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  1. Timelines

History of Thule

Main Timeline

In Thule, most people are familiar with the broad history of their own city or tribe. They know the foundational myths of their culture and the more important events that have taken place during their own lifetimes, and possibly during the lifetimes of their parents and grandparents. Unfortunately, learning lore is parochial in the extreme; a Quodethi may know next to nothing about the history of Katagia or the tales of the Dhari people. And it is not unusual for powerful kings or priesthoods to create new versions of old myths in order to cement their own authority and place in history. Only the most diligent and widely traveled of sages possess any real glimmer of historical understanding, and in many cases, they fear to share what they have learned.

Those sages who have pieced together an account of Thule’s history divide it into three ages:

The Primordial Chaos (??? ATD). This vast and timeless span stretches from the beginning of all things to the rise in dominion of Atlantis. While humans did not yet exist, the Earth was not empty of sentience. Ancient prehuman races held sway over the world. The chaotic stories of their wars and triumphs are mostly lost to time, with only a few cryptic ruins or crumbling scrolls left to record them. Perhaps the cycles of nature were still constant then: falling asteroids and comets, volcanic eruptions, great floods, and the ebb or flow of the Pale Death.

The Antediluvian Age (??? ATD - 0 PD). This was the age of Atlantis, and of Lemuria; when that empire and that rival continent rose to prominence, respectively, and fought each other. At this time, the northern world fell under the reign of the Pale Death. But all would come crumbling down with the arrival of the Great Flood.

The Age of Man (0 - 1202 PD, Present Day). This is the current age holding sway in Thule, more lush and warm than ever. For the first time in many ages, the creatures known as humankind emerge a dominant species... but not without disturbing the older powers of the world.

Antediluvian Age (PD) < 0

Also known as the Atlantean Age, this was the time when Atlantis rose to dominate the planet, spreading her sphere of might and influence across a score of realms both terrestrial and subterranean, and those of the stars beyond. Her tales of triumph mention many strange beings—all enemies, purged or enslaved, their cultures and histories wiped out by Atlantis and are now known only by name—Rakshasa (flesh eaters?), Matsya (giant fish?), Daitya (extra-limbed giants?), Byangomi (clairvoyant birds?), Apsara (cloud people?), and many others who are reminiscent of contemporary foes such as Beastmen, Cyclopeans, Myrmidons, and other monsters.

Rare are the records of the Atlanteans' fierce battles with other prehuman entities, but the mere memory of it vivid enough to produce sparse details that are saturated in Thule's myths and legends. These ancient fables were spun together by later narrators of questionable reliability; after all, such tales serve to entertain and provoke the imagination, or to give mythic context to some young religion, rather than be told for academic purposes.

This was also the age of humankind's emergence from the plains of Africa. The earliest known "Iron Age" civilization arose in the lost continent of Lemuria. The Lemurians learned how to make crucible steel and build galley ships by observing their greatest enemies, the Atlanteans, with whom they constantly warred during the last ebbing of the Pale Death. Although the might of Atlantis could have been too great for early humans to resist, another force came along to destroy her empire before she could seal a dark fate for humankind.

The Age of Man (PD) 0 — 1,202

Whatever had caused the Pale Death to melt down so abruptly may remain a mystery forever buried. What is known, is that a great deluge of meltwater swept from the North, flooding the whole globe. The island of Atlantis drowned, the entire continent of Lemuria submerged; the fates of other lands unknown but perhaps just as dire. On how long it lasted, the records are there but muddled; some sages estimate from a week to forty days of storming, although the Earth would remain mostly blue for the span of generations. The Lemurian people, who escaped Lemuria's flooding on their great wooden arks, landed in Sarvin Bay some four generations after.

Long before the Lemurians arrived, and perhaps even before the Great Flood began, other primitive humans tribes—originally migrated from the unmelted Far North in pursuit of beastly quarries—had already made their homes across Thule's vast wilderness, where they enjoyed a gradual warming period; they are considered the original Thuleans. So too did the Vrilerinnen first awaken from the Atlantean ruins that lie beneath the fertile Plains of Seraykia, their resuscitated minds already brimming with thoughts of building civilization. Within the first few centuries after the Great Flood, food shortages declined all around and population booms ensued; it wasn't long before humans could be found across the continent, with Lemurians and Vrilerinnen raising Thule's first cities.

The current age has earned no particular name yet, although some sages refer to it as the Age of Man, while others—taking note of the glaciers slowly devouring the northern world—refer to it as the Age of Ice. In this day, the old races are waning quickly; the Cyclopean and Myrmidon civilizations are long dead, the last Atlanteans are sliding into decadence and decline, and the few remaining outposts of Atlantis are losing their power and influence over the younger city-states of Thule. Mercantile Quodeth and martial Lomar are the great powers of the northern continent now, even if they wield only a tiny fraction of the power that Atlantis once possessed.

  • Voyage of Last Ark

    0 - 40 PD

    The legendary, 40-year odyssey that brought fifty thousand Lemurian exiles aboard a massive wooden ship to their final destination: the glimmering shores of Thule.

  • The Atlantean Expulsions

    300s - 919 PD

    Not all Atlanteans perished when their great empire fell under the waves. They were an advanced and resourceful people, after all, and perhaps there were sizable remnants of them left all over the world, not just those who came to dwell in the southern shores of Thule. Unfortunately, the faults of all militant empires befell the last Atlanteans; their enemies among humankind, the nature spirits, and other entities remembered Atlantis for her imperial wealth and oppression, and—after the Great Flood ended—found the tables finally turned.

    During this period, the Atlanteans' last bastions in Thule: Imystrahl, Nith, Ruritain, and Ren Shaar all seemed ripe for plunder and vengeance. And for the Vrilerinnen people who awoke and prospered in Katagia, their displeasure with a continued Atlantean presence culminated into a holy war bent on their annihilation. Surrounded by enemies, the immortal Atlanteans put up a brutal last stand for several centuries. But alas, two of their city-states would fall in blazes of horror; then the Nithians just gave up on living, choosing to self-immolate in the year 919.

    In the present, only the Atlantean fortress-city of Imystrahl remains.

  • Kalayan's Conquests

    666 - 701 PD

    Over thirty-five years, leading his legions from Lomar and the Lemurians' client-states, general-turned-emperor Nishant Kalayan conquered a score of affluent realms across Thule. His greatest achievements include the expulsion of the Myrmidons from their foul hives in Ikath, and the defense of Quodeth from the vastest Vrilerinnen fleet ever mustered; the Battle of Sarvin Bay. His maritime empire reigned from end to end of the inner sea that would come to bear his family name.

    For a cunning and ambitious strategist, Kalayan was virtually undefeated in his lifetime. Today, the Lemurian people still hold him up to immense posthumous esteem: the pinnacle of what a Lemurian could become. They have likened him to a demigod incarnate of Nergal, a god of war. But Kalayan was mortal from beginning to end; the only battle he is known to have utterly lost was against a jungle fever caught during his campaigns in Dhar Mesh. Laid to infirmary in Ikath, he died from it at the age of 52.

    Kalayan's legacy of conquest and imperialism continued with his children and the families of his top generals, who were made his blood-brothers. His lineage lives on in multiple dynasties of Lemurian royalty and nobility. However, his maritime empire has since crumbled, its size unmanageable in the long run. The two feuding city-states, Lomar and Quodeth, are caught in schism and cold warfare. The restoration of Kalayan's empire is an ambition of their rulers, if not a distant dream.

  • The Hyperborean Exodus

    1100s PD

    When the Pale Death receded by the end of the last age, beckoning the ancestral Thuleans to migrate south into warmer lands, the Hyperborean giant-men chose to stay behind in their cities of ice and cavern-stone to the Far North. But in the making of this decision, they floundered in foresight of the Pale Death's return, and with it, the armies of the undead.

    Against the Pale-Walkers, the Hyperboreans put up a stalwart defense worthy of skaldic retelling. But just like Death itself, the Pale-Walkers were too relentless and too endless. With blind fury, they razed down the Hyperborean cities and slaughtered their people. Very few survived this cold apocalypse, making desperate way across the boreal seas to Hellumar and Nimoth, and then Thule. Lost and of little number, these Hyperborean exiles must now live among the small-men, offering them their strengths and services in exchange for bare resources and tolerance of presence.

  • The Lemurian Schism

    960 - 1202 PD (Present)

    Soon after Kalayan's death in 701 PD, his successors struggled with infighting and other political crises the Conqueror left unaddressed. By the 10th century PD, his "descendants" (most likely usurpers without true blood relations) grew luxurious and lazy. They stopped following the conservative, warrior's mantra of "claiming what's yours". Over time, their authority from Quodeth—a former capital of the Lemurian Empire—waned in favor of pacifism and commerce. Without much protest, the leading nobles of other city-states all claimed regnant titles of "king" or "queen". Very quickly, the "Lemurian Empire" became more of an allied trading bloc than the sovereign empire Kalayan envisioned.

    In the year 960, a violent military coup in Lomar installed a populist Despot (an autocratic title given to a commander-in-chief of Lomar's legions) who, unlike his predecessors, dissociated himself with the "descendants of Kalayan". The Despot insulted the Conqueror's lineage and boldly declared his intention of ruling both Lomar and Quodeth. The Ashkalayan dynasty ruling Quodeth at the time responded to his "heinous crimes" with a reciprocated declaration of war. They hoped the other city-kingdoms would join them and collectively punish this Despot.

    Alas, the Quodethi fleets arrived in the Kalayan Sea alone to face Lomar's reputable might. History's first war between Quodeth and Lomar was short but bloody, ending in a stalemate with mass casualties on both sides. The Askalayan dynasty quickly fell out of public favor; using armies of mercenaries, the rich merchants of Quodeth violently seized control of their city. Unable to agree on who should be monarch—especially after the old palace was destroyed in the coup—they opted for shared rule as a league of princes. But their new responsibilities soon proved tiresome, however, so the merchant-princes appointed a eunuch called the High Vizier to administer the state. They became figureheads, but remained influential in commerce there and abroad.

    Meanwhile, the Despot of Lomar continued to rule with an iron fist. When he was finally killed in battle in some foreign land, he was simply replaced by the next soldier in the chain of command. This cycle of authority was eventually normalized in Lomar's war-like culture, with such transitions of power happening somewhat often.

    The stewardships of Quodeth and Lomar have been at odds ever since. Since both sides have their prides on the line, neither are desperate enough to crown a true monarch until the old empire is restored. For that to happen, one city must conquer the other; such is the plight of the Lemurian Schism.