Age of Mystery

as explained by Talarin PyrErris

Mystery exists in all things, but no time is so blank to the history of Phantera as the centuries following the Splitting. During the upheaval created by the rampant change of magic’s basic laws civilization as it had been known disintegrated. Creatures alien to the world of Phantera seemed to spring full grown from the ground overnight.

Natural disasters destroyed cities and flattened mountains leaving a death toll so catestrophic that even now the races who went through it mourn the loss of knowledge which has never been recovered since. It was during this time that humans and Orcs were found wandering the soil. Humans were often born to Elven and Gnomish parents, seeming to be overgrown aberations that left parents weeping in despair.

The Age of Mystery is also responsible for many of the bizaar and localized creatures that exist across Phantera. It is quite possible to have a completely different bestiary at distances of only fifty miles or so. Creatures that may be prolific near the town of Katak for example may never have been seen in Dorchak or Da’Thanis. This is one of the great perils of living in any place that does not have a large civilization. The sheer number of dangers from natural causes is difficult to comprehend and even more difficult to avoid. It is because of this that many of my people spend much time learning lore, and trying to master the secrets of the forest so that it does not master us.

We know now that the age of mystery lasted for several centuries and it is believed that no man or woman lived at the end who remembered the Age of Ancients. The power of our ancestors was lost forever long before the earth settled its rumblings and the weather could be predicted by soothsayers again.