every tuesday on chucks patreon we have TIMELINE TUESDAY where i talk on various entities from other timelines and make some art of their way. closing in on 90 creatures just wanted to share some favorites
This is the final TT repost in the queue for now! Please consider visiting the original post here, and resharing the link!
TIMELINE TUESDAY #3 (Era 10)
Good afternoon folks, and welcome to another Timeline Tuesday post! Thank you to all those who've been engaging with and reading these epic history-building posts - I've been having a blast with them, and hopefully you are too.
This is the last Timeline Tuesday post concerning the main Broken Dimensions historical timeline. I may continue after this point to post sporadic entries to the series focusing on specific parts of history (such as the War for Balance, the first war between Darekaeii and [ x ], the Great Tartarun Revolution, and so on). However, this is the end of the main part of the series.
Congrats, you've made it, haha!
Now, let's wrap this all up and talk about the "present day:" Era 10.
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Era 10
Era 10 starts off slow and solemn. Much of the multiverse is still grieving and in shock of the Darekaeiin Cataclysm, and the first few years are characterized by mass humanitarian aid intervention, spearheaded by Tartarus and the newly-formed, (allegedly morally reformed) New Empire of Aetheria (NEA). The rest of the first century or two are spent figuring out how to operate without the worlds of Darekaeii.
Trade, justice, and war all change fundamentally. Darekaeii, and especially Adreoni, had stood as a bastion of clear judgement and honest business (mostly) for millennia. They had supervised and supplemented interdimensional trade. They had forged and mapped new routes between worlds. They had provided security forces and mercenaries for wars across the ages. They had been a refuge, an artistic stronghold, and a technological epicenter for the last 14,600 years. No one quite knew how to operate without their leadership, nor how to mourn the loss of their billions of lives.
[ x ] tried to fill the holes and step into its sister-world's vacant spot. They tried, but they ultimately failed. The lovely thing about humans is that they are fantastic creators and innovators. The terrible thing is that they all think they're better than one another. [ x ] being the primary homeworld of humanity and all its flaws was its downfall. The world devolved into infighting (again) around the year 300 E-10.
In the end, it took multiple worlds to fill the space left by Darekaeii.
Tartarus eventually stepped up to become the military epicenter it always should have been. They experienced an industrial boom as the multiverse turned to them for weapons manufacturing, the advancement of technological warfare elements, and, surprisingly, new moral standards for the conduct of war. Tartarus had, of course, perfected the art of war millennia ago. They had also perfected the art of negotiating and keeping the piece, especially when it came to pedantic or tricky parties (of which many of themselves were).
As they shared their knowledge with others, the multiverse's collective view of them began to change. And, as a result, the dimension as a whole changed how it presented itself. States and tribal lands became united provinces, and they all agreed to unite themselves under the banner of Tartarus centra, whose provinces served each other, the Post-Revival Codex, and the select few gods who had chosen them. They still had infighting and civil issues and wars, but, at least, it was less about destroying each other and more about... semantics.
Feldspar stepped up too. Darekaeii had been the technological epicenter of the multiverse. When it was wiped out, the technology they developed went with them. The holonet as it had existed from Era 8 onward ceased to exist or operate. Nearly every server, every corner of the holonet crashed. Only a few backups remained on a few limited physical storage drives in out-of-world branches. Feldspar saw the rising panic at this catastrophe, looked at their own perfectly fine, entirely operable in-world holonet service, and said "Hey, we can market this (and help a lot of people)!"
(Some people think that their monetary motivations were greedy, but those people forget that Feldspar was and always has been somewhat of a giant commune run by sentient, telepathic Cats. Their idea of "monetary greed" involves gaining large sums of money, distributing two thirds of it to their people, and using the rest to fund insane research projects and the upkeep of their successful Core Energy Dispersal and Power Supply System (or, the CEDPSS, or "Sedeps"), which is what Adira Eagriss later tries to recreate in Era 10.)
(They also spend a fair amount of the undistributed share importing exotic seafood... but that's beside the point.)
And, finally, someone had to step in and manage the most obvious void left behind by the Darekaeiin system of worlds: the role of interdimensional neutral arbitrator.
The New Empire of Aetheria, as shiny and fresh-off-the-line it seemed, was practically curated for this role. While the gods had, by and large, been in and out of things during Era 9, they had managed to set Aetheria back on track. Even once they disappeared again, following the clues Xellarian's scattered mind had left for them to use to find the next God of Time, the NEA seemed to be doing alright. With the democratic, people-ruled Imperial Council backing the first Emperor (a paltry title that may have been better understood had it been changed to "President" or Ae'Docra (an Aetherian word meaning "chosen ruler" or "chosen doctrinal-leader")) it seemed best that they handled things.
( If those scorned demigods mentioned earlier had suddenly gone oddly quiet, and the new Imperial Council seemed to have a few odd characters that hadn't quite reformed during the "reformation era," well... No one had to know.)
And that is where 2 of the 3 focal stories of Broken Dimensions pick up! The first story to take place during it is Fractal Alliances, which begins in 1906 E-10 and runs all the way until 2047 E-10. Fractal Alliances focuses on the interactions of Tartarus and Aetheria, the two largest military powerhouses still standing after Crisis 9 and [ x ]'s multitude of civil wars. A prospective follow-up series called Afterdeath picks up in 2049/2050 E-10.
Running parallel to the latter half of Fractal Alliances is the story of Catie Davis and the Lycanthra Syndicate. The Lycanthra Syndicate is a work-in-progress webcomic that starts 2033 E-10, with prequel shorts that run all the way back to the 1960s and a central storyline that runs until the early 2050s.
After that... well, let's just say things get Dark...
Approximate age of the universe (as of Afterdeath): ~25,196 years
»--•--«
Aaaand that's a wrap! Thank you everyone for following along these past few weeks as I broke down the Broken Dimensions timeline. I hope you all will continue to stick around for art of all these epic periods in time, breakdowns on language differences over the years (including a look into what Old Tongue might have looked (and sounded!) like), and some close-up snippets of history throughout the timeline.
Also for weeks ahead: please keep your eyes out for the DIMENSIONS series, a collection of descriptive posts that breakdown each major dimension of the project, including [ x ], Tartarus, Darekaeii, and Aetheria! (These ones will have art attached!)
I'll see you all out there. Take care <3
--Ripley
Questions, thoughts, or comments? Drop 'em in the comments below, or feel free to reach out to me on social media!
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TIMELINE TUESDAY #3 (Eras 4, 5, and 6)
Hello out there, and welcome back to Timeline Tuesday! This week's focus are the middle Eras that take place after the Revival. Lots of exciting things happen in these epochs, including the advancement of [ x ] and Svarenheil and the creation of other worlds, like Tartarus!
Let's pick up where we left of, starting with Era 4 and moving onto Eras 5 and 6.
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ERA 4
Era 4 is an era of change, adaptation, and reformation in [ x ]. The backwards ways that lingered from the Dark Ages were finally banished from public practice, and magic was revitalized and taught en masse. The Svarenics who remained in [ x ] after the splitting of worlds already had a leg up in the magic department due to having a few decades of extra research and exposure, and their top scholars were key in not only spreading magic practices across the surface of [ x ], but also in the formation of the Guilds of the Gods. Modern magical practices would not have evolved without their expertise.
Two important Guilds that were created in this Era are the Hekatan Mage Guild and the Death Mage Order, respectively led by the gods Hekata and Morsanna. In simple terms, these two gods were granted the right to live every grad student's dream and put together their own individual research and experimentation teams to pursue their own goals. Notably, the leader of the Hekatan Mage Guild was Nathan Shasear, who had been Hekata's student since several years before the Revival began.
After these first two experimental groups began to see some success, several other guilds were formed. Viabolt headed a forge guild, Waulfend created an order of environmental researchers and activists dedicated to stabilizing [ x ] after it was cleaved from Svarenheil (now Adreoni), and Maikoa synthesized their cults into something more viable. The rest of the gods began to cultivate priesthoods and temple organizations to foster their own devotee's interests and lives.
Partway through the Era, Morsanna's Order of Death Mages became the first Guild to see serious trouble. Small groups revolted against Morsanna throughout the middle 300 years of the Era, challenging her for the title of Death and her sole rule over the Dead and the Afterlife. These revolts divided the Order into two factions: loyalists who sided with Morsanna and were content and proud to be her Reapers, and separatists who wanted to claim or divide her power amongst themselves and promoted a form of selective eugenics. Morsanna was forced to cull the rebels and disband her Order, stripping nearly all of her Death Mages of their titles and abilities. Only a few dozen loyalists were allowed to retain their Reaper status, among them, Serra Tyrannis.
The fall of Morsanna's Order was the start of the end of the era of peace. The latter 500 years of Era 4 in [ x ] were plagued by petty mortal wars, illegal magic experimentation, and growing calls for defiance against the gods. Around the year 1580, E-4, seven powerful mages banded together and led regular mortals and Guild members alike in a movement-turned-urban warfare with the sole goal of dethroning the gods.
This short war was later dubbed "The Great Rebellion."
The conflict claimed tens of thousands of lives, Svarenic, human, and otherwise; mortal and non-mortal alike. In the end, the loyalist groups who chose to defend the gods defeated the revolutionaries and created a special prison dimension to house them: Artificial Planar Void TR-5, later known as Tartarus.
In APV TR-5, the seven powerful leaders of the rebellion (who are later dubbed the Seven Heathen Mages of Tartarus), continued some of the experiments they had been banished for. They had mastered something known as Creation Magic, which the gods tried very hard to keep out of mortal hands. When they worked together, the Seven could create entirely new lifeforms, which is what they did en masse as soon as they realized they were stuck in TR-5. They created their own sentient, humanoid lifeforms to subjugate and manipulate, recreating the abuse they claimed the gods had imposed on them. They named these peoples after themselves, and reigned over them as dictators and overlords:
Corva Herrei created the Herrenic race
Dorian Mirrala created the Miila race
Zarian Laxa created the Laxaa race
Jor Raya created the Rayani race and its subgroups: the Miiredians, Irosians, and Regalians.
Grecian Hekta created the Jica race
Julius Tahni created the Tahni race
Lor Amas created the Amads
The creation of APV TR-5 and the banishment of the rebels comprises Crisis 4 and marks the end of the Era.
(Keep an eye out for the DIMENSIONS post series, which will dive more deeply into the creation of worlds, especially Tartarus, and their inhabitants!)
Approximate age of the universe: ~5970 years
ERA 5
Era 5 is one of instability and lost faith, and is characterized by the budding multivesre's slow descent into chaos. In addition to being the longest era to date at a whopping 2205 years, Era 5 also sees some of the darkest moments in multiversial history play out.
The worst of it starts when the gods begin to take interest in the newly-forming reality pocket they call Aetheria. At this point in time, Aetheria is just a cluster of solid debris and cosmic dust being swirled around by a semi-conscious TED. And yet, they can sense its potential. So can other entities, including ziojics and demigods such as a young Phantasma, who eventually migrate there.
The consequence, though, is the gods attention being diverted outward, pulling it away from [ x ] and Adreoni (which they have been carefully monitoring since cleaving the two worlds from each other). The gods' attention is also being pulled towards all the other worlds they left half-developed after the Great Revival in [ x ], and Solorana begins to split her time and essence between the creation and maintenance of all of them. Some of the others gods start doing the same, and it beings to take a visible toll...
But the end of the first millennium, the pantheon is distant and scattered, but the Guilds are managing well enough on their own.
[ x ] is relatively stable and sufficiently united as a planetary society, meaning there is relatively little international strife.
Adreoni is healing, growing in population, and its inhabitants are starting to branch out into more fields of magical and technological study. They are aided by Eiro, Hekata, and several minor gods, who spend much of their time there.
Artificial Planar Void TR-5 is embroiled in civil war, infighting, and many other self-inflicted issues generated by the Seven Heathen Mages or their immediate successors. Most of the gods... are pretending it doesn't exist.
Seeing this independence and functionality, the gods begin to pull away from mortality over the first 1200 years of the Era. Content with their work and the fact that mortality in [ x ] doesn't need them right now, they leave them to their own devices and pick up their old projects.
...And, slowly, the Guilds start to doubt their leadership again, but this time more quietly. So do the non-Guild mortals in [ x ] and most of the civilians in Adreoni, despite the gods' continuing involvement in both dimensions' healing and repair. The doubt turns to disregard, and the Guilds are disbanded late in the Era by one Nathan Shasear, who had been granted immortality in Era 3 for saving the goddess Ialu and since been left in charge of the mortal Guilds.
Eventually, the faith of mortals begins to waver so much that gods actually start to feel it. Very few take this mortal rejection well, subtle or unintended as it may be. Some leave them behind out of anger. Others quit because they've practically been forgotten, and disappear into "retirement" in their own domains.
But the same thing happens to all the gods who retreat to their reality (the same one they observed [ x ] from during Eras 2 and 3): they all fall into a deep, seemingly endless sleep. They do not wake up.
Crisis 5 is two-fold: first, the remaining gods fly into a panic at their fallen (sleeping) comrades' condition. Those who disappeared into retirement deign not to care, or at least not to react.
Second, Adreoni and [ x ] achieve interdimensional travel almost simultaneously and start the first interdimensional war.
Approximate age of the universe: ~8175 years
ERA 6
Era 6 lasts a short 300 years, characterized by one giant war. This era, the shortest yet, sees the earliest forms of interdimensional warfare and is painfully dotted with rampant godly panic.
At the start of the war, Nathan Shasear attempts to rally former Guild members whose loyalty has survived the gods' panic and silence. He tries to organized humanitarian aid on both sides of the conflict, acting as a delegate between [ x ] and Adreoni since he had hereditary ties to both. His efforts ultimately fail, and he takes the fall for it.
By the year 150 E-3, Shasear disbands the Guilds for good, for everyone's safety. It was for the best, after his already minuscule numbers began to tank as members ran home, chased after the gods, or questioned their entire moral system in the face of unfathomable war. Still, he faced backlash twice that of what he faced the first time he disbanded the Guilds—this time, he also receives reprimands from the pantheon. Shortly before the end of the war, he disappears.
Meanwhile, Tartarus becomes embroiled in revolution. The races of Tartarus lead revolts against the remaining Seven Heathen Mages and their sadistic heirs, breaking free of their control and ending their lives in cold, furious vengeance. They split into individual factions in the aftermath, still divided by their differences and united only by their race and twisted second-hand cultures. The Ialuan Empire quickly takes over much of the east coast, jockeying for power against the Tritaran Empire to the north and west of them. The Dev-Rayan (or "anti-Rayan") Congolmerate forms in the far west. The the name "magoni" is revived when the neutral, scholarship-based province of Zitraa'lazii is formed (later Zitraala) and the Jica race renames themselves the Magoni. The Heartland province also forms: a multicultural "neutral zone" that eventually becomes the center of the United Tartarun Federation.
By the end of the Era, Aetheria has its first inhabitants: a new race created by the gods called (with astonishing originality) Aetherians. They are the first ever telepathic race. As the Three-Hundred-Year war between [ x ] and Adreoni comes to an end in "Crisis 6" (which is once again a ceasefire, not a crisis), the growing multiverse turns to Aetheria with renewed interest.
Approximate age of the universe: ~8475 years
»--•--«
Thank you for joining me for this week's Timeline Tuesday! I hope you all have continued to enjoy this exploration of Broken Dimensions' in-universe history. Next week we'll look at Eras 7, 8, and 9, where we'll see more war, more imbalance, and the start of a new "revival" period.
Take care out there,
-- Ripley
Questions? Thoughts? Drop 'em in the comments or reach out to me on social media!
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TIMELINE TUESDAY #2 (Eras 1, 2, and 3)
Welcome back to Timeline Tuesday! From this point onwards, this limited series will focus on breaking down the various Era of the Broken Dimensions timeline. Please keep in mind that these Era mark epochs of time the way our real-world usage of "BCE/CE" does! This means dates and timestamps in-universe and in reference to the story will be displayed YY/MM/DD (or some variation thereof) with an "Era" qualifier at the end.
Examples: November 26, 1017, Era 4 / 11/26/1017 E-4 / 1017/11/26 E-4
This week we'll be breaking down Eras 1, 2 and 3. Please tune in tomorrow for the post about the Pantheon, which will help put faces to names in today's post and future Timeline Tuesdays!
»--•--«
ERA 1
Era 1 is nicknamed "the creation era" because it is the epoch of time in which Solorana and The Eternal Darkness (Andareis) create the inhabitable mortal universe and the first-generation gods, the first two sentient mortal races, and some of the second-generation gods. It's during this era that [ x ] (in-universe Earth) is created, originally as a single inhabitable solar system with thriving flora, exuberant and varying fauna, and two dominating sentient races: humanity and the magoni (note: these are not the same magoni that will later inhabit Tartarus).
In this Era, humans and magoni get along as well as they can, and magic and knowledge are traded between gods and both mortal races liberally. Some of the second generation gods are created, including Ialu, Meyaa, Waulfend, Kiridia, Viabolt, Hekata, and Maikoa. New layers of culture, social status, and specialization come into existence as mortality matures over several centuries, fostered and helped along by the gods. However, the end of Era 1 is characterized by war, the first one ever fought.
The War for Balance is a cataclysmic event that pits the gods against each other in a deadly battle for whose image the rest of the cosmos will be created in: that of Solorana or Andareis. Not only does the pantheon split, so do the mortals of [ x ] (then called "Origin"). Some of the gods side with Solorana, others with Andareis, and only three remain neutral: Ialu, Meyaa and Xellarian. The magoni, magic users, side with Andareis, and humanity side with Solorana. The stability of the entire universe hung in the balance.
Gods who side with Solorana: Virri, Cor, and Waulfend
Gods who side with Andareis: Morsanna, Litero, Maikoa.
"Balance" gods (aka double agents who worked both sides as they pleased): Kirida, Viabolt, Hekata
Neutral gods: Ialu, Meyaa, Xellarian
The fallout of the War is so severe that Cor and Litero, former lovers who felt so strongly about the war's divisions that they split, die as a direct result the metaphysically cataclysmic defeat of Andareis. (As many believe, their deaths are also partially caused by raw, emotional, psychotic breaks that lead to a fight to the death between the former lovers. The legends vary). Their split generates 4 new gods: Arric and Jacinthe, Iya and Lio (two sets of twins).
Andareis's defeat sees them and their follows relegated to darkness. As per the terms of the war, Andareis's godly essence is dispersed through the darkness from which they formed. This leads to the formation of the Void (sentient), navigable voidspace, and the creation of Void magic (check out the post about the Void and all its related terminology for more on that!). Andareis's name is also obliterated from the minds of mortals and all those who had picked a side. Only Solorana, Ialu, Meyaa, and Xellarian remember their name after the end of the war; they will be referred to only as "The Eternal Darkness" (or, TED) from this point onwards.
TED's defeat and the scattering of their mortal soldiers (the magoni) is marked as "The First Crisis," and the gods declare the start of a new Era.
Approximate age of the universe: 1301 years
ERA 2
Era 2 is commonly known as the "Dark Era" or the era of desolation.
After the War for Balance, the rest of the multiverse begins its creation phase under Solorana's watchful eye, which takes many of the gods away from [ x ]. The humans and magoni are left without guidance or godly supervision. Without the gods there to hold their hands, to settle their disputes and teach them new things, some groups began to hoard knowledge and privatize their practices, excluding each other more and more as generations passed. Extremist groups form and take control, spreading their ideas to foster division. Chaos grows.
Within a few hundred years, such a sharp and vast divide has grown between certain human and magoni leaders (each with their own rabid following) that when the gods finally do return, they have to separate the two groups to prevent them from going to war again and destroying one another.
Because the magoni were largely nocturnal, a separate, darker world is created for them to aid in the separation. It is named Svarenheil, sometimes called the underworld, and is fully isolated from humanity. In many ways, it becomes the opposite of the overworld: always dark and bathed in night, made up of vast, glowing plains, and utterly without oceans. Great forests mark the edge of this first-ever nightworld, protected by mysterious black-clothed warriors made and protected by the gods. Rivers flow to it from the overworld and become highly controlled and fought over in the years to come.
Centuries pass, and, the magoni rename themselves the Svarenic people and unite, finding peace, but it is hard won.
Humanity is also isolated from Svarenheil, confined to the so-called overworld. After the separation, they and their world are wiped clean of all magic and magical knowledge. This is a punishment as well as a safety measure. The humans of early Era 2 developed dangerous methods of not just physical destruction, but mental and metaphysical destruction as well. Magic combined with the most heinous of technologies.
Knowledge of some particular magicks and inventions are also wiped from the magoni.
Near what would become the end of the Era, the trickery god Maikoa is recalled to Origin from their position in the creation of the greater cosmos—and they are appalled by what they find. They petition Solorana to find another solution, to do anything but separate her creations from TED's and wipe magic from the face of the overworld, to not abandon the Svarenic people. But over a century had passed since she and the other gods had separated the two races; a reintroduction would do them no good.
Maikoa, not content to leave the Svarenic people without a god, travels to the underworld to visit them—no others go with them. While they're in Svarenheil, they come in contact with a well of Darkness, a pool of TED's slumbering consciousness. They become corrupted and return home with all their memories of serving in the War for Balance intact. They're angry, and they have every right to be.. Solorana and the others who remember the war in full, panic in the face of their anguish and distress, and subsequently banish them from the overworld. They imprison Maikoa in temple on a secluded mountain in the underworld, lest they spread their forbidden knowledge of the past, or teach their magic to the humans in the overworld.
Maikoa's banishment then prompts the gods to withdraw themselves from mortal affairs, questioning their own memories and motivations for splitting the mortal races. These two events (Maikoa's banishment and the withdraw of the gods) are subsequently dubbed "Crisis 2," and thus mark the end of the Era.
Approximate age of the universe: ~2151 years
ERA 3
The Dark Age of Era 2 continues through first half of Era 3. It technically only ends in the 1340s, during which Hekata, Kirida, Waulfend, and Viabolt return down to the mortal world to check on humans and assess their knowledge. It is discovered then that, without the gods' regular intervention (and without any living memory of what came before The First Crisis, human society had degraded into a different kind of dark age.
After Magic was banned and wiped from all record, the gods were no longer known or revered. The humans made up their own. Soon after, infighting and bigotry divided most of the overworld's inhabitants. What few non-human species (can'in, av'in, fel'in, ursinai, and medusai) remained were either hunted close to extinction or forced to live in places largely uninhabitable for standard humans.
(Please check out the post on Races of the Overworld when it releases for more information on the non-human races of Broken Dimensions!)
The ursinai had built strongholds in the far north and south reaches of the planet, and in some northern forests. The can'in and fel'in had become myths, living in enclaves in the woods or far unexplored regions, like hidden valleys and isolated forest spaces. The av'in had become mountain wraiths, isolationist in practice and in society. The medusai had all but gone extinct, and some survivors had been given homes in the underwater kingdoms of the water spirits. On land, the humans—and only the humans—dominated.
Hekata, Kirida, Waulfend, and Viabolt were appalled. When they returned to the secluded island they had alighted upon at their arrival, they met with Ialu, Meyaa, and Morsanna, who had gone to check on the Svarenic peoples. There, they had found less racial division but much more division between class and trade. In the underworld, the more you worked, the less value you had as a being, and amongst the low-value working class, there was division by specification of trade.
Morsanna, Ialu, and Meyaa, however, had decided to help while they were there—something that nearly earned them their own banishment. Solorana and Xellarian vetoed any further action until more information was gathered. Virri and Morsanna were stationed in the two realms, alternating with each other, in order to learn more about the state of society in each place.
After centuries of stagnation, human technology had advanced rapidly during an industrial revolution in the 1800s. They had also begun to stir up the ancient magicks which they had forgotten, although they called it "science" instead. Around that time, the people of Svarenhiel were also uniting and uncovering their own ancient texts—and discovering the rituals and warding put around the god Maikoa's temple of isolation.
The Svarenics, it seemed, reached their ignition event first: they discovered Maikoa and freed them near the end of the 1800s, and thus came in contact with a god for the first time since Morsanna, Meyaa, and Ialu visited.
Maikoa, woken from a slumber during which their mind melded with that of the Eternal Darkness's, escaped Svarenheil and ran to the home of the gods in the overworld to find it deserted. Interactions with mortals were still banned, and only Morsanna and Virri were still present, guarding the portal to the Otherworld—the miasmic creation that existed outside the bubble of Origin and its planets.
Thus begins Maikoa's Quest.*
They spend a century of searching, traveling through the cosmic mud and pre-formed matter of the universe, now only partially constructed. Then, at long last, Maikoa finds who they're looking for: Solorana and the other gods, secluded on a new plane of reality where they can watch [ x ] ("Origin") remotely. Having found some of the gods in the creation zones along their travels, Maikoa arrives with verified witnesses to the darkness rising in [ x ]. Together, the group explains to Solorana and the others the state of the mortal world. They also share what Maikoa learned from sharing a mind with TED—all the horrible, amazing things the humans and Svarenics can or could do, alongside information about a race of Void magic users called ziojic.
The gods Maikoa picks up along the way: Hekata, Waulfend, Meyaa, Ialu, Zarris, Cerise, and Lio.
A decision is made to return, and two things happen at once: the gods return to the overworld of [ x ], and the Svarenics make (in mortal memory) their first debut into it. The gods' return is deliberate, a logical decision made in light of Maikoa's worrying testimony of the state of the mortal world. The Svarenics' return, however, happens entirely by accident.
In Maikoa's century-long absence, multiple cults had risen in the name of the gods and gained popularity. Most of the cults were dedicated to Maikoa, Ialu, Meyaa, and Morsanna—with the exception of Maikoa's followers, most of them abided by doctrines of peace and contemplation. But some groups had gone... off the deep end.
So, when Maikoa returns in a burst of excitement and opened portals to the overworld, several of the more unsavory groups of Maikoa-Morsanna devotees had been in the process of attacking their enemies. Those attacks bleed out into the overworld as soon as Maikoa's portals open, and the result is utter chaos. Several major overworld cities suffered major damage in the misguided attacks, and poor first impressions are made. War threatens immediately as each group attempts to rally defense against the newcomers.
Sense prevails... eventually. Maikoa spends a long time afterward righting their mistake as the gods fully return to [ x ] to mingle with mortals—Svarenic, human alike, and those in between. Peace is brokered, misgivings are forgiven and corrected, and learning and cross-cultural exchange runs rampant.
Most of the final century of Era 3 is spent engaged in cultural exchange, reviving the knowledge that was buried for both Svarenics and overworlders. Magic, technology, and society advance. And yet...
Tension builds and war soon bristles again, near the end of the first century of The Revival. With the intermingled populations of the over- and underworld so much more advanced in both technology and magic, a war couldn't be allowed. It would become everything the gods feared and were trying to prevent. A war between the majority of humans and Svarenics would embody chaos, death, and destruction.
It could tear the universe apart.
So, the gods round up the troublemakers and cleave Origin in two, separating Origin and Svarenheil into two different words: [ x ] and Adreoni. Most humans were separate from most Svarenic people again, this time for good.
This marks "Crisis 3," the end of the Era.
Approximate age of the universe: ~4251 years
*Maikoa's Quest will have its own post later down the line. It will be a special concepts and development post shared on the paid tiers, so keep an eye out!
Thank you for joining me for this week's Timeline Tuesday! I hope you all enjoyed the dive into the creation lore of Broken Dimensions. Next week we'll look at Eras 4, 5, and 6—get ready to meet the Death Mages, the brand new world of Tartarus, and the would-be demigod Nathan Shasear!
Take care out there,
-- Ripley
Questions? Thoughts? Drop 'em in the comments or reach out to me on social media!
ERAS 7, 8, & 9 - second to last part in the series!
Read the full post for FREE here!
About the Patreon
My Patreon page is intended to supplement small portion of my income this year as I struggle to find a better job, get a foothold in the entertainment industry, and share my art with the world. Most of the posts from January are FREE to read and view!
However, starting this month (February 2025) I'll be posting more to the paid tiers. The lowest tier is $2/month and you can see a whole lot of stuff for just that.
Please consider supporting a struggling artist and help me save up to do things like move out, potentially flee to US, and pay for my transition!
My Patreon page is intended to supplement small portion of my income this year as I struggle to find a better job, get a foothold in the entertainment industry, and share my art with the world. Most of the posts from January are FREE to read and view!
However, starting this month (February 2025) I'll be posting more to the paid tiers. The lowest tier is $2/month and you can see a whole lot of stuff for just that.
Please consider supporting a struggling artist and help me save up to do things like move out, potentially flee to US, and pay for my transition!
Continuing to share about the series I ran in January about the history of the Broken Dimensions universe!
I should mention that this isn't the only iteration of the series I plan on running. I've got some compilation to do, but later in the year I plan to share some fun historical tidbits from different eras. Timeline Tuesday will become a more regular occurrence then. Keep an eye out!
For now, please consider checking out the second post in the series, which begins the deep-dive into the major events of each Era:
ERAS 1, 2, &3
Welcome back to Timeline Tuesday! From this point onwards, this limited series will focus on breaking down the various Era of the Broken Dimensions timeline. Please keep in mind that these Era mark epochs of time the way our real-world usage of "BCE/CE" does! This means dates and timestamps in-universe and in reference to the story will be displayed YY/MM/DD (or some variation thereof) with an "Era" qualifier at the end.
Examples: November 26, 1017, Era 4 / 11/26/1017 E-4 / 1017/11/26 E-4
This week we'll be breaking down Eras 1, 2 and 3. Please tune in tomorrow for the post about the Pantheon, which will help put faces to names in today's post and future Timeline Tuesdays!
Read the full post on Patreon for FREE!
About the Patreon
My Patreon page is intended to supplement small portion of my income this year as I struggle to find a better job, get a foothold in the entertainment industry, and share my art with the world. Most of the posts from January are FREE to read and view!
However, starting this month (February 2025) I'll be posting more to the paid tiers. The lowest tier is $2/month and you can see a whole lot of stuff for just that.
Please consider supporting a struggling artist and help me save up to do things like move out, potentially flee to US, and pay for my transition!
