First Era
The First Era of the Shadow World timeline ended with the cataclysmic war between the Lords of Essaence, the royal family of the original humanoid race of Kulthea. The Empress Kadaena was killed by her cousin Utha approximately 113,000 years prior to the present date of the I.C.E. Age world setting. The world itself was nearly destroyed in the violence, and was repopulated later by the Lords of Orhan (Liabo). There was 100,000 years of interregnum between the First and Second Era, analogous to the dark ages between the Ur-Daemon War and the Elven Empire in the Elanthian history.
The surviving followers of the two factions from the First Era began waking up at that time, ultimately leading to the Wars of Dominion and the Third Era. Andraax put himself in suspended animation in his sarcophagus by Ormian about 20,000 years into the Interregnum, when he believed he was the last remaining Essence Lord. The Great Moon of Orhan was inaccessible to the Lords of Essaence.
Timeline
- (-80,000 First Era): Cataclysm destroys the home universe of the Lords of Orhan (Liabo), stranding them to the Kulthean solar system since the Essaence is too weak elsewhere in this plane of existence. The Luor'ka'tai (Iruaric: "Pillar of the Gods") is formed by a a tiny black hole hitting the planet. The Lords re-make the ecology of the moon to avoid interfering with the evolution of life.
- (-30,000 First Era): The humanoid Althan race discovers how to make fire.
- (-20,000 to -18,000 First Era): The Althans develop interstellar technology. The Lords of Orhan employ vast illusions and misdirection to keep them away from the moon. They are unaware of the moon deities but presumably know of the existence of the local gods.
- (-16,000 First Era): First appearance of the unnatural comet Sa'kain, which reopens the interdimensional rift sealed by the Lords of Orhan. The Essaence of their universe infuses the material of this reality forming the basis of magic.
- (-15,000 First Era): The Althan scientists discover the Essaence and begin genetic manipulations to augment control over it. The K'ta'viiri (Iruaric: "Lords of Essaence") are especially adept at it, as well as being among the natural psionics which is unrelated to the magic of mentalism. Portals to the parallel realities are formed on Kulthea and Charon (Lornon). These are badly disrupted when Sa'kain returns every 1,500 years.
- (-14,000 to -10,000 First Era): The K'ta'viiri family become the dominant faction of the aristocracy, ruling a vast empire by virtue of technology and superior psionic powers.
- (-10,000 to -6,000 First Era): The Lords of Essaence try and fail to open portals in other regions of space where the Essaence is too weak to support it. They transport lifeforms from all over the galaxy and experiment on them, refashioning races to suit their whims. This is the origin of much of the creature diversity, with Iruaric being the ancestor of most Shadow World languages.
- (-2,000 First Era): The Emperors are increasingly cruel, selfish, and capricious regarding political stability.
- (-510 First Era): Ascension of the Empress Kadaena, which is essentially the Iruaric word for Empress.
- (-250 First Era): Lord Utha Uruth launches a civil war against his cousin Kadaena, attempting to overthrow the Empress-goddess. The scale of the powers unleashed cause many uncontrolled tears in the fabric of reality, allowing extra-planar entities to run wild. Whole worlds are destroyed. The Lords of Orhan bring samples of many lifeforms to their moon to save them from utter annihilation.
- (0 First Era): Utha decapitates Kadaena near the South Pole. He constructs the Eyes of Utha to alter the flows of essence to trap the extra-planar intruders on the other side of the planet, stabilizing the world from the flow storms of space and insulate the world from the radiations of the interdimensional rift. Utha finally succumbs to his wounds. His son Andraax takes lead of the Ahrenreth.