History
Mythic Age [ BCE ]
In ancient times Aether flowed freely through ley lines and Mythoi walked openly among humanity, treated as gods and spirits of unfathomable power. The wild places were the domain of the Naturae wild spirits and feral beasts at the margins of fledgling civilizations. This is the origin of most of the legends of the Fae, Angels, Demons, Gods, Demigods, and the earliest monsters in the dark places. Humanity was shepherded by some Mythoi or Naturae and shaped by those relations. Others hunted or toyed with the mortals and the battles between such powers are legendary. Mortals granted power by gift, birth, or knowledge (taught or stolen) were larger than life Heros of the age.
Heroic Age [ ~0 CE - 1259 CE ]
The Mythic age drew to a close as more and more of humanity seized their own destiny, or stole power from their betters depending on one's point of view. As Humanity became ascendant by sheer weight of population and the secrets of magic spread among them the Mythoi and Naturae were pushed to the margins. This remains a source of resentment still for many of the ancients who have seen mortals elevate themselves with power viewed as stolen or at least undeserved.
In the Heroic age the traditions formed to formalize the magic in ways that could be handed down from generation to generation, master to apprentice, guru to devotee. Those with magic built empires and kingdoms that could only be rivaled by those with similar power, either as hero-kings or as kingmakers working in the shadows.
Ley lines were tapped and their power sapped to attack and protect these kingdoms and empires. Aether once flowing free was channeled more and more to the point and purpose of the petty squabbles of powerful mortals and their shortsighted whims. Mythoi and Naturae prowled the margins hiding in plain sight or in the few remaining wild places but now able to be challenged by mortals they had once ruled as gods. Revenants and Created hid among and served the new Mortal masters of Aether. Greater and greater magics were worked to support one kingdom or empire or another. Sometimes with allied supernaturals or merely through mortal sorcery.
The excesses of the Heroic Age culminated in 1258 with the year without summer. It is unknown whose magic triggered the bitter winter, a jealous Mythoi or enraged Naturae, a cabal of petty mortals, or if it was simply the depletion of so much Aether itself. But the results were devastating for all. Crops failed globally, plague and unrest crushed societies and shortages of Aether starved Mythoi and vulnerable Naturae. Millions died and the entirety of civilization and the very balance of the aetheric flows seemed on the cusp of failure.
Shadowed Age [ 1259 CE - ~1800 CE ]
Following the Year without Summer The Grand Conclave was called.
Theurgists across empires and traditions flocked to the call. Mythoi, Naturae, Revenants, and Mortals alike gathered against this threat to them all. There is much debate as to how inclusive this Conclave truly was as the “New World” had yet to be 'discovered' by the Eurasians who made up the bulk of its membership. At the Conclave, the burden was clearly lain on the supernatural by nature, rather than the mortal sorcerers and wizards who were far more ostensibly to blame, and the attending Mythoi, Naturae, Revenants, and Free Created were apparently, at least, compliant with this revision of history. Perhaps those dissenting were suppressed or perhaps the supernaturals simply saw the need for some resolution, regardless of the written record. Immortals are nothing if not patient.
Nonetheless a Great Work of magic was performed binding Aether to be hidden from Humanity and restricted in scope to prevent such devastating from being repeated. Any attempt to affect such a large area or group was doomed to be snuffed out by the binding magic woven over the world as a whole. Of course it was far easier to hide what one could do than what one was and the more outlandish Revenants, Created and especially, Mythoi and Naturae found themselves needing to hide behind the glamour of the conclaves' work and much lessened in the aftermath.
Worked into the Conclave's magic, or perhaps driven by the fundamental power of Aether depending on who one asks, is the power of belief and how shaping belief offers relief from the weakening of Aetheric works. The open battles of sorcery of the Mythic and heroic ages were a thing of the past. Winning hearts and minds to allow sorcerous power to be channeled in ways that were accepted was the new battleground. The inquisitions of the Faith traditions (first in internal dogma later against other traditions) were the first tools in this brutal secret war.
As the Middle Ages gave way to the age of reason and enlightenment Hermetics worked toward dominance with the power of learned natural philosophers driving alchemical and technological basis for some forms of sorcery. The dogmatic battles of the Faithful against their own traditions eventually weakened them as well, leading to a resurgence in Academic Magic that further strengthened this new Hermeticism.
The Shadowed age also saw the 'discovery' of the Americas and the colonial expansion of the Kingdoms of Europe into colonial empires. The Americas were still recovering from the sudden imposition of the Conclave's Aetheric restrictions and the ensuing masquerade when Europeans first arrived.
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Similarly the Kingdoms of sub-saharan Africa were recovering from the shift in Aetheric potential caused by the Great Work when Europeans wended their way down the western coasts and began to explore the Indian ocean. In both cases the Eurocentric dogma had not limited magic in the same fashion in these regions as it had in Europe as they had not yet spread their paradigm. This coupled with the remaining animus over the restrictions being placed without input left the initial meetings much less cordial and made early colonial efforts less successful.
Colonialism never really took hold in the same fashion on hostile shores particularly with no way to transport Aethric energy to Europe and Europe's reliance on Aether over other resources. Where it did take hold, colonists were far more commonly exiles or self exiled and much more militant than resource extraction focused.
In the Americas, in particular, this led to significantly less unity in the wake of independence and much looser ties with their European Empires of origin. The loose federation of United Independent States were united in Independence and little else and had little economic use to the former Colonial powers. Across Africa, South Asia, and the South Pacific colonial efforts largely failed outside of fortified outposts. This unfortunately did not stop the worst excesses of Colonial exploitation and trade in peoples as goods.
Shadowed Age [ 1259 CE - ~1800 CE ]
Unlike the Heroic Age there isn’t an agreed date when the Shadowed Age drew to a close. Some would say we are still awaiting a real turning of the age. Others would say the harnessing of steam in the early eighteenth century or the discovery of Aetherite in the late eighteenth century. However, nearly all agree that by the time Aetherite was commonly adopted by 1850 a new age had dawned at some time prior.
It is the advances of Aetheric technology and Aetheric power through the condensed Aether known as Aetherite that defines the current age. Steam engines harnessing Aetherite fuels have driven huge strides in industrial technology in the past century. The ability to transfer Aether in this condensed form has also reshaped the world order long dominated by the flow of limited Aetheric reserves in ley lines.
In the Americas the loose federation of the United Independent States lased fewer than two generations before the rifts of slavery and it’s moral and economic costs plunged the young federation into a bloody but brief war. While the Northeast and South did battle, the West withdrew to focus on conflicts with native populations and the threat of the Mexican Commonwealth. The Armies of the North sacked the few urban centers of the south but never pacified the countryside effectively. The states of the North withdrew forces and the former confederacy devolved into chaotic city states and warring baronies of the landholding classes. The North fell to infighting over the losses suffered as a result of the war as well and all semblance of a United States came to an end the federation formally dissolved before the young nation's hundredth birthday.
The failure of the American Experiment left little stomach in Europe for revolution and the old empires and kingdoms continued their intrigues and brinkmanship throughout the 19th century. While hardly a time of peace it was nothing compared to what followed June of 1914. The house of cards of secret alliances and militant saber rattling tumbled down in the wake of the Archduke of the Austro Hungarian Empire being assassinated by an anarchist on a tour of the Balkan states. The continent was plunged into War on an Industrial scale. War that all sides assured themselves their great warmachines of Aetheric might and secret cadres of feral Naturae and shadowy revenants would soon win. They could not have been more wrong.
The unending stalemate of trench warfare and special operations has locked the powers of Europe in a brutal meatgrinder of war that all sides have lost too much to consider peace. With the energies and might of those empires focused on this war their grip on colonial holdings has slipped entirely and the former vassal states now supply war material for a tidy profit or offer treasured respite from the horrors of the front. This decades long conflict shows no signs of ending as the nations of Europe pour blood sweat and treasure endlessly into an unwinnable war.
Advances in Aetheric technology continue and the horrors of war have revived faith and belief in many long discounted ‘superstitions’ giving the first inroads for witchcraft and psychic traditions in centuries whilst the Hermetic traditions debate internally betwixt the technomagic Aetherites and Traditionalists. It is a time when all can feel something coming.