Epochs

The world of Ayaria is divided into several different eras. While time does not flow at the same rate everywhere, unless someone is from an Elsewhere the same events tend to have happened in the same order everywhere.

The Fall of Heaven

Something happened in the heavens, before the Hours came to be what they were. They lived in the heavens above the world, but were in contact with others of their kind. Then a great silence fell over all the heavens, and the Hours were alone. Lacking anywhere else to go, they decided to continue their work on the world that would become Ayaria.

In order to spread their magic over the world, they required a sacrifice. They chose one of their own, named Ayaria. She did not want to be sacrificed, but she was. And her essence infused the world with their magic.

The Court of Twelve

The Hours needed a structure to govern themselves with. They settled on a council of twelve, and they called themselves Hours. Each Hour would have their own area of influence, and in times of crisis they would come together to defend themselves.

Little is known of them, and so people's guesses about what went on there and the proper order and heirarchy of things formed the basis of many early religions.

The First Lineages

The first lineages that the Hours made include mundane humans and giants, the former to serve a number of roles and the latter mainly to build their cities.

Beyond those two, what would become known as Shylings were made as well. Shylings have always existed in the world, a broad term that most use to mean monster, but which originally referred to creatures that once had a purpose that is now abandoned or forgotten. What the Hours could not bother to do themselves, they created boutique creatures to do on their behalf.

Piercing the Veil

The Sixth Hour, who above all else longed to return to the rest of their kind, began a plan in secret to try to reconnect with their lost kin. She pierced the veil between this star and all others, and called out into the darkness, trying to summon forth their own kind.

She failed.

The Coming of Artificers

The first Artificers came on a vast ship capable of traversing the heavens. And yet, unlike any that the Hours had ever seen before. The Hours have absolute control over all things made of flesh, even the ability to make machines out of organic things. Yet the Artificers had the opposite: they had total master over the inorganic, even their bodies made of plastic and steel.

The other Hours, not knowing what the Artificers were or the Sixth Hour's secret project, assumed that these were the creatures which blotted out all other stars that were known to them. So the Hours pulled them down from the heavens, that they might make war with them on the land.

The First War

The Hours had the advantage of being in their own domain, of all the resources they could possibly muster, and of being totally united. Yet their foe had a power they could not match even then, and they fought each other to a standstill until both were utterly exhausted.

How long the war lasted could not be calculated, for the Hours made frequent use of their power over time to avert disaster or pitch battles in their favor. Some speculate that there may still be ancient warriors locked in a kind of stasis even now, until something destroys the magic holding them in place.

The Age of Conflict

Back and forth the Hours and Artificers would go. Sometimes at war, sometimes at peace. Only rarely would both sides entirely unite, as the Hours began to gradually turn to factionalism and their united purpose drifting into self-centered pursuits.

The First Vampire

It is thought that around this time The Red Duke was created. Birthed in blood, The Red Duke's first notable act after his creation was to eat his proverbial father, The Fifth Hour.

The War of Legacies

Also called The War of Blots, The Great War, The Last War, and so on. It's the last war between the Artificers and the Hours, as well as the longest and most destructive.