All Tomorrows/Killer Folk AU: Three-split souls and Ages (Seasons)
Unlike humans, Areians wouldn’t have an Age of Reason. Because Areians don’t view themselves as “Thinking animals that feel” they are “Feeling animals that think” and split their souls as such.
Their Corvid companions/soulmates represent memory and logic/reasoning respectively. While Areians themselves represent empathy/emotions.
“Shoot first, ask questions later” is definitely the motto of the Areian species. Prone to emotional outbursts and reactions, add in the sexual fervor thanks to their seasonal libido (known as the hunger of the hunt), without their soulmates, Areians are known as The Killer Folk for a reason.
Corvids act as the rational thought and cooler heads of the trios. Using their vast and far better long term memory to recall information and apply it to the now. Hence the importance of the Corvid Order to maintain borders and monitor trade.
For Areians their Ages (called Seasons because this is their base unit of measurement for long periods) would probably be something like this:
1. Season of Expansion/Ruin - Industrial Revolution leads to advancements in technology along with the rise and growth of factory farming and company towns.
2. Season of Rebellion and Bloodshed - As the growth factory farms and company towns persists, resentment and frustration grow from Nations and tribes whose lands are being taken and destroyed thanks to factory farm practices.Small rebellions slowly turn violent and bloody as risks of food scarcity grows eminent and smaller families that had relied on the larger clans for protection and security in exchange for their services grow restless. In an attempt to quell a potential rebellion, the larger clans redirected the smaller families anger towards the company towns and factory farms. Claiming they were the ones causing as this strife because they were causing Sickness to the land.
3. Season of War and Advancement - With newfound passion and anger, the nations turned and waged war on the company towns and factory farming settlements. These settlements, majority made of smaller clans and families weren’t prepared for the initial onslaught, and forced to retreat. They made up for it by being more than prepared for the consecutive battles after. What they lacked in might and numbers, they made up for with technological advances. Advances in weaponry and technology became commonplace as both groups used gorilla warfare tactics to attack, steal, and manipulate the other side to their advantage. With the Nations and larger families eventually getting the lead as they began to replicate and advance the settlements weapons. Resulting in them pushing back the settlements to only a few isolated areas and groups.
4. Season of Empathy - After the wars, the lands were left devastated. To combat this, the Nations worked to heal the lands, but angered by the settlements, whom they blamed for this, pushed the settlements into fallow lands and forced them to pay huge tithes and repentance. Out of this cruelty, a new philosophical movement was born, Empathy. Empathy pushed for compassionate understanding and calmer reactions. Hurt and horrified to the actions of the older generations, Empathists rejected the belief systems of their ancestors and made attempts to open communications and trade with the settlements.
5. Season of Decadence and Expansion - Empathy lead to power and corruption and soon enough, the Season of Empathy morphed and twisted into one of debauchery and scandal. New clans and families born from Epathists thinkers took advantage of this new era and amassed vast amounts of wealth and power. Creating the first kingdoms and empires. Pushed by greed and want, these powers did what many once thought sacrilegious: crossing the Null into the unknown. Mapping the world and eventually learning of the new lands and peoples who inhabited them. And seeking to conquer them.
6. Season of Revolution and War - Endless conquests and violence gave way to complacency and weakness. Fed up with the useless of rulers, the conquered peoples of the world rebelled and gave one last glorious pushback against the settlements. Having grown complacent from the ever flowing import of goods, most were not prepared for the coming war and many more perished within it. Pushed to the brink of extinction, the settlements were finally and permanently beaten down.
7. Season of Exploration and Reconnection - Once vast and great empires, the settlements were reduced to small and confined city-states with limited power. The Nations regained control and returned to their previous ways with the modern advancements of the many wars and trials of the previous Seasons. The settlements became places of violence and filth thanks to overcrowding and limited resources. Space exploration and alien outreach was primarily funded by powerful clans and tribes thanks to their vast swaths of resources. The first connections with other post-humans were made and soon the Second Empire came into being.