Age of Silence

With the Phoromyceaen city-states in ruin, a new dark age settled on Akados. The embryonic Xha’en folk of western Akados and the people of Gtsang, in their mountain fastness, survived relatively unscathed. Similarly, the nascent Libynosi societies that were to become Khemit, Istaflumina, and Jaati were largely unaffected by the events so far from their homes. But for the rest of Akados, the people effectively returned to a Neolithic existence, living in scattered tribes and eking out a meager existence.
Evidence for one proto-culture of this dark age, known as the Andøvan or Ancient Ones, can be found in eastern Akados and the Northlands. They were a mixture of hunters, growers, and breeders of horses, and their magic was in the strength of the natural world and its creatures. They were clad in hides and wielded weapons of wood and stone, though it is said some knew the secret of making bronze. Shamans called upon the spirits of the land and the middle air. They communed with many different types of spirits, and some of them were what would now be called demons, such as Pazuzu, King of the Demons of the Wind. The legend of Aracor of Fair Island (now called Ramthion Island), and the arrival of the Obelisks of Chaos on The Plains of Sull, come to us from this time (see Cults of the Sundered Kingdoms). The Ancient Ones also populated much of the Northlands, where they flourished for a time but eventually fell before an onslaught of giants, trolls, and troll-kin. They vanished by the time the ancestors of today’s Northmen arrived, leaving behind only barrow mounds, earthen hill forts, and enigmatic rings of standing stones upon the heights. Those ancients are still held in a mixture of awe and fear by modern Northlanders, their barrow fields still haunted by the specters of their civilization that walk the night-darkened hills and forests (see The Northlands Saga Complete).
As the years of the Age of Silence passed, the human realms on Akados and Libynos gradually became more complex and urbanized.
In Istaflumina in northern Libynos, the cities of Gessh in the Kingdom of Hakhad, and Erethu, Irrech, and Ur in the Kingdom of Zumaru became centers of civilization during this time, with their king-priests commanding the loyalty of tens of thousands. In –1518 I.R., the Lower Kingdom and Middle Kingdom of Khemit merged to become the Conjoined Double Kingdom, beginning the First Dynasty under the Pharaoh Narmar.
On Akados, the city-state of Xha’ahan (a derivative of the word Xha’en, the name the folk of the region have given to themselves for thousands of years) was founded soon after the final defeat of the Senge in –1302 I.R., designated as Year 0 in the official Xha’en calendar (XC). And in –722 I.R., the first Yaltic Dynasty of Hawkmoon on eastern Akados was founded.
In the late seventh century prior to the Imperial Record, however, a shadowy group called the Cult of Aurikas arose in southern Libynos. Akruel Rathamon, the high priest of this cult, consolidated political power and brought various tribal folk under Aurikas’ banner. By –613 I.R., the cult and its disciples were committing unnamable atrocities in the god’s name in the lands along the Reaping Sea. It was soon discovered that Aurikas was, in fact, the ancient demon-god Orcus, seeking vengeance for his prior defeat. And again, the gods responded. Shah Rasalt, a Khemitian priest of Arden, raised an army in the name of his god to bring war to the burgeoning empire of Akruel Rathamon. Over 25 years, the forces contested in what became known as the War of Divine Discord. At last, in –579 I.R., Shah Rasalt used the scepter of faiths to defeat (but unfortunately not destroy) the vampire death-priest Akruel Rathamon as he marched unbidden across Libynos along the coast of the Reaping Sea. Shah Rasalt and his army then turned and marched hundreds of miles into the Seething Jungle to destroy the death-priest’s remaining forces at the jungle temple of Al-Sifon. With the task complete (or so he thought), Shah Rasalt returned to his desert temple to die an old man.
But the forces of evil were not done with Boros yet. In –182 I.R., the frog demon Tsathogga unleashed a horde of demons in Irkaina in far northeastern Akados. The god Arden again intervened, this time sacrificing himself to entrap the horde and stop the invasion. In the cataclysm of the god’s sacrifice, the very fabric of the world was rent, and the odd atmospheric effect of the Tropic of Arden was created, permanently changing the climate of lands ranging from the far south of Akados to the northern extent of Libynos and beyond.
As these events were unfolding, a new civilization appeared on the continent of Boros, also called the World Roof, far to the north. In those days, prior to the polar shift, much of that continent was not ice-covered, and in fact was reasonably temperate. There, the Borean Empire, the first Empire of Hyperborea, arose, adopting and consolidating a new pantheon of gods that would soon sweep much of the world. For in –109 I.R. they sent an army to Akados and changed history forever.