- 2 000 000 years

The goddess arrives on Agon. Casting word-stones upon the surface, she awakes fires within the icebound planet. Oceans and dry land to emerge for the first time in millions of years.

- 1 500 000

The goddess plants the word-stones of life in the oceans of Agon. In the following centuries, life spreads like wildfire, taking innumerable strange and varied forms.

- 400 000

The goddess plants the spark of intelligence in the most suitable of Agon's hominids. With astounding, god-driven speed, they evolve into the intelligent races that dominate Agon today.

- 150 000

A group of mortals assemble the sixteen word-stones cast forth by the goddess. Twisting the power of creation to their own ends, they use them to gain access to the Halls of the Goddess. Desiring the goddess's divine power, they kill her, and cast her into the void.

- 140 000

Jealousy and greed tear the alliance of the Usurper Gods apart, and war breaks out among them. Millennia pass as they struggle for overlordship, until life has been pushed to the brink of extinction, and many Usurper Gods lie slain.

- 120 000

While the Usurper Gods are busy fighting each other, a multitude of gods arise from among Agon's mortals, some of them seizing much power. Realizing their perilous position, the surviving Usurper Gods make a truce in order to defend the divinity they have left. In the course of the Usurper Wars, many word-stones have been scattered and lost.

- 32 000, Mirendil

The legendary elven heroes Myrthai and Lorathai perish on a quest to find the home dimension of the demons who wreak occasional havoc on Agon. It is claimed that they successfully located the dimension, but were slain by some terrible gate guardian.

Slowly abandoning the worship of three older Usurper Gods, who had a tendency to bicker and fight among themselves, the mirdain turn to Myrthai and Lorathai, who reawake as gods. In time, the hero-couple becomes completely dominant, and the older gods are forgotten by all but a few.

- 20 000, Dvergheim

The god Ymir arrives among the dwarves of Dvergheim. He teaches them many things, such as the secrets of magesmithing and runecasting, and he shows them how to find and extract metals of power. Ymir hints at further secrets, and encourages the dwarves to explore the depths and seek new inventions.

Ymir promises to return to Dvergheim when all the great secrets of stone and metal have been unveiled, and to give the dwarves one final task. When this task is completed, he promises to lead the dwarves into a golden age.

- 14 000, Mirendil

A son is born to the mirdain gods Myrthai and Lorathai. They name him Melechai and he is the apple of their eye. The mirdain adore and venerate the newborn god, seeing his great beauty and the potential for good within him.

- 10 000, Dvergheim

The dwarven capital of Ymir's Tear is founded. A vast rock formation is hollowed out in order to house the city, and the cavern surrounding it is decorated with a magnificent piece of art: the heavenly constellations recreated in lapis lazuli, kvitjarn and raudstaal.

- 9 800, Mirendil

Melechai steals an immensely powerful artifact called the Silver Circlet from his sleeping mother's brow, and thus begins his rebellion. He tricks Myrthai and Lorathai into believing that a Celestial Dragon stole the Circlet, and descends to Mirendil in order to start the second phase of his plan. Shedding his given name, he takes a new one, Melek.

Under the cover of a series of wildfires, Melek and his henchmen kidnap entire clans of temporarily displaced mirdain. They lead their victims deep underground, where no mirdain treads, and where the power of the mirdain gods is weak. He encloses them within a dank, spacious cavern, and goes to work on them.

Using the Circlet's awesome powers of influence, Melek pounds and twists the minds of the captive mirdain, turning them into a vicious race of killers who worship him unquestioningly. He then launches an intense, god-driven breeding program, physically shaping them into a race suited to his plans, and to life in their new subterranean homeland.

- 8 200, Nagast

His work complete, Melek leads his race of followers – now called the Alfar – out from the Cave of Birth . They found the capital of Shoal in the cavern of Dun Mardukar, and Melek takes up residence in the Towers of Silence, a stalactite-fortress in the ceiling above the new city .

Realizing the awful extent of their son's treachery, Myrthai and Lorathai incite a mirdain invasion of Nagast. Pressing its way to the Dun Mardukar, the mirdain army is defeated in a cataclysmic battle outside the gates of Shoal.

- 8 000, Chaldea

Modern agriculture is perfected by the Chaldeans, a people living in the Eannic delta of present-day Mercia . Soon, these early farmers build the first human cities on Agon.

- 7 200, Mirendil

On an island within the ever-calm Lake of Dreams , the mirdain capital of Charybdis is founded. It is perfectly placed in the heart of the Mirendil forest, and connected to the outside world by the Sirith River , which is navigable all the way from the northern border to the ocean.

- 6 500, Chaldea

Ashur-Sin unites all the city-states of the Eannic delta and is crowned the first king of all Chaldea . Ashur-Sin then founds the city of Ashur , which quickly grows into Agon's first true metropolis. Throughout the empire's long history, Ashur remains its capital.

- 6 100, Chaldea - Morak

Provoked by countless raids, the Chaldeans invade the orkish land of Morak . After nearly ten years of campaigning, they subjugate the last of the major tribes.

- 6 050, Chaldea – Yssam - Dvergheim

Graceful ships from Yssam arrive in Ashur. Peaceful relations are established between the Ithwen and the Chaldeans, and a rich vein of trade is opened. At approximately the same time, the Chaldeans begin trading extensively with the dwarves of Dvergheim and the mirdain of Mirendil.

- 5 800, Chaldea - Nagast

After establishing outposts on the Nagast surface, the Chaldeans encounter the aggressive alfar, who dwell in a system of caverns underneath the newly colonized land. Defeating the alfar at Moldar, the Chaldeans then establish fortresses near major entrances to the caverns. However, attempts at following – and vanquishing - the alfar armies underground fail.

- 5 600, Rubaiyat

The Chaldeans establish trading colonies on the spice-rich but relatively backward continent of Rubaiyat. They also establish a city called Kasdim on the continent of Cairn, in order to trade with the peace-loving natives of that barren land.

- 5 400, Niflheim

The primitive northmen of Niflheim begin trading with the Chaldeans, exchanging fur and wood for weapons and luxury goods.

- 5 200, Chaldea

After suffering decades of raiding, the Chaldeans launch a campaign against the mahirim. They defeat the largest clans one by one, and establish a large city near the Moontower.

This marks the beginning of the so-called Chaldean Peace. For nearly a thousand years, the armies of the Benevolent Empire ensure peace throughout Agon. Eventually, even the alfar raids decrease in ferocity and frequency. In time, the Chaldeans grow complacent, and their culture no longer progresses at its old pace.

- 4 810, Chaldea - Lyonesse

Chaldean explorers discover the island of Lyonesse , befriending its primitive human inhabitants. In the following years, the Chaldeans work among the people of Lyonesse, bringing them such gifts as the arts of writing and mathematics.

- 4 220, Chaldea - Nagast

The worst flood in history ravages the Eannic delta, destroying many cities of the Chaldean heartland. At the same time, a large alfar army strikes against the outposts of the Nagast plains, breaking through all defenses. The alfar then march on the chaldean heartlands, laying waste to those cities which the flood had spared. A hastily assembled defensive army is swiftly crushed.

Aided by dwarves, mirdain and ithwen, a provincial army eventually drives the alfar back to Nagast. But no heir of the last Chaldean king has survived, and the days of the empire are at an end.

- 4 220, Chaldea - Cairn

As Ashur falls, a group of leading citizens escape through teleport gates to the remote city of Kasdim , which lies on the wasteland continent of Cairn. They destroy the gates upon arrival, and establish themselves as the last custodians of Chaldean knowledge and culture.

- 3 159. Mirendil

Eight mirdain archmages experiment with an exceptionally powerful, artifact-fuelled spell, which is supposed to reveal the location of the lost word-stones. As the spell is cast , however, a magical chain reaction is sparked, and the tower of each mage is engulfed by a field of wildly morphing magic. To this day, the areas surrounding the eight towers are haunted by wild and often destructive magical effects.

- 2 050, Cairn

Due to climate changes, the lakes near Kasdim, the last Chaldean city, dry out. As their city-state dies, the citizens hide the books, items and artifacts they were guarding in a deep, magically sealed dungeon.

- 1120, Mirendil

Spurred by escalating trouble with aggressive non-elven loggers, an isolationist movement rises among the mirdain. In 1110, isolationist tribes launch a full-scale rebellion, seeking to replace the king with one sympathetic to their views. The uprising fails, but the schism is final: many extremists distance themselves from mainstream mirdain society, moving to new settlements in the Denwode forest and in sparsely populated parts of the Mirendil. Today, these elves have grown extremely xenophobic and culturally conservative, and they are known as the Ciel Fey. Many Ciel Fey regard the mirdain as outright enemies.

- 590, Rubayiat

Having grown rich and powerful through trade with the main continent, the city-state of Akkad grows predominant on the desert continent of Rubaiyat.

-510, Lyonesse

Spurred by ancient writings, explorers from the island state of Lyonesse set out in search of an advanced race, which is said to inhabit a large western land. Making landfall in Mercia , they find that the advanced Chaldean civilization has been replaced by the scattered tribes of their descendants, the Imric people. Disappointed, the islanders return home.

Timeline of Agon Part 2 >>