the non-Guild mortals in [ x ] and most of the civilians in Adreoni, despite the gods' involvement in that dimension's healing and repair. The doubt turns to disregard, and the Guilds are disbanded late in the Era by one Nathan Shasear, who had been granted immortality in Era 3 for saving the goddess Ialu.
Eventually, their faith wavers so much that gods actually begin to feel it. Very few take that rejection well, subtle or unintended as it may be. Some leave out of anger. Others quit because they've practically been forgotten, and disappear into "retirement" in their own domains. But the same thing happens to all the gods who retreat to their reality (the same one they observed [ x ] from during Eras 2 and 3): they all fall into a deep, seemingly endless sleep.
Crisis 5 is two-fold: first, the remaining gods fly into a panic at their fallen (sleeping) comrades' condition. Those who disappeared into retirement deign not to care, or at least not to react. Second, Adreoni and [ x ] achieve interdimensional travel almost simultaneously and start the first interdimensional war upon rediscovering each other and reigniting the feud.
Approximate age of the universe: ~8175 years
ERA 6
Era 6 lasts a short 300 years, characterized by one giant war. This era, the shortest yet, sees the earliest forms of interdimensional warfare and is painfully dotted with rampant godly panic.
At the start of the war, Nathan Shasear attempts to rally former Guild members whose loyalty has survived the gods' panic and silence. He tries to organized humanitarian aid on both sides, acting as a delegate between [ x ] and Adreoni since he had heritage ties to both. His efforts are of no avail. By the year 150 E-3, he disbands the Guilds for good, for everyone's safety. It was for the best, after his already minuscule numbers began to tank as members ran home, chased after the gods, or questioned their entire moral system in the face of war. Still, he faced backlash twice that of what he faced the first time he disbanded the Guilds—this time, he also received reprimands from the pantheon. Shortly before the end of the war, he disappeared.
Meanwhile, Tartarus was embroiled in revolution. The races of Tartarus led revolts against the remaining Seven Heathen Mages and their sadistic heirs, breaking free of their control and ending their lives in cold, furious vengeance. They split into individual factions in the aftermath, still divided by their differences and united only by their race and twisted second-hand cultures. The Ialuan Empire quickly takes over much of the east coast, jockeying for power against the Tritaran Empire to the north and west of them. The Dev-Rayan (or "anti-Rayan") Congolmerate forms in the far west. The the name "magoni" is revived when the neutral, scholarship-based province of Zitraa'lazii is formed (later Zitraala) and the Jica race renames themselves the Magoni. The Heartland province also forms: a multicultural "neutral zone" that eventually becomes the center of the United Tartarun Federation.
By the end of the Era, Aetheria has its first inhabitants: a new race created by the gods called (with astonishing originality) Aetherians. They are the first ever telepathic race. As the Three-Hundred-Year war between [ x ] and Adreoni comes to an end in "Crisis 6" (which is once again a ceasefire, not a crisis), the growing multiverse turns to Aetheria with renewed interest.
Approximate age of the universe: ~8475 years
ERA 7
Interdimensional travel has been achieved, and advancements are happening quickly. A great many things happen in Era 7, starting with Tartarus achieving interdimensional travel in record time, and the gods finally acknowledging its existence. The panic the gods were swept up in at the end of Era 5 has cooled down, but many of them are still isolating themselves from mortality. Some hide in fear of rejection (and possible death), others hide because they are so busy trying to find a way to help their sleeping brethren, they neglect their other duties (despite constant calls, warnings, and begging for help from former Guild heads like Nathan Shasear).
Some gods have made their way to Tartarus and settled in, even introducing several matriarchal clans, subgroups, and religions. The primary example is Ialu, who quietly started a Tartarun Empire in her own name. After her are Cerise, Lio, Meyaa, and Maikoa. The influx unintentionally kickstarts the Tartaruns' deep-set and culturally-significant respect for women. Other gods, however, like Xellarian and Kirida are wary of the dimension still.
With Tartarus now on the playing field, [ x ] and Adreoni (who both have residual legends and historical records of the Seven Heathen Mages) are also understandably wary. However, the Tartarun's deep curiosity and sense of adventurous wonder endears them to the Adreonians immediately. This is in spite of the fact that APV TR-5 was created from a reality plane called Boltar, a world of hellfire—the exact opposite of the cool nightworld of Adreoni. Against all odds, an alliance forms.
Meanwhile, the Aetherians are growing in number and in strength, and the gods have realized that lingering around such an intelligent, powerfully telepathic race... may have not been in their best interests. The Aetherians now possess knowledge they should never have been given access to. They create not only the first entirely stable interdimensional warp travel technology, but they reformat it from simply translating people from one world to another to make it so they can instead transport whole ships of people from one world to another, almost instantaneously.
Their first inclination upon encountering the satellite worlds around Aetheria, and later the large dimensions of Tartarus, Adreoni, and [ x ]? Start a blood war. Of course.
Tartarus and Adreoni form a proper alliance shortly after the initial Aetherian attack, around 470 E-7, when it is made clear that these Aetherians weren't given enough of a conscience to rival their intelligence or beat their egos into submission. Together, the war-born Tartaruns and the eon-wizened strategists of Adreoni analyze the Aetherian warships and reverse engineer them to create their own models. They quickly boost their own interdimensional power and viability, and they begin pushing the Aetherians back into their own territory. They successfully catch the unorganized Aetherian warships off-guard,and they retreat back to their homeworld. But war was still declared, and it was never exactly called off...
The Aetherian military reformed itself, taking inspiration from the growing and changing regiments of Tartarus and the various political factions of Era 7 [ x ]. For most of the rest of the era (some 800 years, which is chump change in a half-formed, time-bending world like Old Aetheria), they lie in wait in the background, gathering data and information. Tartarus cools down and reinforces its alliance with Adreoni, [ x ] stops playing dumb and gets involved with interdimensional trade and politics again, and they all start sending out probes and research teams to chart voidspace and new dimensional pockets (and to keep tabs on Aetheria).
(Note: this is also the era in which the former continents of Merias form the Averonian Coalition, which eventually become the Averonian State, then the Free Averonian States, and eventually the Averonian State Trade Confederation of Era 10.)
At the end of the Era, Aetheria—now the (First) Empire of Aetheria—lashes out again and starts claiming new satellite dimensions, breaching Tartarun and Adreonian regions, and gunning for [ x ]. The gods are still nowhere to be found. The renewed war spans more than five years before a joint force led predominately by Tartarus and Adreoni successfully breaches the expanding Aetherian border and starts attacking their outposts, then their homeworld. But in a shocking move that catches everyone by surprise, the Aetherian military immediately shuts down and activates some new device. It utilizes an impenetrable magical blockade and entirely prohibits entry beyond itself—and locks hundreds of thousands of Tartaruns and Adreonian Shades inside Aetheria's borders.
This is Crisis 7.
The blockade effectively creates the modern reaches of Aetheria (from centra to its nearest satellites, include some that were absorbed to create the outer edges of centra) by using technology and magic to generate something close to the modern borders. They also claim every enemy ship on the inside of their new blockade wall and cut their external communications completely. No one knows what exactly happened to those ships or their crews after.
Recommended reference material: DIMENSIONS: Tartarus, and other dimensional info posts (to-be-written)
Approximate age of the universe: ~9507 years
ERA 8
Era 8 is a time of perilous recovery. No one quite knows if or when Aetheria will open up its borders again, or if doing so will result in another onslaught of colonization attempts. The fear of it happening lingers in the backs of people's minds for generations, to the point that fake prophecies and exaggerated histories and myths surrounding Crisis 7 develop. But centuries pass with little to no activity from Aetheria, imperialistic or otherwise.
Tartarus and Adreoni spend a good chunk of early Era 8 rebuilding their militaries after losing substantial numbers to Crisis 7. The rest of the multiverse is just trying to figure out what happened, what kind of technology Aetheria has created and been exposed to, and whether or not the gods know what happened, and if knew in advance. The other budding satellite dimensions outside the Aetherian quarantine are beginning to make contact with the major dimensions, and some have been given sanctuary, while others have become willing (or unwilling) colonies.
Slowly, things calm down. Tartarus experiences a cultural, artistic, and technological renaissance. The gods who stuck around to support them are openly involved and celebrated. In the first millennium, the Tech Twins (Angelis and Vici ValKerie), ascend to godhood as first demigods and later minor gods under Eiro's tutelage and are celebrated as the first gods from Tartarus (they technically aren't, but... that's a long story). Later, in the final millennium, the Aracane Brothers are created by remaining gods and certain unnamed immortals to supplement Trefas, god of music, who promptly disappears.**
**Note: he doesn't die or "fade" like some other gods. He just leaves. And no one has seen him since, although it is highly suspected he disappeared into Waulfend's Nature Preserve in Averon, [ x ]...
Other minor reprieves take place in this Era. multiple interdimensional alliances are formed, and trading systems are established that will stand the test of time. Some of the gods who stayed set up sanctuaries and failsafes for if they leave, or begin to "fade." Waulfend, for example, sets up a nature preserve in [ x ] that takes up most of modern Averon and protects all kinds of local and non-local flora and fauna. (Legend says, the deeper you go into the forests, the more exotic and mystical the inhabitants.) Heathera, a nature goddess christened by Virri and Waulfend, also sets up an interdimensional research center for all things biology, with a heavy focus on plant life: her preference and purview.
Boltar, the dimension of Hellfire (aka the power source of Tartarus's Core), and Solari, the dimension of light, are also discovered during interdimensional exploration excursions. Both are inaccessible and unsurvivable by mortals, but they are able to be perceived and act as wells of power for Viabolt and Soloranna respectively.
The end of Era 8 is when things change in the dramatic kind of way you can't come back from.
Aetheria opens up its borders in the third and final millennium of Era 8 (more precisely: the 2900s) and the Imperial government pretends to act as if nothing happened during Crisis 7. They establish themselves as a strong but fair empire and no one is brave enough to challenge their claims, or the iron grip with which they hold the worlds inside their borders.
Until what become the last two years of the Era. Obvious tension had been building for almost a century by then, and it comes to a peak when interdimensional warlords like Vahn Tracer (Adreonian pirate king), Huron velTarre (Tartarun expatriate, outlaw, fleet warlord), and others drum up support for a confrontation and conquest of the First Empire of Aetheria (Phantasma affiliates, certain members of the Ziojic Guilds, families of those trapped and likely imprisoned by the Empire in Crisis 7).
When negotiations inevitably fail, the story goes that either the Aetherians were goaded into attacking the warlords or the other way around (the story is unclear). Battle lines were drawn and war was imminent. War on this scale, with representatives from every major world, and with unknown technologies on both sides, would have been catastrophic. Someone who had seen it before, back when Adreoni and [ x ] were still the only big players, knew what kind of disaster it would bring—and who needed to be there to stop it.
Nathan Shasear had been living covertly in Aetheria for some time by this time in Era 8. He had gotten past the blockade a few years before it broke down and made a name for himself advising the leaders of Aetheria—mostly local, but occasionally those closer to the top. He had gone to Aetheria before the Empire to study it and its anomalies, and to learn what exactly the gods had left behind. He had watched it grow and change over the millennia. He saw the First Empire rise, and he saw what it was planning at the end of Era 8. When he saw the negotiations turning sour and the first warships appeared on the borders of Aetheria centra, he tried one last time to convince the Imperialis to stand down and continue negotiations. After that failed, he hailed the warlords and even attempted to contact Phantasma, his former student, and cause some other kind of interference. When those options also failed, he was left with two options: watch the worlds tear each other apart, or use his last resort option to stop it. He chose the latter.
The event later known as Crisis 8 was, in specifics, an in-world "cataclysm" caused by the islands of Aetheria being re-aligned into a specific pattern—the same pattern in which they had been originally formed. The islands of Aetherian centra had drifted over time, but they could be pulled back into their original positions with ease using Nathan Shasear's pet project,: control magic—and a few supercharged alignment beacons disguised as abandoned outposts. The effect wasn't dissimilar to the way the First Empire had set up their mysterious blockade, except Shasear's application fixed a problem rather than cause one. Aetheria's once-chronic problem of instability and time-warping was resolved with one experiment.
It is believed that Shasear activated the entire alignment system on his own, which caused all the islands to shift back to their original positions, thus putting them in place to form the largest summoning matrix in existence. In short, he turned the dimension itself into a supercharged power cell-summoning matrix power source. Some believe he reactivated the matrix that created the first gods, Solorana and TED. Others believe he temporarily opened a portal to Hell. Others more logicially suppose all worlds were arranged in the formation of a giant rune matrix (they were right). Either way, the matrix igniting both summoned the gods back and stopped time. The original pause lasted only a few minutes, but to repair the damage Shasear had caused and save lives, the gods (namely Xellarian) had to freeze time for almost three months.
This was Crisis 8.
Aetheria's ability to act as a supercell power source is often claimed to be the reason it does not have a set Core or Core island, like other dimensions. It doesn't need one, especially not after Crisis 8.
The last piece of the puzzle was one that Shasear hadn't yet figured out: Aetheria was a power matrix, yes, but it was a power matrix designed by the first-generation gods—specifically Xellarian, Morsanna, and Solorana. It had many functions aside from being a giant summoning beacon.
Other notes: some speculate that Shasear had help at each outpost, either from his own local guild members/followers or from the remnants of the alleged Godhunter guild, a group dedicated to upholding the myth of the Godhunter, who may or may not have been allied with Shasear at the time.
Approximate age of the universe: ~12,544 years
ERA 9
Era 9 is characterized by time fluctuations, time portals and vortexes, and general multiversial instability. In fact, the recording of time was so flawed and sporadic during this era that its length was grossly miscalculated! The minimum recorded length was 5312 years, the maximum was 7132, and the official length recorded later by the Fate Council was 10,602 years. But when all is said and done, the length of this era does not matter nearly as much as the events that transpired during it.
This Era is a sad parallel to the Revival Era (Era 3). Yes, the gods returned during Crisis 8 and put a stop to not only the infighting and interdimensional conflict, but also the reigns of tyranny in the outlands, interdimensional neuatral zones, and regions like the Iron Archipelagos. Yes, Nathan Shasear was reprimanded for his failure to support mortal reality in the gods' absence and vanishing from public view. Most saw his disappearance as the removal of a menace. Yes, interdimensional war between the largest powers of the time was avoided.
An admittedly, not much else changed initially. The First Empire of Aetheria was quarantined by the gods so they could figure out what exactly happened since they had left it to its own devices. The Empire was effectively dismantled, and many of its leaders were punished for war crimes and abuses of power by the justice goddess, Lio (sans Iya, her more compassionate brother). The rest of the groups involved, especially the warlords (who not only abused their own powers and peoples, but played into the drama and spun stories to drive people further and further against each other), were reprimanded or chose to continue watching in baffled silence as it all unfolded. Then, new problems arose.
First of all, the gods knew that Nathan Shasear's breach of the flow of time had been unnatural and that he had come dangerously close to throwing everything out of balance. What they didn't know (at firstI was how close he'd truly been. Shasear's plan had worked. Yet, the aftermath led to the exhaustion and immediate fading of the god of time, Xellarian. A few centuries into the reconstruction of Aetheria and the worlds of certain malicious warlords, the god of Time fell into the first of several long, sudden sleeps. Time itself seemed to slow and ripple for the two years he lay comatose, and when he woke up, nearly mad with visions of the future and the past, not even he knew what to make of it.
After that, it happened irregularly and unexpectedly. The fifth, the gods began to see how it affected the mortals. Time, it seemed, was actually quickening and slowing according to Xellarian's spells of comatose prophetic dreaming. Ialu, too, was greatly affected, and her ability to prophesy and see potential futures (or pieces of them) was all but gone. This went on for centuries, then millennia, and as Xellarian grew weaker and his periods of dead sleep grew longer, the Pantheon began to wonder what would happen if he faded away. They began to disappear again in search of a remedy, or The Eternal Darkness, or something that could fix their problems and stop them from fading away. Meanwhile, a scorned demigod or twelve hid in the lower cities of Aetheria and wondered why the gods didn't understand that that was the problem.
As a result, much of Era 9 is jumbled. The gods' intermittent absences led to more strife and uncertainty in the mortal realms, and eventually some resigned themselves to their fate. Certain gods, like Ialu, Lio, and the Aracane brothers found homes in Tartarus. Others, like Waulfend and Virri began establishing refuges for mortals and nature spaces, hoping that preserving more wild spaces would help
It did. Had they not tried, Jade Masiiri, the revolutionary goddess, would never have been raised to godhood. Heathera, mother of the greatest bio-tech, biology, and life magic research group in history, would never have found or saved Waulfend himself from fading. But sometimes, they still thought it was all in vain).
Maikoa, for one, returned to their roots, or what was left of them: Adreoni, and the other scattered shadow worlds of Darekaeii. Viabolt disappeared into Boltar, hoping craft a cure. He never returned. Kirdia vanished as well, although a statue of her exact likelness stands in the capitol of the undersea world in [ x ], where Cerise attends her.
One of the key events that stands out amongst the chaos of Era 9 is the tragedyof how Darekaeii fell. Or, more specifically, how Adira Eagriss destroyed it. Her story is one for another post, but the result is simple enough: her deadly, reckless, experimental attempt to bring the broken worlds of Darekaeii together to form on great, big community failed spectacularly. She cause what is recorded in history as the Great Darekaeiin Cataclysm, a Class 5 cataclysmic event that caused the explosion of Adreoni, the Darekaeiin center-world, and the subsequent obliteration of the rest of the quadrant. Rumor has it she was influenced by someone with a grudge against the gods, but that even they had n idea what she was truly capable of. Her cataclysm made the Class 3 cataclysm of Era 4 in [ x ] seem like child's play.
The Great Darekaeiin Cataclysm is often regarded as Crisis 9 when, in actuality, it was the cause of Crisis 9. In truth, Crisis 9 is the direct aftermath of the Cataclysm: the fall of Darekaeii's last surviving regiments from the Adreonian Mercenary Corps, the Rise of the New Empire of Aetheria as the smoke cleared, and the cover-up that followed. (Very, very few people in-universe are aware that it was Adira who blew up Adreoni with a Core experiment in the first place.)
And, to wrap it all up, Xellarian disappeared. The time anomalies ceased as soon as he was found to be missing, but no one has figured out why, or if he's still alive. Not even the Fate Council knows (or if they do, they haven't confirmed nor denied anything).
Recommended reference material: DIMENSIONS: Darekaeii (to-be-written)
Percieved age of the universe: ~19,676 years
Actual approximate age of the universe: ~23,146 years
ERA 10
Era 10 starts of slow and solemn. Much of the multiverse is still grieving and in shock of the Darekaeiin Cataclysm, and the first few years are characterized by mass humanitarian aid intervention, spearheaded by Tartarus and the newly-formed, (allegedly morally reformed) New Empire of Aetheria. The rest of the first century or two are spent figuring out how to operate without the worlds of Darekaeii.
Trade, justice, and war all change fundamentally. Darekaeii, and especially Adreoni, had stood as a bastion of clear judgement and honest business (mostly) for millennia. They had supervised and supplemented interdimensional trade. They had forged and mapped new routes between worlds. They had provided security forces and mercenaries for wars across the ages. They had been a refuge, an artistic stronghold, and a technological epicenter for at least three of the recent Eras. No one quite knew how to operate without their leadership, nor how to mourn the loss of their billions of lives.
[ x ] tried to fill the holes and step into its sister-world's vacant spot. They tried, but they ultimately failed. The lovely thing about humans is that they are fantastic creators and innovators. The terrible thing is that they all think they're better than one another. [ x ] being the primary homeworld of humanity and all its flaws was its downfall. [ x ] devolved into infighting (again) around the year 300 E-10.
In the end, it took multiple worlds to fill the space left by Darekaeii. Tartarus eventually,stepped up to become the military epicenter it always should have been. They experienced an industrial boom as the multiverse turned to them for weapons manufacturing, the advancement of technological warfare elements, and, surprisingly, new moral standards for the conduct of war. Tartarus had, of course, perfected the art of war millennia ago. As they shared their knowledge with others, the multiverse's collective view of them began to change. And, as a result, the dimension as a whole changed how it presented itself. States and tribal lands became united provinces, and they all agreed to unite themselves under the banner of Tartarus centra, whose provinces served each other, the Post-Revival Codex, and the select few gods who had chosen them. They still had infighting and civil issues and wars, but, at least, it was less about destroying each other and more about... semantics.
Feldspar stepped up too. Darekaeii had been the technological epicenter of the multiverse. When it was wiped out, the technology they developed went with them. The holonet as it had existed from Era 8 onward ceased to exist or operate. Nearly every server, every corner of the holonet crashed. Only a few backups remained on a few limited physical storage drives in out-of-world branches. Feldspar saw the rising panic at this catastrophe, looked at their own perfectly fine, entirely operable in-world holonet service, and said "Hey, we can market this (and help a lot of people)!"
Some people think that their monetary motivations were greedy. But those same people forget that Feldspar was and always has been somewhat of a giant commune run by sentient, telepathic Cats. Their idea of "monetary greed" involves gaining large sums of money, distributing two thirds of it to their people, and using the rest to fund insane research projects and the upkeep of their successful Core Energy Dispersal and Power Supply System (or, the CEDPSS, or "Sedeps"), which is what Adira Eagriss later tries to recreate in Era 10.
And, finally, someone had to step in and manage the most obvious void left behind by the Darekaeiin system of worlds: the role of interdimensional neutral arbitrator. The New Empire of Aetheria, as shiny and fresh-off-the-line it seemed, was practically curated for this role. While the gods had, by and large, been in and out of things during Era 9, they had managed to set Aetheria back on track. Even once they disappeared again, following the clues Xellarian's scattered mind had left for them to use to find the next God of Time, the NEA seemed to be doing alright. With the democratic, people-ruled Imperial Council backing the first Emperor - a paltry title that may have been better understood had it been changed to "President" or Ae'Docra (an Aetherian word meaning "chosen ruler" or "chosen doctrinal-leader")—it seemed best that they handled things.
( If those scorned demigods mentioned earlier had suddenly gone oddly quiet, and the new Imperial Council seemed to have a few odd characters that hadn't quite reformed during the reformation era, well. No one had to know.)
Era 10 is the current "modern" era of the Broken Dimensions Universe. The first story to take place during it (as of August 2023) is that of Fractal Alliances, which begins in 1906 E-10 and runs all the way until 2043 E-10. The untitled novel that follows the aftermath of Fractal Alliances and the start of a new era takes place in 2047 E-10. A prospective follow-up series called Afterdeath picks up in 2049/2050 E-10.
Approximate age of the universe (as of Afterdeath): ~25,196 years
Keep an eye open for new posts on the Dimensions, the races of Tartarus, and some new minor gods!
Comments