A Record of the Ages

1. The Age of Myth #

Wielding simple tools with great strength, and consorting with the powers of nature by intuition, people lit the first sparks of civilization in the wilderness. Soon among them wove a Pantheon of gods.

The civilizations of mortalkind began in small tribal groups and largely remained that way for much of the Age of Myth, only later forming City-States that dotted the wilderness otherwise filled with monsters. With time, the collective hopes, fears, and values of mortalkind coalesced into an intangible Pantheon of gods, and thus began the eternal symbiotic relationship between mortal and divine. The Pantheon’s power during this age was but a fraction of what it would one day become, and channeling their power into magic involved long, intricate, and difficult rituals. One such ritual was the Ritual of the Sleeper, designed by Daglir, god of craft. This ritual was intended to preserve heroes in their prime as statues indefinitely until “the time of mortalkind’s greatest need” as prophesied by Hione, god of knowledge, at which point they would be restored.

Heroes of this age were the stuff of legends. Barbarians used their immense strength and boundless fury to fight tooth and claw with the beasts of the wild. Fighters mastered the art of combat by surviving countless battles, wearing their experiences as hard-won trophies. Rogues stalked their prey from the shadows, using precision and cunning to bring down both warlords and monsters alike. Finally, rare individuals displayed intuitive control of the supernatural. In this age, magic was raw and uncontrollable: an opaque and alien force in the world not unlike storms and volcanoes. Most mortals had no grasp of it. However, some were born with untamed magic deep within them or an inexplicable intuitive control of the magic all around them. Despite the great diversity of these magical individuals and their power, they are commonly known as Sorcerers. Additionally, a small number of Magic Initiates, Eldritch Knights, and Arcane Tricksters intuited basic spellcraft from first principles or tradition. While their understanding of magic was extremely limited compared to future spellcasters, they represented the pinnacle of understanding and ability in this era.

Aesthetic references: bronze age, classical antiquity, Conan the Barbarian.

Humanity established settlements and organized societies. Populations and Religion grew, and so too did the strength of The Pantheon. Now, they granted blessings with ease. So began…

2. The Age of Faith #

Worship of The Pantheon spread like wildfire. Bolstered by the resultant surge of power, their acolytes pacified the wilds and organized worshipful nations. Together, mortals and gods challenged plagues and monsters, so that the world might be settled.

These new nations built grand temples in tribute to The Pantheon, maintaining their influence and providing a stabilizing force for society. Around this time, mortalkind began to think of members of The Pantheon in two distinct groups: the Civil Gods, and the Wild Gods. Lacking both physical form and the ability to directly influence reality, the gods channeled their power, insight, and will through their priests and champions.

The priests of the Civil Gods were known as Clerics, while their champions were known as Paladins. Together, they were the driving force behind the formation of larger cities; the power and authority granted by the Civil Gods enabled them to organize and protect the masses. While they fought monsters like their heroic predecessors, Clerics and Paladins were also capable of managing the more hidden threats of civilization that felled many states during the Age of Myth—plagues, infections, and spontaneous animation of the previously-deceased.

Outside the walls of civilization, those empowered by the Wild Gods managed the balance between mortalkind and the wilderness. Their priests, known as Druids, managed relationships with nature spirits and helped tend to the land, keeping the flora and fauna around the large cities healthy. Rangers, their champions, felled dangerous and unruly beasts that threatened the environment and mortalkind’s safely. Together, their stewardship of the wilds made for safer travel between settlements and allowed mortalkind to build larger civil networks.

Aesthetic references: standard fantasy quasi-medieval states.

Intermission: The Rift Wars! #

In this new era of relative stability, some mortals sought novel sources of power for a variety of ends. Most of these attempts ended without historical note, but one of these mortals struck gold on their quest; they stumbled through a tear in the fabric of reality and entered what we would now call an “Outer Plane.” There, they entreated the Outsiders to channel power wholly unfamiliar to mortalkind and became the First Warlock. In their pursuit of power, the First Warlock did not necessarily intend to bring war home to mortalkind; however, their meddling in the affairs of this Outer Plane caused an incursion into reality via the rift they had traversed. Once discovered, mortalkind banded together to repel this extraplanar threat to their survival and through clever spellcraft managed to seal the tear. In the aftermath, the civilizations of mortalkind agreed that traveling to Outer Planes should be outlawed to prevent such a cataclysm from happening again… but some among mortalkind would not be so easily dissuaded from their curiosity.…

Apostates sought new ground and continued to peer through veils better left undisturbed. Once-Ineffable Outsiders became the case studies of new generations, ushering in…

3. The Age of Scholarship #

From the settled world arose enlightened masters of magical theory. Finally understanding the fundamental techniques of gathering and shaping magic, they manipulated The Weave with procedure and precision, building upon their predecessors in lofty institutes of education. Some turned their faculties to great good, and others exploited their powers for selfish ends, but for all these mightiest, knowledge became power.

Study of the mechanics of magic gave rise to Fundamental Magical Theory and a more comprehensive understanding of the source behind it—The Weave permeates the world, and all magic of this world is some form of manipulation of it. As people understood the underlying principles of spellcasting and learned to intentionally gather and shape magic, they assembled lasting institutions, and the generations of research, experimentation, and development that followed led to the first Wizards, Bards, and Monks.

Though they lack spellcraft, Monks learned to gather and channel the power of the weave through their bodies to do the impossible. Bards discovered how to tap into the collective unconscious of mortalkind—the same accumulated force of hopes, dreams, and fears from which the Pantheon was born—through music, accessing universal emotions through their craft. As mortalkind began to fully and deliberately understand the spelllcasting process, knowing not only the method but also the theory, Wizards ascended as a new dominant social force with a focus on formal education.

The Wilderness that covered much of Exilix in the past became limited to remote or especially hazardous regions that resisted civilization. Such areas were often home to potent magical phenomena: Extraplanar rifts, high-density fields of unstable magic, or ancient ruins still bearing power from the age of myth. However, the horrors and wonders contained in these places were inconsequential to the day-to-day lives of most.

While this age had its share of daring heroes—incredible hunters who brought down dangerous beasts, warriors who held the line against power-mad conquerors, and explorers who uncovered lost secrets—many Heroes of this era were researchers making incredible advancements in arcane arts or planners who solved chronic problems plaguing humanity, such as natural disasters and diseases.

Aesthetic references: The Renaissance, the Age of Enlightenment.

As the understanding of The Weave progressed to the point where it could be done intentionally and automatically, magic found its way into every corner of life. As new advances in magic item capabilities and creation continued to accelerate, the world moved into…

4. The Age of Artifice #

Theory became practice, and practice became industry. Clever inventors imbued magic, once the domain of a privileged few, into artifice from everyday tools to vast manufacturing complexes. Fueled by arcanodynamic engines and thaumoconductive materials, automated apparatuses and arcane constructs proliferated in sprawling metropoles.

Refinement of magical theory made imbuing items with magical effects increasingly viable, leading to the rise of artifice. Magic items had existed since antiquity, but their abilities expanded wildly, and the rate and precision of their construction accelerated exponentially. Artifice-based industry and automation arose. Arcane constructs became commonplace, alongside airships, sewing machines, trains, and other transformative applications of artifice in daily life. Mortalkind also turned this new-found artifice inwards towards their own bodies—alchemical treatments and magic-driven prostheses allowed people to heal, improve, and reshape their own flesh in a way never before possible.

Measurements in this age showed the Weave had weakened by orders of magnitude since early readings during the Age of Scholarship and archaeological evidence from earlier ages. Contemporary readings indicated that it would continue to decline.

Even as inventions changed the world again and again, the virtues and frailties of mortal souls remained, calling forth heroes in strange yet familiar predicaments. Booming economies led to unmatched greed and ambition. Brilliant innovations became twisted to dark ends. Sprawling cities hid dark secrets and darker schemes. Against all these threats, heroes arose, wielding deadly skill and potent magic against horrors both new and old. New to their ranks were the Artificers, who left the safety of their labs and workshops for the battlefield, wielding their inventions with unmatched skill and bringing their unique insights to bear for the betterment of mortalkind.

Aesthetic references: Steampunk, Cyberpunk, “sufficiently advanced magic is indistinguishable from technology”.