Ages of Teneris
The history of Teneris and of the Lands of Exile reaches back thousands of years and grows more entangled with myth and legend the further back it goes. The long-lived races reached these lands only after the Exodus, and the extensive record-keeping of humans does not go back beyond The Empire.1
This history is known only to scholars: members of the long-lived races, those who have extended their lives through alchemy and magic, and disciplined people who hand what they know on to their apprentices in a chain of knowledge. The accepted account follows Imperial doctrine, for the Empire is not a place where people may freely speak their minds and pursue research as they wish.1
First Age
The length of the First Age is unknown; it is far more mysterious than the ages that followed. It came before The Desolation, when no barrier divided the Great Western Sea and all of Caligran was full of life and civilisations. The gods taught arcane and divine magic directly to mortals, and every civilisation had a god as its teacher and shepherd. Alarath and Amarath took an interest in the young human race of the north, and legend says the walls of Marble City and the Marble Palace were raised by godly magic in this age.1
According to the records of the Church of Alarath, the age ended when The Dark One emerged from the void and attacked Teneris in the Desolation. The survivors fled north in the Exodus, the surviving gods withdrew to the higher planes, and they left the Priest-Kings to rule.1
Second Age
The Second Age, the longest era after the first, began with the survivors mourning in a narrower and less advanced world governed by humans. As races now lived side by side, the foundations of the cultural and political order that would shape the rest of history were laid.2 The elves founded the Da’fat Federation under Lady Nemarin, the Circle of Elders raised the Living Wall against the desert, and the elf druids made the river Calinor'dal to divide the elven lands from the human ones.3
According to the Empire's own account, the five Priest-Kings shared a dream of a red eagle and in the following years surrendered their crowns to the warlord Rolus, the "Red Eagle", and so the Empire was founded; elven sources say the handover was made not peacefully but by the might of his legions. Near the end of the age the scholar Xeratos foresaw a second attack of the Dark One, which was stopped, without much harm, through the efforts of his followers and the mysterious emergence of the Order of Chain. The age ended with that catastrophe averted and with Xeratos' disappearance.3
Third Age
The Third Age is the first whose length is known exactly: it lasted 2230 years and ended on Victory Day. At the time the Empire had not yet adopted the Clora Fastis and counted years from the end of the Second Age; historians now give its dates in the present reckoning.4 Its landmarks include:
- 1768 BVD: a cabal of arcane scholars discovered immortality through a ritual, and the bloody war to undo it, the War of the Immortal Mages, shattered mountains, dried up lakes and razed cities.
- 1203 BVD: The Sanction, the decree of Emperor Valigard IV binding every mage, enacted and still in force today.
- Victory Day: the Grand Alliance, the largest union in the history of Teneris, defeated the forces of the Heralds outside Marble City.5
Fourth Age
The Fourth Age is the present. Though the Grand Alliance won, its losses were so great that the old balance was broken: as the noble houses slowly regained power, the central authority of the Emperor weakened, and those who had barely survived side by side quickly turned to political games.6 Its chief events so far are these.7
| Year | Event |
|---|---|
| after Victory Day | The Time of Silence: miracles and divine magic fade from the realm for a time |
| 24–27 AVD | Emperor Vaden I is murdered; civil war ends with Elatan I on the throne in place of Vaden II |
| 151 AVD | Emperor Conrad II leads his legions into the underdark in the Dauntless Crusade (The Underdark Campaign) |
| 158 AVD | The wizard Gelts attempts to kill the Emperor; after the rebellion that follows, Conrad II falls at Dwarf Gate |
| 212 AVD | The northern warlord Skolpa rises; his raids last four years |
| 261 AVD | The Cult of Void is uncovered, amid events involving the god of time and the Grand Hourglass |
| 285–289 AVD | The voyage of the Imperius reaches Canarque, the New World |
Notes
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 10
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, pp. 10, 11
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 11
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 12
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, pp. 12, 13
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 13
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, pp. 14, 15, 16, 17, 21
- ↑BookLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide, p. 3
Sources
This article draws on:
- SSGLands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide(Bad Badger Games, 2024), pp. 3, 10-17, 21
Images in this article
Lands of Exile: Starter Setting Guide (Bad Badger Games, 2024), p. 8. Art by the Bad Badger Games team.