# The History of Temerant
## Timeline & Historical Events
---
## Table of Contents
1. [Timeline Overview](#timeline-overview)
2. [The Primordial Age](#the-primordial-age)
3. [The Age of Singers](#the-age-of-singers)
4. [The Creation War & Cataclysm](#the-creation-war--cataclysm)
5. [The Ergen Empire Era](#the-ergen-empire-era)
6. [The Fall & Dark Ages](#the-fall--dark-ages)
7. [The Aturan Rise](#the-aturan-rise)
8. [The Modern Era](#the-modern-era)
9. [Timeline Reference Table](#timeline-reference-table)
10. [Significant Historical Events](#significant-historical-events)
---
## Timeline Overview
Temerant's history spans tens of thousands of years, though accurate records exist only for the last 3,000-4,000 years. Before that, scholars piece together history from fragmentary texts, legends, and Adem oral tradition.
### Historical Epochs
| Epoch | Duration | Key Features |
|-------|----------|--------------|
| Primordial Age | Unknown | Creation of Temerant; emergence of primal forces |
| Age of Singers | Unknown (thousands of years) | Singers reshape world; reality is fluid |
| Creation War | ~2,000 years (exact duration unknown) | Reality is shattered; old world unmade |
| Cataclysm | Single event | Temerant is restructured; new reality emerges |
| Ergen Empire | ~800 years | Post-war civilization; high culture, magic, knowledge |
| Fall & Dark Ages | ~600 years | Ergen collapse; knowledge lost; survival era |
| Aturan Rise | ~300 years | Aturan Empire emerges; religion dominates |
| Modern Era | ~400 years to present | Current Four Corners civilization |
Current Year (game present): Approximately 3,500-4,000 years since the Creation War.
---
## The Primordial Age
Duration: Unknown antiquity
Records: None (pre-history)
The Primordial Age is the time before the Singers shaped Temerant. What existed before is unknown—the Singers may have created the world, or they may have found it and reshaped it according to their will.
### Key Events
Creation (or Discovery) of Temerant:
- Temerant emerges into awareness (created, discovered, or awakened)
- Primal forces take form: earth, water, fire, wind, light, darkness
- Elemental entities and spirits inhabit the world
- Reality is fluid; the world's nature is not fixed
Rise of Primal Intelligences:
- Fae emerge in their realm (adjacent to Temerant)
- Sithe (ancient rivals of Fae) establish presence
- Dragons and draccus roam freely
- The world is untamed
Pre-history is Lost:
- No written records survive from this age
- Only fragments in Adem oral tradition
- Fae songs preserve some memory
- Chandrian predate even this era (possibly)
---
## The Age of Singers
Duration: Thousands of years (exact timeline unknown)
Records: Fragmentary texts, Adem tradition, Fae memory
The Age of Singers is when powerful beings—the Singers—learned to reshape reality through song, will, and magical understanding.
### The Singers
Nature:
- Humanoid or human-like beings of immense power
- Not mortal in conventional sense; live for centuries or more
- Can reshape reality through understanding of names and essences
- Possibly the originators of all magic systems (sympathy, naming, sygaldry)
Society:
- No unified government; multiple schools or Orders
- Knowledge is hoarded and power is guarded jealously
- Apprenticeship in magical arts takes centuries
- Hierarchy based on magical mastery
Great Works:
- The University's Underthing (possibly Singers' archive)
- The Great Stone Road (engineering marvel suggesting organization)
- Myr Tariniel (legendary white city in mountains)
- Countless ruined sites (now lost to time)
### Key Events
The Golden Age (estimated -2,000 to -1,500 years before present):
- Singers openly wield power
- Reality is shaped and reshaped with purpose
- Civilization reaches heights of knowledge and magic
- Peace and prosperity (for the Singers; common folk status unknown)
The First Conflicts (-1,500 to -1,200 years):
- Competition between Singer Orders intensifies
- Magical experiments grow more dangerous
- Reality begins to show cracks/instability
- Whispers of the Chandrian in shadow
The Darkening (-1,200 to -1,000 years):
- Something awakens in the depths
- The Chandrian emerge or are summoned
- Singers attempt to bind or oppose them
- Magic becomes destructive; reality destabilizes
---
## The Creation War & Cataclysm
Duration: Approximately 2,000 years (highly uncertain)
Records: Adem tradition, fragmentary texts, inferred from ruins
The Creation War was not a conventional conflict. It was reality itself being unmade and remade. The exact causes remain obscure, but several forces clashed:
### The Participants
The Singers (declining):
- Attempt to maintain reality; oppose the Chandrian
- Create binding circles and protective wards
- Eventually overwhelmed or forced to retreat
The Chandrian (rising):
- Drive toward unknown goal (possibly the Cataclysm itself)
- Erase singers and their works
- Reshape reality toward their purposes
- Seven main entities plus Haliax (leader)
The Adem (refugees):
- Witness the war from the east
- Driven westward from original homeland
- Forced into the Stormwal Mountains for protection
- Preserve oral history of the war
### Major Events of the War
The Breaking of the First Circle (-1,000 years):
- Singers attempt massive binding ritual
- Chandrian break through; ritual fails catastrophically
- Reality ruptures; entire regions unmade
- Survivors scatter; civilization fragments
The Burning of Myr Tariniel (-800 years)**:
- Legendary white city is destroyed
- Chandrian mark it and erase knowledge of it
- Some survivors escape; most are lost
- Becomes mythological (may be Yll that separated after)
The Fall of the Ergen Empire (-600 years, see below)**:
- Ergen civilization collapses during the war
- Knowledge is lost; magical understanding decreases
- Survivors become "modern" humans
- Adem establish themselves in the mountains
The Cataclysm (-400 years, exact moment unknown)**:
- Reality is fundamentally restructured
- Temerant's geography shifts (some say Yll separates)
- A new, more stable reality emerges
- The age of Singers ends; magic becomes rarer
---
## The Ergen Empire Era
Duration: Approximately 800 years (spanning Creation War)
Records: Fragmentary texts, University archives, ruins
The Ergen Empire was the civilization that survived (partially) the Creation War. They are post-Singers but pre-Aturan, representing an intermediate age of knowledge and power.
### Ergen Civilization
Geography:
- Centered on what is now the Aturan Empire heartland
- Tributary states across known world
- Advanced road networks (possibly including Great Stone Road)
- Eight great cities (Renere, Ent, Yllien, and five others—some lost to history)
Government:
- Complex hierarchy; possibly divine monarchy
- Knowledge kept by scholarly caste
- Religion unknown (possibly Singers' legacy)
- Military structure suggests trained warriors
Magic & Knowledge:
- Retained some Singers' understanding
- Sympathy was developed or perfected
- Sygaldry was codified as art form
- Naming was restricted or forbidden (too dangerous)
Culture:
- High art and music
- Architecture of stunning quality
- Libraries and archives of great knowledge
- Possibly democratic elements in some cities
### Key Events
The High Ergen (-800 to -500 years):
- Civilization flourishes despite Creation War
- Great cities are built and expanded
- Knowledge systems are formalized
- Trade networks connect all Four Corners
The Compromise (-500 to -200 years):
- Ergen leadership negotiates with surviving Singers
- Some knowledge is preserved in the University (underground archive)
- Naming magic is restricted (too dangerous given Chandrian)
- Sympathy and sygaldry become refined
The Slow Fall (-200 to -100 years):
- Ergen power begins to wane
- Reasons unclear: war, plague, magical backlash, internal conflict
- Centers of learning are lost or abandoned
- Population shifts; people move to safer regions
The Final Collapse (-100 to 0 years):
- Ergen civilization rapidly disintegrates
- Great cities are abandoned
- Knowledge is lost (by choice or catastrophe)
- Survivors become "modern" humans; history resets
## The Fall & Dark Ages
Duration: Approximately 600 years (0 to +600 years)
Records: Rare texts, oral tradition, archaeological inference
After the Ergen collapse, Temerant enters a dark age of lost knowledge, survival, and fragmentation.
### The Immediate Aftermath (0 to +200 years)
The Loss of Knowledge:
- Great libraries are destroyed or abandoned
- Written language fragments into regional dialects
- Magical understanding is lost or hoarded
- Population crashes due to war, plague, or famine
Breakdown of Civilization:
- Cities are abandoned; survivors retreat to villages
- Trade networks collapse
- Governments fragment into local lords
- Anarchy and warlordism dominate
Emergence of the Church:
- Tehlin religion begins to spread (early form)
- Offers hope and stability to desperate people
- Consolidates power through spiritual authority
- Begins to suppress "pagan" knowledge and magic
Survival of the Adem:
- Adem in mountains preserve their traditions
- Lethani philosophy is formalized (possibly to replace lost knowledge)
- Adem remain isolated but self-sufficient
- Their oral history survives where written records are lost