Exandrian Timeline

The most widely accepted tale of the world’s origins is the myth of the Founding. This is the interpretation held and embraced within most of Wildemount, as well as the vast lands of Exandria as a whole.

Long ago, this world was one of tumultuous and chaotic forces, naught but unbridled fires and churning, jagged rock. Through the ashen skies of Creation Primordial, the gods came from beyond the ether, new and formless. Looking on this roiling realm, they saw potential for great beauty, great strength, and the chance to learn their own place in creation.

But this realm did not wish to be tamed. Quaking cliffs roared in defiance. Seas swelled and swallowed. Flames erupted from the land. The gods watched as their children, their joy, were flung against the broken rocks or fed to formless terrors unleashed by the destruction.

Some gods were so full of grief and anger that they wished to leave this world behind and start anew. The Creators that remained, wishing to salvage their home, their creations, and their realized selves, were forced to take up arms and learn to protect that which they valued most. They organized their followers and taught them how to draw from the powers of creation on their own: to build, to change, and to destroy, all without the aid of divine power. This gift was the knowledge of arcane magic, which the good children used to drive away their traitorous kin, banish the turned Creators to their own prison-like planes, and ultimately destroy the Primordials, scattering the chaotic elements to their own planes of existence. 

The world was at peace for the first time since its creation, and the first real civilization took root and grew into a grand city called Vasselheim. The Cradle of Creation. The Dawn City.

Culture developed anew, the races ventured forth to discover and explore their own lands, and great music filled the air to give a name to this world once and for all: Exandria.

Over time, some of the people of Exandria grew arrogant. Seeing their arcane gifts as proof that the gods held no sway over their fate, a belief developed that, with enough understanding, they too could become as powerful as the gods. Many began to shun faith in favor of their own pursuits. Though this hurt and surprised the Creators, they understood the willfulness of their children and endured out of love and hope for redemption.

The advent of the arcane seemed to be the key to a bountiful age of plenty but also proved to threaten it, as prosperity soon gave way to greed. As mages practiced and perfected their powers of creation, they soon unlocked the secrets of life itself, giving birth to wondrous, dangerous new creatures and power. Driven by his hunger, an archmage sought the guidance and power of the banished gods, rending open the gates of their prisons and releasing the betrayers into the mortal world.

The Nine Hells and the Abyss began to push their way into Creation. The Betrayer Gods and their hateful children discovered a world unspoiled, save for the avarice of mortals. 

For the first time since the Primordials were destroyed, the focus of magic was warfare. The gods themselves agreed to join their children on the field of battle, descending from the heavens to take up arms once more for the war now referred to as the Calamity.

In the wake of the vast destruction of the Calamity and the exile of the pantheon in the Divergence, the survivors began to emerge from the ash and shadows to reclaim and rebuild Exandria. Across the continents, many took the pieces of their cultures and sought a place to forge a new age. After the Calamity, the lands of Wildemount became wild and perilous, filled with monstrosities and beasts that prowled its broken fields and shattered mountains.

Over those early centuries, the scattered survivors fought back the terrors that stalked the abandoned lands of Wildemount, continuing to endure and build new societies, civilizations that eventually reclaimed Wildemount and brought the world to this modern age.