Chaotic Age (Patronage Supplement)

Timeline - Chaotic Age!

←	Lost Age
914	Lucinda declares herself Empress.
918	Lucinda lets humans to return to Dragonseye.
919	Lucinda founds eponymous city.
920	Lucinda forces the Anthropophagi to retreat to Mongrel Island.
923	Lucinda consolidates Dragonlands under her rule.
925	Lucinda commemorates reign with silver coins.
927	Lucinda's army balks at invading Green Lands; she curses halflings and disappears.
931	The Nereid Sea roils and overflows until the Avatars cast a ritual of slumber over the Leviathans.
933	Sarrun conquers Dragonseye. Queen Antigone escapes to the city of Lucinda.
945	Sarrun creates eponymous capital of Sarrun.
1035	King Phillip allies with Shinigami against the Avatars.
1049	Elemiad first written down.
1050	Avatars invade Eastern Kingdom.
1053	Avatars defeat Phillip and demand annual tribute.
1075	Altroll IV conquers Dragonseye from Sarrun.
1079	Avatars invade Eastern Kingdom.
1082	Avatars capture Queen Persa; halfling Queen Evara escapes.
1084	Dragonseye humans rebel against Second Empire. Emperor Altroll IV issues first ban of Elemiad and Dodecon.
1086	Dragonseye achieves independence.
1104	Avatars annex Eastern Lands upon Persa's death.
1107	Halfling Queen Evara kills an Avatar in honor combat using the Evararm.
1110	Avatars begin construction of 49 new cities on the 49 remaining mounts of the Avatarlands.
1111	"Altoni" rebels in the Second Empire.
1127	Altroll VII captures and executes Altoni; rebellion continues.
1140	Altroll VII invades Dragonseye.
1145	Human, half-orc, and orc rebels drive Altroll VII from Dragonseye.
1154	Altonian Dynasty founded when Mithrad I deposes Altroll VII.
1187	Deva conquer Dragonseye.
1197	Duat, the last Patron Realm to rely exclusively on barter, generally adopts use of coins.
1217	Avatars crown Xalia and retreat from the world, ending the Chaotic Age.
→	Xalian Age

The Chaotic Age begins with the disappearance of one Patron race -- Dragons -- and ends with the disappearance of a second Patron Race: the Avatars. With the loss of the Dragons, this time forever, and then the disappearance shortly thereafter of Empress Lucinda, the Dragonlands were sent into disarray. The three nations Lucinda founded to succeed her were soon squabbling with one another. Rebellions and invasions became commonplace. There was little order or stability. The Chaotic Age is peppered with dynastic changes, the rise and fall of kingdoms and unceasing warfare. In some ways, the Chaotic Age continues even to this day. However, historians generally denote and end to this historical era with the birth of the Alabastrian Empire, a moment when at least one mortal race -- the deva -- appear to take responsibility in the absence of Patron protection, to become their own masters and bring peace to their subjects. The Chaotic Age followed the Lost Age and preceded the Xalian Age.

Lucinda's campaigns affected every Patron Race. The Dragons were vanquished. The Anthropophagi retreated across the Savage Sound, and have never permanently occupied any portion of the mainland. The Oni too, retreated wholly into the Green Lands. The Shinigami were rarely seen beyond their Mounds, and the Titans never seen outside their Temples. The Fey stopped attempting to absorb the Wild Forest into their Realm. The Leviathans tried to flood all of Patronage in retaliation for the extinction of the Dragons, but were magically subdued by the Avatars. The Avatars soon thereafter prepared their own retreat form the world, but before they did, they anointed Xalia to restore some semblance of order and civilization to the squabbling Free Kingdoms. Only the Elementals seemed unaffected, pounding away in the Forges, as they always have.

Before departing, Lucinda divided her Empire into three parts and bequeathed them to her three most trusted non-halfling aides: the goliath Nikos goverened the Second Empire in the north, the human Antigone governed City of Dragonseye and the Eastern Kingdom, and the shedu Filia and the ravin Mnemon rules the southern Kingdom of Sarrun. The three Lucindan Empires were supposed to be paragons of Lucindan virtue, demonstrating that a free peoples needed no Patron to guide them. But each Empire fell prey to its own vices. The Eastern Kingdom sought to reclaim the glory of Lucinda's conquests by waging war against the Avatars, but found itself manipulated and conquered by the more sophisticated Patron races. The Second Empire started with the most noble intentions, but the goliaths who held that throne slowly succumbed to the temptations of tyranny, oppressing their own people, until overthrown by an even more oppressive and brutal dynasty. The Southern Empire descended into a den of debauchery, infighting, and treachery that exposed them to infiltration, and an eventual bloodless conquest by a more disciplined enemy.

It was up to the Avatars' anointed representative to set things right. The appointment of Empress Xalia of the Alabastrian Empire, and her mission to civilize the Free Lands, heralds the end of the Chaotic Age, and the beginning of the Xalian Age.

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