Antiquity

In the modern stories, Antiquity is a term that refers loosely to an unspecified stretch of time before the dark times that proceeded the Mage Wars.

Antiquity can be divided into two periods:

Early Antiquity

Very little is know about this period, despite it lasting for twenty-five or thirty-five thousand years(Jason gives the translation first as 25,000 and then as 35,000 and never specifies which figure was mis-spoken. In later stories it is generally accepted that 25,000 is the correct number).

Early Antiquity is characrterized by the expansion of the Empire of Roads and the Roads War against beings called Inami. Durring the period that followed, the Eladamri worked to erase all traces of the war, leaving little for modern archeologists to interpret.

Classic Antiquity

Classing Antiquity is a period that lasted from the end of the Roads war to the Fall of Roads and is characterized be the peace and prosperity the ancients enjoyed. The era was marked by tremendous social and technilogical advances, and is generally described as a trully utopian society.

Classic Antiwquity ended when the roads fell, and move on into the Age of Darkness.

Modern Understanding

Throughout the Mage Wars, the time known as Antiquity was completely forgotten. There are scattered references through the histories, but in general it was completely ignored. The focus had shifted from technology to magic, and as the ancients were not known to even weild magic, it was all but forgotten. Erased, some might say.

It was only in the Golden Age that historians first began to take note of the pre-history of the verse. Various ruins were charted(and often demolished), and a few discoveries were made. Mainly, it was the excavation of sites all around the known worlds that produced similar artifacts, which led scholars to conclude that a progenitor civilization had even existed.

There also persisted in the oral traditions of many cultures a similar theme. They all spoke of a terrible and tragic, often highly distructive event, in which countless souls died, and the work of many lifetimes was undone. Though the similarities were vague enough to be discounted, they all pointed to roughly the same time-frame: the begining of the Age of Darkness.

The discovery of ancient writtings was the main clue, though since writting had to be reinvented during the Age of Darkness, the old script could no longer be deciphered. But for scholars, this was the clincher: there had to be an ancient, multi-verse-spanning civilization that collapsed and began the Age of Darkness.

This was all concluded during the Golden Age, however throughout the Ages of the Alliance, little to know headway was made. They discovered ruins all over explored space, found traces of advanced technology, and unlocked more clues and hints in the ancient folk tales of the verse. By the late Sixth Age, understanding of the ancients was limited to this: they covered all of the known worlds, possessed advanced technology, and fought a war. The exact scale and extend was unknown, but at best it was believed the Empire of Roads existed for perhaps three or four thousand years, at most.

However; late in the Sixth Age, an earth-shattering discover was made by Hunter Jusenkyou durring a highly classified mission: the capital city of the Empire of Roads. The race called themselves Eladamri, and their capital was a planet-covering city deep in Runarin space.

His crew also discovered a cipher which allowed them to finally translate the ancient language. This led to a radical shift in modern understanding of Antiquity and what went on.

However, the report on the mission was taken by the Gudersnipe Foundation were it was classified, and then quietly buried.

Antiquity is followed by the Age of Darkness.