Fifth Age¶
Contested
This page is named in the open question SM and AL calendars are never related. The Sancturi documents count in SM and the Proturan documents in AL; both begin at the return of the Sun and both name the same early periods, but at different years, and no source converts one into the other. Dates below keep the calendar of their source.
"Survivors of the Age of the Dark Sun universally rejoice in the return of the Sun. The process of rebuilding begins." — The Sanctuary Age Timeline (S326)
The Fifth Age is the present age of Terrun, from the return of the Sun that ended the Age of the Dark Sun to the Proturan present of 834 AL (S107). Its documents call it by several names: the Sanctuary Age (S326, S208), the Sancturi Age for the centuries of the Sancturi Empire (S112, S124), and the Age of the Divine for the centuries after it (S112). The Proturan campaign fixed its setting as "the Fifth-age (post Dark Sun)" (S077). The treatise on magic, which calls it the Sixth Age, is wrong on that point by the designer's ruling. It is the age in which Mithis was corrupted and abandoned, in which the gods of the old world died or slept and a new god took the sky, and in which the Rift replaced the Mithis Plane as the road between the Material and the Abyss.
The age is told in four sub-eras, each with its own page: the Hollowing, the Sancturi Period, the Divine Period and the Rift Period. This page covers the early centuries before them and the shape of the whole.
The Morning (0s SM)¶
"0 SM (Solis Mani - Morning Sun): The Age of the Dark Sun ends. The Lady of the Morning restores the Sun" (S132). The Fifth Age Timeline records the same year as the "Ascendance of Lunariel" (S016). The humanoid population of the whole Broken Sea region was about 35,000. "Sanctorum & Angorra are founded in 2 SM by Telgrim and the followers of Anariel." Survivors rebuilt agrarian societies, "lands are tilled and sown again", and "straggling creatures of the Dark are slain or driven underground". Around the Broken Sea the nations of Alghert, Angorra, Arnyr, Athagilion, Droburn, Dru'Bazan, Ruathim and Paecoria began to rebuild (S326). The Proturan timeline also opens with "The Morning", 0–99 AL, with the South Broken Sea Kingdoms and the Dwarves of the White Towers as its first civilisations (S107).
Rebirth (100s SM)¶
Population about 65,000. "Biomes have mostly stabilized and the natural order again begins to prevail. Lands that were fertilized by devastation are now regrowing. Conflict between nations remains rare as there is an abundance of space and resources for all. Scavenging among the ruins of the old world is commonplace" (S326). The Proturan timeline places Rebirth from about 80 AL and the rise of the North Broken Sea Kingdoms from about 140 AL (S107).
Bloom (200s SM)¶
Population about 240,000. "Dense forests and grasslands have sprouted where wasteland and dirt were before. The lands are again teeming with all manner of life." Much of Dalmar and Faragond "is consumed in dragonblight", raided by Ebony dragons from the Cloudwall mountains, and their peoples migrate west. "Faewilds are documented in numerous locations around the world. Scholars believe they are a natural result of the widespread disruption of the elements and part of process of Terrun restoring the natural order" (S326).
Fae Resurgence (300s SM)¶
Population about 850,000. "Faewilds are becoming increasingly common and problematic. Conflict and competition for land and resources with the Fae is commonplace. The Fae are increasingly assertive and expansionist" (S326). The Sancturi-era notes call this the Third Fae Resurgence and date its start to 200 SM, "First recorded instance of a Fae archon and Fae demesne", and its end to 523 SM, when "the last Fae dominion in the south is destroyed/contained" (S132). The Proturan timeline runs its Fae Resurgence from about 260 to 400 AL (S107). The resurgence became the Faewild Wars of the 400s SM, and from the Fae's defeat the Fifth Age writers date "their steep decline" (S112).
The Fall of the Old Gods¶
The Fifth Age Timeline brackets its first nine centuries, from the Ascendance of Lunariel to the Ascendance of the Divine in 906, as "The Fall of the Old Gods" (S016). Within it fall the Hollowing Period, which it opens at 231 with "Asmodeus Sovereignty of the Mithis Plane", and the Sancturi Period, which it opens at an unmarked year between 231 and 721, overlapping the Hollowing, and marks with "Seth'Arax Awakened" in 721 and the "Fall of Sanctorum" in 904 (S016). By the end of it "most of the Younger Gods are dead or sleeping" (S112). In the Sancturi Age the seven Archdemons stood thus: Asmodean "partially free, imprisoned by the Light of Kalar on the material", Mephistus likewise imprisoned, Belphegor and Bhaal in the Abyss (S124). "After the events of the Dark Sun and the death of Kalar, Mithis became a corrupted substance controlled primarily by the Archdemon Asmodeus. This led to the worldwide abandonment of Mithis as a Focus and Source of Magic for the mortal races" (S208).
The sub-eras¶
| Period | Dates in the sources | Page |
|---|---|---|
| The Hollowing | from 231 SM (S016); 420–560 AL (S107); first Hollow discovered 493 SM (S326) | The Hollowing |
| Sancturi Period | Sancturi Foundation 500s SM, Sancturi Campaigns 600s SM, present 704 SM (S326); Sancturi Empire from c. 340 AL, Sancturi Campaigns c. 360–380 AL (S107) | Sancturi Period |
| Divine Period | from the Fall of Sanctorum, 904 SM, and the Ascendance of the Divine, 906 (S016, S112) | Divine Period |
| Rift Period | "Rifts" from c. 600 AL, Proturas founded 626 AL, "Elder Conjunction" from c. 660 AL, present 834 AL (S107); Fall of the Northern Kingdoms 1210 (S016) | Rift Period |
The Riven Kingdoms survey of Fall 704 shows the Sancturi present from the kingdoms' side: Droburg "has been around since the days of the Dark Sun", Ruathim "dates back to the Age of the Dark Sun", Udenica "was founded shortly after the days of the Dark Sun", and Floren was "settled by Kalari refugees after the Fae Wars" (S319). The Fifth Age Timeline also records the "Guhvil Wars" spanning the Rift Period (S016), told on the Guhvil Wars page.
Earlier accounts¶
The 2018 campaign notes (S132) are the earliest SM chronology and their author marked them "Timeline is WRONG! Need at least 300 years to populate to this degree after the end of the Fae Resurgence"; the 2023 Sanctuary Age Timeline (S326) is the corrected version and is followed here where they differ. The 2021 Fifth Age Timeline (S016) gives no calendar name for its years; this wiki reads them as SM because its 904 agrees with S112's "904 SM".
Gap
No source relates SM to AL, expands "AL", or gives the present year in SM beyond 704 SM. No source names the god or gods who rule the age's end, beyond the Divine, or says what became of Lunariel after the Morning.