From the writings of Lead Historian of Ancient Affairs, Toreshide, 52.4E

After the Treaty of Eight was signed, the continent of Torreth was split into two designated halves. The southern half was the remaining portion of the Autlan Empire, and with the decline in its power and size came a sudden and huge influx to the northern reaches, much of which was previously considered uninhabitable until the rediscovery of magic.

But there was no solace to be had there. The signing of the Treaty of Eight gave way for the most violent decade in all of recorded history: the Archon War. The purpose of the Treaty was to settle land claims for the Autlan Empire, but gave no such distinction for the nations of magic and their godlike leaders. (This was one of the reasons it was signed so shortly after it was originally drafted.)

Each of the Archons, with the exception of Kitsuki, believed themselves to be the most powerful, wise, and capable leader. Some wished to unify the magical nations of Torreth, while others wanted to be the sole leader. They birthed the seven distinct Sources of magic, but they specifically bear little historical significance and as such will not be discussed here.

Since there was no agreement to be had, they waged war with one another, largely over land disputes. (It was at this time that Kitsuki declared her distaste for war and claimed the north-eastern islands as her own.) They fought with the fury of hurricanes and tornadoes. The Archons, it is said, were forces of nature in their own right, and the only thing that could stand up to one was another Archon. This time of conflict at an individual level is referred to in Preserver documents as “Phase One”. Phase One did little to settle land disputes, however. Calitha, for example, would lose a battle to Verik, and then continue taking his land from under his nose anyway through cunning and trickery.

For this reason, the Archons started forming alliances with one another, with two general goals. Calitha, Zephirine, and Keht forged their alliance with the objective of unifying Torreth and bringing the magic realm into a golden age with which it could expand both geographically and scientifically. This was contrasted by the alliance of Verik, Cedrine, and Aluvair, who believed that the seven nations should remain separate, and that individuality and adversity was key to advancement. This is referred to as “Phase Two” of the Archon War, and it was relatively less destructive than Phase One as it lead to many civil discussions between the seven Archons. Kitsuki, in all of these discussions, remained neutral. It is possible that she first proposed the formation of the Preservers in one of these meetings.

Phase Two did not last long. It isn’t entirely known what started the birth of Phase Three, the final phase of the Archon War. It is speculated that Calitha had secretly been teaching others how to use her magic, which was an action that was openly scorned by the Archons. Many Preservers speculate that Keht somehow betrayed the trust of the civil meetings, or that Zephirine was selling secrets to the Koh Liir race on the distant continent of Ithalin in order to gain their favor. There is undeniable significance that all of these rumors put the “unification” side of the Archons in a bad light, but there is little that can be concluded from this.

Phase Three began as the Archons started bringing up disciples of their magics. As magic is pulled from one specific source, teaching more people one type of magic makes each individual’s ability to use it more diluted, and thus this weakened the Archon’s direct power, but on a large scale, having armies that could utilize magic was a significant boon. Battles sprouted like wildfire across the landscape. With Calitha’s exceptional tactical prowess and large army, combined with Zephirine’s ability to manipulate the weather on a continental scale, the war suddenly looked very grim for Verik, Cedrine, and Aluvair. Their position was strongest during Phase One, where their magic allowed them to become unstoppable, but the tables had turned, and if they couldn’t find a way to tip the scales, surrender would soon be the only option.

Their response was a single retaliation on such a massive scale that much of northern Torreth was destroyed, sinking below sea level and creating the Xal Deer Sea. This blow killed thousands upon thousands of people, and is called The Great Sundering by many. This event forced the Archons to rethink their own power, as it had never been used on such a cataclysmic level. This effectively ended the Archon War, as each nation and Archon decided that war was not the answer.

From the writings of Lead Historian of Ancient Affairs, Toreshide, 52.4E

With the birth of the Autlan Empire came a swift and steady decline in the Al’Tari population. Nearly two thousand years of suffering wrought by the hands of the Al’Tari left a ruthless and vengeful people. Autlan was always seen as a wise and benevolent ruler, but he had only contempt for our kind’s former captors. For the next two hundred years, the Al’Tari were hunted and systematically destroyed, and though some opposition rose, it fell upon deaf ears, and they were completely wiped off the face of Torreth.

The extinction of the Al’Tari people is considered the golden age of the Autlan Empire. This is the only time in known history that humanity has ever been unified under one banner, and while civil disputes inevitably rose, they were small and trivial. It is also, perhaps coincidentally, the period of slowest advancement. Very little was achieved during this time, and many scholars among the Preservers claim that it is precisely due to humanity’s unification that few scientific improvements were made.

Eventually, however, the population grew to a critical mass. Very little was being done to control birth rates, and feeding the Autlan Empire’s entire populace became a serious logistics issue. Several rebellions occurred, but little headway was made under the organized might of a formal military. The High Council was established in order to reduce the power of the King, but little was changed.

About one hundred years later, circa 850.2E, the Warstorm was established to combat a great many of the people’s grievances. This was a public tournament at which people could both compete and spectate, and nearly all of them were battles to the death, leading in blood baths with casualties in the thousands. This helped with both overpopulation and the national food supply.

Over time, people grew disillusioned as to the Warstorm’s true purpose. The popularity of the Autlan Empire’s rulers declined rapidly over several generations, until finally one king, Keranus Tyrenin, formed a team of researchers called the ‘Archons’. This primary goal of this team was to investigate the Al’Tarin curse that inhibited the use of magic, and if possible, break it. This was met with enormous success, and the Archons reinvented magic by dividing it’s use into the seven ‘Sources’. It is for this reason that the Al’Tarin curse is suspected never to have broken, but rather, the Archons discovered a way to utilize magic anyway. Unfortunately, how they came about this discovery, and what occurred before the Archons rediscovered magic is lost to history. It is very likely that Keht, one of the seven Archons, destroyed their research just prior to the Archon War.

Because of how the Fide Torru use magic and their aptitude towards individual use, the Archons gained immense power. Each became the sole user of their own individual stars, and their vast store of magic allowed them to bend the very land to their will. If the historical documents of the time are to be believed, each of the seven Archons were capable of taking on the entire might of the Autlan Empire’s military. The King saw this as a wonderful opportunity to seize the entire world under human control, but the Archons had other plans. Indeed, mere months after the Archons tapped into this new power, Keht declared a formal war on the entire Empire.

Within days, the other Archons joined him, and the entire continent of Torreth was split into factions fighting for succession of the throne. Before much bloodshed could occur, however, King Keranus surrendered to the Archons, and they signed Treaty of Eight. The southern half of the continent would remain under Empire control, while the northern half would be freely given to the Archons for them to claim, and the Empire would not intervene in any way.

The signing of the Treaty of Eight (so named because of the eight nations involved), is seen as both the beginning of the Archon War, and the end of the Second Era.

(I couldn’t think of anything I wanted to teach today, so instead I wrote a new piece for Nacre Then. This may or may not become a more normal thing. We’ll see what the future holds.)

From the writings of Lead Historian of Ancient Affairs, Toreshide, 52.4E

Nacre Then’s origin has been the matter of some debate throughout the history of the Preservers as well as other, less educated researchers. Though now lost to public knowledge, it was generally accepted that the planet began with a god. In some cultures, especially the religions of the Al’Tari, the god of the sun is a great, omnipotent being. He created the first race, known as the Primordials. These people could harness the elemental magics the same way the modern races can, only their source of power was the sun itself. This period in history is often referred to ‘The Was’, in ancient texts. No evidence of the Primordials or a ‘sun god’ has ever been uncovered, and as such is perceived to be largely fanciful nonsense. Some Preservers have speculated that the existence of these beings was conjured up by the Al’Tari in an effort to further subdue humans during the First Era. True or not, these ancient texts describe that the sun god held contempt towards the Primordials, perhaps from misuse of magic, so he cleaved the ancient peoples into the four races we know today, diffusing their power immensely. It is at this point in history that the Preservers have been able to find conclusive evidence for, so the birth of these four races is deemed as the beginning of the ‘First Era’.

The two races on the distant continent of Ithalin are the Rinla Bulvin, brutish porcine monsters who are as massive as they are unintelligent, and the Koh Liir, often referred to as the “bird hive”, for their strong attachments to their home and their numerous kin. The former draws their magical power from the earth itself, though how they harness this power is as of yet unknown, while the latter draw their power from the air, and have the unique ability to permanently affect the environment with their magic touch. One can see evidence of Koh Liiran magic in the floating cities of Calitha, which were old military outposts from their brief foray onto Torreth later in the First Era. Though records have shown only one human has ever ventured onto the shores of Ithalin, secondhand evidence claims that these two races have been at war with each other for millennia.

For obvious reasons, we are far more knowledgeable about the events on our own continent, Torreth. There were humans, (referred to as the Fide Torru in Al’Tari scripts), and the Al’Tari. Humans, it is known, draw power from the stars, and the seven Archons in particular. The Al’Tari draw their own power from the moon, and older records have indicated that they could use that power to create spirits that fight for them. In Al’Tari culture it is believed that these spirits originate in the realm of the moon (one of the three planes of being), but there is no evidence to support the existence of any such plane other than the seemingly sentient spirits themselves. As for the humans, they seemingly have no unique ability to manifest magic the way the other races can, excepting the fact that humans seem to be the most capable of harnessing magic at an individual level, whereas the other races often require several if not hundreds of members of their species in order to use their magic.

For unknown reasons, war broke out almost immediately once the Al’Tari and Fide Torru came into contact with one another. Records indicate that the Al’Tari managed to defeat the humans and crush all resistance in a manner of decades. They used an astronomical phenomenon called ‘The Weave’ to harness an unprecedented power, but little is known about this event or how the Al’Tari used it. After subjugating the entire human population, they used their power to curse the humans, locking their ability to harness magic and ensuring no resistance could be mounted against them. It remained like this for nearly two millennia, until Autlan was born. Even without the use of magic, he rallied the humans under one banner, and rebellions began across the continent. Through strategical mastery and unprecedented leadership capabilities, he overthrew the Al’Tarin Kingdoms, and the birth of the Autlan Empire is chronicled in Preserver calendars as the birth of the ‘Second Era’.