The Foundation Age

The start of the Foundation Age is the base of the dating system for the entire history of the awakened world, with the year 0 AF (after foundation) denoting the time when the first parliament of the New Sophisticates met at the Court of Sunrise at Aberstone.
Before this time we have only the numerous, varied and often times contradictory legends of Klane Kalonia which purport to tell us the stories of how the Great Forgetting came to an end. Afterwards we have the written chronicles of the Court of Sunrise and in due course, half a dozen other sources from places far and wide to document contemporary events.
The age itself lasted for more than sixteen hundred years, which is longer than all the remaining ages put together, and it is usually broken up into three smaller sub-periods, known as the early, middle and late Foundation ages.

Early Foundation Age

At the beginning of the New Foundation (as it was also sometimes called) the New Sophisticates established seven cities which would be their strongholds for the preservation, promulgation and advance of knowledge of all kinds. These were the so called Foundation Cities. In the early Foundation age, technology levels were relatively primitive and everyday life was little different from the way it had always been in the Season Of Innocence, except that the cities were allowed to prosper and develop without fear of a Great Burning to reset the culture. People gravitated towards the new centres of population and the Rider tribes ceased to be regarded as the pinnacle of human culture. With population levels no longer locked to a fixed level by the covert policies of the Conclave , they began to rise, albeit slowly at first. Agriculture advanced rapidly. In 438 AF, Keldramys became the first new city to receive recognition from the New Sophisticates since the original seven Foundation cities and in 501 AF Blyperrin became the second. On Equatoria the city of Oxadamill was granted a charter in 623 AF as the economic development of that continent advanced.

Erik Willbold by DMFW with Art Breeder

In the early Foundation, power generally remained concentrated in the hands of the New Sophisticates and Aberstone dominated the other cites. Sometimes the internal politics of the cities could be murky and dangerous, with a particularly notorious example being the affair known as the Whispers in the Evening at Vesper in 626 AF. There were also factional disagrements between the cities and these culminated in a crusade led by an army known as the Warriors of Keldramys, led by King Erik Willbold against the city of Vesper in 677 AF which destroyed it. A significant party of the New Sophisticates at Aberstone provided covert support for this military action. Ostensibly the reason for the attack was to destroy a secret Enclave, which, it was claimed, has subverted the rulers of Vesper and were attemping to reestablish control to restore the Season of Innocence. It was a holy war for its advocates and its impact on the psychology of the awakened world was profound. This was the first time that the Earth had seen a slaughter on such a scale since history had been restored and to many, still retaining over the generations a traditional long standing aversion to militarism, it seemed that the profound philosophical charge which the Vow of Earth and the Season of Innocence made against the excesses of History had been proven true. Human kind was no longer Innocent, it had blood on its hands once again. There was period of profound disquiet, bordering on mourning, and a mistrust of the motives of the attackers. So ended the early years of the Foundation.

Middle Foundation Age

The middle period of the Foundation age is considered to run from the sack of Vesper in 677 AF to the relocation of the capital of the New Sophisticates from Aberstone to Paratomb in 1328 AF. This was a time which saw significant progress in building techniques and military technology of all kinds. The canal system at Freewater was expanded significantly. A new dam was built at Aberstone. On Trass, two new cities, Kingcardine and Monrith, which would become more important in later years received their city charters. The development of Fereth, a previously uninhabited continent, began at his time and by 888 AF, the remote city of Bledlyme had grown sufficiently to be granted a city charter.
Meanwhile the Foundation cities all built higher walls and strengthened their defences. Whilst there were no overt hostilities, everyone had learned a lesson from Vesper and no one wanted to be caught out by some unexpected hostile attack. In theory, all cities were still under the protection of the New Sophisticates and had no reason to fight. In practice, there were tensions and it was a time of paranoia and preparation.
In 1050 AF, Simon Roland, an engineer and scholar at Anoomenon discovered how to reconstruct a simplified fusion tap. He must have had significant help from old Enclave records for it is certain that the knowledge and facilitating technologies lay far beyond anything preserved by the Order of the Silent Word. Each fusion tap was a dimensional link into the heart of the sun, contained with a magnetic safety bubble which often collapsed to snuff the link out but could increasingly be maintained for longer periods as the handlers' skills improved. Now Anoomenon became known also as the Shining City, for the little fragments of sunshine that lit and warmed the streets by day and night. In due course, ways were found to drain energy from the fusion taps but this did not happen immediately.
In 1162 AF the post foundation cities made a bid to improve their voting rights in the parliament of the New Sophisticates. Their charters had granted them more limited representation than the foundation cities. This was known as the "status review proposal" and its rejection by the parliament, despite having the support of Principle Speaker Irina Rovariss, has been blamed for a great deal of later acromony in the relations between old and new cities.

Late Foundation Age

Ebrahim Rezaei by DMFW with Art Breeder

The late period of the Foundation age is considered to have begun after Principle Speaker Ebrahim Rezaei persuaded the New Sophisticates to move their capital from Aberstone to Paratomb in 1328 AF. This was done partly because Paratomb was better connected to the increasing network of growing cities than Aberstone and partly because the planners thought the city was more defensible (wrongly as it would ultimately turn out) and were growing increasingly conscious of the need to have a secure home for their administration, which they declared to be their second parliament. This period was characterised by the rapid growth of the newer cities and the loosening of the centralised authority the New Sophisticates were capable of exerting. In 1395 AF, Niderrock was granted a city charter on the continent of Fereth which was a recognition of the growing importance of the region. Although remote from the main centres of population on Trass, trade with the cities of Equatoria was slowly improving the economic standing and power of both continents relative to the traditional heartlands of the new civilisation. Modyran became the first city to officially leave the parliament of the New Sophisticates in 1446 AF and Anoomenon followed in 1511 AF. Entessaminia became the last new city which the New Sophisticates would ever sponsor in 1580 AF.
By the end of the period, the Low Armies had already taken charge of Blyperrin and the House of Thorns were adopting agressive policies in Kingcardine. These were radically different governments from the model of the New Sophisticates and would soon compete with them openly.

Aberash Zibbaipha by DMFW with Art Breeder

The Foundation age closed in 1622 AF with a stunning technological development at Modyran. The ancient space elevator was restored to functioning use, a combined project of Anoomenon and Modyran led by Aberash Zibbaipha, demonstrating that the two cities had skilled scientists better than anything the New Sophisticates had to offer.