The Age of Loss (The Age of Gods)

The Age of Loss is the term used in Sunar for the more widely regarded period of time known as the Age of Gods. Viewed by many outside of Sunar as an era of creation, wherein deities shaped the world and mankind, the period is often a blend of myth, and fact. In Sunar, though, the Age of Loss, is seen far more uniquely, with the world's creation by their goddess Sune, predating it, and even the Golden Empire, by thousands of years.

As a result of this mythic quality to the period, most of what is known comes not from written evidence, but rather oral tradition, passed down for millennia through cultural stories and legends. The biggest of these legends, is without any doubt, the Sunarian view of the period being a dark age following in the collapse of the glorious Golden Empire. According to them, civilization disappeared in this era as barbarity reigned supreme. Mankind regressed, leaving their homes for the savagery of the wild, and ultimately cities ceased to exist, and fell into ruin. Monsters and magic are said to have existed in this time of chaos, but they have since disappeared from the world.

This state of nature would last for two thousand years apparently, where in Sunar's ancient inhabitants likely subsisted off of hunting and gathering to survive. Living a nomadic lifestyle, the men and women present in the region, would not have been familiar with sedentary life, and cities would have been all together unheard of. Agriculture, if it ever existed prior, was not known at this time, and any communities would have functioned on a tribal level.

Because of cave paintings found scattered throughout Sunar we know today that the Sunarian climate was a lot less arid around this period. In place of the Sunarian Sea (The western desert) a vast grassland extended far into the west. Foliage was far more prevalent in this age, as tall grasses and shrubland swept across the rolling plains of a prehistoric savanna. Large herds of grazing animals such as antelope, gazelle, water buffalo, and wild horses would no doubt called this land home, and were likely accompanied by even more exotic creatures like giraffe, rhinoceroses and even elephants. These would have been hunted by a menagerie of imposing predators, including a breed of large hyena, giant wild dogs, and the fearsome Sashwan Lion. The Sun River in particular would have likely hosted a wide range of waterfowl, fish, and reptiles that called both the drier South and tropical Sun Delta home. Because of the variety and quantity of fauna spread over this land, hunting would have been incredibly common to prehistoric populations, and it is theorized that some of the earliest cases of animal domestication occured during this time in dogs and, potentially, goats.

Gradual desertification of this land, begining early in the Age of Loss, however, would progressively push many of these creatures to extinction. The few species who were able to migrate survived the desert's advance by slowly, over centuries, fleeing to the east and south in search of a more favorable climate. The ancient ancestors of modern Sunarians would be one such case of migrants who, displaced by the desert's growth, traveled east to the fertile banks of the Sun River. There along the life-giving river, the hunter-gatherers of the great grassland began to settle down as they embraced agriculture, and for the first time in millenia, founded towns. This adoption of sedentary life would ultimately be what brought the Age of Loss to its end. It began, in the eyes of Sunarians, the Age of Reawakening as their distant ancestors returned civilization to the world in the form of the first cities.

History of Sunar

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The Age of Loss

Years Active

0 AG to 2,000 AG (2,000 Years)

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Successor Period

The Age of Reawakening

Predecessor Period

The Age of the Golden Empire

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Ruins From an Older Time

Of the few ruins that are rumored to predate this era, we know very little of their supposed origin under the Golden Empire. Recorded in oral traditions as being older than history, they are often described as being already old by the time of mankind's "reawakening", and unimaginably ancient by the rise of the First Empire nearly a thousand years later.

Displaying mysterious architectural styles unseen elsewhere during this time, the true origin of these srange ruins is unknown to modern mankind, but their existance lends credence to the Sunaian belief of the Age of Loss being a dark age after some forgotten cataclysm in the long lost past.