The main chroniclers of history in Iorth, whether the ancient giant or draconic scrolls, the elder elven tomes, or even the current scribe’s treatises, all use the same reckoning of the years. For the recent eras of time, history is divided into two periods: the Great Age, the 2,000-year span of the Great Empire, and the Common Age, the 1300+ years of history since the Great Empire’s fall. Any period before that, in recent times, is generally referred to as the Ancient Age.

However, the events of the Ancient Age have been consistently recorded by older civilizations for generations. This era of prehistory has some accurate and specific records of some events, whereas other events are treated in a simple, matter-of-fact, retrospective view by chroniclers that had longer live spans than any humans or orcs, thus missing some of the critical minutae that further explain the event.

The first records of the Ancient Age were written by the giants and the dragons during the height of their globe-spanning empires. The collapse of the giant empire and the near-eradication of the dragon empire led to the general widespread cessation of regular historical documentation. It wasn’t until the rise of the elven civilizations that regular chronicling of historic events resumed. In giant and dragon histories, both refer to the times before the estabishment of the giant and dragon empires as the Primordial Age. Then, per their customs, both giant and dragon empires recorded events by noting when they occurred during the reign of their respective sovereigns. The eventual war between the giant and dragon empires, as well as involving the agents of the deities and several demigods, was referred to simply as “the War” by both sides, though elven chroniclers later designated that conflict as The Shattering, since neither empire survived the conflict.

It was also the elves who termed the era of the giant and dragon empires as the Mythic Age, then followed by accounts of The Shattering as its own separate era. After those eras, the elves typically refer to the era after as the Dawning Age. During this era, the elves firmly established a presence in Iorth with their own nations, instead of living a migratory existence regularly moving between Iorth and the Feywild. As noted from their own records, the elves and other fey were going through their own Copper Age development. The dwarves encounters with the elves, and the eventual trade that established between them, led to both cultures discovering and entering the Bronze Age level of development, as well as establishing their still-persisting nations on Iorth: the elven nations of Ardor, Eldor, and Undor, and the dwarven nation of Dwyrheim. Over time, humans, orcs, and many other cultures entered Bronze Age development themselves.

The Dawning Age isn’t clearly defined at its beginning, though it was known to end with the final conquest of all human nations by the Great Empire during its last days. The official start of the Great Age occurs on the coronation of the first Great Emperor on Newyear of 1 G.A.

The Great Age was precipitated by two critical events in human cultural evolution: the entry into Iron Age development by the old human nation of Iland, and the discovery, development, and eventual mastery of potent magical spells (7th level and higher) by human spellcasters. These two developments enabled Iland to quickly conquer its neighboring nations of Aland and Uland, thus changing itself into the Great Kingdom. After that, the Great Kingdom conquered Œland, and continued its expansion until it had conquered all of the human and halfling lands in Iorth, as well as driven out many orcs and goblins from most of their traditional homelands. This powerful global nation endured for 2,000 years until a crisis of ascension to the Great Throne led to the rapid fragmentation and collapse of the Great Empire. The year which dealt with the events of this collapse and the eventual gradual rebuilding process by several cultures is collectively known as Year Zero.

Thus, the various eras of Iorthly history as established by precident are as follows:

• The Ancient Age (A.A.), which is sometimes divided into:
  • The Primordial Age (P.A.)
  • The Mythic Age (M.A.)
  • The Shattering (T.S.)
  • The Dawning Age (D.A.)
• The Great Age (G.A.); 1 G.A. to 2,000 G.A.
• Year Zero (Y.Z., or 0)
• The Common Age (C.A.); 1 C.A. to present