Sancturi Period¶
Contested
Named in the open question The fall of Sanctorum: the Sanctuary Age Timeline (S326) destroys Sanctorum in 513 SM in a volcanic event, the Post-Sancturi lore (S112) and the Fifth Age Timeline (S016) have it fall to the Araxians in 904 SM. Also named in Dates of the Fifth Age periods (SM and AL).
"Rebels organized around a new faith in 522 SM and retake the ruins of Sanctorum and the Fae-Sancturi War begins. They declare themselves and their gods the Sancturi." — The Sanctuary Age Timeline (S326)
The Sancturi Period is the age of the Fifth Age dominated by the Sancturi Imperium, the theocratic empire that rose in the ruins of Sanctorum at the end of the Faewild Wars and conquered the Broken Sea. It runs from the destruction of Sanctorum in 513 SM and the Sancturi rising of 522 SM to the Imperium's fall, which the Post-Sancturi lore dates to 904 SM, "when the capitol Sanctorum fell to an Araxian onslaught." Its great events are the Great Purge of the Riven priests, the Sancturi Campaigns of conquest, the crusades against the Hollows, and the Hellgate War among the gods behind them all. The Fifth Age Timeline draws the Sancturi Period within the longer Hollowing Period; the Proturas timeline puts the Sancturi Empire on its chart from about 340 AL.
The Imperium as a state, its clergy, legions and marks of citizenship, is Factions' subject under Imperial Government; its lands are Sancturi Empire. Its calendar, SM, counts from the restoration of the Sun after the Age of the Dark Sun; see the Timeline.
Before the Sancturi¶
The Broken Sea had rebuilt slowly after the Age of the Dark Sun. Sanctorum and Angorra "are founded in 2 SM by Telgrim and the followers of Anariel," the Lady of the Morning who restored the Sun (S326, S132). The 400s SM were the Faewild Wars, when Draconian forces from Pherox and Turas overran Myrkan and took the Kithallen Plateau, and the 500s opened with Angorra and the new Draconian nation of Myrox at war from 511 to 516 SM, "when Angorra, Seawall and Tallachia have submitted to Myrox" (S326). In 493 SM an expedition had returned from Acadia with the first recorded account of a Hollow.
Tallachia Campaign¶
A company of adventurers whose deeds are otherwise unrecorded was active in Tallachia in these years. "Tallachia Campaign: Ends in 514 SM: the group disappears in the underdark in search of the White Tower Dwarves" (S326); the older campaign notes put "the end of the Tallachian campaign" in 515 SM, with the adventurers vanishing "into the underdark in search of the White Tower Dwarves" (S132). The Dwarves of the White Towers are on the Proturas timeline's chart from the beginning of the age (S107). Nothing more is said of the party; Chronicles may claim it.
The rising of the Sancturi¶
"Sanctorum is destroyed in 513 SM by a massive volcanic event" (S326), with "conflicting reports between agents of Necatus and Myrkan" as to its cause (S132). Nine years later "rebels organized around a new faith in 522 SM and retake the ruins of Sanctorum and the Fae-Sancturi War begins. They declare themselves and their gods the Sancturi" (S326). Their god is Amu'Solk, "The Lord of the Sun," whose "name derives from Sanctorum, from whose ashes he arose to wrest control from the addled Riven Sun God" (S132); the Sancturi Pantheon is Religion's.
The war turned fast. "In 524 SM, the last dragon seen west of the Cloudwall mountains is defeated by Sancturi forces. Seen as the turning point of the conflict, the Draconian forces crumble quickly to the superior numbers of the Sancturi without their dragons in support." By 527 SM the Draconians "have completely abandoned the Broken Sea and survivors have returned to Pherox"; by 535 SM the Northern Kingdoms had reasserted control in Dalmar, Angorath and Faragond; by 554 SM "the Sancturi have consolidated their hold on Angorra, Myrkan and Turas" (S326). The Draconians, "after their defeat during the War of the Faewilds and subsequent effects of the Hollowing," have since kept to Pherox, "though their numbers are small" (S324).
Great Purge¶
"554-565 SM, the Great Purge: the Sancturi purge all Riven (Kalari & Rakkari) priests and raze all shrines, churches and temples. Riven-worship is made a crime, and those refusing to convert to the Sancturi Pantheon are enslaved" (S326). The Riven, "what is left of" the Kalari and Rakkari, are "known contemptuously as the Riven Gods or just 'Riven'"; "Riven worshippers are derided as weak, soft and coddled. They are barely tolerated or enslaved. In larger numbers they may be purged to keep the 'disease' from spreading" (S132). Slavery "is especially common for Rivenfolk." The kingdoms that kept the old gods, Alghert, Brusau, Uthein and the rest, are the Riven Kingdoms of the north, and the Imperium's wars against them fill the rest of the period.
The Imperium's century¶
The Sancturi "spent the rest of the century building up its economy and military," then from 614 SM launched the Sancturi Campaigns: Danar, Corvald, Rhyunn, Pevelor, Vael'Doreis, Ghorresh, Arnyr, Faragond and Dalmar, legion by legion, through the 600s SM and into the 700s (S326). By 704 SM the Broken Sea's twelve and a half million people were divided roughly evenly between the Imperium's five million, the kingdoms' five million and the wilds, with the High and Dark Elves counted extinct and the Wood Elves enslaved by the tens of thousands (S326).
The Hollows and the Keepers¶
The Imperium fought the Hollows as hard as it fought the Riven. "607 SM: Keepers of Abaddon founded in the Sancturi Imperium to hunt and destroy Hollows." In 618 SM the Keepers "destroy the Hollow at the ruins of Sanctorum and receive an imperial charter"; in 657 SM they destroyed the Hollow at Blackhall in Turas. In 675 SM they "launch a crusade against the Acadian Hollow. By 679 SM they abandon it with only 20% of their number." Two years later "the leadership of the Keepers of Abaddon are put on trial for treason and heresy. They are executed and all property of the Keepers is confiscated. Keepers refusing to renounce their sins and become Sancturi are executed." A remnant relocated to the Northern Kingdoms in 684 SM, where they remain "a non-denominational group of witch and demon slayers" with "a very professional, but pricey reputation" (S319); the Keepers who swore loyalty "go on found the Dae'Venari (the Sancturi's religious order devoted to devil and witch slaying) in 685 SM" (S326). The Dae'Venari "are called in as the last resort, due to their numbers being few, their scorched earth tactics and expense" (S146). The Acadian Hollow, swallowing the whole island and spreading across the Hollow Sea, remained "so big that there is an active crusade by the Empire to contain it."
The Hellgate War¶
Behind the wars of men the gods fought their own. The Hellgate War is "a divine war between 3 Pantheons and forces of the Abyss" (S132): the Sancturi, who would "preserve their power, defeat Asmodeus and return the demons to their place (the Abyss). Restore or gain control over Mithis and the Sun"; Daemiveus, that is Asmodeus "and his 2 lieutenants," Mephistus and Bhaal, who "has effectively formed a pantheon of his own and has amassed mortal worshippers as well as many hosts of demons (devils)," obsessed "with being the one and only true god of Terrun"; the Riven gods, "what is left of them," who "still distrust each other but try (with some difficulty) to work together" to recover their power; and the Demons, "most" of whom "reject Asmodeus's path" and "see Asmodeus as the true threat." The consecrated vaults in which the Sancturi hold Malum "are also often a target of demonic forces when they are capable of leaving the Hollow (as part of the Hellgate War)" (S132, S146). The war's course is not narrated anywhere; its battles are the Hollows and crusades of the mortal century. Behind it stands the Elder God Seth'Arax, awakened in the year 721 of the Fifth Age Timeline (S016), whose Pitch and Araxians would end the Imperium (S160).
The war in the Rivenlands¶
The campaign of 2019 records the Imperium's last victories in the north. After Queen Aalina Lorimer of Brusau died, her council "made a treaty with the Sancturi" and Brusau became a province; its capital Altandon was garrisoned by the III Nightshade Legion and purged of the worshippers of Arcantus, two thousand dying in the Great Burning of Altandon (S187, S189). In Pemeril, in Alghert, the wards holding back a Hollow failed as their keepers died: "the North Ward has failed and devils have been making their way through. Northside is in chaos," the city guard deserted, and the king imprisoned his own daughter (S184). In the ancient temple complex of Kilmarn, the Brotherhood of the Sun held one wing against the Hollowlord Urk'maggo and his devils, seeking the Godfire Lantern of Helis Sunblighter and the sealed scrolls of three Eldritch bound since the Rebellion of Kalar (S163, S164). These are the Sancturi Campaign's stories.
The fall of the Imperium¶
"Historians mark the end of the Sancturi Age in 904 SM when the capitol Sanctorum fell to an Araxian onslaught led by the Thur'arax Dread Overlord Nikee, throwing the already besieged Sancturi Empire into complete chaos that led shortly to its fragmentation" (S112). The Fifth Age Timeline records the Fall of Sanctorum in 904 and, two years later, the Ascendance of the Divine that opens the Divine Period (S016). The Proturan lore of the Divine Alliance remembers "the last days of the Sancturi Empire, when the empress had been slain and the great city of Sanctorum overrun": two High Precepts and the Principate of the Sages "organized an exodus, taking the Sanctoric Cartus / Elysium's Gate (their sacred text) with them," fought their way north "against the other Sancturi who saw them as deserters who should ascend to Elysium with the Empress," and founded the kingdoms of the Divine Alliance, Lorsythe among them (S078). The remnant of the Imperium in the south was later overrun too, and its people came to Proturas as refugees (S078).
Gap
No source narrates the three centuries between the Sanctuary Age Timeline's present of 704 SM and the fall of Sanctorum in 904 SM, or the siege that preceded the fall. How Sanctorum, destroyed in 513 SM, became the Imperium's capital again is not said. The emperors and empresses of the Imperium are unnamed except in the superseded campaign notes.
Earlier accounts¶
The campaign notes of 2018 (S132) tell the rising differently and faster: "the rise of a new human faction, led by God-Emperor Tolac begins to push back Myrkan and Fae, starting in the ruins of Sanctorum" in 516 SM, the Great Purge in the same year, the Sancturi uniting the scattered human factions by 517 SM, Myrkan defeated in 521 SM, the Fae Resurgence ended in 523 SM, the Sanctum Imperium established in 525 SM, and "God-Emperor Aes'Solk ascends into heaven, leaving the God-Empress Aes'Ekhi to rule" in 550 SM. Its author wrote beneath it "Timeline is WRONG! Need at least 300 years to populate to this degree after the end of the Fae Resurgence," and the 2023 Sanctuary Age Timeline (S326) is followed. The Post-Sancturi lore (S112) and the older Fifth Age Timeline (S016) date Sanctorum's fall to 904 SM at the Imperium's end, where S326 destroys it in 513 SM at the Imperium's beginning; both are kept, and the question is open.