History

The history of Zenáthras is divided into three great eras: the Era of the Walking Gods, the Era of Heroes, and the Era of the Great Beasts.

In this first epoch, the races of the world dwelt in the light of the divine, manifest upon the world itself.  This was an era of rampant magic, where vast armies waged great crusades in the name of gods who ruled earthly nations as perfect, undying kings.  Only when the powers of these warring gods threatened to destroy the world itself did the powers of heaven finally decide to withdraw, leaving humanity bereft of direct, holy power.

In the second age, the mortal races were forced to rely on themselves for power.  Remembering the glories of the past, many humanoids joined together—human, elf, dwarf, orc, hobgoblin, and more—and gathered their power into the Wells, from which all members of their covenant could draw strength.  But the Wells were ultimately destroyed in an act of cruelest betrayal and these races were cut off from their power.

In modern times, the powerless humanoids have been forced to seek the protection and patronage of the Great Beasts: creatures of sufficient inherent power that they can not only safeguard their charges but even grant them a measure of lost power.  Nations are now defined by the strength of their patron and their will to expand.

Calendar

The Zenathratic calendar lasts 376 days divided into four seasons of 94 days apiece.  A year is born on the first day of Autumn and ends on the last day of Summer.  Tracking of individual dates varies somewhat by species: human will simply keep track of the day's number in the season (Autumn's First, Autmun's Second, etc., all the way to Summer's Ninety-Fourth), while the dwarves divide each season into four demi-seasons or months of varying length, and the elves have simply given all 376 days a different name so as to confuse outsiders.

Years are tracked on a system of one millennium, always counting down towards zero.  Thus, a new thousand-year cycle begins on the Year 999 and counts down through Year 998, Year 997, all the way until it goes from Year 1 to Year 0.  Most modern scholars will also track the millennium with a prefix that counts up, such as Millennium 1, Millennium 2, etc.  This creates some confusion, as the system was not universally adopted until the last few hundred years, which means that it can be difficult to place an historic date's millennium without some extra information.

The current year is Millennium 7 Year 116.