Okay, here's the story of Pharloom, as far as I can tell:
The native folks of the lands to become Pharloom are living their best lives (Skarr, Karaki, Verdanians, Snail Shamans, Stilkin, Burning Bugs, etc.)
Grand Mother Silk shows up.
Silk uses her magic to ascend the minds of some Pharlids, creating the Weavers (she calls them divine and her daughters, but she only subjects them to endless servitude, producing silk on harps. This produces a siren's song, calling bugs to the land to be subjects with which Silk shall build her kingdom and raise herself ever higher).
The religion of Pharloom begins, with Silk at the peak. The Karaki and the Skarr fight back, and they are punished. Karmelita is crippled, the Skarr are scattered, and Karak's river is blocked, causing the lush forest to dry to nothingness, taking the Karaki and most of the rest of its life with it. Nyleth also dies around this time, most likely by Silk in order to have control over Shellwood.
The First Sinner teaches the other Weavers how to weave runes from silk, produce their own magic, and the Weavers start to scheme, start to dream of a life beyond Silk's control.
The Weavers create Eva (an artificial recreation of Silk made from the Weavers' own silk). But Eva is too powerful for her frail body, so she is restrained to her prison.
A rudimentary Citadel (far smaller and simpler than the one we see in game) is built by the Weavers as a trap for Silk. With it finished, most of the Weavers get up and run away.
The few who remain use the Citadel and spin a song of silk, sealing Silk away in a cocoon.
For a time, the remaining Weavers rule Pharloom in Silk's place as divine, holy figures, building the system of pilgrimage, where all of the pilgrims and residents of the Citadel are treated in equal, eternal servitude. They become the focus of the kingdom's religion, being worshiped through effigies. This is also when the shrine to Nyleth is built.
Widow, the only Weaver still faithful to Silk, strikes out on her own.
The First Sinner, knowing of their common origins, remembering that Weavers are not divine, and, alongside a few like-minded Weavers, tries to reveal this knowledge to the common bugs. Her fellow Weavers, unwilling to relinquish their status, imprison First Sinner and her fellows.
Despite their cushy positions, fancying themselves gods, the Weavers who remained come to a bitter truth. Their work would never be complete. As long as Silk remained only asleep, not dead, they would never be anything but slaves to the processes (the citadel and the silk song) that kept her dormant. They even, attempting to utilize the stolen knowledge of the Snail Shamans, delve to the bottom of the kingdom and attempt to understand the Void, hoping to find a way to use it to destroy Silk. But since they were not Shamans, and the Shamans who remained alive in Pharloom after Silk's reign had gone into hiding, these efforts never amounted to anything. They simply didn't have the tools or knowledge to weave such magics.
The Weavers who remained give up. They pass the mantle of rule over to the Conductors and, placing their hopes on a savior who may never come, a child strong enough in silk to defeat Silk truly, they die, placing themselves in spires across Pharloom. Now, like their fled sisters, they were truly free from servitude.
The Conductors rule the land of Pharloom, building up the Citadel to be as extravagant as we see it, and make the bugs beneath them their bitches (creating and establishing the caste system, beginning to produce pollution to fuel their extravagant lives). They also charge Seth's order to guard the shrine to Nyleth, so none can learn of the power that once was.
The Citadel's pollution begins to see its effects on the lands below, laying waste to Greymoor, the lands of the Stilkin (turning it into Sinner's Road and Bilewater), and the putrification of the ducts. This is also when Silk's existence is hidden, the Conductors hoping to erase all memory of a governing body before them.
A long long time passes. Rosaries as a currency/prayer object are introduced as well as the charge of the Judges and all of the anti-homeless architecture throughout Pharloom. This is done to continue the spinning of the silk song though all of this devotion, all done by the word of the Conductors. The most devout bugs become members of the Choir, who visit the Cradle to sing the most for the silk song. Also, Whiteward experiments begin, the desire of the upper caste to achieve immortality through silk, and with it, since there are no longer Weavers to produce silk, the Conductors begin harvesting silk from Silk's cocoon. Because of this, Silk's bindings start to wake and fade, all the silk falling from the Cradle becoming like microplastics, seeding deep within the shells of all of the kingdom's bugs (a surprise tool that will help Silk later). It is also around the time of the Whiteward that the Surgeons catch, kidnap, and mutilate Widow, binding her silk and removing her mask.
The decay of Silk's bindings start to become evident. The Conductors charge the bugs of Greymoor to begin collecting dregs and the construction of the Cogwork Core begins, hoping to produce truly eternal singers for the song. This is when Verdania tries to fight back. They fail, and one of their princes is imprisoned. The other, hoping to save his land and his people, offer his soul and service to the Citadel. These are both taken and placed within the Cogwork Dancers, but the Citadel fails to uphold their end of the deal, allowing Verdania to rot and crumble.
The Citadel turns against the Pinstresses, most dying and the rest scattered, the order fading along with them.
This all ends up not being enough, and Silk begins to stir, first manifesting as her true children (the Wraiths, who never fully solidify, Phantom, who is subjegated and banished by the Citadel, and Lace, Silk's perfect child).
The silken curse begins. With all of the silk laying dormant in every bug, they become easy prey for the mind of Silk.
Controlling the Choir, Silk begins sending them out, to collect all that remains of the Weavers so they can change them and turn them into helping spread the curse, preparing the land for when Silk fully wakes.
Silk sends the decree for a full chamber to the Kingdom of the White Wyrm
