The Third Umbral Era

The Calamity of Fire Faith and fear had given the churches absolute power over the realm; however, absolute power corrupts absolutely. Soon, desire for plenary control pit rival religions against one another, culminating in the advent of an extended dark age of holy wars, witch hunts and cleansings. Towns were burned, children sold into slavery, all while men and women died in the thousands. With no one to tend the fields at home, crops withered, leaving those few who had not marched to war to starvation. The coffers of the victors swelled with the spoils taken from their enemies, but there was nowhere to spend this newly acquired wealth. The road to rebuilding would be a long one, but the people were convinced that if they maintained their faith, they would rise as they had done once before. By this time however, the gods had grown weary with mankind - the hubris displayed by the church enough to convince the heavens that the people of Eorzea must, once again, be humbled. In the following moons, the sun grew large, parching the earth and sapping the life from all creation, be it plant or animal. Verdant fields and lush forests were reduced to dust-choked wastelands, the people who relied on them for their livelyhood, stricken with famine. The Calamity of Fire was upon them.

The Second Umbral Era

The Calamity of Lightning Despite the constant wars waged by kings seeking to expand their domains, mankind thrived, its numbers multiplying with each passing summer. To house and feed the people, forests were felled and fields plant. To forge their tools and weapons, mountains were gutted and skies blackened. For countless years, nature suffered this wanton spoiling of the land until finally the scales were tipped. Mountains of fire belched forth ink-stained clouds which covered the skies and thrust the realm into eternal darkness. And from the skies fell an endless rain of white-hot levinbolts which razed fields, boiled lakes, and split the very walls of mighty fortifications. For a full twelvemoon and a day did nature's fury ring. Fearful that the gods meant to purge the land of mankind once and for all, the people abandoned their homes and towns and fled underground into caves. Awaiting them here, however, was not salvation, but death, for the caves became breeding grounds for pestilence and plague. As the people sat trapped in darkness, watching their families meet slow, painful ends, they concentrated their efforts on the one path left for them - prayer. Theologians believe it is this mixture of desperation and focused prayer that gave way to the very first magical incantations.

The First Astral Era

A Time of Stone and Fire It is during the First Astral Era that mankind is believed to have learned the essentials for survival - the ability to carve stone tools and the ability to make fire. Tools allowed for the rise of agriculture and a departure from hunting and gathering, which eventually resulted in the abandonment of nomadic lifestyles and saw the establishment of villages and towns. Within these towns, civilization thrived and basic sciences such as animal husbandry and simple metallurgy were discovered and refined. As the towns grew, so did the hegemoniesthat oversaw the towns until finally kingdoms were born. However, kings, as is their wont, are rarely content with what they have, and soon the leaders of the newly formed countries abandoned the creation of tools for the forging of weapons, and the era descended into bloodstained madness. Equipped with picks and axes, historians believe mankind made short work of nature's bounty. Cave paintings dated to the First Astral Era suggest that existence of hundreds of now-lost species, from two-headed bison to winged coeurl- like scalekin, to firsreaching over thousand yalms in height.

The First Umbral Era

The Calamity of Wind It was not until the advent of the Sixth Umbral Era that, by the process of elimination, scholars were able to declare with certainty that the elemental calamity, which ushered in the First Umbral Era, was indeed connected in some way with wind - possibly in the form of terrible hurricanes, tempests, or tornadoes. Recent dealings withthe moogles of Moghome in which village elders have spoken of a wind-driven disaster previous to the first five calamities serve to further reinforce this theory.

The History of Eorzea

To fully understand the realm of Eorzea, one must first delve into her past and witness the violent cycle of birth and destruction which forged the land from darkness. Eorzea is characterised by elemental calamities which plunge the realm into short, yet harrowing periods of chaos known as Umbral Eras, followed by extended periods of prosperity known as Astral Eras. What then, of the land before the first calamity struck? Drawing from the songs and writings of countless civilizations, theologians believe prehistory to be a tempestuous time of uncontrolled creation overseen by a mercurial god or gods - creation which abruptly end with the destruction of all that exists, ultimately allowing for the rise of mankind from the wreckage. Historians and scholars of biological fields, on the other hand, claim that mankind could not have simply "appeared" and suggest an evolution of the species in the thousand thousand years preceding the first calamity. What the two groups, however, agree upon is that modern history begins with the First Umbral Era.

Weights and Measures

Eorzea s measure length and distance in ilms, fulms, yalms and malms. The ilm is the fundamental unit of measurement, roughly equivalent to the length of an adult Hyuran thumb, with the longer fulms, yalms, and malms calculated by using the ilm as a base. Needless to say, as the size of body parts can vary wildly from person to person, these units were some what imprecise in the early days of their use. While this would rarely be a problem within close-knit communities, confusion quickly ensued as trade and commerce spread across the realm. Matters came to a head in the year 986 of the Sixth Astral Era, when a pirate who had come to Limsa Lominsa to procure sailcloth from the black markets became enraged when his purchase fell short of the length for which he believed he had paid. Though contradicting accounts of the incident exists, most agree that the ensuing scuffleleft some fifty men dead or wounded. Admiral Agatzahr Roehmerlsyn of Limsa Lominsa took swift action, promptly arresting the pirate who had caused the ruckus, lopping his thumbclean off, and declaring that it would henceforth serve as the standard measure of an ilm throughout the land. Cast-iron replicas of the buccaneer's severed digit were produced in bulk and distributed around the realm to serve as one-ilm rules, and disputes over vague measurements soon became a thing of the past.

Hells and Heavens

Every god and goddess of the Twelve is associated with one of the six controlling elements. When the deities deemed Their work on Eorzea complete, They proceeded to create the firmament, the result being six astrally aligned heavens aspected to each of the six elements, and a final seventh heaven to rule them all. However, a residual product of these heavens were six similarly aspected hells, ruled by an all-encompassing, umbrally aligned seventh hell. The six "lower heavens" are represented in the sky by six constellations - star formations which astrologians also perceive as gates that, when opened, can allow a person to become attuned withthe heavens and manipulate their aether. These constellations revolve around the pole star which is believed to be the gate to the seventh and final heaven.

The Echo

The Power of Transcend Words: For those blessed with the power to transcend words, language no longer poses a barrier to intercultural communication. Voiced utterances fade and are replaced by an internal understanding of another's intentions. Conversely, words spoken by one with this power are immediately understood by all, without need of linguistic interpretation. The Power to Transcend Time: Those granted with this form of the Echo can mentally travel back in time to witness occurrences experienced by another. It was originally thoughtthat proximity with the memory holder was necessary for transcension; however, it has recently been discovered that residual mnemonic aether lingering in a location can also trigger these third-person flashbacks. The Power to Transcend: Though rare, there have also been cases reported of individuals who, through the manifestation of Hydaelyn's very Light, can walk the aetherial plane and communicate directly with the planet Herself.

The Echo

Eorzean myth is full of tales of heroes who have been granted seemingly otherworldly powers. While much of this can be attributed to embellishments by bards looking to add spice to their honeyed tales of sword and sorcery, might it be that these tales also speak some truth, as the powers which they describe are often similar to ones documented by the Scions of the Seventh Dawn as being experienced by those few who have had contact with Hydaelyn? This power - known as the Echo - comes in many forms, several of which are listed (in the next post)

The Warriors of Light

Study of ancient documents - from musty tomes to wall carvings - shows us they are not unique to the Sixth Astral Era, and that similar heroes have appeared before every Calamity to ensure mankind endures. For example, before the great flood which marked the end of the Fifth Astral Era, legend tells us of twelve Archons who descended on Eorzea to warn its denizens of the rising waters. There are also tales from the Near East which follow the exploits of great warriors known as the Zodiac Braves - warriors whose appearance also happens to collide with a past Calamity.

Dimensional Compression

"Deep within the aetherial sea, Light and Darkness wage a never-ending war against each other. Equal in strength, their battles end in standstills maintaining balance in the world. However, there was a period when the strength of Darkness grew, disrupting this balance. From within the Mothercrystal, the will of Light - Hydaelyn - passed judgement that Darkness should be physically excised from the planet, and cast the will of Darkness - Zodiark - into space, where it became the moon. However, in doing so, Hydaelyn tore the very dimensional fabric, creating a rift which spawned forth thirteen mirror images, which have since evolved separately from the original." This hypothesis continues by stating that of the fourteen parallel dimensions (the original upon which Eorzea exists), seven have already fadedinto oblivion at the hands of the Ascians who, from the sfate of Eorzea, work to topple the walls between dimensions, causing them tocollapse in on themselves. Their purpose? To regather the aether distributed amongst the thirteen mirrored planes and concentrate it back to the original, where it can be used to wake the exiled Zodiark and restore Him to his rightful place back within Hydaelyn. This process, compressing fourteen dimensions back into one, is what Ascians refer to as the Ardor, and it most certainly spells destruction of life on Hydaelyn as we know it.

Ascians

Throughout Eorzean history, whether it be in folklore or myth, there has been mention of dark, shadowless figures known as Ascians, who, with their twisted words, would incite strife between peoples - most recently teaching the beast tribes of Eorzea how to summon primals and essentially igniting a war spanning multiple continents. According to recent research by the Scions of the Seventh Dawn, there is proof that the Calamities, once believed to be natural occurrences, were actually triggered by the crooked shcemings of the Ascians in an attempt to bring about a phenomenon known as the Rejoining - a form of dimensional compression desired by their deity, Zodiark.

Hydaelyn & Zodiark

For thousands of years, Eorzea has experienced a repeated cycle of devastation (Umbrao Eras) and prosperity (Astral Era). Recent revelations have shown that this may be a result of deep-seated conflict between the will of Light, Hydaelyn, and the will of Darkness, Zodiark.

The Northern Empty

Across Abalathia's Spine, the battered seacoast of the Farreach, and beyond the Bloodbrine Sea lies the Northern Empty - a vast body of water almost entirely void of islands, save for two major chains. The first, and northernmost, is a remote archipelago known as Aerslaent ("first land") - homeland of the Sea Wolf tribe of Roegadyn. It is from these islands that the first inhabitants of Limsa Lominsa are said to have hailed - arriving on Vylbrand after a failed raiding attempt in the southern Rhotano Sea. On the second group of islands further to the west can be found Old Sharlayan, the very nation from which settlers came in the early Sixth Astral Era to form a satellite city-state in the Dravanian hinterlands.

Meracydia

Far to the south of the Three Great Continents, beyond the equatorial line, lies the second of Hydaelyn's three landmasses - Meracydia. Five millenia ago at the close of the Third Astral Era, the Allagan Empire, unsatisfied with controlling merely Aldenard, Ilsabard, and Othard, set their sights to the south and began an invasion that would end with nearly the entire continent being rendered a wasteland. While some areas remain uninhabitable even today, those which have been repopulated remain recluse and very rarely welcome contact with the civilizations of the northern hemisphere, ofttimes attacking any who approach, whether it be by sea or by air. Because of this, very little of the region is known, including even them most basic of geographical information.

Thavnair

An ancient city-state with a history stretching back thousands of years, Radz-at-Han is best known as the birthplace of modern alchemy. It is interesting to note that, despite having a very limited outward military presence, the city-state has succeeded in forging a non-inteference treaty with the Garlean Empire, ensuring their independence while mightier nations fall about them, and as thus, Radz-at-Han remains an active hub for trade between Eorzea.

Tempering

While even a single exposure to a primal's aether can tear apart a victim's mind, multiple exposures can lead to an eventual degradation and transformation of their body. Leviathan's "drowned" followers have been reported to exhibit physical features more commonly associated with wavekin, while Ramuh's "touched" Sylphs will grow extended beards.* *Proof of this final claim is, at the current moment, severely lacking.