01 / CHRONOLOGY
A common frame, not a universal calendar.
Years count down toward the Sundering through Before the Sundering (BS); the event itself is the boundary and the first full year afterward is 1 AS. Early ranges are estimates. A veiled or unreckoned span means records are missing, not that nothing happened.
| Approximate dates | Era | Historical account | Status |
|---|---|---|---|
| Before c. 5000 BS | Unreckoned Dawn | Creation, the two creator entities, their seeds, and the Higher Entity's guardianship are known chiefly through myth and later interpretation. | Traditions; dates unknown |
| c. 5000–2501 BS | Age of Crowned Wings | Dragon-led polities held power over humans across much of the connected land. Their courts and alliances were diverse; no single united empire is established. | Broad period; details proposed |
| c. 2500–1801 BS | Veiled Centuries | Wars devastated dragon civilizations. The sequence is poorly preserved; later accounts place the True Dragons among those who remained. | Wars per author direction; causes open |
| c. 1800–101 BS | Meridian Dominion | Human institutions expanded in political and technological reach. Experience varied by region; “supremacy” does not mean universal control or consent. | Working chronology |
| c. 100–1 BS | Athanor Reckoning | An ancient civilization captured and contained part of the Higher Entity using the Athanor, then used it as a power source. Warnings arrived through different media. | Capture and use established; actors and dates uneven |
| Boundary | The Sundering | Destruction broke the single land into five major continents and islands. Curses changed peoples. The remaining Higher Entity fragmented across Avarun; the Athanor portion was already separate. | Event established; mechanics unresolved |
| 1–118 AS | Age of Twin Lanterns | Two moons and twin goddesses appear in the common account. They guide survivors; a lullaby carries memories of the two lights. | Working account; local songs differ |
| 119 AS | The Missing Light | The second moon and its associated goddess disappear. Later traditions disagree about sacrifice or murder. | Disputed fate |
| 120–199 AS | Years of Two Testimonies | Rival accounts spread; the lullaby takes on religious and political meanings. Conflict begins at different times in different regions. | Broad period |
| 200–267 AS | War of Severed Crowns | Rulers fight over the goddess's disappearance and the authority it implies. Armies alter the older lullaby into a war song; household versions preserve other verses. | Working chronology; versions differ |
| 268–315 AS | Ashen Interval | Archives, roads, and institutions recover unevenly after war. Missing dates remain part of the record. | Records incomplete |
| 316 AS onward | Lone Moon Era | The Current Era begins in the common reckoning. Regional acceptance and the postwar settlement remain to be developed. | Working chronology |
02 / CROWNED WINGS
Dragon rule across one land.
Dragons ruled humans in ancient civilizations and were worshipped as gods. “Crowned Wings” is a later umbrella for multiple powers, not proof that the supercontinent had one imperial capital or a uniform dragon religion.
Rhaudren, the Pass-Warden
A dragon ruler locally worshipped as keeper of mountain passage. Traditions attribute winter winds, snow warnings, and safe crossings to Rhaudren.
- Worship
- Seasonal offerings at pass shrines and road oaths.
- Influence
- Route closures, provisions, and arbitration between highland settlements.
- Limit
- Weather control and the extent of the court remain unverified.
Orthen, Keeper of the Rainwood
A dragon ruler treated as a local rain and canopy god. Worshippers associate the name with springs, grove health, and dependable seasonal rain.
- Worship
- Household water rites and offerings at managed groves.
- Influence
- Negotiations over spring access, timber, and forest paths.
- Limit
- These associations do not establish universal worship or literal command of rain.
Varrakai, the Ember Regent
A dragon ruler honored as a god of kiln heat and craft. Communities near the volcanic slopes seek safe work rather than a promise that eruptions can be stopped.
- Worship
- Small craft offerings at kilns, furnaces, and workshops.
- Influence
- Labor, charcoal supply, repair duties, and protection of craft routes.
- Limit
- No record proves power over eruptions, metals, or every craft guild.
Tselka, Keeper of the Silt Crown
A dragon ruler worshipped as a local guardian of floodwater, shifting channels, and fertile silt. Its cult is imagined as one source of authority in water-sharing disputes.
- Worship
- Channel-side rites and offerings at the turn of flood seasons.
- Influence
- Delta maintenance, ferry access, granaries, and water records.
- Limit
- Tselka is not a universal ruler of oceans or every river.
These four named figures and their seats are proposals, not approved ancient names. They do not replace the True Dragons as a broader group. The Vow's Vaen and Ilyra are story names for the creators, not names for dragon rulers.
03 / HUMAN COMMUNITIES
Different lives under shifting authority.
The ancient roster of races and the name of the civilization that operated the Athanor remain unresolved. These are proposed human lifeways, not biological categories, fixed nations, or exhaustive populations.
River-basin towns
Growers, fishers, millers, boat crews, and scribes share floodplains and storehouses. Ferry rights, grain levies, and bridge repairs create leverage for towns as well as Dominion offices.
Woodland and spring settlements
Households combine orchards, cultivated clearings, managed coppice, gathering, and seasonal hunting. Local stewards negotiate access to water and timber rather than obey a single forest border.
Pass and highland communities
Herders, quarry crews, guides, and cistern keepers organize around winter stores and safe crossings. Rotating kin or route councils are one proposed arrangement.
Delta and coast networks
Pilots, net-makers, reed cutters, ferrymen, and port markets depend on channel markers, tides, and flood agreements. Upstream works can shift a downstream harvest.
Before the Sundering
Sources establish humans living under dragon rule and dragon-led polities; one widely believed origin tradition also speaks of animals and other living beings. The record does not name an exhaustive list of pre-Sundering human races or lineages. The map's symbols do not assign ancestry to a territory.
After the Sundering
The land divides into five major continents and islands; curses change peoples. The exact populations and mechanisms are not fully named. Do not project today's races backward onto the ancient map.
Bodily change is not a measure of guilt or inherited moral worth. Modern peoples have histories and cultures beyond the catastrophe.
04 / THE VEILED CENTURIES
Wars, missing records, and the True Dragons.
Veiled does not mean empty. Wars devastated dragon civilizations during this span. The battle sequence and causes cannot be securely recovered from the common chronology.
Surviving accounts say the True Dragons remained after the wars. They cannot reproduce. How the surviving population endured, what defines a True Dragon, and whether any remain in the present are not settled here. The possibility that one could return as a human or dragon remains open; it is not a prediction, confirmed mechanism, or named survivor.
Human communities also endured the wars. Later stories that turn all humans into rebels, willing servants, or beneficiaries flatten a record that is already incomplete. Ruins, copied inscriptions, and local traditions can disagree about which conflict destroyed a given court.
05 / MERIDIAN & ATHANOR
Human ascendancy and a machine with a captive source.
The working calendar places the Meridian Dominion from about 1800 to 101 BS and the Athanor Reckoning from about 100 to 1 BS. These are approximate eras, not a claim that all regions used these names.
Established: a human civilization summoned and contained a portion or manifestation of the Higher Entity with the Athanor, then used it as a power source before the Sundering. The captured portion was separated earlier; the remaining Higher Entity fragmented during the Breaking. Repeated warnings arrived through different media, but the surviving records disagree about order, reach, and what leaders understood.
Proposed link: the guide treats the Meridian Dominion as the political and technical setting around the Athanor project, but the World Bible leaves the ancient civilization unnamed. Its exact identity, continuity, and responsibility remain open. The proposed central marker on the atlas is not a verified location for the machine.
What the records show
The Leaves include ration and maintenance records associated with Athanor chambers and notices describing warnings by changed inscriptions, dreams, and a voice from a cold furnace. One notice was stopped before reaching rulers; others bear acknowledgments.
What they cannot show
They do not establish a single moment when every leader understood, that every person participated, or the exact order of warnings and catastrophe. Collective punishment remains morally contestable.
A proposed large-town day includes water allotments, markets, ferry schedules, craft shifts, shrine observances, public repair duties, and recordkeeping. Athanor workers would need food, cooling water, maintenance, and safe travel. This is practical reconstruction around the surviving clues, not a complete known daily schedule.
06 / RELIGION & ORIGIN ACCOUNTS
A widely believed tradition, among several.
Origin stories shape ritual and identity. Their cultural importance does not make them universal or author-level historical truth.
One widely believed tradition says dragons were born from Vaen. It attributes humans, animals, and other living beings to Ilyra's light, and beasts, monsters, and demons to the creators' grief and loneliness. Some versions say certain beings gained consciousness following the Sundering. Other accounts contest the order, terms, and meaning of these origins.
The Vow of the First Dawn is a popular love story using the names Ilyra and Vaen. Those are names in the tale, not confirmed true names for the creators. The lovers, shadow, transformation, and vow remain a traditional telling; they cannot decide the creators' identities or the Higher Entity's relationship to them.
07 / THE SUNDERING
The end of the single continent.
The Sundering is the calendar boundary. Its physical and spiritual consequences are established; the exact sequence and motives are not.
- The Higher Entity casts destruction and curses across Avarun.
- The single supercontinent becomes five major continents and scattered islands.
- Peoples change; the guide does not treat every later body or lineage as an ancient political category.
- The Athanor portion had been separated before the Breaking. The remaining Higher Entity fragments across the world during the catastrophe.
- Whether fragmentation was voluntary, a consequence of destruction, or an attempt to restrain it remains unknown. Reuniting fragments is not established as healing or safe.
The common chronology also records a second moon and twin goddesses, then the disappearance of one moon and its associated goddess in 119 AS. Sacrifice and murder remain competing accounts. An older lullaby becomes a war song during the War of Severed Crowns, with no surviving version accepted as the one definitive original.
08 / DAILY LIFE
History beyond courts and machines.
Only fragments survive, so these are grounded, revisable examples rather than a universal timetable for the ancient world.
Food and water
Flood seasons, seed stores, irrigation, fishing, pasture, and transport shape who can eat and who owes labor. A river levy may be a community compact in one place and a court demand in another.
Work and travel
Trade follows rivers, coasts, pack routes, and seasonal passes. Ferries, guides, repair crews, and local path knowledge matter more than an imagined uniform imperial road.
Ritual and doubt
People may pray at a dragon shrine, negotiate a toll with a steward, and question a ruler's justice in the same lifetime. Belief does not erase dissent or competing practice.
Memory and record
Ledgers, household histories, warning notices, temple calendars, oral recitations, and songs preserve different parts of an event. Copies can differ without one witness being an intentional liar.
09 / ARCHAEOLOGICAL HISTORY
The Archaeological Identification of Oravel
The broad geographical continuity between modern Oravel and part of the ancient supercontinent is established through several independent physical evidence types. Exact borders and the ancient-to-modern place pairings remain provisional.
Provisional correspondences: Crownspine / Frostveil Peaks; Meridian Basin / Amber Plains and the Aven basin; Western Glasswind / Windscar Plateau; Siltwater / Reedwater Marsh. These pairings orient current study. They do not fix former shorelines, mountain profiles, or present-day state borders.
Crownspine–Frostveil geological evidence
Location: a broad north-central bedrock comparison, not an exact plotted outcrop. Proposed observations include related mineral suites, trace-element signatures, structural trends, and ancient quarry scars.
- Layer / date
- The rock formed before the Sundering; quarry use is not assigned a secure calendar date.
- Method
- Petrography, mineral chemistry, structural mapping, and stratigraphic comparison. Mineral ages date rock formation, not the quarrying.
- Limit
- Similar rocks can form independently. Uplift and erosion mean modern Frostveil need not share Crownspine's exact shape.
- Finding
- Geological comparison independently supports broad regional continuity; the named range pairing remains provisional.
Old Aven excavations
Location: the established abandoned meander and lower terrace. Proposed records describe foundations, hearths, domestic vessels, tools, buried skeletal remains, road bedding, and old river channels beneath later occupation.
- Layer / date
- Lower occupation contexts are classed as pre-Sundering; no single named era is established.
- Method
- Stratigraphy, radiocarbon on suitable short-lived char, luminescence dating of sediment, and ceramic thermoluminescence as a cross-check.
- Limit
- Floods can mix material and preservation is uneven. Remains cannot alone establish race, language, ownership, or the cause of abandonment.
- Finding
- Pre-Sundering occupation in the region supports the identification; cultural attribution remains open.
Drowned Gate underwater archaeology
Location: the existing partly submerged causeway in Lantern Bay. Proposed survey notes include built stone courses, buried terrestrial soil, freshwater sediment, preserved vegetation, and marine cover.
- Layer / date
- The terrestrial surface is older than its marine cover; neither construction nor inundation has a secure year.
- Method
- Sediment cores, context records, suitable plant radiocarbon samples, and sediment luminescence dating.
- Limit
- Tides, erosion, subsidence, uplift, and the unresolved Sundering sequence make the former shoreline difficult to reconstruct. No submerged area is measured.
- Finding
- Underwater evidence supports former terrestrial ground; the causeway's builder and cultural continuity remain disputed.
Pre-Sundering fossil assemblages
Location: several sheltered sediment exposures in the broad study region; exact collection points are not plotted. The established evidence includes fossils and ancient biological remains. Proposed catalog groupings include plant traces, extinct land fauna, human-associated and unidentified remains, and unidentified large vertebrates.
- Layer / date
- More than one deposit is involved; stratigraphic context does not provide one shared fossil date.
- Method
- Stratigraphic comparison and fossil succession, with radiocarbon only where material is suitable and mineral or sediment dating where preservation permits.
- Limit
- Fossils may be redeposited. Anatomy does not identify dragons, demons, a specific race, moral guilt, or divine punishment.
- Finding
- Biological traces provide an independent environmental record; species and population identities remain open.
Care and access
Permits can protect burials, occupied land, and working waterways. Families and local custodians have reasons to guide care, display, and return of human remains; collection alone does not establish museum ownership.
Drowned Gate and salvage
Saelic pilots rely on the causeway as a tide marker, while fishers say its stones shelter spawning grounds. Underwater study or salvage has to account for those current uses.
Public teaching
Schools and museums can distinguish the established geographical connection from proposed borders and pairings, and teach different historical and religious readings without declaring one origin tradition universal.
Ownership and memory
Local communities may prioritize burial care; scholars may compare evidence; rulers may fund access or tourism; religious institutions may interpret the discovery through distinct traditions. No kingdom gains an automatic right to rule the whole ancestral region.
The full proposed catalog and its status labels are in the ancient atlas. Regional continuity does not identify a living race with an ancient population, locate the Athanor, or assign guilt for its use. The remaining Higher Entity fragmented during the Sundering; the captured Athanor portion was separated before it.
10 / COMPETING ACCOUNTS
Where the archive stays open.
The following questions should remain open until new canon resolves them. In-world sources can be sincere and incomplete.
- Who were the creators?Their true names and the exact nature of their sacrifice remain unresolved. Ilyra and Vaen are story names, not confirmation.
- Which civilization operated the Athanor?The machine's use is established; the civilization's name and its exact link to the Meridian Dominion are not.
- What happened in the Veiled wars?The wars devastated dragon civilizations. Their causes, chronology, surviving courts, and the history of True Dragons remain unclear.
- Can True Dragons return?They cannot reproduce; accounts of a return as human or dragon are possibilities, not settled outcomes.
- What became of the Higher Entity?Its remaining fragments spread during the Breaking. Voluntary fragmentation, reunion, and healing remain unresolved.
- Who became a monster or demon?The grief-and-loneliness origin is a widely believed tradition, not a complete or universally accepted account.
- What was the goddess's fate?The second moon and goddess vanish in 119 AS; later communities disagree about sacrifice or murder.
- What are the ancient map's names?Every map name, border-like shape, settlement, dragon seat, and ruin is an editable proposal.
11 / SOURCES & METHOD
A comparative lens, not a substitute canon.
Avarun's own documents establish its setting facts. External scholarship informs material questions—rations, records, routes, ritual, and culturally specific dragon symbolism—but cannot prove events in a fictional world.
- Richard T. Hallock, Persepolis Fortification Tablets, OIP 92Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 1969. Administrative rations, goods movement, and travel records offer a comparative lens for labor and logistics.
- Mark B. Garrison, The Ritual Landscape at Persepolis, SAOC 72Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures, 2017. A case study in interpreting ritual images and built space without treating every symbol as settled fact.
- National Museum of Asian Art, “Eleven Dragons”A historically specific account of Chinese dragon symbolism; used to remember that dragon meanings differ between cultures and periods.
- Colette Hemingway and Seán Hemingway, “Cyprus—Island of Copper”Heilbrunn Timeline of Art History, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 2004. A comparative example of extraction, metalworking, imported materials, and regional exchange.
The Avarun source set is summarized in world/Research_Sources.md. The internal record includes the World Bible, Calendar and Timeline, Remanence notes, and the Vow story embedded in the main archive page.